Sacrifice - part 2

Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect. (Romans 12:1-2)

Yesterday I took a hard look at many of my preconceptions about this word sacrifice. I did not progress very far into what might be right or wrong about those ideas and I really didn't have a lot resolved in my own mind. It was basically a question that I left open for God to continue to communicate with me about as He chooses. I realize that this understanding is not going to be conclusive, possibly at any point in my life on earth. But I also need to face it and mature in my perceptions so that I can better understand what God wants me perceive whenever this word is used.

There are two descriptive words used ahead of this word here in this passage that indicate some important aspects about the kind of sacrifice that is acceptable to God. In contrast to most of the typical sacrifices of the Old Testament times, my body is to be alive as it is presented to God as a sacrifice. In addition this verse says that this sacrifice is also supposed to be holy. That is not so much in contrast with the Old Testament sacrifices but is more in line with them. In fact, if the sacrifices were not considered holy they were an affront to God and were not acceptable just as Cain's sacrifice was not acceptable.

I also see that the next verse is really an expansion of the description of what God is wanting in our sacrifice. He is not looking for a body and mind (which is definitely part of our body) that is conformed to this world or squeezed into its mold, but He desires a body and mind that are renewed and transformed by the presence and work of His own grace. This sacrifice is somehow to reveal or prove what the true will of God is. That would implicate that God wants to reveal the truth about Himself through not just our transformed spirits but also through our bodies so that others may catch a small glimpse of the attractiveness of God.

We usually think of the will of God as mostly an intellectual set of ideas or beliefs or an external set of standards to which we must conform. We often wonder what the will of God is for our life in reference to what we are supposed to do, to say, where we are supposed to work, our life occupation, etc. As regards to our bodies there are many who have very definite and restrictive beliefs about what our clothes should look like and what we should eat and not eat. They often become very dogmatic about these ideas and tend to often feel subconsciously more pious or holy than those who do not share their rigid lifestyle, though that is not always the case. Is that the kind of will that we are supposed to prove through the sacrifice of our bodies?

Given past experience with people like this I find it pointless to discuss this matter very much, at least directly with them. Too many of them are so emphatic about their strict beliefs and strivings for holiness that my spirit tends to withdraw and feel repulsed by the spirit I sense coming from many of them. On the other hand, I don't think that it is wise or safe to ignore God's will for how we look, dress or eat. All of these things have a great impact on our ability to commune with God and function in this world and they also have a great impact on how other's perceive God in our lives. But the spirit in which these things are done is so far more important than the actions or beliefs themselves. Unfortunately the net effect is often the very opposite of what the person intended to convey. This is because their picture of God is so stern or distorted that their lifestyle and appearance becomes repulsive to others about God instead of attractive for Him.

These things often become a means used to judge others who do not look like or agree with our particular way of living, eating or dressing. This too is a spirit that poisons our witness for God and really is counteractive to this verse's instruction to have a living sacrifice, one that is really, truly alive and thriving instead of tainted with the poison of bitter roots. The example of Jesus was one of being so fully alive that many of the common people and “regular sinners” were unavoidably attracted to Him which seems almost bizarre given their usual repulsion by people claiming to represent Him today. Jesus not only gave His own body as a sacrifice on the cross but was a living sacrifice all of His life here on earth. And He is the one who declared:

"Are you still lacking in understanding also? Do you not understand that everything that goes into the mouth passes into the stomach, and is eliminated? But the things that proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, and those defile the man. For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, slanders. These are the things which defile the man...." (Matthew 15:16-20)

As I continue to ponder what the real meaning of sacrifice might be, it seems evident that whatever it means it involves releasing our grip on something we value or cherish, whether it be good or bad. It involves letting go of our rights to ourselves which is usually terrifying. It strikes at the very center of sin in our hearts which is the basic ingredient of selfishness. To sacrifice means to relinquish control, and we are usually desperate to remain in control to some extent or another. Letting go of control is synonymous with dying in our subconscious mind and our natural instinct is to keep ourselves alive at all costs – survival.

However, I think it is important to note here that letting go of control or giving up our opinions, as important as that is to finding true freedom, is not synonymous with turning over control of our minds and wills or bodies to that of another human being, no matter how righteous or wise they may appear to be. God expects every person to be personally accountable to Him first of all and He does not excuse us to allow anyone else to be responsible for the decisions of our heart. We should never abdicate our personal responsibility for our character growth or even our search for truth to any other human. That is to put them in the place of God and to make them a false god in our lives. No one has any right to impose that kind of relationship on us just as we have no right to give it to them. It is to God and God alone that we are to surrender our sovereignty and rights and opinions for He is the only one who knows what is true and best for our unique hearts and circumstances.

I think of the example of Isaac when Abraham took him up on Mount Moriah to offer him as a sacrifice on an altar. Isaac could have easily rejected Abraham's explanation and could have escaped to preserve his own life. But he willingly cooperated and laid down his own life in respect and love for his father who was so emotionally torn and devastated by this confusing command by God. There is a lot of things to learn from this story, many of which are misunderstood by most people. But the point I want to relate to here is the willingness of Isaac to relinquish his rights and control over his own life in trust for his father and his father's God.

There are times that I suppose we can say that giving up bad habits or cherished attachments that will prevent us from bonding properly to our God can be called sacrifices. But they seem to be somewhat different in nature to other things that we are asked to sacrifice, or maybe I'm wrong on this and haven't thought it through completely yet. Sacrifices when viewed in the light of the bigger picture of eternity usually become something very different in our minds when compared with the enormous benefits received as a result of our willingness to relinquish them. But most of the time we fail to see or believe in the benefits as much as we want to remain attached to what we presently enjoy. It takes faith to trust in a God we don't know very well yet to somehow work things out for our good down the road when we believe we already have something that makes us feel good right now. But dying to self is part of the core message of Jesus to all those who wish to have real, abundant life for eternity.

I believe that it is a mistake to try to define sacrifice using external terms most of the time. That is what has created so much confusion in my heart about this issue and plays into the problems of external-oriented religion that insists on ever-increasing lists and definitions that can be tangibly identified, quantified and categorized. It seems increasingly clear to me that this word sacrifice may have much more to do with describing an event in the spirit much more that its resultant effects in the external world. And the spirit can never be created or induced by working on the externals to produce the symptoms.

But that brings to light the fact that there is a counterfeit spirit that promotes itself as the true spirit of sacrifice. And maybe it is because I am so much more familiar with the counterfeit than I am the genuine that I have so much inner turmoil about this word. The counterfeit is often mingled with a spirit of force, sternness, and deprivation. It is a negative spirit purporting to be the Spirit of Jesus but does not reflect the sweetness and faith of Jesus very much at all. It is the spirit commonly found in religion and human piety but has a darkness to it that makes one feel deprived and gloomy in an unconscious attempt to placate a demanding God. It is not often recognized in such strong outlines but that is the emotions that are aroused when I try to remember this kind of sacrifice.

The counterfeit also often involves impositions onto the lives of others in a desire to control them. We sometimes demand sacrifices in the lives of others under our influence in a misguided belief that it will produce the spirit of true sacrifice in their hearts. But what really happens is that it only produces secret resentment that feeds roots of bitterness. Or it may teach a person to believe that their sacrifices will somehow sway how God feels about them because it surely has an effect on what other people think about them. A blatant example of this is the extravagant lifestyle and privileges enjoyed by the top leader, Mr Spriggs of the 12 Tribes communities while the many trusting and blindly obedient believers are demanded to work hard and sacrifice everything for the benefit of the common good. This pattern is seen not only in religious institutions but is prevalent in politics and all areas of life where selfishness takes predominance at the expense of others.

I believe that unfortunately this word sacrifice might possibly be irreparably damaged for my use, at least for awhile until my heart gets a revised definition more firmly in place. As with many other religiously abused words, I have to find alternative words to use in their place that are more accurate and reflect the true meaning and original intent of the word until the negative connotations can be disassociated with that word in the deeper places of my mind and heart. But there is always the problem of having to communicate with others who are still using this word including the Bible itself.

I believe that this may all be part of the renewal process talked about right here in these verses. God knows that we all have screwed up definitions in our hearts implanted by His enemy and that is why we need to release our grip on our own ideas and opinions and beliefs and allow His Spirit to expose these false and damaging notions buried in our hearts to be replaced with the glory of His truth. I am not talking about conforming to the definitions and doctrines of a group of people here. I am talking about a massive transition into a completely different mode of thinking and perceiving of reality that God is drawing us into as we are willing to let go of the old and familiar.

This is the path where we can discover and prove what the real will of God is, what God looks like living through our bodies. That will always end up reflective of the goodness of God and will lead to maturity which is the real meaning of the word perfect. This is what is acceptable to God and will bring all of us into harmony, not only with God but closer and closer to each other as we respond to the promptings of the same Spirit guiding us from the inside.

(next in series)

Sacrifice

Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. (Romans 12:1)

O.K. Here is another trigger word that emerged to my attention. Sacrifice. I now realize that the connotations of this word in my mind, the assumptions that this word conjures up in my thinking and emotions are likely suspect at best and are probably misleading and keeping me from seeing clearly the real meaning of this verse.

As usual I feel the need to start out by flushing out the misconceptions associated with this word so I can unpack them and see some of the fallacy in them in order to make room for fresh insights and replacement truths to take their place.

Sacrifice has typically been associated in my mind with similar feelings as suffering. From a very early age I picked up from the religious people around me the idea that Christians must be suffering people or they are likely not good Christians. This word sacrifice is closely associated with that concept and was probably one of the ways in which we imposed suffering on ourselves as well as on our families.

I can also remember many discussions or teachings about sacrifice and the carefulness with which the teachers deeply embedded their beliefs about sacrifice. It always conveyed the idea of forcing yourself to give up something you liked or needed or cherished. The more important or valuable it was to you the more likely it might be a target of God's demand that you relinquish it for His sake.

Somehow it was implied that if we would be willing to sacrifice whatever was demanded of us that God might then bless us more or at least think better about us. It had the subtle flavor of trying to manipulate God to do something for us although that notion was vehemently denied and opposed in the open teaching sessions. But this was the common and accepted view of all ancient religions and still carries on predominantly today.

In reviewing the long history of sacrifices throughout the Old Testament it became apparently clear that God expected a great deal of blood, death and suffering to keep Him satisfied. Of course it was never put in those words but the effect of the stories had that net effect. Many religious stories, not only from the Bible but from many other sources stressed the centrality of the need for sacrifices as part of living the Christian life. It was emphasized repeatedly that without sacrifice – and the more the better – it was impossible to be a real Christian or to please God.

Implicit in the discussions about sacrifice was the need to give money to the church. To give to the church is synonymous with giving to God without question in most minds. Of course it could only be truly effective and valid as long as it was given to the right church, the denomination that had all the truth. Gifts given to other causes were somehow maybe a little less valuable. Or maybe that was just my own personal feelings that accumulated as I grew up.

Another aspect of sacrifices was the issues of giving up bad habits for God. One could not become a legitimate Christian unless they were baptized into the right church and kept the right set of rules and doctrines. But to join that church there was also a list of prerequisites that had to be met before a person could join (which was also synonymous with being saved). Sacrifices were necessary to become a part of the family of God and so each unacceptable bad habit had to be checked off before a person could be allowed into the baptismal tank and be approved and affirmed as a Christian in good standing. This is still pretty much the same situation today as when I was growing up.

In this context, the idea of sacrifice was similar to that of giving up money or time or being willing to be used or controlled by religious people who claimed to be wiser and more able to discern God's will. For new members sacrifice meant quitting smoking, abstinence from drinking alcohol and not living in immorality. There were many others things more detailed that might be imposed depending on the attitudes of local Christian activists. Some would even include refraining from eating any cheese or eggs, using any cooking oil and even removing salt from the diet. But these were extremes not usually encountered in most places.

I want to make it clear here that I am not condemning or condoning any of these beliefs or practices by listing them here. I am simply reviewing through my memories to see what comes up as associated with this word “sacrifice”. Some of these things I do not agree with and others I believe are important but maybe for very different reasons than how they were taught to me. But many of them are quite reflective of the distorted ideas about God that I have spent a number of years divesting myself of and that God has been working to remove. Many of these ideas perpetuate what is really a false god that many believe to be the God described in the Bible since that is where these ideas are justified from.

I do not want to imply that people who did these things were somehow evil or diabolical or bigoted, though some of them may very well have been. For me to judge them would be to give nourishment to the roots of bitterness that I want to be completely free from and so I don't want to go down that road anymore. But I do need to unmask some of the false notions and triggers associated with many religious words that still haunt me so that I can be free to see their true meaning in light of the real truths about God that I have been learning recently.

The purpose of sacrifices were always a little nebulous to me. Maybe they were supposed to keep one poor. Being poor somehow seemed to imply that one might be more likely to be holy that those who were rich. Of course poor and rich are relative terms and few people consider themselves rich though many who have less might think differently. As I mentioned above, another implied purpose – but not openly espoused – for sacrifices was to please God and cause Him to like us better or whatever we were trying to get Him to be. I guess to sum it up, sacrifices were mainly the function of depleting ourselves for the purpose of enriching the church and somehow spreading what was termed “the gospel” along with changing God's attitude toward us. (That word “gospel” is a whole other discussion of itself)

I would suppose after thinking about all of these things that the thing most often associated with the idea of sacrifice was money. It seemed to be the item most favored in expositions about sacrifice, though time and energy were not far behind. Many stories about sacrificing people like missionaries and other heroes of faith were constantly circulated as examples of what we should do with our lives and where we should invest our money. Again, I am not trying to denigrate the importance or legitimacy of the lives of many of these people. But what was sadly overlooked too many times was the hidden pain and tragic consequences – the collateral damage you might say – that was caused sometimes in the lives of children or wives that suffered neglect or even abuse under the cover of working hard to save the lost and achieve great accomplishments for God.

After reviewing this list of things that are linked to this word “sacrifice”, it is no wonder that I struggle to understand what Paul really was intending to convey when he made this statement to offer our bodies as a living sacrifice. If sacrifice means all of the things listed above, then it is very confusing what it might mean to offer our own physical bodies as such an offering to God. Unless of course, it is referring to martyrs who were willing to allow their bodies to be tortured and destroyed for the sake of their belief in God. But not too many of us are in that position or are even interested in having that opportunity.

So what does sacrifice really mean? I looked up the word in the Greek and it did not provide much help on this one. I suspect that the true meaning of sacrifice as heaven views it is going to have to come from larger resources than simply looking up human definitions for the word. For the definitions recorded in dictionaries only reflect the common beliefs that the majority of people have about a word but often may not reflect what God originally meant for the word to convey. In addition, God has had to “dumb down” all of His communications with humans to meet us where we are in our dullness and confused ideas about reality and often has to use terminology that is not as accurate as He would prefer. Then to add to that problem, religious people take the words that God used in the past and transforms them into even worse misconceptions about His intents based on centuries of false views of God.

I do not want to use this as an excuse for skepticism or to inflame feelings of resentment about past abuses and false religious ideas that have caused untold grief and pain in the lives of many. That would not serve the purpose that I want for my life now – to explore and discover the real truths about God and to reveal His wonderful goodness and beautiful truth. I only want to get everything out on the table, especially the false notions that are hiding in my own heart that often remain overlooked by my consciousness but continue to strongly affect my interpretations of life and influence my perceptions of God. It is precisely because these haunting feelings are so out of harmony with the glory that is now being revealed that I want to bring them to the light and expose and revise them as necessary.

"This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil. For everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come to the Light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. But he who practices the truth comes to the Light, so that his deeds may be manifested as having been wrought in God." (John 3:19-21)

Father, I bring all these things to be examined by Your light. Please show me the real truth about this word that is used so much in religion. Show me what You really want and have always wanted. Show me the real truth about You so that I can see Your beauty and attractiveness more clearly and better reflect that to others in my own life.

(next in series)

Hyper-active Thinking

I am returning to my previously suspended study through the book of Romans to pick up where I left off a couple months ago. I have spent about two months unpacking Hebrews 12 in my quest to expose the roots of bitterness in myself and I have learned a great deal both in mind and heart. That will continue to be an ongoing dialog between my heart and God but I feel that I have mined that passage long enough to satisfy my need to clarify much of it and I want to return to finish my journey through the rest of Romans.

For through the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think; but to think so as to have sound judgment, as God has allotted to each a measure of faith. (Romans 12:3)

For I say, through the grace that was given to me, to every one who is among you, not to think above what it behoveth to think; but to think so as to think wisely, as to each God did deal a measure of faith. (Romans 12:3 YLT)

When I looked up the words for this text in the Greek I noticed that the reference to himself is not in the original as reflected in the second translation given here. What it seems to indicate more in the original is that a person is not to have a hyper-active mind, to think excessively more than he should use his mind in contrast to having sound judgment. The Greek word used for think more highly here literally means to hyper-think.

I believe this insight could be very helpful because it has broader application than just someone feeling too proud about themselves or being arrogant. It could also apply to those who allow their problem-solving, solution-seeking obsessions get out of control and become unbalanced in their thinking. This can happen in either direction with an imbalance between the left-brain logical, intellectual formula part of the mind taking over and ignoring or suppressing the other side, or the right-brain, emotionally driven, pleasure seeking obsessiveness that ignores the words and guidelines of the Bible in favor of preference for whatever makes me feel good.

Looking again at this verse I see other clues that may lend themselves to this proposition. In some respects the reference to sound judgment could refer to the careful, deliberate, logical reasoning that is led by a well-trained left brain and the reference to a measure of faith could refer more to the deeper experiential areas found primarily in the right brain where I believe more activity of the spirit takes place. If this is the case, and it certainly is plausible I believe, then this passage is promoting our need to have a respect for the need of balance and cooperation between these two very different areas of our brain.

through the grace given to me I say to everyone among you...

I find this preface to be a bit curious. Why does Paul feel the need to point out that it is from this basis that he is making the following statement about having balance? Why does Paul feel the need of talking about the grace for himself in this context?

I don't think I have very good explanations for this off the top of my head. (Most satisfying explanations never come from there anyway) The only thing that comes to mind right now is that Paul's own experience of coming into balance himself from being a person heavy on the intellectual and out of touch with his own heart for many years was due to the grace he had experienced from the personal visit from Jesus on the Damascus road. But that grace did not just happen in that one event but was the active force in his life as he retrained the whole way he viewed life over the next few years and then became the highly effective missionary that his later life demonstrated. The reason he was so effective was because he was able to be used by God as one who knew how to reach out to the hearts of his hearers as well as how to dialog with them at the intellectual level.

Paul was all too familiar with the reality of the problem of thinking hyper-actively without being guided by a heart warmed with the love of God. He was one who could be the first to say, “Been there- done that – bought the T-shirt!” Because of his own experience and the many people that he struggled to reach with God's grace who also resisted it because of their intellectual interference, he realized the importance of keeping a mind in proper balance as it was designed by God to function.

In addition to having balance he also notes that this balance is to be measured by the amount of faith within a person's life. This faith that he talks about is not how self-convinced a person can make themselves that God might do something for them, which is often our concept of faith. But true faith is a child-like trust in a person whom they have known by personal experience to be worthy of trust. Real faith is spontaneous in nature and is not something we have to work hard at producing. Faith is more a result than it is a choice though its exercise often involves a choice to remember the worthiness of the One we need to trust.

So the measure of faith is really a measure of the amount of experience and interaction with God along with the amount of real truth about Him that makes up our knowledge of God. According to the degree that we believe the truth about God's goodness and grace will be the capacity that we will have for faith in Him. And to the measure of that capacity we need to be careful to keep both sides of our brain engaged in a balanced way so that we will be wise and sound of mind.

(next in series)

Just a Note about this Series

This is a temporary posting to let anyone know who might be interested in this current series that I have just posted the first 7 that started this series but were, until now unpublished. I decided to go ahead and post all of them though at the time I wrote them the material was too sensitive to me personally to release them at that time. I also linked all of the posts together in this series on Bitter Roots up to the current date so that they can be read from the beginning in sequence. The place to drop into the first post of the series is on the link called Bible Exploration Series in the sidebar.

Remove or Remain

This expression, "Yet once more," denotes the removing of those things which can be shaken, as of created things, so that those things which cannot be shaken may remain. Therefore, since we receive a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us show gratitude, by which we may offer to God an acceptable service with reverence and awe. (Hebrews 12:27-28)

The English translation of verse 27 leaves me scratching my head just a little bit. If it were to be taken extremely literally as it reads here it might imply that everything that God has created everywhere would be eliminated and only God would be left since He is not created. I don't think anyone holds that view so I went looking for the original words and compared other translations to see what insights might help me understand this better.

What emerges is best conveyed, at least from all the translations I have on my computer, by Young's Literal Translation that reads:

and this--`Yet once' --doth make evident the removal of the things shaken, as of things having been made, that the things not shaken may remain; wherefore, a kingdom that cannot be shaken receiving, may we have grace, through which we may serve God well-pleasingly, with reverence and religious fear. (Hebrews 12:27-28)

What I am beginning to see is that likely this is talking about things made or created artificially and under the influence of the enemy of God who has worked so long to develop and establish a viable counterfeit to God's system of creation and government. Because the counterfeit is so very unstable and vulnerable to collapse if exposed to the truth about reality, God's voice of truth is enough to cause the collapse of that deceptive system, expose it for what it is and cause a shaking that will result in its total demise.

The previous time that God spoke fundamental truths in this way it was very restricted and limited to a local situation at Mount Sinai and a relatively small group of people. It still had immense impact on the history of the world but it did not have the devastating, annihilating effect on Satan's kingdom that the final display of God's glory and truth are going to have. This great war is essentially the comparing of two very different models of rulership and only one is going to survive. Satan's kingdom rules beings with fear, force and fakeness. God's kingdom is based on faith, hope and love. The pitched battle that we find ourselves all caught up in is for the decision of our hearts as to which influence we are going to allow to be the dominate belief of our hearts.

We are born under the model and influence of the control and deceptions of sin. But God has provided a way of escape and gives every single individual chances and opportunities and motivations to believe in His goodness and His provisions for them to accept and believe the redemption that Jesus has secured for everyone. Evil forces are constantly working to infect our hearts with lies about God and His plans and desires to save us from this mess. The direction of our life is determined by the trend of the choices that we make in reference to what we are going to believe about God. That is the core issue of the whole controversy and is the main choice that we are faced with every day – what do we choose to really believe about God and His attitude toward us. Each decision about this question in turn strongly influences every other choice in life that we make whether we realize it or not. It affects every area of our existence and is the guiding factor for the way we not only relate to Him but to everyone else and ourself as well.

Every lie that Satan promotes about God is fabricated through the mixture of truth and subtle deception. If it does not have enough truth to make it appealing or compelling then it becomes ineffective. If it does not contain at least a tiny seed of deception it does not serve the kingdom of darkness. But the discernment needed to unmask these proliferous beliefs designed to distort the image of God in us can only come with the presence of the Holy Spirit of God sent to guide us into all truth. And the truth that He has been sent to guide us into is an intimate relationship with the One who declared that He was the essence of truth. It is not intellectual truth or factual truth that is so vital to helping us escape from the massive system of deception assembled by the enemy, it is primarily heart truth that will make the real difference in whether we will choose life or stay in the shadows of death that hold so much allure for pride, for pleasure and self-satisfaction.

These verses make it very plain that the future holds a very definite shift in reality as we know it. Everything that has been artificially assembled and created by man and by demonic inspiration will soon collapse in the revelation of real reality – and that is pretty much everything that we are familiar with. If we choose to align ourselves with the truth about reality as revealed by the Creator of all true reality, then we receive the true Kingdom which cannot be shaken because it is reality itself. Our natural response to becoming aware of our safety and security within this real kingdom is gratitude springing from a heart freed from the deceptions of the false kingdom that we have lived under all of our lives. It will be spontaneous gratitude directed primarily toward God who has done everything possible to attract us to Himself who only can rescue us from evil of all kinds.

The more clearly we understand and appreciate the awesome truths about reality and the glorious nature of God's feelings toward every one of us, the more awe and reverence and joy we will feel about the privileges we have been entrusted with in this new kingdom. There are also extremely important warnings that we need to be aware of – warnings about the terrible consequences of being synchronized in any way with the false ideas and methods of the enemy. Our hearts and minds must go through a process of cleansing and renewing so that we can be completely and fully transformed into the image of God for which we were originally created. Any resistance to God and His Spirit's convictions in our hearts that is not released during our time of preparation will be a lethal incendiary buried within our souls that will ignite into fatal fire within us when exposed to the pure and holy presence of our awesome God.

Again, it is never God's desire in any way for us to suffer the pain and loss that comes from our resistance to the reality of Creation. But it is important that we are warned of the consequences of any choice that fails to receive the grace provided for us and be freed from everything that will be shaken and removed in the final day of revelation. It will be far too late at that time to make any more choices about the content of our characters. When the testing and shaking time comes for the whole earth it will simply be a time of revealing what is really on the inside of every person and the results of the choices they have chosen to exercise in the past. Everyone will be exposed fully in the judgment, not primarily about what they have done externally, although that is a strong indicator of what was developed inside of them, but the revealing of the spirit which they cultivated within their heart toward God and toward others. It is the spirit of man that determines his character and personality over time and it is our spirit that God is most keen to transform by the presence of His own Spirit.