Start with Me (Reprise)

We all have gifts and assets from God. If your gifts are noticeable by the world at large, you will be tempted to use them according to worldly values. The greater any of those gifts are by the world’s estimation, the greater the temptation. It tempts you to use that asset as your sole means of interaction with life, and it tempts you to pride.

Faith cannot arise without humility. Humility is an integral part of how faith works. And without faith, it is impossible to please God; you cannot return the Eden. Humility is nailing the fleshly nature or “carnal nature” to the Cross; it is turning the Sword of the Spirit against your own soul. Both of those parabolic images point to the same thing. The Bible uses other terms, like “death of self” (or denying self) to indicate things that cannot be explained. They are miracles, rooted in the Spirit Realm and defying explanation. Faith puts a death sentence on Adam-in-you, in order to give life to Jesus-in-you.

If you can enter into that faith, then you have more than all the most talented geniuses in the world. They have this fallen world, a world already awaiting the sentence of destruction. We have Eden, the world for which our Father made us, and which humanity abandoned in order to have this world. Don’t envy those who have the reins of this world. They don’t even grasp Eden. Yet those whom the world despises can have Eden if they take up the Cross of Christ in faith and humility.

I’m sure you can think of people who are very talented and have no faith. Just look for people who never apologize, or whose apologies come across as performance art, not as a matter of faith. They are people who could never admire faith because they don’t recognize it for what it is. They don’t see what a great treasure it is.

Scripture leaves us with the image of Eden guarded by the Flaming Sword of revelation. That’s not to block your entrance, but to restore faith before you try to enter. You take that Sword into your own hands and use it against your own fleshly nature. It’s the means by which you discern the thoughts and intentions of your own soul, by which you judge your own sin. This is why I say you should pray the wrath of God down by asking Him to start with you. You know from that experience with the Flaming Sword that it heals whatever good thing God has placed in your life, and slices off everything you got from the Devil. You long for His wrath, because you know what great good comes from it. You know that His wrath is His blessing.

That His wrath tends to fall on all at once is simply the nature of wrath. Everyone gets a chance to be cleansed. But some will have sold so much of themselves to this world that there will be nothing left. They are too tightly wed to things that will be burned up. It’s not that we are so eager for their demise, but we realize their demise was determined by their own choices.

Every human born is capable of faith and heart-led surrender to Christ. For reasons no human can comprehend, we know that many will not turn. There is no logic for this; it simply is. So we embrace the truth of revelation regarding this and move forward, asking for the final end of all suffering, calling out “Maranatha!”

There is not a thing you can do to help them, except to shine the light by living Maranatha, all day, every day. Come Lord and judge all sin, and start with me.