Garden Ministries

Janet Smith – 7-4-17 ©gardenministries.org

There are 7 churches addressed in Revelation chapters 2 and 3. These churches can be divided into 2 sets of 3 churches, plus 1. Set 1: Ephesus-Smyrna-Pergamum. Set 2: Sardis-Philadelphia-Laodicea. Plus 1: Thyatira.

Each of the 2 sets has 1 church in the middle that stands out from the other 2 on each side. In both sets, we find 2 churches that are fully overcoming evil and are sandwiched between 2 other churches that are missing the mark. In the Revelation 2 – Set 1, the fully overcoming Smyrna church sits between the Ephesus and Pergamum churches. In the Revelation 3 – Set 2, the fully overcoming Philadelphia church sits between Sardis and Laodicea. And finally, sandwiched between the two sets of 3 churches is yet another church that is drastically missing the mark; the 7th church of Thyatira. This 7th church, sandwiched between sets 1 and 2, hosts an abundance of interesting revelations however, this article focuses mainly on the 2nd set of 3 churches found in Revelation 3—especially the Church of Sardis. [Note: this might be a good time to scroll to the end and read Revelation 3 included in this article.]

In an effort to avoid the crucified-with-Christ, death-to-self path of God-assigned deeds that mark and define the true gospel of Jesus Christ, the Sardis church creates their own list of do-good deeds. Still using scripture-based principles, the focus is changed from developing an intimate relationship with the Person of Jesus to joining feel-good programs that elevate and stimulate the human soul but deny the wonderful work of the cross upon the human’s born-again spirit. The attraction to this soul-stimulating “life-like” looking church means that a person can be entertained by the program, agree to a portion of do-gooding from the substitute Sardis church list of deeds, and still be considered a successful Christian by the church without ever really getting to intimately know the Person of Jesus, who all the programs are supposedly drawing from! This program-based Sardis church becomes renown and draws quite a crowd.

It seems that the Sardis church did not like the price that their God-given deeds would cost them and developed their own “work-around” way of doing self-made “good deeds” for God through their church programs. Rather than joining the Person of Jesus Christ, who daily calls us to pick up our cross and follow Him, the Sardis church targets the pleasure-center of the soul with entertaining programs that make a person feel alive in their souls but do little to transform and mature them. It is not the stimulation of a self-centered soul that changes us to be more like Christ, it is the death of that soul-life and the resurrection of the Christ-life within that changes us into Christ’s new-man image. The death to soul-life means we deny stimulations and the elevation of our old-man nature, not indulge them. Programs that stimulate the soul but do not lead the person into a deeper walk with Jesus Christ will not grow that person up.

Minus a few folks in the Sardis church, who keep God’s original instructions, Revelation 3:2 tells us that the bulk of the Sardis church is completely missing the mark and with little left to draw from, the Sardis church is close to being declared uselessly dead. Even under their own Sardis church roof, sits a sign of their departure from their God-given deeds. Those few folks who did not soil their garments and are holding fast to their original instructions from Christ serve as a direct confrontation to rest of the Sardis church that it is quite possible to fully follow God’s list of deeds without substitution.

Substituting programs for the Person, doesn’t work because God knows and remembers the deeds He has assigned us to complete while we are here on earth. He also knows when we are making up our own substitute list of deeds, thinking that He will still approve of our substitutes. God is not obligated to take responsibility for anything He does not Author. Not only are the Sardis church programs declared “dead,” the people in this system are in grave danger of completely missing Jesus when He comes and even worse, not even realize that they missed Him! Why? Because they did not do the work of God’s deeds that are specifically designed to lead them into an intimate knowing of Jesus.

A good example of a Sardis church candidate can be found in the New Testament story of the rich young man. Having already gained many possessions, this hard-working, wealthy young man wanted more. He wanted to gain the ultimate prize of eternal life. He asked Jesus how to get it and then asked for the checklist of deeds he must do to get credentialed for it. Jesus quickly points out that it is a Person he seeks, not a ‘do-good’ list, and then emphasizes His point by painting the picture as “entering into life” through that Person rather than “performing a checklist and getting credentialed.”

Finally, Jesus leads the ambitious young man toward the final nail in the coffin in their conversation when He touches the temporal pleasure center of the young man and reveals where his body and soul are attached and stuck to the pleasures found in his temporal life. Jesus knew what was in his heart and knew what it would take for this young man to become free from these hindrances and fully enter into God’s Life. He gave the man his God-deeds list and described his cross to bear and the man walked away from it. He did not want to give up his way OF life in order to enter into God’s way TO Life.

Matthew 19:16-22 (NET version) Now someone came up to him [Jesus] and said, “Teacher, what good thing must I do to gain eternal life?”17 He [Jesus] said to him, “Why do you ask me about what is good? There is only one who is good. But if you want to enter into life, keep the commandments.” 18 “Which ones?” he asked. Jesus replied, “Do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not give false testimony,19 honor your father and mother, and love your neighbor as yourself.” 20 The young man said to him, “I have wholeheartedly obeyed all these laws. What do I still lack?” 21 Jesus said to him, “If you wish to be perfect, go sell your possessions and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.” 22 But when the young man heard this he went away sorrowful, for he was very rich.

Revelation 3:2 commands the Sardis church to “wake up!” and “strengthen what little remains!” If the Sardis church would let go of the soul-life-based programs and focus on intimately knowing the Person of Jesus and return to the original God-deeds designed specifically to lead them to Christ, they would not only receive the ultimate reward of recognizing Jesus when He comes, they would also receive the rewards described in Revelation 3:5-6. For all eternity, their pure white clothes will represent faithfulness and their name, forever written in the Book of Life and spoken of by Jesus Himself, will be declared before the Father and His angels. Can we see a little better now what our soul-stimulating, avoid-the-cross-life church programs are costing us?

In direct contrast to the Sardis church, the church of Laodicea seems to redefine Biblical Christianity altogether and virtually grows their own “bible.” Drawing from numerous religions and humanistic resources, the church of Laodicea’s aggregate, lukewarm religion of organized unbelief stimulates the human soul experience through its own set of programs that temporarily release a false sense of contentment that deceives it members into thinking that they need nothing more or different, when in Truth, they are considered by God as poor, blind, and naked—and worse, they are completely clueless to their impoverished spiritual state.

Sandwiched between the soul-life-seeking churches of Sardis and Laodicea is the Spirit-Life-seeking Philadelphia church. The fully overcoming Philadelphia church is evidence that there is no way around the enduring experience of being crucified with Christ and that there is no other gospel but that of the 66-books of the Bible. All 66-books of the Bible point to the Person of Jesus Christ and continually provoke the reader to intimately know Him and to know Him crucified and resurrected. In direct contrast to the churches of Sardis and Laodicea, the Philadelphia church stays directly connected to their Holy Spirit-led instructions and though graced with “little strength,” they hold fast to the Truth of their identity in Christ and faithfully keep His Word until they are fully transformed into Christ’s likeness by the resurrection power of Jesus Christ at work within them.

The remarkable God-like character within this last-days Philadelphia church is directly rewarded with an intimate, Christ-Life fullness that, like an uncapped wellspring, supernaturally exudes Life from within during the time of earth’s greatest shakings. Transfigured into Christ’s image and raptured by His Presence, the Philadelphia church is residing within middle-heaven and is going to or has already entered the descending city of New Jerusalem. This Philadelphia church serves King Jesus as witnesses who come and go in their secured and transfigured state throughout the earth. They are fully empowered to deal with and confront the unleashed evil that comes upon the earth in the last days and bring about the will of Father on earth just as it is in heaven.

When the religion of the antichrist fully emerges from the serpent’s Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil and its evil fruit fully matures, we will see the final unrepentant, counterfeit version of the 7th church of Thyatira emerge. The serpent’s final harlot-religious system will offer a spiritual experience created through a fusion of flesh-and-soul stimulants and demonic affliction that will elevate these two human drives to levels never yet humanly experienced. The devil’s harlot religion will fully embrace and promote all forms of sexual immorality and create worship centers for the god of the stomach and the god of image. Various cocktailed stimulants will be quickly offered to anyone who is even remotely curious. Upon perceiving any interest whatsoever, the harlot is instantly ready to custom-mix and serve up stimulants for all who so much as show even a little interest.

These chemical and digital stimulants are designed to activate and stimulate all human senses and be ingested through any and every human body-and-soul orifice: the eyes (visual mediums), ears (music/words/sounds), mouth (food, drink), nose (scents), blood (injections), and private parts (sexuality, excrement, fluids of all sorts). The human who indulges the harlot’s stimulants instantly develops intense craving-and-consuming cycles. And each cycle awakens the need for more than before. The short, ecstatic experiences target the pleasure center of the human soul and quickly turns into the next level of the addiction-compulsion cycle that can and will never will satisfy its consumer. It is exclusively designed to drive the user into more and more consumption until finally, complete insanity is threatened. Once this stage is reached, a final false remedy to the distress of looming insanity is offered.

To avoid insanity, the person if offered and can choose to take the serpent’s mark upon their forehead or wrist and is told that they will finally find “lasting peace.” This is a lie and the mark of the serpent should never be taken, no matter what they are told they will get from it. Instead of getting respite from the threat of insanity, by taking the mark, those who take the serpent’s seal or mark upon their forehead or wrist are sealing their eternal doom.

When we see the big picture behind all of these spiritual and human progressions—either toward or away from Jesus—can we better understand why Jesus is asking us now, while it is still light, to embrace the cross and through His redemptive transformations, get our soul’s vulnerabilities as far away from the serpent’s reach as Christ is leading us? We are being offered the Life of Christ for all of eternity now. As devoted, first-love believers in Jesus Christ and through the path of dying to self and all our soulish compulsions, the resurrection power of Jesus Christ is transforming us from the inside-out. We can look forward to the ever-increasing and lasting fruits of the Holy Spirit which are love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (Galatians 5:22).

If we are not purposing to move in first-love devotion toward Jesus and believing in and obeying His Word—the Bible, rest assured that there is no neutral. If we are not moving toward Jesus, we are moving away from Him and we growing the nasty fruits of the flesh which are: “… obvious: sexual immorality, impurity, depravity, 20 idolatry, sorcery, hostilities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish rivalries, dissensions, factions, 21 envying, murder, drunkenness, carousing, and similar things (Galatians 5:19-21).”

As we choose to respond to the Holy Spirit’s leading, we are being progressively pulled out of these insatiable, soul-based, old-man, flesh-and-soul cravings, and are entering the peace-giving, peace-keeping Life of the Spirit while advancing the kingdom of God on the earth. This wholehearted response to Jesus is setting us free to become fully clothed in Christ’s fullness and protected from what is coming. Sealed with God’s name and His city, the last days Christ-filled overcomers will advance the kingdom of heaven on earth and be empowered to directly confront the harlot religion and the systems of the antichrist until God’s final judgments are released and the millennial reign of Jesus Christ and His Bride begins!

—————-

Scripture: REVELATION 3 – NET Version
To the Church in Sardis
3:1 “To the angel of the church in Sardis write the following:

“This is the solemn pronouncement of the one who holds the seven spirits of God and the seven stars: ‘I know your deeds, that you have a reputation that you are alive, but in reality you are dead. 2 Wake up then, and strengthen what remains that was about to die, because I have not found your deeds complete in the sight of my God. 3 Therefore, remember what you received and heard, and obey it, and repent. If you do not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will never know at what hour I will come against you. 4 But you have a few individuals in Sardis who have not stained their clothes, and they will walk with me dressed in white, because they are worthy. 5 The one who conquers will be dressed like them in white clothing, and I will never erase his name from the book of life, but will declare his name before my Father and before his angels. 6 The one who has an ear had better hear what the Spirit says to the churches.’

To the Church in Philadelphia
3:7 “To the angel of the church in Philadelphia write the following:

“This is the solemn pronouncement of the Holy One, the True One, who holds the key of David, who opens doors no one can shut, and shuts doors no one can open: 8 ‘I know your deeds. (Look! I have put in front of you an open door that no one can shut.) I know that you have little strength, but you have obeyed my word and have not denied my name. 9 Listen! I am going to make those people from the synagogue of Satan – who say they are Jews yet are not, but are lying – Look, I will make them come and bow down at your feet and acknowledge that I have loved you. 10 Because you have kept my admonition to endure steadfastly, I will also keep you from the hour of testing that is about to come on the whole world to test those who live on the earth. 11 I am coming soon. Hold on to what you have so that no one can take away your crown. 12 The one who conquers I will make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he will never depart from it. I will write on him the name of my God and the name of the city of my God (the new Jerusalem that comes down out of heaven from my God), and my new name as well. 13 The one who has an ear had better hear what the Spirit says to the churches.’

To the Church in Laodicea
3:14 “To the angel of the church in Laodicea write the following:

“This is the solemn pronouncement of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the originator of God’s creation: 15 ‘I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either cold or hot! 16 So because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I am going to vomit you out of my mouth! 17 Because you say, “I am rich and have acquired great wealth, and need nothing,” but do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind, and naked, 18 take my advice and buy gold from me refined by fire so you can become rich! Buy from me white clothing so you can be clothed and your shameful nakedness will not be exposed, and buy eye salve to put on your eyes so you can see! 19 All those I love, I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest and repent! 20 Listen! I am standing at the door and knocking! If anyone hears my voice and opens the door I will come into his home and share a meal with him, and he with me. 21 I will grant the one who conquers permission to sit with me on my throne, just as I too conquered and sat down with my Father on his throne. 22 The one who has an ear had better hear what the Spirit says to the churches.’”

Revelation 17:1-5 The Harlot: Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls came and spoke to me. “Come,” he said, “I will show you the condemnation and punishment of the great prostitute who sits on many waters, 2 with whom the kings of the earth committed sexual immorality and the earth’s inhabitants got drunk with the wine of her immorality.” 3 So he carried me away in the Spirit to a wilderness, and there I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast that was full of blasphemous names and had seven heads and ten horns. 4 Now the woman was dressed in purple and scarlet clothing, and adorned with gold, precious stones, and pearls. She held in her hand a golden cup filled with detestable things and unclean things from her sexual immorality. 5 On her forehead was written a name, a mystery: “Babylon the Great, the Mother of prostitutes and of the detestable things of the earth.”

Janet Smith – 6-7-17 ©gardenministries.org

Romans 5:5 And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out His love into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, whom He has given us.

Somewhere along the way, I had lost hope! I could better grasp the importance of faith and love but hope seemed more conceptual. I noticed that some bitterness had creeped into my heart and was creating problems toward God and my loved ones. I struggled for a while to overcome the bitterness but could not seem to get to the root of it until finally, it became clear through a prophetic word from a brother in Christ.

I had been (and am still in) a very long season of enduring and waiting for God to fulfill His confirmed word in some significant areas of life. I knew the words to be true and had not lost faith in them, but somewhere in my process of enduring, and the many disappointments that come through broken or lost relationships, I had lost HOPE. And the loss of HOPE doesn’t fall into neutral territory. When I lost hope, cynicism and criticism replaced it. Cynicism and criticism are fruits of bitterness and come from and feed on a spirit of rejection. This sense of feeling unwanted and rejected had replaced some of my ability to feel loved and accepted by God and by others and was creating blinders of self-protection based in fear and pride.

A prophetic Voice came to our town and prophesied the word of the Lord over me, reminding me of the truth of God’s call to me—that I was called as a vessel of God’s 1 Corinthians 13 FAITH, HOPE, and LOVE and was called to be poured out to others as such. This is a truth of my life that I had lost touch with and it broke me to hear it again. I could see my wounds of rejection and loss of hope—that God’s love would be poured into and out of my heart on the level I so desperately needed and wanted for myself and for others.

Without this hope, I had become cynical. I could see how my cynical heart had become prone to criticism—pointing out what’s wrong and trying to fix that instead of pointing out what’s right and believing that! This kind of “fixing” is from a religious spirit of control. In this vein, it’s easier to see “what’s wrong” than it is to see “what’s right.” And focusing on fixing darkness doesn’t work. It is a personally subjective perception and is based in performance-based striving instead of being born from the conviction of the Holy Spirit of Truth that bears Life and Hope in the vessel.

I repented and purposed to fix my gaze directly upon Jesus [again], seeking His Truth about myself and others—especially when we are not believing it very well—as the way toward freedom and breakthrough. Like this prophetic man modeled for me, I can better see and call out the truth of God about others—and stop getting distracted by or fixated on the lies and the bad behavior that believing the lies is creating!

Psalm 119:116 Sustain me according to Your word, that I may live; And do not let me be ashamed of my hope.

Hebrews 6:18…so that we who have found refuge in [Jesus] may find strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us through two unchangeable things, since it is impossible for God to lie.

Hebrews 11:1 Now faith is being sure of what we hope for, being convinced of what we do not see.

Psalm 27:13-14 Where would I be if I did not believe I would experience the LORD’s favor in the land of the living? Wait for the LORD; Be strong and let your heart take courage; Yes, wait for the LORD.

Janet Smith ©12-15-2016 gardenministries.org

The commendations and rebukes to the seven churches of Revelation 2 and 3 deal largely with how those churches either overcame or fell prey to Satan’s religious spirit; the spirit of antichrist. We can extrapolate the characteristics of the counterfeit satanic religious spirit from the rebukes and the commendations within the 7 letters and with those extrapolations, better understand what we are asked to overcome.

Keep in mind that Satan’s religious spirit can only counterfeit truth. Whatever the Holy Spirit of Jesus Christ brings forth from the realm of mystery and reveals of His omnipotent and almighty, 7-fold nature, Satan immediately seeks to counterfeit. His one-trick-pony game plan is always the same: to present a counterfeit form of religion and seduce his followers to worship him instead of Jesus.

By the time of the Last Days, the religious evil spirit of antichrist will have developed or “matured” to being as close to bridal Christianity as the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil can possibly counterfeit. At the same time, Jesus, the Tree of Life, is moving to bring His soon-to-be-wedded bride into full pure-and-spotless maturity through the inward working of the Holy Spirit.

For those with eyes to see and ears to hear, the unveiling revelation of Jesus Christ in the Last Days will automatically expose and confront the 7-fold manifestations of the counterfeit satanic religious spirit of antichrist. The bride of Jesus Christ will accurately discern the spirit of antichrist and, empowered by the Holy Spirit, assertively resist Satan’s religious spirit. While greater vision and possession by the Truth of Jesus Christ comes to the bride, there comes a coinciding blindness and increased darkness to those who reject Jesus and who turn to the religion of the antichrist.

The satanic religious spirit of antichrist cannot emulate any bit of the inward truth of and intimacy with Jesus Christ, nor can he steal the riches of Christ’s glory. The spirit of antichrist can only mimic the outward manifestations and try to “look like” the real through outward means, which require materialistic wealth, mental brainwashing, fear, and demonic seduction to hook and draw converts and worshippers. This is why God is dealing so particularly with His people as He draws us heavenward and asking the bride to release any attachments to the bondages of world systems.

The religious spirit of antichrist will create dynamic illusions by closely counterfeiting the outward manifestations of the Holy Spirit-filled, lovesick bride of Jesus Christ who is performing many signs and wonders as Jesus harvests His end-time family for Father. The coinciding, fully matured counterfeit religious spirit will seek to harvest its own worshipers through false signs and wonders. The spirit of antichrist even tries to go after “the elect.” Mark 13:22 For false messiahs and false prophets will appear and perform signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect.”

But God always uses the enemy against himself. If a believer wholeheartedly follows God, obeys His Word, and loves not their life unto death (Revelation 12:11), they will overcome the religious spirit of antichrist and receive the bridal rewards listed in the 7 letters to the churches. The very attempts of Satan to hijack the emerging signs-and-wonders, lovesick bride of Jesus Christ will be the very thing that helps the bride mature until the fullness of Christ within her is complete and poured out from within—the ready bride!

Overcoming the religious spirit of antichrist’s delusions seems like it should be a pretty straight-forward process but many find overcoming very challenging. This is because walking out the truths of the 7 letters and becoming one with Jesus is Satan’s greatest threat and thus, he most vehemently seeks to oppose any would-be-bride-to-Jesus. Dealing with deliverance from the religious spirit of antichrist can be one of the most challenging battles ever fought by those who seek bridal union with Jesus Christ. The religious spirit of the spirit of antichrist is the one of the worst kinds of evil to overcome because its uniquely designed counterfeit nature especially appeals to humanity’s carnal nature that quite frankly, does not want the crucified-with-Christ path toward bridal union.

The Holy Spirit groans and labors within us, purposing to lead us into full maturity in Christ. As we obey and hold fast the Biblically-sound Word of the Lord through the pushes, the pulls, and the swirls of the smoggy religious spirit’s veil, if we faint not, we will breakthrough unto Christ’s fullness. While we contend with, repent of, and resist giving ourselves over to the easy-out compromises of the religious spirit of antichrist, we can completely trust that God is fully able to lead us, even when we are blind and the slope feels so slippery. In fact, God promises to lead us when we are blinded and debilitated but are still actively choosing to turn to Him and cry out for help!

Isaiah 42:16 “I will lead the blind by ways they have not known, along unfamiliar paths I will guide them; I will turn the darkness into light before them and make the rough places smooth. These are the things I will do; I will not forsake them.” Philippians 1:6 being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. Jude 1:25 To him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy—1 Corinthians 1:8 He will sustain you to the end, so that you will be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.

In the end, the real bride of Jesus Christ will completely differ from antichrist’s counterfeit religion because of her true, intimate love (John 13:35) for Jesus and for Father’s family. Signs and wonders aside, the bride of Jesus Christ will overcome simply because she intimately loves Jesus and her testimony fully reflects that she walks out Who she follows and what she believes about Him. There will be no denying who the bride of Jesus Christ follows! The Lamb of God is roaring through her faith-filled heart of true love.

Jesus promises to marry His fully transformed, Holy Spirit-filled bride who cries out to Him, “Come!” And when the Spirit and bride say in union, “Come!” it is because the Holy Spirit bears witness that the Bride is truly ready! She has responded to Christ’s preparations and obeyed the Holy Spirit’s leading until she is fully free from the world, the flesh, and the devil’s hold. She laid it all down for the sake of knowing her Bridegroom Jesus! In all truth, the ready bride can now say, “I am ready to become the wife of the Lamb!” Revelation 19:7 For the wedding of the Lamb has come, and his bride has made herself ready.

Because of its slippery, insidious nature, most people don’t even realize how they have been regularly exposed to and influenced by Satan’s many-faceted religious spirit. The attacks of the religious spirit can be experienced so personally and subjectively that the person doesn’t even realize that they are being attacked. Jesus, who is all Truth, seeks to lead us back to Himself as the Truth. By declaring what is the Truth about Himself, He is also either directly rebuking or making implications of the counterfeit. The extrapolations, or “Counterfeit Offerings” are this articles attempt to see between the lines of the commendations and rebukes to the 7 churches, to discover the unspoken or implied nuances, and directly expose many of the ever-evolving manifestations of Satan’s religious spirit. We may not have realized just how much the religious spirit has proliferated and “matured.”

Now it’s time to find and discuss the following “Counterfeit Offerings of the 7-Fold Satanic Religious Spirit of Antichrist.” The first bullet point serves as a main headline issue that provokes either the commendation or the rebuke. Other reasons may appear within each letter but the first headline bullet point seems to be more foundational and is thus highlighted as a major driving force behind the rest of the letter. Certainly there is overlap and one can even see how the problems in one church lead to the problems in another church and have a cause-and-effect cycle. The 7 churches together provide the whole picture of all that is asked by Jesus to overcome. It’s helpful to have a Bible nearby to read each church letter as you read the following counterfeit offerings of the 7-fold satanic religious spirit of antichrist.

The Counterfeit Offerings of the 7-Fold Satanic Religious Spirit of Antichrist

EPHESUS: Revelation 2:1-7 (Ephesus: meaning of name = “permitted”)
The Church Called to Lay the Foundation of Apostolic First Love Relationship with Jesus

The counterfeit:

• False apostles

• Having suffered many-a self-centered disappointment, the person who at first, gave their emotionally open-hearted “First Love” to Jesus is no longer willing to endure until the end and seeks a reason to leave the grueling process of believing the pure Word of God. The religious spirit offers a more convenient counterfeit.

• The satanic religious spirit offers self-love in lieu of First Love and provides a conduit of “worship” through human intellectualism and cultural camaraderie. Books are written that undermine the Bible’s ultimate apostolic authority and new rules are set for societal acceptance and performance (in which hypocrisy begins to flourish).

• Intellectualism becomes the human’s “higher power.” Based on what is deemed good and reasonable for humanity to coexist, a logic-and-reason-based, code of conduct is formed that is expressed through the social network of cultural camaraderie. Compliance to this hefty list of do’s-and-don’ts is enforced through cultural acceptance and praise or rejection and disapproval. This spoken and unspoken cultural code of conduct replaces the need to develop a vulnerably intimate, First-Love relationship with Jesus.

• Commitment to the current code of conduct is the duty that has replaced any need for extravagant faith and heartfelt, enduring obedience to Jesus Christ. Self-love, coupled with intellectualism, bypasses the need for great faith and as such, offers a closed-heart alternative that is more dependent upon human performance than upon God. Such self-love performs for “love” from a duty bound sense of obligation having given up on any hope for a fully transformed heart.

• Human intellectualism (i.e. “earthly wisdom”) “protects” the human heart from the Holy Spirit’s messy, awkward, convicting process and offers a form of acting like the person loves Jesus without the hard work.

• The elevation of rationalization and intellectualism over faith and trust allows the religious spirit to reject any need to “remember, repent, and return” to an open-hearted, hope-filled, love-sick first estate when a person may have first encountered the love of Jesus and accepted Him into their heart.

• Tolerant acceptance of nicolaitan practices are normalized. Nicolaitan in Greek means, “dominate the laity,” (Nico: dominiate, Laitan: laity). In this religious practice, rules replace relationship. The “all-knowing” Church leadership presumes to be intellectually and spiritually better qualified to “hear from God” for the lay people then the lay people can hear from God for themselves. In this vein of the religious spirit. nicolaitan priests and elders create systems of religion that promote dependence on the church, its institutional rules, and its “inspired” human leadership instead of teaching people how to develop a personal and direct relationship with Jesus Christ.

• False apostles create doctrines and teachings that lead people away from cultivating a passionate, First Love relationship with Jesus. True apostles lead people to or back to a First Love relationship with Jesus Christ.

SMYRNA: Revelation 2:8-11 (Smyrna: meaning of name = “myrrh.” Myrrh was presented to Jesus at his birth, and, mixed with wine, presented to him on the cross. It was also a part of his body’s preparation for burial)
The Church Called to Sacrificially Love Jesus—Even Unto Death

The counterfeit:

• False sacrifice

• False humility gives a look of being pious without paying the actual price Jesus is asking. Afflicted by a fear of man and fear of suffering, but still wanting to look spiritually profound, the religious spirit offers alternative forms of suffering but produces no Holy Spirit fruit or greater intimacy with Jesus.

• Cain offered his sacrifice to God from a self-righteous religious spirit. The prophet Abel knew God and what kind of sacrifice would please Him: a lamb.

• A person may refuse to enter into the sufferings that Jesus is actually asking of them and instead, inflicts suffering on themselves in order to get attention or to prove a point.

• If asked by Jesus as a sacrifice of love, to be stripped of all worldly and natural dignities and fleshly comforts and become poor to become rich in Christ, religious excuses for keeping their “stuff” abound.

• The religious spirit rejects the Galatians 2:20 crucified-with-Christ path toward freedom.

PERGAMUM: Revelation 2:12-17 (Pergamum/Pergamos: meaning of name = height elevation)
The Church Called to Receive Christ’s Two-Edged Word that Separates Out and Sanctifies True Identity

The counterfeit:

• False identity

• Instead of engaging in the Holy Spirit’s work that separates us unto Himself and out from the world, the flesh, and the devil, religious spirited “church” people opt to use their spiritual gifts from God to accumulate wealth by merchandising their giftings and by using their gifts to manipulate people for their own selfish gain. Example: the prosperity “faith” gospel. If I have been entrusted with much, could Jesus just as easily ask me to give it all away and I would immediately and gladly obey Him?

• Unwilling to confront and oust those who will not repent from using their spiritual gifts from God to merchandise and manipulate people for their own selfish gain.

• Tolerant acceptance of nicolaitan practices where church leadership presumes to be better qualified to “hear from God” for the lay people and thus, nicolaitan’s subject lay people to the institutional rules of the church or denomination by elevating the rules above developing their own personally intimate relationship with Jesus as Lord. The institutional church is presented as the “Lord” rather than Jesus Christ Himself. Example: “Rules your way to righteousness” over-involved, rule-enforcing leadership replaces the need to learn how to hear from Jesus for yourself and directly respond to the Holy Spirit’s leading.

THYATIRA: Revelation 2:18-29 (Thyatira: meaning of name = “odor of affliction”)
The Church Called to Pursue Fullness and Bridal Intimacy with Christ and Represent Him in Leadership

The counterfeit:

• False prophets

• People who have the gift of prophecy but use it to “prophesy” from their own delusion in order to tickle the ear of their followers. These followers (and their leaders) want to be spiritually absolved and accepted by the church even though they are unapologetically practicing idolatry, indulging in immoral behavior, and making money to support their compromised lifestyle. They are told to seek the church for forgiveness instead of going directly to Jesus. The person is not asked or empowered to “go and sin no more.”

• Avoiding the struggle of full repentance and cleansing, the religious spirit excuses people from needing to seek the Lordship of Jesus Christ in their life. False prophets refuse to correct or exhort to believe God’s inspired scriptures, embrace the Holy Spirit’s conviction, and receive His empowerment to repent from of immoral and idolatrous lifestyle.

• False prophets tell people what they want to hear but will not also tell them what they may need to hear.

• Presumption of leadership while refusing to embrace the cost of becoming a leader, which includes being willing to lose all for the sake of Christ.

• Presumption to speak the “word of the Lord” without accountability to the Holy Spirit. Refusal to look at the evidence of the Holy Spirit’s fruit which either validates or invalidates the Prophet’s message and his or her fruit-bearing relationships with Jesus and His body.

SARDIS: Revelation 3:1-6 (Sardis: meaning of the name = “Red Ones”)
The Church Called to Become Fully Conformed to Christ’s Image and Be Alive and Awake to the Times

The counterfeit:

• False image

• The church that puts on a great show and looks alive but does not cultivate a personal and corporate intimate relationship with Jesus Christ and thus, produces no lasting fruits of the Holy Spirit. The self-centered-image church is all about achieving excellent performance that looks good to themselves (and to the world).

• Being so busy with looking good on the outside, the inside work of embracing and developing a crucified-with-Christ life is neglected, thwarting the maturing process in which the spiritual ability to discern the times and seasons of God is developed. The religious spirit keeps this church asleep and dead to the life of God.

• The church that says, “Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name…” And He replies, “Depart from Me. I never knew you.”

PHILADEPHIA: Revelation 3:7-13 (Philadelphia: meaning of the name = “Brotherly Love”)
The Church Called to Obey God’s Word to “Endure” Until The Fullness of Jesus Comes and Transforms

The counterfeit:

• False grace

• Using God’s grace to stay stuck in sin and immature instead of using God’s grace to press in, believe, and endure until the Ephesians 4:13 indwelling of Jesus Christ’s full measure is reached. The religious spirit rejects the need for entering into the Father’s love that James 1:4 describes as perseverance unto maturity.

• Spiritual warfare is not taken seriously and the Word of God is not viewed as a weapon of warfare. In fact, by invoking “false grace” as coverage enough in all areas of need, the religious spirit creates passivity.

• The religious spirit of antichrist undermines the literalness and effectiveness of Scripture and thus, denies the need to use the Scriptures as a weapon against Satan and his forces of darkness.

• Learning about God and building a knowledge base about Him is considered “spiritual growth,” instead of getting to intimately know and love Jesus personally.

• Following the Holy Spirit’s leading and holding an uncompromising belief in His Word is conceptually accepted but having a personalized relationship with the Holy Spirit and the Word is “unbalanced.”

• Teaching does not need to have an accompanying action plan to walk out what is being learned. Information for the sake of information about God’s truth is enough. Application of the truth unto full obedience is too much and unnecessary.

• False grace teachings promote God’s “grace” as an excuse to stay broken instead of engaging in the process of believing that God’s grace is given to every believer to undergo the process of being fully transformed and conformed into the image of Christ, going from (2 Corinthians 3:18) glory to glory, in Jesus’ (John 1:16) grace upon grace to get there.

• False humility and false grace “believes” that God’s ok with us staying in our human brokenness as long as we just keep asking for forgiveness and act empathetically and compassionately toward the other broken people, expecting them to do the same for us while no one presses in for transformation and fullness of Christ.

• Because of God’s “grace,” endurance is unnecessary. We don’t need to develop great faith because the journey of developing intimacy with Jesus by sharing in His sufferings is too extreme and there isn’t enough provision to go the distance. Being crucified-with-Christ asks too much and gives too little, too late.

• False grace does not mature the believer or develop the Holy Spirit’s gift of discernment between the Spirit and Soul. The satanic religious spirit can only access and falsely “inspire” the human soul. Such “inspiration” sounds and feels very spiritual but is really only reaching and tickling the soul, not the spirit. Soul inspirations can only inspire the ambitions of the soul and serve only to perpetuate self-love.

LAODICEA: Revelation 3:14-22 (Laodicea: meaning of name = Justice of the People)
The Church Called to Exemplify the Justice of God Through His Chosen People

The counterfeit:

• False “Holy” Spirit

• Rich in material goods and steeped in entitlement, there is no need for conviction of truth or for the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit to bring a believer into maturity by developing an intimate love relationship with Jesus and which necessarily includes embracing some level of suffering.

• Invalidation and rejection of the crucified-with-Christ lifestyle through an unwillingness to be asked to “lose it all for the sake of Christ” (Philippians 3:8) or “sell everything and give it to the poor.” (Mark 19:21)

• Overly sensitive, refined, and easily offended, people fastidiously groom and perfect their outside world with the hope that it will change their heart (but cannot). They settle for an outward “looks good” self-image, while ignoring and rejecting the rebukes and discipline of the Holy Spirit Who alone can change a human heart and Who alone can fill and transform from the inside-out.

• Believe that there are many religious paths to God. Lukewarm “Christians” will falsely accuse and label those who believe that Jesus is the only way, calling them: “haters,” “right-wing,” or “extremists.”

• The squeaky-wheel “voice” of the religious spirit of antichrist bully’s those who differ from their belief.

• An affluent church member can purchase spiritual status and buy their way into church leadership.

• The look of outward success is spiritualized to mean that they have attained God’s approval in spite of moral, social, and spiritually compromised lifestyles that do not seek to fully align with Scriptural truths.

• Social justice worldview seeks to replace the need for the Holy Spirit and instead, through self-earned “righteousness” and good works, one can commend oneself as “self-righteous” and thereby alleviate the burden of the Holy Spirit’s conviction, the guilt of sin, and forego any need for forgiveness and repentance.

Janet Weaver Smith ©gardenministries.org July 7, 2016

Unbelief is when a human being actively refuses to take personal responsibility for God’s generous provisions, made on their behalf, and look into whether or not, what God has said and done is true and believable—or not. God is continually reaching out to humanity through His written and spoken word(s) and actions. He is not willing that any human being should perish but that all human beings come to the saving knowledge of God’s gracious provisions through Jesus Christ.

Humanity must choose whether or not they will respond to what God has said and done on their behalf. Refusing to respond may appear to be neutral but it is not. The choice to ignore is the choice to reject God’s loving provisions for forgiveness, salvation, and transformation. Ignoring God is unbelief in God. This applies to Christians and non-Christians alike. Christians and non-Christians can choose to stop or never start responding to God.

Ephesians 4:17-25 Therefore, I tell you and insist on in the Lord not to live any longer like the gentiles live, thinking worthless thoughts [in the futility of their mind] 18They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of their ignorance and hardness of heart. 19Since they have lost all sense of shame, they have abandoned themselves to sensuality and practice every kind of sexual perversion without restraint. 20However, that is not the way you came to know the Messiah. 21Surely you have listened to him and have been taught by him, since truth is in Jesus.

22Regarding your former way of life, you were taught to strip off your old nature, which is being ruined by its deceptive desires, 23to be renewed in your mental attitude, 24and to clothe yourselves with the new nature, which was created according to God’s image in righteousness and true holiness. 25Therefore, stripping off falsehood, “let each of us speak the truth to his neighbor,” for we belong to one another.

Satan and his dark workings as the “god of this world” capitalizes upon a human’s refusal to respond and blinds the minds of those who do not believe (2 Cor. 4:4). This blinding occurs to Christian and non-Christian alike. A Christian who remains in their unbelief and refuses to respond to God’s great invitations for transformation is one who is replacing the real with the counterfeit and is choosing a “form of godliness” but denying the Holy Spirit’s push to be transformed into the image of God through faith and active loving obedience. A fake Christian has no follow-through. They are pretending to believe.

2 Corinthians 2:3-4, 16-17 So if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are dying. 4In their case, the god of this world has blinded the minds of those who do not believe to keep them from seeing the light of the glorious gospel of the Messiah, who is the image of God. 16But whenever a person turns to the Lord, the veil is removed. 17Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Lord’s Spirit is, there is freedom. 18As all of us reflect the glory of the Lord with unveiled faces, we are becoming more like him with ever-increasing glory by the Lord’s Spirit.

2 Timothy 3:1-13 (ISV) You must realize, however, that in the last days difficult times will come. 2People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3unfeeling, uncooperative, slanderous, degenerate, brutal, hateful of what is good, 4traitors, reckless, conceited, and lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God. 5They will hold to an outward form of godliness but deny its power. Stay away from such people. 6For some of these men go into homes and deceive foolish women who are burdened with sins and swayed by all kinds of desires. 7These women are always studying but are never able to arrive at a full knowledge of the truth. 8Just as Jannesmen, their stupidity will be plain to everyone.

8Just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so these men oppose the truth. They are depraved in mind and their faith is a counterfeit. 9But they will not get very far because, as in the case of those two men, their stupidity will be plain to everyone…

2 Timothy 3:14-17 14But as for you, continue in what you have learned and found to be true, because you know from whom you learned it. 15 From infancy you have known the Holy Scriptures that are able to give you the wisdom you need for salvation through faith in the Messiah Jesus. 16All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, 17so that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good action.

So what are we choosing when we refuse to respond to God’s truths through faith-filled acts of obedience? We are choosing to believe lies. Ironically, when we choose to believe lies, there are perceived “pro’s and con’s” that our state of unbelief provides. Unbelief excuses us from taking responsibility to respond openly, honestly, and continually, until we break through to greater peace and intimacy in the relationship. Unbelief “lets us off the hook” to respond to love. If I don’t want to believe that I am loved or if I mistrust the motives of those who extend love toward me, I can reject or respond on my terms and conditions and thus, control what I give and get from people based on my needs more than anyone else’s.

Romans 12 directly confronts this type of self-protective, self-centered approach to relationship(s). Take for example Romans 12:9-11 (ISV), Your love must be without hypocrisy (i.e., say one thing do another). Abhor what is evil (hypocrisy is evil); cling to what is good. 10Be devoted to each other with mutual affection. Excel at showing respect for each other. 11Never be lazy in showing such devotion. Be on fire with the Spirit.

What are we agreeing with when we choose to believe God’s love and respond to His directives and commands? We are choosing to agree with the Truth that sets us free to trust and let the love of God in to both comfort and correct us as we ask Him to transform us into His sacrificially loving nature. From this intimately transformative interchange, God’s blessings pour out and empower us to continue on our path toward Christ’s fullness. Because God’s sacrificial nature is unchangeable and His love unconditional, every human being is without excuse for not responding.

Once we do respond and say yes to God’s dealings with our misaligned souls, His blessings and benefits come to strengthen us in our faith, hope, and loving obedience. Responding to God will grow us up into maturity. His eternal intent for all who love Him is to take us step by step, from glory to glory, into His transformative Presence until we are fully changed to be like Him. Thank God for His great gift of love! As we yield, bow, and turn our hearts and minds to Him, over and over again, the veil of unbelief will be peeled off of us, our spiritual eyes will open, our heart’s awakened, and the Spirit of Liberty will find a resting place in us—His very temple and treasured possession.

John 14:21-24 The person who has my commandments and keeps them is the one who loves me. The one who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I, too, will love him and reveal myself to him.” 22Judas (not Iscariot) asked him, “Lord, how is it that you are going to reveal yourself to us and not to the world?” 23Jesus answered him, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word. Then my Father will love him, and we will go to him and make our home within him. 24The one who doesn’t love me doesn’t keep my words. The words that you’re hearing me say are not mine, but come from the Father who sent me.

To “keep” God’s word means that not only do we say that we believe what God says in His word about Himself and about his beloved humanity is true, we also take responsibility to continually apply the correlating action steps that our faith in God requires—action steps like loving God wholeheartedly and turning to Him as our First Love and loving and forgiving others as He loves and forgives.

Bottom line is this: Do we love Jesus Christ with our whole heart, soul, and mind or not? Our actions will always speak louder than our words. We are only fooling ourselves when we let ourselves off the hook from acting on what we believe. Most everyone else can see our hypocrisy—even other hypocrites!

Unbelief is a state of mind especially targeted by the spirit of antichrist—the god of this world. Whether or not a person confesses to be of the Christian faith or not, anyone who refuses to walk out what they believe is a hypocrite and is actively engaged in a state of unbelief. If as a Christian, I say that I believe in Jesus Christ and then refuse to respond to the Holy Spirit when He comes and offers me the next steps of obedience that draw me closer to Him, I am acting in unbelief. If I will not surrender the mental process of my mind to God’s leadership and actively seek to know and obey His will for my life, I am just putting on a Christian front and my spiritual house is being built on a sandy foundation that will crumble and fall at the first sign of trouble.

People who habitually process all of life intellectually and who intellectualize their feelings are prone toward thinking that they must always know better than anyone who differs from them on most, if not all matters. Intellectualism is the worship of the mind. This form of idolatry is highly competitive. We seek and value all time and approval from those we perceive to (possibly) be smarter than us and conversely, we duck and avoid any and all confrontational naysayer who we deem as less advanced than we are about this or that area of expertise. The game is to always know better and better than everyone else so one day we can stand on the top of the heap and wag our all-knowing tongue at everyone else and self-righteously declare, “I told you so.” Or better yet! Find a group who thinks just like we do so as a team, we can all say, “Too bad. So sad! I told you so!”

The problem with depending upon intellectualism as superior to First Love for Jesus, is that human intellect was corrupted in the fall and no amount of self-serving will ever keep the human intellect from being deceived. The human intellect is already deceived and only Jesus can bring us into our Creator’s truth and keep us from being deceived. Intellectualism is a perceived “safe harbor” in which “addicts” obsessively try to “figure out” how to prevent or escape pain. Bright-minded souls seeks a safe haven through the gateway of an overly active, open mind and a mistrusting, closed heart.

These folks are especially prone to the deceptive nature and words of the spirit of antichrist because they are trusting in the mind’s ability to discern what is true and right, above or instead of, relying on the Holy Spirit through faith and trust in Jesus Christ. This is where deception takes its greatest advantage of humanity. The fallen human mind is already prone to deception and without the revelation of the Holy Spirit, the fallen human mind is not capable of distinguishing and discerning all of what is actually evil.

1 Corinthians 2:13-16 (ISV) We don’t speak about these things with words taught us by human wisdom, but with words taught by the Spirit, as we explain spiritual things to spiritual people. 14A person who isn’t spiritual doesn’t accept the things of God’s Spirit, for they are nonsense to him. He can’t understand them because they are spiritually evaluated. 15The spiritual person evaluates everything but is subject to no one else’s evaluation. 16For “Who has known the mind of the Lord so that he can advise him?”
However, we have the mind of the Messiah.

To the degree that Jesus is LORD in my life is to the degree that I will, by His Spirit, be able to test and discern the spirit in another person as to whether Jesus is LORD in their heart. If Jesus is not Savior and LORD in my heart, I cannot discern spiritual matters or whether Jesus is LORD in someone else’s heart. It is the Spirit of the LORD Jesus within me that is “greater than he that is of the world,” not my intellectual prowess.

A Biblical example of natural man, logic-and-reason-based unbelief is revealed in Zechariah, the father of John the Baptist. Stunned by an unexpected supernatural visitation from Gabriel, the angel of the Lord, Zechariah’s knee-jerk reaction to all the supernatural-ness is to voice his natural-minded fear, doubt, and unbelief—as if it held any water compared to what was going on all around him!

While Zechariah’s unbelief did not cost him the promise of a son, he did not get to fully celebrate the joy of this miraculous event during the conception and gestation of his son John because his unbelief cost him his very speaking voice for 9+ months!

Luke 1:11-20 (ISV) An angel of the Lord appeared to him [Zechariah], standing at the right side of the incense altar. 12When Zechariah saw him, he was startled, and fear overwhelmed him. 13But the angel told him, “Stop being afraid, Zechariah, because your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you are to name him John. 14You will have great joy, and many people will rejoice at his birth, 15because he will be great in the Lord’s presence. He will never drink wine or any strong drink, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit even before he is born. 16He will bring many of Israel’s descendants back to the Lord their God. 17He is the one who will go before the Lord with the spirit and power of Elijah to turn the hearts of parents to their children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous, and to prepare the people to be ready for the Lord.”

18Then Zechariah asked the angel, “How can I be sure of this, since I am an old man, and my wife is getting older?” 19The angel answered him, “I am Gabriel! I stand in the very presence of God. I have been sent to speak to you and to announce this good news to you. 20But because you did not believe my announcement, which will be fulfilled at its proper time, you will become silent and unable to speak until the day this happens.”

Here is a short list of heart-and-mind attitude’s that make us vulnerable to antichrist’s deceptive doctrines: Unbelief. Empty words. No response. Hypocrisy. Logic-and-reason-based decision-making. Rejection of and refusing to let both sides of God’s love apply to our life. Listening to people’s meaningless words that feed the intellect and kill the Spirit through doubt and unbelief.

Attention all smart people! The smartest thing a person could ever choose is to love and obey the One Who created them and desires them to be a part of His eternal family. To become a part of God’s family, we must learn to think like Jesus thinks and be conformed into His nature. This happens as we value His love in all of its forms: the comfort of receiving a truth-in-love rebuke, the discipline of learning follow-through and consistency, strength that comes from enduring hardship and persevering in faith through painful circumstances.

Ephesians 5:6 (ISV) Do not let anyone deceive you with meaningless words, for it is because of these things that God becomes angry with those who disobey.

The Spirit of Jesus Christ is first and foremost Love in nature and requires faith-in-action to enter into. We must respond when God speaks to us. We cannot expect to grow if we shut down and harden our hearts every time we hear something difficult that disrupts us. Each time we refuse to respond, we are telling God that we are in charge—not Him and we are making the road to real relationship with Him all the more difficult. This unbelief also increases our vulnerability to the deceptions of the spirit of antichrist because intellectualism is the road that the spirit of antichrist travels upon the most successfully. The mysteries hidden in Christ Jesus are hidden from worldly-wise intellectuals. This was true in Jesus time and it is still true today.

Luke 10:21-22 (ISV) At that moment, the Holy Spirit made Jesus extremely joyful, so Jesus said, “I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from wise and intelligent people and have revealed them to infants. Yes, Father, because this is what was pleasing to you. 22All things have been entrusted to me by my Father. No one knows who the Son is except the Father, and no one knows who the Father is except the Son and the person to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.”

1 Corinthians 1:20-25 (ISV) Where is the wise person? Where is the scholar? Where is the philosopher of this age? God has turned the wisdom of the world into nonsense, hasn’t he? 21For since, in the wisdom of God, the world through its wisdom did not know God, God was pleased to save those who believe through the nonsense of our preaching. 22Jews ask for signs, and Greeks look for wisdom, 23but we preach the Messiah crucified. He is a stumbling block to Jews and nonsense to gentiles, 24but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, the Messiah is God’s power and God’s wisdom. 25For God’s nonsense is wiser than human wisdom, and God’s weakness is stronger than human strength.

1 Corinthians 1:26-31 (ISV) Brothers, think about your own calling. Not many of you were wise by human standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. 27But God chose what is nonsense in the world to make the wise feel ashamed. God chose what is weak in the world to make the strong feel ashamed. 28And God chose what is insignificant in the world, what is despised, what is nothing, in order to destroy what is something, 29so that no one may boast in God’s presence. 30It is because of God that you are in union with the Messiah Jesus, who for us has become wisdom from God, as well as our righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. 31There- fore, as it is written, “The person who boasts must boast in the Lord.”

1 Corinthians 1:6-9 (ISV) However, when we are among mature people, we do speak a message of wisdom, but not the wisdom of this world or of the rulers of this world, who are passing off the scene. 7Instead, we speak about God’s wisdom in a hidden secret, which God destined before the world began for our glory. 8None of the rulers of this world understood it, because if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. 9But as it is written, “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no mind has imagined the things that God has prepared for those who love him.”

1 Corinthians 4:7 (ISV) For who makes you superior? What do you have that you did not receive? And if you did receive it, why do you boast as though you did not receive it?

Janet Weaver Smith © 1-8-16 [revised 7-17-2021] gardenministries.org

In the realm of timeless eternity, can a future flesh-and-blood human function and interact as a free will, choice-making spirit-being in heavenly fellowship with the Godhead, before they are birthed in their physical human body on earth? The issue in question about this controversial teaching is not that humans pre-exist in the heart of God through the Word before they become birthed as human beings. Multiple scriptures describe a pre-human existence: Ephesians 1:4-5,11; Romans 8:29; Jeremiah 1:5, 2 Timothy 1:9; 1 Peter 1:20, to name a few.

The issue in question is how, and in what state, does the human spirit exist and do they fellowship with the Godhead and make free-will decisions in this state of being? In other words, prior to their birth as physical human beings on earth, do future human-born spirits have activated, free-will, choice-making souls in heaven and can they express themselves in ways that enable them to initiate, interact, and communicate with the Father [or the Godhead] and make free-will choices?

The Bible tells us that newly created humanity was named, “Adam” and received his-and-her free-will awareness and his-and-her ability to make choices. They could exercise their unique personality and could initiate relationship with God and interact with their created surroundings after Adam was formed from the dust of the ground and after God breathed Adam’s full-grown body and soul. Genesis 2:7-8 (CSB) Then the Lord God formed the man out of the dust from the ground and breathed the breath of life into his nostrils, and the man became a living being [“being” in Hebrew: nephesh meaning “soul”]. 8 The Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, and there he placed the man he had formed.

The only existence humans have before they are God-breathed into their earthly, clay-formed human body is that which exists within the spoken Word of God who is Christ Jesus Himself. In this way, humans exist as beings who are purposed in Christ before the foundation of the earth; but only in the essence of being in Christ and who are spoken into existence by The Word of God.

The Bible does not tell us anything more about this pre-physical-body existence so there is no way to scripturally prove that humans have an activated soul with a free-will personality that can initiate relationship, make choices, and communicate with God prior to becoming physically born. This idea of spirit beings having free will, choice-making, activated personalities who interact and communicate with the Godhead prior to their human-born earth existence is not found in scripture and thus, should not be suggested or taught.

Some Christian prophetic forums have taught that humans lived a long time as spirits in the Father before they were sent to earth. These spirits are said to have petitioned God to become a part of redemption’s story and eagerly asked the Father to, “Send me, send me!” This narrative implies that these spirits have a free-will ability to initiate with God and to make personal choices and decisions about their destiny before they are formed in the flesh as human beings.

John 15:16 counters the idea of such an ability to initiate the choosing process, “You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit; fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you.”

The suggestion or teaching that spirits have the ability to make free-will choices and activated souls before they become human-born inadvertently promotes the age-old lie that one can potentially have a direct, initiating-and-responding relationship with the Heavenly Father outside of or apart from Jesus Christ.

While those who teach this idea most likely don’t mean to say that, they may not have thought the idea all the way through to its end and have not seen where the line must be clearly drawn by scripture. The ability to initiate and communicate with God through a human voice using vocalized words prior to becoming physically born on earth is not scriptural. He first loved us. He first chose us. And the only way to the Father is through Christ. We do not chose Him, He chooses us and that is our starting point.

Scripture does tell us that we exist in the heart of God through the Word, Who is Christ Jesus, prior to being breathed into our human flesh. However, our Creator God initiates and chooses when to breathe life and soul in our human flesh and impart life and the power to choose or deny self. Our human birth on earth is the beginning of a life of conscious, free-will choosing. This power to choose is given so that we can choose to love God from our free will and deny self from our free will in the context of our created purpose which is the purpose God intended in creating human beings in the first place.

Colossians 1:15-17 (CSB) He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. 16 For everything was created by him, in heaven and on earth, the visible and the invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities — all things have been created through him and for him. 17 He is before all things, and by him all things hold together.

As we enter a new era of growing in the knowledge of God and revelation of His Word unfolds, it’s a good reminder to take an idea all the way through to its end and look at the fruit to determine the Truth of it before we suggest or teach it. The fruit either points to the centrality of Jesus Christ or points away from Him. This focal point determines whether something can be safely included as an extra-biblical point or if it is actually non-biblical and is even unbiblical.

Extra-biblical stories and prophetic experiences won’t contradict biblical principles and never conflict with the centrality of Jesus Christ. They serve to bring a storyline through which we can better relate to the Word of God. The prophets personal and subjective experiences help us bridge the complex differences between heaven and earth. But they never lead us outside of His will through misinterpretation or applications of these experiences. The Lord builds and releases revelation of His Word, line upon line and precept upon precept.

The idea that humans can pre-exist as free-will, choice-making spirits who can initiate communication with God doesn’t help or elevate how we walk out our life in God on earth today. If we have no ability to recollect any of that existence, how are we to accurately draw from it? If we are left to simply imagine it with no scriptural basis to ground these imaginations, we are likely to delve into the subjective area of vain imagination that does develop and grow our hearts and minds in the true knowledge of the Son.

The human’s ability to imagine is different than engaging in fellowship with the Holy Spirit and receiving His revelation. When we spend time communing with the Holy Spirit while we meditate on scripture, the Spirit will reveal the truth of Jesus Christ in deep and meaningful ways. Self-centered imaginations are unfruitful bunny trails. Father looks for worshipers who worship Him in Spirit and in truth (John 4:23-24). We cannot imagine that scripture says something it doesn’t say.

For those learning how to scripturally develop and ground revelation, imagining things without solid scriptural footings can lead toward thinking and believing what many world religions teach: that humans can have an eternal, life-giving relationship with God or Heavenly Father outside of and apart from accepting and believing that Jesus Christ is our only entry point to the Father.

Heresy happens when we depart or stray from the centrality of Jesus Christ as humanity’s only Redeemer and only way to the Father and to eternal life.

John 14:6 (CSB) Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

Janet Weaver Smith ©4-27-2016 – gardenministries.org

In Acts 5, we read how the Apostles are carriers and prophetic administrators of God’s divine power in unprecedented levels. Peter walks across town and his shadow falls upon people and they are healed and delivered (5:15). Greedy believers named Ananias and Sapphira, pretending to be generous but lie to the Holy Spirit are confronted with the truth behind their heart motives and fall over dead. Yikes! This level of God-power sparks intense jealousy within the Jewish religious leaders and they arrest and imprison Peter and the rest of the Apostles (5:17-18).

In John 18:10 we learned that back in the day, Peter packed heat! He carried a sword and when he and his Lord were threatened with arrest, feisty Peter whacked a guy’s ear off! Jesus later tells Pilate that “His guys” were well able to defend and protect Him if He called for it. John 18:36 Jesus said, “My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jewish leaders. But now my kingdom is from another place.”

From these scriptures we learn that even before the Apostles were so greatly empowered to do miracles, they were fighters. Peter was always defending himself, making grand and noble claims about himself. He even tried to correct the Lord from time to time. With so much spiritual chutzpa (prounounced: “hoot-spa”) at their disposal, why did the Apostles even let themselves get arrested and imprisoned? That leads us exactly to the point of this article. God is preparing a bridal vessel to walk in great authority and power and humility. This vessel must not misuse such power and authority and must love sacrificially and be Lamb-like in her nature.

The Apostles had been forewarned by Jesus that these kinds of tough situations would occur, and just like Him, they were never to “take things in their own hands” and protect themselves with natural means but were to submit their every move to the Holy Spirit’s leading and let Him direct their paths. This is the Way of Love and why it is critical for anyone who aspires to walk in complete union with Jesus Christ to learn how to process the pain of His training into greater love and submission to Jesus’ leading. We are being cleansed of our knee-jerk self-protective defensive reactions.

The Apostles had processed their love relationship with Jesus so thoroughly that they did not take matters into their own hands and resist imprisonment but complied with the arrest and waited in jail for the angel to release them. From there, the Apostles followed the angel’s direction which ironically put them all right back into a position of being arrested again. This time, not only were they arrested, they were flogged! And get this: they left rejoicing that they had been flogged for the sake of Jesus! What the….? Who does that?

Acts 5:40-42 [the religious leaders] called the apostles in and had them flogged. Then they ordered them not to speak in the name of Jesus, and let them go. 41 The apostles left the Sanhedrin, rejoicing because they had been counted worthy of suffering disgrace for the Name. 42 Day after day, in the temple courts and from house to house, they never stopped teaching and proclaiming the good news that Jesus is the Messiah.

When asked what the sign of His coming and the end of the age would look like, Jesus has also forewarned us, the last day’s apostolic generation, to expect the same treatment and to handle the power and glory of our supernatural God in the same humble manner that He and His first church age Apostle’s handled the Holy Spirit’s power. Matthew 24: 9-10 “Then you will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death, and you will be hated by all nations because of me. 10 At that time many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other, If we don’t know how to process the pain of betrayal and hardship and persecution without retaliation or self-protective defiance, we will not be entrusted with the power of God to deliver, heal, and restore.

This gives us a foundational understanding of why God allows pain to come our way. When processed toward the end of knowing Jesus more intimately, the hardship of pain plays a significant role in driving us to Jesus to be delivered from our self-centered, self-serving, self-protective, knee-jerk reactions to injustice. Through the empowered Word of God, the Holy Spirit teaches us how to process pain toward the humility of reverent submission which prepares us to host and administrate the great power of God at all times and in all situations from a purified heart of the sacrificial love of the Lamb. Our hearts have become purified through the painful corrections of God’s discipline and the comfort of His healing in order that we will not turn to or rely on anything in ourselves, apart from the Holy Spirit. We have learned to completely depend on Him in all things.

Faith is the resulting fruit of the human being’s process of becoming fully persuaded that God is truly Who He says He is and that He extravagantly and completely loves each and every human being—enough to send Himself as the Son to die and now ever lives to intercede for us to become fully persuaded in faith.

The environment in which we learn faith—especially great faith—is an environment of pain and hardship.

Hebrews 11:5-6 By faith Enoch was taken from this life, so that he did not experience death: “He could not be found, because God had taken him away.” For before he was taken, he was commended as one who pleased God. 6 And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.

All human “love” is based in fallen human nature with its source being the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. All human generated affection or love has its limit and will eventually completely fail and betray us. It’s good to come to the end of trusting in human love as an answer to the holes in our hearts.

Only God’s love never fails. When God loves us through another human, it is because that person is putting Jesus in the place of First Love priority, is receiving God’s chastening love and comforting affection, and is becoming a trustworthy vessel that the love of God pours through.

We know that God’s love is pouring through us because our process of becoming inwardly persuaded that God extravagantly loves us—even when every circumstance seems to contradict this truth. The fruit of being heavenly minded is manifesting in an ever-increasing faith and trust in God. We have more hope then ever that He will deliver on His promises to heal, deliver, and transform us to become just like Him.

Hebrews 12:5-7 And have you completely forgotten this word of encouragement that addresses you as a father addresses his son? It says, “My son, do not make light of the Lord’s discipline, and do not lose heart when he rebukes you, 6 because the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and he chastens everyone he accepts as his son.” 7 Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as his children. For what children are not disciplined by their father?

When God comes in answer to His BIG promise, and the supernatural of God breaks through and fills a lovesick bridal vessel, the distinct hallmark that differentiates the empowered bride of Jesus Christ from the empowered bride of satan is how Christ’s followers love one another. John 13:35 By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” The Love of God means everything.

Malachi 3:1-2 describes the intensity of God’s coming in the last days. In His mercy, God has sent His Spirit through the spirit and power of Elijah-like vessels to help prepare our hearts to receive His purifying Presence. Without this preparation of Love, the Spirit of the Fear of the Lord would overwhelmingly terrify us. It is His love that stabilizes our hearts and helps us stand in His Presence. No one can come to Jesus unless the Father draws them and no one can come to the Father except through Jesus. (John 14:6 and John 6:44). When I ask the Father to draw me closer, He will answer my prayer. And because He is an all-consuming fire and launderers soap, I can expect things in my life to heat up because He is leading me into situations where my human love cannot hold me.

Only God can bring us to the brink of ourselves and offer us a breaking point, which carries us into a ChoicePoint opportunity. ChoicePoints come when we reach the end of ourselves in a matter and must now choose whether we will admit that we have nothing left to give to solve our problem. Upon admitting this, we also then choose to turn to Jesus and ask Him to fill us with His divine love for that person and situation instead of trying to escape it. We confess that we are tempted to run away, isolate, stay mean and angry, fearful, or controlling and ask God to deliver us into His way through the pain.

At this ChoicePoint juncture, we pray: “God. I can see that I do not yet fully trust you in this area. Please forgive me and cleanse me of my fight-or-flight anger, meanness, fear, self-defending, self-centered heart responses. I want to love myself and other people beyond the weaknesses and infuriating compulsions and I have no power to love like that. Only You can love me and other people like that and I need Your love to replace my self-centered, human love. Please do this in my heart. Fill me with Your love. I ask this in Jesus Name.”

Until we reach a breaking point, receive the clear Spirit of conviction Who has graciously provided a ChoicePoint, we need God’s loving discipline (i.e., the pain of hardship) to work on us and create a need and desire for change, while leading us to the end of our own strength and ability to exert any more human love. The road toward brokenness and humility is longer for stronger people and ironically, most of God’s leaders are really, really strong people. There is productive pain that creates maturity. There is unproductive pain that keeps us immature. Either way, all humans will have pain. We might as well seek the productive route.

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The following is an excerpt from my article entitled, “Entering Into, Receiving, and Delivering the Glory of God The Process of Brokenness and Humility” Janet Weaver Smith 1-8-2012 – ©gardenministries.org

THE PATH TO ENTERING INTO THE GLORY IS VIA HUMILITY: Brokenness Precedes Revelation.

The yielding process between God and us occurs in our daily circumstances. God deliberately engages us through daily opportunities that lead us into a state of brokenness—or not. In his faithfulness to our hearts and to his promises, and within the context of the assignments we have accepted from him, God brings us opportunities to grow—or not. These opportunities purposely exert greater pressure than our self-will can withstand (usually incubated within a “too-much-with-too-little” environment). This pressure creates a continual need to choose greater dependence on God OR greater independence from God. I will continually get to the point where the end of me hits and a series of choices will be presented to continue my assignment and grow in love—or not.

END OF ME SYMPTOMS (symptoms usually hit within the context of circumstances surrounding our various life assignments)

Note: Be Encouraged when “End of Me Symptoms” occur. The Breaking point and ChoicePoint opportunity is near. Ask God to release the Spirit of Conviction and Repentance.

Phase 1: venting stage: “self” feels emotional explosions and/or implosions (which are not wrong) “I can’t do this anymore!” – “I’ve had it!” – “I’m so sick of this!” – “That’s it!” – “I can’t take it anymore!” – “Fill in your own words here _____!”

Phase 2: venting stage: emotional explosion causes “self” to seek self-solution to problem (still not wrong) “I can’t take it anymore, so I won’t. I quit!” – “I’m not understood and never will be, I’m leaving!” “What’s the use, I don’t seem to fit in here anyway, I’m going to find someplace where I do.” “What’s wrong with me?” – “What’s wrong with these people?” – “Fill in your own words here___”

Phase 3: Decision-making stage. I either turn to God and seek His clear answers and wait for Him to speak and lead me into my next steps or I turn to and act on my Phase 2 self-solutions. There is no neutral here. A ChoicePoint has come and I either seek out and follow the Holy Spirit or I seek my own religious-looking, self-centered solution that do not produce lasting fruit or transform me.

By Janet Weaver Smith – 1-8-2012 – ©gardenministries.org
(Authors note: I wrote this article on 1-8-2012 and find it as relevant now as then and am posting it to encourage us in our process of becoming one with Jesus)

How does the world know that we are in complete union with God?
Answer: John 17:21-23, they see and experience the glory of God in and through us.
Does Jesus receive glory through our complete union with Him?
Answer: Yes. John 17:10, “…and the glory has come to me through them.”
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OUR NUMBER ONE PURSUIT AND PASSION IS COMPLETE UNION
The prayer of Jesus in John 17 for complete union with us will be fully answered.
For those of us who want to be called the Bride of Jesus Christ, our life goal is to have the witness of the Holy Spirit in and through us that bears the fruit of complete union with Jesus— The fruit of complete union with God is: dwelling in and delivering the GLORY of the Living God.

Are we in complete union with God yet?
Answer: “more than I was but I know there is more “entering in” available to me.” Philippians 3:10-16

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Galatians 6:7-9 Keep going. Don’t let weariness dull your believing edge.
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“Get Ready” means that we are asking God to pinpoint everything in us that is apart from him and to deal with everything in us that is independent of our full surrender to him as Lord of our life, not just Savior.
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THE PATH TO ENTERING INTO THE GLORY IS VIA HUMILITY: Brokenness Precedes Revelation
The yielding process between God and us occurs in our daily circumstances. God deliberately engages us through daily opportunities that lead us into a state of brokenness—or not. In his faithfulness to our hearts and to his promises, and within the context of the assignments we have accepted from him, God brings us opportunities to grow—or not. These “opportunities” purposely exert greater pressure than our self-will can withstand (usually incubated within a “too-much-with-too-little” environment). This pressure creates a continual need to choose greater dependence on OR greater independence from God. I will continually get to the point where the end of me hits and a series of choices will be presented to continue my assignment and grow—or not.
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THE PATH TO COMPLETE UNION WITH GOD AND THE FIRE OF HIS GLORY
• • • • •
THE GLORY COMES TO THE HUMBLE OF HEART (Titus 2:12-14) THE PROCESS OF BREAKING IS THE PATH OF HUMILITY HOLINESS IS THE FRUIT OF COMPLETE UNION WITH GOD COMPLETE UNION WITH GOD MEANS THAT WE ARE COMPLETELY DEPENDENT ON HIM HUMILITY IS COMPLETE DEPENDENCE ON GOD (Andrew Murray, “Humility”)

END OF ME SYMPTOMS –Symptoms Usually Hit Circumstances Surrounding our Assignment
Note: Be Encouraged when “End of Me Symptoms” occur. Breaking point is near.

Phase 1: Venting stage: self-discovery: “self” feels emotional explosions and/or implosions (not wrong) “I can’t do this anymore!” – “I’ve had it!” – “I’m so sick of this!” – “That’s it!” – “I can’t take it anymore!” – “Fill in your own words here _____!”

Phase 2: Venting stage: self-discovery: emotional explosion causes “self” to seek self-solution to problem (still not wrong) “I can’t take it anymore, so I won’t. I quit!” – “I’m not understood and never will be, I’m leaving!” “What’s the use, I don’t seem to fit in here anyway, I’m going to find someplace where I do.” “What’s wrong with me?” – “What’s wrong with these people?” – “Fill in your own words here___”

Phase 3: Decision-making stage (no neutral here, it is time to choose one way or the other):

GREATER DEPENDENCE (humility) OR GREATER INDEPENDENCE (self-will)
Self-Will (resisting God): Incomplete Assignment / Impatient with the Process
BREAKING FAITH—PATH TO SEPARATION: GREATER INDEPENDENCE: Apart from God Prolongs my time in the wilderness. Perpetuates immaturity and denies the glory of complete union.

• Self-will: doesn’t want to ask God and others for help, stops believing God about the assignment, stops or significantly reduces personal resources (time, emotions, money, energy) that engage me with the assignment: examples: showing up at the place, giving to and receiving from others. “Don’t tell me what to do.” “I can handle this. I can do it myself.” “I’m fine.”

• Self-will seeks to “go it alone.” Creates greater independence from God and the body he has called us to and lengthens our endurance process—we stay immature and do not enter into greater union with God as long as we are refusing God’s help to overcome self-will.

• Self-will withdraws by ignoring or rejecting others and by rejecting God’s grace.

• Self-will ultimately says, “I am closing my heart. I don’t trust you God. I will not be vulnerable.”

Humility (embracing the cross-Matthew 16:24, Luke 9:23) Tips to Help us Grow Patient in the Process of Preparation

• Remember the anchor points of your faith. Through humility, we GROW INTO THE GLORY
• Love for God: Obedience, “those who love me will obey me.” (I John 2:5) Love is patient. (I Cor. 13)
• The fire is when the truth of my call to love God and love others hits my self-centeredness
• Religion gets turned into the REAL in the fire of love
• Assignment not over because he hasn’t said that it is.
• Talk to the people who you know God has joined you to in the assignment. Beware of isolation.
• See the opportunity to grow closer to God by turning to him for help in our brokenness and by refusing to act out any self-willed options.
• Engage the language of the garden: “Lord, not my will but your will be done.”
• Dependence/Humility: I acknowledge my powerlessness, my inability to go on this way, I need your help to keep going.
• Ask for the greater grace.
• Ask for the desire to ask for the greater grace to continue in this assignment.
• Recall and review the promises and prophecies over your life: Choose to believe them • Say out loud: Decreeing the promises and prophecies over your life
• Saying yes to Jesus because of who he is sets me free from self.

Janet Weaver Smith © 3-19-16 gardenministries.org

John 14:6 Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

It’s not how, or in what condition we come to Jesus, it’s that we come, just as we are. We simply keep coming, fully believing His promise to draw near to us when we draw near to Him. God’s Presence always changes us. He is the Transformer of our hearts. All He asks, is that we come—we come to Him.

The Spirit-filled bride of Revelation 22:17 has learned that all attempts to fix herself and be “good enough” for God before she comes to Him always fail and only keep her from the One who can change her. The bride has learned that no matter what she looks like or feels like, she is to “Come!” This lovesick Bride of Jesus Christ has so learned the secret of continually coming to Jesus, that now she cries out to any and all who would hear her profound revelation, “Come!” and those who are thirsty for the waters of life as she is, will learn from her that they too, can just come. He will respond. He will draw near. He will wash them and give them the free gift everlasting life. Any attempts on her part to “earn” this free gift of cleansing will come to naught. It is free. She must just come.

Revelation 22:17 The Spirit and the bride say, “Come!” And let the one who hears say, “Come!” Let the one who is thirsty come; and let the one who wishes take the free gift of the water of life.

The great revelation we can expect to have of God when we simply come to Him for His transformative work is this: God is Gracious and His kindness toward us is everlasting (James 5:11). For most of us, the full revelation of God’s gracious nature does not come in fullness all at once, though at times, it can feel very big. For most of us, this revelation of God’s compassionate, merciful kindness comes progressively.

Before we are even capable of realizing God’s kindness and mercy, we are led to the place where we realize how desperate we are for it and how broken we are without it. He is a gentle High Priest and deals ever so tenderly with the human heart. He does not treat us as our sins deserve (Psalm 103:10). We may think that we want all our outward behaviors and inward thoughts dealt with and perfected all at once, but God knows how much of the sword, fire, and hammer of His Word our heart is willing to process and endure. God’s mercy covers us in our brokenness while His grace empowers us to come to Him for change and transformation.

God draws us into an ever-deepening relationship that continually surfaces our “not-yet’s” until we reach an insufferable end to our every self-effort to change them and again, simply “Come!” He is right there, positioned to remove another layer of sin, self, and unbelief from our hearts and replace it with Himself through faith, hope, and love. He is doing two things at once, He is delivering us from the thing itself and all potential for pride that may have taken credit for fixing the problem in our own self-effort.

God sees all of our “not-yet'” imperfections and brokenness and simply asks us to “Come.”

Why do we even struggle with this simple concept? Perhaps we think that it is up to us to make ourselves clean, ready, and good enough for God before we can come to Him. This is not true. When scripture tells us to “clean the inside of our cup,” or “wash our robes and hands,” or “purify ourselves,” or “make ourselves ready,” or “put off the old man and put on the new man,” it does not mean that we have to figure out how to fix ourselves before we can come to Jesus. It’s the opposite.

It means that over and over and over again, we simply come, just as we are, in whatever condition we may be in, and we draw near to our gracious, loving, forgiving, compassionate, and merciful God and expect Him to be true to His Word that promises to transform us into His image and cleanse us as we just keep coming to Jesus. He provides all of the resources of the Way, the Truth, and the Life that frees us.

In our continual coming and depending on Him, we are “cleaning our cup,” we are “purifying and making ourselves ready,” we are “putting to death the earthly nature and thereby ridding ourselves of bad attitudes and behaviors.”

The coming to Him IS the work of yielding that we are asked to do.
The coming IS the yielding and turning to Him.
The coming IS the humbling of self and relying on Him to do the work.
The coming IS the receiving.
The coming IS the cleaning.
The coming IS the “fixing our eyes on Jesus.”
The simple act of coming, over and over again, IS the act of overcoming.

Hebrews 12:1-3 Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, 2 fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith.

Instead of trying to fix ourselves first, every time we turn, set our focused attention on Jesus, and just come, the very faith that makes us pleasing to God and righteous in His eyes is growing and being perfected and is what makes room for Him to fill us with Himself so that we can actually throw off the sins and hindrances. One drives out the other. We cannot function in a vacuum. We must have the greater power of the Holy Spirit drive out the lesser powers of sin and self. Until that happens, we are in process about it.

In the meantime, no religious-looking outside-in fixes will work as a substitute. Since true transformation only comes from the inside-out process of the Holy Spirit’s outpouring and inworking, we do no one a favor pretending to be something we’re not. Jesus rebuked the Pharisee’s for trying to “polish the outside of the cup” through their self-righteous performance-oriented religious system that boasted in outwardly, good-looking forms of godliness but fostered hypocrisy and injustice. Their outside-in approach denied the real power of inner transformation that only comes from intimate dependence on the Living God, not on a system about Him (Matthew 23:25-28).

Since only God can truly change a willing human heart, the workaround of the outside-in approach seeks to change outward behavior through rule keeping without first dealing with the inward condition of the heart. Success and failure within this structure has nothing to do with inward transformation nor does it bear the lasting fruits of the Holy Spirit.

Paul purposed to press in to fully know Christ and become like Him (Philippians 3) and described “maturity” as simply being filled with the fullness of Christ (Ephesians 4:13). Paul’s process toward this maturity involved being utterly stripped of everything that qualified him for human and religious approval in order to gain true righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith. Toward the end of his life, when Paul was the most spiritually “mature,” he had a robust realization of God’s utter graciousness and mercy when he referred to himself as the worst of all sinners whom Christ came into the world to save (1 Timothy 1:14-16).

Excerpt from the article: GOD’S FACE: SIÓNÉ – SPIRITUAL ZION – Entering the 7th Day Rest
Entering the state of Spiritual Zion or Sion is to seek and find God’s face. To “find” God’s face means that we fully enter into His Living Presence. Thus, seeking and finding the face of God is equivalent to entering the Presence of God. In His utter graciousness, Our God, Who is Light and lives in unapproachable light (1 Timothy 6:16, 1 John 1:5), has provided a way for us to be so close to Him that we are literally face to face with Him! But we have to want to be that close to Him. That is why He has asked His children to diligently seek His face. We must show desire for Him and invite Him to lead us into the processes that prepare us to fully enter into His Presence and become filled by Him in His glory.

We must “Come!”

The Overcomer’s Witness Protection Program
Janet Weaver Smith ©3-9-16 gardenministries.org

Hebrews 11:35b, 39-40 …There were others who were tortured, refusing to be released so that they might gain an even better (Greek: kreittón or kreissón) resurrection. These were all commended (Greek: martureó) for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised, 40 since God had planned something better (Greek: kreittón or kreissón) for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect (Greek: teleioó).

Hebrews 12:1 Therefore, since we are surrounded (Greek: perikeimai) by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us,

Revelation 12:11 They overcame (Greek: nikaó) him [satan] by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony (Greek: marturia); they did not love their lives (Greek: psuché) so much as to shrink from death.

6 Key Greek words help us understand the role of those who have gone before and those who are still alive in the earth that we call the champions of the faith, or the Witnesses.

1. Kreittón or kreissón: better, stronger, more excellent, mastery, dominance.
2. Teleioó: as a course, a race, or the like: I complete, finish, reaching the end-stage, i.e. working through the entire process (stages) to reach the final phase (conclusion). This root (tel-) means “reaching the end (aim).” It is well-illustrated with the old pirate’s telescope, unfolding (extending out) one stage at a time to function at full-strength (capacity effectiveness).
3. Martureó or marturia: I witness, bear witness, give evidence, testify, give a good report, commended, witness, evidence, testimony, reputation.
4. Perikeimai: surround; I am encompassed, surrounded, or clothed with, am in submission to.
5. Nikaó: I conquer, am victorious, overcome, prevail, subdue.
6. Psuché: the soul, life, self.

Witnesses are overcomers. They are those who not only accept Christ’s forgiveness from sin, they also make daily choices to run an intense race of shedding self-centered temporal gain in favor of winning the prize of being filled to the fullness of Christ Himself. Having let go of all other lesser love’s, overcomers relentlessly seek the Face of God and being filled with the fullness of His Divine Presence is their great reward.

Hebrews 11:6 And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that (1.) he exists and that (2.) he rewards those who earnestly seek him.

Hebrews 11:16 Instead, they were longing for a better country—a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.

Hebrews 12: 22-23 But you have come to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem. You have come to thousands upon thousands of angels in joyful assembly, 23 to the church of the firstborn, whose names are written in heaven. You have come to God, the Judge of all, to the spirits of the righteous made perfect (“only together with us, would they be made perfect” see Hebrews 11:40).

The messages to the 7 churches in Revelation 2 and 3 specifically call for the church to overcome certain spiritual evils and then describes the rich rewards that will be awarded those who overcome. These are they who will fully participate in the eternal purposes of God. Thus, it is important to understand the eternal purpose of God in creating man in the first place.

Terry Bennett (terrybennett.net) has given the body of Christ important revelation on this subject in his “Within the Circle of the Throne” series. In short, Terry teaches us that the eternal intent of God in creating man is for representation. A representative is another term for witness. Those overcomers who finish their race are those who will represent or be witnesses of God Himself to all creation throughout the entire universe for all eternity!

1 Timothy 6:15b-16 …God, the blessed and only Ruler, the King of kings and Lord of lords, 16 who alone is immortal and who lives in unapproachable light, whom no one has seen or can see. 1 John 1:5 …God is light;

Terry Bennett teaches that due to the unapproachable nature and essence of God’s eternal existence, the council of the Godhead entered into counsel and purposed to create an order of beings and a throne room from which to govern them and their habitation. In order to become approachable to these created beings, God must make an image—or representative—of Himself. He did this when it was decided in the Council of the Godhead to form the Man—who is the Word of God, the Son of God, and who would also come into humanity and become the Son of Man. The Representative Word of God/Son of God created and made all of creation (John 1:1-4).

Human beings are the only created beings who were designed for representation of God and were “created in the image of God.” (Genesis 1:27) The first image of God is the Son and then in the Son, is His body, who consist of created human beings who bear the image of God in and through the Son. In order to fully bear the image of God, one must enter into union with Him and thus, become like Him. The only way to become one with God, is to allow Him to fully conform them to the image of the Son of God, Jesus Christ.

Romans 8:29-30 For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. 30 And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.

The eternal intent of God is to have fully glorified human representatives or witnesses of Himself in the earth who testify of the Lord’s goodness and faithfulness to all creation forever. In order to become fully glorified, one must become fully conformed to Christ’s image and transformed into His nature, filled to the fullness by the Holy Spirit and be shining lamps, or witnesses of the Living God wherever they go.

The overcomers who have gone before us are “made perfect” together with the Last Day’s saints. These faithful witnesses are very motivated to see us complete our race because, like our forerunner Jesus has fully entered and occupies the Holy of Holies, we too, together in Christ, will become fully manifested family members of the Romans 8:29-30 Church of the firstborn. These are they who fully occupy Spiritual Zion and are made one with the Godhead, just as Jesus prayed in John 17. (See article: “GOD’S FACE: SIÓNÉ – SPIRITUAL ZION”)

We can interact with those who have gone on before and are now surrounding us in the Spirit. Just as we may encounter angels, we may encounter humans who are from the Hebrews 12:1 Cloud of Witnesses. Their testimony serves as a protection of God’s family, thus the title “Witness Protection Program.” These witnesses are engaged in helping those of us, who are alive in the earth today, run our race and finish strong like they did. They are very much alive and God is the God of the living, not the dead. These witnesses learned much in their overcoming process and can help teach us what we need to overcome. Their testimony of faithfulness, their stories of learning faith, hope, and love are precious to the Lord and He is not ashamed to call them His family or share the glory of their story with us.

I have encountered the ultimate Witness, who is Jesus! And I have also encountered at least 7 other witnesses: the Apostle John (the Revelator), the Apostle Paul, Anna Ziese—a missionary to China, LaVerne (my mother), Elijah, Moses, and King David. Each encounter was unique and never the same as the other. Some happened while I was awake and I physically saw or conversationally heard from and spoke with them. Some happened while I was asleep. I talked to and heard from them as though I were awake.

Encounters like these have imparted greater strength for me to endure. I learned from their testimony, how to fix my eyes on Jesus and throw off sin that hinders. The dynamic family connection that I felt with them assured me that I am not alone and imparted new energy to run my race with perseverance (Hebrews 12:1-2).

These witnesses can expound upon the revelation they have gained of Jesus and help us better understand the Word. Whatever revelation our generation of bridal overcomers lays hold of, they get to feast upon too! It’s so beautiful how, working together, God makes His family complete and perfect and fills us with Himself—making us perfect representatives of His nature for all eternity to all of His creation. What a gift of grace and love!

Entering the 7th Day Rest

Janet Smith © 3-2-16, edited 10-10-19 gardenministries.org

SIÓNÉ means “God is gracious.” The English variant of this name is John, Sean, Jane, etc. In Psalm 27:7-8, David cries out to the Lord, asking Him to be gracious to him by showing His face. To enter spiritual Zion or Sion is to seek and find God’s face. To seek face time with God means we seek God for who He is more than what He will do for us. Above all else, our prayerful cry is to intimately know God and dwell in the restful sanctuary of His great and mighty Presence. This is David’s secret and why God’s pleasure rested on him. David was a man after God’s own heart.

Psalm 27:7-8 Hear, O Lord, when I cry with my voice, and be gracious to me and answer me. 8 When You said, “Seek My face,” my heart said to You, “Your face, O Lord, I shall seek.”

Isaiah 30:18 Yet the LORD longs to be gracious to you; therefore he will rise up to show you compassion. For the LORD is a God of justice. Blessed are all who wait for him!

Our God, Who exists as unapproachable Light (1 Timothy 6:16, 1 John 1:5) has graciously provided a way for us to abide close to Him—so close we can see His face and not die. This gracious provision has come through Christ’s living sacrifice that carries us into the Presence hidden in Him. But we must want that closeness. We are instructed to diligently seek His face so there is our response to consider.

Psalm 24:3-8 Who may ascend the mountain of the LORD? Who may stand in his holy place? 4 The one who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not trust in an idol or swear by a false god. 5 They will receive blessing from the LORD and vindication from God their Savior. 6 Such is the generation of those who seek him, who seek your face, God of Jacob. 7 Lift up your heads, you gates; be lifted up, you ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in. 8 Who is this King of glory? The LORD strong and mighty, the LORD mighty in battle.

The old saying, “you’re so heavenly minded that you’re no earthly good,” is a lie. In fact, the more heavenly-minded a believer in Christ Jesus is, the more earthly good they will do. We are living in a time when the end of this age has finally come and the millennial reign of Jesus Christ is upon us. We are in the very transition zone between two ages—the church age is over and the kingdom age has begun.

Those who are willing are being prepared to receive the King of kings in His progressive, 3-fold arrival. Going from glory to glory, each wave of Christ’s transformative, invisible and one-on-one encounters with us prepare us for HIs final and visible coming. When He comes to take us up with Him, we are ready to serve Him as His royal, priestly agents—or witnesses—who rule and reign with Him for all eternity.

We see these waves of His invisible and private encounters expressed in the Greek word, “Parousia,” which comes as the manifested Word of God that separates and purifies (Matthew 24:36-51). Another wave of the Lord coming to us before He comes for us in expressed in the Greek word, “Epiphaneia.” This word describes the Lord’s dawning and shining, sanctifying Presence that glorifies (2 Timothy 1:9-10, 1 Timothy 6:14-16).

This Parousia and Epiphania process prepares us for the final Apokalupsis, which means “unveiling.” The Apokalupsis of Jesus Christ is the fully visible unveiling of Jesus when He comes for His people. It is the result of a culmination of first two waves preparing His overcoming bride to enter into full sonship and experience the Resurrection Power of His life that swallows up death forever (Romans 8:18-21, Revelation 1:1, 1 Corinthians 1:7-8).

King David prophetically saw our day and the millennial age to come and whole heartedly sought the Lord to fully enter into His Presence. Even under the Old Covenant, David set his sights on Zion and built the Tabernacle of David. These keys of David are used to open heaven and to keep it open. No one can close these doors. God rewarded David’s diligence to seek His face and dwell in union with Him by giving Him His Presence. Throughout history, many have sought the Lord as David did and now, at the end of the age, together, we enter the 7th Day rest and enjoy the full reward of God’s gracious gift—His Presence.

Hebrews 11:6 And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.

My husband George was shown in a night encounter with God that the key that opens the Door that Jesus is knocking on is called, “the A.S.K. key.” We are to Ask-Seek-Knock until the door opens. This pursuit of God represents a heart of longing and desire. We are pursuing God!

Hebrews 6:17-20 Because God wanted to make the unchanging nature of his purpose very clear to the heirs of what was promised, he confirmed it with an oath. 18 God did this so that by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled to take hold of the hope set before us may be greatly encouraged. 19 We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure. It enters the inner sanctuary behind the curtain, 20 where our forerunner, Jesus, has entered on our behalf. He has become a high priest forever, in the order of Melchizedek.

Spiritual Zion represents the state in which the overcoming believer in Jesus has fully followed their anchored hope through the veil of separation and, going from glory to glory, has become fully conformed unto the image of Jesus Christ. Spiritual Zion is the state in which an overcoming believer has entered the Holy of Holies and is on heavenly ground, though still on earth. Heaven and earth have merged in these overcoming temples within whom God Himself dwells in the earth as He exists in heaven. Living stones manifest the living God in His glory and act as His representatives—or witnesses in the earth, leading many to righteousness (Daniel 12:3, 2 Corinthians 4:6).

Hebrews 12:22-24 But you have come to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem. You have come to thousands upon thousands of angels in joyful assembly, 23 to the church of the firstborn, whose names are written in heaven. You have come to God, the Judge of all, to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, 24 to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.

Spiritual Zion (Hebrews 12:22) all refer to the same concepts found in this list of metaphors:The Temple of God (1 Cor. 3:16, 6:19, Eph. 2:22) = The House (Bethel) of God (Haggai 2) = The Mountain of God (Micah 4) = The House of Prayer for all Nations (Isaiah 56:7) = The Parousia Presence of God (Matthew 24:36-51) = Open Door to Heaven (John 1:50-51, Revelation 4:1, Genesis 28:12-17) = City of Refuge (Joel 3:17, Obadiah 1:17-21) = Dwelling Place of God (Revelation 21:3, Ephesians 2:21-22) = New Jerusalem (Revelation 21:2) = Married Bride & Bridegroom (Revelation 21:9-10) = Tabernacle of David (Acts 15:16-17) = Glory of God (Haggai 2:9) = Light of God (Revelation 22:1-5) = Holy of Holies (Hebrews 10:19-22) = Church of the first born (Hebrews 12:23).

The fulfilled bride carries out the will of her Bridegroom King Jesus on earth as His agents and witnesses of Divine Love. What heaven has known now fully manifests in the bride of Jesus Christ in the earth. The heavens will witness this change and rejoice! These Christ-like witnesses will testify to God’s eternal goodness and love throughout His universal creation forever. The Faithful Witness of Jesus Christ bears witness to the eternal nature of God through a pure and spotless bridal company of witnesses who rule and reign in His name forever.

The exodus of the Hebrews from Egypt was to ultimately lead them to Zion. Our present day exodus is taking us out of worldly incompleteness and into God’s dwelling place of completion—fully transformed and clothed in Christ’s glory. Forerunners are expected to reveal the first fruits of this truth. God prepares and sends forerunners ahead of what He is about to do on a larger scale. These forerunners are the tip of the spear whom God uses to pierce through the veil of darkness and corruption and open up zones throughout middle heaven.

These openings, or zones, are spiritual gates to Zion (God’s Presence) that lay a path upon which the Lord of Glory enters, releases Himself, and blesses us with His Presence. Heavenly eternal Life Himself comes to earth and earth gloriously responds and reveals His nature. (Isaiah 40:5, Revelation 21:1-7)

2 Chronicles 7:14-15 if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land. 15 Now my eyes will be open and my ears attentive to the prayers offered in this place. 16 I have chosen and consecrated this temple so that my Name may be there forever. My eyes and my heart will always be there.

Houses of Prayer for All Nations that seek God’s Face and host His Presence provide a place for these gates to function: Isaiah 56:6-7 And foreigners who bind themselves to the LORD to minister to him, to love the name of the LORD, and to be his servants, all who keep the Sabbath without desecrating it and who hold fast to my covenant—7 these I will bring to my holy mountain and give them joy in my house of prayer. Their burnt offerings and sacrifices will be accepted on my altar; for my house will be called a house of prayer for all nations.”

The bulk of those Israelites who left Egypt in pursuit of the Promised Land and Zion never let go of their self-centered focus. They groaned and complained their way through the wilderness until they died—never entering God’s promises and rest. Those today who would seek and find God’s face and enter into His Presence will only do so if we quit our propensity to focus on ourselves; groaning, complaining, and whining about our unique cleansing and purifying processes.

When the pressure of opposition hits and depressing circumstances loom, instead of turning inward in self-pity, we can deliberately turn to God and thank Him for sending us customized circumstances to better trust Him. Trust is essential to entering His Presence. In seeking His face, trust is the fruit of our faith which we purchase as the gold refined by fire (Revelation 3:18). Every time we purpose to turn and worship God with a thankful heart in the midst of opposition, injustice, and trials, we are exercising Trust and growing in our faith, hope, and love.

Meditating on God’s word is an important way to seek God’s face. His living and active word is often how He comes to us in His Parousia Presence. The Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus illuminates His word in us and soon we see how His Epiphaneia dawning and shining Presence increases in and through us. One day, His Apokalupsis Presence will demonstrate His mature Sonship and Resurrection Power in us in undeniable ways.

Our hope in God’s fulfilled word is how we enter and access our High Priest Jesus who stands in the Holy of Holies beyond the veil. When we choose to turn and trust Him instead of sulking in self-pity, we are remembering SIÓNÉ! We are believing that God is gracious and is our only true Answer. We are refusing to stay stuck in our own ways (…which aren’t working anyway) by turning to God and trusting that His ways are higher and better than ours. Whining, complaining, disobedient children are choosing unbelief and as such, are unable to enter into His rest because they do not want to (Hebrews 4).

Each time we refuse to turn inward in self-focus and instead turn upward and exercise faith and hope in God’s Word, the veil of darkness in middle heaven thins and separates before our ascending faith. One day, the veil will be torn asunder. The places where the middle-heaven veil is torn will experience an open heaven—an opened gate of spiritual Zion. These heavenly gates, when opened, release divine exchanges of the glory of God between heaven and earth. As vessels of hope in the last days, we will literally carry the glory of God to the nations and live in Cities of Refuge where the full Presence, i.e., the Face of God dwells and we will minister to Him in Houses of Prayer for All Nations throughout the earth (Colossians 1:27).

Exodus 33:14-18 The LORD replied, “My Presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.” 15 Then Moses said to him, “If your Presence does not go with us, do not send us up from here. 16 How will anyone know that you are pleased with me and with your people unless you go with us? What else will distinguish me and your people from all the other people on the face of the earth?” 17 And the LORD said to Moses, “I will do the very thing you have asked, because I am pleased with you and I know you by name.” 18 Then Moses said, “Now show me your glory.” God rewards Moses for pursuing His face and for becoming His friend.

The apostle John, whose name is the same as SIÓNÉ, meaning: “God is gracious,” has the last word about his own personal witness of God’s face (Revelation 22:4, 8) In his closing benediction, John calls upon the Face of grace to be with God’s people. Revelation 22:21 The grace of the Lord Jesus be with God’s people. Amen.
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Note: In speaking of a spiritual Zion in this article, it does not mean that it replaces literal Zion. We do not believe in Replacement theology (also known as supersessionism). This theology teaches that the church has replaced Israel in God’s plan and that the Jews are no longer God’s chosen people, that God does not have specific future plans for the nation of Israel. We believe that there are two harvests of the believing remnant. One harvest comes in the time of the Gentiles and one harvest comes in the time of God’s revelation of Jesus to literal Israel (Romans 11). The end of the age will see two great revivals: one in “spiritual Zion,” which consists of all overcoming ethnicities who believe in Jesus Christ and who constitute His church and one in “physical-literal Zion,” which occurs after “the time of the Gentiles is fulfilled,” and consists of Hebrews who see the truth of who Jesus is and become believers in Him as their Messiah.