A Righteous Source of Conflict

"Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men; but we are made manifest unto God; and I trust also are made manifest in your consciences" (II Cor. 5:11). This should be, and in fact is, the testimony of every seasoned, experienced, and developed believer in Christ. The truth is, if you have been real with God over a long period of time and you have been truly tried, tested, and proven; the presence of God’s love, holiness, and peace in your life bears witness of the same to every conscience of everyone you are around. They have no choice but to see, hear, and feel what is in their presence. They can refuse to let their mind accept what their conscience has already told them, but nonetheless they have been notified that God’s Spirit is in the vicinity. When someone refuses to let their mind acknowledge what they have already felt in their conscience, that is known as "kicking against the pricks." When Jesus made himself known to Saul of Tarsus, who became the apostle Paul, he said to him; "I am Jesus whom thou persecutest: it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks" (Acts 9:5). Saul was literally mad against the saints of God, thinking that he was an ambassador of God to get rid of these ‘fanatics.’ Yet every time he was in their presence he felt, heard, and saw the reality of God’s love and holiness in these people. Therein was his great conflict. In his mind he was determined that HE was forwarding God’s truth in the earth, but his conscience was telling him that he was wrong and that these followers of Jesus were in the right thing and of the right thing. And as in all things, nothing has changed. Not one iota. Religious people who THINK that they are in the right thing are still in a conflict between their conscience and their mind whenever they find themselves in the presence of someone who truly ISin the right thing, and who actually is of ‘the truth.’ The truth is, the Spirit of God itself IS the truth, and those who learn to always “walk in the Spirit” are the only people who are truly bearing witness to Jesus, because the Spirit is the only thing here in the stead of Jesus (I Jn. 5:6; Gal. 5:16; I Jn. 5:10; Jn. 14:12). And as Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life” (Jn. 14:6). We also have this to throw in the mix: “Now the Lord is that Spirit” (II Cor. 3:17).

Someone who walks in the Spirit of divine love and peace, and speaks the truth by that same Spirit, presents a serious choice to everyone around them. It is not possible to NOT be affected when someone in your presence speaks by the Spirit of God. You only have the choice of kicking against the pricks and resisting God, or acknowedging what your conscience already knows, and yield to that presence for your own good. Jesus said it this way: “The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept my saying, they will keep yours also” (Jn. 15:20). The sad thing is that there is so little true witness of Christ in the body of Christ today, and consequently little space given for that kind of conflict, and for that kind of choice to be made. The culprit and cause of this delimma is the network of erroneous Christian traditions and doctrines that are taught to God’s people today, directing them contrary to the voice of God’s “Spirit of truth” (Jn. 16:13; Rev. 3:6). People will generally bear the fruit of the doctrines that they are taught, and the only doctrine that will give place to the fruit of God’s Spirit in his people is that which is OF his Spirit. Every teaching that is not of and by the holy Spirit of God will only gender to the rotten fruit of the fleshly nature in a person’s life (Gal. 5:19-21; I Jn. 2:26-28). Unfortunately I know by experience and by the knowledge of the truth that the doctrine of Christ is not what is being taught to God’s people today. Friend, if you have been baptized by Jesus with the holy Ghost, forsake all of the traditions and doctrines of Christianity, and follow wholly after the only source of truth, love, and the power of God that purifies from sin and imparts the divine nature - The power of the holy Ghost. “For the kingdom of God is not in word, but in power” (I Cor. 4:20). “For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye THROUGH THE SPIRIT do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live. For as many as are LED by the Spirit of God, THEY are the sons of God” (Rom. 8:13,14). Amen.