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November 10, 2009 Is Your Life Hid With Christ?

Kathleen Maples

Luk 13:24 Strive to enter in at the strait gate: for many, I say unto you, will seek to enter in,
and shall not be able.

It is a struggle to literally get in. This is a warfare and there is a prize to be gained-
and a deadly adversary to contend with. It's a fight to get in. We have to overcome
ourselves, the desires of our carnal nature, the pull of the world around us that
would draw us back into darkness, and the lies and tricks of the devil. We cannot
do this on our own. We must have divine Help. The entrance is so narrow. Our
thoughts are not like His, our ways not like His. How can we know the way if we
do not have the Holy Spirit to bring this Word of God alive before us and show us?
We can receive nothing unless it's given us. We can do nothing in ourselves that
will get us through that narrow entrance. I have been carefully studying the
School of Christ that Pastor BH Clendennen teaches, going slowly through the
Conflict Series. I want to share with you a small excerpt from the first lesson “The
Testimony of Life”. He is in the Scriptures in Rev 2, addressing the church at
Ephesus, and threatening to remove the candlestick from the church if they do not
repent and get back to their first love and do the works of that love. So what does
the candlestick represent?

The candlestick all of gold as found in Zechariah 4:2, we know in both cases there was
represented the living expression of Holy Ghost energy. Take the candlestick all of gold
with its seven bowls and seven pipes. The oil being emptied out of the living olive
trees, through the pipes, into the bowl provided the fuel for the light. It is complete, a
very comprehensive illustration and it is something that is living. The Prophet does not
say there were cisterns, tanks, or reservoirs of oil. He said there was nothing but the
living vessel being poured out continually, ever fresh, into the candlestick burning with
its steady undying light, a light which does not vary, that does not go out, but is
maintained at full strength continually.1

This speaks of total surrender and dependence on One greater than ourselves who
is the only Source of power and strength. In the Scriptures in Luke 13 that I opened
this with, He's been talking to the disciples about the kingdom of God. They asked
a question I'm sure we have all asked ourselves. Lord are there few that be saved?
He said strive to enter in at the strait gate for many will not be able. But then He
goes on to say something that is terrifying when you consider the relevance to
your life.

He says "Once the master of the house (Jesus) gets up and shuts the door, then they
will come and knock and seek and call out to be let in. He will say I do not know
you." They will cry how can you say that? We have eaten and drunk in Your
presence! You have taught in our streets! But He will reply "I do not know where
you are from, where you have beeen. Depart from me you workers of iniquity."

1 The Testimony of Life-BH Clendennen


They had went where He was not. They went their own way. The Word of God says
in Joh_10:7 Jesus is the Door. If we try to come in any other way but through HIM
we are thieves are robbers. Right now that Door is open, and the Spirit of God is
drawing people, in response to the prayers of the praying saints, (for no man can
come unto Me unless the Father draw him, Joh_6:44. ) He says he who comes to Me
I will in no wise cast out. Joh_6:37

Right now that door of entrance is open. You are in the family of God because
someone prayed you in. But so many in the church are not praying fervently for
the lost, the backslidden, the hurting and hopeless. So many are neglecting the
fellowship of the Son, they are not coming into His presence, digging in the Word,
and spending time getting to know Him, drawing closer to Him. When He decides
to shut the door, there is no more entrance into His fellowship. There's no more
hope. Joh_17:3 says this is eternal life that they may know thee, Oh, God and Jesus
Christ whom You sent. That is an intimate knowledge, as between a husband and
wife. It means you spend enough time with that person that you truly begin to
know and understand them. We can know nothing unless it is given from above
and it is not given to those who casually or infrequently seek Him. Heb_11:6 spells
out the way-diligence and faith. Come believing that He is there, and believing
what He said and He will reward those who dilligently seek Him. He will reward
them by revealing Himself to them. They are drawing nigh to Him, He will draw
nigh to them.

For ye are dead and your life is hid with Christ in God. (Col_3:3) Your life is to be
drawn from HIM, from Christ, through the eternal Holy Spirit who is the Spirit of
Christ. When we refuse to live and operate independent of Him, but depend on
HIM, He is our Source. He is our strength, our wisdom, our help, hope, and
comfort. These are they who are able to enter in the straight and narrow gate.
Those who are dead to this world and their own desires and their self will. This is
an entrance where only that which is hid in Christ is able to get through. How are
you dead and how is your life hid with Christ? There are some keys in the first two
verses.

Col 3:1 If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ
sitteth on the right hand of God.
Col 3:2 Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth.

If you are risen-risen from what? Risen from the dead with Christ. Eph 2:1 says
you hath He quickened-you who were spiritually dead in your transgressions and
sins, He's made alive. How? His Holy Spirit came to you, showed you the
awfulness of your sin, moved you by His revelation of this to you, to a true state of
repentance and when you were truly repentant, and acknowledged your need of a
Savior, and desire for a Savior, He birthed you, into the kingdom of God. That part
of you that was dead to God, your spirit, bound in chains of darkness, He shined
the light of the glorious gospel of truth into your being. He moves in to you, His life
becoming your life. Now you have the Spirit of God living in you. HE is your life.
Without His presence in you then you are dead. HE is the life of Christ, He is God,
dwelling among and within men and women. That part of you that is eternal, your
soul, is fallen. It is carnal, and selfish, demanding. It is rooted in the carnal and
selfish nature. It is darkness and it wars against the new light and life that has
been birthed in the new creature.
But the Holy Spirit is there to help. He will change your desires, give you new
ones. Where before the Word of God was something you neither wanted to read
nor could understand, now you will desire to read it, and He will open your
understanding. He will teach you, show you all things that pertain to this life and
godliness. He will cause you to hunger for heavenly things. That heavenly life of
Christ. He will cause you to want to seek that which is above not beneath. Set your
affection on things above. This implies you can have this life and your attention
and affection be drawn away to other things. If you allow that to continue, you
will lose this life and this light. To set your love, your affection on something is to
exercise the mind, to focus your interest in heavenly things, not earthly things. It
is a deliberate choice. I refuse to feed that part of me that wants what is offensive
to the Holy Spirit, and against the work and will of God for my life. It's a choice
you must make in your every day life. Why? Because you are to be dead to earthly
things. You are not your own, you have been bought with a price, to be a temple,
or dwelling place of the Holy Spirit of Almighty God. He is God. He is Lord. He is
ruler supreme. He is to have His dwelling place as He would have it, to use it for
His own purpose. We are to be a vessel in His hand, under His control, used for His
pleasure and purpose. If our eyes and subsequently our affection is focused on
earthly things we will be carnal, unusable to God. For the carnal mind is enmity-
hostile to God and can and will not be subject or submissive to Him. (Rom_8:7) One
important thing most preachers I've heard have missed is this: in order to want to
reject yourself and all that you are in your natural life, your natural man, or
woman, you must be shown something far more excellent, something you want
more. That is Christ. He is the ultimate.

If we are dead to ourselves, and the carnal nature that wants the opposite of what
the Holy Spirit wants, then Christ through the Holy Spirit becomes our life source.
He sustains us by His Presence in us. He makes us like Christ. He shows us the Son,
and in showing us the Son of God, creates within us the desire to be like Him, and
as we yield to Him, He will make us like Him. Our words, our behavior, our
desires, our thoughts, will all begin to reflect the Master. To do this, we must
consciously reject influence and input from worldly sources that will hinder His
work and life in us. That which is from the world is contrary to Him who is the
Spirit of truth. This is how we begin to live verse 5:

Col 3:5 Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness,
inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry:
Col 3:6 For which things' sake the wrath of God cometh on the children of disobedience:
Col 3:7 In the which ye also walked some time, when ye lived in them.
Col 3:8 But now ye also put off all these; anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy
communication out of your mouth.

Subdue that carnal mind, recognize that thought is wrong, capture it, deny it,
reject it. We have been given authority to do this. Again, it's a concscious, willfull
choice we must make. To entertain those thoughts, or reject them. Refuse to allow
that flesh to express itself by leaning on the strength of the Holy Spirit who is the
perfection of God in our weakness. He is able to subdue all things to Himself
(Php_3:21). Joh_17:3 Jesus prayed, acknowledging the Father had given Him all
power over all flesh. He is able to do it in us. He is able to help us recognize what is
wrong, and right, and if we will choose to lean on Him, call on Him for strength
and help when we face temptation He will be there. He's an ever present Help.

Every day we are faced with a choice. Will we live this day for ourselves and our
own pleasure or will we get up, go before the Lord, seek His face, His direction and
yield our bodies and lives and time to Him for His purpose?

Yes, He knows we have to work. He knows the bills must be paid. But the Holy
Spirit is our teacher and is well able to show us in all our circumstances day by
day how to yield to Him, and let Him live in us, with full control. We can make
excuses, we have to work, we have to take care of the kids and the house, we have
to prepare for our position in the church, we have to do this or that. But HE is all
wisdom, all knowing, and well able to make us what He wants us to be, what we
must be to be acceptable and prepared to meet God when Jesus comes. It is not
optional whether we yield to Him or not. We must seek Him, spend time with Him,
pray, and commune with Him, and trust Him for the desire and the strength to do
His will. (Php_2:13) If we do not, on that day, Jesus will tell us, I do not know you.
You did your religious thing, but you did not seek Me for direction. You did it in
your strength. Just as Cain brought me the works of his hands, and I rejected his
offering, so I reject you. You did it your way, not mine. You did it in your strength,
not mine. Flesh and self righteousness is filthy rags in His sight. It's iniquity. That
is what crucified Him on the cross-religious people who wanted to do things their
own way. They took His Word, used it for their purposes, and did not want His
interference or leadership.

Jesus is teaching the people in Mat 22. He gives them a story about the kingdom of
heaven. He says there was a certain king, who was preparing a marriage
celebration, a feast for His Son who was getting married. He sent His servants out
to invite a chosen people but they would not come. They made light of it. They were
careless, negligent. They did not take the invitation seriously because they had
other things on their minds, other things they gave their time and attention to.
They went off on their way, one to his farm, one to his business. They had roots in
this world, their home, or making money was more important. Some of them even
took His servants and killed them. They would not listen to those messengers who
had good news, who had this great invitation for them.

When this king heard what happened, He rose up with great wrath, rejecting those
chosen ones, and sent more messengers out, this time to whomever they
encountered, bid them to come to this marriage. They gathered the bad and the
good, so the wedding was furnished with guests. But there was a requirement. The
guests must be clothed with a wedding garment. And there was one there who was
not. Consider the wedding garment could only be furnished by the king. Our
wedding garment is the righteousness of His Son. Our seal is the seal of the
presence of the Holy Spirit within us which marks or identifies us as HIS. His
Presence in us separates us from the world. It protects and preserves us from
worldly influence, just like when you can food that lid seals out contaminants and
bacteria that would ruin the fruits or veggies you canned. We must not break that
seal as Adam did by operating independently of God, going our own way, doing
things our own way, assuming we are right because that's what we've been
taught. We must seek out the truths of God in His Word and pray for the Spirit of
God to teach us right. Challenge what I think or believe, Lord, if it is wrong, show
me, please! We are not to trust ourselves but Him. Those who try to come any
other way will be rejected and cast into outer darkness. They will be forever cut off
from the light and life of God.

For many are called but few are chosen. (Mat_22:14)

Why? Because people tend to want to do things their own way. They want to
include Christ into their buisness as long as its convenient. But when it comes to
denying themselves, they cannot quite bring themselves to suffer in the flesh for
His sake. They will not let Him govern their lives on a daily basis. They will run to
Him when they are in trouble, they will set aside Sundays to go to church,
occaisionally maybe read their Bible. If asked they will say, yes, I am a Christian.
But they do not know Him. They have not sought Him, nor have they spent time
with Him learning Him. How can we represent One we do not know?

In Luke 14, Jesus tells the people a terrifying story. He is sitting at dinner one
evening, at the house of a Pharisee. They watched carefully as people asked
questions, and some were surely to try to trip Him up. Many others are around.
He's been teaching the people about humility, and sacrifice. He's been teaching
about not wanting the best seat in the house for yourself, not exalting yourself, not
giving only to those who can repay you. Everything He is talking about revolves
around pleasing self.

Someone must have thought it sounded nice, because a man said "Blessed is he
that shalle at bread in the kingdom of God!" (Luk_14:15) Jesus turns and looks at
Him with those amazing, all knowing eyes. He knows the hearts of men. He knows
their motives and reasonings. WHY did He respond this way? It is a blatant
warning.

Luk 14:16 Then said he unto him, A certain man made a great supper, and bade many:
Luk 14:17 And sent his servant at supper time to say to them that were bidden, Come; for
all things are now ready.
Luk 14:18 And they all with one consent began to make excuse. The first said unto him, I
have bought a piece of ground, and I must needs go and see it: I pray thee have me
excused.

For this man to have a dinner prepared and invite so many, it must be a great
feast. He must be a wealthy man. He sent His messenger with the invitation for
those who were chosen by the man to attend. They all however, commenced to
making excuses. That word "excuse" in the Greek G3844, means to take lightly,
refuse, shun or avoid. They weren't really interested in coming to this feast, so
they made excuses. The way they saw it, they had bettter things to do with their
time. They wanted nothing to do with showing up at this man's table and having
fellowship and a meal with Him. His food was not what they wanted. They did not
want to spend time with Him, eating His bread.

Do you get it? Jesus said I am the bread of life that comes down from above. He
was the Word of God made flesh. But so many of those who call themselves
Christians make no time to come to the Lord's table, via prayer, with their Bibles,
and a hungry heart. They are too busy. They always have excuses. Excuses reflect
much of the condition of the heart. What people want they will make time for. They
will go into debt for a new car, or new outfit, or a vacation to some resort or beach.
They will work overtime to get extra money for something they want. They will go
into debt for a new television. But how many would set aside that same amount of
money for the missions work so the Gospel would be able to be carried to a hungry
soul in darkness who had not heard? Few. Because self wants this, and self must be
pleased at all costs. The problem is self is never satisfied. It always wants more.
And if we live for self here in time, we lose eternal life. See where that spirit will
lead you in 2 Thes 2:4. That is the anti-christ spirit that sits in God's temple, as
God, exalting itself above all that is God. Is that not what our natural self tends to
do? Well, God said I need to pray, but today I've got so much to do, I will try to
later. And we put God on hold. By our choices we are saying, Lord, I don't really
need you today, I can handle it. This is more important. But it's not.

He is eternal life. Only as we are connected to Him, abide in Him do we have life.
We must stay plugged into HIM for HE is the source of Life. No wonder Scripture
warns us "How shall we escape if we neglect this great salvation?" We may not
realize it now but we must come to know we are absolutely dependent on Him.

There comes a time He will not call anymore. He will get up and shut the door.
Once it is shut, the foolish virgins, the neglectful and careless will be on the wrong
side. THIS is an unpardonable sin. To have rejected Him so completely and so
many times, there is no more invitation. There will be no getting Him to open that
door again. It will be dark, and a bad time. But the light that was offered, the food
that would have strengthened and sustained was rejected. Time spent with the
Master who had so much to show you will be rejected and forever beyond reach.

Only those who pray and dig in this book will recognize the false when it confronts
them. When that which is of the evil one infiltrates your church, your family, or
tries to get in your life, how will you recognize it? He comes as an angel of light,
and sounds so reasonable. My God, folks, he was clever enough to persuade a third
of the angels in heaven to rebel against God and follow him. Do you think you can
stand against that? No, you cannot. Only the Holy Spirit can show you truth. If
you neglect Him, you do so at your own peril.

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