These three terms usually ignite a strong response when heard or
thought of by man. We,
as men, are inclined to want to control all things.
We structure our relationships, our careers and virtually all
aspects of our lives so that we are in control.
For if we are in control, then it must be we who are
responsible for the rewards of the works of our hands.
When these rewards do not meet our expectations, it is
natural to assign these undesired results to someone else, therefore
denying any responsibility for the outcome and not availing
ourselves to the opportunities presented with correction.
This desire for control is rooted in the fruits of the flesh.
Judgment is usually thought of as an act that someone else does to
us. With respect to
judgment in the flesh, this is correct.
In this sick and perverse world we live in today, there are
an awful lot of people who are engaged in judging others – their
faith, their words, their actions and any and everything about them.
When we live in the flesh we are more inclined to the fruits
of the flesh. How can we
identify if someone we have come in contact with is living in the
flesh and therefore more inclined to be a judge of the flesh? For
those of us willing to examine ourselves, how can we identify when
we are in danger of living in the flesh, instead of in the Spirit?
Our Loving Creator, Abba
YHVH, did not place us into this
sick and perverse world without the answers to these questions.
All we have to do is examine His Word as found in Scripture,
letting Scripture, not man, interpret Scripture:
Mattithyahu (Matthew) 7:12-16 Yahoshua
speaking “Therefore, whatever you
wish men to do to you, do also to them, for this is the Torah and
the Prophets. Enter in
through the narrow gate!
Because the gate is wide – and the path is broad – that leads to
destruction, and there are many who enter in through it.
Because the gate is narrow and the path is hard pressed which
leads to life, and there are few who find it.
But beware of the false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s
clothing, but inwardly are savage wolves.
By their fruits you shall know them.”
These fruits He is speaking about are found in Galatians 5:19-23
And the works (fruits)
of the flesh are well-known, which
are these: adultery, whoring, uncleanness, indecency, idolatry, drug
sorcery, hatred, quarrels, jealousies, fits of rage, selfish
ambitions, dissentions, factions, envy, murders, drunkenness, wild
parties and the like – of which I forewarn you, even as I also said
before, that those who practice such as these
shall not inherit the reign of Elohim.
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience,
kindness, goodness, trustworthiness, gentleness, self-control.
Once being presented with His Truth as found in Scripture, each of
us will have to search our hearts, which are the eyes and voice of
our spirit, to determine how we will respond, for this is something
that no man can do for us.
Those of us who have chosen to judge others usually are fond of
telling the accused what they are doing, why it is wrong, and what
they should do to fix it.
The accuser will routinely look outside himself to place the
blame for their shortcomings on others, therefore denying
accountability, as opposed to looking within their heart and seeking
the correction necessary to deal with the hatred, fits of rage,
quarrels, jealousies and other fruits of the flesh that rage inside
them.
This judgment of others in the flesh, when looked at through the
eyes of the spirit is really a response to His Truth as spoken by
Him in Scripture. For
Abba
YHVH himself, when He was with us in the flesh, spoke these
very words we find in Mattithyahu 7:1-5 “Do
not judge, lest you be judged.
For with what judgment you judge, you shall be judged.
And with the same measure you use, it shall be measured to
you. And why do you look
at the splinter in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the plank
in your own eye? Or how
is it that you say to your brother, ‘Let me remove the splinter out
of your eye,’ and see, a plank is in your own eye?
Hypocrite! First
remove the plank from your own eye, and then you shall see clearly
to remove the splinter out of your brother’s eye.”
What is the plank in our own eye?
Could it be the teachings of men in Whited Sepulchres found
in Churchianity that preaches that their messiah has come to abolish
the Torah? (Actually on
this point Churchianity might be on to something.
Remember that the Torah was given by
Abba
YHVH to His Covenant People
Romans 2:1-6 Therefore, O man, you are
without excuse, everyone who judges, for in which you judge another
you condemn yourself, since you who judge practice the same wrongs.
And we know that the judgment of
YHVH is
according to truth against those who practice such wrongs.
And do you think O man, you who judge those practicing such
wrongs, and doing the same, that you shall escape the judgment of
YHVH?
Or do you despise the riches of His kindness, and tolerance,
and patience, not knowing that the kindness of
YHVH
leads to repentance? But
according to your hardness and unrepentant heart you are treasuring
up for yourself wrath in the day of wrath and revelation of the
righteous judgment of YHVH,
Who shall render to each one according to his works.
Romans 14:10-13 But why do you judge your
brother? Or why do you
despise your brother?
For we shall all stand before the judgment seat of the Messiah.
For it has been written, “As I live, says
YHVH, every knee shall bow to Me, and
every tongue shall confess to Elohim.
Therefore let us not judge one another any longer, but rather
judge this, not to put an obstacle or a stumbling block in our
brother’s way.”
Yeshayahu (Isaiah) 45:23-24 “I have sworn by
Myself, a word has gone out of My mouth in righteousness, and shall
not return, so that to Me every knee shall bow, every tongue swear.
One shall say, ‘Only in
YHVH do I have righteousness and
strength’ – he comes to Him.
And all those displeased with Him shall be put to shame.”
The thought of being accountable to someone, whether it be
ourselves, other men, or our Creator,
Abba YHVH, is not well
received by the flesh.
For as sinful men, our desire is to please the flesh at all costs.
To accomplish this, the flesh just ignores accountability to
anyone or anything. For
to be accountable requires the existence of rules and laws that must
be followed. The flesh
would prefer not to acknowledge the existence of Truth, therefore
not acknowledging the rules and laws that will lead to the Truth.
The flesh would just rather make up the rules as it goes
along, to fit whatever it is seeking at that moment.
The flesh might temporarily acknowledge the existence of a
particular rule or law, but only if it is expedient to its cause at
that moment in time.
When we desire to follow our Creator, he begins to show us what
rules and laws He has set in place to keep us safe.
These rules and laws can be found in the Torah, the first
five books of Scripture, Bereshit (Genesis) – Debarim (Deuteronomy).
It is in the Torah that we find the laws and right-rulings
handed down from Abba
YHVH himself to His Covenant
People
When our Creator speaks of judging us, He will do so by
simply holding us accountable to
whether we chose to live our lives within the boundaries He so
lovingly has put in place for His children’s safety and well being.
Each one of us will judge
ourselves based on how we live in accordance with His Torah.
Yohanan (John) 12:44-48 Then
Yahoshua
cried out and said, “He who believes in Me, believes not in Me but
Him who sent Me. And he
who sees Me sees Him who sent Me.
I have come as a light into the world, so that no one who
believes in Me should stay in darkness.
And if anyone hears My Words but does not watch over them, I
do not judge him. For I
did not come to judge the world but to save the world.
He who rejects Me, and does not receive My Words, has one who
judges him: the Word that I have spoken shall judge him in the last
day.”
Yohanan 7:16 Yahoshua
answered them and said, “My teaching is not
Mine, but His who sent Me.”
When we have erred and are presented with correction, we have to
decide how to respond.
The natural response of the flesh will be to rebel against this
opportunity to look into our hearts and see ourselves for who we
really are. For a man’s
heart never lies. For
when we search our heart and do not find our Creator dwelling in His
Temple that promised to build for His Good Pleasure, what we see is
so disturbing that we have no where to run but back to our flesh,
for this is where the father that is in our heart has created his
temple. This is why our
Creator searches the hearts of men, and just does not look at our
outwardly appearance and the words that roll off our tongue.
The flesh will want to reject an opportunity for correction,
for responding to correction with love, whether the correction comes
directly from our Creator or from our Creator through one of our
fellow men, is a very humbling act.
We are immediately made aware that we are not as good as we
thought we were.
If we have Abba
YHVH dwelling in our heart, we
will not only respond with love to His Correction, we will ask Him
to bring any matters that may need
correction to our attention.
For we know that it is only these matters that can put
distance between us and our Creator, that prohibit us from hearing
His
Still Small Voice.
The closer we desire to be with Him, the more of His Correction we
will seek. We seek His
Correction by examining ourselves against His Word.
Are we joyfully following every word he has spoken, from
Bereshit (Genesis) to Revelation, seeking to walk as He walked while
with us in the flesh?
This is an impossible task for the flesh.
But through Abba
YHVH, all things are possible.
Responding to His Correction with love will allow us to walk
as He walked.
Mattithyahu 5:48 Yahoshua
speaking “Therefore, be perfect, as
your Father in the heavens is perfect.”
Bereshit 17:1 And it came to be that when
Abram was ninety-nine years old, that
YHVH
appeared to Abram and said to him, “I am El Shaddai – walk with Me
and be perfect.”
The response of the flesh to the notion that we can actually be
perfect as our Creator has promised is one of arrogance and
disbelief. How can a man
be perfect? In the eyes
of the flesh, no man can be perfect, for it is man who defines
perfection, striving to reach it on his own, without Him from who
all good matters come.
When Abba
YHVH comes to make His stay with
us, He will lead us into all Truth.
The Truth will set us free.
Free from what?
Free from
sin, as defined in by Him in His Torah!
Once we are free, He continues to mold us on His Potter’s
Wheel, perfecting us according to His Desires, as we enjoy our
Exceedingly Great Reward, the
Life More Abundantly that is
Abba
YHVH!
Dale