The Two-edged Sword

[noreputation]

"For God's Message is full of life and power, and is keener than the sharpest two-edged sword. It pierces even to the severance of soul from spirit, and penetrates between the joints and the marrow, and it can discern the secret thoughts and purposes of the heart." Heb 4:12 Weymouth

When I was a teenager I recall someone telling me that experience is the best teacher but a fool learns no other way.  If this statement is true then I confess that for the last thirty-some years I have been a fool!  Everything I have learned has been the result of my failures.  There are moments when I have embraced a truth or understanding only to find out that I was only experiencing a foretaste of what God was about to teach me.  Every lesson I have ever learned has come about by my attempts to first make my own way.  Only after I have utterly failed has the reality of truth arisen in my heart, overcoming that which is not of God.

Through these many failures I have made some observations about the process of maturing in Christ.  What I have seen is that every time God reveals Himself to us that immediately the "Self" or carnal mind attempts to take ownership. This is why the Word of God arises in our lives, sharper than a two-edge sword.  The Holy Spirit is constantly separating what was birthed in the soul of man from that which was birthed by the Spirit of God.  The "self" always seeks to entwine the two.  This mixture creates confusion, which is Mystery Babylon.

It doesn't matter who you are or how much truth you or I have seen.  As we mature in God and He gives us more of Himself there is always something in us that wants to rise up and claim ownership.  The truth is we already own it, but like the first Adam we are not satisfied to be one with God and walk with Him in the cool of the day.  There is something in us that wants to be like God. It is this desire to be like God instead of being one with Him that establishes our connection to the first Adam.  This is our subjection to vanity, for it is a vain lie that we can be like God.  I find it ironic that we vehemently pursue what God has already given.  This pursuit of independence is sin in its purest form. 

I have been hearing a lot of chatter from numerous sources about the inherent goodness of the human race.  After all, we are made in His image and likeness, which implies goodness, for God is good.  Some think the wickedness of man and womankind is a learned behavior.  There is no doubt that our environment has a great influence over us, but I think the truth goes much deeper, as was demonstrated by Adam who was created in a perfect environment.  Another person commented how they never understood or could agree with the prophet Jeremiah's comment:

"The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?" Jer 17:9
Perhaps we do not understand the definition of wickedness from God's point of view.  Let's examine several verses prior to Jeremiah 17:9 to see what led up to such a strong statement.  In verse five Jeremiah begins to prophesy: "Thus saith the LORD; Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the LORD."   I believe this verse helps us to understand what is meant by the deceitfulness of the heart.  Our entire struggle in maturing in Christ comes from the natural tendency to trust in man.  That includes any man, but especially the one in us!  Whenever we look to "self" our heart is departing from the Lord.

In 1977 the Holy Spirit spoke to my heart and said, "I am going to shut the windows of heaven."  Immediately the anointing for service was lifted from me and for the next seven years God revealed the deceitfulness of my heart.  I saw how "self" uses the gifts of God for self-adoration and how easy it is to worship the creation more than the Creator.  I saw how it is "self" that wants to sit on the throne of our heart and rule in place of God.  This is the spirit of antichrist.

I not hesitate to say that neither you nor I will partake of the tree of life without first passing though the flaming sword for nothing of the first Adam will enter into the garden of God.  I praise Him for the Spirit of truth that is able to divide and separate the soul of the first Adam from the spirit of the Christ within us.

I think where we go awry in our understanding is when fail to see the creation process included both the first and last Adam.  If we read that God created man in His image and likeness, but don't take into consideration the inclusion of the last Adam then we only have a half-truth.  This half truth is the foundation for the original lie: "And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil." Gen 3:4-5

In all of this we have this hope: for even as we have born the image of the earthly we shall also bear the image of the heavenly.  The seed of God is in every man.  It has been planted in our earth, but it will remain a seed until the Holy Spirit waters it and causes it to sprout.  Then in order for the life to push its way through the earth the seed must go die in order for the life to grow.  And take notice that if this new seedling is dunged it will grow all the better!

Douglas B. Clark