Knights of the Word

Does seeking God out of fear save them? No. That is like the rat seeking to save himself from a bad outcome. That is not love of God. It is selfish in nature and God is selfless. Can a person from a selfish act become selfless? Maybe, fear can be a wakeup call, but fear alone will not save you. The only people who exist in Heaven will be those who are Children of God, those who love God. Those whom wish to live under His rules and agree with them. The Glory of God is pure Truth, Love, Compassion, Beauty. It shines forth in Heaven and there is no need of a sun or moon to light the Heavens. The truth of His glory would burn a sinner and cause them to run from God Just as Adam hid from God, we would run to Hell to hide from that revealing light. Someone who is selfish, the light will reveal that as plain as day. So how do we fall in love with God? We spend time with Him, we believe in what He believes in, we develop a relationship with Him here. That cannot be done at the last trumpet call, that cannot be done only after you see the end coming. I am not God, nor Jesus, and I rest my trust in His judgement, but common sense dictates we do not wait to develop a relationship with the groom!

How does someone get to know the Spirit within? It is not about power, abilities, or your own knowledge. It is about surrendering to God. It is about being humble, accepting your sins, asking for the Holy Spirit to guide your life, and trusting He will. Jesus can be your King now, he can guide your ways, he can direct you through His Spirit, and your own conscience. Do not be afraid. He will hone you where you are and with what you are doing. It is a hand-in-hand walk with both your will and the Holy Spirit. He will not say "Stop being a husband", instead he will make you a better husband. He will not command you to leave your Job. He will make you a better worker. It is about spending time with him, all day in the living of your life. Relationship, it is about relationship.
       If you do these things, dedicate time to reading the bible, especially with friends. You earn the right to hear His voice and get His gifts. Gifts are the right word for it, as they are given freely to those who deserve them. God will not give his Gifts to those who would abuse them.
     The first of the gifts is wisdom, at first you gain some from the text, as some of it is plain to see. As you spend time in the bible you will start to see the wisdom written between the lines and your wisdom expands. Later, it will become a part of you and the Spirit will remind you of what you need in the moment you need it. You may also gain the gift of Understanding. You will understand verses that never made sense to you before. They suddenly make sense because you view it in the eyes of God. Not of Man. 
     As you grow more humble and surrender your heart to Jesus, you can experience the higher gifts. You may receive teachings directly from the Spirit, or learn to hear that still small voice, or even a verbal one. The last is uncommon. You learn to hear with your heart, His Spirit's council to help someone or do something. I have experienced all of these things and can speak with authority because I lived them. 
     You cannot find these things by human thinking. Acting proud, or arrogant will not help you. You cannot lie your way in or falsify your true intentions for God sees through it all. Power and Might will not help you storm Heaven. Jesus did not come in that way to save the world. He came as a humble servant.

Jesus was speaking both physically and spiritually about this. We, as people of the world, understand what we can see, taste, and touch. This is real to us. Things of the spirit we deny their existence because we cannot see or touch the world of the spirit. Our minds deny its reality, make up excuses, and fail to understand that the world of the spirit is more real than our reality. Every physical object has a spiritual property to it. Thus, we can bless this or curse that. A handkerchief can heal, or a tassel at the bottom of Jesus's clothes. Jesus created the prayer to bless the bread and wine to become body and blood. This spiritual blessing is more true than the physical. So, when we believe we are taking Jesus into us we are. Think of it as an altar call, accepting Jesus's spirit into our bodies, filling the temple which we are called to be. We should do this daily, hourly, and even all the time to keep our spirits filled with the presence of God. To say the prayer of the Mass, the priest and the crowd is asking Jesus to send His Holy Spirit upon the bread and wine, making it the body and the blood, by spiritual indwelling, and we receive it in faith asking God to come into us granting permission for Him to indwell our bodies. You need both the prayer and the faith together or it will fail to work.

Please wake up fellow Christians. Let us not be given over to legalism. God's kingdom is determined by intent. The intent of the heart. Use this event as a teaching moment to your children. It is not healthy for them to think there is no evil in the world. Satan is real and wants to be forgotten. Use this day to teach your children what real evil is and how to defend against it. explain to them there is a world of the spirit, and who the Holy Spirit is.