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Wednesday,
November 18, 2009
Pressing Forward
Philippians 3:13-15 Brethren, I count not
myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those
things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are
before, (14) I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of
God in Christ Jesus. (15) Let us therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus
minded: and if in any thing ye be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even
this unto you. (KJV)
Having read some of Paul the apostle’s
own personal adventures, he was a man that was well versed in the old law,
and he was finding out that the new life he was partaking of was now one
located in the realm of the Spirit and no longer based on the works of the
law. Paul also found out that not only did he need to forget things from
his past, but also people that were still holding to the past would need to
be let go of as well if he desired to get past the influences of the flesh.
As you mature in your walk with the Lord and are truly exercising your Spiritual
senses, then as verse 15 says, God will let you know what does and does not
work in His realm which is Spiritual.
Hebrews 6:4-6 For it is impossible for
those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and
were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, (5) And have tasted the good word of
God, and the powers of the world to come, (6) If they shall fall away, to
renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son
of God afresh, and put him to an open shame. (KJV)
Take note of that word ‘impossible’;
because without faith (giving ear and then acting on what the Lord is
speaking to you personally) you have then entered that realm of impossible,
at least as far as pleasing the Lord. Verse 6 begins with an added word, ‘if’.
The reality is that the people have already fallen away and are no longer
pressing forward in their walk, because as we are about to see, they are
still in the flesh and not walking in the Spirit.
Williams New Testament translation
of Hebrews 6:1-3
1.
So then let us once for all quit the elementary teaching about
Christ and continue progressing toward maturity; let us stop relaying a
foundation of repentance from works that mean only death, and of faith in
God,
2.
of teaching about ceremonial washings and the laying on of hands,
the resurrection of the dead and final judgment.
3.
And we will progress, if God permits.
The reason the people are no longer
progressing in their walk is because they have left God out of the
equation, thinking that what began in the Spirit could still be perfected
by the flesh and any carnal rituals. Paul, having found out first hand
himself, knew that this was not the case; and those that still held to
these old outdated rituals would no longer be pressing forward but rather
regressing and falling away. If you desire to press forward in your walk
and are still involved with those that continue to hold to elementary
thinking, or as I like to refer to it as preschool thinking, it would do
you good to progress out the door, which is what the Lord is permitting you
to do. It now comes down to, who you will truly please, God or man.
John 8:36 If the Son therefore shall make
you free, ye shall be free indeed. (KJV)
Ever wonder why the term ‘If the Son shall
make you free’? Similar to what we just saw in Hebrews, progressing if the
Lord permits. The Lord did His part, so the iffy part of the equation is on
our end.
Colossians 1:21-23 And you, that were
sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath
he reconciled (22) In the body of his flesh through death, to present you
holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight: (23) If ye continue in
the faith grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope of the
gospel, which ye have heard, and which was preached to every creature which
is under heaven; whereof I Paul am made a minister; (KJV)
You truly have that choice today, right
now, if you desire to press forward in your walk or continue to be held
back in a preschool frame of mind. I pray that you press forward, letting
the simple truth of God’s Word set and keep you free from old outdated dead
end rituals.
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