John 1:16-17 (Amplified) tells us, "For out of His fullness (abundance), we have all received, all had a share and were all supplied with, one Grace after another and Spiritual Blessing upon Spiritual Blessing and even favor upon favor and Gift heaped upon Gift. For while the Law was given through Moses, Grace (unearned, undeserved favor) and Spiritual Blessing and Truth, came through Jesus Christ."
Many years ago, Brother Hugh Smith from Joshua, Texas, preached a message he entitled, "Hoe your own row." Anyone who has ever worked a garden of any kind, knows that we usually plant things in rows. My siblings and I were assigned a row in our family garden, which we were each responsible to hoe. The weeds needed to be hoed out and the soil had to be loosened, in order to plant and grow seeds. I was only responsible to hoe, plant, and keep my row weeded.
Some in the Body of Christ only come to salvation. They are babes in Christ and know very little about what actually happened when they were born-again yet. Others in the Body have been saved for a long time. We all have the same Father and the same Lord, but we might have different understandings about what salvation is. We must walk in love towards those who remain babes in Christ, but we must not return to crawling, in our walk with God.
You're not required to give up our personal walk and understanding with Jesus, just because others aren't walking in the same depth of faith you're walking in. You're also not to ridicule them, for their lack of understanding. Our job is to feed them, making sure they receive the proper nourishment, so they can grow into adulthood in Christ Jesus. Babies don't know the difference between candy and spinach, but we're supposed to know the difference.
We must weight the Truth in what we hear or read. We must judge these things by God's Word of Grace and Truth. Understand the Truth of God's Word for yourself and hold onto it. God's Word isn't True, because it works for some and it's not True, because it doesn't for some. God's Word is Truth, because God said it, regardless of whether or not it works for some. Don't base the Truth of God's Word on someone's testimony, but base it on the Integrity of God Himself. Just because some aren't saved, doesn't mean that God's Word of salvation isn't True. Every person has the responsibility or accepting salvation or not acting on it.
I've believed and acted on things from God's Word that I won't stop acting on, just because someone else says "it's not for today." I'm responsible for y own liberty that God granted to me, by His Grace. If Jesus made me free, then I am free indeed! This scripture is quoted out of context many times, but this is what John 8:31-32 (Amplified) says, "So Jesus said to those Jews who had believed in Him, If you abide in My Word, hold fast to My teachings and live in accordance with them, you are truly My disciples. And you will know the Truth, and the Truth will set you free."
John 7:16-17 (Amplified) says, "Jesus answered them by saying, My teaching is not My Own but His Who sent Me. If any man desires to do His will (God's pleasure), he will know (have the needed illumination to recognize and can tell for himself), whether the teaching is from God or whether I am speaking from Myself and of My Own accord and on My Own authority."
Today's world is full of many "teachings," and holds many views, but you can know for yourself, by the Holy Spirit, whether these teachings and views are from God, or not. This is what John said in 1John 2:20 (Amplified) where he said, "But you have been anointed by (you hold a sacred appointment from, you have been given an unction from the Holy One), and you know the Truth or you know all things."
The Holy Spirit is still The Best Teacher, the Church could ever have. If you hear something that leaves a "check" in your spirit, then go to God with it before spitting it out or before swallowing it. Just because some don't know or view liberty like God has revealed it to you, doesn't mean it is wrong. Different isn't always wrong.
I'm responsible to God, for my own liberty in Christ Jesus and He tells me, "Don't use my liberty as an occasion to sin." This means that I must know where my limits are in liberty, so I don't misuse it for unclean things. There are many teachings about Grace today. Many teach misuses of liberty and using their liberty for occasion to sin, in things the Word says to abstain from. This is where we must each become responsible for our own liberty. We must never allow others to place us back under bondage. We must never take the limits off our liberty and bring ourselves back unto ungodliness.
Romans 14:22 (Amplified) again says, "Your personal conviction of such matters, exercise them as in God's Presence, keeping them to yourself, striving only to know the Truth and obey His will. Blessed (happy, to be envied) is he who has no reason to judge himself for what he approves, who does not convict himself by what he chooses to do."
Remember who Paul was before being saved and who he is at the time of his writing 1Corinthians 4:4 (Amplified), where he writes, "I am not conscious of anything against myself, and I feel blameless. But I am not vindicated and acquitted before God on that account. It is the Lord Himself Who examines and judges me."
Many believed Paul to be a blasphemer, murderer and someone who denied God when he left the Law, for Grace. Despite what others believed and accused Paul of being, he knew what his liberty in Christ brought him and he walked in it. Paul refused to surrender his liberty, in order to please others. He continued in the Revelation of the new creation Kingdom of God, just like Jesus instructed him. In Galatians 3:1-2,4 (Amplified), Paul chastised the Church in Galatia for giving up their liberty in Christ Jesus and returning to the bondage of the Law. Paul gives account about a "false" Christians who were smuggled into the Church, in order to "spy out their liberty in Christ and their freedom from the Law of Moses." These persons were sent there to bring the believers back under bondage.
Jesus didn't give His Life, in order to bring us another religion. He gave His Life to bring us Life and son-ship rights with the Father. There are so many religions, but very little Grace and very little Truth can be found in them. When you truly walk in liberty in Christ, people view you differently. They don't do this because you are wrong, but because they've been taught to observe the laws of religion and are familiar with these traditions. We're not walking in the liberty Christ gave to us, because we're "so cool" or we're "better than others." We're doing so, in order to walk in what Jesus actually gave to us.
God hasn't changed the new covenant and neither should we. If God still wanted us to be under the Law, then He would never have sent Jesus to redeem us. We must allow the Holy Spirit to reveal God's Word to us, in Grace and Truth. We must stand firm in our liberty, without allowing anyone to steal it from us. 2Corinthians 5:13 (Amplified) says, "Now the Lord is the Spirit and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty (emancipation from bondage, freedom)." Galatians 5:13 (Amplified) says, "For you brethren were indeed called to freedom ["liberty" in the K.J.V] only do not let your freedom (liberty) be an incentive to your flesh and an opportunity or excuse."
James 2:12 (Amplified) says, "So speak and so act as people should who are to be judged under the Law of Liberty (the moral instructions given by Christ), especially about Love."
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