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Begotten
Begotten
(#319 from Suffer Well Devotional Series©)
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“You are My son; today I have become your Father.” (Psalm 2:7)
As we rise to the mountaintop (elevated consciousness) and transfigure (exceed this flesh life), so many of the ancient ways become brand new, magnified, and illuminated. Things we had long overlooked, rarely understood, and possibly even ignored, become new beacons within. A new light shines in us, light that changes everything. All former levels of understanding are recognized as elementary (Hebrews 5:12).
I now decree, “I can never go back (Hebrews 6:1-2)!” So be careful to do what Yahweh your Mighty One has commanded you; do not turn aside to the right or to the left. Walk in obedience to all that Yahweh your Mighty One has commanded you, so that you may live and prosper and prolong your days in the land that you will possess. (Deuteronomy 5:32-33) “I can never again turn to the right or left. I will possess the inheritance He Has promised, His mind in me!”
Psalm 2:7 is one of those revelations in which you might have been tempted to stay with the elementary matters, until now. Written by David, but spoken to David himself, allowing for a clear and precise prophetic blueprint that would reveal the pattern of the begotten nature (Father-Son relationship) of Yahshua, the Messiah to come. Once again, an understanding of the heavenly mind language will bring absolute clarity of the depth being revealed; and with clarity comes power!
David literally means love and praise. Son means a builder and foundation of family name. Father here means to bear, bring forth, beget. It shows lineage. Now that we have the truth as originally prescribed, let’s take a look at the ancient ways with a transfigured mind and see the enormity of what is hidden in Psalm 2 verse 7; a verse about the bequeathing of a holy mind:
He has brought forth a new illumination in consciousness. Love and praise are the foundation of His Name. Love and praise reveal Yahweh; Yahweh in David, Yahweh in Yahshua, and Yahweh in you.
Can we yet be so bold as to bequeath something upon you and expect it to forever maintain every thought that comes hereafter? Can we express the true reality that when you think of your spiritual lineage, your mind can easily equate that with “mental lineage!” Can we expect you to remember this and forever embrace it?
Does your life (mental lineage) embody love and praise? If so, this day you too are His son or daughter; you too are brought forth.
Presumptions
Presumptions
(#317 from Suffer Well Devotional Series©)
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Gold: a precious metal with timeless value because of its rarity.
Fool’s gold: a shiny, brassy gold counterfeit confused for real gold but which has absolutely no value because of how common it is.
The Law from Your [Yahweh’s] mouth is more precious to me than thousands of pieces of silver and gold. (Psalm 119:72) How much better to get wisdom than gold! And to get understanding is to be chosen rather than silver. (Proverbs 16:16) Gold is rare and valuable; but applying Yahweh’s Law and wisdom brings even greater treasures. In contrast, presumptions are like fool’s gold. They are far more common and lead to disappointment and sorrow.
Gold is to fool’s gold as real is to the counterfeit. When His wisdom and commands invade your entire mindset then His reality sets in and all lies are exposed. His reality is the only truth there is. All else is an imposter. Yes indeed, this is reality according to Yahweh, rather than… [fill in your name]. The moment you move away from His reality you risk disappointment and sorrow, and experience the pain of feeling separated from Him.
“Everything was going so good, and then at the last minute…” This type of mindset expresses the belief that it is only good if it ends up the way you had hoped. If Yahweh works all things for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose (Romans 8:28), then why still judge certain outcomes as if they are not good? False presumptions, as such, are what set you up for disappointment and despair and, at moments like these, there’s a disconnect from Him.
Every moment is His loved one, every second of every minute of every hour of every day. He forms His vessels in the palms of His Hands. He never lets go of the vessel until it reaches the place where He alone says, “Perfect!” The only thing that can stifle that perfection is self will. This is why He proclaims that “All things work for good!” unless, of course, you get in the way. For those the Mighty One foreknew He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. (Romans 8:29)
Never determine what the end result of anything should look like, other than that you will be One with the will of Yahweh. Let go! His hopes and dreams for you can only be achieved when you lose your life (Mark 8:35), when you release control. And your hopes and dreams pale in comparison to His hopes and dreams for you (Ephesians 3:20). Let go and let every moment be His. He would never lie to you.
“Keep back Your servant also from presumptuous sins; Let them not have dominion over me. Then I shall be blameless, and I shall be innocent of great transgression.” (Psalms 19:13)
Doomed
Doomed
(#314 from Suffer Well Devotional Series©)
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It ultimately brings the purest of joy when you release it completely. Release what? Everything that supports your belief that there is any good in you whatsoever. And on this narrow road, where you come face-to-face with the truth, you will encounter a sobering paradigm. “If you were left to your own devices, you would be doomed.” The fullest appreciation of what salvation offers (the ongoing process of your mind being saved) is directly related to your acknowledgement of what you are saved from. “I will boast about a man like that, but I will not boast about myself, except about my weaknesses.” (2 Corinthians 12:5) Boast in Him because weakness is the finest you can boast of.
The best you can come to the table with is this; “Woe to me!” I cried. “I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, Yahweh Almighty.” (Isayah 6:5) And if you are humble you will remember how deeply wicked every aspect of your conscience would be without Yahweh’s Spirit. Any climb from the pit you were in is only because of His grace. For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of Yahweh. (Ephesians 2:8)
How many of you have been purchased from the grave by His grace only to start believing the preposterous idea that somehow you became “good” because of it. Are you so foolish? After beginning by means of the Spirit, are you now trying to finish by means of the flesh? Have you experienced so much in vain—if it really was in vain? (Galatians 3:3-4) Have you become judgmental, haughty, self-righteous, self-assured, rather than mournful, desperate, humble, and sober? Come near to the Almighty and He will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. (James 4:8) Perhaps you would be so bold as to ask Yahweh; “How wicked am I apart from You?”
When you have a revelation of the enormity of the wickedness of your personal “self” desire, you too will be terrified of the alternative of being left to your own devices. The mind of one who knows this is ever mournful, desperate, humble, and sober. And once we bear His mark, we confess that the reverent fear of our destiny without Him will keep our eyes fixed on Yahshua, the author and perfecter of our faith (Hebrews 12:2).
“I know that whatever Yahweh does, it will be forever; nothing can be added to it nor anything taken from it. Yahweh acts, and men will revere Him. That which was, now is; and that which is to be has already been, and Yahweh requires an accounting of the past.” (Ecclesiastes 3:14-15)
Two Ways, One Will: A Kingdom Perspective
Two Ways, One Will; A Kingdom Perspective
(#313 from Suffer Well Devotional Series©)
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All the paths of Yahweh are mercy and truth, to such as keep His Covenant [Law] and His Testimonies [Case Law]. For the sake of Your name, Yahweh, forgive my iniquity, though it is great. Who, then, are those who fear [reverence] Yahweh? He will instruct [prepare] them in the ways they should choose. They will spend their days in prosperity, and their descendants will inherit the earth. (Psalm 25:10-13)
Tap into the complexity, yet simplicity of what Yahweh is saying. “He will instruct [prepare] them in the ways they should choose.” Both instruction and choice are necessary. His ways are His will for your life. Yes, there are two ways, your ways and His, but only one will, His! You must learn His ways and then you must choose a path. You can know His will for your life by knowing His ways; they are best discerned by knowing His Law (Torah) which is the structural foundation of His Covenants. Indeed, you are called a Jew, and rest on the Law, and make your boast in the Mighty One, and KNOW HIS WILL, and approve the things that are excellent, being instructed out of the Law. (Romans 2:17-18)
In the parable of the unjust steward in Luke 16, the master commends the dishonest manager for how shrewd he is; “The people of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own kind than are the people of the light.” (v. 8) Those who operate outside of Yahweh’s Kingdom can be very shrewd in the way they function in the world’s system; and when believers operate in that system, they too might experience the prosperity it has to offer. But until you learn His ways; you cannot expect to spend your days in His prosperity. What advantage then has the Jew, or what is the profit of circumcision? Much in every way! Chiefly because to them were committed the oracles of the Almighty. (Romans 3:1-2)
The oracles of Yahweh are His responses or utterances; Holy declarations; statements originating from Yahweh, as in the entire Old Covenant. In all that they applied incorrectly, Shaul still gave the Jews a decisive advantage in knowing Yahweh’s will because they were instructed in His oracles, His law! And you? Is this your testimony? For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the first principles of the oracles of the Almighty; and you have come to need milk and not solid food. (Hebrews 5:12)
Far too often you were led to believe as if Yahweh has two separate wills. It is often described as His “permissive” will and His “perfect” will. It is not so loved one! Yahweh only operates with One will, and that will is always consistent, never changing or altered. If anyone speaks, let him speak as the oracles of Yahweh. If anyone ministers, let him do it as with the ability which the Almighty supplies, that in all things the Almighty may be glorified through Yahshua the Messiah, to whom belong the glory and the dominion [the Kingdom] forever and ever. So be it. (1 Peter 4:11)
In addition, do not think you can approach the throne to be instructed unless you have complete forgiveness in your heart. “Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother or sister has something against you; leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to them; then come and offer your gift.” (Matthew 5:23-24)
It takes practice loved one; you must take every thought captive (2 Corinthians 10:5) and make it obedient to the mind of the Messiah in you (1 Corinthians 2:16)! How? Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what Yahweh’s will is—His good, pleasing and perfect will. (Romans 12:2) Then you can approach the throne of grace with His will in you, and He will “instruct [prepare] you in the way you should choose.”
How powerful, the way YOU should choose. The Messiah asks, “What do you want Me to do for you?” You choose! In Luke 18:38-42; Mark 10:48-52; and Matthew 20:31-34; those requesting that He find mercy on them are met with a favorable ruling. However, in Mark 10:35-40, James and John say, “We want you to do for us whatever we ask.” And Yahshua asks the same thing: “What do you want Me to do for you?” But, in this case they are met with a sharp rebuke instead of a favorable ruling. “These places belong to those for whom they have been prepared.” Prepared, yes, “Those who fear [reverence] Yahweh? He will instruct [prepare] them in the ways they should choose.” This was obviously not the perspective that the sons of thunder had in that moment of asking; they had not asked according to His will. You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss [with wrong motives]. (James 4:3)
It is the path to this One Will that must be discerned. There is the path of mercy; if you approach Yahweh with the correct heart (do not ask with wrong motives), even if you are not instructed (prepared) in His way, He can still rule in your favor. “Son of David, have mercy on me!” The other path is the path of truth. This is the path of the learned, those instructed and prepared in His ways, wherein the conformity to the One will is secure, and all of your acts are of Him and empowered by Him; you have the mind of the Messiah. Yes, He is ever merciful, but in this case, He rules in your favor simply because you have been instructed and have chosen His path, His way, His will.
Two paths leading to One will, a Kingdom perspective. The risk for those who think otherwise; a mindset that believes Yahweh has standards lower than perfect holiness. Let it not be so for you loved one. Let it not be.
Acquitted
Acquitted
(#310 from Suffer Well Devotional Series©)
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“Which is the first [greatest] commandment of all?” Yahshua answered him, “The first of all the commandments is: ‘Hear, O Israel, Yahweh our Mighty One, Yahweh is one. And you shall love Yahweh your Mighty One with all your heart [center of intellect], with all your soul [intellectual essence], and with all your strength [intellectual strength].’ This is the first commandment. And the second, like it, is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.” (Mark 12:28-31)
When asked, “Which is the first [greatest] of all the commandments?” Yahshua begins with: “Hear, O Israel, Yahweh our Mighty One, Yahweh is one.” Being One with the Father is the foundation of everything. That is why Yahshua prayed, “That they all may be One, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be One in Us”. (John 17:21) One who shares the mind and therefore the will of Yahweh does only what he sees his Father do. Most assuredly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He sees the Father do; for whatever He does, the Son also does in like manner.” (John 5:19) The love that follows this level of unity encapsulates the rest of the commands. What Yahshua is affirming is that the law is fulfilled in its entirety by love. And the singular defining essence of love is that it never fails (1 Corinthians 13:8).
It is, then, only a disobedient mind that requires to be ruled by laws other than what is defined by love. The quintessential example of this disobedience is demonstrated by Israyl’s desire to be judged (ruled over) by a king (carnal laws for a carnal kingdom) instead of Yahweh. “Now make us a king to judge us like all the nations.” And Yahweh said to Samuel, “Heed the voice of the people in all that they say to you; for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected Me, that I should not reign over them.” (1 Samuel 8:5, 7) They rejected Yahweh and He warned them that looking outside to be governed would not turn out well. “You shall solemnly forewarn them, and show them the behavior of the king who will reign over them.” Nevertheless, the people refused to obey the voice of Samuel; and they said, “No, but we will have a king over us, that we also may be like all the nations, and that our king may judge us and go out before us and fight our battles.” (vv. 9, 19-20)
Do you wish to “be like all the nations?” Or would you rather be One with Yahshua who never had to ask, “What should I do now Father?” Everything hangs on love; everything becomes perfect in love, by love and through love; and love never fails! And be of good cheer because love has been poured out in your heart (Romans 5:5), which we now know from #308, is the “center of intellect.”
Yahweh wants you to be free from mental bondage; and through Yahshua, you have been acquitted. Love has been shed abroad in your heart; it alone makes having any other king over you unnecessary because love is THE law unto itself. When you love like Him, it is the only Law you need.
Abandoned
Abandoned
(#309 from Suffer Well Devotional Series©)
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Abandonment is a state of mind loved one. And considering it from a supernatural perspective, abandonment is a state of mind resulting from Yahweh’s faithfulness. Indeed, let the Mighty One be true but every man a liar. As it is written: “That You may be found just when You speak, and blameless when You judge.” (Romans 3:4 from Psalm 51.4) And has He not previously declared that, “The wages of sin is death?” (Romans 6:23a) Because this is true, the mind that experiences thoughts of abandonment is a mind that has most assuredly paid its wages for sin.
It is in the most intense and dramatic depiction of abandonment that we witness the equity and justice of Yahweh. He demands the unimaginable price for our sins, and then He accepts His Son’s payment for our debts; His life for ours! It is the single greatest act of propitiation humans have ever known. “The gift of the Mighty One is eternal life in the Messiah Yahshua our Master.” (Romans 6:23b) Sin demanded the experience of abandonment; “Almighty Father, Almighty Father, why have you abandoned [forsaken] me?” (Matthew 27:46 from Psalm 22:1) Therefore, the feeling of abandonment is an absolute must if Yahweh is to remain faithful. Otherwise, you would never realize you had turned from obeying Him. The wages of sin is the fear of abandonment; the gift of life is Yahshua’s willingness to feel abandoned for you! But, DO NOT abuse this pure and perfect gift by assuming it gives you permission to sin.
This truth is reason enough to have great hope and rejoice; a supernatural fervor if you will. Think about it! You can be confident that you will always recognize when your mind is sick because your internal monologue speaks so clearly, “Something is amiss between me and my Maker.” This becomes the key that unlocks the door to oneness, “Help me see my sin Father, so I might dwell with You.”
The feeling of abandonment is just one of many options Yahweh has to bring conviction. All negative thoughts are rooted in sin, disobedience to the commands of Yahweh. Therefore the experience of any negative thoughts can be considered a gift from Yahweh, a safeguard so to speak. Yahweh is Sovereign over everything! Ponder it. Submit to it. Walk this out. It all leads to one remarkable discovery; it is never He who abandons you, but rather you who attempt to abandon Him. For He Himself has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” (Hebrews 13:5)
Mindbreaking
Mindbreaking
(#308 from Suffer Well Devotional Series©)
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Now it is the Mighty One who makes both us and you stand firm in the Messiah. He anointed us, set His seal of ownership on us, and put His Spirit in our hearts as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come. (2 Corinthians 1:21-22)
He put His Spirit in your heart as His seal of ownership. This says so much more than what twelve words can express. Let’s unpack this limitless promise. Shaul DOES NOT mean that the Holy Spirit has taken up residence in that eleven ounce organ in your chest. Both the Greek and Hebrew language identify the heart as your mind, character, inner life, will, emotions, and intention, or in other words, your center of intellect.
Your “center of intellect” is your heart. This is a heartbreaking (mindbreaking) reality to consider. Even times when speaking of your soul, the word heart is used. “As a man thinks in his heart [soul], so is he.” (Proverbs 23:7) Said in another way, as a man feeds his desires, passions, appetites, and emotions, so is he. Yahweh is who He thinks He is; and you are who you think you are. With this important distinction you can see that the Holy Spirit, the very essence of our Creator, is actually transferred to your mind as thoughts, not “put in your heart.” By placing Himself in us; into our center of thought, we then experience His essence as “The Messiah in you, the hope of glory.” (Colossians 1:27)
He has placed His Spirit right into the center of your mind, specifically to replace your old nature. “I will give you a new heart [inner man, mind, will] and put a new Spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone [mind of man] out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh [mind of the Messiah].” (Ezekiel 36:26) Only the transforming of thought processes could produce this renewed man. Your physical world simply serves as a reflection of what has taken place.
And, if you were made new, then how can the old you survive another day to rear its ugly head (Romans 6:2)? It is only possible because you have been endowed with the same resurrection power Yahweh used to raise His Son from the grave (Ephesians 1:18-20), and you can choose to use that power to accomplish things that would actually be separate from His will. Yes, be careful; you can exercise that new-found freedom and mistakenly use that resurrection power to raise the old you from the grave. For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. (Romans 8:5) Unfortunately, it is far too common for Christians to use their freedom and power to set their minds on the things of the flesh; resurrect their old nature; and entertain mindsets which conflict with the mind of the Messiah. DON’T DO THAT!
Set your mind on things of the Spirit! Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be stubborn no longer! (Deuteronomy 10:16) If you embrace the spiritual surgery that took place, your reality becomes, “He who has waged the battle in my mind cannot lose.” And then, what Yahweh has placed in the center of your intellect becomes your chief desire. This is a mindbreaking, and now we know heartbreaking thought indeed!
Break up your fallow ground, and do not sow among thorns. Circumcise yourselves to Yahweh, and take away the foreskins of your hearts. (Jeremiah 4:3-4)
Lean on It!
Lean on It!
(#307 from Suffer Well Devotional Series©)
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“Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but when the longing [desire] is fulfilled it is a Tree of Life.” (Proverbs 13:12)
In your quest to comprehend the mind of the Messiah in you, discerning the truth of this proverb is pivotal. You must build your hope on a foundation of solid rock. If your hope is built on loose soil, when the rain comes and the water rises, your faith will be uprooted like a weed that clings to dust (Matthew 7:27).
Listen closely loved one; it is mandated that much of what you hope for (righteously desire) involves a time of supernatural testing. Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings [mental tribulations and physical hardships], because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope [expectation]. And hope does not disappoint us, because the love of the Mighty One has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us. (Romans 5:3-5) Tribulations will make you perfect and complete, lacking nothing (James 1:2-4). Knowing this sets your hope on solid ground.
If your ultimate desire is to identify with Yahshua’s words, “Not My will but Your will be done (Luke 22:42),” then you can be certain that all of your hopes are protected by His promises and come with His appointed times for manifestation. Hope will not disappoint. He who makes good promises will also comfort you even when hope seems deferred. “I won’t be long. I won’t cause you to hope and then crush your dreams,” His voice speaks to you. “Simply make sure that your desires are found in Me and your hopes will never be uprooted.”
He won’t crush your hope; He will not disappoint you. The delay is not denial, but merely a further pruning of any unnecessary branches that remain. The Tree of Life is the truth of His Life within you. When He fulfills that which you hope for, your entire being will be like a tree planted by many waters, whose leaf does not wither, nor will it cease from yielding fruit (Psalm 1:3; Jeremiah 17:8). You will be like an olive tree flourishing amidst His Holy Garden of Love. Wait for it with praise and thanksgiving. When things seem dreary, remind yourself that Abba will not push hope past His empowerment for you to believe. Lean on this truth and thrive, even while the physical world around you may crumble.
“Though He slay me, yet will I trust in Him!” (Job 13:15)
Our Debt to Yeshua
Every Last Penny
(#306 from Suffer Well Devotional Series©)
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“Forgive us our debts as we also have forgiven our debtors.” (Matthew 6:12)
Debt is what one person owes to another, whether money, goods, or services; it is what a person is bound to pay to another, or to perform for his benefit; it is a “thing” owed, an obligation, or a liability. However, on the deepest level, debt is the obligation of a righteous life owed to Yahweh. When you fall short of righteous living you become a debtor to the Almighty.
You can be zealous for Yahweh but not understand the righteousness He requires. You can display ignorance of His righteousness by seeking to establish your own righteousness, instead of submitting to the only true righteousness. The Messiah in you is the only righteousness for everyone who believes (Romans 10:2-4). This is the scriptural pattern of “within and then without.” Anything less than righteous thinking empowered by the Messiah in you is where all debt begins.
Debt has two faces: imposition and neglect. Each of these give us exquisite insight into the metaphysical aspect of what Yahweh truly intended for us to understand about both what was transgressed and what was forgiven. They both begin as mental errors and lead to scarcity thinking, which of course ends in physical poverty.
Imposition is a burden or obligation, oft described as the trespass. It is the heavy weight you carry under the burden of self-righteousness.
Neglect is the duty violated by negligence or carelessness. It is the offspring of the mind which has complete disregard for the truths and commands of Yahweh.
Although the price of “past” debts (mental misgivings and their physical ramifications) is paid through the shed blood of Yahshua the Messiah (redemption), it does not mean that restoration (mental and physical) is not a necessary process (sanctification). Moreover, any continued imposition and neglectfulness, post confession of faith and renewal, speaks volumes to your Redeemer. Why? Because accepting His forgiveness also includes agreeing to be accountable to His standards. Unless, of course, you believe your redeemed state gives you some sort “get out of jail free grace card.” If you habitually minimalize the gravity of your choice to sin, “Where sin increased, grace increased all the more (Romans 5:20),” that’s precisely what you are doing. You are ignoring His commands and the penalty for transgressing them.
What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? (Romans 6:1-2) It starts with the acknowledgment of personal responsibility for imposition and neglect of the standards of Yahweh. Only the fool looks at the torture stake of the Messiah and reckons that continuing sin has no consequence. Anyone who rejected the law of Mosheh died without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. How much more severely do you think someone deserves to be punished who has trampled the Son of the Mighty One underfoot, who has treated as an unholy thing the shed blood of the covenant that sanctified them, and who has insulted the Spirit of grace? (Hebrews 10:28-29)
His death settled your debts, and because of His death every debt must be settled. Tread lightly loved one; how can you who have died to sin live in it any longer?
Are you good enough?
Ed Beged
www.sufferwell.org
(#305 from Suffer Well Devotional Series©)
All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away. (Isaiah 64:6)
Our righteous acts are like…ed beged, in Hebrew pronounced “ayd behg’-ed”.
Don’t ever forget it; the very best you can offer is nothing more than a disgustingly dirty rag. All of us like one who has become unclean, the Hebraic perspective portraying something foul, contaminated, defiled, or utterly polluted.
For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it. (Romans 7:18-20)
Nothing good dwells in you! Without Him, all that is in you is disgustingly dirty, foul, contaminated, defiled, or utterly polluted; it is sin living in you. Why is it so very important to remember this? Because He alone saves the un-savable. The Messiah is everything! But the Mighty One demonstrates His own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, the Messiah died for us. (Romans 5:8) He chooses the foul ones to become sons and daughters. Nothing you did, or did not do, warranted such grace. Everything you did, or did not do, warranted His wrath.
And so He condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the Law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. (Romans 8:3-4) Ah yes, those who live according to the Spirit. And so you are clear, the Spirit is the free redemptive gift; it was never your choice to receive it. You were kidnapped by sin and He paid the ransom without you ever asking. And somehow, after this redemption, we tend to lose sight of whose work it was. Yes you were made new in the transformation, but it is no longer you but the Messiah in you who lives (Galatians 2:20). Don’t lose that perspective and start behaving as if you had something good enough to offer to deserve it. Oh yes, you are worthy, but not on your own. It is only the Spirit in you that makes anything in you righteous.
You, however, are not in the realm of the flesh but are in the realm of the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of the Mighty One lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of the Messiah, they do not belong to the Messiah. But if the Messiah is in you, then even though your body is subject to death because of sin, the Spirit gives life because of righteousness. And if the Spirit of Him who raised Yahshua from the dead is living in you, He who raised the Messiah from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because of His Spirit who lives in you. (Romans 8:9-11)
Precisely! His Spirit in you gives life because of His righteousness, not your own. Anything that you resurrect of your “self” will always be foul, contaminated, defiled, or utterly polluted. He will increase, but first you must utterly decrease (John 3:30).