ON THE MATTER OF THE LAW, SELF-RIGHTEOUS RELIGIOUS PRIDE AND PRAYING TO RELEASE THOSE BLINDED BY THE SNARE OF SATAN
“All those caught in the snare of the Enemy will be set free this day as you claim the keys on their behalf.”
Apostle Paul speaking: I should have considered the advice my old teacher gave the determined council of elders; “If this work be of man, it will come to naught”…then left well enough alone. Instead, I convinced myself that I was right, that my cause was a Godly one. Pride is blind; pride is deceitful. I was not interested in hearing the other side of the story. I did not want to be persuaded with their so-called facts. I would not allow myself to be touched by their pleas or reasons. My heart was as hard as flint, and that was an asset. It made my job easier; it strengthened my resolve. The love of Christ was not in me. I was the rigid lawyer –in matters of the law (PDF), a perfectly unthinking, unfeeling system robot. Like the enemy of God, I was using the law for my own ends. My argument was that the law was indisputable, a solid, unmovable fact, a rock that gave strength, stability and purpose; yet there was an undercurrent behind my stance. I was savoring the things of men and not of God. Like Peter, the enemy had gotten in and was using me as his tool to destroy the work of God.
“But when he had turned about and looked on his disciples, he rebuked Peter, saying, Get thee behind me, Satan: for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but the things that be of men.” (Mark 8:33)
As I once testified, I was a Pharisee of the Pharisees, a flatlander (Video) of flatlanders. I lived the letter of the law and demanded others live it too. My credentials made my actions even more valid but no less shocking to those that sighed. I was intensely bothered by this new religious belief; I was pricked by their words and actions, their love. I didn’t want to call it freedom from the cage I was in, so instead I called it heresy. Eating with unwashed hands, healing on the Sabbath, fellowshipping with sinners, declaring outrageous claims of divinity; these people were shaking the very foundation that brought law, order and a reason to my life…That was reason enough. It was as much a personal affront as it was a threat to the religious leaders’ control over the people. The jot and tittle were an important aspect of our control. Jesus had seen right through our hypocrisy and thumbed His nose at the established order, and now these people were following suit. It wasn’t until I was swept from my horse that I was even in the right frame of mind to reconsider my stance, let alone undergo a complete and total metanoia. I was a sincere believer in God and His law, but like most Pharisees, I was ruled by my mind. The law was just, but in the hands of the wrong person, it had become cruel. I was using the law as a scalpel to cut out the cancer that was quickly spreading amongst my weaker brethren. Yes, I considered them weak because I could see they were not stanch and rigid like a strong tree in a forceful gale. They were bending like young, inexperienced saplings in this new wind that was sweeping the land. I didn’t see their bending as “a better way”, this new doctrine they all talked so excitedly about was suggesting that the law was, in reality, made to bend. In my self-righteous Pharisaical mind, bending implied breaking. Jesus told the Pharisees that needed to learn the meaning of “bending”…“Ye have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone.” In saying what He said, Jesus wasn’t throwing the law out; the sapling that bends to the wind is still rooted in the good earth of the law of God. The sap that comes up through the root system and into the leaves comes from the original law, but if I hadn’t been such an old bottle, I would have taken time to study those new leaves of this new law, and I would have seen that they were indeed the leaves of life that had come to heal my nation, not destroy it.
The breaking this old bottle went through continued throughout his whole life. The fall from the horse was the initial humbling, but it was the fall required to slam on the brakes. I went straight through the windshield and hit the road with a thump; blinded by God, obviously typifying the spiritual condition of the sinner of all sinners. Oh, wretched man that I was! Of all the wretches on earth I had come to a place where I was to learn the purpose of bending. I was about to be shown the light of a new law a new and perfect gospel. Ironic isn’t it? To bend you first must be broken. I didn’t know it at that time, sitting in the dust of the earth at the feet of my horse, how close I’d come to returning to that dust for good. However, instead of completely snapping this life in two, Jesus threw this unbending Pharisee into the dust to start his life anew; a fitting place to receive the breath of a new life. I had graduated to a new school to learn a new law, the perfect law of love (PDF). Another irony…over the years that followed, I learned that to live the perfect law of love, the student must not consider himself the perfect advocate. Instead, he must constantly remind himself that the winds that come throughout life are to assist him in learning the art of bending. He shouldn’t think as the tall and proud cedar, whose heart is as hard as flint, that bending is for the soft and tender-hearted, and in that frame of mind look harshly upon those that yield and sway in the breeze of His strokes of love. It’s the sinner that knows he’s a sinner and needs forgiveness that learns to bend as the wind blows.
I was a zealot. When it was time to set my mind to the work at hand, I was very enthusiastic, and when in that frame of mind, I was often very unreasonable. A man of force is a man of faults. In fact, that stroppiness was what led to my early death at the hands of those I was trying to help. Once again, if I’d only listened to the prophet that day, that part of my testimony would have been a lot happier. Sitting on the dusty road that day, Jesus came close and said, “It is hard for thee to kick against the pricks.” Jesus had placed His finger directly on the source of the problem, and I knew exactly what He meant; my pride and self-righteousness was blocking the entrance of His Word to my heart. “The entrance of thy words giveth light; it giveth understanding unto the simple.” It was His Living Word breaking through the barrier of pride and self-righteousness seeking entrance to my heart, which was that light from Heaven that zapped my zealot mind, replacing it with the simple mind. In a flash of comprehension, I realized my error. It was at that point that I replied… “Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?” As you know, I went on to do many wonderful works. In part my zealous nature came to the fore when push came to shove, but as you also know, I was not made perfect that day on the road to Damascus. I often blundered through situations, which if handled with a little less fervor, may have turned out differently.
I think the Reboot was your “sweeping off the horse” experience. At least that is the way I understand it. Everyone was left dazed and astonished, wondering what had happened; but some have since recovered, and like me now see the purpose for the humbling.
I’m a real advocate of the Keys (Audio) now. I didn’t fully understand their purpose when on earth, but now I see that they were the lightning on the road that lifted the barriers that blocked His Word from reaching the heart. Jesus employed them to open strong lines of concentration, focus and absorption, and in a flash, the complex carnal mind was gone, circuits burned, leaving in its place the simplicity of Christ. As I was being led by the hand from that spot, old things were passing away, I had found myself on a new road, that of humility and transparency. Now we’ve reached the spot where I want to bring you back to the very first Key promise that started this short story version of my life.
“All those caught in the snare of the Enemy will be set free this day as you claim the keys on their behalf.”
It is only natural to think that the brothers and sisters that I persecuted and killed along with all those throughout history right up to today’s modern martyrs, the Palestinians –and there are many others unseen and unheard– are those that are “in the snare of the Enemy.” However, if you were listening to my testimony, you would realize that I was in a greater snare. The martyrs are on their way to glory, but those like me are on the road to Hell. In matters pertaining to the essence for being on earth, we “Saul’s” live a life of kicking against our conscience, which alone is a type of hell. Please pray that the lightning strikes down the barriers of the hard-hearted, calculating minds that savor the things of this world. You may be releasing a Paul from bondage, and as you know, zealots, if turned onto the right road, can amaze you. Remember the life of Candina and Paul; right when it counts most they may turn and become those self-same martyrs and take their place as segments in the Final Key. (End of Testimony)
Infostore quote of the day: If you will not neglect this vital time with Me, if you will not neglect the proper diet that I put at your disposal, you will find in the long run that I am able to help you be more efficient in the tasks I call you to do. You’ll make fewer mistakes, be able to avoid pitfalls, and things will run far more smoothly as you put first things first. (ML 3184:32)
Sailing the High Seas of New New Wine Prophecy
Be careful, My love, the enemy is very astute. He watches for an opportunity to trap and entwine. It takes great faith to make a stand on the river of My Word. The river is flowing; it is not still and stagnant. The law is there, and it is rock solid. That is why it seems to some that My Word is contradictory. I say I am free flowing wine, the wild wind, yet in the next breath say I am the Rock on which you can stand. I am at the helm of your boat and together we are sailing the high seas of the New New Wine of prophecy. It is a fearful thing for the carnal mind to let go of the moorings and set sail into the unknown. It is that fear that keeps so many tied to the jetty built by those that came before them. I loved asking My boys to cast out a little ways from the shore so I could preach. Out on the lake I felt free from the moorings of tradition and custom. The boat was My podium, but it was also a parallel. My Words were loosing the moorings that tied the crowds to the jetty of the old law and the boat was My illustration. In his day, your Father David loosed the moorings and cast out from the jetty of the old church system. He was mocked and ridiculed, just as I was mocked and ridiculed by the Pharisees standing among the crowd on the shoreline; but I was with him in the boat, as My Father was with Me in the boat. I was at the helm with him, just as My Father was with Me as we set sail for the other side of the lake. You need not fear the call of those that would tie you to the jetty. Set sail; the wild wind is picking up. Let its freshness excite you and stir in you the desire for adventure. You are leaving behind the old jetty, with its rotting struts and posts buried in the mud of the old world, and heading out the bay as it opens its mouth to eternity.
“Step out on the water, holding the Keys, and see how they will buoy you up and how you can walk across the water. The Keys are not confined to the realm of the flesh or carnal mind; they work in the realm of the supernatural and miraculous.”