This is the second part. For the first part, click here.

The seed of seeds: The Cross

Philippians 3:1 :"I never get tired of writing the same things to you, and for you it is safe."

**AUDIO:**

Hebrews 4:10-11 :"For whoever enters God's rest also rests from his works, just as God did from his. Let us therefore strive to enter that rest, so that no one may fall by following the same example of disobedience."

Strive to enter the rest. This effort does not produce sweat. The author of this thought simply wants to emphasize that entering rest is neither natural nor automatic for humans and requires particular attention, vigilance, an alert mind.

God's grace and provision for everything flow continuously and will continue to flow abundantly today. Thanks to the finished work of Jesus Christ, God is at peace with us forever. We are at peace with God and are called to remain in this peace throughout the day. We can receive grace continually, every second, simply by mentally aligning with the unchanging truth that it flows for us, ceaselessly and abundantly. This is called receiving the abundance of Grace. Those who continually receive, continually thank. This is all they can do, besides abundantly enjoying all that the Lord gives them.

Grace flows and nourishes us as long as we keep this truth firmly in our minds. This is what is called living fully by and through faith.

Hebrews 10:38 :"And my righteous one will live by faith; but if he shrinks back, my soul has no pleasure in him."

My righteous one will truly and fully live by faith.

Three troublemakers will try to take us out of this faith and therefore out of the experience of this peace, of the grace continually poured out for us. We enter and remain in rest by watching our thoughts because that’s where everything happens.

Mark 14:38 :"Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak."

Watching comes first and is predominant. Prayer complements watching. Prayer simply consists of casting our burdens on the Lord as soon as our alert mind detects an obstacle that wants to make us forget our absolute security in Christ, which is ours.

The first troublemaker is worry, even the smallest. It will appear unexpectedly and try to unnecessarily occupy the space of our thoughts. If we let it settle in our heads, it creates an indefinable unease that imperceptibly takes us out of our tranquillity.

Isaiah 30:15 : "For thus said the Lord GOD, the Holy One of Israel, 'In returning and rest you shall be saved; in quietness and in trust shall be your strength.'"

Our strength lies in tranquillity. Worries are dead flies that infect the perfumer's oil by falling into it. A small fly seems harmless but is enough to spoil a valuable vase of perfume.

No worry will be tolerated today in the space of our thoughts. As soon as identified, it is presented to our God who never stops caring for us and will therefore take care of it. Then the worry will be evacuated and firmly kept out of our thoughts. The Holy Spirit helps us with this.

The second troublemaker is anxiety. Anxieties, always seemingly justified, try to invade and suffocate our thoughts to divert our gaze from God's grace, which is there, abundant and available to remedy everything. These anxieties deceive us and try to make us forget that the Good Shepherd never stops watching over us and rushing to our aid.

Allowing anxiety to lie to us and gradually invade our mind will also not be tolerated today. The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want, and He leads me on safe paths where all legitimate needs are provided for. I will fear nothing because the Father knows I need them.

The third troublemaker, and not the least, is condemnation, the accusation that tirelessly points out the old skins of our former life, our dirty feet as the Lord Jesus calls them.

Condemnation wants to falsely make you forget who you are. And here is our powerful defensive weapon: Who am I?

I am what God says I am. The day I invited Christ as the Savior and Lord of my life, He came to reside in my spirit by His Holy Spirit. On that same day, I became forever, in the eyes of the Father, a very holy temple, a dwelling of God in spirit. This is what I am, according to the Word of God.

1 Corinthians 3:16 : "Do you not know that you are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in you?"

And if the outer court of the temple is still frequently dirty and muddy, the temple remains holy because of the presence of the One who resides there.

What is not seen and what people would like us to forget is that God and I are at work every day for exterior cleaning because by opening my eyes a little more every day and strengthening me step by step, the Spirit of God transforms me from within until my outer life reflects the perfections of Christ, those He has already placed in me by His holy presence. The New Testament describes this state with the terms: mature man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, man made perfect in Christ, man complete and equipped for every good work. (Ephesians 4:13, Colossians 1:28, 2 Timothy 3:17)

John 13:10 : "Jesus said to him, 'The one who has bathed does not need to wash, except for his feet, but is completely clean. And you are clean, but not every one of you.'"

The one who has bathed is clean, said Jesus, and only needs to wash his feet. That is my case. I was bathed the moment I understood and accepted that the Blood shed on the Cross was to make me pure in the eyes of the Father (1 Peter 1:18-19). I am pure and with the Master's help, I daily wash my feet. But in the meantime, throughout this path of transformation, in the eyes of the Father, I remain pure every day, every minute, and there is no more condemnation from God on me. NEVER.

Romans 8:1-2 : "There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death."

I no longer allow any condemnation to assert the contrary of what God says about me. I no longer allow it to lie to me and take me out of the rest provided by forgiveness, total security, continuous protection, God's love, and His continual smile on my redeemed person. All things in which Jesus' Grace has definitively established me.

This mental position of faith, firmly maintained against all odds, is the open floodgate that lets the Grace of God continue to flow without interruption.

Let us strive to enter the rest by resisting the three troublemakers. Let us watch and pray to evict the intruder the moment it tries to enter the house: worry, anxiety, or condemnation. Let us watch our thoughts because that's where everything happens!

Galatians 2:20 : "I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me."

I am in Christ. He is in me. We are one. This truth does not change by an inch, not a day, not a minute, not a second!

His presence in me, His immense and tireless love are the answer, the remedy, and the solution to every need, whether spiritual, psychological, emotional, intellectual, physical, material, or social. It is decided, with the help and support of the Holy Spirit, I rely on Him and enter and remain in the rest.

Philippians 4:6-7 :"Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus."

The peace of God can guard my heart and my thoughts in Him who is my peace and my salvation.

With such a title you maybe wondered what to expect! There will be no question here of universal salvation, salvation for all. This doctrine is not consistent with what we learn from the biblical scriptures. But this other widespread doctrine is equally inaccurate, that everyone will go to hell except a small handful. Not scriptural at all, either!

For centuries, religion has striven to wield terrible hell to convert its proselytes. As if it were possible that one can deeply and heartily attach oneself to a cause or a person under threat and fear!

The Bible speaks of hell, of a lake of fire and of outside darkness where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Hell is used to refer to the lake of fire probably because it's quicker to pronounce and everyone has a vague idea of what it refers to.

Many are openly of the opinion that the other will go to hell, if (s)he does not adhere to their belief with rarely, arguments based on the Word of God and most often in total ignorance of the subject. They simply repeat and propagate a received and very simplified idea.

And what if we took the scriptures! Let's check together what the Bible says on the matter. We start from this observation that the 66 books of the Bible never contradict each other but, on the contrary, assemble, complement each other admirably to give a clear understanding on this matter of hell.

 In the light of the new covenant, in the light of what Jesus says in the gospels, the Holy Spirit through his authors in the epistles and some prophets in the Old Testament, three categories of people will unfortunately spend eternity in the lake of fire. Let's call them

The hearts of stone,

The without excuse,

The blasphemers against the Holy Spirit

A fourth category will be found in a 'place' called 'darkness where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth'. It is neither the Hades nor the lake of fire. We'll talk about that later.

Matthew, 25:41 - “Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.

The lake of fire speaks of eternal flames. Jesus who does not lie teaches us that this lake does exist and that it was not prepared for man but for the devil and his angels who are the demons.

It has not been prepared for man and yet some will spend eternity there since God tells them 'depart from me into the eternal fire'.

Will there be so many as the zealous for everything except for mercy would tend to believe?

Let's start by giving up the ridiculous imagery: that of little red imps with forked tails that in the middle of the flames, spur the lost with their tridents.

Some Old Testament scriptures teach us that the evil spirits who will be in this furnace with their leader will be at the same 'hierarchical' level as the simple humans who will be there. They will have neither authority nor power to goad them as religious clichés like to portray it.

The Bible often refers to a real event or character in human history to foretell a future event or other personage of greater spiritual significance. God, who inspired the Bible, is the only author who can use the life of someone or a nation allegorically and draw prophecies from their history. One calls this a prophetic life, a life that announces and illustrates a greater truth to come.

For example, Isaiah 14 and Ezekiel 28 prophesy about this earthly king who really existed, the king of the city of Tyre. But the reading of these texts must be read also at another level because this king of Tyre represents another, the one who today, animated by great anger, shakes the earth and thinks only of destroying the work of God:

 Isaiah, 14:9 - Sheol (Hades, the realm of the dead) beneath is eager to meet you upon your arrival. It stirs the spirits of the dead to greet you—all the rulers of the earth.
They will all respond to you, saying, “You too have become weak, as we are; you have become like us! Your pomp has been brought down to Sheol, along with the music of your harps. Maggots are your bed and worms your blanket.
How you have fallen from heaven,
O day star, son of the dawn!
You have been cut down to the ground,
O destroyer of nations.
You said in your heart:
“I will ascend to the heavens;
I will raise my throne above the stars of God.
I will sit on the mount of assembly in the far reaches of the north.
I will ascend above the tops of the clouds;
I will make myself like the Most High. But you will be brought down to Sheol, to the lowest depths of the Pit.

 One cannot help but think of Jesus' words:

 Luke 10:18 – He (Jesus) replied, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven.   

 And here is the chapter of Ezekiel that prophesies about this same character. Let's keep in mind that the terrestrial king of Tyre was never in Eden and was certainly not a protective cherub with outstretched wings, covered in precious stones. He was not cast out of the mountain of God. He was certainly neither wise nor perfect in beauty.

Ezekiel 28 12 - Son of man, take up a lament concerning the king of Tyre and say to him: ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: “‘You were the seal of perfection, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty.
You were in Eden, the garden of God; every precious stone adorned you: carnelian, chrysolite and emerald, topaz, onyx and jasper, lapis lazuli, turquoise and beryl.
Your settings and mountings were made of gold; on the day you were created they were prepared.
You were anointed as a guardian cherub, for so I ordained you. You were on the holy mount of God; you walked among the fiery stones. You were blameless in your ways from the day you were created till wickedness was found in you.

By assembling the two texts, we have a complete portrait. In Isaiah 14, there is no question yet of his stay in the lake of fire but we see the inspirator of the fallen world, cast out of heaven, thrown to the ground, descended into Hades where he finds himself without any more power than the great kings of the earth. His power is reduced to nothing to the point that all are astonished that he who had caused so much havoc and who seemed so powerful now finds himself without strength like the rest of those around him, thrown to the ground, in spectacle to kings who say to him with astonishment: "You too are without strength like us, You have become like us."
As it will be in the lake of fire for eternity.

Through Jesus' words, therefore, we learn that some people will join the devil in this flame.

But who are they? The whole world that has not known Jesus?

Great sinners?

Atheists?

The others who don't have our religion or do not believe what we believe?

In Matthew 25, Jesus gives a very precise and unequivocal description of who will go to hellt, the meaning of which is not veiled. There is no esoteric meaning, no mysterious symbol, no hidden double meaning. Words say exactly what they say because Jesus always spoke in simple words to be understood by all.

1/ The hearts of stone

Matthew 25:41 - Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.
For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink,
I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.
“They also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?’
“He will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’

It is at the Last Judgment that God separates those who are called goats and sheep. Everyone is judged according to his works. Of the goats, the Lord Jesus says they will go into the eternal fire. Why will they go? What reason will lead them there? Is Jesus talking mentioning sin?

 Not here. The goats will go into the eternal fire for never giving food to the hungry or never giving drink to those who were thirsty or never clothing the one who was naked or never welcoming the stranger, or visiting a sick person or a prisoner.

 Like the rich man, of whom we are going to speak, they will have lived their entire lives until their last breath in a selfishness and a hardness of heart that is difficult to imagine.

At the Last Judgment, these hearts of stone will be judged according to their works, not according to their sins.

To those who think that the whole world that does not know Jesus or that others will roast in the fire and in the light of these words of Jesus himself, I ask you a question:

'In your opinion, will there be many, except for reasons of interest, who have NEVER given food to someone who was hungry, never given a drink to anyone who needed it or given a garment to those who lacked it, or visited a sick person or a prisoner or welcomed a stranger??

Will there be so many of these hearts of stone that go into the eternal fire? 

As we have just said, Jesus does not speak of sin but of having failed to practice the basic of the universal law of love: 

Galatians, 5:14 - For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”. 

They will have loved only themselves. And those who have sinned without the law, without the religious law, the commandments, since they did not know it, they will not be judged with this law but according to the way they have followed the voice of their conscience. We'll see that in a few moments. Conscience is where the God of love and justice speaks to every human being, believer or not. 

Romans 2:12 - All who sin apart from the law will also perish apart from the law, and all who sin under the law will be judged by the law.
For it is not those who hear the law who are righteous in God’s sight, but it is those who obey the law who will be declared righteous.

Have you noticed when this separation between goats and sheep occurs? This is unequivocally the last judgment because in all biblical scriptures the moment that all nations are assembled before God to be judged refer to it.

Matthew, 25:31 - When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his glorious throne.
All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.
“Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world.
For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat,
I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink,
I was a stranger and you invited me in,
I needed clothes and you clothed me,
I was sick and you looked after me,
I was in prison and you came to visit me.’
“Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink?
When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’
“The King will reply,
‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’  

They also take possession of the kingdom because of their works. This does not contradict the text of Romans which says that pagans who naturally practice the law of love will be justified, made righteous, on that day. All the texts overlap, enrich each other and we can therefore compare these words of the Lord with the reference text about Last Judgment in Revelation 20.  

Revelation 20:11 - Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. The earth and the heavens fled from his presence, and there was no place for them. And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of life. The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books.
The sea gave up the dead that were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them, and each person was judged according to what they had done. Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is the second death.
Anyone whose name was not found written in the book of life was thrown into the lake of fire

We said that the scriptures of the Bible complement each other. The two texts obviously speak of the same event.

Those who are called the dead in Revelation 20 are called sheep and goats in Matthew 25. They are judged according to what they have done as recorded in the books.

Those whose names are found in the book of life in Revelation 20 are the sheep of Matthew 25 to whom Jesus, the King of kings, will say, 'Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world', judged also according to their works but not only, as we are going to see. 

Those who go into the eternal fire are therefore not those who do not know Jesus or who have never heard the gospel but those who have also been judged by their works, not having their names in the book of life, recognized in the category of goats, the hearts of stone. They never followed the voice of their conscience and practiced elementary deeds of love.

This is confirmed by the Holy Spirit, through the mouth of the apostle Paul: 

Romans, 2:14 - Indeed, when Gentiles, who do not have the law, do by nature things required by the law, they are a law for themselves, even though they do not have the law.
They show that the requirements of the law are written on their hearts, their consciences also bearing witness, and their thoughts sometimes accusing them and at other times even defending them.)
This will take place on the day when God judges people’s secrets through Jesus Christ, as my gospel declares.

What will appear visibly on that day when God judges people’s secrets, is that the law is well written in all hearts and that everyone hears the voice of conscience. The day when God judges people’s secrets, this is the day of judgment, and the apostle Paul teaches us an amazing truth : on that day, God will judge the secret actions of sheep and goats through Jesus Christ based on their secret actions recorded in the open books. 

God will judge them THROUGH Jesus Christ. The Greek word διά is correctly translated in English bibles : through, by means of.

God will judge them through Jesus Christ, that is, by putting them to the benefit of the redemptive work of the One who atoned and paid for the sins of the whole world. Judged through Jesus, all will be put to benefit the saving effects of the atoning blood of the Blood of the Lamb, all except the goats. 

The sheep are in the book of life, because of the Lord Jesus. This is what emerges from the texts of Revelation 20 and Romans 2:14. Judged according to their works but saved by the same grace that saved us all, saved from their sins through the crucified lamb and his redeeming blood. God imputes righteousness to them in Christ. That's why they're in the book of life. This is what Paul means when he says that God will judge these people THROUGH Jesus Christ.

 I repeat my question to the merciful Sunday service hearts who think that everyone will go to hell: will you ignore these texts and persist in thinking so? Do you still believe that so many people will be goats, having been closing their hearts for their entire life to the needs and pain of others? Of course, not, I hope. This greatly reduces the number of lost and to anyone who would be embarrassed by this idea, I suggest meditating this:

Matthew, 12:7 If you had known what these words mean, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the innocent.

And here is another verse of the gospel dedicated to zealous vigilantes who, animated by the same spirit as James and John, would like the fire of heaven to strike down all sinners:

Luke 9:53 - And as they went, they entered a village of the Samaritans, to prepare for Him. But they did not receive Him, because His face was set for the journey to Jerusalem. And when His disciples James and John saw this, they said, “Lord, do You want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them, just as Elijah did?” But He turned and rebuked them, and said, “You do not know what manner of spirit you are of. For the Son of Man did not come to destroy men’s lives but to save them.”

That said, there will be goats. Jesus described the prototype in one of his parables or perhaps it was the description of a real person.  

Luke 16:19-21 - There was a certain rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen and fared sumptuously every day. But there was a certain beggar named Lazarus, full of sores, who was laid at his gate, desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man’s table. Moreover, the dogs came and licked his sores.

A poor man, named Lazarus, was lying at his door, covered with sores, and eager to satiate himself with the crumbs that fell from the rich man's table.  

Here is a true hardened egoist who closed his heart to extreme misery crawling on his doorstep. During his entire life, not once did he invite to his table, this unfortunate man who lived before his eyes and dreamed of feeding even the crumbs falling from the abundance of his table. Not once in his life did he help this poor man relieve his sores, as the Samaritan had done for the traveler found injured on the road. The dogs were more merciful than he was. They, at least, relieved the poor man's sores by licking them.

No, he led a joyful and brilliant life, a whole existence dedicated exclusively to his personal pleasure, a whole life, without compassion, resolutely ignoring the need of his neighbor! It is hard to believe that this can exist, but if Jesus mentions it, it is because there have been and will still be goats.   

There will surely be a certain number if we consider the multitude who have lived since Adam but still, in all that we see here, don't you find believe that we are really far, very far from this widespread belief that the whole world not knowing Jesus will go to hell! This 'doctrine' is totally erroneous and unfounded!

The Hades

It is important to specify that only those who have not heard of Christ and believed in Him will be among this multitude judged according to its works at Last Judgment, sheep or goats. 

When their bodies died, they found themselves in a waiting place that the Bible calls Hades, the realm of deads, in anticipation of the final judgment of which we have just spoken. 

The Hades is a waiting plave with no imp armed with trident. How may we say that?

Because Jesus Himself holds the keys of death and Hades and controls access to it. On the Cross, He stripped evil spiritual powers of their authority and power, including that of death.  

Revelation, 1:18 - I am the Living One; I was dead, and now look, I am alive for ever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and Hades.

Colossians, 2:15 - And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.

Hades is the first place to which Jesus went in spirit just after His resurrection. We learn from the letter of the apostle Peter that He went to preach the good news of reconciliation with God to those who had died before and during the flood in Noah's time, those who are called here the spirits in prison who once disobeyed God.

1 Peter 3:18 - Christ suffered for our sins once for all time. He never sinned, but he died for sinners to bring you safely home to God. He suffered physical death, but he was raised to life in the Spirit. So, he went and preached to the spirits in prison— those who disobeyed God long ago when God waited patiently while Noah was building his boat. Only eight people were saved from drowning in that terrible flood.

It's amazing, isn't it? The Son of God came down to visit them in Hades. They too had a chance to meet and hear the Savior who took away the sin of the world, and they were not altar boys. Genesis describes them as having their thoughts turned every day only to evil.  ONLY to evil.

Genesis 6:5 - The LORD saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time. The Lord regretted that he had made human beings on the earth, and his heart was deeply troubled.
So the Lord said, “I will wipe from the face of the earth the human race I have created—and with them the animals, the birds and the creatures that move along the ground—for I regret that I have made them.”
But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord.

However, another scripture suggests that many of these spirits in prison totally perverted by evil have believed, they have found grace and returned with Jesus to     paradise, like the robber crucified at the same time as the Lord.

Luke 23:33 - When they had arrived at the place called Skull, they crucified him there, as well as the two evildoers, one on the right, the other on the left.

Luke 23:39 - One of the criminals who hung there hurled insults at him: ‘Aren’t you the Messiah? Save yourself and us!’
But the other criminal rebuked him. ‘Don’t you fear God,’ he said, ‘since you are under the same sentence? We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong.
Then he said, ‘Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.
Jesus answered him, ‘Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise.’

Hearts were wicked in Noah's day, continually drawn to evil, but it seems that men of those ancient times would have received the Lord Jesus promptly and favorably, if they had seen and heard Him. Even Sodom would not have been destroyed if they had lived in Jesus' time. 

Matthew, 11:21 - Then Jesus began to denounce the towns in which most of his miracles had been performed, because they did not repent.
Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the miracles that were performed in you had been performed in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes.
But I tell you, it will be more bearable for Tyre and Sidon on the day of judgment than for you.
And you, Capernaum, will you be lifted to the heavens? No, you will go down to Hades. For if the miracles that were performed in you had been performed in Sodom, it would have remained to this day.
But I tell you that it will be more bearable for Sodom on the day of judgment than for you.’

Jesus, the wonderful Saviour, tirelessly continued his mission after resurrection, to the point of going into Hades to save souls! We see with admiration that the Savior truly came to save what was lost and that He is doing everything to achieve it. May He be praised forever! 

Hades is not at all a place of punishment since the judgment has not yet taken place. It is a waiting place. A place of torment for some, assailed by their memories. Their bad conscience agitates them in this solitude stripped of all earthly pleasure where conscience burns like a flame that nothing can make forget or distract. This is what the parable of the rich man teaches us. 

Luke 16:22 - The time came when the beggar died and the angels carried him to Abraham’s side. The rich man also died and was buried.
In Hades, where he was in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham far away, with Lazarus by his side.
So he called to him, “Father Abraham, have pity on me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, because I am in agony in this fire.”   

He was suffering from thirst and his guilty conscience even made him want to be an evangelist. He begged Abraham to send Lazarus to go to earth and testify to his brothers of this place.

‘He answered, “Then I beg you, father, send Lazarus to my family, for I have five brothers. Let him warn them, so that they will not also come to this place of torment. Abraham replied, “They have Moses and the Prophets; let them listen to them.”

Hades is a waiting place but not necessary a place of torment.

In the 1^st book of Samuel, the prophet also was resting there until King Saul came to disturb his rest, bringing him up by way of spiritualism. This text does not legitimize spiritualism, quite the contrary. It objectively shows the bewilderment of King Saul who puts the finishing touch to his disobedience by practicing spiritism that God had made him forbid under his reign.

1 Samuel, 28:8 - So Saul disguised himself, putting on other clothes, and at night he and two men went to the woman. ‘Consult a spirit for me,’ he said, ‘and bring up for me the one I name.
But the woman said to him, ‘Surely you know what Saul has done. He has cut off the mediums and spiritists from the land. Why have you set a trap for my life to bring about my death?’
Saul swore to her by the Lord, ‘As surely as the Lord lives, you will not be punished for this. Then the woman asked, ‘Whom shall I bring up for you? 'Bring up Samuel,’ he said.

(...) Samuel said to Saul, ‘Why have you disturbed me by bringing me up?’

If Saul dusturbed him, it was because Samuel was in a position of rest in Hades. Hades was not a place of torment for the prophet. 

Christians and Hades

John 3:17 - For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.

Those who have received Christ, who have believed in Him, those who are born again are not judged and do not go to Hades or pass the Final Judgment.

No Last Judgment, because you have just read it, whoever believes in Jesus, is not judged. Jesus was judged and condemned in our place. There is no more judgment for who believes it. There will be no double jeopardy.

No Hades either for the Christian, and why?

Because a Christian awakens not in Hades but in Christ, at the moment death separates him/her from his/her dead body. How do we know? Here:

Ephesians, 2:6 - he raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places, in Jesus Christ, 

Or here:

Colossians, 2:12 - having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through your faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead.

During the earthly life, God's children are already resurrected and are sitting in spirit with Christ in heavenly places. The soul and body on earth prevent them from perceiving the full reality of their spirit united to Jesus as through the Spirit of God they are already with Him, one spirit.  

1 Corinthians 6:17 - But whoever is united with the Lord is one with him in spirit.

It is an extraordinary truth which only faith strengthened and enlightened by the Holy Spirit can fully capture, to our greatest joy and triumph. We must ask for this revelation, this type of faith in the Lord, that of the effective dwelling of Jesus Christ in our hearts!

Ephesians, 3:16 - I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith.

Whether we are aware of it or not, it is a position, a glorious privilege, flowing straight from the grace of the Lord. When the Holy Spirit opens our eyes, this enlightened faith strengthens our walk with Him, makes us invulnerable and swells our hearts with overlapping and lasting joy and hope. 

As soon as the body dies, the Christian, the dwelling of Christ in Spirit awakens in his true home, where he had always been without really perceiving it unless having the eyes of faith open. Our (true) life is hidden with Christ in God. 

Colossians, 3:3 - or you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.

In Daniel 7:10, yet another great truth is cross-checked!

As I looked, thrones were set in place, and the Ancient of Days took his seat. His clothing was as white as snow; the hair of his head was white like wool.
His throne was flaming with fire, and its wheels were all ablaze.
A river of fire was flowing, coming out from before him. Thousands upon thousands attended him; ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him. The court was seated, and the books were opened..

Who are these thousand thousands who are already serving God on the Day of Judgment? Because here again, we are talking about this day when books are open. It is indeed this day of judgment.

These thousand thousands (one million – 10 million in French Bible versions) are the resurrected ones who have begun to reign with Jesus. They are not part of the ten thousands times ten thousands (100 million – 10 billion in French versions) assembled before the throne, which we already mentioned and who will be judged according to their works written in open books.

The Christians, those having Christ in them and who lived by and with Him during their earthly walk, are now with Him and serve Him. They will witness the great judgment.

Ten million, ten billion; I took the calculator, but the figures given by the prophet Daniel are not to be taken as an exact count. It is just a proportion that is given to us. I had often wondered: if everyone is king in the kingdom of God, called to reign with Jesus, over whom do these kings reign? Here we have an answer. 1 million, 100 million (Ten million, ten billion), that's on average leaders of one hundred (1 thousand according to French versions) under the leadership of a supreme King : Jesus the King of kings.

We talked about the dead in Christ. But some (the privileged!) will not even experience the death of their mortal body that will be transformed into a body of glory at the universally awaited return of Jesus Christ. (Yes, universally because several other religions are waiting for the Messiah!)

1 Corinthians, 15:51 - Listen, I tell you a mystery: we will not all sleep, but we will all be changed – in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality.

When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: ‘Death has been swallowed up in victory     . 

1 Thessalonians, 4:16 - For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever.

When it is said that the dead in Christ, the deceased Christians, will rise again, we understand that as they already are alive in spirit with Christ in heavenly places, to rise means here that they will recover their body or more exactly a new glorified body, and not the one they had sown in some way and which had returned to dust. They recover a body like the risen body of Jesus, an incorruptible body, eternally young, no longer knowing sickness, weakness nor death.

1 Corinthians, 15:35 - But someone will ask, ‘How are the dead raised? With what kind of body will they come?’ How foolish! What you sow does not come to life unless it dies. When you sow, you do not plant the body that will be, but just a seed, perhaps of wheat or of something else. But God gives it a body as he has determined, and to each kind of seed he gives its own body.

1 Corinthians 15:42 - So will it be with the resurrection of the dead. The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable; it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body.

To sum up, those who have never heard of Jesus and therefore have not had the opportunity to believe properly (we are not talking about simple belief but faith) will be judged by their works. And all those who are not of the category of goats will benefit from the grace of God like all of us, for they will be judged by, through Jesus Christ and will be found in the book of life.

Part 2 : the no-excuse

Audio (23mn):

Should a Christian who desires to please the Lord abstain from black pudding (blood sausage), oysters, cold cuts, wine, or any particular food?

Pray but with faith!

But prove yourselves doers of the word, and not merely hearers who delude themselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks at his natural face in a mirror; for once he has looked at himself and gone away, he has immediately forgotten what kind of person he was.
But one who looks intently at the perfect law, the law of liberty, and abides by it, not having become a forgetful hearer but an effectual doer, this man will be blessed in what he does. James 1:22-25

This man (man or woman) who forgets who he is right after looking in the mirror, it could be you or me, if we're not taught. Who are we?

Everything that follows will be totally unintelligible if you are not born again. If you are not sure in your heart that you were born again, know and be assured that Jesus Christ was miraculously incarnated, by the supernatural operation of the Spirit of God in a woman who had not known a man, that He died, resurrected and ascended to glory, where He had come from, to send his Spirit of life. By this, He has successfully completed a complete work, the meaning of which has long remained hidden and which, in recent times, is revealed, described throughout the Bible, a completed work whose ultimate goal is that He may inhabit and reign in the hearts of men (men and women). It is this dwelling that begins the day we are born again.

New birth is therefore not a privilege reserved for a few but God's desire for all. He came in the person of Jesus Christ so that ALL may be saved, hear by saved, so that all may become a dwelling of Christ in spirit to form together the body of Christ on earth and for eternity. He expects you to simply invite him to become the Lord of your whole life today. If you want to know more about the new birth, I invite you to read From Believer to Born Again.

The day we were born again, an inner, invisible miracle occurred. We have been spiritually cut from the tree of rebellious humanity and have been grafted, by a supernatural action of the Holy Spirit, to Jesus Christ, the firstborn of a new generation, a new humanity, exactly from the same way that you would cut the fruit branch of a tree, to graft it onto another more vigorous tree.

From this moment on, the sap, the life, the nature of this other tree begins to circulate and invigorate the grafted branch. The same is true at new birth. Divine life begins to flow into us. The effects are not immediately apparent but gradually, the branch begins to show a new vigor and produce new and tasty fruits. Inside, in us, we know, everything has been changed, instantly. But changes on the outside are gradually manifested in new tastes, new reactions, actions and new ailments.

Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come. Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation, 2 Corinthians 5:17

For by these He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, so that by them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust. 2 Peter 1:4

At new birth, we receive a new nature that becomes our natural life. We are been made participants of the divine nature.

And when we read or listen to the Word of God, the Bible, it is as if we were looking into a mirror, the face of this new nature, what it looks like, what it is supposed to look like. Only others can see us. We cannot see ourselves except through a mirror. And the Bible acts as a mirror.

When we read it, we see the description of what we have become internally and what we are called to manifest externally.

make my joy complete by being of the same mind, maintaining the same love, united in spirit, intent on one purpose. Philippiens 2:2

Frankly, would it be in our power, by the sheer force of our will to be a same feeling, a same love, a same soul, a same thought with our brothers and sisters in Christ? Do you really believe that this is an additional command that we must obey with the force of our will?

No! What is described here is not a matter of will. I hope you do not continue to deceive yourself about this. You can make an effort to agree with your brother and sister, you can strive to forgive, to forget offenses, to be patient, to hold your tongue in a restraint, to think first of their interests before yours, to show acts of love. Yes, you can try to do a lot of things. But being one soul, one love, one thought with them....

Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. Colossians 3:2

Many of us read this text as follows: Force yourself to do the things above, worship, pray, daily read the Word of God, and deprive yourself of all that is in the world.

This text says none of this. Who said anything about depriving oneself? Where is it said here? Moreover, if I have to deprive myself of something, if I have this feeling I deprive myself of something, it is proof that somehow deeply within me, I like it. I will then try to cover it up with frustration. But I do not solve the problem of affection. I remain completely beside the intention of this verse!

The Lord purposely asks for something that a normal human cannot produce. You don't decide your affections. Affections spring from the depths and are uncontrollable. If I do not like things from above, imposing them on me does not change anything. I do not like them more by imposing them to myself. Neither you nor I have the power to obey this verse.

Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: Philippians 2:5

And with Philippians 2:5, we culminate ! Can you control your feelings? However it would be possible, the bar is here much higher, you are commanded to HAVE THE MIND that was in Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Who could that?

There is a problem in the way we read and understand the Scriptures. Old things have passed, all things have become new and the way we read God's Word must also change.

Let us begin by stopping reading the Word of God in the spirit of the old covenant, otherwise we will go from condemnation to condemnation and can fall very low.

In the old covenant, not the old testament of the Bible, but the old covenant, when God gave a commandment, he waited for all our efforts to do the best and to obey Him otherwise it was death and rejection.

In the new covenant, the born again receives a new spirit, a new heart eager to obey him.

for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure. Philippians 2:13

In the new covenant, God creates the will and the capacity to work.

Now the God of peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, Make you perfect in every good work to do his will, working in you that which is wellpleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ; to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen. Hebrews 13:21

In the new covenant, God makes us capable of any good work for the fulfillment of His will THROUGH Jesus Christ and with our consentment, He does in us what is pleasing to Him.

For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things: to whom be glory for ever. Amen Romans 11:36

In the new covenant, Jesus is the beginning and the end; He is the Alpha and the Omega. All things are of Him, through Him and to Him.

In the old covenant, men save themselves by their obedience to commandments or lose themselves by their disobedience.

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. John 3:16

In the new covenant, God takes all initiatives. He sends a Savior!

He descends from heaven in the person of Jesus Christ, saves all men and women of all times and of all the earth. He dies for the sin of the world, rises, rises in glory, sends the Holy Spirit of life and invites men, all men and women, to agree to join him spiritually on the cross so that they can spiritually rise again in him and with him, in new life.

At considering the Cross, I accept God's condemnation of a rebellious and futureless humanity, of which I am part, and I accept the new life graciously offered and shared by the Risen One on the other side of that cross.

This resurrection experienced by the Son of God two thousand years ago then becomes a concrete reality for us today, by the Holy Spirit at the very moment we are born again. It is not a religious concept. At new birth, your inner being receives the resurrection life of the Risen One, just after you have accepted the Cross, its meaning and its consequences for your whole future life. You die voluntarily giving up your old life and the Spirit of God makes you new to life.

Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures. James 1:17-18

All this is a supernatural gift, a perfect gift, an excellent grace, offered free of charge to all who accept the good news of the gospel.

In the new covenant, inaugurated by the cross, the resurrection and the glorification of the Lord Jesus Christ, God saves us completely. He's doing the work. It saves and renews our whole being. Our minds come back to life. Our soul, will, intelligence and feelings are gradually and completely renewed and restored. And the bodies of those who will not experience the return of Jesus Christ will rise glorious and eternal. This is what the Gospel says.

In the new covenant, God builds his salvation in us through His Holy Spirit, through the Spirit of Christ in us.

It is therefore possible to read the new testament of the Bible, in the spirit of the old covenant, considering any new commandment: have the mind of Christ... set your affection on things above.... do… don't...as things that appeal to our own strengths and determination.

But we'd rather can read the old and new testaments in the spirit of the new covenant, i.e. considering that God is at work in us, already by the simple fact that He produces in us this desire to follow His commandments, while also giving us the capacity. He works, creating will and work in this new heart, this new spirit that He has recreated for that is His pleasure, for this is the plan of salvation that He has prepared from all eternity, His plan to make men and women, His temple, a dwelling in spirit.

Then said they unto him, What shall we do, that we might work the works of God? Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent. John 6:28

God's work is that you believe in the One He sent to do the work in you and through you!

Now, in reading your Bible, you must consider commandments as a mirror of the type of life that is lived when one is in Christ, when one is led by His Spirit.

For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory. Colossians 3:2-3

This mirror reflects who we really are, now that we are spiritually united with Christ. Our real life is hidden in Christ but it appears in the mirror. And this life is not supposed to remain hidden. It must manifest itself more and more externally.

We must first see what is hidden, our true face, our natural face and then conform to it. Commandments show us our true, our new person who loves God with all heart, soul and thought. The commandments describe the normal life of the son or daughter of God led by the Holy Spirit.

Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the LORD of hosts. Zechariah 4:6

and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; Hebrews 12:1

Aren't we invited to look unto Jesus? This means waiting continuously and only from Him for inner transformation, to do in us all that the law of Moses could not accomplish: to give us a heart joyfully willing to follow His ways: to walk in God's plans in small details and great movements of our daily lives.

Jesus, through His Spirit in us, is our true life. He is the source of our desires when we trust him and accept the terms of the new covenant where He is all in all. He is the strength of our decisions made in Him because we can do anything by the One who strengthens us. And He is the reason of our whole life since we are invited to enter into works that He himself has prepared in advance for us to practice them while we have received the desire and capacity.

And freedom in all this? What about our free will?

But one who looks intently at the perfect law, the law of liberty, and abides by it, not having become a forgetful hearer but an effectual doer, this man will be blessed in what he does. James 1:25

James tells us about the perfect law, the law of freedom.

This law is perfect in the fact that it gives both desire and capacity. What the law of the old covenant had no power to. In the old covenant I don't do what I want and I do what I don't want to. I'm not free.

For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin. For that which I do I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I. If then I do that which I would not, I consent unto the law that it is good. Romans 7:14-16

In the new covenant, God seasons our desires with His light and love and gives us the intelligence and power to renounce harmful and unsanitary ways, to choose and follow paths that, while certainly ours, are also his own, highly inspired and made powerful by His mere presence in us, excellent ways for others and for ourselves.

It is a perfect law that works for all those who take as a lifestyle to expect from Him, to create will and work, for all those who have the heart contrite and lucid enough to recognize its natural coldness, misery, instability , cowardice and its inability to please God through the old mechanisms and the very limited power of the ancient nature.

That is why only repentance, that is, the desire to turn our backs on a lifestyle we had before or a penchant of the old nature, only repentance and trust in Christ's work in us is the gateway to true freedom.

For the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are in opposition to one another, so that you may not do the things that you please. Galatians 5:17

Come on, let’s have some biblical ‘philosophy’. This text basically says that absolute freedom does not exist. Either we are led by the flesh to do things detestable for others and for ourselves in a climate of insatiable and inextinguishable dissatisfaction, or we are led by the Spirit to do magnificent things for others and for ourselves with as pay, joy, peace and an immense happiness overflowing from our hearts. In both cases we do not do what we would like. No real freedom.

The free ‘you’, is in fact, in the middle, in the choice of what by whom or by what we want to be directed. This 'you' only needs some guidance to the best for him.

In both cases, there will be one who will not have a say, who will not do what he wants. We can choose who's behind the steering wheel. The ‘you’, led by the Spirit. Or the 'you' driven by the old reflexes of the old nature.

The Lord gives us intelligence to see that the two paths are not equal. One leads, in spite of very deceptive appearances, to a transient satisfaction followed by a profound lasting dissatisfaction, to sorrow and disgust while the other way is life and peace. Who would voluntarily choose a path of pain and dissatisfaction unless forced to do so

for by what a man is overcome, by this he is enslaved. 2 Peter 2:19

Thus, when I read the Word of God, old or new testament, I no longer see commandments out of reach that continually plunge me into condemnation. Rather, I look in a mirror, what the new Man, Jesus Christ, the last Adam is in me and will produce in me as long as I put my trust in His work, to have finally understood and believed it, in the work of His Holy Spirit in me.

Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them. Hebrews 7:25

It is in this that he is a perfect Savior (to the uttermost). He brings us back into an Eden Garden to make a choice and an experience that Adam and Eve missed. At new birth, we were led to choose the tree of life. We no longer need the tree of knowledge of good and evil and its helpless fruits.

But by His doing you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption, 1 Corinthians 1:30

Jesus Christ in us is this active, operating knowledge of good and evil. He himself was made for us wisdom, righteouness, sanctification and redemption. He's all in all. Moreover, we need Jesus the head as much as Jesus the body, that is, the Church, our brothers and sisters in Christ. We will talk about that in a near future.

When we simply follow the directions of the Holy Spirit within us, when we trust in Christ and we continually wait for Him to produce his life, his feelings, the desire to walk in righteousness and convert those desires from of our spirit united with His Spirit, in concrete actions in daily life, we walk according to the spirit. Each of these actions propelled by Christ's life and habitation in us through faith, leads us to more and more concrete actions on earth and to an ever deeper communion with Him. We no more forget who we are!

We are a bit like a pipe continually crossed by a stream of divine life gushing from an inexhaustible spring in order to water a flowerbed, a sick, dry, thirsty world. We are thus filled and always filled as long as on one side the spring is not blocked and on the other side the watering tip is not clogged either and willing to water generously everything that is within its reach.

It is in the practice that we know, that we experience this living water that passes through us, and invigorating us in passing, springs through all the ends of our voluntary behaviors in droplets, streams, rivers of love, goodness, patience, gentleness, kindness, fidelity, self-control, purity, forgiveness, mercy, generosity, empathy, power, healing, deliverance, wisdom, intelligence, science, manifesting through our unique personality, all sunny with the virtues of Jesus Christ, the works that God has prepared in advance for us!

But one who looks intently at the perfect law, the law of liberty, and abides by it, not having become a forgetful hearer but an effectual doer, this man will be blessed in what he does. James 1:25

Whoever sets out to work says James is happy and blessed in his activity.

For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they render you neither useless nor unfruitful in the true knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 2 Peter 1:8

Remember.

When we read ‘Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus’ : let’s understand, believe, accept, patiently ask, expect from the Holy Spirit and trust Him to convince us (what He knows perfectly how to), that He may impregnate us with this very special revealed faith that Christ in us is at work, through the Holy Ghost and the Living Word, to produce Christ desires and make His sun shine on our lives and by reflecting on those around us.

I can do all things through Him who strengthens me. Philippians 4:13

We then discover that we can do anything through the One who strengthens us. Christ living in us through His Spirit is LIFE. He's the WAY.

When you read any commandment, any instruction in the Word of God, see it as a reflection of what Christ is already in you, of what He has begun and will continue to produce in you, from progress to progress.

For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus. Philippians 1:6

Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you entirely; and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete, without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Faithful is He who calls you, and He also will bring it to pass. 1 Thessalonians 5:23

The vine does not eat grapes. It produces it for others. Its glory and pleasure, that it does not express with words, is to see its branches bend under the weight of the fruit to finally see all its fruits picked to the delight of the gourmand.

My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be My disciples. John 15:8

We are called to bear a great deal of fruit because this is how the Father is glorified. So it is the Father's will. And bearing fruit is not the result of the exhausting efforts of a branch but the natural consequence of any tree full of sap and life.

This is what Jesus is to us, a tree full of life and we are his branches destined to bear much fruit. It is this life that the Holy Spirit communicates to us if we expect it from Him. Jesus is the vine and we are the branches. The Holy Spirit is the sap that the vine flows into the branch. Let us believe in Him, always, all the time, now and in the minute that will follow.

Today, I caught myself praying one of those prayers we sometimes make without having previously checked if it can be answered. With words that are said kind of mechanically, without having deeply thought about what they induce. 

This is the boldness which we have toward him, that, if we ask anything according to his will, he listens to us. 1 John, 5 : 14

In my prayer, I was asking the Lord to grant my family and I today, with His abundant grace. And suddenly, I realized that my prayer was useless. Even worse, it could be a flagrant demonstration and confession of incredulity while it was so sincere and apparently so humble.

It is right to bless our neighbor praying for grace and peace in Jesus Christ on him/her or directly pronouncing to him/her those words of blessing. Almost each epistle begins with such a blessing. But why should we pray it for ourselves?

Why should I ask God for the abundance of His grace when it is already pouring, at this very moment? Is it reasonable to ask for what is already here? Unless we do not believe it! Shouldn’t we rather ask God to give us a simple, humble and believing heart, eyes to see so we are able to receive this abundance without limit. Because grace is pouring, it’s pouring, pouring and pouring without stopping. It abundantly pours at this very moment as truly as God is alive and that He loves us!

Therefore, my child, be strengthened in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.. 2 Timothy, 2 :1

Grace is already in Christ Jesus (Christ in us). We are recommended to get strength from this grace already and constantly available.
And those who reign in life, who reign on their rebellious nature, over circumstances, over temptations are those who receive the abundance of grace. They are made capable to reign thanks to and through the inner power that is generously given to and pours within them, because of the living union with Christ, such a real union, although invisible to natural senses.

For if by the trespass of the one, death reigned through the one; so much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one, Jesus Christ. Romans, 5 :17

There is clearly an abundance of grace pouring in us. The living union that ties us to Christ, is similar to that of the branch that constantly and without any personal endeavor receives life from the tree.

Trusting in this extraordinary union with Christ in us, gazing at it, in our thoughts and faith, WILL trigger the reception of this grace. Do it ! This is what means looking to Jesus and reigning through Jesus. It will make us run to him, more and more, day after day.

and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith… Hebrews, 12 :1-2

The simple fact of continuously gazing at, thinking of, reminding us and meditating this invisible reality which is such an encouraging and tender truth, this will maintain us in its blessing, continually...
And if our heart suddenly begins to fear not to be able to maintain itself in this amazing communion and its extraordinary effects, be reassured: it’s Him who holds you and not you who hold Him. And thinking so, our look is softly redirected to Him in faith and the miracle resumes and continues.

don't boast over the branches. But if you boast, it is not you who support the root, but the root supports you.  Romans, 11 :18

The good news, the Gospel (Christ has forgiven, purified me and now lives in me) is a power for the salvation of anyone who believes it. Christ knows how to maintain us in Him by His Spirit. Let’s simply trust Him and His power to do so. He is a perfect Savior.

For I am not ashamed of the Good News of Christ, for it is the power of God for salvation for everyone who believes  Romans, 1 :16

lookingtojesus-1.pdf (150.56 Ko)

Audio 1/3 (20 mn) : 

Audio 2/3 (21 mn) : 

Audio 3/3 (15 mn) : 

Jesus talks here to disciples. He does not talk to the crowd, to everybody. Whoever is born again can and will enter into this high-quality life by simply following instructions. One must understand some basic instructions and then build on these foundations, led by the Spirit of God. The Spirit of God is here at this very moment, close to us, within us, as we are reading.

But the comforter, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things, and will remind you of everything I have told you. John 14:26.

The Spirit teaches, gives understanding and brings us in. It's His work. That's why we can feel relieved. It's not up to us. Let us lean on Him, trust Him to guide our steps and let’s surrender to Him. Let us not resist, and if we detect any resistance within us, let us acknowledge it without condemning ourselves. The Holy Spirit is kind, gentle, helpful. And He is powerful in his sweetness, immensely powerful.

It is normal for our nature to rebel and resist, but the life of the Spirit in us is stronger than our nature. Christ has conquered it, crucified it and by His Spirit in us He will give us full victory, a triumph. He does it because He is good and He is our perfect savior. We can say with confidence with the psalmist:

I trust in your kindness. I have joy in my heart, because of your salvation. Psalms 13:5

Let us lay some foundations and be sure that we have understood, believed and accepted them, for if we do not understand, the enemy will erase them from our thoughts and we will no longer have foundation to support our faith and progress on.

When a man hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil comes and takes away what has been sown in his heart: this man is the one who received the seed along the way. Matthew 13:19

Jesus begins with this statement: I am the vine, you are the branches. In other words: you are 'organically' bound to me like a branch to the tree that carries it. Let’s understand that at our new birth, in the invisible realm, a supernatural work has occurred to change our destiny forever. We have been cut off from a wild tree, from the tree of humanity, from Adam, whose dominant philosophy is: from me, by me and for me, and we were literally grafted onto the tree of life, the cultivated olive tree.

If you have been cut from the wild olive tree to which you belonged by nature and grafted contrary to your nature on the cultivated olive tree, let only the most they will be grafted according to their nature on their own olive tree. Romans 11:24

We started to die the day our mother gave us life. But we began to live for eternity, the day we were grafted into Christ. We do not feel the blood flowing through our veins and that maintains our physical life; we do not feel more the life of Christ that springs from Him and flows within us, in our mind and maintains our spiritual life. And yet both contribute to the life of our whole being, constantly, with every beat of our heart that pulses blood into our veins and I’d dare to say with every heartbeat of Jesus Christ that pulses life into our inner being.

When we understand that and begin to believe it, to iron it in our thought, this beneficent truth flows from our spirit to irrigate our soul, where lie our intelligence, emotions and will. Our soul needs to be saved, not in the sense of going to heaven but in the sense of being made conform in intelligence, emotion and will to our spirit. Our spirit and the Spirit of God are now united, through this wonderful graft, a wonderful and supernatural gift from God, our spirit and the Spirit of God have become one.

But he who unites with the Lord is one spirit with him. 1 Corinthians 6:17

I'm a branch. Like the branch, my goal is to produce fruit and my life, to remain aware at each moment of this magnificent union that binds me to the Creator God. I'm not doing anything to make life flow within me. How much would I even twist myself in every way and try with my knotted woods to wrap the vine, for fear of losing it, it would not change anything. His life flows within me because he grafted me into Him. I am grafted, tied, bound by an organic and powerful bond.

My words, my actions, my thoughts will not change anything. His life flows within me. And if my soul agrees to believe this truth, understanding and emotions will naturally accord with it, to arouse joy, abundant joy, peace, rest and so many other succulent dishes….

And if I speak badly, act badly or think badly, His life continues to flow into me anyway, and straightens me gently, teaches me, strengthens me, convinces me and leads me again, in perfect conformity, in the paths of righteousness because of His name and only because of his name. Remember there is no more condemnation for those who are in Christ. His name is above all names: the name of Jesus: God the Savior, God who heals.

He guides me in the paths of righteousness for His name's sake. Psalms 23:3

That's the first foundation. I was grafted into Christ. I am grafted and his life flows within me at this moment, next moment, today, tomorrow, in a month, in a year and until my last breath as much as it pleases the Lord to let me live on earth. Isn't that comforting?

The second foundation is that this wonderful, magnificent, constant relationship is the work of the Holy Spirit. It is through Him that we are grafted. It is through him that we can remain. We did not do the graft. We cannot either maintain the graft.

When Jesus says to us 'Abide in me', he does not appeal to our abilities as if anyone could abide in Christ through his own efforts. And what does mean ‘Abide in Christ’. We understood the 'in Christ'. This is the graft. I am attached to Christ, in Christ. I am one with Him as the branch and the tree are one. The branch is in the tree and enjoys all the sap and life of the tree. I am in Christ and I enjoy the life, the virtues of the vine, Christ. And the Holy Spirit is the person who carries this life from the vine to me. He takes what is from Jesus Christ and announces it to me. I believe Him and I live it. And my soul is transformed from glory to glory as long as my eyes contemplate it, contemplate this living and transformative truth.

We have understood the 'in Christ', we must now look at the 'Abide'.

It is the Holy Spirit that makes us able to abide in Christ. It is only through faith that this can be accomplished. The very beautiful news is that this act of abiding through faith in union with Christ is also a product of the Holy Spirit in us. This type of faith is unimaginable until the Holy Spirit produces it in us. We have to ask this all the time:

For this reason I bow my knees before the Father … that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith;. Ephesians 3:16-17

The power of the Holy Spirit is not given to deserving people. It is necessary, indispensable in order to abide in Christ. Whatever our condition is, even if we see ourselves as and are perhaps the worst of the worst, and rightly so, we need the Holy Spirit, His power in order to abide in Christ. For the one who abides in Him begins to walk as He has walked.

the one who says he abides in Him ought himself to walk in the same manner as He walked. 1 John 2:6

The Holy Spirit is not given because we are perfect. It is given to us so that we may be perfect in Christ.

For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law but under grace. Romans 6:14

And when it is said that the Holy Spirit is given to those who obey him, please let us not twist the meaning of Scriptures.

The God of our fathers raised up Jesus, whom you had put to death by hanging Him on a cross. He is the one whom God exalted to His right hand as a Prince and a Savior, to grant repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins. And we are witnesses of these things; and so is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey Him Acts 5:30-32

To understand what kind of obedience this is, the Holy Spirit has taken care to write elsewhere through Paul’s pen:

Jesus Christ our Lord, through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith among all the Gentiles for His name's sake, among whom you also are the called of Jesus Christ Romans 1 :4-5

This means that the Holy Spirit is given to those who obey faith in opposition to those who obey the law. The law has brought nothing, nor anyone to perfection (Hebrew 7:19). Christ died for our sins, resurrected so that once we were grafted to Him, we would be righteous of His righteousness, perfect of his perfection, enjoying the wonderful virtues of the firstborn of the dead, of the last Adam in us. This is the gospel of Jesus-Christ ! And we are to obey the gospel !

The Holy Spirit is given to those who believe in the One whom the Father sent. This is what is called 'obedience of faith'. Do you expect everything from Jesus within you? If so, you are in the obedience of faith in opposition to those who await God's favors because of their obedience to the law.

If you are miserable, disgusted with yourself and want God to raise you to his standard of living, it is possible, you are the perfect candidate to receive at the moment the abundance of His Spirit.

He will lead you to consider the Blood of the Lamb who has already cleansed you of all sin at the Cross of Golgotha. He will produce a sadness that will trigger true, sincere and profound repentance. Then as you realize that because of this Blood, you are already forgiven for all evil that you recognize and confess before the Cross, He will pour upon you the oil of joy and holiness, He will put the ring on your finger.

You have anointed my head with oil; My cup overflows. Psalms 23:5

Powerfully strengthened by his Spirit so that Christ dwells in you, that He abides there, constantly and keeps you constantly in grace through faith. For if you are under grace, sin will no longer have power over you. It is an extraordinary experience and the privilege of the sons of God powerfully strengthened by the Spirit. Have you understood it ?

This is the second foundation: the Holy Spirit can and wants to keep me in communion with Christ in faith. And He alone can make it possible for me to constantly live in communion with Jesus Christ, not through sensations but through faith, and to see my life transformed from obedience to obedience, step by step in the image of the Savior.

He renews the spirit of our intelligence, He is the source of all wisdom that pours from our spirit into our soul to enlighten its intelligence. This is how our will is renewed, transformed and we begin to practice outwardly what comes from Him. It is the meaning of putting on the new man in a righteousness (joyful practice of God's will) and a holiness produced by the One who is alive and who is the Truth.

if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught in Him, just as truth is in Jesus, that, in reference to your former manner of life, you lay aside the old self, which is being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit, and that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth. Ephesians 4 :22-24

And do not get drunk with wine, for that is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit: Ephesians 5 :18

We should no longer take a step if we are not filled with the Spirit. Without Him, without His fullness, our lives will remain a mediocre fiasco illuminated by fleeting victories and joys. Life in abundance promised by the One who does not lie is in the Spirit of God who makes us remain in Christ through faith. It enlightens our faith. Our faith easily captures all that Christ is because it is enlightened. Faith then no longer means blind. Faith is a hand that continually grasps and revels in what the Spirit reveals to it. Do we have this imperative feeling of the absolute urgency of a fullness of the Spirit to truly live as God wants? God does not demand anything that He does not make possible in us.

We are convinced that God expects from us a holy life, entirely abandoned to Him, but what happens? We know we can't do it on our own, but we try anyway. One is satisfied with a little thrill and it is called a visitation of the Holy Spirit. This is not a visitation that the Spirit of God wants to produce in us. It's a revolution!

We are in the dispensation of the Spirit that has been spread, it is this dispensation that alone can lead the new creature, on earth, to live like Jesus, the firstborn of several brothers, a life of holiness, true love and power in the service of the Father's will. The fullness of the Spirit is a necessity, an urgent, obligatory emergency without which nothing can happen.

If we do not have this thirst, for it is truly thirst, let us begin to ask God that He gives us thirst and be assured that He will quench that thirst. Thirst is not a pleasant feeling at first. It becomes so when you start drinking and it is stifling. There's a great pleasure to drink when you're very thirsty.

Then He said to me, "It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give to the one who thirsts from the spring of the water of life without cost. Apocalypse 21:6

It's worth it when you consider the abundant and rich life that lies there. The life of the Spirit makes us abide in Christ. And here is what happens to those who abide in Christ:

If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. John 15:7

We still have a third foundation that we find in the following verse:

Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and will dine with him, and he with Me. Revelation 3:20

It is not only we who knock at God's door to be blessed. Jesus knocks at our door throughout our lives. When we convert, he knocks at the door of our heart. We open it to Him by abandoning our life to Him. We receive forgiveness for our sins. The Holy Spirit gives birth to us again. We have become a child of God. Jesus entered the house of our heart through the main door that we have opened to him.

But he now wants to embellish every room in the house. And there are a lot. And He knocks at every door. We need time to open some of them. And Jesus knocks patiently. He is gentle and humble of heart. He could force the door since we are His and the house of our life has become His

Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? I Corinthians 6:19

But He knocks and talks to us softly. And if we hear His voice and open to Him, He comes in and dines with us. We abide in Christ.

And when He enters, He enters with His light, love, joy, strength and wisdom. We would have so much to gain by opening him quickly and completely, to abandon him every piece of our life: couple, family, relationships, time, thoughts, talents, professional life, dreams, ambitions, future projects, finances, earthly wealth...

What advantage will we gain by persisting in jealously keeping certain doors closed as if we were going to lose something precious? It's quite the opposite. When Jesus enters, it is freedom, multiplication, joy and success. It always seems the opposite and that’s what holds us back. We cling to our 5 cents while the Lord wants to exchange them for His 5 trillion. But he demands that we first release the 5 cents and that is not negotiable.

Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking fine pearls, and upon finding one pearl of great value, he went and sold all that he had and bought it.
Matthew 13:45-46

We know it deep down, but the swamps of Romans 7 hold us against all logic to abandon little parts of our life. It's like we're going to lose out! It's stronger than us. A law acts in our members and fights against the law of our understanding.

If resistance rises in us, let us not fight against ourselves. It is a war lost in advance. The flesh cannot conquer the flesh. A kingdom divided against itself cannot survive. It takes a stronger one to bind the strong man. And this stronger is still the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Jesus in us.

Jesus knocks and his voice says 'you want and you don't want and you are stuck in this dead end'. You feel your 'no desire' more than your desire to follow me. You can't give in when you want to and it's the storm within you... ask me for help, I can, I want to help you make the right choice. I can trigger your decision. All it takes is one decision. And pushed by the Lord, it is visceral and inalterable.

See, Jesus, again, is knocking softly at the door. He doesn't oblige us. God wants Jesus Christ to be first in everything, even in our decisions and yet we remain free to choose. It is an incomprehensible wisdom, impossible to reproduce humanly. What will inspire us to finally ask for help is this faith, this even tenuous certainty, deep within ourselves, that it will be better if Jesus is at the center and that He will make us bear much fruit.

Jesus Christ is the alpha and omega. Any resistance, disobedience or persistent evasion proves that a room in our house needs salvation. And Jesus is the perfect Savior.

Jesus abides in us and we in Him as long as we open the doors He knocks at and as we do not close any of them to Him. It is advantageous for us to open quickly and not hesitate to ask him for help in everything. He encourages us as He told us clearly 'without me, you can't do NOTHING' John 15:5

Philip is an extraordinary example of sensitivity to the Spirit of God and promptness to obey. So quick to obey that one wonders if this is not the reason why he is the first Christian to have experienced a teleportation. That science fiction didn't invent anything!

But an angel of the Lord spoke to Philip saying, "Get up and go south to the road that descends from Jerusalem to Gaza." (This is a desert road.) So he got up and went Acts 8:26-27

One gets the impression from that text that his reaction is instantaneous. The angel talks to him, he gets up and he goes. The direction is both precise and vague and it’s a desert. He knows it's on a road between Jerusalem and Gaza. He's leaving without a chat.

Then the Spirit said to Philip, "Go up and join this chariot. Philip ran up... Acts 8:29-30

Philip sees a man on a chariot. The Spirit tells him to approach. He runs up. We can't expect a better reaction. He's running up. He obeys with zeal, promptness. And the result is that for his next race, God does not need to prove the zeal of Philip that He needs to evangelize further. Philippe suddenly disappears from the sight of the Ethiopian (The Spirit of the Lord snatches him away and the eunuch no longer sees him) and finds himself teleported to Azotus; even faster than his rapid obedience would have allowed him to. God amazes us when we promptly trust him.

When they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord snatched Philip away; and the eunuch no longer saw him, but went on his way rejoicing. But Philip found himself at Azotus. Acts 8:39-40

The third foundation is

- that it is advantageous for us to open each door and to surrender ourselves totally to Christ for all

- that our natural being will always oppose in will and/or deeds that we open a door of our life to Him, that we renounce something he shows us

- that from the moment we invoke His help, to be able to give him what we do not want to give him, especially by not seeking resources in ourselves, Jesus Christ strengthens, boosts our spirit, and out of nowhere arises power to accept joyfully and entirely the surrender, surrender that will never be followed by any sorrow.

It is the blessing of the LORD that makes rich, And He adds no sorrow to it. Proverbs 10:22

This passage is often read to introduce the holy Last Supper time. It is about a new covenant. What do the words 'new covenant’ mean? This covenant that we celebrate every week is the most formidable and transformative truth ever for our daily lives!

Finally, my brothers, rejoice in the Lord! Philippians 3 :1

We rejoice when we understand something. Joy rarely occurs for no reason, from one second to the next. Joy is aroused by good news, a look of faith, a happy circumstance.

And the new covenant is the good news that Jesus invites us to live constantly, in our hearts and in the congregation. In the first church, this truth was so present that they would break bread in the houses every day. Every day they would drink the cup together, celebrating this new, extraordinary covenant. A covenant that changes our lives, from our entry into salvation to our last breath. It is said somewhere:

But the path of the righteous is like the dawning light, that shines more and more until the perfect day. Proverbs 4 :18

This experience becomes possible for each of us and I invite us to it by starting to understand, accept, frequently recall and receive revelation of what the new covenant produces in and for each of us. Truth makes us free (John 8:36) and produces holiness (Ephesians 4:24). It is not just a doctrine. Truth is an active person. Jesus Christ is our hero, our Lord, our liberator and such a great Savior! God works wonders for the sons of man!

The new covenant abolishes the old covenant

The new covenant inaugurated by Jesus Christ abolishes, without annulling, the old covenant.

For there is an annulling of a foregoing commandment because of its weakness and uselessness (for the law made nothing perfect), and a bringing in of a better hope, through which we draw near to God Hebrews 7:18-19

By so much, Jesus has become the collateral of a better covenant. Hebrews 7 :22

The old rule has been abolished. You read it right: abolished. The law of Moses that every untaught or poorly taught Christian seeks to follow by drawing from his own resources has been abolished.

Do not misunderstand ! Not the rules at have been abolished, but the way to submit to them.

This way of obeying, this ancient way of receiving a commandment from God and then trying to obey it with all personal efforts to earn the Lord's favor, has been outdated. Obedience is always required, but it becomes possible only for those who grasp the power of the new covenant and greet their Savior Jesus Christ with cries of triumph. Remember that word: SAVIOR. Praise his name!

He is the one who guarantees us the success of this new covenant that has replaced the old one, that of the external commandments offered to our human capacity for obedience, that is, an ability close to zero !!! Not convinced? Read this:

For if that first covenant had been faultless, then no place would have been sought for a second. Hebrews 8 :7

The first covenant was replaced by a second (the new one) because it had a defect. It appealed to our human abilities. What made it useless and weak.

Now, let’s make no mistake, God did everything on purpose. The purpose of this first covenant was to lead us to become aware of our total inability to follow God and to turn to a Savior who would do the work in us.

Its goal was to enclose all men equally in disobedience since no one could perfectly do God's will, because of the weakness of the flesh. And God’s goal was to pour mercy on all. Still not convinced? So let's read this:

For God has shut up all to disobedience, that he might have mercy on all. 
Oh the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and the knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past tracing out! 
"For who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been his counselor?" 
"Or who has first given to him, and it will be repaid to him again?" 
For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things. To him be the glory for ever! Amen. Romans 11 :32-25

We cannot give something to God, even the best of us, in the hope of receiving in return a payment, a reward. This mentality is a production of human pride. If you give your best, it is out of love, without even conceiving the idea of a return.

Thus: obedience to all commandments is impossible without the Savior's action in us. If you haven't read it yet and/or understood it, and if you're not trying to get it wrong with false reasoning, recognize you've experienced it and experience it every day.

 The old covenant :

Yahweh spoke to you out of the midst of the fire: you heard the voice of words, but you saw no form; you only heard a voice. He declared to you his covenant, which he commanded you to perform, even the Ten Commandments; and he wrote them on two tables of stone. Yahweh commanded me at that time to teach you statutes and ordinances, that you might do them in the land where you go over to possess it. Deuteronomy 4 :12-14

Behold, I set before you this day a blessing and a curse: the blessing, if you shall listen to the commandments of Yahweh your God, which I command you this day; and the curse, if you shall not listen to the commandments of Yahweh your God, but turn aside out of the way which I command you this day, to go after other gods, which you have not known. Deuteronomy 11 :26-27

• God gives commandments
• He asks us to obey ALL his commandments, and if we succeed, we are blessed.
• If we fail to do so we are rejected as it is also written:

So then, those who are of faith are blessed with the faithful Abraham. For as many as are of the works of the law are under a curse. For it is written, "Cursed is everyone who doesn't continue in all things that are written in the book of the law, to do them. Galatians 3: 10

• It's the old covenant. There's a contract. I'm doing my part, God is doing his. If one of them breaks the contract, the alliance is broken.

And the first covenant was broken long ago, for God did not find a righteous one, not one, in all times and places. All have disobeyed and are deprived of the glory of God. God then inaugurated a more excellent covenant, based on better promises.

But now he has obtained a more excellent ministry, by so much as he is also the mediator of a better covenant, which on better promises has been given as law. . Hebrews 8 :6

Already David, King David, prophetically, heralded this extraordinary covenant that begins to act with power in us, as soon as we understand it and adopt as a daily way of life to tighten it on our hearts. David said :

“Truly is not my house so [blessed] with God?
For He has made an everlasting covenant with me,
Ordered in all things, and secured.
For will He not cause to grow and prosper
All my salvation and my every wish?
Will He not make it grow and prosper?.  2 Samuel 23 :2

Jesus is the seed of new life. And our salvation sprouts from Him and blossoms through Him. Salvation is not just about going to heaven. Salvation is the perfect transformation of our soul into the image of Jesus. Complete salvation is the ability to obey the Father, to please the Father, moved, propelled by the imperishable life of the One who lives in you and produces in us his feelings, his desires, his love, his joy, his Wisdom, his strength. Provided and only in these conditions, provided that we expect everything from Him, even desire because every man is driven first by his desires.

Having the mind that was in Jesus Christ is a commandment (Philippians 2:5). Who can claim to be able to put it into practice? First of all no one can trigger mind, deep feelings to command. Even less can you put on someone else's mind. And from afar, clothe yourself with the mind of Jesus Christ! And yet it is a commandment.

The key is to understand that commandments with the new covenant become promises. They say, this is what Jesus is, he is the germ, and that is what he is sprouting in you, if you expect him to do so. Stop trying to find energy in yourself to please God. God loves you as you are. That is, with an ability to follow his orders close to zero. But with Christ in You, everyything becomes possible. It's the new covenant. It produces desire in you and gives you the ability to please Him. This is what makes Him your Saviour.

For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel. After those days," says the Lord; "I will put my laws into their mind, I will also write them on their heart. I will be their God, and they will be my people. . Hebrews 8 :10

So then, my beloved, even as you have always obeyed, not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God who works in you both to will and to work, for his good pleasure. . Philippians 2 :12-13

Learn by heart the verse of Ezekiel that follows because it is the official text of the new covenant and this is this faith in Jesus in us, this firm hope in the good news that triggers in us the powers of the Kingdom of God that transform before our amazed eyes, our daily life.

Learn it by heart and after every failure, at the desolate realization of your coldness, at every unsuccessful attempt to overcome a sin, in front of every temptation, whenever you are tempted to discourage yourself, remember that there is nothing surprising to your failures. You have ceased to rely on Him and you were proudly leaning on your abilities. Your ability is close to zero and it is Christ in you, who first must produce a true will (intelligently working for our salvation consists of turning our eyes to the One who is the source and the engine), then your faith leads you to obedience and you realize that the same God who gave you the will now makes you able to perform with zeal and love the good works He has prepared in advance. So learn this verse by heart. It's the new covenant :

I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you. I will also give you a new heart, and I will put a new spirit within you; and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh. I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and you shall keep my ordinances, and do them.  Ezekiel 36 :25-27

Jesus Christ, our Savior, who existed in the form of God, emptied himself, took a form of servant, he became like men, without using any prerogative of any divine power. He came like a simple man.

… Christ Jesus, who, existing in the form of God, didn't consider equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself, becoming obedient to death, yes, the death of the cross.  Philippiens 2 :6-8

But He, the only son of God, born of the Spirit of God and the Virgin Mary, He, truly a man, weak as each of us in his humanity was strong, by the power of the Spirit of God that was in Him and although He was living in a flesh similar to that of sin, the same as ours, He, the One Son of God in a man's body lived WITHOUT sin. He became the first of a new humanity. He conquered the power of sin in a man's body. And today by the new covenant, inaugurated by his Blood, by his sacrifice and by the coming of his Spirit in us, Jesus Christ can do in us and through us, what he did in his own human body. He makes us overcome sin, love God with all our strength with all our soul and thought, and already live on earth the life of the Kingdom of Heaven.

As far as we expect everything from him. These are the conditions of the new covenant. To expect Him and Him alone to do in us what we fail to do or what we so laboriously and imperfectly succeed to do.

But the righteous will live by faith. Hebrews 10 :38

Yes most certainly, and I count all things to be loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus, my Lord, for whom I suffered the loss of all things, and count them nothing but refuse, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own, that which is of the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith; Philippians 3 :8-9

Our hearts are circumcised, the day Christ comes to live in our heart.

in whom you were also circumcised with a circumcision not made with hands, in the putting off of the body of the sins of the flesh, in the circumcision of Christ;  Colossians 2 :11

That is to say, our heart (inner being) underwent, with our agreement marked by our repentance and baptism, a surgical operation, as a transplant that only the Holy Spirit could perform. Our new heart begins to love God, not only sentimentally, but by a burning and deep desire to please Him in everything.

This is how he creates the will. There are of course other desires that sometimes come to cover and oppose this will created by God. Desires that give us the impression that we do not love God: desires of our flesh, of our natural life still present in our soul and in our body. We know that our bodies will contain in itself and until the end of our earthly life the principle of sin.

For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, that you may not do the things that you desire. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. Galatians 5 :17

But let us not be deceived by superficial layers of our soul, for the truth is that deep down and in truth, in truth, we love God:

God's love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.  Romans 5 :5

And this love translates into a compelling desire to please him. A fulfilling desire producing peace and joy when we follow the conduct of the Holy Spirit in God’s will and obey it.

A desire that produces frustration and condemnation when we fail to do so. But always, the Spirit pushes us to follow God.

Always, the Spirit inspires us to love God and our neighbor, to do good to our neighbor, to serve him, to forgive him, to forget his offenses, to practice all kinds of good works. He who loves fulfills the whole law.

For the whole law is fulfilled in one word, in this: "You shall love your neighbor as yourself. Galatians 5 :14

And the Holy Spirit constantly influences us in this direction, sometimes very deep within ourselves, so gently within ourselves, that we sometimes prefer the will of the noisy, restless and superficial voices of our hard, independent and resentful soul.

When a desire rises in us, stronger than that of the Spirit of God there are two ways to react. One leads us to failure or to a temporary victory, the other to triumph and deep and lasting joy depending on whether we operate in the mentality of the old covenant or in that of the new covenant :

Scenarios: You have bad desires - you feel indifferent to God - you continually fall back into the same sins

In which mentality do you address the problem ?

The old covenant mentality and its results :

• You condemn yourself

- to be such a bad Christian

- to have such bad desires

- not to want to do joyfully what God asks of you (covenant of condemnation).

• You decide to shake yourself and you make the decision to defeat your flesh (ah ah, as if you could!).
• You force yourself to pray or obey or do what God asks of you (Law of Sinai).
• And the result: (I'm not a soothsayer but I've experienced this vain way of operating for years) is that you're going to get there once, twice and in the third, nature will come back to gallop. (an alliance of impotence and worthlessness)
• You sin, you disobey and sometimes you become worse than before. (alliance of disobedience because this is the role of law, to incite disobedience)

Welcome to the principles and laws of the old covenant that worked perfectly well..

• "Law condemns. It is called the service of death and condemnation.

But if the service of death, written engraved on stones, came with glory, so that the children of Israel could not look steadfastly on the face of Moses for the glory of his face; which was passing away: won't service of the Spirit be with much more glory? For if the service of condemnation has glory, the service of righteousness exceeds much more in glory. 2 Corinthiens 3 :7-9

• It produces disobedience

But sin, finding occasion through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of coveting. For apart from the law, sin is dead. Romans 7 :8

• It is weak and useless because of the weakness of our flesh

For what the law couldn't do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God did, sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh; that the ordinance of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. Romans 8 :3

because the mind of the flesh is hostile towards God; for it is not subject to God's law, neither indeed can it be. . Romans 8 :7

• It makes you feel your imprisonment and the need for a Savior

But before faith came, we were kept in custody under the law, confined for the faith which should afterwards be revealed. So that the law has become our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith. Galatians 3 :23-24

And if you experienced the power of the new alliance ?

Mentality of the new covenant and its results

• you humiliate yourself before the Lord by noticing this rebellion stronger than your love for God and you do so systematically, with every manifestation of this rebellion, no matter how small it is.

O God, see the misery of my flesh. The desire to do what I want is stronger than the desire to please you.

• You recognize and confess the principle of sin that still lives in your body
• You remind your mind of the terms of the new covenant (did you learn it by heart?) which constitute God's contract with man through Jesus Christ.
• You present to God the promise of this covenant sealed by the Blood and tell him that you trust him to produce his will to Him stronger than yours
• Sometimes you will even confess that you have no desire for Him. Not even the desire to want to want (the illusion of our flesh goes far!).
• In short you feel your misery but you expect Him, Him in you, for desiring sincerely and deep in your heart to do his will because you have understood that the God who made this covenant cannot lie and in one way or another , he will do a miracle, He must do this miracle otherwise you are lost (not in the sense of salvation!). Repeat the text of the covenant to yourself or aloud. God is faithful to all his pacts.
• You summon the help of the Holy Spirit.

The religious will hate what I have just described, but never be it, they will continue to live in secret in their defeats by boasting of holiness and love of appearance. For there is no constant, stable victory possible for a human if he does not resolutely turn his hope in Christ in him for everything and if each of his personal victories is not acquired by the life of Christ in Him.

A prayer that summarizes and illustrates what has just been said. To better understand the state of mind :

'Lord, remember your covenant. You said you'd make me follow your prescriptions; Jesus you live in me. Create in me the will. It's your covenant and you can't betray your covenant. I may betray it a thousand more times, but you are God and you remain faithful. You remember that we are dust. Your covenant is the divine power for my salvation, I believe in you and in your promise.

If I sin, forgive me but make me stronger. I wish I didn't want this sin anymore. I would like my desire to please you to be stronger than those bad desires I have at that moment. But isn't that your covenant? Isn't that what you promised? Didn't you promise to germinate my salvation? You are Jesus, the guarantor of this covenant, you guarantee the success of this covenant because you are its author and its consumer. Jesus, I put my hope in you and your Holy Spirit in me, and when this sin is overcome, I will be able to render glory to you because it is you, you alone in me, who gives me the will to please God and the ability to do so. You're the Savior. I adore you. I hope in my Savior who saves me perfectly.

• I recognize my weakness
• I accept the completely irrational idea that God does not condemn me when I fail.

This is part of the new covenant because God is now at work to restore everything in me and in the meantime, although I am still guilty of so many things, he no longer condemns me. If I feel doomed, it comes from me and I'm going to have to make up my mind that God NEVER CONDEMNS ME. It goes against my comprehension. It's the first difficult step to take, weirdly. This is the most beautiful news and we do not want to accept it; it is true that the widespread legalistic preaching does not encourage us to do so. Let's attach ourselves to the Word of God.

There is then now no condemnation to those in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set me free from the law of sin and of death. Romans 8 :1

No more condemnation from God, even when they are guilty because God is working in them. And if someone interprets this principle to make it an excuse to sin, and if it is a child of God, the Holy Spirit will discipline him and put him back in the path of the perfect law of freedom.

For you, brothers, were called for freedom. Only don't use your freedom for gain to the flesh, but through love be servants to one another. . Galatians 5 :13

• I recognize the life of Jesus in me

Test your own selves, whether you are in the faith. Test your own selves. Or don't you know as to your own selves, that Jesus Christ is in you?--unless indeed you are disqualified. . 2 Corinthians 13 :5

• I expect Christ in me to produce the fruit of righteousness by inspiring the will that I do not have at this moment. Only he can do it.

Yes most certainly, and I count all things to be loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus, my Lord, for whom I suffered the loss of all things, and count them nothing but refuse, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own, that which is of the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith; 
Philippians 3 :9

I am not condemned even when I have weakly abandoned myself to sin. For the Spirit of God works in me and is transforming me because I hope in him and he who hopes in the Lord will never be confused in the end Romans 9 :33 ; the righteous falls 7 times and 7 times rises up to never fall again Proverbs 24 ;16. Because what is lame is firming Hebrews 12 :13 and the one who strengthens himself in grace no longer falls 2 Timothy 2 :1. And in the end, sin will have no power over you, since you are, not under the law, but under grace. Romans 6:15

A testimony

I was in my car that morning and hadn't even taken the time for breakfast. The traditional and guilt-ridden thought did not fail to arise in my thought: 'you have not even prayed, you should spend time with God'. But you see, not only had I not prayed, but I had absolutely no desire to pray or even spend time with the Lord. I wanted to listen to the news or music.

This story invariably ended in two ways :

1/ Or I would zap the awkward thought, turn on the radio and soon forget all this especially if the radio started broadcasting a series of good music or interesting report.

2/ Or, after an inner fight, I was able to start a weak prayer, quickly evaporated by many parasitic thoughts. I was squealing, going back to prayer where I had left it and continuing. And these back-and-forths could be repeated two or three times before I finally entered, but not always, at least painfully, in a time of communion that by the grace of God proved however each time so invigorating. It worked one morning, maybe two, and the third, I fell back in the first way.

Today, I take evil to the root. When I realize that I have no desire to approach GOD, to pray, I prefer to tell him and not try by myself. It is rather time to feel his misery, to humiliate oneself before Him so that He may raise us. It is time to turn to Christ who lives in us and who is our real life, the Savior that we still need today.

Lament, mourn, and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he will exalt you. James 4 :9-10

I have often told God :

Look, Lord at the state of my soul. I have no desire for you. I can't believe it. Nothing, no will to pray you nor praise you. My heart is cold, indifferent, not interested in anything about you. But it's your covenant to produce that will. Lord I give myself to you. And there my soul is so far from you, so indifferent and cold. I'm sorry and ashamed. But not surprised. You know me. You chose me when I was still a sinner. Everything has changed because you live deep inside me and your life in me is stronger than the principle of sin that still resides in this body. I have hope. Make me want you Lord. Save me again this time until I'm perfect in you.

And by speaking to him in this way, I realize that I have entered into prayer, without realizing it, just by conversing with the Holy Spirit. In doing so, I entered, and much more quickly and deeply than with the other forced method, into the restorative communion of God.

By simply and naturally practicing two dynamic principles of the Kingdom: humility (humiliation and recognition of who I am without His strength and that my nature has desires contrary to those of the Spirit) and faith (I trust only in the power of his acting covenant in me, in the power of the Spirit of Christ in me, even if it does not happen within a minute). I sometimes repeat aloud the fundamental text of the new covenant or another passage of the Bible that speaks of Christ in me. I strengthen my faith because it is through faith that we approach Him and God helps us in our weakness by strengthening our faith. Jesus is its author, its writer. It all comes from Him.

I encourage you, who have been born again, who have asked Christ to come and live in your heart (and he lives here) to expect from Him and ask Him for this will when you do not have it.

And when the will is there, engage joyfully in what it tells you knowing that you thus allow Christ to incarnate a little more deeply in you with each new step of obedience. This is how one enters holiness but in rest. This is how we practice the 'Sanctify yourself in the Lord' but in the grace of God, in the faith and power of the One who, in us, works both to will and to work.

Then we can boast in Christ, meaning we can glorify ourselves of what Jesus did in us and through us and not trust in the flesh, meaning that we will no longer put our trust in our so limited and unstable human capacity, in these laborious and discouraging efforts of the old covenant.

Life springs from within. We have everything in Christ : the desire to obey God and to please Him. He is our Savior. It's all from Him. God's work is that we believe in the One He sent to save us from our sad human condition. He makes us seat with the leaders of his own people (Psalm 113:8), with Him in heavenly places. And it is not by power or by force but by his Spirit, and it is the Lord who says so. I have just developed what this verse of Philippians says in one sentence (which I encourage you to learn by heart so that you can remember it in moments of coldness)

For we are the circumcision, who worship by the Spirit of God, and boast in Christ Jesus, and do not trust in flesh. Philippians 3 :3

And next time you take the Holy supper sacrament and hear the text we mentioned at the beginning of this meditation, remember within yourself the text of Ezekiel's new covenant and begin to rejoice. God has done it in you and is doing it. Christ in you, began a work of transformation. It is the new covenant, well settled, offering full security because it depends on Him. Jesus Christ, the Son of God is the mediator of this better, more excellent covenant that you will celebrate, by taking bread and wine. Christ in you is at work, the hope of glory and triumph.

And all is grace, grace and grace of God because and only because of His love for us!

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Audio:

A precious truth

Do we really need to possess a greater faith? 

Rather than asking God to increase our human capacities in all areas of our life, shouldn’t' we rather ask Him, that He, Christ Jesus, become in us, more and more the driving strength of all our actions and motives so we can enter wholly into our satiating destiny.  And believe that only His Spirit in us can create the will that we so barely have and the natural and supernatural work that we never have proportionally to real needs.

Hebrews, 13:20 - 21 Now may the God of peace, who brought again from the dead the great shepherd of the sheep with the blood of an eternal covenant, our Lord Jesus, make you complete in every good work to do his will, working in you that which is well pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen.

Jesus is our perfect Savior. He saves us from our misery, rebellion, incapacity, failures, inaccuracies, inequity, and limitations. He becomes everything, in us, as far as we let Him and ask Him to. And a grain of mustard seed is enough to get aware He lives in us and that we can trust His Spirit to guide and inspire us in the walk, at every moment, every day.

Philippians, 3:3 For we are the circumcision, who worship God in the Spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh (human capacities)

He is the grain of mustard seed. He can become everything in us and through us. The heavenly Father wants His Son to become everything in us above our highest hopes. If we only renounce to please him by tapping into our own resources. If we rather humble at the hardness of our heart and beg the power of His life in us, and prefer when we see our coldness, to lament, mourn and weep, feeling our misery and claiming and confidently expecting the effects of His Covenant in us in order that He exalts us. Rather than trying, moved by our natural man pride, to search within us some pathetic energies and win fugitives small victories.  Jesus saves us perfectly. He wants us to expect everything from Him (in us) and overall expect from Him (in us) what he demands us. And if our faith is not steady enough to believe such wonderful news, He will still be here to save us from our weak faith and grant us with His. 

Hebrews, 12:2 - looking to Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith...

All is a matter of look. Let's tell Him : enlighten my eyes so I understand You are fully enough, every day, for me to become, by your Spirit who lives in me, all what I am destined to become of You, through You and to You.

Romans, 11:36 - For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things. To him be the glory for ever! Amen.

And even if I can't yet see how this will practically happen in my daily life, never mind! You promised. This is the new covenant that you sealed with your precious blood. (Hebrews 8:10 to 13 - Ezechiel 36:25), you will do what you committed to do and I ask it to You, my Savior. 

1 John, 5:14 - This is the boldness which we have toward him, that, if we ask anything according to his will, he listens to us. And if we know that he listens to us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions which we have asked of him. 

Jesus is the absolute Savior and the whole plan and work of the Father are that we believe in and expect everything from Christ in us as the branch awaits everything from the tree that holds it. Jesus is the tree of life and we have been grafted in Him.

John 6:27 : Jesus answered them, "This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent."  

We have been cut off from the tree of knowledge of good and evil that generates natural mankind, proud, auto sufficient, doing much, even deeds that are spiritual in appearance but are actually performed by the strength of arms (of Him, by me, to him). We have become Christ branches when we are born again. We are part of His life. Our vocation is thus to bear fruit not do works to become righteous. Justice is a fruit! Our terrestrial and celestial vocation is that we may be filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God. Philippians, 1:11

Ephesians, 3:14 - For this cause, I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, that you may be strengthened with power through his Spirit in the inward man; that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith

Triumph, triumphant life in all areas of our existence starts and continues when Christ dwells in our hearts through faith.  This is the highest miracle that can happen in a human life. Clever strategy consists thus in searching this in priority as the rest, that we so earnestly desire, totally depends on it. Notice that this is the action of the Holy spirit in our inward man that, in response to prayer, creates this position of triumph. Our sanctification efforts (that are actually only vain tentative of improvement) will not change us. He, the Holy Spirit, in response to the prayer of a heart that humbles before Him and expects only from Him, He, the Holy Spirit of God makes this miracle possible : Christ dwells in us through faith, constantly, naturally.  He makes us dwell in Christ. And if we dwell in Christ, what opens before us is the infinite, supernatural, superabundant horizon of all divine blessings:

John, 15:7 If you remain in me, and my words remain in you, you will ask whatever you desire, and it will be done for you

To anyone who, like me, wants to grow in faith and Christ resemblance, let me share a very simple principle:

You will never fully submit joyfully to Christ the Lord until you have fully grasped how greatly He is your Savior. Only, Jesus the Savior can lead you to Jesus the Lord and make you willing to please Him in everything. And Jesus the Lord will constantly lead you toward Jesus the Saviour.

Jesus has not come to abolish the law. His commands (remain in me, love one another just like I have loved you, bless those who curse you, and pray for those who mistreat you…) and the commands of the Holy Spirit (pray without ceasing, have this in your mind, which was also in Christ Jesus, rejoice without ceasing) are far, very further above our natural capacities of obedience. We have to re-learn to read the Bible in the spirit of a new covenant and joyfully enter in God's rest.

Hebrews, 4:10-11 There remains therefore a Sabbath rest for the people of God. For he who has entered into his rest has himself also rested from his works, as God did from his. 

Commands have now become promises. They are offered to our faith and their accomplishment is guaranteed by the welling power of the new covenant, a much better covenant (Hebrews 7:21) canceling the Mount Sinai’s one, a covenant sealed by the blood of the Lamb and made operational in us by the Spirit of Christ. The law was just a pedagogue to lead us to Christ and it still is. (Galatians 3:24). "A voice came out of the cloud, saying, "This is my beloved Son. Listen to him...." In you! Test your own selves, whether you are in the faith. Test your own selves. Or don't you know as to your own selves, that Jesus Christ is in you?
2 Corinthians, 13:6

Let us pray every day, our SAVIOR, to be found in him, not having a righteousness of our own, that which is of the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith. Philippians 3:9 

Let us pray every day, our HEAVENLY FATHER that he would grant us, according to the riches of his glory, that we may be strengthened with power through his Spirit in the inward man; that Christ may dwell in our hearts through faith. Ephesians, 3:14

And let peace and true joy then flood out of our hearts into the world in quenching streams and welling and inexhaustible rivers for the Kingdom of God is righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit.

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Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. Matthew 7 :7-8

It is a law of the Kingdom of God. There is nothing automatic. All promises in the Bible show us what God is willing to give. And so, what must be asked, sought, and penetrated definitively.

All victories and riches acquired by the Son of God, Jesus Christ, are described in the Bible so that every man and woman demand concrete and daily fulfillment in his life. Jesus invites us and promises to the one who asks that he will receive, to the one who seeks that he will find and to the one who knocks, that he will see a door open and may enter. So, we need to know:

1/ we must ask for everything

2/ What to ask

3/ Ask well with right motives.

If a child of God does not obtain, it is not for lack of faith, for it takes so little, a grain of mustard, that is to say very very little and this very very little raises and moves mountains.

This grain of mustard that can lift mountains, here it is:

he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him. Hebrews 11 :6

Every child of God has this grain of mustard. There is therefore another cause for the non-fulfilment of certain wishes and the non-fulfillment of certain prayers.

You do not have because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures. Jacques 4 :2-3

You do not ask:

We sometimes forget to ask what God promised, presuming it's going to happen on its own in His time.

However, you must ask for everything. Even what God has pledged to faithfully give us. In Matthew 6, the Lord pledges to give us food and clothing. Nevertheless, we are invited every day to pray our Father in heaven for our daily bread. He knows we need it. But that doesn't exempt us from asking Him.

You are not asking well:

We ask for things that:

- either can't be granted to us right away

- either are of no real use

either (or worse) may harm us.

And in all cases, we ask wrongly if we have not followed Jesus' instructions and respected the order of priority he gave.

If I ring your doorbell, I make you an offer, an extraordinary gift. I suggest you choose between 100 very precious gold eggs immediately or a hen that lays a golden egg every morning for life. Once you have chosen, you will have to make me the official request of what you have chosen. Because I'm interested in what you're going to choose.  What will you choose?

Presented like this, no hesitation, isn't it? You choose the hen that will give you a golden egg for the rest of your life.

Why, when Jesus makes us the same proposal, we choose to ask for the golden eggs.

But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. Matthew 6.33

Perhaps the kingdom and the righteousness of God do not seem to us to be a hen with golden eggs but a religious and not very concrete thing. Well, there are these 'all these things that will be added', which do look like golden eggs and there we are interested. But since we do not really know what Jesus means with the kingdom and righteousness, then we ask 'the things to be added' and there are so many....

We make a strategic mistake and deprive ourselves of the best by not scrupulously and in order following the Lord's instructions. Seek first, first, the kingdom and its righteousness; Once you find it, the rest will be given to you in abundance, a pressed down, shaken together, and running over measure!

What is the kingdom of God and his righteousness?

for the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. Romans 14 :17

The kingdom is righteousness! And as a result, that is priceless: overflowing peace and joy every day of our lives, whatever the circumstances!

What is righteousness?

Righteousness is the will and ability to joyfully and daily practice God's will in our lives, free of sin. It is a miracle of the Holy Spirit granted to the new creature filled with the Spirit, an effect of Christ's resurrection power in his/her heart.

It is a gift from God, free and possible because the Son of God is resurrected. There is a power in His resurrection. This power, which is spread in the heart of the one who demands and receives it, arouses righteousness and one can walk as He has walked.

If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. John 15 :7

That is probably why, we just ask for the golden eggs, 'things added’. We do not believe that it is possible to experience what has just been explained. We do not believe it is possible to walk like He walked.

Why then does Jesus ask us to seek this? Would he ask us for something impossible? It does not look like Him.

What prevents us from walking as He walked, from remaining in his words? The old self, the flesh? Is it not written that the old self was crucified at the Cross? Is it not written that we were crucified on the same day as Jesus at the Cross? So, the old self, the flesh should no longer be obstacles to righteousness.

Unless these things have not been revealed to us because they are inaccessible to the natural eye, to the natural life.

but just as it is written, "things which eye has not seen and ear has not heard, and which have not entered the heart of man, all that God has prepared for those who love him, For to us God revealed them through the Spirit; 1 Corinthians 2.10

And until they have been revealed to our minds, they remain just words, magnificent inoperative promises, a beautiful, promised country but on the other side of the Jordan. God reveals them through His Spirit. God miraculously cuts off the waters of the Jordan and bring us in.

and in Him you have been made complete, and He is the head over all rule and authority. Colossians 2 :10

Therefore Jesus tells us to seek and ask first for the kingdom of God because we already have been made complete in Him. That includes the 'things added'. The death and resurrection of Jesus Christ have given us everything.

CHRIST DIED ON THE CROSS. By his death, all our past, present and future sins are erased, and God will never condemn us again for anything. Today God is at peace with us. He is at peace with us, we are at peace with Him, by the death of Christ, because of the death of Christ, through the death of Christ whatever our present condition.

It is a fact that has waited for two thousand years all those who hear about it and that opens the continual source of joy and overflowing inner peace we need, to valiantly and resolutely conquer our heritage. It is a mandatory gateway. The cross. Sins forgiven. No more condemnation. Ever.

Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand Romans 5.2

You just must know that and accept it. If we are not deeply and undeniably convinced that our sins have all been erased, that we are in the eyes of God, white as snow, it is because Christ's death on the Cross is in us only at the stage of a mere intellectual understanding.

It takes more than an understanding to enter this experience and see it transform every day into torrents of overflowing peace and joy. That is why Jesus tells us to ask and seek. We must recognize our blindness and ask God to open our spiritual eyes. Only He can do it and when the good gift, the perfect gift comes from above, truth then explodes in all our being in a no-brainer that nothing can ever destroy.

CHRIST IS RESURRECTED. The power of his resurrection, the power of his new life, poured into us, allows us to live in righteousness every day of our lives. This is the second side of the coin; the righteousness of God that Jesus speaks to us about and that must be sought.

For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law but under grace. Romans 6 :14

You must know it and know that it is possible. If we are not deeply and undeniably convinced that Christ lives in us and that the power of His life is sufficient to hold our old self in death and make us live every day of our lives, free from sin, from the world and from the adversary, in God's righteousness, it is because the resurrection of Christ is at the stage of a mere intellectual understanding. And of course, we do not fully experience it.

It takes more than an understanding to fully enter this experience. Understanding is not faith.

Faith is the hand of our spirit that captures what the spiritual eye has just seen.

Why do you think the Lord Jesus-Christ advises us to buy eye salve so that we may see? Yes, He tells us to ask and seek and strike and he advises us to buy from Him.

I advise you to buy from Me.... eye salve to anoint your eyes so that you may see. Revelation 3 :18

We must ask God for this eye salve, ask Him to open our spiritual eyes. Only He can do it and when the good gift, the perfect gift comes from above, truth becomes operational, acting. We live the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all other things are added.

This is the confidence which we have before Him, that, if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests which we have asked from Him. 1 John 5 :14-15

It is time for the church to wake up from its deep blindness sleep and for each member to begin to operate as he/she should, with eyes illuminated by Jesus' eye salve. A member of Christ, his eyes thus open, is made able to operate individually and in coordination with the other members because his/her faith empowers him/her to use the supernatural and powerful resources of the kingdom of God. The church can then begin to do, according to His own words (John 14:12), greater things than those of the Son of man when He was in the limitations of a human body.

With a church that has closed eyes, while she thinks she sees clearly, the Son of Man could find very little faith on earth when He returns.

will not God bring about justice for His elect who cry to Him day and night, and will He delay long over them? I tell you that He will bring about justice for them quickly. However, when the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on the earth? Luke 18: 7-8

To be followed….

One can be a believer of Christian obedience, sincere and know of God only his commandments, his demands, his anger, paradise, hell, his apparent distance from men and all the rites of religion with its splendid ornaments, its magnificent ceremonies, powerful organs, sacred scents or its rhythmic music, joyful and full of dances.

It is possible for a sincere and pious believer to be regularly beset by doubt and have, in fact, no deep and stable certainty as to the existence of God or eternity.

Millions of authentic, pious and consecrated Christian believers love the righteous God who resides in heaven, who has certainly sent Jesus but who punishes the sinner and reproaches the lack of holiness of his children. Many of the faithful seek the Lord's favor by imposing penance, all forms of deprivation or abstinence. Some go so far as to mortify themselves, climbing mountains to the point of bloodying their knees.

No one should be advised to make any judgment about a believer and his beliefs. First, because God alone has the right to be a judge. Secondly, because God does not only look at the actions of men, but also and much to their motivations. And He alone can do that because He is the only one who can read in the heart and therefore judge righteously.

It is permissible to have and give an opinion, but this opinion should only be shared if it is not likely to hurt and if it is shared gently. The Lord teaches us that love must prevail over freedom and our convictions (Romans 14:1-6). The wisdom from above is peaceable, gentle, reasonable and full of good fruits. It is neither violent nor bitterly zealous in wanting to defend the truth (James 3:13-17).

Let me share some thoughts. And please listen to me to the end.

For neither is circumcision anything, nor uncircumcision (practicing the rites of a religion), but a new creation. And those who will walk by this rule, peace and mercy be upon them... Galatians 6 :15-16

The new creation, the one who is born again, has deep, ingrained certainties in his heart that are not based on any human logic or reasoning.

The one who is born again knows that he or she is loved by God and feels no need to self-suggestion or to convince oneself of it.

The one who is born again knows he or she has been forgiven for all sins and accepts no condemnation, he or she has no doubt about his or her entry into heaven and has been fully convinced in the inner being, by God himself that salvation rests only on Jesus Christ.

The one who is born again knows that he or she will never do enough to win God's favor and does not even try. He or she knows that God's favor is all earned, regardless of any work or action.

The one who is born again loves God with a love flowing from his heart. No need to force oneself. It's flowing. He or she just needs to be taught, by the anointing of the Holy Spirit in him/her and through ministries and the Word of God, how to live and remain in Jesus Christ, in order to sustain himself/herself in this joyful life. A holy and victorious life is now possible.

The one who is born again has the will and the power to free himself from all addictions, from all devastating passions, from all dominating and demeaning sins. He or she has the power to say no to sin and to no longer be crushed by it.

The one who is born again knows without a shadow of a doubt; for his spiritual eyes have opened, that Christ is alive and that He is now the Shepherd of his life, the One who will help him/her to go through all trials which are the share of all humans, indiscriminately. The storm blows on all but those who have Jesus in their boat never sink.

Jesus is alive. Already, historically many know that He died on a cross. But the Father resurrected him. A resurrected is someone who had died and returned to life.

The risen Christ is more than the man who died on the cross. The risen one has regained his divine glory and power. He has the power to save us today. The one who is born again has met this living, truly Living Person, who has passed through death, who is resurrected and who lives forever. He or she met Him in his inner being, more actually than one would have met a visible person. For this reason, he or she will never be able to doubt again.

Are you born again?

The believer, the authentic and pious believer does not necessarily experience all this. Belief does not bring anyone into this life, into these certainties, into this solid and ineradicable faith.

You believe that God is one. You do well; the demons also believe, and shudder. James 2 :19

The Bible tells us that demons are as much believers as we are, even more so, and that is why they shudder. Their belief does not lead them into the presence of God. Salvation is not in belief. The demons are lost for eternity and their future is in a lake of fire despite their great belief.

Jesus answered and said to him, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God. John 3 :3

Jesus answered, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. John 3 :5

Jesus made it clear that to see the kingdom of God and to enter it, one must be born again! He did not foresee any other means. It is He, the Decision maker, the Chief, the Wise, the Lord, He who tells us insistently, insisting, repeating the word truly twice: truly, truly I say to you: you must be born again or you will not see or enter the kingdom of God.

for the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. Romans 14 :17

The Kingdom of God is not a geographical place or heaven. The Bible, which gives any explanation, teaches us in the book of Romans that the kingdom of God is righteousness, joy and peace in the Holy Spirit, already on earth and in fullness in heaven. Then let us paraphrase the words of Jesus, 'If a man is born of water and spirit, he cannot enter into the righteousness, peace and joy that the Holy Spirit shares.

It's more understandable, isn't it? Jesus was talking about these things to a teacher of the law, Nicodemus, a religious man more educated than you and me about God's law. And Nicodemus didn't understand anything to the point of saying: 'but, how could a man get into his mother's womb and then get out?' No, he did not understand that this new birth occurs first in the inner being.

It would not be reasonable to describe how the new birth occurs. For everyone, it is a different experience. But in all cases:

• We do know we are born again
• In the days, weeks following the new birth, we observe changes and even drastic changes in the way we act and think. We really become a different person while remaining ourselves.
• We have made an irrevocable decision and we know that we have changed course. We have firmly decided that Christ would now be the leader of our lives.
• We know, without a shadow of a doubt, that we are forgiven for all our sins and our love for the Lord no longer bears the very idea of displeasing him with any disobedience.
• We know that Jesus Christ lives with us and that He is now our Shepherd
• There is no longer any doubt about the person of Christ, even if we sometimes have questions about His ways that we do not always understand, but deep doubt no longer exists.
• And the peace and joy of the Holy Spirit in us is by no means the product of any mental effort.

No believer, merely a believer, unless he is born again, experiences this. It's supernatural.

The one who is born again enters with wonder into a luminous life. There is, however, no difference between the born again and the simple believer, no superiority of one over the other.

The believer has no less value than the one who is born again because everything is received by grace. He simply needs a witness to tell him that it is possible and necessary to go further, to live more than just belief, which over time may diminish, if it has not already happened. New birth is the standard given by Jesus Christ himself.

You may be saying, is this possible? Why doesn't anyone talk about it? Is there any chance that I too could go through this?

Yes it is possible and someone is talking to you about it today. Someone who has lived it, millions in the world have lived it and it is also possible for you, for all because:

This is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God, and one mediator also between God and men, the man Christ Jesus 1 Timothy 2 :4-5

There is no recipe. But there are obstacles to identify. Then it will be between you and the Lord. Let's rely on the texts of the Bible. God has inspired men over centuries to make us know His Will. Through His Word, we know what we can reasonably expect from Him.

Biblical texts are solid foundations. Many people who are ill-intentioned or simply totally ignorant want to undermine the reliability of these texts through all kinds of smoky and unfounded theories. I feel sorry for them. It will be difficult for them to enter into the presence of God, for it is precisely through trust in his promises and in his Word that we can receive from Him all the riches of his grace. There are no other ways.

But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name, Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth. John 1 :12-14

This text explains us that by believing in Jesus, in His Name, one is likely to receive a power, the power to become a son of God. We are then born of God and not of the blood, nor of the will of the flesh or of man.

It doesn't come from blood: you don't inherit being a son of God at birth from your parents. You become one.

This does not come from the will of the flesh: the flesh here has the meaning of human nature, its desires, its thoughts and the strength of its will. You are not born again by the power of your will, by your efforts or by your actions. It is not self-suggestion or the result of any mental power.

This does not come from the will of man: no man, even the most sincere and pious, the highest priest or preacher, nor the prayers of either have the power to make you born again even if they contribute to it.

For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. Ephesians 2 :8-9

not of yourselves: We cannot bring anything to God that has enough value for Him to give birth to us again. You can jump, scream, moan, raise your arms to heaven, sulk, haggle, trick or do so many magnificent and praiseworthy works. Nothing will do. Not of yourselves, says the Word. None of our actions can trigger the new birth.

For all of us have become like one who is unclean, And all our righteous deeds are like a filthy garment; Isaiah 64 :5

Our righteousness, our good deeds, our merits, do not give us any right of entry. They're like a filthy garment. They will not force God to make you his child.

Even our faith will not suffice or our repentance, as we are going to see. Our faith does not save us. Jesus alone saves us even with a billionth of a faith, a grain of mustard. Our faith, big or small, makes no difference. Jesus blessed the one to whom He declared ‘O woman, your faith is great' (Matthew 15:28) as much as the one who said to Him ‘I do believe; help my unbelief' (Mark 9:24).

It is God's gift: We are totally dependent, at the mercy of God's goodwill. If He does not intervene, if He does not decide to act from above, nothing will happen.

What shall we say then? There is no injustice with God, is there? May it never be! For He says to Moses, "I WILL HAVE MERCY ON WHOM I HAVE MERCY, AND I WILL HAVE COMPASSION ON WHOM I HAVE COMPASSION." So then it does not depend on the man who wills or the man who runs, but on God who has mercy. Romans 9:14-17

And if we persist in wanting to win the Lord's favor pretending to have any merit, this is a major obstacle to new birth. Read the Parable of the Pharisee :

Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector.

The Pharisee stood and was praying this to himself: `God, I thank You that I am not like other people: swindlers, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector;

I fast twice a week; I pay tithes of all that I get.

But the tax collector, standing some distance away, was even unwilling to lift up his eyes to heaven, but was beating his breast, saying, `God, be merciful to me, the sinner!.

I tell you, this man went to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but he who humbles himself will be exaltedé. Luke 18 :10-13

You have to assimilate that. It's extremely frustrating, annoying, unbearable for human nature. Our nature will always look in one way or another to be part of it. Well, no. It is the Sovereign Grace, the merits of Jesus Christ and nothing else that trigger spark the miracle. Our participation is minimal.

But then I'm wasting my time, will you tell me?

No! On the other hand, just make sure that God has promised new birth. It will be easier to receive because He is faithful unlike man. Everything He promises, He does. And if we are certain to ask for something He has already promised to give, it strengthens us. When you know you are entitled to something, you have insurance to claim it until you get it. Even obstacles or delays can't stop your determination, you know you're entitled to it!

Now you have read the words of Jesus above about new birth. What more do you need? You must be born again.

So here's the path to new birth:

• Repenting
• Accept who Jesus Christ is, what He says, and invite him to live and reign in our hearts.
• REPENTANCE and FAITH. FAITH and REPENTANCE.

Very simple in words!

REPENTANCE

To repent is to realize that we have lived the life of a blind and deaf until now, having heard of God in catechism, in Sunday school, through our parents, our friends, through books, through the Bible or a personal research. Yes, we've heard of God, but He's always been a theory, never a person intensely present in our lives.

The result is that we direct our lives as we see fit, being driven, sometimes in spite of ourselves, by the wills of our thoughts and our human nature, often committing acts that we know to be reprehensible but it is stronger than us, out of selfishness, out of passion.

Repenting is when we decide that this lifestyle, we don't want it anymore. It takes halh a second to repent. Although we are aware that we do not yet have the power to get away from it. It is wanting to change mentality, way of thinking, it is wanting to change attitude, convinced that only Jesus Christ, the Shepherd, will be able to direct our life properly.

"Now I want you Jesus, to lead my life. I am sorry for all that I have done that I knew to be wrong and for all that I have not done and that would have been good. I am sorry and want to change, give my life to you and let you lead it. I no longer want to be a slave to my inclinations, bad attitudes or devouring passions. “

How many times have you ever repented like this?

If you've done it many times, you may have become tired. "It's useless," you maybe said to yourself; "It doesn't change anything anyway, I start again the next day."

Yes, this repentance was a necessary first step but it did not introduce you to new birth. Cheer up, you're not far away!

THE KEY

I've been through that too. I always repented for the same things, all the time and without change. I felt every time I was doing it, that it stayed at a very superficial level. It didn't really spring from the depths of myself, even if regrets were sincere. And I couldn't figure out how to get it out of my guts. It was always on the edge of the skin. It was frustrating. I had no idea how to be more sincere, deeper so that it was really a cry of guts. It was out of my reach.

Then one day I received a very simple instruction and the deliverance came. A brother showed me, through the Word of God, that only God can give true repentance that is profound, authentic and definitive.

The Lord's bond-servant must not be quarrelsome, but be kind to all, able to teach, patient when wronged with gentleness correcting those who are in opposition, if perhaps God may grant them repentance leading to the knowledge of the truth, and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, having been held captive by him to do his will. 2 Timothy 2 :24-26

Jesus answered, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit John 3 :5-7

 I now rejoice, not that you were made sorrowful, but that you were made sorrowful to the point of repentance; for you were made sorrowful according to the will of God, so that you might not suffer loss in anything through us, For the sorrow that is according to the will of God produces a repentance without regret, leading to salvation, but the sorrow of the world produces death 2 Corinthians 7 :9

You repented. You were sincere but let’s understand what Jesus is trying to teach us through 'what is born of the flesh is flesh' and apply it to repentance.

It means that repentance that comes from the flesh (from human nature and its abilities) is flesh (remains within the limits of what human nature and capacities can produce). It is sincere, it is not bad, it shows our desire to change course but it is insufficient.

We need the intervention of the Spirit. The fire from above must consume the sacrifice. What is born of the Spirit is spirit. There is a repentance of the flesh, human, and a repentance by the Spirit, led by the Spirit of God. There is a sorrow of the flesh, human, which is limited to sincere but vain regrets, and a sorrow by the Spirit, according to God led by the Spirit of God which leads to true repentance. 

It is God's gift so that no one will glorify his beautiful repentance or great faith. God is the author of our salvation from beginning to end.

The brother encouraged me to ask God for true repentance, the one that comes from Him. I followed the instruction. Blessed be this inspired man! It triggered everything.

We cannot bring anything to God that is acceptable, as we have said. Only the recognition and confession of our total inability to please him in any way, and our request that He do in us, what we fail to do, is the trigger for any blessing from above. It's not from you. What is born of the Spirit is Spirit. God gives to anyone who asks.

He opened His mouth and began to teach them, saying, Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Matthew 5 :3

The kingdom of God, righteousness, peace and joy through the Holy Spirit, new birth is for the poor in spirit, for those who recognize their spiritual poverty (life of the spirit).

The day God granted me his repentance, I saw my sins and rebellion like I had never seen them before. It happened when I didn't expect it anymore and it's a memorable day I'll never forget. In the presence of love of the Holy Spirit, I repented with all my heart, as I had never been able to do by myself.

The experience varies from person to person. For me it was very emotional but it is not a reference. For others it will be quite different in its manifestation. It may be different for you.

But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth… John 16 :13

But whatever the way the new birth takes place, in all cases, because it is the Comforter, the Holy Spirit who leads you into repentance, you repent in truth, deeply, resolutely, decidedly, in a depth and authenticity that only the Spirit can infuse, in the light of Grace which is in Jesus Christ and which instantly erases from your conscience, all the sins that He shows you and that you recognize. You're forgiven. Definitely washed. You know that and nothing can make you go back. That day you are born again.

A visitation of the Holy Spirit in a meeting of the Church, this feeling of having been touched by the presence of God, those tears that may have flowed from your eyes do not make you be born again. A decision is needed. Faith alone is not enough as it is not a decision. Repentance given by God leads to a profound and definitive position. We are driven to commit all our will. In that moment, the whole being finds the determination to change course.

Only this moment of decision gives the green light to the Lord. Then you decide who to follow, your old way of life or Him? You tell him, He takes note and your life is transformed.

Don't be discouraged. It sounds inaccessible, too good to be true but it's real. Supernatural, extraordinary but very real. It is the normal experience of the Christian according to the New Testament stories and that makes you the happiest person in the world. Does that mean you're out of range? You are right! It's totally out of YOUR reach. So what? It is not your work but that of the One who wants you to be born again, even more than you do, to add you to the community of His children. He made you his child by adoption, before the foundation of the world. He is at work today. Ask God to lead you into the deep and true repentance that comes from Him. He will take you there and change your life forever.

Let me share one last thing that should help you. I do not preach an experiment; I illustrate with experience what is taught in the Scriptures; it's quite different.

I would like to mention that during this time of repentance given by the Spirit, I had a moment of cold sweat. As I was bathed in tears, in His presence, and receiving His relieving forgiveness for all sins passed, the Spirit began to point out things that I was still doing and that I clearly had to also give up.

To my amazement, something woke up and roared within me. I found myself unable to give up anything and began to argue, to negotiate, to justify myself, to minimize the seriousness of these things. But no matter how much I did and said, the Lord showed me that it was not negotiable and that I had to give up everything at his feet. That's when I got cold sweat.

I wanted to, but my whole being was hardly saying no. I couldn't give up. Impossible. I didn't want to. And I felt that this new life that was offered to me was escaping me because I was unable to accept the Lord's conditions. Incredible massive forces of resistance that I had never carried out were there, in me, in spite of myself, raised like a mountain against the Lord's will, stronger than my will; and it lasted a while. I realized that I was lost. I didn't want to, I couldn't; the answer was no, definitely no. I will not give up or give up anything, I liked those things too much….

There was a moment of silence and immobility and in my desperate mind, the Spirit of God suddenly gave me a way out. "Ask me for the strength and the will to abandon everything to me." After a few very struggling moments of hesitation, I reluctantly said to God, and against my apparent will (but which will !?) and in any case not feeling any real personal desire that He do it: “Lord, give me the will to yield and give you everything “. Instantly, resistance faded and peace and joy flooded my soul. And that flow flowed for weeks and weeks. We can't invent that!

And even less give up everything, without His help, by the sheer force of our will!

Our human nature rejects God and it becomes very obvious when the Lord casts His light upon us. Our eyes open and we realize how much our natural being hates God's ways. But that doesn't stop Him from saving us. Jesus Christ offered Himself for us on the Cross and to put to death this human resistance. This resistance is called: sin, singular. Jesus Christ saves us even and above all from sin.

Yes, I understood that every human being is truly lost, irretrievably rebellious to God and that the Lord is truly a powerful Savior. He can save us perfectly from ourselves and our resistance. Jesus Christ is the perfect Savior, I repeat. He perfectly saves the one who accepts to receive everything from Him. This lesson is engraved and I do not think it was useless to share it.

That day, I experienced (before I had even read them and knew them) these few truths that the Word teaches us:

and in Him you have been made complete, and He is the head over all rule and authority. Colossians 2 :10

for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure. Philippians 2 :13

For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever. Romans 11 :36

and in Him you were also circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, in the removal of the body of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ: Colossians 2 :11

Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded. James 4 :8

If you cannot make the decision, He can still help you, inspire you, give you intelligence, and click to desire to repent. He knows what we are formed of, he remembers that we are dust (Psalms 103). You have to ask Him everything. The new life He gives is bright, beautiful, exciting, peaceful, joyful, productive, and fruitful. We are dependent on God. Salvation is God's gift. Jesus Christ is our Savior. He saves us from ourselves.

FAITH

Therefore let all the house of Israel know for certain that God has made Him both Lord and Christ--this Jesus whom you crucified.
Now when they heard this, they were pierced to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, "Brethren, what shall we do?
Peter said to them, "Repent, and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit; For the promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off, as many as the Lord our God will call to Himself. Acts of the Apostles 2 :36-38

The promise is for all in as great a number as the Lord will call. But it is said on the other hand that Jesus attracts all men to Him, men and women:

And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to Myself. But He was saying this to indicate the kind of death by which He was to die. John 12 :32

Jesus was raised on a cross first. Then he was raised in glory to the Father and from there He sent what had been promised: the Holy Spirit, the Comforter who Alone can lead us into the Kingdom of God, from new birth to our entry into heaven in the full and perfect presence of God.

To these He also presented Himself alive after His suffering, by many convincing proofs, appearing to them over a period of forty days and speaking of the things concerning the kingdom of God. Gathering them together, He commanded them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait for what the Father had promised, which, He said, you heard of from Me; for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now. Acts of the Apostles 1 :3-5

The Holy Spirit was sent at Pentecost (Acts of the Apostles 2) and since then, He is here, on earth, among the son of men. If the Holy Spirit attracts you, too, as you read these lines, recognize His way of speaking. You won't hear a voice. He does not utter audible words: 'Come to Jesus, give Him the direction of your life'. He attracts you, it is His words to Him, living words that speak to the heart and will. You know it in your heart. It's time to hand over to Jesus Christ the direction of your entire life.

For you were continually straying like sheep, but now you have returned to the Shepherd and Guardian of your souls. 1 Peter 2:25

God would like all men to be born again through the Spirit of God. Jesus was crucified. And his crucifixion is the price paid so that all may receive a new cleaned heart that becomes the dwelling of the risen Christ.

An inspired Christian song says, you can be born again, you can start all over again, sweep your past life, and start over with Jesus for Shepherd.

You must be born again, said Jesus Christ. Change course, give Him the direction of your whole life (that's what means the old term repent), and believe in Him, in His help and in His action in you from beginning to end. To have faith also means to ask God to add to our human repentance, the true repentance and the faith that also come from Him (Hebrews 12:2; Romans 10:17). What is born of the Spirit is spirit.

Jesus is dead, resurrected and He ascended into glory to send the Holy Spirit who wants to take you by hand and lead you to the foot of the Cross, for the forgiveness of all your sins, to be freed from sin (singular) and then once your heart is cleaned, to lead you, into an increasingly intimate communion with Jesus, making you a dwelling of Christ in Spirit on earth.

Tell him yes, come Lord Jesus Christ to live and rule over my life, over my heart!

This is the message of the gospel for you and for me.

2/ The inexcusable

The  inexcusable will join the stone hearts in the lake of fire. I am not who calls them the inexcusable, but Jesus Himself.

One can hear a talk on the Bible and not necessarily hear the gospel. Having heard religious statements about Jesus is not having heard the gospel. A political or philosophical discourse does not introduce anybody into the presence of Jesus Christ, the Savior. At best it faces you with God's law whose purpose is to expose and condemn the guilty.

The true gospel does not condemn anybody but saves the guilty.

Do you know which name 2 Corinthians 3: 6 to 9 gives to the preaching of efforts to obey God's commands and the shame and danger of not doing so?

The ministry of condemnation and death. A very widespread preaching alas, which does not save or transform anyone but condemns and kills! God himself initiated this ministry at a time. The Bible tells us it was a glorious ministry, but it also says that it is now outdated, abolished.

2 Corinthians, 3:6 - He has made us competent as ministers of a new covenant – not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.
Now if the ministry that brought death, which was engraved in letters on stone, came with glory, so that the Israelites could not look steadily at the face of Moses because of its glory, transitory though it was, will not the ministry of the Spirit be even more glorious? If the ministry that brought condemnation was glorious, how much more glorious is the ministry that brings righteousness! For what was glorious has no glory now in comparison with the surpassing glory.

The preaching of the gospel, that of the new covenant, establishes a living relationship with Jesus Christ. The supernatural and ability to preach it comes only from above. It is a new ministry, a new way to deliver, the ministry of the Spirit. If the ministry of condemnation was glorious, this ministry of righteousness that gives life and not death is much higher in glory.

A heart that was not touched by the spiritual ministry has not seen the kingdom of God as only the Holy Spirit can make us see what is invisible and thist does happen when preaching is anointed and talks not about the Mount Sinai's stone letters and of all its requirements but about Jesus -Christ , the Savior of the world and His generously offered grace.

Only the Holy Spirit can open spiritual eyes and allow the listener to see and thus truly be able to make a choice of who (s)he wants to follow. All things have become new in Christ; even the way of preaching the Word of God has changed.

Anyone brought into contact with this living gospel enlightened by the Holy Spirit, having heard Jesus speak to his/her heart, so somehow having seen Him (God knows them), and having refused, becomes a no-excuse. A no-excuse for having rejected the Savior without cause for who could reject the Jesus the Holy Spirit reveals?

• A God who erases all faults and throws them into the sea, forgetting them for ever.
• A God who does not treat us according to our faults, who does not punish us according to our iniquities.

Psalms, 103:10 - he does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities.

• A God who descended from heaven in the form of a man servant (Philippians 2:7) to be tortured and murdered by unrighteous men, in order to pay the high ransom of sin and redeem people who do not even care about Him.
• A God who, when invited, fills the heart with happiness, joyful hope and leads his sheep into green pastures, near peaceful and refreshing waters, promising an eternity of unimaginable beauty and fullness, without boredom or weariness.
• A God who, if we let him fully live in us, transforms us from the inside and fills us with strong desire and ability to live according to His standards.
• And living according to His standards is the opening door to continual flow of peace and joy by the Holy Spirit, a springing and constant stream of living water that quenches all heart thirsts and triggers down here, the answer of all prayers.

How many would refuse such a God when the Holy Spirit reveals Him in the heart?

Very few.

Some will, however, knowingly rejecting Him again and again. They are the no-excuse. We read in the Gospel of John:

John, 15:22 - If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not be guilty of sin; but now they have no excuse for their sin.

John, 9:40 - Some Pharisees who were with him heard him say this and asked, ‘What? Are we blind too?’
Jesus said, ‘If you were blind, you would not be guilty of sin; but now that you claim you can see, your guilt remains.

These men, religious doctors of the law, scribes, scholars of the Word of God were standing before the Son of God who was teaching them through the power of the Holy Spirit. They were hearing, they were doubly seeing, with the eyes of flesh and the eyes of mind, for the Holy Spirit was powerfully with Jesus to convince. So, they knew without a doubt who was in front of them. They were also seeing the works of the Father operated by the power of the Spirit. They knew, Jesus affirms it when he tells of them:

John, 15:23 - Whoever hates me hates my Father as well. If I had not done among them the works no one else did, they would not be guilty of sin. As it is, they have seen, and yet they have hated both me and my Father. But this is to fulfil what is written in their Law: “They hated me without reason.”.

Despite this, they intentionally hated and rejected this Grace, preferring the glory of men or for some other deep and mysterious reason. It is the mystery of iniquity, the same hatred which animated the fallen cherub called Satan.

A no-excuse is such because he has really been introduced into the presence of Jesus and has truly seen him or heard him as these Pharisees.

Jesus is today in heaven sitting at the right of the Father so we can't see Him anymore with the eyes of flesh. In Jesus time, crowds were seeing the righteousness of God, a man in the flesh walking on the dusty roads of Galilea. But now?

That’s why, when still on earth, the Lord Jesus had announced He would send the Holy Spirit to convince the world about righteousness because He was returning to the Father and would no longer be seen physically:

John, 16:8 - When he comes, he will prove the world to be in the wrong about sin and righteousness and judgment: about sin, because people do not believe in me; about righteousness, because I am going to the Father, where you can see me no longer;

It's done. Today, the Holy Spirit palliates the fact that we no longer see in the flesh, Jesus, the righteousness of God, the image of the invisible God, the imprint of His Person. The Holy Spirit does this work of making the person of Jesus seen without physical eyes. He speaks directly to the heart and opens the eyes of faith through anointed preaching. The anointed preaching, that is to say inspired by and filled with the Holy Spirit opens, sufficiently opens the eyes of the heart so that one can see or foresee the kingdom of God and above all its King.

Religious and unanointed preaching brings a legalistic and repulsive speech that only conveys information, threaten and bad news. It's like the manna. A delicious and nourishing food yesterday but an infected one today, filled with worms and unfit for consumption. The religious discourse does not open the heart eyes. That is why it has no qualifying value, to lose or save. Many should think twice before declaring themselves preachers of the gospel.

The old covenant easy preaching is out of date. Anyone knowing biblical principles can share one's knowledge. But this is not necessarily new covenant preaching inspired by the Almighty Spirit, a quite different sort of preaching that produces life or death. Death for the no-excuse who do see and reject. Life for those who do hear, believe and invite Christ as the shepherd of their hearts.

2 Corinthians, 2:15 - For we are to God the pleasing aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing. To the one we are an aroma that brings death; to the other, an aroma that brings life. And who is equal to such a task? Unlike so many, we do not peddle the word of God for profit. On the contrary, in Christ we speak before God with sincerity, as those sent from God.

You don't really speak from God unless you've been called, sent and therefore equipped. Transmission of commands and directives without setting them in the context of Christ new life is an old covenant practice, a dead product of the tree of knowledge of good and evil.

Everything has changed after Jesus Christ. The Father sent the Holy Spirit to proclaim Jesus, to reveal Jesus, to convince through a preaching carried by chosen and anointed clay pots and to fulfill the law in the heart of the believer.

"I only believe what I see" may say some. Well, this conception is outdated! Sight or hearing are no longer the only ways to be convinced. The Holy Spirit convinces your heart directly and you even see more than if you saw with your flesh eyes for it is not a view in the proper sense but an intimate conviction that quietly settles in you and is called seeing with the heart eyes.

Without being able to intellectually explain it or emotionally feel it, in spite of a few uncertainties still floating at the surface of your thoughts, very deeply in yourself:

• you know that when Jesus Christ died, He erased your sins from the eyes of the Father and that His Precious Blood poured onto the Cross was considered sufficient by the Father to make you completely reconciled with God.

• You know that the resurrected Jesus is able to communicate his righteous life to you, which makes you appear righteous in the eyes of the Father and gives you the power to live that same quality of life that He lived. He comes to live it in you, with your agreement.

• You know that this quality of life will produce happy and constant happiness if it has not already begun

• You know that He is sitting on a throne in heaven from which he sent the Comforter to dwell in you, for eternity, communicating you the will and ability to be wholly pleasing to God.

This is the gospel of glory, a communication of life, a revelation produced by the Holy Spirit beyond rational reasoning. You know it without explaining it and this quiet certainty is unemotionally just as unshakable as Mount Everest.

Once you know it, then you have freedom to entrust or not, in full knowledge of the facts, the direction of your life to the Lord and give your heart to this God full of love who wants to take you in His arms and desires so much to live in and unite to your mind. That's what preachers call giving one's life to Jesus. It's simple to say yes when the Holy Spirit speaks to you.

Workers of iniquity

The responsible for the unbelief and rejection of many of the true God and His wonderful living Son are all those ignorant speakers announcing on the net, on some evangelical TV and elsewhere, a weak and repulsive copy of the gospel which is not gospel at all, made of laws, bonds, outdated traditions, heavy rituals, sales disguised as blessings or healings and guilt sermons and sometimes ridiculous. People associate God with this disgusting spill and of course reject it. Unknowing it, they do not reject the true God but this pathetic parody that they are presented to.

These self-proclaimed preachers and sometimes accredited by who knows who, do not fulfill the divine mission, they do not allow the Lord to add living members to His body, they do not give a chance to souls to make a real choice.

They make promises of healing with few effects, promises of wealth if you give them your dime or your offerings, they beat you by threatening you with hell or divine punishment. Some modern conquistadors even dare to use the second return of Jesus as a threaten to induce people to convert whereas it is the most wonderful and desirable event that can happen to our murdered planet.

Philippians, 3:2 - Watch out for those dogs, those evildoers, those mutilators of the flesh. For it is we who are the circumcision, we who serve God by his Spirit, who boast in Christ Jesus, and who put no confidence in the flesh.

All this is disgusting, and Paul rightly speaks of dogs, of evildoers who announce another gospel than that which was transmitted in the beginning. The Holy Spirit clearly tells us to watch out. Watch out, exercise your discernment.

Galatian, 1:6 I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you to live in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel – which is really no gospel at all. Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let them be under God’s curse! As we have already said, so now I say again: if anybody is preaching to you a gospel other than what you accepted, let them be under God’s curse!

These people will be judged more severely and unless they change course, for them a place is prepared, a place that we don’t talk about much, a place that is neither Hades nor the lake of fire. It is only found in the Gospel of Matthew where Jesus mentions several times ' outside, the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth'.

The darkness indicates that they will be far from the One who is light. Outside means that they will not be inside, in His presence, but outside the kingdom. The weeping talks about deep regrets and the grinding of teeth about intense frustration for having missed the goal, without possible rear machine. They were in first row for the wedding. They had a talent to grow, and they didn't do anything with it. They won't be part of the party and they'll weep and grind their teeth. They had been called to reign with Jesus. These sons of the Kingdom will be far from His light and presence, in the darkness of the outside. Called but not elected.

Matthew, 8:11 - I say to you that many will come from the east and the west, and will take their places at the feast with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. 12 But the subjects of the kingdom will be thrown outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’

Matthew, 22:11 - But when the king came in to see the guests, he noticed a man there who was not wearing wedding clothes.
He asked, “How did you get in here without wedding clothes, friend?” The man was speechless.
Then the king told the attendants, “Tie him hand and foot, and throw him outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”

Matthew, 25:26 - His master replied, “You wicked, lazy servant! So you knew that I harvest where I have not sown and gather where I have not scattered seed? Well then, you should have put my money on deposit with the bankers, so that when I returned I would have received it back with interest.
“So take the bag of gold from him and give it to the one who has ten bags. For whoever has will be given more, and they will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what they have will be taken from them. And throw that worthless servant outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”

Do you realize that the people mentioned here are servants, sons of the Kingdom. Some had received talents, prophesied, made miracles, and even chased demons in the name of Jesus. They are not unbelievers, but servants!

Matthew, 7:22 - Many will say to me on that day, “Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?” Then I will tell them plainly, “I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!"

Did they believe that exercising spiritual gifts was a proof they were endorsed by God? Had they not read Acts 3 and forgotten that a miracle or healing is not the fruit of any godliness or personal power but of faith in the power of the Name of Jesus.

Acts, 3:12 - When Peter saw this, he said to them: ‘Fellow Israelites, why does this surprise you? Why do you stare at us as if by our own power or godliness we had made this man walk?

Acts, 3:15 - By faith in the name of Jesus, this man whom you see and know was made strong. It is Jesus’ name and the faith that comes through him that has completely healed him, as you can all see.

Healings, miracles and even evicted demons are not proof of the faithfulness of a man towards Christ but proof of Christ's fidelity and mercy towards men whom He wants to heal and free. Power remains God's.

2 Peter, 2:15 - They have left the straight way and wandered off to follow the way of Balaam son of Bezer, who loved the wages of wickedness.

Balaam was an authentic prophet of God. God was talking to him. (Numbers 22:9). He had received a talent but was seduced and prostituted it for money and human honors. He turned away from the right path and got lost. He did not, however, lose his gift as a prophet because God who does not repent of His gifts and appeal, did not withdraw what He had given. That can be misleading when such a man performs supernatural deeds in the name of God.

There are still such men, bad workmen.

Watch out those people who draped in so-called biblical knowledge and titles of prophets, preachers, doctors or even apostles, teach the biblical principles of seed, generosity and giving to open your portfolios. They twist and divert the Holy Word of God to their profit.

Their religiously disguise their appetite for money and honor. The Apostle Peter had prophesized on such people, saying that by greed, they would exploit you with deceptive words.

2 Peter, 2:3 And in their greed they will exploit you with deceptive words. Their condemnation, pronounced against them long ago, has not been idle, and their destruction is not asleep.

You recognize their endless calls for offering, their subtle condemning allusions if you don't give, their promises that you will receive from God a multiplied portion of what you have given them, the disguised threats of impoverishment if you hold the blessing. The Bible had announced these people who would deceive you.

Give to your local assembly according to what you have freely decided, without yielding to any ‘spiritual’ blackmail that never comes from God. Give God your dime or offerings with the joy that the Spirit inspires you.

2 Corinthians, 9:7 Each of you must give as you have made up your mind, not regretfully or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.

God will not deprive you of ANY blessing for reason of money and He will never give you more if you give Him more so that He gives you more. These are impure and insulting motives because His blessing is already acquired in Jesus Christ, without consideration. The Lord will never deprive you of anything because you have not given enough.

Romans, 8:32 - He who did not withhold his own Son but gave him up for all of us, how will he not with him also give us everything else?

May God open the eyes of these men on the poor and pathetic results, and even the damage that their human unanointed words produce and may they no longer deceive themselves by the few miracles and healings that may occur, which only prove the goodness of God.

They should stop opening their mouths to proclaim a so-called gospel that was not been able to free them from the vices and passions of the unregenerated nature: jealousy, desire to be recognized and famous, love of money, impulsivity, intemperance, fanaticism, legalism and search for the glory of men.

These modern scribes and Pharisees do not communicate the word of life, the word of righteousness. They might mention it but have never experienced it.

Matthew, 23:13 - But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you lock people out of the kingdom of heaven. For you do not go in yourselves, and when others are going in you stop them.

Without the anointing of the Spirit and the experience of the word of righteousness, speeches are fountains without water, clouds without rain, inefficient, flashy religious spill to impress the crowds, a replacing of the power of God by the noise of screaming and loud volume of sound systems.

In the end, it does not only make God's kingdom not go forward, but it displays our magnificent and full of love God as a religious manipulating, repelling, noisy, difficult, sad and powerless system. What a huge responsibility!

2 Peter, 2:17 - These are waterless springs and mists driven by a storm; for them the deepest darkness has been reserved. For they speak bombastic nonsense, and with debased desires of the flesh they entice people who have just escaped from those who live in error. They promise them freedom, but they themselves are slaves of corruption, for people are slaves to whatever masters them.

The darkness of the outside is reserved for those who will persist in these bad practices. Jesus is gentle and humble of heart but He took the whip with the temple merchants and did not chew his words towards the religious who veiled the true God to the languishing and slaughtered crowds without a shepherd.

John, 2:15 - Making a whip of cords, he drove all of them out of the temple, with the sheep and the cattle. He also poured out the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables.

The Word advises you to avoid these bad workers. Boycott their tweets, their channels, or their TVs. They preach not by the strength of the Holy Spirit but by means of psychological human manipulation.

2 Timothy, 3:5 - holding to the outward form of godliness but denying its power. Avoid them!

They have the appearance of godliness, but the Holy Spirit of peace, sweetness, love and true liberating power is not with them. Like the wild virgins, they brandish the lamp of the Word without the oil of the Holy Spirit to make it shine and enlighten.

Psalms, 119:105 - Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.

Nourish, strengthen yourself with the living and encouraging message of the new covenant gospel, with the living grace of Jesus Christ. It is the only one than can truly strengthen in Christ and make us walk as He has walked with all the blessings that consequently flow and are numerous and real.

I invite you to listen on this blog the article 'the gospel explained' and do everything to get into this rest of the splendid gospel of Jesus Christ. Understand how much God is willing to dispense generously, abundantly His transforming grace provided by His living Son and only Him.

Let the Word transform the intelligence of your soul because it is with your soul that you live on earth and it is by your soul, fortified by the Spirit, that you will be able to transpose the living principles of Christ in your daily life with joy and in peace. Save your souls!

Jacques 1:21 - Therefore rid yourselves of all sordidness and rank growth of wickedness, and welcome with meekness the implanted word that has the power to save your souls.

Run away from the bad workers and feed yourself with the simple and powerful message of the Grace in Jesus Christ, the pure gospel that cannot be mixed with old covenant and legalistic principles.

Are you looking for faithful ministers of the gospel to listen on Internet? I recommend one I very recently discovered: Joseph Prince. (He doesn't know I'm talking about him. He preaches the true gospel, these same verses, the same doctrine, sometimes with the same expressions). We don't know each other but hearing him confirm all what is written on this blog strongly encouraged me and I guarantee that his inspired instructions will nourish you, will help you grow in Christ and trigger abundant blessings in your life. Search and listen the message of grace!

2 Timothy 2:1 - You then, my child, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus,

As for the other venerable preachers we have mentioned above, if they read or hear these lines, they will recognize themselves. The Lord of grace keeps calling you: It is not too late to come back to common sense and stop leading His thirsty sheep into the sterile lanes of your misdirection.

It is not too late to let the true gospel transform you too, and free you. You will then be able to grow the talent that Jesus has entrusted to you by announcing a powerful gospel and see Him confirm His Word, for He always confirms His Word, not the human one. And you will not face a permanently closed door on that day.

You are destined to bear a fruit that remains and to be glorified in Him.

The fruit of a man of God are the Christians whom He will have strengthened, trained by means of sound instructions, facilitating their communion with Jesus Christ who frees from the power of the unregenerated nature, who transforms from glory to glory, who makes able to be fully pleasing to the Lord, serving Him with joy, in rest, loving him with whole heart, strength and thought. This fruit is worth more than billions!

On that day, you will hear the Lord say to you: Well done, good and trustworthy servant; you have been trustworthy in a few things; I will put you in charge of many things; enter into the joy of your master.

Ephesians 4:11 - He himself granted that some are apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ,
 until all of us come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to maturity, to the measure of the full stature of Christ.
We must no longer be children, tossed to and fro and blown about by every wind of doctrine by people’s trickery, by their craftiness in deceitful scheming; but speaking the truth in love, we must grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ,
from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by every ligament with which it is equipped, as each part is working properly, promotes the body’s growth in building itself up in love.

To be followed : the blasphemers of the Holy Spirit

3/ The blasphemers against the Holy Spirit

What is exactly a blasphemer against the Holy Spirit? We’d rather know it as sin against the Holy Spirit is the only one that will never be forgiven.

Matthew, 12 :32 - Anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but anyone who speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come.

Marc, 3:28 - Truly I tell you, people can be forgiven all their sins and every slander they utter, but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven; they are guilty of an eternal sin..

This third category is close to that of the inexcusable, but one level up. This is not about those who, out of ignorance, say or have sometimes said anything, very irreverently, about the Holy Spirit. The Lord always forgives those who do not know what they are doing.

The people being referred to here have acknowledged Jesus, and most likely, they have been touched by the grace of God and received the Holy Spirit. And mysteriously, mystery of lawlessness, they have deliberately turned away and are actively and deliberately fighting against the Lord and His Church, and they blaspheme against the Holy Spirit.

2 Thessalonians 2 :7 For the secret power of lawlessness is already at work; but the one who now holds it back will continue to do so till he is taken out of the way.

How could he, who was the highest cherubim next to God, bathing in the presence and light of the Creator, imagine becoming equal to God? How could he rebel against the Lord who had bestowed upon him all the honors and come to blaspheme against Him? It is the mystery of lawlessness. Men will follow him on this path, contaminated by this darkness. The blasphemers of the Holy Spirit do not merely despise Jesus and His Church, which is His body (we are talking about the Church in its broad sense, containing all those who belong to Christ); they are knowingly fighting against it and accusing it of being driven by an unclean or demonic spirit.

Mark, 3:22 - And the teachers of the law who came down from Jerusalem said, “He is possessed by Beelzebul! By the prince of demons he is driving out demons.

Mark 3:28 - Truly I tell you, people can be forgiven all their sins and every slander they utter, 29 but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven; they are guilty of an eternal sin. He said this because they were saying, “He has an impure spirit.

Apostle Paul condemned Christians to death, but he belonged to the category of 'thinking they know' but not knowing anything about the ways of God. By doing these things, he was convinced that he was doing what was right, as Jesus had predicted:

Jean, 16 :2 - They will put you out of the synagogue; in fact, the time is coming when anyone who kills you will think they are offering a service to God.

He did not know, he had never known Jesus, and he received forgiveness, then became the author of more than half of the New Testament that we read today. Here is what he said in the first letter to Timothy:

1 Timothy, 1:12 - I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has given me strength, that he considered me trustworthy, appointing me to his service. Even though I was once a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent man, I was shown mercy because I acted in ignorance and unbelief.;

Blasphemers against the Holy Spirit know what they are doing. Blasphemers of the Holy Spirit, in our time, are not commonplace and will not be numerous in the lake of fire either.

I say in our time, because in the future there will come a very sad era where they will abound. This will be addressed shortly under the chapter: sinning willfully.

Je dis en notre temps car dans le futur viendra une époque très triste où ils abonderont. Cela sera abordé dans un instant sous le chapitre : pécher volontairement.

Misunderstood texts that scare people.

Some texts in the Word, taken out of context, can be interpreted, misinterpreted, and damage our faith. Especially if you have gotten into the habit of opening your Bible at random, hoping to receive a Word from the Lord. Be sure to read the context before and after the verse.

1/ Sinning deliberately

Hebrews, 10:26 - For if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a fearful expectation of judgment, and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries.

This text obviously does not address weak Christians who cannot attain the victory of perfect salvation in Jesus, but it addresses the category that has just been described: the inexcusable and/or those who blaspheme against the Holy Spirit. To sin deliberately here means to sin with the intention of defying the Lord. There is no relation to the falls of spiritual childhood, the spiritual weakness of children in Christ.

An adult or a father in Christ is someone in whom Christ is formed and who externally manifests the mature life and virtues of Him who is the source of all his attitudes, behaviors, and words. A child in Christ is under construction. Some traits of the life of Christ in him begin to show through, but there are still many old habits from his former life, on which the Holy Spirit is working.

The inner circumcision of Christ that the Holy Spirit performs consists of the stripping away of the flesh, that is, the abandonment of the old reflexes of the old nature.

1 Corinthians, 3:1 - But I, brothers, could not address you as spiritual people, but as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ. I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for it. And even now you are not yet ready, for you are still of the flesh. For while there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not of the flesh and behaving only in a human way?

Somehow, it is always deliberately that we sin, but in the context of Hebrews 10:26, the author is rather talking about a will to harm God than the will to enjoy the sin that has victoriously seduced us, the desires of the child of God who does not yet know how to live in Jesus Christ and put to death by the Spirit the evil desires of his old nature.

These people use their will to sin (which is usually not really necessary as it is so natural), to sin intentionally even though they have received the knowledge of the truth, the verse says. Knowledge of the truth in the Bible is never an intellectual knowledge of doctrine. One can only have this precise and correct knowledge of the truth (Greek term = epignosis) by being united, in spiritual communion and with the whole being with the Spirit of Jesus Christ.

Truth is a person. He comes to dwell in us, merging with us in some way. We are grafted into Him and His thoughts, His desires become ours and make us act accordingly. We then speak of an active and experiential knowledge of the person of Jesus Christ. This knowledge then becomes an epignosis (precise and correct knowledge of moral and divine things), the same as we find in the passage of the second letter of Peter, which explicitly speaks of active knowledge through practice, implementation, and outward manifestation in actions of our hidden inner life in Christ; to know through action.

2 Peter, 1:8 - For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 

Anyone who has this knowledge and sins willfully (one wonders how it can even be possible, but it is because of this mystery of iniquity) clearly has the intention to harm the Lord. He does not do it out of weakness or ignorance but knowingly and is animated by the same spirit as that of the ancient serpent.

We see prophetically this arrogant and blasphemous spirit expressed through a character called the beast, seducing men and which will express itself so openly in a future announced in the book of Revelation.

Revelation, 13:6 - It (the beast) opened its mouth to utter blasphemies against God, blaspheming his name and his dwelling, that is, those who dwell in heaven. Also, it was allowed to make war on the saints and to conquer them. And authority was given it over every tribe and people and language and nation, and all who dwell on earth will worship it, everyone whose name has not been written before the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb who was slain.

This text is very sad because we see a relatively large number of inhabitants of the earth who have chosen the side of the blasphemer and who will clearly be among the goats, the hearts of stone mentioned in the first chapter of this article.

Matthew, 24 :11 - And many false prophets will arise and lead many astray. And because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold.

The power of iniquity working in concert with the prince of the power of the air will invade the spiritual atmosphere of the earth and cover its inhabitants with a dark and oppressive veil, obscuring their understanding and emotions. Charity will cool in an unimaginable way.

Ephesians, 2 :1 - And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience.

Even the most apocalyptic futuristic films cannot convey the extent of the unprecedented selfishness and wickedness that will then reign on the planet. The power of iniquity will influence the minds of the majority, and cool love and charity in the hearts of men, for the beast will have authority over every tribe, people, language, and nation. Its authority will not only be political, economic, and social but also, and above all, spiritual. Hearts of stone and blasphemers will abound. It is a period of nightmare darkness, and men will worship the beast and its blasphemies against the name of God, His tabernacle, and His saints.

This will happen in future times that will bear no resemblance to anything the earth has ever experienced since its creation, in times very close to the end. The ratio of goats will significantly rise in these dark times.

2/ Fall away after having been enlightened

Hebrews, 6:4 - For it is impossible, in the case of those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, and have shared in the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come, and then have fallen away, to restore them again to repentance, since they are crucifying once again the Son of God to their own harm and holding him up to contempt.

This second text concerns the inexcusable and/or blasphemers and applies only to them. It is necessary to mention this because, misunderstood, this text can discourage an unestablished or poorly taught child of God and lead them to temporarily abandon their faith and waste a lot of time. Some who have read it have imagined that they have lost what they call their salvation.

This is not about inconsistent children of God who fall accidentally, even frequently. The word "fall away" is inappropriate for them. They sin because they do not yet know how to remain in the rest in Christ by the Holy Spirit, which keeps the power of sin, lurking in each of us and ready to manifest at the slightest relaxation of faith, powerless.

Romans, 6:14 - For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.

The original Greek word "parapipto" translated into English as "fall away" actually means to deviate from the right path, to turn away, to wander. The translation into English using the verb "fall away" is inaccurate and distorts the correct understanding of the thought. We are not talking here about accidental falls, but about a deliberate practice of deviation after having truly experienced fullness.

We are talking about people who have been enlightened; they have known Christ; they have tasted the heavenly gift, the gift and not a religion; they have shared in the Holy Spirit, they have tasted the powers of the age to come, (the powers!). At this point, it is difficult to deviate unless one is seduced and seduced for a long time as this does not happen in one day. They have deviated from the right path despite all they have known and persisted in their apostasy despite all the attempts of the Good Shepherd to bring them back into the safe and straight path.

May God save us from reaching this ultimate stage of conscious rebellion where repentance becomes impossible!

For all sins, except conscious and deliberate blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, grace abounds. It is vital to remain in the abundant grace of Christ and to have no illusions about ourselves. Our strength and security are in Christ who lives in us and in the Holy Spirit who alone gives victory over sin and protects us from this rebellion. We must feed and strengthen ourselves on this gospel every day. (Read or listen to the gospel explained).

Galatians, 5:17 - For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do.

1 John, 1:8-9 - If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Keeping our eyes fixed on Jesus protects us from the sin that so easily entangles us. Keeping our eyes fixed on Jesus is what the gospel of grace teaches us to do, and it also gives us instructions on how to do it (or rather, how to let it be done to us!)

Hebrews 12:1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith,

3/ The lake of fire and sulfur for unbelievers, the abominable, and liars

Revelation, 21 :8 - But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.

This verse is often quoted as is.

Taken alone, it is true that it could support the thesis of damnation for all sinners who do not know Jesus.

Nevertheless, those who think this overlook the word 'but' that introduces it. 'But, for the cowardly...' This 'but' means that this verse cannot be separated from the preceding one. This 'but' marks an opposition with what has just been said, it means: on the other hand, nevertheless, in contrast. And this 'but' prohibits the interpretation of damnation for sinners who do not know Jesus. Let's read again the entire text starting from verse 7.

Revelation, 21:7 - The one who conquers will have this heritage, and I will be his God and he will be my son.

But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.

Two sentences separated by a period but forming a single block. And to whom is God addressing here? The pagans or the sons?

He is addressing the sons in both cases. Those who have overcome and those who have not overcome. In both cases, these verses concern the sons of the kingdom. Only the sons have received the ability to overcome and the supreme goal of overcoming is given only to them. How could an unbeliever overcome? By what power? In both cases, whether victorious or not victorious, it is about people who have known the gospel of Christ, called to overcome.

We see this in another verse in Ephesians that addresses the church of the Ephesians, therefore to correctly taught Christians, not to unbelievers.

Ephesians 5:1 - Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children.  And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.

But sexual immorality and all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints. Let there be no filthiness nor foolish talk nor crude joking, which are out of place, but instead let there be thanksgiving.

For you may be sure of this, that everyone who is sexually immoral or impure, or who is covetous (that is, an idolater), has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God.

Why did the apostle Paul tell the Christians not to even mention impurity or immorality? There are therefore sons who need to be given this kind of advice. Some will have overcome the power of sin in their lives, they will have reigned in earthly life by the power of the Grace that resides in Jesus Christ, and they will inherit a place in the new Jerusalem, the tabernacle of God with men.

However, it is essential that they have been taught about Grace and its liberating power!!! That was the case of those to whom this letter was addressed. The Ephesians had been taught by Paul.

Romans 6:14 For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.

Those who are preached the traditional religious message of the old covenant have no chance of being among the victorious ones! None! They are not concerned with the introductory verse of this chapter.

1 Corinthians, 3:15 - If anyone's work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire.

At best, they will be saved as if through fire, but it is better to turn to the magnificent and effective message of the gospel. Only it produces the conquerors!

The others, although properly taught and perfectly instructed on how to live in Christ and root themselves in Him, these others introduced by this "but" will not have conquered and will have continued to practice the works and attitudes of the unregenerate nature, of cowards, abominable, murderers, impure ... etc.

Note that the epistle of John gives a broader meaning to the word "murderer":

1 John, 3:15 - Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him.

It is possible to have known Jesus and accidentally fall into (until the Lord enlightens us) impurity, uncleanness, and passions, otherwise why would we be invited to put them to death by the power of Jesus' grace and His Spirit within us (and not by our futile efforts!).

Colossians, 3:5 - Put to death therefore what is earthly in you:[b] sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry.

The cowardly, abominable, etc. do not refer to ignorant, carnal, or poorly taught Christians who have only heard the preaching of the old covenant or worse, that nauseating mix of old and new covenant, grace and law (which are radically opposed) that frees no one and makes no victors. They are even less the unbelievers who will be judged according to their works and either be goats or sheep.

If you are not a victor or on the path to victory, it is because you are not receiving the right food, for the Gospel is the power of God for salvation (effective liberation from the power of sin, healing of the soul, and fullness of life in Christ).

And for those who have gone down a bad path and think they might be among those mentioned at the beginning of this chapter, the cowardly, the abominable, the murderers, the liars, I have good news for you:

Matthew, 18 :12 - What do you think? If a man has a hundred sheep, and one of them has gone astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine on the mountains and go in search of the one that went astray?

One does not become hardened overnight! Jesus will seek you out without giving up; He will find you. The mere fact that you have read and gone on reading what you just read is proof that His plan of deliverance has already begun for you.

Change your spiritual food. Stop struggling. Flesh cannot conquer flesh. Let Jesus in you fight for you, and start feeding on nourishment that will strengthen your faith and your inner being, the only one capable of defeating the old self that persecutes you and keeps you lying down with your head in the dust and shame.

Feed on grace by listening to instructions on how to live in the Grace of God every day, and let the Lord set you free, transform you, and raise you up from the dung to sit with the greats (of His kingdom).

Hebrews, 3:13 - But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.  

Salvation in Jesus Christ is a wonder. The Lord commits Himself in the new covenant to produce a willingness and a doing in accordance with His will, if only we allow Him and humbly give Him the opportunity. The true transformative gospel is easy and accessible to all. This is why those who, knowingly and willingly, neglect this great, this very great salvation become the without excuse.

Hebrews, 2:2 - For since the message declared by angels proved to be reliable, and every transgression or disobedience received a just retribution, 3 how shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation?

"No ignorant pagan of the Gospel will go into the eternal fire but will be judged according to his deeds and declared a goat or a sheep.

Similarly, Christians ignorant of the true grace of God are not affected by this word, and there are many among those online speakers or TV channels we talked about earlier.

Many are just foolishly blinded by their thirst to be glorified by men or by their more or less unspoken desire to become rich. They are completely ignorant of the true Gospel and very unaware of the sacredness and gravity of the things they are playing with.

Reading this article, for those who may read it, will hopefully shake their conscience, and awaken them. It is never too late to turn back from a wrong path one has taken.

Grace abounds for whoever turns to grace in Jesus Christ. The Apostle Paul was a murderer by ignorance and unbelief, and the Lord made him the most remarkable person in the New Testament. Turn around, abandon your wicked and remunerative practices.

Learn the true Gospel and let the power and love of God make you victorious, so that you may enter the new Jerusalem and already, here on earth, bear much fruit that remains for the glory of God. (The Gospel explained)

The whole world, ignorant of the Gospel, does not go to hell, as you have understood. We must abandon this wicked and false viewpoint. It is not biblical. Let it encourage us to proclaim this magnificent Gospel even more through the testimony of our transformed lives and our words.

This teaching contrasts with all the religious clichés that are floating around in many people's minds, simply because we are content with principles that are in our heads, without even knowing how they got there. And we repeat what we had vaguely understood or heard in a sermon or in the collective unconscious.

I invite you to reread this article because I understand that it can be a real shock. This study was for me. It goes against received ideas and the traditional current.

Studies have surely been conducted on the subject, and if they were in line with this, they apparently did not reach the ears of many preachers as they continue to propagate these vague and simplistic concepts of damnation without ever placing them within the new context of Grace and the new covenant in Jesus Christ.

The most concerning thing is that these binary and unfounded concepts prevent the world from approaching a wonderful God, extraordinary in love and wisdom. A God, the only God, who lives and acts, whose eternal plan of justification, implemented by his Son and through the action of the Holy Spirit, has succeeded so that many, the vast majority, will spend eternity in bliss, either as kings, happy residents of the New Jerusalem, or as simple citizens of the new earth and new heavens that God will create in due time.

Revelation, 21:1 - Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God.

Partie 1