Every move you make

In 1983 Gordon Sumner aka Sting, released "Every move you make" with the Police. There is an ironic twist to the song, given that it was by the Police, for indeed they do watch, like big brother, ready to pounce if we err. However, it was a love song, not a policeman's rap.

The words speak of watching over every breath and move as we break our bonds:
Every breath you take and every move you make
Every bond you break, every step you take, I'll be watching you
Every single day and every word you say
Every game you play, every night you stay, I'll be watching you

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Heaven and Hell

A huge, rough samurai once went to see a little monk, hoping to acquire the secrets of the universe.

"Monk," he said, in a voice accustomed to instant obedience. "teach me about heaven and hell."

The little monk looked up at the mighty warrior in silence. Then, after a moment, he said to the samurai with utter disdain, "Teach YOU about heaven and hell? I couldn't teach you about anything. You're dirty. You smell. Your blade is rusty. you're a disgrace, an embarrassment to the samurai class. Get out of my sight at once. I can't stand you!"

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Was it a morning like this

We attended an Easter Sunday surnrise service this morning, but it was held in a graveyard. Did we seek the living amongst the dead?

The only reason we used the graveyard was that it afforded the best view of the village below, the mountains beyond and the watery sun that struggled to rise over an uncertain world.

It occured to me that the dead in this village had the best view of all, the best location of any other citizen. There is a metaphor in that, for in this life we see through a glass darkly, now in part, but then face to face. The best views in the house are all are reserved for our moment of death, when we pass out of this world with its limited perspective of glory and the gloom clears to reveal the breathless wonder that awaits us all.

Maybe if we could see more clearly, we would run more surely, but maybe that in itself determines our future perspectives. After all, a runner who has endured the race and fought the last miles, has a far better perspective of the glory of finishing than any spectator can ever have. So, in spite of the removal of the veil that obscures our grasp of heaven, a veil will yet remain for those who have not fought for the prize or run the race or gained mastery or struggled to overcome.

Only the hot and sweaty, the heaving and panting will gain a true concept of glory, for they will see through their tears and the mists of many sorrows, to a rest that surpasses all this world has to offer. They will have a surpassing view that even angels will desire to look into - for they will see Jesus not just as king or the Lord of all, but as the friend that stuck closer than a brother, the friend who never forsook them in life or death.

Peter Eleazar@4u2live.net

Across the line

The day before, the day after. Movie and song titles, which suggest life-changing moments of wonder.

In 1982, Abba released the song, “Before you came”. Though relatively unsuccessful in the US, with only one chart-topper, Abba became a world-wide phenomenon through the seventies and eighties.

“Before you came”, traces the recollections of a woman to the day before a lover entered her life. It reminds me of the day John F Kennedy died. I was a kid then, but I remember lying on the lounge floor reading about his assassination and marveling about it all. I also remember hearing the first news of 911 on my car radio. Initially the reports indicated a light plane had crashed into the World Trade Centre, but by the time I got home it was apparent that the US was under attack – so I grabbed my family and we rushed to the television to watch the unthinkable – before it had yet become an oft-replayed recording, we watched live feed of the towers collapsing into Manhattan dust. In both cases I know of many tales from many people that recount “the day before …”.

Well the singer in “Before you came” also recalled a hum-drum, predictable life of “bed by a quarter after ten (she likes to be in bed by then) with a book by Marilyn French” and a whole lot of other things that she could recall because of the predictability of her life. Then “he” came along and her life was never the same again.

She could have been singing about Jesus, for, although I cannot recount how my life was, “before He came”, I can say that my life changed forever after I met Him. It was a watershed moment that gripped my imagination, harnessed my passions and captivated my senses for the rest of my life. He is so real, so relevant, so faithfully accessible, that I could never live without Him. That was as true during the darkest years of my life when He was the last man standing: He never left me in my shame, but faithfully accompanied me through the vale of sorrow, to a new day.

In the game of cricket, the line or crease that defines the limits of a bowler’s run-up, can result in a penalty for the bowler: called a no-ball. He is not allowed to step over it, but he can even be penalized for standing on the line. The penalty call is reserved by the umpire. In cricket terms: “the line belongs to the umpire”.

In recent articles, I have referred to the law of precedence, that line crossed by Adam and many others, which brought misery on their descendants. I compared that line with the line that Jesus crossed to restore life and hope. Well that line also belongs to the umpire, the Father, the sole arbiter of His laws and the blessings or curses that derive from them.

The day before Jesus came, sin ruled and remained unchecked. The whole of humanity was in the relentless grip of Satan’s oppression, due to the precedence of Adam’s transgression. At Calvary, a new precedent was set and that line defined a past, present and future. Satan could only rely on the past, for the future was out of his hands: notwithstanding his ongoing influence over this world. The key to what I am saying relates to rights: Satan may still cause trouble, but he has no precedence, no legal standing. At best, Satan is only a liar, for the substance of his claims against us was revoked by Christ and the line belongs to the judge of all hearts.

In the next article I will show how Calvary implies a general victory and the foundation for all breakthroughs in our lives. But I will also show that the principle also applies to specific breakthroughs, where trouble in our lives will meet its Waterloo and become a thing of the past so that we can go on into an unhindered, liberated future.

(>(c) Peter Eleazar at www.bethelstone.com<>

By one man ...

A river alters course in response to key events or moments, just as historic incidents changed life.

The law of precedence is a powerful biblical principle.

When one man, Adam, broke one law, he brought an immediate end to his status quo and imposed a curse on all succeeding generations, you and I included.

Similarly, when one man, Esau, despised his birthright, he changed history and disqualified himself and succeeding generations from all participation in the Abrahamic covenant. However, in a similar act, one man, Jacob, stepped up to the plate, wrenched the blessing away from his brother and became the patriarch of Israel.

Later, one man, Saul, made one foolish blunder and invalidated his life and the lives of his descendants. It was just a single moment of madness, but it changed everything.

These are sad realities. I perceive that certain things happened in my own past, some of which generally impacted my family, whilst others impacted me personally. I am not entirely sure what happened, but I carried all kinds of burdens in my life as a result of a transaction that opened my life to spiritual oppression.

The principles behind all of this come from the laws of God, in terms of which curses and blessings are invoked by individual acts and inherited by succeeding generations. A right reading of scripture suggests that the laws and their implications preceded the articulation of the laws at Mount Sinai, for sin reigned from Adam to Moses (Romans 5). The laws merely came to reveal what was not known or understood about sin, namely that sin carries consequences, whether committed in ignorance (prior to the law) or deliberately (with full knowledge of the law). To that end, Paul says in Romans 1, that the gentiles who were without law, had the laws of God written in their consciences.

The curses are ingrained within the laws, so God does not subjectively respond to each incident of sin and decide to curse us. Sin is a curse and it invokes curses over our lives. Moreover, even if we exceed all the laws and fail only in one law, we are guilty of all sins under the law: such is the principle of precedence.

The perpetuation of sin leads to iniquities, (Hebrew: bent) which are the long-term distortions that result from sin: a bit like the reaction of plastic to fire. Iniquities are the sin-characteristics that become habitual and self-recurring in our lives, often exceeding our own awareness. Others may see the flaws in our personalities and psychologists may classify them into personality disorders or syndromes, but sin is still the route cause. Thus, sins set the precedence for long-term problems and distortions of our lives.

This brings me to another precedent. At the cross, one man died for all and in Him all died that we might appropriate His risen life. For as much as death came through one man, Adam, so the second Adam set a new precedent by which life came by one.

In a separate study, I have shown that time exists in heaven – read more at www.4u2live.net. A key implication of time is that it is always progressive. It has a past, present and future. That is also true of divine time. There is such a thing as yesterday and by way of confirmation we read that the angels worship “day and night”. If there is a divine yesterday, then the work of the cross is the marker that separates today from yesterday and concludes our past. God is saying through this, that the claims over your soul, the curses of sin, can only go as far as the cross. There they can be resolved and become a part of our yesterday.

That is a vital part of spiritual warfare. If we really want to be free, we must understand that in the cross we are birthed into a new day, free of the past. Romans 6 and 7 further clarifies God’s intent, showing that because of death (our death in Christ), we sever the jurisdiction of the law in a way that compares with a widow’s termination of all obligations to her marriage.

So I declare that in Christ you live in a new day. A precedent was set at the cross that is as fundamental as the bad precedent set by Adam. All who trace back their lives to the cross are heirs to the precedent of righteousness and mercy in Christ. That precedent revokes the foregoing precedence set by Adam. We are a free people and we are exempt from sins committed under the old covenant, because of what Jesus did.

(c) Peter Eleazar at www.bethelstone.com

Death by one, life by one

Death came on all of us by one man, even so shall not life and that abundantly come through one man?

When Jesus went to the cross, Revelations 1:18 tells us that He took away the keys of death and hell. The writer to the Hebrews reminds us that, through death, Jesus slew him who had power over death, that is the Devil (Hebrews 2:14).

These scriptures are generally interpreted from an eternal perspective and assure us of ultimate victory over death.

However, death, as used, in the scriptures has two tenses, namely an eternal tense and a present continuous tense.

The eternal tense is well appreciated. We will rise again and experience the power of an endless life.

However, the present continuous tense of death, as used by the scriptures, refers to separation, rejection, nakedness and torment of the soul. Adam and Eve were beguiled by Satan, who knew God’s meaning but nonetheless misled those two souls into believing that they would not die if they ate of the tree. In the eternal sense, death would yet come to them, but their disobedience introduced human mortality and ended their eternal bliss.

The other aspect of the lie, namely “the day you eat of the tree you will not surely die”, obscured the present continuous or ongoing experience of death. Indeed, by way of confirmation, God immediately separated them from Himself and banished them from the garden. That was also a death: separation death as opposed to physical death.

The good news is that, just as sin introduced both deaths, so it is reasonable to conclude that Calvary resolved both deaths. Romans 5 says that if sin entered into the world by one man, and death by sin, how much more shall eternal life and mercy redound to one man, that man Paul referred to as the second Adam.

So the keys taken from Satan are keys to your eternal destiny and your ongoing life. The key to abundant life now and eternal life then, is no longer in Satan’s grasp. He has no power to impose death or hell on you.

You may well go through hell, to which Winston Churchill said, “If you are going through hell keep going”. But of importance is that the key to such “hells” or “deaths”, does not vest with your enemy. Does that mean that Jesus casts you into such pains? No it doesn’t. It just means that the key to deliverance vests with Jesus and your future is no longer a fait accompli. Satan may well attack and bring all kinds of troubles into our lives, but He has no legitimate power to sustain such darkness, for the keys were lost to Jesus.

Certainly God often leaves us in our difficulties so that we can grow and discover His power, but the initiative still rests with Jesus and He, at the Father’s behest, will deliver us in due course. Do not be beguiled again by Satan.

He succeeded in convincing Adam and Eve that they would not die if they ate of the tree of knowledge, yet they did, but let him not now convince you that you shall not live if you eat of the tree of life, Jesus. It is not for Satan to determine your times and seasons, that is the sole purview of the Father and it is not for Satan to keep you from the life that Christ bequeathed you through His death – that, I am sorry to say, is only possible if you allow it, for His life is your life and your irreversible inheritance.

Don’t give your enemy undue credit in times of difficulty. Rather cast your cares on Jesus. The bible says, “His name is a strong tower, the righteous run in and are safe”. Jesus lifts us above our struggles when we flee to Him and He will give you a right perspective, high above the melee, where you will gaze out from the tower to see the right perspective: a fallen enemy cowering at the feet of a conquering redeemer.

© Peter Eleazar at www.bethelstone.com

The carnal mind

Self-centeredness is the playground of the devil, where Godliness is eroded and souls are enslaved.

In the past few articles, I have touched on issues of: personal power versus Godly authority; doing things our way; and the yoke of learning.

All of these point to the crux of human disempowerment, yet they also highlight a great contradiction. Humanism places our locus of power within us. It argues that we are gods: the so-called “little gods” philosophy that underpins the new-age movement.

My youngest son, who loves mediaeval warfare and adores the Lord of the Rings, once observed that the real power of the rings given to men, lay not in the power acquired by people, but in the power that wearing the rings ceded to Sauron, a picture of Satan.

As we see in the great temptations, Jesus was offered all the kingdoms of the world, but the price was His soul. In return for bowing to Satan, Satan offered a cease-fire and power to rule the world. It had some appeal, surely, for Jesus had a heart for a suffering world and Satan’s deal offered some peace or release from suffering. It also offered Him a chance to do what He could to help the world, but the price was too high.

Had Jesus conceded, death would not have been conquered. You may recall that death came through Adam after Satan had deluded him into believing he would not die from the fruit. But he did die. He was immediately cut off from the garden and from that moment he became subject to corruption, which ultimately brought him down to the grave where he was subject to the power of Satan. Satan had no power to defeat or prevent death, yet he had the power to enforce death (Hebrews 2:14) by obliging God to do to men what had been done to him because of sin – this is what the bible calls, “The keys of death and hell” (Revelation 1:18).

So if Jesus had conceded to Satan, death would never have been destroyed and salvation for humankind would never have materialized.

Thus, humanism, whilst conceding power to the human soul, is no more able to offer solutions to the greatest dilemma we face – it cannot circumvent death, yet it involves a ring that gives some power in return for power over our souls. It argues that “we will surely not die” if we take such rings, but that only alludes to physical death. Thus it suggests a better, more prosperous life whilst we are alive, whilst obscuring both the inevitable consequences of our choices and the shorter-term implications for lives that trade their souls for a taste of power.

The gateway of Satan is “Self”. Our self-centeredness is the ring of power and humanism will provide all kinds of ways to empower the soul, including relatively safe philosophies such as religion, status and politics, plus darker metaphysical and occultic offerings. Such powers and the demand for them are real, hence the popular appeal of Harry Potter and the increasing availability of witchcraft or occultic publications.

But at the heart of all this darkness is really just a simple factor – “Self”. Self awareness alienates us from God and exposes us to the darkness of Satan. Good people are as vulnerable to this as bad people are and many innocent lives have been ruined by it. Teens have a huge surge of self-awareness that makes them vulnerable to all kinds of social and commercial exploitation, as Satan targets them during their most susceptible years. Advertisers have been able to push impressionable minds into buying things that have done little to help but lots to damage such young hearts, often permanently.

Our biggest cry relates to “Self” and our sense of power relates to “Self” but the lie behind all this is that “Self” is the key to disempowering and disarming us, as it makes us captive to the other team. It is a problem for the un-regenerated soul but it is also the key to the spiritual battles raging around all believers.

The way out is to allow the Life of Jesus to rule in our hearts. God’s provisions for our needs include: His Word, revealed truth, the indwelling Christ and the provision of the Holy Spirit. These provisions are not an endorsement of self nor do they lead us down other oppressive roads, but they will liberate us so we could live life abundantly.

Our carnal minds (self-centeredness) alienate us from God (Romans 8:7), but they that walk in the Spirit (follow Jesus in the way that He leads us out of the ways of the world back to His Father), they will be the Sons of God.

© Peter Eleazar at http://www.bethelstone.com