Broadly speaking, church people fall into three different categories. The first category is the disassociated multiple personality category. The second category is the schizophrenic category. And the third category is the fully integrated new identity category.
The people in the first category simply “play” church. These people have not surrendered their lives to Yeshua (Jesus), and agreed to die with Him, so they can be resurrected as a new creature “In Him“. Sadly, these people hold on to their lives and goals, and stubbornly refuse to yield to the calls of the Holy Spirit to surrender and die.
The people in this first category are not playing the church game to lose, no they are playing the church game to win! These people come to church to win the approval of other people in their community, and, at the same time, earn some brownie points with Yahweh (God). For them, church is all about what Yah can do for them, and not what they can do for Him. These people seek recovery, health and wealth.
When these people are around “church people“, they become a “church person“, but when they are around “worldly people“, they become a “worldly person“. They have multiple personalities.
The second category
The people in the second category have surrendered their lives to Yeshua, and agreed to die with Him, so they can be resurrected as a new creature “in Him“. These people turn away from their old lives and goals, and seek to live His life, and accomplish His goals. These people meet with other believers and serve them, and give to meet their needs. These people come to church to lose, they come to die.
Nevertheless, the people in this second category are Schizophrenic. The word, “schizophrenia” translates roughly as a splitting of the mind. Technically, however, it is not the same as having multiple personalities, it is more like not having a fully integrated mind that functions seamlessly. Schizophrenia is characterized by strong, coexisting unreconciled, inconsistent or contradictory cognitive elements. These deep cognitive conflicts, which are very troubling, can cause the mind to construct clever coping mechanisms to minimize the pain: And this is very detrimental to the person.
The coping mechanisms that the mind builds, when it is under a great deal of internally generated stress, fly under the radar of consciousness. The mind builds them, and the person is not aware of them, i.e., they are built on a subconscious level. Consequently, the symptoms that the coping mechanisms produce, which rise to the conscious level, such as, fear, confusion, anxiety, depression, (or in extreme cases), hearing voices, or seeing things, seem inexplicable.
Moreover, and perhaps more troubling, is that these deep internal cognitive schisms, and the coping mechanisms that they produce, can also create desires for people, things and activities, and lead to strong sin patterns, which are extremely hard to break free from.
Deep internal cognitive schisms
What on earth could cause such a deep internal cognitive schism, which, if left unresolved could build these destructive subconscious coping mechanisms and create all this havoc in our lives?
Well, when a person loves Yeshua with all of his or her heart, and seeks, daily, to die with Him, so that they can live a resurrected life “in Him” and accomplish His goals, here on the earth, there is nothing more troubling, painful, and perplexing than sin.
I mean, everything was great for a week or two, you were walking hand-in-hand with the Creator of the universe, through the blood of the Messiah, walking out the Word, as the Holy Spirit directed you. You sensed the reality of being one with Yahweh, seated at His right hand, in the heavenly realm, far above all powers and principalities. You were almost in a state of spiritual ecstasy, thinking that, at perhaps any moment, Yah would rapture you away as He did Enoch!
Then, it happened. Just like it had a thousand times before. A desire arose from within, and rather than capturing the thoughts that it produced, and forcing them to bow to Christ in you, you granted the thoughts entry into your mental sphere, and foolishly entertained the possibility of enjoying the “reward” that they offered, and slowly nursed it with your attention, and allowed it to overpower you!
The next thing you know, you are indulging in sin. You are enjoying the reward that you get from gossip, greed, ego, division, lust, anger, gluttony, or whatever it is that you struggle with. And just like that, you fall from heaven, and land squarely in a miry pit. In a blink of an eye, your beautiful heavenly white robe is soiled with blood and filth.
Now you have to suffer a beat-down by your conscience, and the Devil piles on and reminds you of how many times you have failed. Then, after you have been punished enough, and a few days have past, you find the courage to approach Yah, and beg for forgiveness. Then, after you successfully avoid all sin for a few days, you feel like everything is ok between you and God. Then, you slowly resume your ministry work, but you are not quite as bold as you need to be. Then, after a few weeks you are flying with the Holy angels again!
This is an exhaustive cycle to be stuck in, and every time you go through it, you lose a little zeal for life and the ministry. And, in this cycle, you run the risk of developing depression, anxiety and other side effects that steal your joy, and bring death into your life.
It doesn’t take but a moment to go from flying with the Holy angels of God, to wallowing in the miry pit with the rest of the human pigs. And if you do not have the cognitive tools to reconcile these two different realities that we fluctuate between, you will find yourself in the second category with the rest of the schizophrenic christians.
Take it from me, I have spent most of my life in this spiritual desert, and it is no where to be, it will drain you, distract you, and discourage you. But praise Yah, I have crossed over! I have left the desert, and entered into the Promise Land to find rest! And you can too!
The third category
The third category of church people are the fully integrated new identity folks. These people have crossed over from the spiritual desert into the promise land to obtain rest.
How do you cross over? Well, In Hebrews 4, the Scriptures tell us that the children of Israel did not cross over because of unbelief. They were in the church of Moses, and were baptized in the Red Sea, and Christ was with them supplying all of their needs, but they didn’t cross over because they didn’t believe what He said about them.
The Lord told these people that they could cross over and defeat the giants, but they looked at themselves, in the flesh, and said that they were grasshoppers compared to the giants. These people looked at, who they were in the flesh, and let that outweigh, who God said they were “in Him” (that is, who they were through His empowerment).
In 1st Corinthians 10, the Lord tells us that these events were recorded in the Scriptures so that we could learn from them.
The lesson to learn
Here is the lesson that we need to learn from the Scriptures. When we sin, we can see ourselves in the flesh, and see a disgusting human pig wallowing in the mire of life, or we can see ourselves through Yahweh’s eyes, and see someone, who is holy and righteous.
Here is the deal. As long as we are in the flesh, we will sin.
Nevertheless, Yah says that He is not counting our sins against us. (Romans 4:8) Yah says that where our sins abound, His grace does super abound!(Romans 5:20) Yah says that Yeshua became sin so we could become the righteousness of God “In Him“. (2 Corinthians 5:21) Yah says that when we believe, He seals us with His Spirit and takes eternal possession of us! (Ephesians 1:13-14) Yah says that Yeshua obtained eternal redemption for us! (Hebrews 9:12)
Yahweh says that He loved us when we were yet sinners, and He sent Yeshua to die for us. (Romans 5:8) Yahweh also says that if an ungodly person will believe on Him, He will count their belief as righteousness. (Romans 4:5) How much more does Yahweh love us now that we are His children, and not ungodly sinners?
We must believe the Scriptures in order to reconcile our two conflicting realities, and enter the promise land to obtain rest.
According to the Scriptures, our legal status doesn’t change when we sin. Sin doesn’t change our relationship to Yahweh. Yahweh sees us through the mercy seat, and the mercy seat is covered in the blood of Yeshua. Yeshua’s blood takes away all of our sins, continually. Yeshua is praying for us, continually.
When Yahweh looks at you, He sees someone, who is righteous and holy. And that will never change, no matter how much you sin.
My friend, Yeshua’s blood is far greater than your sin!
So, when you sin, confess your sin to get it off your conscience, and understand that God still sees you as righteous and holy. And do not allow your conscience, or the Devil to beat you up.
What then? Shall we continue in sin, so that grace will abound in order to swallow up our sin? God forbid! Sin has earthly consequences that are very unpleasant, and very destructive.
This is a hard lesson to learn, and accept. It seems counterintuitive, but adopting this attitude towards yourself and sin, actually frees you from sin by opening a channel for grace to flow into your life.
As always, it is your choice: You can believe the Scriptures, and enter the promise land to obtain rest, or you can stumble around in the desert for the rest of your life with the schizophrenic christians.
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