“Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says, ‘Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, on the day of testing in the wilderness, where your fathers put me to the test and saw my works for forty years. Therefore, I was provoked with that generation, and said, ‘They always go astray in their heart; they have not known my ways.’ As I swore in my wrath, ‘They shall not enter into my rest.’”
Take care, brothers, lest there be in you an evil unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. But exhort one another every day, as long as it called “today,” that none of you be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. For we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end. As it is said, “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.”
For who were those who heard and yet rebelled? Was it not all those who left Egypt led by Moses? And with whom was he provoked for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, and whose bodies fell in the wilderness? And to whom did he swear that they would not enter his rest, but to those who were disobedient? So we see that they were unable to enter because of unbelief.”
We are walking through the letter to the Hebrews. In our last GN we looked at “Living in His Glory”from chapter 3, verses 3 thru 6. His glory shines thru us when in us,His life shines. This is possible because Christ Jesus literally died to be “created” in us; “born from above,” so that His life isonce again visible but now thru us.
His life is now visible to others thru us but to us who possess it, it is a stream of living water refreshing our soul … that is, if we live in it!
This process sets up complex issues forfinite mortals. We have a tendency to fall away from Truth even after regeneration. This is what Priscilla is telling us in our above Hebrew’s passage. Israel fell away thru 40 years in the desert and they continue falling away even after possessing the Land. It is the same pattern humanity continues to follow; the deceitfulness of sin is still here!
Our Divine Sovereign Lord also takes note. The Lord Jesus commends the church in Ephesus for their diligence and discernment but He desires their devotion and fellowship of “first love.” In fact, He issuedthem a warningaboutloosing their “lampstand” if they didn’treturn to their “first love.” This message is to us as well. We needtokeep our love in the Lord vigorousand vital.
This falling away also characterizes the latter times anticipating our Lord God’s judgement on earth. It is onesymptom of last times before the church is raptured and taken up out of this present age of corruption.
Refreshing our born again soulin ournew vibrant Lifeof grace will keep it from losing its brightness. We are eternally sealed (Thank you, Lord) but faith comes incrementally to those growing in grace and knowledge of Jesus Himself.Growth comes froman intentional commitment ofloving our Lord Jesus and experiencing His power of resurrection. We now have the “right,” in Christ, to be His children.
Our soul needs continual soaking in the meaning of being “in Christ!” Paul’s letter to the Colossians makes this aprimary assertion. Paul was personally never in Colossae so this vitalmessage he wants them to get; all the fulness of God dwells in Christ; in Him are hidden the treasures of wisdom, and we are in Christ. Our “everything” comes to us,in Him. We have access to His knowledge, His resurrection power, grace upon graceand faithbecausewe are in Christ Jesus! Everything we need in life is available because we are unitedin Him. This literal reality is a must experience; this is what we are talking about when speakingof “Living in His Glory,” it’s grasping His grace and loving Him!
In John 4,Jesus teaches about living water becoming our source stream when we are created from above. Jesus tells the Samarian woman, “the water that I will give will become a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”This is the effect from abiding in Christ and letting Christ abide in us.
Ezekiel pictures this for usin another way. He describes “living” water flowing from the new Temple. The water there is flowing from beneath the Temple, south of the altar, toward the east. Ezekiel was led around the outside to the south where the water was “trickling” out of the south side of the Temple and flowing east. A measuring line was used to take Ezekiel out into the water and it became ankle deep, following the measuring line again it became knee deep, then waist deep and finally it was over his head and he was being carried by the water. We are the temple of God!
The best way to keep from falling away from absolute truth in Jesus, is to keep the water of the Wordpercolating in our soul. Somelearnthrough experience,and some understand a matter through the mind. Theseare complimentarypaths and each provides special insight; both lead us into truth “vis a vis” the Holy Spiritand in truth we are sanctified, “Your Word is Truth.”
My childhood and earlynurturing was deeply subjective. I falsely learnedthat understanding a thing came only thru discipline of the mind, I was seen but not heard. Much later in lifeI discovered the Holy Spirit brought others to truth by being devout doers of the Word. They matured in faith without “essential” doctrine. Our Lord Jesus reaches the heart of His people in many different ways.
Regardless of the path we travel, knowing Him and thepower of His resurrection is essential. Our loving Father uses His arm to reach ourinner heart teachingus about Himself. We love Him by submitting to His leading into the deeper water.
However, we can actually find ourselves “falling away” if we do not milk His Word and chew on its meat. This Spiritual food is needed for our soul’s mind and heart. Ingesting His Word into our inner heart placesthe“sword” in the hand of the Holy Spirit; He separatesbone from marrow and thoughts from our heart’s intentions.In other words, God the Holy Spirit uses absolute Truth processed into our soul to reveal the mystery of Christ in us, to us. We can protect our mind and heart from the deceitfulness of sin by staying in the water even when it gets over our head.
There are two essentials common to knowing our Lord on an intimate level. The Bible is God’s revelation of Who He is and what He is doing. Painted in the Bible are paradigms and patterns, both historic and prophetic,giving us a framework of God’s plan through the ages. We see into pre-time and timeless eternity.
The Word also provides parameters for His current work of grace. We can become effective in this temporary time capsule byproviding His Word percolation time in our soul. Being in His Word is one essential.
Some of us have more difficulty memorizing especially as we continue to age but if we douse our mind into the Word, with purpose, we find an ability to absorb truth and precious promises. The Holy Spiritprovides nutrients from the Word to produce fruit in our livingand giving us the assurance to produce more fruit in Him.
The Word of God is one essential but another is communion. Fortunately, the Holy Spirit, dwelling within us, does not age. His attention to our best interestsareeternal,faithfully loving us while dwelling within us.He is even praying on our behalf;our intimacy in Him requires deliberate attention within our own heart.
Being created new in Christ Jesus places us into His presence with direct access to God. We don’t need a priest, we not only become priests ourselves, but we are given a Spiritual sense for communication with God. We are placed in living water and we need to get used to being wet all the time!
Our Bible translates this word for a Spiritual sense“discernment” in Hebrews 5:14.This is one of the new things coming into our possession when we are created new in Christ Jesus.This is a reality we need to bring into our mind and consciousness so that we may open our own heart to receive His grace and love. When we do this, we develop capacity to love Him and grow in Him! This is also an essential!
Spiritual discernment is in the Spiritual package we all receive with our new creation in Christ Jesus. But once again, it requires deliberate, intentional use from our own soul’s desire. Here is where we really need to get our “want to” fixed if we intend wandering into the idols of earthly distraction.
This is what Paul is dealing with when in Ephesians he prays the saints will be “rooted and grounded in love”and to the Thessalonians: “May the Lord direct your hearts to the love of God and the steadfastness of Christ.” We spoke to this last GN and, Lord willing, will build our “Spiritual House” in it next GN.
Our two essentials,communion in the Spirit and being in the Word, are the roots and foundational structure we personally build in the name of our Lord. They are primary elements changing our water “trickle” flowing out of the Temple into our river that gets us in over our head so we can be steered back to the shore where we observe Life and fruit of being in Christ.
Prayer can become a ritual, a thing to do. But our Lord Jesus has literally purchased us by His death on a cross and sealed His ownership by His resurrection from death making us alive in Him. His living water is flowing in us. It may be a trickle but He will lead us step by step into the deep water and even take us back on to the shore.
Being in the word and having communion with Him, in the Holy Spirit, will mature our Spiritual discernment so that we have the intimacy of knowing Him with the power of His resurrection.
You will notice the writer of Hebrews quotes the Holy Spirit when using Psalm 95 in this passage. Could this be evidence of what we are talking about? Is this the communion of the Holy Spirit to the heart of the author:
Oh come, let us sing unto the Lord;
Let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation!
Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving;
Let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise!
For the Lord is a great God,
And a great King above all gods.
In his hand are the depths of the earth;
the heights of the mountains are his also.
The sea is his, for he made it,
and his hands formed the dry land.
Oh come, let us worship and bow down;
Let us kneel before the Lord, our Maker!
For he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand.
Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts, as at Meribah, as on the day of Massah in the wilderness, when your fathers put me to the test and put me to the proof, though they had seen my work.
For forty years I loathed that generation and said, “They are a people who go astray in their heart, and they have not known my ways.”
Therefore I have swore in my wrath,
“They shall not enter my rest.”
One thing we should see is our direct access to and in God. The tendency is to go thru some intermediary. Idols and rituals are man’s steps to approach God. But our God of the Bible gives makes us priests, sealing us into Himself, allowing us access into the things that are Christ’s.
It doesn’t matter if we exercise grace through experience or come to an understanding through knowledge, we tend to follow a human pattern to step out in self-confidence rather than faith. We tend to approach God from the realm of our comfort rather than accepting His terms of belief. We need to decrease and He needs to increase.
Listen to what Ezekiel tells us about the fresh water that flows from the Temple of God past the alter of sacrifice into a river that flows into the sea of the ocean:
“This water flows toward the eastern region and goes down into the Arabah, and enters the sea; when the water flows into the sea, the water will become fresh. And where the river goes, every living creature that swarms will live,and there will be very many fish. For this water goes there, that the water of the sea may become fresh; soeverything will live where the river goes.”
This is living water quenching our thirst. This is the living water that is “a spring of water welling up to eternal life”because we are in Christ Jesus, our loving Lord. This is water that turns salt water into fresh. It is the water that will flow as a trickle or a strong river andwill turn the ocean from salt to living freshness!
Each of us, who are In Christ Jesus our Lord, are in this stream. We may be ankle deep at the moment. This is aperson in Christ who depends on fleshly comfort andcircumstances. Perhaps you are up to your knees in the Spiritual River. You may be a person who reads Romans 8 but still struggles with its meaning. Perhaps you are walking waist deep with your feet on the rocksyearning to be caught up in the flow of acurrent ministry. We are all in Christ, a living body of Believers called to love each other.