Rayford Strange
Dec. 26th 2021
For every affect there is an underlying cause. Those who study the laws of physics understand this. For example it is a well known principle that for ever action there is an opposite and equal reaction. Farmers understand this. If a farmer plants one hundred acres of wheat, he will not harvest one hundred acres of barley, rye or corn. Neither will he harvest fifty acres of watermelons and 50 acres of surprises. We must learn to expect that in this principle is as much invioable in the spiritual sense as it is inviolable in the natural sense. Thus, for every spiritual outcome, there is an underlying direct cause as in the cause/affect relationship. Actually, we can learn much from nature. “Doth not even nature teach you?” (I Cor. 11:14)
All of us have ears to hear naturally. Everyone have two appendages stuck to their heads which make it possible to do so. You can hear natural sounds within the decibel rages allowed. Very often animals can hear higher…..and even lower decibel ranges than we humans can hear. Yet, everyone does not have ears to hear the spiritual sounds that are constantly broadcast into the earth from heaven every second of every day. Jesus recognized those who were spiritually deaf but commended his disciples for having the spiritual ability to hear the Word of God as it was not given to the religious leaders of the established church in that day….i.e., the Pharisees and Sadducee, aka, the Church in the Wilderness.
Recently, I was very much struck by the words of Jesus recorded in the 6th Chapter of Luke commencing with the 27th verse, “But I say unto you which hear…”
Such an exclusive audience, it is. Then, what follows after, from verse 27 onward, are given many principles by which a follower of Jesus is expected to HEAR and OBEY. If there would be anything from the Word of God that would have any influence on me to believe the false doctrine of “Eternal Predestination,” this would be it. Where did the ears to hear come from? After all, everyone have ears to hear naturally, but why is it that not everyone are given ears to hear spiritually? Why the discrimination?
In Matthew 13:15, Jesus enunciated the principle found in Isa 6:6:10: “Make the HEART of this people fat, and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, AND UNDERSTAND WITH THEIR HEART, and convert, and be healed.
The HEART of every man is his “innermost.” Every man is WHO and WHAT he is from his innermost being, which is to say, every man is what his love or his affections may centered upon. This begs yet another question, concerning the force that turns a man’s affections, his love, his heart, one way or the other. What of that force, i.e., influence? It is found in his will of which God has given every man to do as he pleases. God will not interfere with a man’s will or his power of choice. Every man has the power by his own will to choose good or evil, to chose truth or error. The power of the will is found in the man from creation. Adam chose to eat of the Tree of Knowledge (death) even though the Tree of Life (good) stood as prominently in the garden. Since Adam chose the evil tree, death ensured as a matter of consequence….i.e. the cause/affect relationship. God has set before every man both good and evil, both divine truth and infernal error. We are then told to choose… to choose life and refuse the evil. The power of choice is then found in the will.
Before the will of man is inculcated into his heart to choose either, there are outward influences about him since he was a young child to which he is attracted. This is why it is so important that parents and teachers should teach the truth and radiate the warm brightness of divine love before the child that he may be influenced to choose the good of love and to refused the infernal powers of evil from which death follows. Thus, from his heart, he is then given power to hear and to understand spiritually. He then can choose to follow the principles of DIVINE LIFE which are given by Jesus in the Gospels.
To reiterate the first few words from Luke 27, “But I say unto you which hear….., By what then follows, Jesus then gives us a series of divine principles, one after another that must be both heard by the hearers and incorporated into the spiritual nature by both love of them and obedience also. It is not enough to HEAR and understand by the HEART only, but to love also what is heard, must accompany the hearing. Further still, it is not enough to hear and love the principles that Jesus teaches us, but to DO them is commanded and is imperative in the life of every follower of Jesus.
With that said, pick up from the words that Jesus said in the 27th verse, “ But I say unto you which hear,” and then read from there and follow the many principles set before all in the following verses who hear and love the Lord Jesus and wish to be practitioners and imitators of Jesus, our example in all things.
Whatever manifests in our lives in the natural is a direct cause of some spiritual principle obeyed or violated. All things in the natural life of mankind has a cause/affect relationship which origins are found in the spiritual world. Everything in the natural world is an outgrowth of a cause in the spirit world that are activated by the man himself by choices which are then manifested in the life of the man himself.
Finally, set your affections upon (heavenly) things above and not upon the (world) earth. (Col. 3:2) Choose to do the good. Choose to believe and follow Jesus. Choose to hate evil. Choose to be led and be taught by HIM ALONE….refusing much of the crazy stuff promulgated by the world of religion today. If we will LEARN of Jesus, he will send his Holy Spirit to TEACH us to love the good, hate the evil, refuse the error and walk in the LIGHT as he is in the LIGHT.
It’s all found in the heart (the love) of mankind by which all is determined in his life as a cause and affect relationship…..including death and eternal life. Health and safety is also so determined there.
Yours in Christ
Brother Rayford
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