Join me with guest Linwood Jackson Jr. talking about how he was able to realize his self-worth and how you can do the same. Linwood is an author writing on mental and spiritual health. He believes in the power of the Bible's words when sincerely exercised and studied. Through his books, speeches, and discourses, he encourages to think and feel for self so that self-love may bloom This betters the personal and devotional life not only for you, but for all those around you.
Wait
"Wait on the LORD: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the LORD." Psalm 27:14
We, as student-patients of the living God's voice, have one assignment, and that is to wait on His voice.
What kind of "waiting" are we talking about?
Is this "waiting" the kind of waiting we do when in a line at a bank, or when waiting in line for food?
In this kind of waiting, we patiently stand in a line awaiting our turn to be served, and to help the time go by, we may lend our ear to conversations around us, we may take out our phone for amusement, or we may simply wander off in thought.
If the Bible is referencing this kind of lethargic waiting, then what are we waiting for?
Maybe we wait for some supernatural demonstration to confirm that God sees us.
Maybe we wait for some thing to occur in life to help us confirm some belief we have in God, to the end we may take courage in that belief, to never let it go.
If the Bible is counseling its student to simply stand idle, waiting for some thing to somehow occur for strengthening some ideal or image we have of God, then what good is His Bible and that Spirit forwarding it? Let us then (I say sarcastically) stand and wait for the revelation of our image of God to appear and confess to us a reason to believe on whatever we believe on.
But I should not think that the mind of the Bible would have its student inactive, and this I know because "the LORD is a God of knowledge, and by him actions are weighed," 1 Samuel 2:3.
The "waiting" referenced by the living God is no inactive service, like as we wait for food to cook in an oven or in a microwave; this is contrary to His religious character.
The "waiting" spoken of should rather be thought of as a waiter waiting on a table.
Is a waiter lazy? Is a waitress inactive? Is a waiter idle? A waiter serves the individual they wait on, and when it comes to the living God's voice, we ought to also carry our conversation as the waiter, that is, "rightly dividing the word of truth," 2 Timothy 2:15.
There is no physical God to wait on; there is no natural man to worship; there is no literal temple to go in to; how then do we wait on the living God? Paul just told us, saying, "Rightly dividing the word of truth," 2 Timothy 2:15, which means, "Study to shew thyself approved unto God," 2 Timothy 2:15.
Our assignment is to match the same spiritual wisdom of the Bible's mind; nothing matters but that our conversation's face dawns the same face as the living God's religious character. Our conversation learns "the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding," Colossians 1:9, by waiting on His words, for by examining and proving His words, we wait on them. Herein is the reason why we are counseled, "Be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God," Romans 12:2.
Paul plainly tells us the definition of "waiting," and of what kind of waiting we are to do, that it is a type of waiting wherein the mind of our faith's confidence is transformed. This transformation is what is meant in the saying, "Wait on the LORD: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart," Psalm 27:14.
By mentally and actively waiting on His words, our heart is to receive strength, making it well for us to know that "wisdom strengtheneth," Ecclesiastes 7:19. This is the logic behind "waiting" on His voice, even the hope of better comprehending His voice to capture wisdom to live by.
The living God's religious character is not inactive or without intelligence; an unintelligent and inactive religion is one that encourages the use of idols, doctrines, ceremonies, and religious laws to bless the conversation. But the living God's course of learning is higher than what we know and accept. There are therefore two types of "waiting" we may entertain: the first is found in meditating on His words to edify our faith's heart and mind; the second is on aimlessly resting on the philosophical opinion of religious speculation to satisfy the self-cultivated or inherited belief we have of God. To the one, we improve our faith's cognition by investigating and proving His voice; to the other we weaken our faith's cognition "through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men," Colossians 2:8; the course that we choose is ours to make.
But for us who actually care to have our heart lifted, refreshed, and edified on heavenly things, it is well for us to say, "I will meditate in thy precepts, and have respect unto thy ways," Psalm 129:15.
We chase the living God's religion; not the religion of pastor so and so, of mother and father, or of self's spiritual ideal. We give our confidence to the Bible's wisdom not to compare it with what we believe, or to pick and choose what of it makes sense to what we believe, but to edify what we think we know, to the end we may have a sober spiritual understanding kindly directing who we are, and who we care to be. If we will open this book, and if we will bless the understanding of this book's wisdom, we ought to therefore exercise humility, willingly casting self into the dust that His words may regenerate it.
We have no physical realm or dimension to enter in to, therefore it takes very great humility to quiet the mind for actually acknowledging His words. In this age of self-gratification and misinformation, it is easy, because we do not quickly grasp Scripture's language, to lend our energy to the spiritual opinion of others, but this is not what the living God counsels us to do. Every individual conversation is to wait on His voice for a personal revelation of His face, and although we all think differently, and although we all possess our own essence of being, His face remains the same; there is no misinterpreting His voice if we are diligently and patiently examining His words.
Our realm and dimension for drawing nearer to His name is mental and spiritual; the only way to commune with this wisdom is through edifying the heart of our inward person. As we, according to how we are counseled by His wisdom, wait on His voice, we will receive knowledge of His will for our heart and mind, by an experimental faith, to chase the hope of His intention, strengthening who are for others who may not yet know who they are. And this is the blessing behind waiting on His voice, for we do not simply wait on His understanding for self's good, but it says, "Let every one of us please his neighbour for his good to edification," Romans 15:2.
We therefore ought to wait on His voice, because wisdom is the end of His understanding's higher education, and wisdom is meant to be shared. We fail as human beings, and as stewards of the living God's religious character, because we have no benevolent wisdom revealing the living God's will and intention. But counsel is given to change how we operate: "Wait on the LORD: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the LORD," Psalm 27:14, we are instructed.
Let us then patiently wait on the revelation of the living God's new covenant science. We have breath in our lungs to improve our personal and devotional character, and to help us in this task, "we have received a commandment from the Father," 2 John 1:4. Therefore "be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves," James 1:22. "Gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ," 1 Peter 1:13.
Know For Your Own self
"Let us choose to us judgment: let us know among ourselves what is good." Job 34:4
I know of no better statement that this.
Then entire philosophy of the living God's throne is here rehearsed, and such a philosophy is loudly uttered through the illustration of His man suffering the tree.
How so?
With His man "having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances," Ephesians 2:15, a very profound point of view is given, for what is preached is the weight of personal and practical knowledge above inherited or self-cultivated spiritual understanding.
That act on the tree accomplished the magnification of one course of learning and the condemnation of another. That "flesh" on the tree, according to Paul's counsel, should not be looked at as the literal flesh of a human being. That "flesh" represents a religious ideology, and with that ideology nailed to the tree, that ideology is become an accursed religious mind of practice, for it is now acknowledged as "sin," which is why, "having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances," Ephesians 2:15, "the strength of sin is the law," 1 Corinthians 15:56.
That "flesh" represents a religious conversation governed by the religious law and tradition of the pen and impression of priests and ministers, and with the religious ideology of blessing, sanctification, baptism, favor, piety, purity, intelligence, and faith, through obeying the religious law, annihilated from the living God's religious character, the way is opened up for the mind to prove and experience the living God's words for personal knowledge to live by. Our conversation is to be ruled by no other mind than that mind created through learning of and doing His words; this is why it says, "Be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God," Romans 12:2.
Paul's counsel reflects the living God's religious character, that His will and intention is not to make the conversation appear favorable through "the perfect manner of the law of the fathers," Acts 22:3, but to make the conversation "perfect, as pertaining to the conscience," Hebrews 9:9. The conversation's conscience is the living God's ultimate concern, and with His man "having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances," Ephesians 2:15, this agenda is not hard to discern.
The religious law hides the heart from the mind, taking the mind away from consciously thinking and feeling for its own self; with an unconscious mind having no knowledge of its own heart, the person is become a slave to what they think they perceive, and also a puppet to the opinion of another. With the religious law conquering our religious confidence, true thought on what is actually advocated and believed on is removed from the person, for our confidence is on some thing giving a false sense of security; this is why it says, "Know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition," 1 Peter 1:18, and, "Put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts; and be renewed in the spirit of your mind," Ephesians 4:22,23.
Again, through this counsel given by Peter and Paul, that new "birth" preached through the tree is referenced, that it is inward, within the conversation's conscience. The "old" mind of worship and service must be put off, which "old" mind is represented by that "flesh" nailed to the tree. This "old" mind is Moses' mind of devotion, that "you are justified by the law," Galatians 5:4. That act on the tree disproves this "old" logic, which is why we are told, "Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree: that the blessing of Abraham might come," Galatians 3:13,14.
The blessing of Moses is hereafter unlawful to think on or entertain, which blessing demands that "righteousness come by the law," Galatians 2:21, when it is that sanctification is not "through the law, but through the righteousness of faith," Romans 4:13. With that act on the tree condemning Moses' religious philosophy and magnifying Abraham's, the right religious character of the living God is preached, that it is His will and intention for the conversation's inwards to be intellectually and spiritually sound through a course of learning employing an exercise of faith on His words. Moses' manner of service by the religious law is today annihilated, abolished, and categorized as "sin"; "the strength of sin is the law," 1 Corinthians 15:56; allowing us to understand that "through knowledge shall the just be delivered," Proverbs 11:9.
Again, the conversation is to be delivered from what? The conversation is to be delivered from "sin"; what is "sin"? With His man "having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances," Ephesians 2:15, "the strength of sin is the law," 1 Corinthians 15:56. And how is this deliverance forwarded? It says, "Through knowledge shall the just be delivered," Proverbs 11:9, allowing us to understand that the illustration of His man on the tree is a right revelation of the living God's intention, that His words should directly "purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God," Hebrews 9:14.
The issue at hand is in how the conversation is managed, because if it is not properly taken care of, our person can become injurious to our environment. To correctly read the illustration of His man suffering the tree is to therefore observe the necessary liberty of mind from the pen of priests and ministers, so much so that such a mind doing His will and wisdom reports, "Why is my liberty judged of another man’s conscience?" 1 Corinthians 10:29. We are responsible for our own faith's growth and development; no other mind is responsible for our faith’s growth and development. Our faith's personal edification is the only means whereby our inward condition may bless our thoughts and feelings, for we have to care for ourselves, and if we do not understand that mental and spiritual blessing is earned by mental and inward taxation, we cannot know that every temporal blessing appears by the same diligent effort.
The religious law makes the mind lazy and the heart careless, for if, for example, all I have to do is hide under water for three minutes, and then rise up from that water to claim some kind of “pardon” or “cleanliness” from some thing, and every time I sense "unworthiness," then let me hide under water and rise up from it as many times as I can, for by such an act, "I" am "well." If all I must do is this ceremony, or that ordinance, or fellowship on this handwritten sabbath, or preach this doctrine, to acquire that sanctity of the Deity, then let me do every religious ceremony and ordinance, and let me preach about and fellowship on what is handwritten, for by such an act, "I" am "well," and my conversation righteous before the Deity. But "if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain," Galatians 2:21; why? Because His "Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree: that the blessing of Abraham might come," Galatians 3:13,14.
Thus, to hear a Christ preaching in favor of the religious law; which is that Christ of earth and under the heavens; it is to hear of a false doctrine committing gross violence against the living God's religious character. Our conversation's conscience is on the living God's heart, meaning that it is His intention for us to know, for our own self, what is right and decent; both personally and devotionally; without the force of another conscience. With Him openly condemning and annihilating the religious law, the conversation's maturity by learning of and proving His words is preached, leaving all accountability on the person for their own heart's condition.
It is His will that we know and possess His aim in order for us to even get a sense of our own. We are not here to mentally and spiritually rule each other, but to mentally and spiritually edify one another that we may all, according to the liberty preached through His Faith's face, encourage one another to reach our best and highest potential; this is why it says, "Let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works," Hebrews 10:24.
So then "let us choose to us judgment: let us know among ourselves what is good," Job 34:4, for if "the soul be without knowledge, it is not good," Proverbs 19:2.