"You shall have honest scales, honest weights ... I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt. Therefore you shall observe all My statues and all My judgments, and perform them: I am the Lord." (Lev.19:36-37)
The word balance, as used in the scriptures, mainly means a pair of scales. As we ponder on being a balanced people this may not seem to be very applicable. Yet there are many practical truths, which need to be worked into our lives, which come from the idea of being balanced.
Honest scales and honest weights simply speak of a standard, which has been set, and we abide by such a standard. In our society we have such standards that we go by everyday. A pound is sixteen ounces. If you go to the butcher and buy a pound of meat you expect sixteen ounces of meat. If you were to come home and find you only had eight ounces of meat you would say you had been cheated out of eight ounces of meat.
As we mentioned in the last chapter, Jesus is the standard which God the Father has raised. All others have failed to meet the qualifications. All others have come short. We would quote from the writings of Preston Eby.
"There is one image that is perfect: the blessed Son of God, the visible manifestation of the Father, the only one who has ever walked upon this planet who sums up the totality of DIVINE HUMANITY. He is the only whole, united, balanced, UNFRAGMENTED MAN! In Jesus Christ a Man stepped forth who came from God without any lack, so that in Him was expressed the fullness of the image of God in man. JESUS IS MAN AS HE WAS CREATED IN GENESIS 1:26. He is man in the image and likeness of God. That is the true man. Man today is lost. He knows not from whence he came, he knows not what manner of man he is; he knows not where he is, nor where he is going. He is lost in his separation from God and from the godhood that is his in the likeness and image of God. Jesus Christ is the One who shows us just where we are - and opens up the way for our return into the Kingdom of God. In order to know the power of the Kingdom of Heaven, the anchor of hope must be cast beyond the veil of this carnal, dying realm into the Shekinah into which Jesus has passed before us, as by faith we are led to prove for ourselves and demonstrate for those about us the authority of the SPIRIT OF LIFE WITHIN over the law of sin and death in the flesh."
"When the Lord lowered man into this gross material realm man possessed, by the Spirit, the divine potential to overcome the flesh, sanctify it, transform it, preserve it, infusing it with the qualities of life - holiness and incorruption. Jesus, the last Adam, the ideal Man, came and demonstrated for us this very principle. This potential in man to rule the natural by the Spirit is shed forth in Jesus' mighty works - by His healing the sick, cleansing the lepers, casting out devils, forgiving sins, doing miracles, and raising the dead - He transcended by His life, words and actions all the so-called laws of the material, mortal realm. The great significance of Jesus' mighty works will never ring clear in our spirits until we understand that He did not perform as a unique, different, higher kind of man - all His wonderful works were the example and teaching of what is NORMAL FOR MAN IN HIS TRUE STATE AS THE IMAGE OF GOD. As the last Adam Jesus demonstrated all that the first Adam lost - mankind's heritage as the sons and daughters of the Most High. Little wonder, then, that He confidently and joyfully proclaimed to His disciples, "The works that I do shall ye do also: and greater than these shall ye do." (Jn.14:12)
"By His resurrection Jesus proved the Spirit within to be OMNIPOTENT, all-conquering, all-sufficient. He met and mastered death itself by the law of the spirit of life. He took no drugs to fight infection or inflammation. He did not depend upon health food or pure air or vitamins or herbs to renew depleted energies. He did not require the skill of a surgeon to heal the torn palms and bind up the wounded side and nail pierced feet, that He might use those hands to remove the napkin and the grave clothes, so that He might walk as before. Jesus vanquished every material obstacle, overcame every law of matter, and stepped forth from His gloomy grave, crowned with glory of a sublime success, and everlasting victory - the role-model for each and every man and woman of Adam's race! Jesus' victory over sin, sickness, pain, limitation, death and the grave was for the enlightenment of all men and the salvation of the whole world. Paul writes, "For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved BY HIS LIFE (within)." (Ro.5:10) Glory be to God and peace to the fainting hearts! Christ hath rolled away the stone from the door of human hope and faith, through the revelation and demonstration of life in God, the life resident in the SPIRITUAL MAN. Hallelujah!" End quote.
What a standard! What a pattern! What a high calling! Many believe it to be far too high, beyond the grasp of mere men. Yes, it is true, it is beyond the grasp of mere fallen men, but for those who have been quickened by the life of God, those who have been birthed by God, those who have the seed of God planted and conceived in them, THIS IS THE EXPECTED. THIS BECOMES THE NORM FOR EVERY SON OF THE LIVING GOD. Jesus was not demonstrating a realm of life, which was to be peculiar only to Him. Oh no! He was raising a standard for all of humanity. This is what life should be. He came to open our eyes to all that was possible with the life of God within us. Oh, how we have settled for such a lower realm. We have grown comfortable in the lowlands. Ah, but God calls us to the heights of Zion.
We have a false balance and false weights when we see Jesus as the only Son who was to walk in such a realm. Yes, Jesus was God, so we expect Him to walk in such a manner. Oh, but you and I, well, we are just sinners saved by grace. We can't expect too much. Don't get your hopes too high. Do the best you can and when we all get to heaven we will sing and shout the victory. Such thinking is a false balance, a false weight. God's glory is the standard. God's glory is what we have come short of. It is what is used to measure us. It is what we are ever growing into. Not just some day in the future, oh, but in the now, in earthen vessels, God will have a people who walk in the reality of His glory in this earth.
Creation groans for this day. We groan for this day. We can no longer settle for the false balance of religion whose only hope is some playground in the sky. Many have settled comfortably in the lowlands with no expectation of ever rising above the quality of life received from the first Adam. Our hope has gone beyond the veil where our Forerunner has entered for us. He has opened the way for us. He has pioneered the way for us. He has shown us it is possible for a son of man, quickened by the life of God, to overcome all things and step into the presence behind the veil. Let's lay aside every excuse, every carnal reasoning and press into such glory.
"Therefore you shall observe all My statues and all My judgments, and perform them." (Lev.19:37)
"You shall observe ... and perform them." Honest scales and honest weights bring us to where the rubber meets the road. It brings us down from the realm of the spooky to our everyday affairs. A false balance is when we simply hear the Word but do not become doers of the Word. (Jas.1:22) Yes, we are hearing things, which are yet to be brought into reality. We are being given a vision, a revelation, which brings with it a hope. Yet, if hope is really produced in our hearts by the vision God is placing within us we will find ourselves purifying ourselves as He is pure. (1Jn.3:3) A future hope will cause a now reaction in us. It will cause us to begin to make the necessary adjustments in our lives now as we move toward a future reality.
It is at this very point many have a problem. Some will throw this article away at this point only to say, "I can't make myself into what God wants me to be. I can't do it, God must do it." Then again there are others who will grab their bootstraps, grit their teeth, and resolve to get the job done by their own abilities. To both we say, "You have a false balance."
We are all too familiar with Romans chapter seven. The up's and down's of the average Christians life. We have all have had the sad experience of trying to please God by our own efforts only to fail miserably. We would try to muster up more intestinal fortitude and try again and again only to fail again and again. Finally we resigned ourselves to a life, which could never rise above sin and corruption. We formulate doctrines to fit our experiences and say this is the way it will be till we get to heaven. In heaven everything will change. All our problems will just fall off and we will find ourselves in "the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ." Our only hope becomes going to heaven. We can hardly wait. We really don't want to go by way of the grave so we begin to hope in the rapture. The rapture becomes our escape route from this nasty now and now to the sweet by and by.
Religion would impose its code of ethics upon us. They would keep us bogged down trying to keep all their rules and regulations, yet, all the while, telling us we will never be perfect, we will never be like Jesus, but keep trying and striving for the impossible. It is not long before we weary ourselves with such and our hope turns from being like Jesus to going to heaven or the rapture. We turn to some escapism concept that will relieve us from having to deal with any of our problems. We turn our attention from being like Jesus to being blessed. We turn to prosperity, how to get more money, nicer cars and nicer houses. Ah, but it is not long before we realize none of this will satisfy the deep longing in our soul. We can be blessed beyond measure and the deep longing within our soul is still not satisfied.
There is that "something" within us that can never be satisfied with incidentals. No matter how glorious we make heaven it will never satisfy that "something" within us. We can conjure up rapture doctrines till we are blue in the face and for a season they may make us content. Oh, but they fail to satisfy that "something" within us.
"Deep calls unto deep at the noise of Your waterfalls; all Your waves and billows have gone over me." (Ps.42:7)
"(Roaring) deep calls to (roaring) deep at the thunder of Your waterspouts..." (Amp.)
There is a "roaring deep." There is a "thundering" which comes over
us and speaks to the "roaring deep" within us. For the Spirit
searches
all things, yes, the deep things of God
(1Cor.2:10). Weymouth
translates the "deep things" as, "the depths of the Divine Nature."
There is a roaring from the depths of God's Being into the depths of
our being. There is a thundering of the Spirit, as He moves over our
lives, to the deep within us. There is a call from the depths of God's
Being to the depths of the Christ within us. God is calling forth the
depths of Himself from within us and we will be unable to remain
satisfied with the shallows of religion. We will not be able to remain
satisfied with an outer court relationship to God. We will not be able
to remain satisfied with a holy place relationship with God. Deep is
calling to deep. We must press in. We must have more.
What is this that we are pressing into? What is this "more" we must have? GOD! We are pressing through all that clamors for our attention. We must have more of God, less of all the forms and rituals which religion would put on us. Less of all the trappings the church world would fit us with. David couldn't use Saul's armor to fight Goliath. We are moving out from under Saul's armor, which the church would put on us into more of God. As we move from the holy place to the most holy place there is less furniture, with all of its activities, and more of just God. We move beyond the need for even the valid things. Things, which have their place in our growth. Things, which at one time were ordained by God for a season. The brass serpent was ordained for a season, but the season ended. (Num.21:4-9) The tabernacle of Moses at Shiloh was ordained for a season, but the season ended. (Ps.78:60, 68) He chose Zion. No more of the forms of Shiloh. Now just the presence of God in Zion. No more governors and tutors (Gal.4:1-2), but now God Himself shall be the light of our city. (Rev.21:23, 22:5)
This deep, which is calling to our deep, is a calling back into the
glory of the Father. The Psalmist said, You turn man to
destruction,
and say, Return, O children of men
(Ps.90:3). Paul declared, For
creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him
who subjected it in hope; because the creation itself also will be
delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of
the children of God
(Ro.8:20-21). The return is back into the glory
of
the Father.
Our minds cannot fathom the purposes of God. We cannot understand the necessity or the reason for God to turn humanity to destruction, to subject us to this present futility. We try to reason the whys and wherefores and in all our reasoning's we have missed the hope. God has not left us hopeless. Our hope is to come back into the pure, unadulterated, relationship with our Father.
As the Spirit moves on our lives, as His "waves and billows" go over us, we hear the roar of the depths of His Divine Nature calling to the depths of the Christ in us. Such a calling, such a stirring, brings dissatisfaction within for anything less than God Himself. We may try to fill it with religious activity, we may try to fill it with scriptural knowledge, and we may try and fill it with gifts of the Spirit, ministry or a hundred and one different things. Oh, but friend, only God Himself can satisfy this call. This is a call from God into our lives for the expression of Himself, for the manifestation of His Person in us. The very heart of God will never be satisfied until He has brought forth the manifestation of Himself in us. Until we no longer have anything in us which mars His image.
It is at this point we find ourselves again with either trying to overcome by our own strength, which we know will not work, or just sitting back with an attitude, which says, "If God doesn't do it, it won't get done." This call from the depths of God stirs a hope within us. It is this very hope that begins to move us. It causes us to begin to deal with areas in our lives that we would ordinarily not deal with.
John said, Everyone who has this hope (of
being like Jesus) in him PURIFIES
HIMSELF, JUST AS HE IS PURE
(1Jn.3:3). Many will now declare
they can't purify themselves, yet John said if you have this hope in
God YOU WILL PURIFY YOURSELF. We choose to believe
John above the voice of those who want to succumb to their own flesh.
We stand with the words of Paul when he said, For if you live
according to the flesh you will die; but if BY THE SPIRIT YOU
put to death the deeds of the body, you will live
(Ro.8:13).
Therefore if anyone CLEANSES HIMSELF from the
latter, he will be a vessel for honor, sanctified and useful for the
master, prepared for every good work
(Tim.2:21).
We agree with the writer to the Hebrews as he boldly declares, LET
US LAY ASIDE EVERY WEIGHT, AND THE SIN which so easily
ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before
us, looking to Jesus
(Heb.12:1-2).
We stand with James as he declares, Therefore lay aside all
filthiness and overflow of wickedness, and receive with meekness the
implanted word, which is able to save your souls
(Jas.1:21).
We say, "Yes," as Peter declares, YOU have purified your souls
in obeying the truth THROUGH THE SPIRIT
(1Pt.1:22).
Now many will still say, "It is not up to us to change ourselves. God has to do the work." May we say, in love, if such is your attitude, you are just trying to remove the responsibility of your life from yourself to God. You simply won't take the blame for your condition and put the blame on God. "I still have this problem, this habit, this attitude, because God hasn't delivered me from it yet. I can't lay down these cigarettes until God delivers me. I can't lay down this bitterness until God delivers me. I can't lay down this hurt and pain someone has caused me until God delivers me." Such statements are simply cop-outs. If you aspire to be an overcomer you will soon find God quits delivering you from so many things and you take a stand against such things and BY HIS LIFE WITHIN YOU, you rise above, you overcome. If you think overcoming means there will be no temptation, no struggle, no pain, you had better think again. We all would love to have things just fall off without having to go through any battle with it, but we can assure you, if you are hearing an overcoming word, that will not be the case.
"Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord. THEREFORE do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lust." (Ro.6:11-12)
Reckon comes from logizomai and means, to take an inventory, to estimate. It comes from logos that means, to say. It is also translated, think, in Phil.4:8. We take an inventory of our lives and find because of Christ Jesus we are dead to sin. The old man is dead. That power which held us in sin is broken. We now stand free. Our inventory of ourselves must be in Christ Jesus. It cannot be outside Christ Jesus. We cannot do an inventory from the books of our old life, the first Adam. Our estimation of ourselves has to come from our position in Christ Jesus. From that position we are dead to sin and alive to God. Our thinking about ourselves, our attitude of ourselves must be in Christ Jesus. We must not view ourselves as outside Christ Jesus and our inventory has to be based on what we are in Christ Jesus. We are dead to sin but alive to God.
We would note quickly, we are not saying we overcome by our own natural abilities. If we have not had a born again experience then all that we are saying is an impossibility. This is not some power we have within us in our natural state, in the first Adam. This is not some dormant potential, which is within us until we hear some New Age ideas that awaken us to the real us. We must be born again from above. We must receive Christ Jesus into our lives. It is His life within us. It is His power within us, which enables us to overcome. It is Jesus living His life in us that makes all of this possible. Yet this does not mean we sit as zombies or robots while God does some hocus-pocus on us. We learn to allow His life to flow from us. We learn to say no to our own ways and say yes to His life. We draw upon the life of God in our everyday situations and we "let not sin reign."
THEREFORE. What a powerful word! THEREFORE. Because we have done an inventory of our lives in Christ Jesus and have found that we are dead to sin but alive to God, THEREFORE DO NOT LET SIN REIGN. Many would ask, "If I am dead to sin then why do I still have these desires, these feelings, which control me? Why am I still tempted by this and that? Why can't I get free of this and that?" The answer is not one that any of us likes to hear. We allow sin to reign. We allow feelings and emotions to reign. We allow thoughts and attitudes to reign. We allow lusts and desires to reign. We allow our will to reign. DO NOT LET SIN REIGN!
We have some how developed the idea that if God sets us free from something there is no struggle, no battle, it just falls off. Yet we do not find such to be so in the scriptures. When Israel was GIVEN the Promised Land they had to fight for every inch. God GAVE it to them. It was theirs, but they spent years fighting to possess it. We have been set free from the power of sin. We have life in God. Just as the Israelites were unable in themselves to possess the Promised Land and had to depend on God as they went forth to take the land, even so we must go forth dependent on the life of God, the Christ within us, and face our enemies and drive them out of our land. We go forth, dependent on God, and we DO NOT ALLOW SIN TO REIGN IN OUR MORTAL BODIES.
"I can do ALL THINGS through Christ who strengthens me." (Phil.4:13)
"I have strength for all things IN CHRIST Who empowers me - I am ready for anything and equal to anything THROUGH HIM Who infuses inner strength into me, (that is, I am self sufficient in Christ's sufficiency)." (Amp.)
"For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing EVERY THOUGHT INTO CAPTIVITY TO THE OBEDIENCE OF CHRIST." (2Cor.10:3-5)
We are His workmanship. (Eph.2:10) He is the Author and Finisher of our faith. (Heb.12:2) Without Him we can do nothing, we are just "O wretched men." He must work in us to will and to do His good pleasure. (Phil.2:13) Oh, but He has done and is doing His work in us. Now we must work out our own salvation with the realization that we can only work out to the degree He has worked in. (Phil.1:12) We need to lay aside our excuses, repent, and recalibrate our scales to the standard of Christ Jesus. When we have honest scales and honest weights we will find ourselves as doers of the Word, not just hearers "betraying ourselves into deception by reasoning's contrary to the truth."