Fruit

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What is the fruit of my belief...the doctrine I have guarded for comfort? Does it draw me deeper into faith, knowledge, self control...perseverance?...godliness?...love?!

II Peter 1:5-7 But also for this very reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness, to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love.

This is the point of being redeemed...reconnected to God as He made mankind to be: to allow Jesus to form HIS quality of life in MY heart. For years I took the name of Jesus without the life of Jesus becoming progressively more mine, too. I grew little in any of these areas, but i remained comfortable...dull. This is not what Jesus saved me for. He saved me to give me life in full...forever. To take His name and not His life is to miss the point! This would be like getting married, but never taking up residence with your spouse. You could change the name on the taxes, claim half the wealth, but this would be the truth:

Matthew 7:21-23 “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’

I want to examine...search my traditional beliefs to make sure they agree with the Bible. Because I live in a culture with a TRADITION of knowing God, I need to be realistic about the benefits and consequences of this. Tradition always seeks to replace truth. This is because there is an enemy ...a prowling lion...looking for any way He can to avoid prison. His entire scheme is predicated on the fact that He is going to attempt to keep the things Jesus prophesied and prayed for from happening: a united Bride is a big prayer and prophecy of Jesus'. The Bible is clear that she is going to unite under some incredibly intense circumstances. She will unite as a faithful witness in the face of persecution! If satan can't keep me from taking the name of Jesus...plan B is to keep me from residing with Him...allowing Jesus to form His quality of life in me...reach by reach...step by step...choice by choice. He does this by lying and distracting me into a self-focused life rather than a Jesus-focused life. Jesus-focused people seem extreme, even in Church...but they are not NEARLY as extreme as the people Jesus is going to get when it is all said and done:

John 12:25 He who loves his life will lose it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.

This is going to be the worldwide identity of the Bride. As the intensity heats up, the Bride is going deeper into her identity in Jesus...she must...the intense season requires an intense "rooting" and "grounding." A hurricane of intensity is coming! Just like a tree, my roots grow deep while my branches reach for more light. No reach = Shallow roots. This is what Peter was saying. Adding virtue to faith, and then reaching for knowledge, and then adding to it endurance, and growing in righteousness and love...becoming more perfect...which means more complete in dying to myself and letting Jesus form His quality of life in me:

Matthew 5:48 Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect.

This is ALL supposed to be happening RIGHT NOW. Why? Because a storm is coming...a great falling away. Many clutch to "eternal security" in an effort to keep calm and live like everyone else. This is the hard truth of the Bible: If I want to live like the world, yet be confident in Jesus, I need some tradition rather than truth:

Matthew 7:13-14 “Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.

Most of the Christian world has settled on the narrowness of the gate (although even that is under attack right now), but very few are teaching the narrow WAY. We mostly believe in a narrow gate and a broad way. A way ever-widened by a false grace message that teaches you can have Jesus' presence without His leadership!

Many love the comfort in this broad-way message, but what is the fruit of this doctrine? Does it produce a zealous reach for more of Jesus' quality of life in my life, or does it give me comfort to be self-focused yet feel secure? What would Peter, or John, or Jesus say about this broad way?

The truth is, there is an eternally secure rope fastening me to Jesus. No one can snatch me from Jesus' hand. But, Jesus has never done away with free will! He will never violate love, which requires...always...free will. The rope holding me will never break, but I CAN let go. This is what Peter warned of:

II Peter 1:10-11 Therefore, brethren, be even more diligent to make your call and election sure, for if you do these things you will never stumble; for so an entrance will be supplied to you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

This is what Jesus said, too. He said the storm coming is so intense that MANY will be offended and fall away. Now is the time to go all in for me. I am going to reach with all my time, money, strength, and reputation. I am going to have the hard conversations with Jesus now. So He can search me now rather than be forced into shocking me later!

Matthew 24:9-13 “Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and kill you, and you will be hated by all nations for My name’s sake. And then many will be offended, will betray one another, and will hate one another. Then many false prophets will rise up and deceive many. And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold. But he who endures to the end shall be saved.

II Thessalonians 2:1-3 Now, brethren, concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him, we ask you, not to be soon shaken in mind or troubled, either by spirit or by word or by letter, as if from us, as though the day of Christ had come. Let no one deceive you by any means; for that Day will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition,

I set my heart to be rooted and grounded for the coming storm...I can feel the wind picking up...I see the clouds gathering...

Hello Hurricane, you are not enough.

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