Volume 2000/6
"He will throughly purge his floor,
and gather his wheat into the garner"
(Mat.3: 12)
(From a sermon of Bro.
Julius Adewumi )
"Miriam and Aaron spake against
Moses because of the Ethiopian woman whom he had married: for he has married an
Ethiopian woman. And they said, Hath the Lord indeed spoken only by Moses? Hath
He not spoken also by us? And the Lord heard it."
(Now the man Moses was very meek,
above all the men which were upon the face of the earth.) And the Lord spake
suddenly unto Moses, and unto Aaron, and unto Miriam, Come out ye three unto
the tabernacle of the congregation. And they three came out." (Num.12: 1-9).
Now Miriam was a big sister to Moses, and
this is the caution I want to point out here. It is very easy for folks,
especially women, to take their little brother which is now a man, and still
talk to him as if he is still little brother. Some women even forget that their
husband is not their son, and could begin to seemingly control their husband.
This very likely was the mistake of Miriam. Why was Miriam alone smitten with
leprosy? The bible said both Miriam and Aaron were speaking against Moses.
However when you look at the attitude in every society, talking from
observation and personal experience, the women always take social issues more
seriously than the men. You can think of Aaron dropping the discussion once
Moses did not agree with them, while Miriam continued to press it. Let's
suppose they confronted Moses about the marriage and suppose Moses told them,
"well, I prayed about it and the Lord gave me the okay, and that is why I
married her". Now, if Miriam replied as written that, "doth God talk
to you only?" Do you know what that means? It means whoever gave the okay
to Moses in his prayer was not God, or was lying to him! That is serious! You
can now see the reason for such severe punishment, which came upon Miriam!
Let's be careful how we talk to servants of
God. Especially you ladies, beware how you talk to your husbands.
I read the testimony of a minister who went
to South Africa in the '50s to conduct crusades. At one point, he said the Lord
told him not to go to a city, which had been scheduled for the next crusade,
but he could not convince the organizing board. In the hot argument that
resulted, some of the board members said similar thing to him: you are
not the only one God talks to; we prayed about the program and scheduled these
cities by the Lord's leading. In the end, he went and they were all
smitten with diseases, and the minister had to go off the field for about 6
months due to the disease.
The bible said "there is a time
wherein one man ruleth over another to his own hurt" (Eccl.8: 9).
Miriam tried to rule over Moses to her own hurt. The organizing board ruleth
over the evangelist and they all paid a big price according to the story.
This reminds me of the discussion I had
recently with a pastor friend. We were discussing whether a pastor of a church
ought to review literature of another minister of the gospel before passing the
literature to his congregation. I pointed out that there is tendency of church
leaders playing the Holy Ghost for the believers. We are not the Holy Ghost,
and the Holy Spirit is given for individual believer to be filled with and for
each believer to "study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman
that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth".
(2 Tim.2:15).
Going back to the story of Miriam and Moses,
if Moses had indicated to his brother and sister that the Lord gave him the
okay to marry the Ethiopian woman, and Miriam disagreed, it means she had
assumed a role above the Holy Spirit which was leading Moses. Now that should
be classified as pride against the Holy Ghost. Be careful of trying to control
another person, especially when that person is a servant of God. To you ladies,
that man may be your husband, or your son, or your little brother. But he is a
servant of God, and Christ is the head of every man. Take your humble position
and cease from your controlling speeches towards him. Learn a more excellent
way of recommending and suggesting rather than instructing or dictating. "A
wholesome tongue is a tree of life" (Prov.15: 4). To the church
elders also, be careful how you try to control the ministers of God in your
congregation. "Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty."
Humility is an attribute of the heart.
Sometime one person may appear as humble whereas in the heart he or she is
raging inside. Pride spirits attack people by whispering into the mind. If you
nurture the thoughts, pride will take residence. Pride manifests in several
forms. One of the ways it manifests is with a controlling spirit. Meekness is
therefore essential for leadership.
I pray that the Lord reveal more of this to
our hearts.
Bro. Julius Adewumi
++++++++++++++++++++
1 Corinthians 2, 7-15: We speak the hidden mystical Wisdom of God, which God ordained before the World unto our Glory; Which none of the Princes of this World knew; For had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of Glory. But, as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor Ear heard, neither hath it entered into the Heart of man to conceive the Things which God hath prepared for them that Love him. But God hath revealed them unto us by His Spirit: For the Spirit searcheth all Things, yea, the deep Things of God. For what Man knoweth the Things of a Man, save the Spirit of a Man which is in him? Even so the Things of God knoweth no Man, but the Spirit of God. Now we have received, not the Spirit of this World, but the Spirit which is of God; that we might know the Things that are freely given us of God. Which Things also we speak, not in the Words which Man's Wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing Spiritual Things with Spiritual. But the natural Man receiveth not the Things of the Spirit of God: For they are Foolishness unto him; neither can he know them, because they are Spiritually discerned. But he that is Spiritual judgeth, or discerneth all Things.
THE LIFE WHICH IS ABOVE SENSE
DIALOGUES between a disciple and his Master
(Continuation of the exert
from Jacob Boehme; 1600's)
Disciple: But wherewith shall I hear and see God, for as much as He is above Nature and Creature?
Master: Son, when thou
art quiet and silent, then art thou as God was before
Nature and Creature; thou art that which God then was; thou art that whereof He
made thy Nature and Creature: Then thou hearest and seest even with that
wherewith God Himself saw and heard in thee, before ever thine OWN Willing or
thine OWN Seeing began.
Disciple: What now hinders or keeps me back, so
that I cannot come to that, wherewith God is to be seen and heard?
Master: Nothing truly but thine OWN Willing, Hearing, and
Seeing do keep thee back from it, and do hinder thee from coming to this
Supersensual State or the Life which is above Sense. And it is because thou
strivest so against that, out of which thou thyself art descended and
derived, that thou thus breakest thyself off, with thine OWN Willing, from
God's Willing, and with thine OWN Seeing from God's Seeing. In as much as in
thine OWN Seeing thou dost see in thine OWN Willing only, and with thine OWN
Understanding thou dost understand but in and according to this thine OWN
Willing, as the same stands divided from the Divine Will. This thy Willing
moreover stops thy Hearing, and maketh thee deaf towards God, through thy OWN
Thinking upon terrestrial Things, and thy Attending to that which is without
thee; and so it brings thee into a Ground, where thou art laid hold on and
captivated in Nature. And having brought thee hither, it overshadows
thee with that which thou willest; it binds thee with thine own Chains, and it keeps
thee in thine own dark Prison which thou makest for thyself; so that thou canst
not go out thence, or come to that State which is above Nature and above Sense.
Disciple: But being I am in Nature, and thus bound, as
with my own Chains, and by my own natural Will; pray be so kind, Sir,
as to tell me, how I may come through Nature into the Supersensual and
Supernatural Ground, without the destroying of Nature?
Master: Three Things are requisite in order to do this. The First
is, Thou must resign up thy Will to God; and must sink thy SELF down to
the Dust in His Mercy. The Second is, Thou must hate thy OWN Will, and
forbear from doing that to which thy own Will doth drive thee. The Third is,
Thou must bow thy Soul under the Cross, heartily submitting thySELF to It, that
thou mayest be able to bear the Temptations of Nature and Creature. And if thou
doest thus, know that God will speak into thee, and will bring thy resigned
Will in to Himself, in the supernatural Ground; and then thou shalt hear, my
Son, what the Lord speaketh in thee.
Disciple: This is a hard Saying, Master; for I must forsake the
World, and my Life too, if I should do thus.
(Read 1Jn.2:15; Lk.12:31; Lk.14:26)
Master: Be not discouraged hereat. If thou forsakest the World, then thou comest into that out of which the World is made; and if thou losest thy Life, then thy Life is in that, for whose Sake thou forsakest it. Thy Life is in God, from whence it came into the Body; and as thou comest to have thine OWN Power faint and weak and dying, the Power of God will then work in thee and through thee.
Disciple: Nevertheless as God hath created Man in and for
the natural Life, to rule over all Creatures on Earth, and to be a Lord over
all Things in this World, it seems not to be at all unreasonable, that Man
should therefore possess this World, and the Things therein for his own.
Master: If thou rulest over all Creatures but outwardly, there
cannot be much in that. But if thou hast a Mind to possess all Things, and to
be a Lord indeed over all Things in this World, there is quite another Method
to be taken by thee.
Disciple: Pray, how is that? And what Method must I take,
whereby to arrive at this Sovereignty?
Master: Thou must learn to distinguish well betwixt the Thing,
and that which only is an Image thereof; betwixt that Sovereignty
which is substantial, and in the inward Ground or Nature, and that
which is imaginary, and in an outward Form, or Semblance;
betwixt that which is properly Angelical, and that which is no more
than bestial. If thou rulest now over the Creatures externally only,
and not from the right internal Ground of thy renewed Nature; then thy
Will and Ruling is verily in a bestial Kind or Manner, and thine at best
is but a Sort of imaginary and transitory Government, being void of
that which is substantial and permanent, the which only thou art to desire and
press after. Thus by thy outwardly Lording it over the Creatures, it is most
easy for thee to lose the Substance and the Reality, while thou hast nought
remaining but the Image or Shadow only of thy first and original Lordship;
wherein thou art made capable to be again invested, if thou wouldest be but
wise, and takest thy Investiture from the Supreme Lord in the right Course and
Manner.
Whereas by thy willing and ruling thus after a bestial Manner,
thou bringest also thy Desire into a bestial Essence, by which Means
thou becomest infected and captivated therein, and gettest therewith a bestial
Nature and Condition of Life. But if thou shalt have put off the bestial and ferine
Nature, and if thou hast left the imaginary Life, and quitted the low
imaged Condition of it; then art thou come into the Super-Imaginariness,
and into the intellectual Life, which is a State of living above
Images, Figures and Shadows. And so thou rulest over all Creatures, being
reunited with thine Original, in that very Ground or Source, out of which they
were and are created; and henceforth Nothing on Earth can hurt thee.
For thou art like all Things and Nothing is unlike thee.
Disciple: O loving Master, pray teach me how I may come the
shortest Way to be like unto All Things.
Master: With all my Heart. Do but think on the Words of our Lord Jesus Christ, when He said, "Except ye be converted, and become as little Children, ye shall not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven." There is no shorter Way than this; neither can there be a better Way found. Verily, Jesus saith unto thee, Unless thou turn and become as a Child, hanging upon Him for All Things, thou shalt not see the Kingdom of God. This do, and Nothing shall hurt thee; for thou shalt be at Friendship with all the Things that are, as thou dependest on the Author and Fountain of them, and becomest like Him, by such Dependence, and by the Union of thy Will with His Will. But mark what I have further to say; and be not thou startled at it, though it may seem hard for thee at first to conceive. If thou wilt be like All Things, thou must forsake All Things; thou must turn thy Desire away from them All, and not desire or hanker after any of them; thou must not extend thy Will to possess that for thy own, or as thine own, which is Something, whatsoever that Something be. For as soon as ever thou takest Something into thy Desire, and receivest it into thee for thine OWN, or in Propriety, then this very Something (of what Nature soever it is) is the same with thyself; and this worketh with thee in thy Will, and thou art thence bound to protect it, and to take Care of it even as of thy own Being. But if thou dost receive no Thing into thy Desire, then thou art free from All Things, and rulest over all Things at once, as a Prince of God. For thou hast received Nothing for thine own, and art Nothing to all Things; and all Things are as Nothing to thee. Thou art as a Child, which understands not what a Thing is, and though thou dost perhaps understand it, yet thou understandest it without mixing with it, and without its sensibly affecting or touching thy Perception, even in that Manner wherein God doth rule and see all Things; He comprehending All, and yet Nothing comprehending Him.
Disciple: Ah! How shall I arrive at this Heavenly Understanding, at this Sight of All Things in God, at this pure and naked Knowledge, which is abstracted from the Senses; at this Light above Nature and Creature; and at this Participation of the Divine Wisdom which oversees all Things, and governs through all intellectual Beings? For, alas, I am touched every Moment by the Things which are about me; and overshadowed by the Clouds and Fumes which rise up out of the Earth. I desire therefore to be taught, if possible, how I may attain such a State and Conditions as no Creature may be able to touch me to hurt me; and how my Mind, being purged from sensible Objects and Things, may be prepared for the Entrance and Habitation of the Divine Wisdom in me?
Master: Thou desirest that I would teach thee how thou art to attain it; and I will direct thee to our Master, from Whom I have been taught it, that thou mayest learn it thyself from Him, Who alone teacheth the Heart. Hear thou Him. Wouldest thou arrive at this; wouldest thou remain untouched by Sensibles; wouldest thou behold Light in the very Light of God, and see all Things thereby; then consider the Words of Christ, Who is that Light; and Who is the Truth. O consider now His Words, Who said, "Without Me ye can do nothing" and defer not to apply thyself unto Him, Who is the Strength of thy Salvation, and the Power of thy Life; and with Whom thou canst do all Things, by the Faith which He worketh in thee.
(To be continued …)
Bro. Julius Adewumi
Gospel Distribution Ministry
+++++++++++++++++++
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2000.
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