Intro
This is Dreamwalker1960. As a reminder you can read the transcripts of all my podcasts at dreamwalker1960.com. You can use most podcast platforms if you wish to listen. All you need do is do a search for Dreamwalker1960.
Discussion
This is one of those things that people just don’t truly understand.
When God created Adam, He placed within this human the ability to use “free-will.” This has been passed down to all humanity. It is the ability to use our minds to decide on our own what we wish to do.
When Eve partook of the tree of knowledge of what is right and what is wrong. It was a test of the very gift given by God to His most important creation of all through His Son. God knew that both Eve and then Adam would fail. God knew that great trials and tribulations that would follow for the billions of lives that were to exist from that moment that he decided to make humanity until the time of the Great White Throne Judgment.
Yet God was still pleased that He created us. God still loved and currently still does love us. It is His desire that each person come to have a personal relationship with Him and His Son. Here is the thing that people wish to ignore due to having “free-will.” Many have convinced themselves that once they are saved and have entered into this personal relation with God and His Son that “free-will” is suddenly gone. It no longer has any affect upon their lives.
Here is the one thing that Catholicism did get right, but their manner of dealing with it actually compounded the problem instead of truly trying to address it through the need of going to confession. By going to confession actually makes people feel they can continue to live in their sin and have no need to be truly repentant.
To be truly repentant means the person must leave the sin behind completely. Is this easy? In most cases no it is not. Why? Because of free-will. Humanity due to the gift of free-will must deal with this gift which at times can be a curse on a daily basis.
Since the gift of free-will never leaves us we daily make choices that affect how we do things. It is though reading the Bible and learning the way that God truly wishes us to live that we teach ourselves a type of discipline in how to control our free-will. This is called self-control. That is why there is reference within the Bible of many that are one with God that then turn their backs upon God due to free-will. Look at David for example. Someone that as a child was beloved by God for his love and his faith in the Creator of all. He becomes the first king of Israel to totally unite the twelve tribes. However, he turned his back upon God and through his free-will lusted after his neighbor’s wife. For the terrace to where Bathsheba bathed could be seen from the palace which was right next door. David then committed murder to hide his sin of adultery. Yet was he not at one time in harmony with God? Did not God bless him and give him the insight as a mere child into how to slay the Nephilim Goliath.
This is the acts of free-will and they can happen after someone is in a true relationship with God and His Son Jesus Christ. As is witnessed in John 15 a person can be of the vine of Jesus Christ. Saved, born-again, yet they can turn their back upon God and bear no fruit in their salvation. God Himself will break off that person’s branch from Jesus and give it back to humanity which will then cast them into the fire which is a simple of the pit of fire where all go that do not truly follow Jesus Christ.
David realized his sins and repented of them as best he could. Bathsheba also repented and from them came Solomon who built the first great temple to God. And from David’s line ultimately came the ultimate salvation which is Jesus Christ.
Free-will is our ally and at the same time it is our enemy due to all knowing what is right and wrong from that fruit that Eve and Adam ate so long ago. Without the knowledge and the teachings of the Bible we are to be tested by our own free-will. How we overcome these tests that our free-will puts us through daily is our ultimate test of our faith and belief in our Creator and His Son the Lord Jesus Christ. This is reinforced with the following verses.
Galatians 5:16-18 NKJV – I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.
Just because we have asked Jesus into our hearts does not mean we can do as we wish and however we wish to live our lives. If we do this we will quickly fall back into the world and our selfish and self-centered desires and wishes. This is why David and his sins as king affected all of Israel. How does our ignoring free-will and the consequences it is causing any better? What ripples are we causing by not following the teachings within the Bible? That is obvious if you listen to the news and look about you at things that are effecting our lives.
This is all the results of free-will and not learning to following the teachings of Jesus Christ that is the Bible.
Matthew 7:21-27 NKJV – “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’ “Therefore whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock: and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock. “But everyone who hears these sayings of Mine, and does not do them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand: and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it fell. And great was its fall.”
I have had a burden on my heart since writing these precious words our Savior spoke nearly two thousand years ago, when I first wrote this as a blog in 2016. What I was drawn too was verse 22:
“Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works?”
Now in particular it is the question of “and in thy name have cast out devils?”
I am reminded of when Christ Himself was accused of being the devil. His answer was this:
Matthew 12:24-28 NKJV – Now when the Pharisees heard it they said, “This fellow does not cast out demons except by Beelzebub, the ruler of the demons.” But Jesus knew their thoughts, and said to them: “Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation, and every city or house divided against itself will not stand. If Satan casts out Satan, he is divided against himself. How then will his kingdom stand? And if I cast out demons by Beelzebub, by whom do your sons cast them out? Therefore they shall be your judges. But if I cast out demons by the Spirit of God, surely the kingdom of God has come upon you.
So here is the key to my point. These people in all honesty will stand before Christ and ask this question of Him and He will respond:
“And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.”
When we are one with God through the saving grace of Jesus Christ, He Himself made it clear, that we will be able to do anything in His name even to the point of moving a mountain. Consequently, if these people in all honestly in their hearts say that they prophesied in His name, if they cast out devils in His name and did wondrous works in His name per Matthew 12 they did. Why? For they were against Satan when they did it. They were one with God through Christ’s salvation.
Now once again I draw your attention to John 15 and in particular these verses.
John 15:1-6 NKJV – “I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit. You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me. “I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned.
It is made clear in these verses these key points:
First, Jesus Christ in the “true vine”
Second, God His father, is the “husbandman.” Which means he is the one who controls the growth of the vine, His Son, and the Body of Christ which are those that profess He is their Savior and they are born again.
Third is the warning that “every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away.” It does not go to the glory but the warning. Why? To place the emphasis upon the fact that we can be removed. Remember this is Jesus Christ Himself speaking to his disciples. They are His personally chosen and yet He makes it clear that there is a cost for not staying one with Him. Did not Judas learn this?
Fourth is the counsel for those that are faithful and do bear fruit, but with the understanding that by doing so there will be times of trials and tribulation. Why? Not only to strength those that are bearing fruit for God, but also to see if you can handle the pressures that come with this great responsibility. When we show we can overcome and stay faithful unto Christ, God rewards us by causing us to bear even more fruit for His glory than before.
Fifth is the statement of purification and that is reached through knowing the words of Jesus Christ, which is the Bible. This also implies that if you do not maintain insight into Christ through the Bible you can become unclean.
Sixth the statement of commitment. “Abide in me, and I in you.”
Abide – meno – I remain, abide, stay, wait.
Stay in Christ, this implies that we can leave Him, which is a statement of free-will. Christ has made it clear that He would never leave us (Matthew 28:18-20), He never states we cannot choose to leave Him, but as this statement from Him shows it is possible. But He also makes clear in Matthew 28 that we must do this by “Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you.”
Seventh is why we must stay with Christ. “As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me.” It makes it clear that we can ONLY bear fruit if we keep Christ constantly and continually within us every day. Not just on Sunday but 24/7/365. Yet this is not what most do that state they are “Christian.” In verse five Jesus re-emphasizes just how important that we continually keep Him within us constantly and shows that without Him there is no fruit. In fact, he states clearly that without Him in our lives we can do nothing that is precious unto Him.
Finally, Jesus once again returns to the warning. He starts with a warning, and He ends with a warning. This makes it plainly clear that we can loss our connection with Him as is unmistakably spelled out in verse six.
“If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned.”
This returns full circle to Matthew 7:22-23:
“Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.”
Therefore, there are those that were saved. They were born again. They let Jesus Christ abide in them. Then through their free-will they decided that the world was a better place for them. They left the word of God behind. They chose to follow creation over the Creator. They chose to follow and be happier with the temporal than the eternal.
Hence even though Jesus loves us and wishes us to stay with Him. People in their free-will can and do reject God and they do not realize it for they will be expecting to get into heaven and will confess the fruits that they once bore for Jesus, but He will turn to them and say:
“I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!”
God Bless