Christian Living
Good morning brothers and sisters. Yesterday I started a devotional series concerning the conditions required to experience the kingdom of the heavens . Jesus began His ministry as recorded in Mathew by announcing the kingdom of the heavens, that it had drawn near and then later , that it was within you.
These so called “Beatitudes”, are not just a simple list of values or morals but rather the requirements and characteristics of those who would consider themselves as servants of God, called out from the kingdom of this world and looking forward to having one of their own. This is somewhat like the nation of Israel leaving the world called Egypt. Upon leaving they were on a journey to the promised land. We must be careful not to criticize those who perished in the wilderness on that journey because we in fact are on that very same journey today ! We are admonished in Hebrews to enter the promised land or the rest of God. This essentially means making the successful transition of simply walking according to the old man, the flesh, the soul and the self which is separated from the life of God and is confined to and subject to the world. In Christ we have been objectively set free from all these negative things so that we may make this blessed transition to the beautiful walk in spirit.
I need to point out that the definition of the word “blessed” means to make holy or to be made happy. Very interesting because this shows that our true satisfaction, fulfillment, contentment, joy and happiness can never be realized outside of God. This we must become sanctified (set apart) and made holy (dedicated unto the service of God) to be blessed or happy.
I know this is a foreign concept to the old man. In fact the old, carnal, self centered man would wish to utterly reject this concept because it’s nature is to serve and to satisfy only self and yet here we find Jesus revealing the truth to which our old man and the world are entirely opposed to and set against !
This brings us to the second “beatitude” or blessing which is ; “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.”
This is not at all a self centered mourning or self pity but rather it is the holy recognition of the state and condition of the world in it’s negative relation towards God and His kingdom. When we begin to walk in the blessed state of the spirit, we then see clearly how oppressed is the world and see it’s negativity towards God and His kingdom and rule. It becomes a heavy burden that torments us as did the deplorable condition of Lot in Sodom. Thus , we begin to mourn at all which is negative, sinful and opposed to our Lord. We even groan inside , longing to be fully clothed with Christ ourselves and begin to truly love His appearing.
As Christ has said however, we will be blessed and comforted when we begin to truly mourn over all this sinful and wholly negative situation that exists in the world. The reason we mourn is because when we walk in spirit we are in fellowship with the Father. We abide in Him, which is a wonderful and beautiful experience . This occurs deep within our spirits and yet on the outside, our soul and our bodies still experience the negative affects of sin, death and the world. This naturally will cause anyone to mourn and to groan within looking forward and longing for the blessed day when all is fully recovered and restored.
Therefore this mourning simply describes the natural results of one walking in their spirit. Jesus has declared this a blessed or happy state or condition however because it means first of all that this is the results of having made the transition to the walk in the spirit, the rest of God and secondly, that we will also be comforted as God comforts the depressed (not to be confused with self centered depression).
So in summary, to mourn is the natural result of those who walk in the spirit (in the kingdom of the heavens) in response to the entirely negative and sinful condition of the world as it relates to God and His kingdom and the salvation of Jesus Christ to all men.
One a side note, I would like to point out that “sin” is anything which violates the will of God expressed in disobedience. Adam’s original sin was to disobey God’s commands. Anytime we disobey God’s commands according to His righteousness and will it is a sin. To not be subject to God’s all God’s rule and authority both directly and indirectly in His delegated lines of authority is sin. We must be transformed by the renewing of our minds by gaining a proper perspective of all things to include the proper definition of things such as “sin”. If we think of sin as pertaining only to a narrow list of do’s and don’ts we restrict our ability to be conformed to the image of Christ.
I felt the need to better define the word sin because when we mourn over the present world and it’s negative and sinful state . It is important to recognize the full extent of this sinfulness and not just a very narrow concept of a few sins such as lying, stealing, gossips and etc. The more we realize the depths of sin and just how much it permeates our entire being and everything in the world, the deeper our mourning over it will be. It is not that our goal is the mourning itself, but rather the realization of all truth because coming to a full knowledge of truth is the salvation of our souls ! Amen
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