Part Two of "Did God Create a Religion?"
Part Two:
What is Church about?
Church is about relationships, it's about the heart and the desire to be together. It's not about works and doing. It's only through relationships that we build up one another as a body, we feel united, we care, we want to get together, see each other, pray for one another. It's never by programs, because it's organic and living.
It's about being in touch and being there for one another. It's about family life and building relationships and being there for one another. It's about raising up the next generation and building up the Body by bringing who Jesus is for us to others.
I remember when I asked the Lord "what's church is all about? What do You want us to DO when we come to church?"
I was focused on the doing, but the Lord had to renew my mind so I can focus on who He is and not what I need to do and work. His household is not a business; it's a family built on relationship and rooted in love.
The Lord answered my question and showed me in 1 Corinthians how He wants us to BE the church. He said to me:
"Elana, whenever you assemble together, some have a psalm to share My voice through music, some share what I have taught them, some have something I revealed to them, some have a tongue and I give the interpretation for it, this is how you build one another up."
1Co 14:26 NASB What is the outcome then, brethren? When you assemble, each one has a psalm, has a teaching, has a revelation, has a tongue, has an interpretation. Let all things be done for edification.
God lives inside His children and we each have something unique in us to share with each other. We bring who Jesus is in us and for us and it always ministers to someone's heart.
One might say "But I am not a pastor, or a prophet or a leader in my church. How can I share what the Lord is showing me and sharing with me, with others?"
Well, the Lord never meant for His Church (Family) to get together and DO church with an old covenant mentality. He never meant for us to follow a Temple mentality and mindset.
In the old covenant it was only Moses (the leader) who heard God's voice and he would come and share with the entire congregation what God is speaking to him. All the others were spectators. They watched him enter the Tent of Meeting and they encountered his experienced with God.
We live in a LIVING organic Temple which is not man-made. We no longer follow that old system of the Law. We follow a living God who lives in our hearts. As building blocks in His body, He put us together, but we are LIVING, breathing, speaking, singing, hearing, seeing, walking STONES. We stick to one another with the glue of love and freedom to be. We build and edify one another as we share the song, the teaching, the revelation, the dreams, the desires, the visions, that we have seen and heard from Him.
This was God's design, that in His body, there are different gifting, functions and responsibilities, but no one is above another. These are not titles, but functions.
As you experience and know the Lord personally in your life, and as you share who He is for you, and what He is speaking to you and showing you - the Lord will raise you up as a spiritual parent who would feed and care for His sheep.
The Lord is not the Author and the Finisher of your works and performance. He knows all our weaknesses and failures. But He chooses the weak because in weakness there is power. Whatever is sown in weakness is also raised in power 1Co 15:43. The Lord is the Author and the Finisher of your FAITH; he did not say of your works, and performance.
Works is a fruit of abiding – having His thoughts for you, His love for you, seeing how He sees you, knowing His dreams and desires for you. It's being like a child and allow Him to be you Daddy. Then you become a spiritual father as He is to you.
We cannot become anything or do anything before we experience who the Lord is personally for us. We need to eat the fruit of His kindness to us and we are transformed by His love and become kind. We need to eat the fruit of His gentleness towards us and we become gentle.
"Elana, these fruits in the garden are for you to eat from. Let Me feed you and you will become it".
Don't we teach and focus in religion and focus on the importance of bearing these fruits?
How can we bear love, peace, joy, kindness, gentleness, patience,,, without EATING these fruits first?
Religion got it backwards.
Religion teaches you that God is going to break you in order to make you more loving, patient, kind, giving, serving…
Come on Church, we cannot teach and preach from under the Law. God is in the business of building up and encouraging, not breaking people. It's the Accuser who comes to destroy, kill and steal.
God feeds you with love and His love transforms you.
God feeds you with His kindness to you and His provision and you fall in love with Him.
God shows you kindness and grace in the midst of your mess and you get overwhelmed by such love. It's love you've never experienced or known.
The Law which focuses, points, judges and punishes for sin can never transform hearts. It just changes behavior. Are we into behaviour modification or life transformation?
Don't focus on what's wrong with you. Jesus isn't.
God put you in Jesus – inside Him – and sees you IN Jesus.
Don't ask yourself "Am I honoring God? Am I accepted by God?"
Ask, is Jesus honoring God? Is He accepted and beloved? Therefore, as He is, so are you in this world.
Is Jesus pleasing to God?
Is Jesus righteous? So are you.
Is Jesus perfect and there is no blemish in Him? So are you.
You are complete in Christ.
Song of Solomon 4:7 You are all fair, my love, and there is no spot in you.
The Lord said you are righteous apart from your works (performance).
Rom 3:20-21 NASB because by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified in His sight; for through the Law comes the knowledge of sin. (21) But now apart from the Law the righteousness of God has been manifested, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets,
Rom 3:28 NASB For we maintain that a man is justified (righteous) by faith apart from works of the Law.
The right standing (righteousness – a Noun) we have received by grace and apart from our performance is an everlasting condition, and not a temporary condition. This means you didn't get right with God because of something you have done, and the same way you don't lose your right standing because of something you have done. Many think "I'm not right with God" when they fail and mess up. This is not true and it's not who what God says about you.
You're either RIGHT with God (all your sins are blotted out and no longer remembered), or wrong with God (God still sees your sins, points to your sins and punishes you for them). If He says you are right with Him, that settles it.
Don't walk with God under the Law, walk in the newness of the New Covenant in Jesus who dies for ALL your sins, wrongs, failures and mess.
Read what the Lord says about everlasting right standing with Him:
Psalm 119:142 NASB Your righteousness is an everlasting righteousness, And Your law (Law of Grace and Liberty) is truth.
Daniel 9:24 NASB "Seventy weeks have been decreed for your people and your holy city, to finish the transgression, to make an end of sin, to make atonement for iniquity, (Jesus had done that for us. By His blood all our sins are done away with in God's eyes. This is why He said "I will remember your sins no more" and also "I will cast them as far as the east is from the west" As a result of our sins being wiped out in God's eyes He said...) to bring in everlasting righteousness, (not a temporary one; not one that depends on man and his performance, wrong doing or even right doing. It totally because of what Jesus had done for us, it's a gift by grace) to seal up vision and prophecy and to anoint the most holy place.
Beloved of the Lord, you need to see how God sees you through His eyes and because of the works of Jesus. Don't look at who you're not and your failures, but on who Jesus is and His perfection.
Whenever you have thoughts in your mind about how "not good enough" you are, or others are, how your performance is lacking, how failure you are, weak, messed up, or inadequate - start pointing to Jesus and lifting Him up. Thank the Lord for who He is, for His righteousness, and His perfection. Don't focus on who YOU are NOT. It's Jesus performance that God sees, so lift up the name of Jesus. Thank Him that you are still right with Him despite your mess or lacking performance. (I am not saying go rob a bank, and sin and abuse God's grace, but know that your lack of performance DOES NOT make you un-right with God).
Focus on who you are in Jesus and not who the Law says you are. The Accuser will always point to your sins through the Law making sure to show you how much you fail and not right with God based on your works.
But even David knew to keep pointing to who the Lord is for him.
(Psa 22:31) They will come and will declare His righteousness To a people who will be born, that He has performed it.
Jesus performed and fulfilled the demands of the Law which no man could.
(Psa 71:15) My mouth shall tell of Your righteousness And of Your salvation all day long; For I do not know the sum of them. 16 I will come with the mighty deeds of the Lord GOD; I will make mention of Your righteousness, Yours alone.
(Psa 71:19) For Your righteousness, O God, reaches to the heavens, You who have done great things; O God, who is like You?
In our natural we not adequate, but our adequacy is from God who made us already qualified as servants not according to the system of the Law, but according to the Spirit.
2Co 3:5-6 NASB Not that we are adequate in ourselves to consider anything as coming from ourselves, but our adequacy is from God, (6) who also made us adequate as servants of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter (Law) kills, but the Spirit gives life.
The Lord's Bride is the perfection of beauty, she is a woman beyond compare, pure and innocent in His sight.
Psalms 50:2 NASB Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God has shone forth.
Song of Solomon 6:9-10 MSG (9) She's a woman beyond compare. My dove is perfection, Pure and innocent as the day she was born, and cradled in joy by her mother. Everyone who came by to see her exclaimed and admired her-- All the fathers and mothers, the neighbors and friends, blessed and praised her: (10) "Has anyone ever seen anything like this-- dawn-fresh, moon-lovely, sun-radiant, ravishing as the night sky with its galaxies of stars?"
Lamentations 2:15 NASB All who pass along the way Clap their hands in derision at you; They hiss and shake their heads At the daughter of Jerusalem, "Is this the city of which they said, 'The perfection of beauty, A joy to all the earth'?"
It's the Lord's beauty in us. It's His splendor, not by our own works, by who we are. The beauty does not fade away when our performance is failing. It remains because Jesus' performance is perfect and unchanging. He will always be perfect and without any blemish, and therefore His bride as well. Her beauty was perfect because of the Lord's splendor not her own.
Ezekiel 16:14 NASB+ "Then your fameH8034 wentH3318 forthH3318 among the nationsH1471 on account of your beautyH3308, for it was perfectH3632 because of My splendorH1926 whichH834 I bestowedH7760 on you," declaresH5002 the LordH136 GODH3068.
Heb 9:13-14 NASB For if the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling those who have been defiled sanctify for the cleansing of the flesh, (14) how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?
Do not let your conscience be on your dead works and performance which are dead – the Law. Focus on Jesus works and performance, on who He is not who you are NOT, on what He had done and the works He fulfilled - not your failures, lack and weaknesses.
Peter and his mess
I remember when I told the Lord how funny He is to choose Peter to be the one to feed His sheep. I told Him "Lord, You chose the most messed up guy whose performance was constantly failing. That must be a joke, Lord. Peter betrayed You three times; he lied about his relationship with You; he rebuked You and You called him Satan; he opened his big mouth and wanted to build a man-made tabernacle for the Law and for prophetic voice under the Law; he was shut up by the Father who told him to listen to Your voice; he refused having You wash his feet, he thought he was the greatest of the disciples and he loved you more; he cuts off the ear of the guard probably missing by an inch and intending to kill him; had issues with forgiveness (Mat 18:21); had issues with defilement (Mat 15:15). This guy was a mess and it's Him You chose as a pastor to feed Your sheep. Lord You are amazing in how you challenge and bring low those who think we need to be qualified by man and certified by man in order to care for Your sheep.
The Lord raised up His disciples as spiritual fathers who would witness and share with others who Jesus is in them and for them.
We no longer minister like John the Baptist who preached repent from under the Law and focused on sin. He chased Herod for his sins and pointed to what's wrong with him until Herod got sick of him and put him in jail.
The Lord is ushering the ministry of Jesus where His children will preach the Gospel of the Kingdom. It is the Gospel of Jesus which they received by a revelation from Jesus and not a man-made gospel which preaches a different Jesus.
Jesus is not a Accuser who still points to sin, and keeps an account of sin.
We cannot preach the Law and be teachers of the Law who make sure people know their sins and what's wrong with them.
Joseph Prince in one if his teachings said he used to preach from under the Law making sure people know their sins so they can repent. But repentance in Greek means "a different thought". It means change your thinking, be renewed in your mind.
Joseph Prince said I used to preach like this: (this is how we recognize preaching from under the Law – it points to your sins, failures, weaknesses, wrongs, mess)
"Nothing is wrong with God"
"Nothing is wrong with His Word"
"Something is wrong with……………………. YOU"
The Lord told Joseph Prince once "You cannot disqualify my people whom I have qualified by My blood."
Teaching and preaching from under the Law points a finger at God's people making sure they know what's wrong with them.
Pointing to sin and failures can never change people. It condemns them. Brings guilt, shame, disgrace, and accusations. It makes sure they know "you're not good enough and you don't measure up to God's demands". Who does? Let the one who had never sinned throw the first stone at sinners.
1Ti 1:6-9 NASB For some men, straying from these things, have turned aside to fruitless discussion, (7) wanting to be teachers of the Law, even though they do not understand either what they are saying or the matters about which they make confident assertions. (8) But we know that the Law is good, if one uses it lawfully, (9) realizing the fact that law is not made for a righteous person, but for those who are lawless and rebellious, for the ungodly and sinners, for the unholy and profane, …
The Law is meant for those who walk under it, try to fulfill it, guard it above man, and judge any who break it, not knowing that Jesus has fulfilled it for them in full. He fulfilled every demand of the Law.
We put our trust in Jesus who has given us the gift of right standing with Him apart from our works.
It's God kindness that leads us to repentance and to change, not judging and focusing on sin.
Therefore, the Lord says to you....
"You are altogether beautiful, my darling, And there is no blemish in you.
Son 4:7 NASB
Preaching from under the Law needs to decrease.
The ministry of John who preached from under the Law must decrease in our hearts, so the ministry of Jesus in us will increase. We preach the Gospel of the Kingdom of God which teaches "All your sins, wrongs, failures, mess, inadequacies, weaknesses, and the certificate of debt with charges against you are canceled and nailed to the cross. You were ransomed by the blood of Jesus and perfected by His blood. Now you are a new creation, the old is in the past and God sees you as a completely new creature. He no longer sees you in the flesh, but He sees you beautiful and complete in Jesus. He no longer remembers your sins Heb 10:17, keeps an account of what's wrong with you 1Co 13:3, or points to your sins 2Co 5:19.
Joh 3:30-34 NASB "He must increase, but I must decrease. (31) "He who comes from above is above all, he who is of the earth is from the earth and speaks of the earth. He who comes from heaven is above all. (32) "What He has seen and heard, of that He testifies; and no one receives His testimony. (33) "He who has received His testimony has set his seal to this, that God is true. (34) "For He whom God has sent speaks the words of God; for He gives the Spirit without measure.
The teachers who preach under the Law found it very difficult to receive the message of Jesus about the forgiveness of sins. Jesus looked to heal people and make sure they know their sins are forgiven (not longer remembered). He did not come to point to their sins.
Mat 9:3-8 But some of the teachers of the law said to themselves, "That's blasphemy! Does He think He's God?" (4) Jesus knew what they were thinking, so He asked them, "Why do you have such evil thoughts in your hearts? (5) Is it easier to say 'Your sins are forgiven,' or 'Stand up and walk'? (6) So I will prove to you that the Son of Man has the authority on earth to forgive sins." Then Jesus turned to the paralyzed man and said, "Stand up, pick up your mat, and go home!" (7) And the man jumped up and went home! (8) Fear swept through the crowd as they saw this happen. And they praised God for sending a man with such great authority.
The Church is all about bringing the Kingdom of Heaven to Earth and preaching to Gospel of Jesus Christ to those who know they need a Physician.
When we know what the meaning of the forgiveness of our sins is, we will be able to preach to all people the Gospel of the Kingdom: "you are forgiven of your sins, God remembers your sins no more, and no longer keeps an account of what's wrong with you. He cast all your sins behind His back and as far as the east is from the west. Because Jesus paid the price for all your sins, there are no charges against you. No punishment. No judgment. Jesus was judged and punished for you. You are free, and no longer a sinner when you believe in what Jesus had done for you."
But if we don't know how much we are forgiven and what this forgiveness in the New Covent means, we will keep pointing to sin, preach sin, teach from under the Law, focus on what's wrong with us, and bring the image of the Accuser to the world.
It's time for a transformation and resurrection from the dead. The letter kills and it's a ministry of death.
When we preach the forgivenss of sins and no more point to sin from under the Law – this is when the Holy Spirit will back it up with miracles signs and wonders. Jesus will prove to those who teach the Law His authority to forgive sins by raising up the sick back into life.
So I will prove to you that the Son of Man has the authority on earth to forgive sins." Then Jesus turned to the paralyzed man and said, "Stand up, pick up your mat, and go home!"
Prayer
Father, I pray the Law of sin and death in my flesh will decrease, so the Law of the Spirit, of life and of freedom that is in my heart be found in my Temple. Draw me to Jesus and reveal His image and help me to worship You in Spirit and in Truth. Let the ministry of Jesus in me increase and I will testify of the things I have seen and heard from Jesus. I pray that God will open up to us a door for the word, so that I may speak forth the mystery of Christ, for which we have been imprisoned; and that I may make it clear in the way I ought to speak. Col 4:3-4
Father as Your Bride preaches to Gospel of Jesus Christ let it be preaches with signs, and wonders as the dead will rise up from their tombs, blind see, lame walk, deaf hear, mute praise You and sick healed. Let it be life from the dead. Amen
Much love
Elana Polinger
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