April 2017 – Past the Surface

Two Gardens

STAGE 1

On a canvas I see two gardens drawn side by side. The garden on one side has several full and healthy looking trees with one tree standing out from the rest in a different unique way. This garden has a visitor passing through the trees with the sound of walking. The visitor brings, a faithfulness of fellowship, a breeze of peace, a flowing gentleness, a light of joy, a kind patience, and a warmth of love. You can feel the liberty and the freedom in this garden. The garden on the other side next to this one on the canvas is far different. This garden has darkness about it. You can barely see from one tree to the next. The visitor that comes to this garden brings an air of deception, twisting words of lies, a stabbing feeling of hatred, a destruction of jealousy, stained with impurity, a plan of selfishness, a rage of revenge, a discord of envy, and a blind drunkenness of self empowerment.

The one garden on the one side of the canvas is what one would imagine seeing God visiting man (First Adam) in the beginning of time at the garden of Eden before the fall. The other garden is what one would imagine seeing the devil visiting the man (Jesus, second Adam) the night they came to take him to his death.

STAGE 2

The one garden held a trial for the breaking of the only one law to be followed. The visitor of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, and gentleness now stood before them as the jury, the judge, and the executioner. The judge with hurt, pain, and sorrow had to pass the unchangeable sentence of death. This judge put into motion the death penalty, but by the power in him he inserted inside of man a day of redeeming life to return to his garden and his fellowship.

The garden on the opposite side of the page had a corrupt jury, a bias judge that would not listen to truth, had false witnesses to deceive others, officers of the court to inflict unnecessary pain, and executioners with no remorse. The judge of this other garden passed the sentence of being whipped with leather straps of nails and glass under the cloak showing mercy. This judge allowed the physical abuse of slapping, pulling the hairs from his face, driving a thick crown of thorns on his head, and a mocking cloak soaked with his dried blood. This judge took a tree from his garden, cut it down, removed all branches, carving a tall vertical wooden beam and a shorter horizontal wooden beam. This judge took the beaten, bleeding body and drove one nail through both feet into the tall vertical tree beam. This judge took the short tree beam driving one nail through one hand on one side and another one nail through the other hand on the other side. This judge raised the cross tree beams into a hole to stand up the innocent man between heaven and earth for all to watch him slowly die. This judge of this garden put into motion the death penalty and by the power in him inserted in the side of the man a spear piercing his heart for confirmation that he was dead and he had taken the life of the man to hell and the grave.

STAGE 3

Deep down in the bowels of the dark garden of evil, a tiny light appears faintly in the distance. The tiny light seems to be changing in size and brightness leaving a path behind it as it walks. The evil judge, jury, and executioner seem to have lost all signs of power to their own garden of darkness. The light comes closer glowing with life in the form of a man. The innocent man who was put to death three days ago was the light growing brighter the closer it came making a path of light showing the way to leave the garden of death.

The innocent man was the Visitor from the other garden inside of him with all his love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and now with the payment of blood for our debt to the penalty of death. The man was put to death in the body, but the Visitor inside him made him alive in the Spirit. Both births of the natural and the spirit took place inside the death garden. After being made alive the innocent man went around in the garden that became a prison of darkness and told the imprisoned spirits if they would follow him he would lead them back to the garden of life (1 Peter 3:18, 19; Eph. 4:8).

TWO GARDENS

The first garden man had with God visiting us with all His light of life and atmosphere of eternal love. The second garden the devil tricked man into believing it was better than the other only to find ourselves imprisoned in darkness, hell, and the grave. The Visitor of the first garden inserted Himself into our blood line waiting for the day inside the second garden of darkness to be born. He, Jesus, was born into our world of darkness with no sin in his life. The rulers in this garden of darkness schemed to kill him removing him from changing their world of lies. His death paid for our sins and his life made a path of escape for us to follow back into the first garden of light and fellowship with God restoring us to our rightful home.

What spiritual garden do you find yourself standing in? Have you found the lighted path from the garden of darkness we all were born into? Have you asked Him who knows the way out to be your guide? Do you want to leave this garden of lies back into the garden of truth? Jesus is the spirit Visitor of the first garden. He was born, he died, and He came back to life to create a path if we want to escape this death, hell, and the grave garden of the devil. To follow this path out of darkness is to be sorry of our sinful dark ways that we have adopted in this garden, walk down into the water of a burial type baptism in Jesus name fully immersed for the purpose of washing away our sins (his blood of forgiveness is in his name), and continue on this path receiving His Spirit inside of us to guide us the rest of the way into the garden of eternal life.

Start your journey out of the garden of darkness and you will wake up one day inside the garden of Light. We are only eternally saved when we leave this world being led by His Spirit walking through the valley of the shadows of death of this world’s garden into His marvelous Light of eternal life garden.

Meant to be Alone

Do you ever feel you were meant to be alone in this life? Have you found yourself with another person, you and your spouse, you and four others, you and your family, you and your classmates, you and a crowd, you and your co-workers, you and your church, you and your team, you and no matter how many are around you – you are still alone? Did you try from middle school, to high school, to college, in the work world, in the church world, in the sports world, join clubs to make friends or at least come away with one friend? Have you stood there talking to others or hearing others talk and the emptiness of being alone is still present? Have you gone through the trial and errors of testing with more talking, less talking, more smiling, less smiling, showing more friendliness, being what you think others want you to be, purchasing things to appear as one of them, change your hair, change your clothes, change the way you laugh, change the words you speak, making yourself more available, adapting in any way you think it is possible, and doing anything within your power to be accepted and come away with at least one friend?

Even God desired to have someone. Before He created man God had no one like Himself. The angels and other creations were not like God. When God created man He created man (Adam) after His likeness and His image. God only had Adam that was close to his likeness. God had no one else to fellowship in the likeness of His own Spirit, except Adam. Then Adam in turn did not have anyone like him to fellowship matching his spirit. God was far above Adam’s spiritual level. Adam had no one that was like him. God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.” (Ge. 2:18). God brought all the animals to Adam to see what he would name them. At the end of naming the animals Adam and God saw no suitable helper was found among them (Ge. 2:20). God created a woman from Adam’s rib that would match him in the attempt to fix the being alone.

This was easy for Adam to find that someone to take away the loneliness. We today have almost a near impossible job to find someone to walk on their own carrying themselves with mannerisms like a kindred spirit matching ours to fill the loneliness with their fellowship in a oneness with us. People today call that a “soul mate”. Growing up in this day and time you may find yourself chasing the neighborhood kids wanting to play with them having them to run away. At school today you may hope someone in the classroom, gym class, clubs, and sports would accept you. You enter into high school meeting all kinds of users/players using anyone and everyone for their personal desires. In desiring to have that loneliness taken away you even tolerate the users in school. College or the work force you find even greater actors than Hollywood acting out parts for selfish ambitions and you are nothing but a stepping stone to them. It seems you are always on the outside looking in and even if you are on the inside you still feel the outside lonely feeling.

You go on with your life choosing to chase a career. In the chase you may even find someone else who has a secretive need unknown to you to have someone. You may even marry them and have a relationship with that person for decades going through the stages of having children, paying debts, and providing for the daily needs and still can be alone. Your spouse can be on a totally different page than you and you are on the farthest page from them. You may even find yourself being more of a caretaker than the true definition of oneness marriage. You can outwardly appear to be in the marriage doing all the things expected, but inwardly you can be starving to death for fellowship matching your spirit.

There are two kinds of loneliness. There is a physical loneliness and a spiritual loneliness. The physical loneliness does not necessarily only mean the absence of intimacy, but it can also include no physical fellowship (seeing a face showing reactions, hands…). The spiritual loneliness can be the absence of someone who can perceive and understand where your words are coming from and have the ability to challenge or add to your thoughts. Fellowship matching your spirit is where the loneliness will always be until you find another kindred spirit. Physical gratification can go a long way, but the truth of reality you are still lonely inside. Only the addiction of your body has been temporarily answered. All fleshly bodies change over time breaking down no matter how hard you fight the aging process, but the long-lasting effect comes from their spirit to yours. The physical body has the advantage of finding tons of other bodies starving for like manner loneliness, but the spiritual side has a harder task before it in finding matching spirits. Removing the curse of loneliness totally is having both physical and spiritual oneness.

God made Adam fall asleep and took a bone from his ribs. God took Adam’s rib bone and created another person in Adam’s likeness and image with matching parts for a oneness relationship. This was before sin and lust was in the eyes of mankind (Ge.2:25). Adam looked at her with the same naming eye sight he had for all the animals and spoke her place by his side and among all creation. He said, “This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called ‘woman,’ for she was taken out of man.” (Ge. 2:23). Adam had the first ministry of being God’s first-born and Eve had the ministry of the first-born from Adam. This event of woman for man became the reason and explanation of why a man leaves his father and mother to be united with his wife as one flesh (Ge. 2:24). This was locked in at the beginning of creation. It was God, Adam, and Eve oneness of fellowship. God had the oneness spirit fellowship with them both. Adam and Eve had the spiritual and physical oneness fellowship with each other and God. Loneliness came into being after mankind sinned against God creating a world of separation of all types.

In our present day the separation in its various forms has caused people to be players, users, and deceiving facades (outward appearances). Today is different finding that person, that friend, or friends in general. There is so much deception out there. It is extremely difficult to filter and find the ones you feel safe to open up and fellowship. The world is full of liars (tares) among the true (wheat) playing the acting game for all kinds of reasons. The sifting through them is a task that takes great powers of patience, intelligence, and God-given discernment.

The childhood, young adult, and adulthood in this day of con artists, liars, deceivers, and the fake facades may have driven you to hatred, distrust, and thick walls to all people, but there is a solution to the “Meant to be Alone” curse. As a child I had a father and a mother, an older sister, and an older brother. I count them to be a blessing because of the people I have met in life that had it far worse than I did, but the curse of “Meant to be Alone” was upon them as it was me. It was no fault of my family whatsoever for the “Meant to be Alone” curse on my life. I did not know we were poor. My father and mother worked really hard to make my life as rich as they could, but the true richness was their characteristics they lived before me. My father worked three jobs for our family that I was told later. I did not know why he was gone so much. My older sister is about twelve years older than me and had her life to live. My brother is about nine years older than me and he had his life to live. My childhood was basically a few years of full family memories changing quickly to an only child. The “Meant to be Alone” curse is not based on if you had a family or your financial status in life. It is based upon finding that friend, spouse, or partner that truly connects with you from childhood to adulthood.

You may have the thick walls up guarding your heart, mind, and soul. I had my thick walls up guarding my heart, mind, and soul. The thing about having all these defensive devices in place you find yourself looking around inside hearing, feeling the empty halls of your heart, and the silence of your thoughts only. I did everything I could growing up to link with a best friend doing things I should not have done to gain their acceptance. I became bitter, cold, hateful, vengeful, and a user/player with darkness as my friend, but this is not the friend I sought after. It was the friend that came to me after the con artists, liars, deceivers; the outward facades had destroyed my faith in mankind.

Darkness could not satisfy that loneliness. After serving revenge on others with the lies, deceptions, and outward facades I did not find any satisfaction to chase away the loneliness. The hard questions began to seep through my thick walls like black thick syrup of ‘why should I exist‘ and ‘for what purpose or reason?’ It was during this crucial time sitting in furthest seat in the highest balcony in the dim-lit back pew a voice dropped over into my walls and into my throne room of heart, mind, and soul saying, “you had tried everything else why not try me?” I started going over a variety of things I had tried and coming to the conclusion I agreed that I will give you a try.

The “Meant to be Alone” curse can be taken away. I started my infant steps with God. I treated Him as I would anyone else. I will try to get to know Him. I started reading His Word/Bible from the point of view of questions I had about life. I started looking up hatred, jealousy, bitterness, dating, marriage, friendship, loneliness, anger, and the list goes on. I have uploaded pictures that I drew before trying God and after trying God. The pictures have hidden messages of emotions I was facing at the time. As I kept talking with Him and reading His opinions I woke up one day realizing I had found the friend that will never leave me. He will never back stab me, lie to me, use me, con me, or forsake me. He became my best friend and roommate behind my thick walls. I will never be alone again spiritually. Yes, I still have my walls up because mankind has not changed, but my fleshly house has a new occupant that will always lead me and guide me into all truth.

Adam was alone inside having only his living soul. Eve was alone inside having only her living soul. They had each other physically and spiritual fellowship. We are not like Adam today. We have our living soul inside, but God can move inside with us. Your body now can be the apartment with God as your roommate. It doesn’t matter if you are physically alone even in a crowd, marriage, church, school, or anything else you may think of people being there with you because spiritually you have the roommate of forever kindness, love, acceptance, friendship, saving grace. My life has never been the same since Jesus became my roommate.

All I had to do was to turn my back ( be sorry) on darkness/sin, get baptized in water baptism in the name of Jesus (applies the blood of Calvary) for the washing away of my sins (cleaning my house & spirit), and receiving His Holy Spirit inside with mine (Acts 2:38, 4). I may never have the fellowship of mankind, but I will always have the fellowship of God from this life into the next. It is joy unspeakable and full of glory beyond the brightness of our sun in space. Seek after Him and you will never be sorry or lonely ever again.

Not Enough Numbers

A Matryoshka doll made in Russia is one large wooden doll. If you are looking at it you will only see one wooden doll on the shelf. If you don’t touch it and examine it you will walk away thinking that it was just one wooden doll on the shelf. If you did pick it up you would discover that the one doll pulls apart from the middle with something else inside.

You take what is inside out thinking now you have two wooden dolls, a male and a female. You pull apart the female in the middle to find there is another doll inside. Now, you want to know how many more can there be inside each wooden doll. You finally reach the tiniest doll that does not open in the middle reaching the end of the many dolls that were inside that first one doll you originally saw on the shelf. You carefully pull each one back inside the other until you are back to seeing only one doll on the shelf. One wooden doll has several hidden dolls within.

God is like that one doll that you see on the shelf with everything else inside it. Before God created the sun, the moon, the stars, the planets, the earth, and mankind. He had a place called heaven that had His throne, a mount for the assembly that raised up to the heights of the clouds (Is. 14:13, 14), and there were different kinds of angels (Is. 6:2-7). God was like this Matryoshka doll all things were created from within Him: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible…; all things have been created through him and for him. God is before all things, and in him all things hold together (Col. 1:16, 17). God told His people in the Bible over and over that He is one God. The wooden dolls if they had intelligence and could see from within the last doll that they were all in Him with no outside boundaries. We could see we are all inside God and there are no outside boundaries to Him. They (the dolls) are all inside of Him. There is nothing outside of Him. He said, “I am the Lord, and there is none else, there is no God beside me…” (Is. 45:51).

He is one in all things, but all things do not number Him. The plurality of this one God is He is in all things and all things come out to be a great number that we cannot count as man, but the all things are one in God. You and I have been given a one standalone spirit, but there is more to our one spirit. My spirit has many members that make the totality of my existence. When you look at me and I look at you we see one body for each other. I have a spirit and a body adding to the count of numbers to two. I have eyes that allow me to see, one member of my oneness adding to the count of numbers to three. I have a mouth that allows my spirit to speak through adding to the count to four members of one body. You can go on and on naming all the things that make up the totality of your existence, but only seeing one body. One body with many members. One is many, but the many are one inside God. There is no dividing God when He is in all things. To make God plural is to divide His everywhere present at the same time God into separate parts when He is in all the plural things at the same place and time remaining as one God. To try to start counting beyond one God there are “Not Enough Numbers” to speak the end of counting Him. Does this not make Him God? This should make your heart rejoice that He is the “I AM” that loves us with everything within Him.

We are like the Matryoshka dolls inside of God. Adam came from God. Eve came from Adam. All children after that came from a man and a woman becoming one with each other. We are seeing God from the inside. His insides have planets, a sun, a moon, and stars that we look up at from the earth or from the probes we have sent flying inside of Him. Would this not match the definition of God? God would be far above His creations. We are living, moving, and having our being inside of Him (Acts 17:28). He is the one God and Father of all that is inside of Him. He is over all and through all and in all (Eph. 4:6).

I would love to see a Matryoshka doll with the first wooden doll painted like pure light, the second wooden doll painted with creation of the things like the sun, moon, stars, planets, earth, grass, trees, mankind…etc, the third wooden doll painted with a man (Adam, 1 Tim 2:13), the fourth wooden doll painted with a woman (Eve), the fifth wooden doll painted with the fall of mankind, and a red bloodline going forward, the sixth wooden doll painted with the story of Jesus, and the seventh wooden doll painted with us being born again rejoining God in fellowship and in heaven.

We are trying to comprehend an everywhere at once at the same time God far deep from within Him just like little creatures inside an Ecosphere trying to see us holding them in our hand. The earth is like that Ecosphere inside of God. God is everywhere. This is why it is easy to seek Him and feel after Him because He is not far from every one of us (Acts 17:27). The last wooden doll looking back through the others could easily start believing in multiple Gods and plurality of Gods because it is easier for us to count than to have to deal with endless numbers, but this will only work if they lose sight of the totality before the beginning of time He was that one doll that everything was created from. We take words from the Bible or looking at creation to start attempting a counting process of Him. How can you count a God that is present everywhere at once at the same time? One makes more sense because He is in all things, all things in Him, and any number past one is “Not Enough Numbers“. You can’t say after the number 2 billion God ends.

CREATION

In Genesis 1:26 God said, “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness…” If we can talk to ourselves out loud why is it God cannot talk to Himself out loud? You have one body with many members. Your spirit(one member) spoke through your mouth (another member) and your ears (another member) listened to the sound of what was said with your mind (another member) processing what was said all the while only one physical person is visible doing the talking. I have always been told it is alright to talk to yourself, but when you start answering yourself the trouble begins. In Eph. 1:11 talking about God and how things work out according to the purpose/plan of Him who worketh (eth means continually) all/everything after the counsel/conformity of his own will. God should have more of a right to talk to Himself than we do seeing how He is everywhere at once at the same time. He can be speaking verbally to someone in China in their language and at the same time speaking verbally to you and me in our language. He is the God not restricted in any way. He does not strain or stress handling the functions of all things. Is He not God? To think we are on the inside of His omnipresence? This really makes my heart rejoice and mind to think of Him as an all around wall of protection and guiding presence, but seeing Him is the true challenge.

BY THE RIVER – 3

Would it be hard for God to speak from heaven with a voice, controlling a descending dove as like the Holy Spirit, and coming out of the water as a man who was just baptized? (Mtt. 3:16, 17; Mk. 1:11). God does not get bogged down with multitasking in fulfilling His love promise to us. He is everywhere at once at the same time then He could speak from the rocks in the river, the grass on the bank, the trees beside the river, and anywhere else He chooses to speak, but His promise to John for a sign of the Savior that he could understand was a dove because you cannot physically see the Spirit of God and live (1 Tim. 6:16), descending upon Jesus (Jn 1:32, 34). Everything God does towards us is in a manner that we can comprehend who He is, what He is, when He wants things to happen, and where He wants it to happen. All the while He is one God in all things at once at the same time. This is not a chance to start dividing Him and counting Him. There are “Not Enough Numbers” to finish counting His presences because He is not divided at all. He is one in all things and all things are one in Him.

The voice in heaven saying, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.“, the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and landing on Jesus after coming out of the water from baptism is where some count this as a sign to them there are three separate Gods. Three is not a big enough number to start dividing and counting God. Everything is simplified from God to us because He really wants us to see and perceive, to hear and understand. This one God was multitasking for the people at the river, John who was baptizing Jesus for the fulfillment of all kinds of things at once. He can do that because He is God. He does it for you and I every day. Things happen around us for multiple reasons giving us a chance to see, hear, and feel His love.

JESUS PRAYING – 2

The mankind side of Jesus prayed to the Father, the everywhere at the same time God as an example of how we, mankind, should be. Remember, God wants us to understand and He simplifies things through examples, symbols, and typologies. Jesus was like us, a man of flesh and blood fully human because God wanted to share in our humanity in every way as a part of a man who could die, in our place taking away the power of death, freeing us from sin, and becoming a high priest between us and God (Heb. 2:14-16). Jesus was born the second Adam, the promised bloodline of salvation for us. The first man created, Adam, failed for all of mankind not resisting temptation in his flesh (key words) being a standalone living soul. The second Adam created, Jesus, succeeded in making a door way of salvation for all of mankind in his flesh (key words) being the fullness of God manifested in a fleshly body and being the Spirit that makes us alive to Him again (1 Cor. 15:45-49, Col 2:8, 9). Jesus the man is the perfect example on how we should be with God the Spirit.

Again, this is where we as mankind struggle at attempting to start counting God in a divided way. Jesus on the ground praying to God in heaven is what we see. Jesus the man is giving us an example of what we should be doing and the everywhere God included inside of Jesus wants our fellowship. Again, cannot God be fully inside Jesus and continue to be everywhere else? We want to understand God so badly we will accept putting Him in numbers we can count and not leaving an open-ended numberless count of Him. It hurts our minds in the attempt to wrap around how far He really goes in all things. All of this is what makes Him worthy of the title God (Omnipresent, Omniscient, and Omnipotent).

SALVATION – 3 or 1

One of the most common places in the Bible people put a number on God is Mtt. 28:19, 20. Jesus, remember God in the flesh, said to his apostles (key word) for them to go to all nations teaching them, baptizing them in the name (key word) of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. The teaching part was for all nations to observe/obey all things/everything that Jesus commanded the apostles (key word) .

We want to be able to say God the Father (#1 separate), God the Son (#2 separate), and God the Holy Spirit (#3 separate), but this is forgetting God is one in all things, all the things are one in Him, the present everywhere at once and at the same time God. He wants us to see Him (His Spirit) as the Father of all creation being inside all creation. He wants us to see Him (His Spirit) as the Lamb being provided by Himself in the son redeeming us from sin. He wants us to see Him (His Spirit) once again joining with us inside our bodies with our spirit for the regeneration and reconciling us to Himself. Saying God is three persons is “Not Enough Numbers” for an omnipresent God. “Father” is a sign, symbol, and typology for us to understand Him as the “Father of Creation“, like a title over an office door. You can be a father in having a son. “Son” is a sign, symbol, and typology for when He came among us and provided a way for us to rejoin Him free from sin. You can be a son born to your father. “Holy Spirit or Holy Ghost” is a sign, symbol, and typology for us to understand God becoming one inside our bodies with our spirit helping us to not to fail with temptation, but how to get to heaven.

Do you know what the apostles did with “… baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost…“? When it came down to doing what Jesus commanded them? This is what they said about being saved, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness/remission of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.“ “The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off—for all whom the Lord our God will call.” This last part of the scripture means that this is still the way for us today to be saved until God returns to take us home. At this point this is where the apostles saw God not as three, but as the everywhere at the same time one God in all things. They did not divide God up into three parts, but kept Him as the ONE GOD. The name of Jesus contains the Father of Creation, the Son of Redemption, and the Regeneration of the Holy Spirit, all in one. God was inside Jesus and everywhere else also at once for us to repent to from the garden of Eden to the present, water baptism (born again of water phase, Jn. 3) is where the blood of the Lamb (Jesus the man) is applied washing away of sins, and receiving the Holy Spirit (born again of the Spirit phase, Jn. 3) guiding us in truth. God came to mankind as the Father of Creation phase, then as the Son of Redemption phase, and the finale phase as the Holy Spirit. Another reason the apostles only baptized in the name of Jesus besides being one with God was God is a Spirit; you cannot kill a spirit, nor is there any blood in a spirit. The blood was in the man named Jesus. The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are three phases or stages of God’s plan to save His children and not a number count of His Deity.

To adventure out beyond one is NOT ENOUGH NUMBERS. Omnipresent means being present everywhere at once at the same time. If you believe God is Omnipresent then you believe there is nothing outside of God and that inside of Him is everything. If He is in everything is there any number man could come up with to be the totality sum of God other than one in all things? Anything beyond one is “Not Enough Numbers“. To say there is two God’s is not enough numbers standing before Omnipresent. To say there are three God’s is not enough numbers standing before Omnipresent. All numbers past one concerning God are methods of manifestations on a level of communications to whom God is trying to connect with in perception and understanding.

“Not Enough Numbers” is inspiring to me to NOT to limit God, box Him into something only my mind can handle, or attempt to divide Him when He absolutely loves oneness in Himself and all things. This is the time to step outside and slowly start looking around realizing everywhere your eyes see from up close to the farthest distance He is there and beyond.

A Divided House

Division began before you, I, and all of mankind were born. Before the earth, sun, moon, or stars there was one angel that decided in his heart to rally other angels to help him to charge into heaven, make his throne higher than God’s throne, sit on the mount before all the other angels, rise above the clouds, making himself God (Is. 14:13, 14). God now had division to confront in His own house. God’s decision was to cast out that angel and his followers as fast as lightning from the heavens with the promise of hell and the pit being his new abode (Lu. 10:18, Is.14:15). This was the first house to face division.

We think of our homes where we live with family or others when it comes to a divided house. God said, “Every kingdom divided against itself will be ruined, and every city or household divided against itself will not stand” (Mtt. 12:25). Kingdoms, countries, cities, towns, large businesses, small businesses, groups, teams, families, couples divided against each other will be ruined, will be destroyed, and will fall. The word “will” means there is no other option and the answer is final of what is going to occur if the division continues. You and I have seen and are presently seeing countries divided in the news. We have seen cities, towns, businesses, corporations, our government, schools, churches, families, and couples facing division.

Please allow “A Divided House” to be an umbrella that covers all from the kingdoms, to the couples and other things.

Places we have worked for in times past and even in the present job we see division among our co-workers knowing if this continues someone is going to face the fall of being fired. We have been apart of teams with a goal to win and there was one or two among us with selfish ambitions to the point we could not truly win because of the division. If we did win despite their arrogant, cocky, better than thou, selfish attitude it was still a divided win with the physical higher points to prove the win, but the spirit within the teammates were thoughts and feelings mixed with happiness and anger. Churches may have members with the attitude “I’m right and it is my way or the highway for you” among the musicians, choir, teachers, and pastors. It is not God’s fault churches have these divisions, but where there is the flesh of mankind there will always be the possibility of “A Divided House“.

Have you ever had a best friend that you were always together having fun and one day you find yourself facing them from the opposite sides of opinion? We as people change with time and that change we make becomes solid concrete ground upon which we stand. We lock onto ideas and things we are not willing to give up. Even the best of friends give into the darker side. You have seen and felt the pain of “A Divided House” of friendship fall apart because there was no common ground found. You still miss them today even though you know it was for the best. If you knew it was you or them that was dragging the other down. The ruined, destroyed, and fallen friendship was the best release from the continuing danger.

A mom, a dad, a brother, a sister, an uncle, an aunt, a grandparent, a son, a daughter in your life has brought division into the house. They have inflicted their attitude, drunkenness, drug problems, controversial opinions, sexual perversion, brawling, hatred, jealousy, fits of rage, and selfishness in the house (Gal. 5:19-21). You looked into the face of these different things being torn inside for the hardcore division in your house. You cry out with your voice and scream inside your head “Stop!“, but it is though you are talking to a wall and it continues. The hidden pain and the sorrow of”A Divided House” almost goes unnoticed behind the closed doors to the world. The wishful thoughts of the memories bring up emotions and desires for things to be better, to be fixed, to be whole again.

You started dating someone. You learn a little about them as you go along. You start from liking them into thinking this may be deeper and could be the one you want to spend the rest of your life with. One day you come across a subject that you firmly believe in and found out they are absolutely the opposite and will not meet in the middle. You think about burying your side with the deceiving thoughts that you can change them realizing it will only bring misery. The heart breaking “A Divided House” of love rips through your life having to watch someone walk away. You could not and they could not give up even a portion of their side of the subject. This is a life changing experience when you face “A Divided House” no matter where it is or who it is with.

There is one more side to “A Divided House“. This is the most important part that you must overcome and not allow “A Divided House” to continue. It is truly crucial with the level of a matter of life and death to you. As you have read and as I have written about the many different “A Divided House” things from friends, family, schools, teams, jobs, churches, and different kinds of groups the emotions that have flowed through me and I assume you have ended with an air of sadness.

I mentioned in the beginning that God faced the first “A Divided House“. He threw them out separating them from His household quick as lightning to their own house of ruin, destruction, and fallen from grace. Before the sun, the moon, the stars, the earth, or mankind were created there were two houses in existence. God’s house was one and the fallen angel’s house was then other one. These houses are one in their thinking, believing, and their will. Jesus said, “If Satan drives out Satan, he is divided against himself. How then can his kingdom stand?” (Mtt. 12:26). “And if Satan opposes himself and is divided, he cannot stand; his end has come” (Mk. 3:26). What happened to that angel of God and its followers is the crucial part of “A Divided House” that you and I MUST overcome. The angel of God said in his heart, “I will ascend…; I will raise…; I will sit…; I will ascend above…; I will make myself like the Most High.” (Is. 14:13, 14). Before there was kingdoms, countries, cities, towns, large businesses, small businesses, groups, teams, families, couples “A Divided House” started forming within one angel of God. The angel started dividing his thoughts, feelings, and will power from the goodness of God. He lost his oneness within himself. The ruin, destruction, and fall came from within. His mind was divided, his heart was divided, and his will power was divided from God. This is why the tree of knowledge of good and evil existed. The “knowledge” that started within the angel from good to evil was “A Divided House” inside his mind, heart, and will power.

God’s oneness was now divided because of the free will choice of an angel and his followers. God’s answer to this “A Divided House” situation was to separate the good house from the evil house. Before we were created there was God’s house and Satan’s house. As the sun, the moon, the stars, the earth, and mankind came into being the free will choice was still absolutely in effect. Adam and Eve were created in the image and likeness of God with only goodness in them, but the crucial part of life and death of the free will to choose was inside them. God visited Adam and Eve. Satan visited Adam and Eve. God said everything in the garden was theirs to freely eat, except there is one tree of the knowledge of good and evil that has the death effect upon it if you eat from it. Satan said, ‘did God really say, you’ll die’ planting a seed of doubt hoping for “A Divided House” of thought inside them. He continued with proclaiming boldly against God, ‘you won’t die’ planting a defiance seed hoping for “A Divided House” of a believing heart. Satan finishes with saying, ‘God knows’, as if He is withholding power from them, ‘that if you eat from it you will have open eyes’, as though He was hiding something from them, and ‘become like God knowing good and evil’ hoping for “A Divided House” of will to choose the opposite of God just like he did.

Our first mother of mankind, Eve, looked upon the fruit with the words from Satan echoing in her mind, ‘death?’, ‘No death’, ‘become like God’, ‘possessing the power of good and evil knowledge like God’ put in motion “A Divided House” within her that the fruit looks ‘good for food’, justifying it as meal; ‘pleasing to her eyes’, implying if it were ugly it would be easier to refuse; ‘desirable for gaining wisdom’, a finale excuse of making her smarter. She and Adam did eat the fruit invoking the death sentence (Ge. 3) and since the house of Satan already existed they joined his house automatically. God did not need to cast out Adam and Eve like lightning out of the sky only from the garden away from the tree of eternal life. Adam and Eve are one with the house of evil, with death upon them, and the life of God removed.

Now, God is facing another “A Divided House” situation with the only two in all creation that are like His very own children created in His image and likeness. Separation would not be stopped, but the ruin, destruction, and the falling of His children was another matter. This was His children that under the threat of total separation, which anyone of us would fight for our loved ones not to be lost. God planted a promise child seed in Adam and Eve to one day remove the death sentence, fill them with His Spirit to aid inside them, and give them a oneness returning chance back to His household.

Adam and Eve did not have God inside them. God gave them a stand alone on their own two feet living soul known as the First Adam. The second Adam, Jesus Christ, had God inside him helping him with the crucial decisions to make in this life and giving him the power of the spirit and life (1 Cor. 15:45). We can be born again with the power and authority to leave the house of Satan and return to the house of God. We can leave evil behind us and walk forward into goodness.

The crucial part of life and death of “A Divided House” is what is inside you. You have a mind, heart, and soul. They are known as the thoughts, the feelings, and the will power inside you. Our spirit has them within us working all the time. They are listening, seeing, feeling, and processing every second that you are awake. You cannot afford to be divided in your thinking, in your believing heart, and your will of choices. You and I have seen and probably been a part of a divided mind in what should we do, the emotions of the heart wanting the opposite of our mind, and our soul wanting to not let go.

MOST IMPORTANT PART

The most important part in this life IS NOT the Kingdoms, countries, cities, towns, large businesses, small businesses, groups, teams, families, couples divided against each other headed towards ruin, destruction, and the fall. Adam and Eve lost their battle on the inside. We lose our battles starting on the inside. God came inside Jesus to help us inside out rejoining us to Himself not counting our sins against us (2 Cor. 5:19), but opening His door (Jesus, Jn 14:6) to His house for us to leave the door of Satan’s house behind. God said, “I will live with them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be my people.” (2 Cor. 6:16).

Peter became the keys to kingdom of God (Mtt. 16:19) speaking the words of God and the people were pricked inside their hearts (inside is our greatest weakness). They asked Peter what they should do? Peter took the keys to the kingdom that were given to him by God and unlocked what they must do in saying to them to repent (starts on the inside of us mind, heart, and soul), to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission (forgiveness) of sins, and to receive the gift of the Holy Ghost (Acts 2:38), God helping us from within.

There are two households in existence and everything falls under one of those households. God’s household and Satan’s household, which we are born into Satan’s household automatically because of Adam and Eve’s sin that is past down to all generations of mankind. God inside of Jesus gives a free will choice to make like Adam and Eve had in the garden, but ours is ‘do we want the tree of life?’ We already have the tree of death in us. This born again chance puts God on the inside where the crucial decisions are made and He promised to guide us into all truth (Jn 16:13) never leaving us nor forsaking us (Heb. 13:5). You can be whole and you can go home to His goodness. Let repentance, water baptism in Jesus name, and receive His Holy Spirit) start on the inside.