by Holbert Marie
I believe that it is a good idea to go back from time to time and remember! Scripture often tells us to do so. To go back to our first love we need to go back and remember. Jesus tells the Ephesus church to “Remember therefore from where you have fallen” Rev 2:5. So it is good and biblical to go back to our ‘sure foundations’, the basics. the fundamentals. When we do so, it helps us to see where we may have strayed off the course in our race! This helps lead me to repentance. That is always a good thing. It helps me to know where I need to be heading going forward and any corrections in course I need to take. If I do not make the course corrections I am not going to arrive at the desired destination, and the quicker I know about and then make the necessary correction, the quicker I can get back on the right track to reach my desired destination. So, ultimately, though painful, it is a very good thing to get corrections if we have strayed off the path to where we want to go!
I am a coach by profession,. Coaching is very critical and redundant. you practice and repeat good fundamentals and techniques over and over again. (If you practice bad fundamentals and techniques, that is what you will do. You will do what you practice, what you spend your time, mental energy and effort on is what you will do and it is what is most important to you as well) This is true in music and any other skill or profession. It is redundant, repetitive, and often BORING AND TEDIOUS as it becomes habit. If you practice using good technique, you will develop good habits, if you practice bad techniques, that too will become a habit, and it is much more difficult to fix bad habits then it is to develop good ones from the beginning. It is impossible to fix them if you are unwilling to see that what you are doing is wrong. Even, if one has practiced good fundamentals and has good habits, then they have to be diligently maintained if you wish to remain excellent and sharp. The enemy is always trying to meddle with us and cause us to develop bad fundamentals. So we need to be diligent to remember our foundations and practice the fundamentals of spending time at the feet of Jesus and listening to him (not the “Martha’s – whom the Lord loved (John 11:5) and therefore rebuked and corrected (Luke 10:40-42) – that are wanting to call us to their agenda), worshiping, in prayer and in the word and then in obedience DO what He tells us to do, like the slave/servant we are supposed to be! (Luke 17:5-10)
Unfortunately, since the fall, we are like the Greeks of Mars Hill (Acts 17:21), we are always looking for something new, a new WORD, a new direction, a new revelation, a new teacher, etc LOL! We hate familiarity, Paul talks about this in –
2 Tim 4:3-4
For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; 4 and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables. NKJV
We get tired of the simple fundamentals and the ‘same old’ same old’ . I wish I had a dollar for every time a kid I was coaching or one of my own kids told me. “I know that coach (Dad)”. To which I would normally respond with something like this. “Well you may know it, but you aren’t doing it! It doesn’t really matter what ya know. It only matters what you do with what ya know. And right now what you are doing is showing me you really don’t know much!” 😎
Ever since we choose to eat from the tree of KNOWLEDGE, we have valued Knowing stuff (gnosis) over doing stuff and having relationship (life — ginosko) and KNOWING God and each other! We have an innate (sin) tendency to value information and those who are smart and intelligent over those who may not be so clever but are just steady in their execution of the basic fundamentals that Lord redundantly gave us. This sort of thinking and mind set will surely, and has and will, get us deceived! And we are seeing that in ‘spades’ right now in our Greek/western culture, especially with this COVID deception. The Lord had a lot to say against the arrogant intellectuals and it wasn’t very nice! He actively resist the proud and gives grace (divine ability) to the humble (Jam 4:6, 1 Pet 5:5) and the poor in spirit (Matt 5:3), and those with a broken and contrite heart. (Ps 51:17.) Paul, who was of this class and arguably the most brilliant and educated man of his days, also is very clear on this subject. (1 Cor 2 and many others)
So what is my point? I am going back to the fundamentals and remembering things that I felt the Lord told me (I have gone back and read the original word He gave me in March for all this COVID stuff) or things where I believe He asked me to do something and I either did do it or I did not do it. As James says it is not the hearer of the word that is justified but the doer!
James 1:22-25
But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. 23 For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror; 24 for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was. 25 But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does. NKJV
So a big part of repentance is not just going to our Lord and asking forgiveness for our sins, but it is also going back and asking Him to show the times where I did not do something that I clearly knew I should do. Once again, James does not cut us much slack in this regard.
James 4:17
Therefore, to him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin.
Were there times where I gave my word to the Lord or to someone and did not do it? Was there a time I felt the urging of the Holy Spirit to do something and I just kind of blew it off and procrastinated!? Well the truth is delayed obedience is really disobedience and will get one disqualified for being part of his last days remnant Is 60 army! THIS IS A BIG DEAL ACTUALLY. (Read Luke 6:46-49) In Matt 21:28-32, Jesus tells a story of a Father asking two sons to help him in the vineyard. The one says, No dad, sorry can’t, too busy. The other says, Sure dad, I’ll be there, you can count on me. The next morning the first one changes his mind and shows up to help and the second one that said yes, also changed his mind, or forgot or over slept or whatever and was a no show. Jesus is clear about which one did the Father’s will and pleased Him. The Lord goes onto say that there will be the wicked who repent who end up in the Kingdom, while those who were raised as son’s of the Kingdom will be cast out! So we should take note and fear and make adjustments!
Jesus also says, that we should not promise ‘swear’ at all but Let our yes be yes and our no, no. ANYTHING MORE THAN THIS IS FROM THE EVIL ONE (Matt 5:37). James (Jesus’s half brother) as usual hits this even harder!
James 5:12
But above all, my brethren, do not swear, either by heaven or by earth or with any other oath. But let your “Yes” be “Yes,” and your “No,” “No,” lest you fall into judgment. NKJV
Of all the instructions that James gave earlier (especially to the rich) he concludes with ABOVE ALL. or ‘most importantly.’ Notice, that when we give our word to someone, including the Lord, and do not do it, it will open us to judgement and the enemy now has an access to bring accusation and throw road blocks in front of us. Jesus tells us this:
Matt 5:23-26
Therefore if you bring your gift to the altar, and there REMEMBER that your brother has something against you, 24 leave your gift there before the altar, and go your way. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift. 25 Agree with your adversary quickly, while you are on the way with him, lest your adversary deliver you to the judge, the judge hand you over to the officer, and you be thrown into prison. 26 Assuredly, I say to you, you will by no means get out of there till you have paid the last penny. NKJV
David tells us this:
Ps 15
Lord, who may abide in Your tabernacle?
Who may dwell in Your holy hill?
2 He who walks uprightly,
And works righteousness,
And speaks the truth in his heart;
3 He who does not backbite with his tongue,
Nor does evil to his neighbor,
Nor does he take up a reproach against his friend;
4 In whose eyes a vile person is despised,
But he honors those who fear the Lord;
He who swears to his own hurt and does not change;
5 He who does not put out his money at usury,
Nor does he take a bribe against the innocent. He who does these things shall never be moved.
NKJV
This is a very powerful and straightforward, short and sweet Psalm. David clearly tells us, under the unction of the Holy Spirit, exactly who can abide in His house and in His presence on His hill! Please note vs 4 — He who swears (says they will do something) to his own hurt and does not change;
So I don’t know about you , but I am going to spend some time going back and asking the Lord to show me those times where I have not kept my word to either Him or someone else and then allow him to give me the grace and ability to go back and make things right, if I can, so that He will receive my offering and so that I can walk with and abide with Him in His house, hill and presence which is 3rd heaven (2 Cor 12:2), where Jesus is seated — Ephs 1:20,21— and we are to be seated with Him — Ephs 2:6 – far above all powers and principalities and dominions.
If you desire to be part of these last days remnant IS 60 army or the ‘Philadelphia’ remnant (Rev 3:7-14) that fears the Lord which HE IS GOING TO RAISE UP AGAINST THE ENEMIES FLOOD (Is 59:19). Then this is not an option, it is commandment a critically important one!