By: General Deborah Green
On Target
Praise God. We are continuing in the studies of the Revolutionary Way. Now we have said before and we will repeat it again, Jesus Christ was, is, and always shall be the Revolutionary. A lot of people want to remake Jesus into something that is soft and comfortable, something that will give us every thing that we want. They want Jesus to be someone who will let us get by with whatever our pet sin happens to be. According to them we can keep our idols and the multitude of our sins because Jesus is obligated to love us. When you read the Bible and study the Word of God you will find out that Jesus brought division, Jesus brought a new Kingdom. And that is what we have been studying on, this new Kingdom. Jesus was, is, and always shall be the Revolutionary, because Jesus is the one who teaches us the way of His Kingdom
Turn with me to Matthew 6:10, reading from the Amplified Bible, “Your Kingdom come, your will be done on earth, as it is in heaven. (some translations say, in earth) We have uncovered in these lessons that we are the earth. While we know there is a physical earth, we also know that we are the earth, because that is what God made Adam out of to begin with. God wants to bring that Kingdom in us, and He wants us to live and abide in that dimension of the Kingdom of God. We learned that we do not have to look for a pie in the sky, we don’t have to look for an escape, e.g. a rapture. We shouldn’t look at it like we are God’s little chosen angels who will endure nothing, but we need to enter into and remain in the Kingdom dimension. The Kingdom dimension is the Spirit Walk, the Spirit led life, whereby we get our eyes upon things heavenly as opposed to things carnal. As we have studied this subject and come into these understandings, we have learned that we waste a lot of our time over things that are literally binding us.
This is part two of the message, “Breaking the Ties that Bind”. In our last message we studied the context of Matthew 8:19,20, so let’s go there for quick review because these things are important, very important. Now when we read in Matthew 8:19,20, “And a scribe came up and said to Him, Master, I will accompany You wherever You go. And Jesus replied to him, Foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have lodging places; but the Son of man has nowhere to lay His head.” So, Jesus did away with that drive for the security of a home, which is inherent in the natural man.
What we are finding out is that we are to make our abode in heavenly dimensions, we are to dwell in the Spirit and God will provide whatever we need for our natural bodies. I myself do not believe that Jesus spent every night of His ministry out under the stars, I do not believe that He had to lay on the ground in the cold every single night. Now, I don’t doubt, by the nature of His ministry and having myself done many third world missions, that there were times when He and His disciples camped out and spent the night “under the stars.” I do not doubt that there were occasions for that, but I also believe that the Heavenly Father, being who He is and being mindful of many things in reference to His people, in reference to His own Son, probably provided for Jesus and His followers. People would open their homes, people would say, “Here, you may stay”, and there was provision made, because God always makes a provision. And when you need refreshing God will provide the refreshing, when you believe God.
Basically, Jesus was letting this man know that if you are going to be my disciple, and you are going to follow me, then don’t look for the security that you currently have. We see that when Jesus called His disciples He did not give them any security promises. He did not offer them health insurance. He did not offer them paid vacations, He did not offer them retirement benefits and pension plans, He did not offer them pay increases. He didn’t do any of that. He did not give them six months of sick leave, He said, “Come follow me”. Why? Because He was taking them into the New Kingdom, and the New Kingdom was different than the kingdom of the world. We need to realize that if we are called to follow Jesus, we are going to live in change. Following Jesus means Revolution, and He is the Revolutionary! He is not only going to cause the Revolution against the binding tie of spirituality, but He is going to cause Revolution against the ties that bind us in our carnality.
This thing gets rough on rats, it gets rough on the religious rats who get mad and hate you because you are preaching Revolution. It gets rough on the rats in our own carnality that desire to be comfortable, desire to be secure, …desire, desire, desire, which turns into lust, which turns into compromise and shunning the truth. When Jesus came, He taught us to REVOLT against our own carnal self. We will see in the next few verses what else the Lord put the axe to. The Bible says that the truth is a sword, that divides asunder and separates.
Reading in Matthew 8:21, “Another of the disciples said to Him, ‘Lord, let me first go and bury (care for till death) my father.”’ Now whether he was already dead or whether he was dying is a little unclear from this reference, but the point is he said, “I have a father I need to tend to.” Whether the father was alive or dead is not clear, he was either physically dead or on the verge of dying, but Jesus was not concerned with that obligation. Verse 22: “But Jesus said to him, ‘Follow Me, and leave the dead (in sin) to bury their own dead.”’ The King James says, “…let the dead bury their dead”.
Now you know and I know that such an admonition as this starts a family riot. As soon as you start talking like that you have already started a family riot. Can’t you hear it, “What kind of a man is this who won’t even let you bury your own father? What kind of respect is that, what kind of love is that, what kind of mercy is that?” But, Jesus was showing through this admonition that He is teaching the New Kingdom, He is teaching the Kingdom of Life, the Kingdom of Spirit, the Kingdom of God. And that binding tie to your own flesh and blood which makes you think you have to pay homage to them is a lie. Because Jesus said, “…let the dead bury their dead”. The father was dead in the eyes of God, and when the disciple said, “Let me go take care of death, Jesus rebuked him by saying, “Let the dead bury their dead. Let those who are of the old kingdom, let those who are in that place of death, deal with that death.” Jesus was teaching a New Kingdom –the Kingdom of Life.
It’s so different from churchianity, so different from the kind of system where you can take Jack Brown the alcoholic who dies, and haul his dead body into some church and try to act like he was a Christian. Instead of preaching hellfire and brimstone to his relatives, you put on this fake face and all of this flattery about Jack Brown and what a great man he was, and how we will all miss him. When in reality, everybody knows he was a drunken sot and we’re all glad he is gone because we are free from his torment. But oh no, we will speak high sounding phrases and make Jack into a saint. Jack was dead in his sins. (If you haven’t lived around a drunkard, go live around one then see if you call them a saint. They are hell on wheels, and that’s the truth. They torment everybody because they are tormented, and all they are is a vehicle of demon power.) Jack was unrepentant and yet the preacher gets up there because he is paid to perform the funeral and makes Jack into a saint so everybody sobs and cries. Lies!
Jesus said, “Let the dead bury their dead,” if they are dead in trespasses and sins, let the dead bury their dead”. If you don’t think this is Revolutionary and if you don’t think this will cause a big fuss, my dear friends, the next time a close relative dies in your natural family, declare that you are not attending the funeral and see if everybody doesn’t get into a big uproar, a big gossip party and a big determination that you are in a cult and under false teachings and that you have lost your mind. These are the same people who will go sit in some church somewhere and cry and sob over a hell bound drunkard. Jesus said, “…let the dead bury their dead”. So what is the tie that He is cutting? He is cutting the ties to the old kingdom, He is cutting the ties to death, He is cutting the ties to those that are unregenerated. He is cutting the tie of the family.
Now, you know and I know that the family has deteriorated in America because we have not kept God first. So some people go around and worship the family rather than God. Listen, worship of the family is not going to restore the family, yet worship of God will restore the family that is in God. But don’t forget that Jesus said He brought the sword (see Mt.10:34-38), and He said He will divide families. So don’t look to live in some fairytale love bubble imagination about family. The true family is made up of those who will follow God, the ones who obey God, the ones who serve God are indeed our heavenly family. And when you try to hold some old carnal, unsaved thing together and say “this is family”, then you are betraying the Lord. Because Jesus gave the example. He said that His family were those who loved God. Now, if His mother and brothers chose to serve God then that was fine. He would accept them as His family. (See Mt.12:46-50)
If you take the stand that Jesus took then people want to string you up because you don’t have any love in your heart, you don’t have any sentiment in your heart, you don’t have any emotional ties. No! You know why? The ties that bind have been broken and you have been freed to follow the Master. That doesn’t mean that you don’t do certain things if God tells you to do certain things towards natural, physical people. If He tells you to go take care of their needs in an area, go take care of their needs. But make sure that those things aren’t forced on you by those that are dead, telling you what you have to do, telling you what you should do. If you have entered into the Revolution, then keep following. Don’t be brought back down by the accusation of carnal men who are perishing in their sins, trying to tell you what you need to do as a Christian. Study the Words of the Lord, study the standard of God, study what Jesus did and what Jesus is still doing to a people who will believe Him.
It is Revolution that we have moved into when we accept the blood covenant. A lot of people are liars, they break the contract. He gave His life, He gave His all, He sacrificed everything, then they want to take all of that and give nothing back. Isn’t that the truth? They want both the treasure of the Heavenly Kingdom and the treasure of the carnal kingdom. You cannot serve two masters, you cannot serve God and mammon. You cannot serve the fleshly, beastly man, the carnal man and serve the Heavenly Father. If you think you can, then it is only yourself that you deceive. God is not deceived, and God is not mocked. We see here that Jesus put the axe to the root and He brought the sword again. He said, “…let the dead bury their dead”.
I will recount to you this incident. We were in a country and God was moving by the power of His Spirit. Well the man who was hosting the meetings, he disappeared. When we found out where he went, he had gone to take care of his father who had died. The minute I heard that this scripture rang out in my heart, “…let the dead bury their dead”. Well, that man did not continue in the Spirit journey. Jesus was there in the midst, and this man thought it a priority to go bury his father who was not born again, and who had lived in sin. So, the pastor left the presence of God and went to bury the dead, walking out of the move of God. That man did not continue in the Spirit Life. He put on a show for a little while but what was really in him came forth, and that was a desire for security in the flesh. The point I am getting to is when God is with us, and Jesus is teaching us and Jesus is appointing our times and our seasons, don’t ever think that some kind of carnal tie is more important than the Spirit of God. That is a tie that binds, that is a bondage that keeps you from following God.
I love God and I love the fact that His Word is life. In Luke 12:22, Jesus is tearing down an old kingdom. When a revolutionary comes and brings revolution, it brings change. It takes you out of one way of living into another way of living. You say, “I don’t know about that”. If you study some of the revolutions that have occurred in history, even up into the twentieth century with the communist revolution, you find they were very radical in attempting to eradicate any remnant of the former lifestyle. Now, if you go to China which has had a tremendous history in its art forms, in its writings, in its architecture, in its creations which have come out of different dynasties of rulership, you will find the revolutionaries said, “We must do away with all of these things because we are bringing in a new reign of power”. Whether it was successful or unsuccessful, the fact remains that they knew that in order to execute their revolution they had to do away with the remnants of the former reigns of power. They knew that if they came in and said, “Okay, we are going to live this way” that it’s inherent in man to look back to the former ways that they have lived when the new one gets miserable. And when they look back, they don’t apply themselves to the new way. Even Jesus taught us that. He said, “If you look back you are not fit for the Kingdom.”
So the total and complete abandonment to the New Way is absolutely essential to accomplish the avowed purpose of the Revolution. You think “I don’t want to end up like some Marxist.” No, you don’t want to end up like a Marxist, but do you want to end up in the Kingdom of God? I am not preaching communism or Marxism, I am preaching JESUS REVOLUTION –JESUS IS THE REVOLUTION. If we are going to follow Jesus, we are going to follow Him whithersoever He leads, regardless of what ties we have to break. As we learned yesterday, we can be bound by demon power, but we can also be bound by carnal fears. And what you are going to find in every one of these situations is that Jesus said, “Break it away,” and it all relates back to carnal fears..
Luke 12:22, “And Jesus said to His disciples, Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious and troubled (with cares) about your life”. Go out in the morning and stand by the freeway, or the turnpike, or the expressway, go out there and stand by it, and watch the multitudes racing to work. Do I oppose work? No, I work all the time. Watch them, look at their faces, look at the way they treat each other on the freeway, look at the wrecks, look at the mangled bodies, look at the anger, the wrath, the anxiety, the fear that expresses itself on their faces. I got a good view of that because at one time a few years back, God had me standing on a street corner with a sign which read: JESUS DIED FOR YOU, REPENT! I got to see multitudes of Americans on their way to work, and it was an ugly show, very ugly. But Jesus is telling them, don’t get yourself all worked up and troubled about the cares of your life, as to what you will have to eat, or about your body, what you will have to wear. For life is more than food, and the body is more than clothes.
Going on in this chapter it says in verse 27, “Consider the lilies, how they grow; they neither (wearily) toil nor spin nor weave; yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory — his splendor and magnificence — was not arrayed like one of these,” verse 28, “But if God so clothes the grass in the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the furnace, how much more will He clothe you, O you (people) of little faith?” verse 29, “And you, do not seek (by meditating and reasoning to inquire into) what you are to eat and what you are to drink, nor be of anxious (troubled) mind unsettled, excited, worried, and in suspense;” verse 30, “For all the pagan world is (greedily) seeking these things, and your Father knows that you have need of them.” verse 31, “Only aim at and strive for and seek after His kingdom, and all these things shall be supplied to you also.” verse 32, “Do not be seized with alarm and struck with fear, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the Kingdom!”
How much of the human life is spent in fear? Fear that you won’t have enough, fear that somebody will take what you have, fear that you will not have food, fear that you won’t have the kind of clothes that everybody will turn and look at and admire you in, fear, fear, fear! Fear that because your tennis shoes only cost $105, instead of $150 that everybody will scoff you. And, on and on it goes. It is foolishness, vanity and vexation of spirit. Read on in verses 33-34 and find out what Jesus said in His radicalism, “Sell what you possess and give donations to the poor; provide yourselves with purses and handbags that do not grow old, and unfailing and inexhaustible treasure in the heavens, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.”
I want to read to you from the Moffatt translation, it settles what I have been teaching in these two messages and what we are learning overall in these messages on the Revolutionary Way. God desires that we enter into the realm of the Spirit, God desires that we enter into the Kingdom of God (…thy Kingdom come, thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven) because it is a realm, it is a dimension, it is an abode that we are meant to enter into RIGHT NOW! we are not meant to wait until we are raptured (which will not be), we are not meant to wait until we die and go to heaven, but we are meant to enter into this realm right now, THIS VERY DAY!
Reading in the Moffat translation, Luke 12:22-32, “To his disciples he said, Therefore I tell you, never trouble about what you are to eat in life, nor about what you are to put on your body; life is something more than food, and the body is something more than clothes. Look at the crows! They neither sow nor reap, no storehouse or granary have they, and yet God feeds them. How much more are you worth than birds? Which of you can add an ell to his height by troubling about it? And if you cannot manage even this, why trouble you over other things? Look how the lilies neither spin nor weave, and yet, I tell you, even Solomon in all his grandeur was never robed like one of them. Now, if God so clothes grass which blooms today in the field and is thrown tomorrow into the furnace, how much more will he clothe you! O men, how little you trust him! So do not seek food and drink and be worried, pagans make food and drink their aim in life, but your Father knows quite well you need that; only seek His Realm, and it will be yours over and above, Fear not, you little flock, for your Father’s delight is to give you the Realm”.
Yes, it is our Father’s delight to give us the Realm, the Kingdom Life, the Revolutionary Way, and as we break the ties that bind, we are freed to live and abide in the Realm with Him. Let us pray and ask God to show us, through the conviction of the Holy Ghost, every tie that binds us that it may be broken in the name of Jesus.