January 19, 2008

• Malfunctioning Machines

  Hello everyone. Let me just say that I’m astonished with God…and how he’s using an ant like me to reach into far corners of places that I never in my wildest dreams imagined I’d touch, come near or have contact with…but it’s there…right there in my footprints. What’s there you ask? Well…I mentioned a few posts ago…I think my new year’s resolution post, that I had been visited by the Russian Federation. I thought it was a fluke, but it has happened since…about 3 times. Today, I discovered that The Islamic Republic of Iran has visited my site. All I can say…is that my mouth fell open. The other stuff that is making my mouth drop are as follows.

  First of all…for the sake of this illustration, I will use a car, and I will reference the Katrina storm. Ok…for those who’s memories are not as short-lived as most people’s politically; some of you remember that many cars were submerged under water as a result of that storm. Some of you may not know that many of those cars were brought to Florida, the land of the scam…and sold at auction.

  Now, when those cars got submerged, what happened? The water did some serious damage, the main one in being cutting off the powersource, or the electrical charge, which is the power of the vehicle to move and function as it should. This is a parallel of what happens when one takes a manufactered product and disregards the manufacturer’s guidelines on the proper function of that product.

  For instance, if you buy an iron, and decide to plug it in and use it to heat the water in your bathtub, you will get a shock because you have gone against the manufacturer’s specific instruction and warnings on the proper environment and use of that product. The shock you get will not be because the manufacturer wanted to punish you, but the direct result of the fact that the principles on which that product was made were violated, and subsequently, there is an end result of the violation of a principle; because the principle for the item never changes…it is always in accordance with the manufacturer’s expressed design of that item.

  In addition, another principle of any manufactered item that never changes is the environment in which that item will function at optimum levels in accordance with the specified design of the manufacturer. If, as in the iron and car illustrations, the product is removed from its intended environment, it will automatically malfunction. This is the case with man. Man is a very well-thought out, intricately designed machine that could not have been created by anything or anyone other than God. At the inception of His creation, we were perfect and functioning at optimal level…that which was the intended level of performance and existence. Sin is the malfunctioning of man…outside of the presence of God, and therefore, not fulfilling the function and intention of the Creator.

  We were removed from the place of ultimate performance…the garden of Eden. What is the garden of Eden? It is the garden of the presence of God. When mankind fell by the actions of Adam and Eve, everyone immediately lost their connection with the environment they were meant to function in…God’s presence. We weren’t created to function outside His presence. Just as Adam walked with God in the garden and they communed together (communing with someone is like very close and personal communication…the type of communication you save for someone very special…a best friend or the love of your life), that is how our “manufacturer,” God intended for us to function…in constant communication with Him…always in His presence.

  However, God is holy, and thus, sin cannot be in His presence. Remember when Lucifer was found with iniquity in him…what happened? It was not God who fought him and kicked him out of heaven. Why? Because sin cannot enter the presence of God. The cheribim and the seraphim are a specific type of angels which have the job of guarding the “presence” or the holiness of God. That is why they were represented on the ark of the covenant as upon and before the throne.

  If any of you remember Raiders of the Lost Ark…what happened when the ark was opened by unclean hands? All the unclean were disintegrated by the fire/force that came out from it. That is because sin cannot stand in the presence of God. That fire wasn’t even God’s presence. It was yet another mechanism that protects His presence.

  

    

  In old testament times, they went from open altars to closed ones…to the temple. This is a demonstration of the desire/thirst and seeking necessary to enter into the presence of God, because there are many rooms in the temple that you have to cross through before you even get near the inner sanctuary and the holy of holies. First, we went from being in His presence, to cast out of it due to sin. This is because the death spoken of was on more than one level.

  Yes, physical death came into the picture. But spiritual death entered because sin is the malfunction of the machine that is man, and it causes a separation from the presence of God…that separation is death. A machine that is “separated” from its source of power cannot function, and is considered to be dead, and scrap metal. 

  At the same time, if you check the old testament, you will see some examples of the fact that whenever anyone unclean attempted to enter the holy of holies in the temple…they were struck down and/or burnt up. That is due to the cheribim and seraphim that guard God’s holiness. God would never even have the chance to see your sin enter his presence. You could never even get that far into the inner sanctum. His angels…the cheribim and seraphim would strike you dead if you even attempted to enter the threshold. In fact…you cannot even enter the temple of God if you are unclean/not covered with the blood of Christ.

  So God does not punish sin. The results of sin are the results of manufacture principles…example: Manufacturer’s instruction: do not submerge an iron in water; Principle/result: electrical shock will occur. It’s an automatic. So if you are suffering some pain or hurt in your life…it is the direct result of a malfunctioning in your machinery, and you need to find/get the manufacturer’s instructions to find out either how to operate that part correctly, or how to restore it, and your entire self/machinery back into correct function according to the manufacter’s principles. This means coming back into the proper environment first (His presence), as well as following the instructions given on how to function in that environment.

  For those who don’t know…the door to that correct environment is Jesus Christ, and all you need to do to go through that door is believe in your heart that He died for your sins…He died to enable you to come into the environment that was intended for you, so that you could learn to function properly…in God’s presence as before.

  Please understand that entering a doorway in no means indicates that you’ve arrived. Many enter the door, and then take an infant seat to get fed…as you come into anything that is new to you as a baby in that particular thing. Most Christians continue to sit there wanting to get spoon fed, instead of doing what most babies do. They grab the spoon and try to feed themselves. After a while of learning to feed themselves, they move up and out of an infant seat into a booster chair and subsequently into a regular chair as they grow, but this is all because they initiate self-edification/feeding, and all the while, they are learning to crawl and then walk.

  We as Christians, are not supposed to just sit in an infant chair for years…or just sit there to be seen. When you enter that doorway…there are other doorways deeper into the building to be seen and entered, but most never even get close, because they are too lazy to make the effort needed in the steps above, to get to the stage of actually getting out of the chair and walking towards the next doorway/level. They often stay in the same outer room…saved, but not growing in intimacy and closeness to God…not seeking His presence, which according to the scaled model we see of the temple…was way inside.

  Please don’t misunderstand. When we do praise and worship at our respective churches…the music minister says something like, “Let’s usher in the presence of God.” That sounds good in theory, but if there are unsaved in the church, or people that are there for the first time that don’t know Christ, or wolves among sheep; since God cannot be in the presence of sin…then we cannot usher anything in other than His glory, but certainly not His presence.

  There were several rooms you had to go through in order to reach the inner sanctum…the holy of holies, where God’s presence was dwelling, and there were several rituals of cleansing needed…submission, in order to get there. Remember that scripture that mentions being purified in the fire? The dross is burnt away…right? Well…the dross is what happens to a machine that is outside it’s proper environment, because it’s malfunctioning. Just like when a malfunctioning machine is turned into scrap metal…what happens? It is thrown into the fire…dross being burnt off, so that when that sin/malfunction is gone (melted away), it can be used to build something that will function correctly…within the purity of the design. When a person in this scrap metal state attempts to go into the presence of God within their own malfunctioning merits, and not pure and fully functional as I mentioned above…they become as dross.

  When a child of God that is seeking with a pure heart is moving through the chambers into His presence, then the dross is self-centeredness (the main cause of malfunction) that is burnt away due to that person’s willingness to bow in complete submission.

  The only reason that we, as Christians can experience the presence of God at all…is because the blood of Christ covers our sin and God doesn’t see it. If that blood was not covering us…we’d be burnt up by the cheribim and seraphim before we could even get near God’s presence.

  So with a car that’s been water damaged like that…what is needed to restore it to proper function? Well, first, it would need to be dried out. You may have to replace certain parts just to enable the mechanisms that initiate and receive the charge to function properly. You may have to flush out and clean the fluids.

  So all of this is the recovery process, and it takes time. People who walk through the doorway of Christ, cannot expect that they are ready to walk through the doorway of the next inner room immediately, because they have to get fed and grow to a state in which they can self-feed, and learn from crawling to walking in Him. All this requires time in the word and prayer, as well as praise and worship.

  If all you do is sit in a church once or twice a week, but do no personal study…and I’m not talking about devotionals…which only serve to encourage you in your walk; but serious investigative study…research into God’s word. If you aren’t doing that…how do you expect to reach the next level? I always hear people say…”Wow…I wish I understood like that.” Well, the reason you don’t is because you don’t put in the time. You don’t seek Him out. You don’t search for answers. You just expect a pastor to fill in the gaps in your knowledge for you. That’s not his job.

  His job is to shepard the sheep…direct them to where the feeding ground is…but he doesn’t feed them. The sheep feed themselves. And mind you…sheep are supposed to be dumb, yet they feed themselves, and the shepard simply guards and directs them to feeding grounds…to the best grass. If you are getting properly fed…because you are feeding yourself through seeking and searching out the Word, then at some point, you will lose your “dumb” sheep status.

  A malfunctioning machine needs to be reconnected to it’s source…the electrical force which charges it…animates it…and/or causes it to move in the function intended when it was constructed. Only when that connection is restored, is there any chance of the machine being fully restored…properly lubricated by the Word, so that the mechanisms are enabled by the Spirit to function fully and optimally as intended.

  At this point…I am looking to move further into the inner rooms as I make my way further into His presence. I find that the typical “church” environment is lacking in drawing or ushering in His presence in this manner, as the presence of God cannot be ushered into a setting where wolves are among sheep.

  So at this time, I am waiting on God to show me where He wants me so that I can find the level of worship and praise I need in a “house of worship,” but that is at the same time…demonstrating the true and nature of mature worship and praise in the Spirit, as opposed to the false entertainment show and emotional cheerleading that goes on in some places that are called “a house of worship.”

  I’m looking for the real deal…and honestly, I don’t know if it is within the structure we know of as a “church, ” or if it is in personal gatherings with like-minded individuals. So I’m waiting on an answer and direction from God on this. Peace and blessings.

  • 11:34 pm
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