Pastor John,
I felt like I understood something today. Better than I have before. Something you have been describing for a long time. What real liberty is for the children of God.
Many years ago, in Louisville, some of the saints were sitting around talking and the question came up, “Would you feel OK about printing off the Thoughts for the Day and associated emails, using the paper at your work place?” In other words, using company paper to print out gospel or related material. Well, several Saints said they would feel fine about using a little paper for that, and some other Saints said they would not use any company paper because it was not theirs. Well, I think that I understand that the answer to that question lies somewhere else. Three weeks ago, you told us of a place that Christ is calling us to, a place of neither this or that. A place of just living in the Spirit. A place above choosing right or wrong or good and evil. A place where God’s children are above choosing, above struggling with carnal decisions and the division that it inevitably causes.
Brother John, choosing to use or not use paper to print material is another carnal decision that causes more strife and division. God’s children are above that. We have to be. Let’s live where what we do at that moment is the will of God, and it will always be right, even if our responses to the same situation change every day. How can we be kept in perfect peace if we are divided about paper? In the place that you described, we just are, we just do and it is God. If we have to make a choice, we have already missed it. God doesn’t choose, He just does, and we are to be like Him. Where the Power is, where it can be felt, we are just holy, and we do what we do and it is God, and that is never less than perfect.
I want to know more about this place pastor John. We can just love everybody from this place. There is no strife, only pity, I would think, for those who were not enjoying God’s life. That kind of freedom sounds scary to the flesh, or even like a free pass with no rules, but it isn’t. God’s children have no written rules; the Spirit is the rule, and it is alive, and it will never be out of order or disorderly or mistreat anyone. It will pass through the fire. If you are walking, moving, living in the Power of Jesus, and you use all of your work’s paper, then it had to be right. If you use none, it had to be right. The answer is to live in the Power, which is that Spirit.
I know I talked your ear off, but I believe that was from Jesus. I don’t want to keep any thought to myself that I believe came from the Spirit. I’m going to go light a small bonfire with Beth’s boy, Anthony.
We are always thinking of you, sir. Always praying for your full recovery. I hope you can sleep well.
Jerry
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Hi Jerry.
Yes, you got the point, and that place, where our choices are already made for us by the Spirit, is the place of perfect peace and rest that the Scriptures speak of. In that holy place, we just live.
I was around some folks, years ago, who were struggling with the right way to dress, whether it was sin to wear shorts, etc. During that time, I was praying, and the sweetest feeling I have ever felt came over me, and I saw that when we walk in the Spirit, we don’t even think about such things. Whatever we put on when we get up in the morning will be perfect because we are walking with Jesus. We cannot sin or be a stumbling block to others when we walk with Jesus, above all the controversies of this vain life.
So, yes, you are seeing what I was trying to communicate. This is the “liberty of the sons of God”, and it is so great and good that it frightens the very children of God that it belongs to. And, of course, the world cannot even believe that it exists. The difficulty in getting it across is that words get in the way. The truth is not in words; it is in the power of God.
Pastor John
