On relationships, systems and God

Old and good close relationships have been and will be shaken.

When the enemy takes notice of the plans someone has for the Kingdom and that his/her alignments were made with Kingdom like-minded people he furiously attacks.

“We know that anyone born of God does not continue to sin; the One who was born of God keeps them safe, and the evil one cannot harm them. (I John 5:18)

On my case the disappointment with some very close people had brought some bitterness into my heart. More than that, it filled my heart with a hate that I had never experienced before.

And I was required honesty and knowledge of my self to admit that I am naturally inclined to sins and their evil. Sins and evil I could never think I would sadly and painfully experience.

I can not justify the unjustifiable. I was shocked and had to admit I am capable to experience the worst of the evil just right here inside of me.

WHO I AM?

As I leaned on the Truth I looked at me and saw a wild animal. If it was not the Nature of God in me, His decree “I am holy” I would have succumbed to the fact that I am not better than any worse criminal on this planet.

Moreover, If the Blood of Jesus was not shed for all mankind including me I would have been deceived about who I am indeed. The Truth who set me free is that my identity is not related to a wild animal, a serpent, but to a lamb, the Lamb of God.

CONFESSION INTO FORGIVENESS

So I had to confess my sin, my hate, my bitterness, my wrath, my pride, calling plainly what they are.

I had to make a decision instead of relying on my feelings and on my own rational thinking: I have chosen in spite of all damage to forgive the people who offended and keep offending me.

I regret though. I should have done it immediately to be able to avoid any growing of even a little root of bitterness. I let the bitterness grew big in just few days and I guarantee you it is the worse of the worst that a son of God can experience it.


Forgiveness through the Mercy and Grace of God is the only way to continue being under the cover of God's Grace and Mercy.

Forgiveness is the only way of enjoying our true identity in Christ. A son of God can't be led by the old nature.

FORGIVENESS OR BITTERNESS

Bitterness distances us from God's Grace. So first of all, quickly forgive anyone that is bothering or harming you.

Hebrew 12:15 says: "See to it that no one falls short of the Grace of God and that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile many."

WHO IS THE TRUTH?


Second, the Truth must be established. The question is not “what is the truth”, but who is the Truth. Pilate wanted to know what the truth was because He could not see who was The Truth.

All words, facts, actions and everything else must be brought into the Person of Jesus.

We do things wrong because we do things from what they have to be done, and not Through Whom they should be done.

"I am the Truth" Jesus said.

"You shall know the Truth and the Truth shall set you free." This is not a formula for deliverance. Religion is full of formulas while Jesus is the Way for Freedom. This is the clear separation of life and Eternal Life.

The Truth is related of being and not in doing it. Doing it is related to existing. Being is related to Eternal Life.

If I come out of a jail it doesn’t mean I will now enjoy freedom.

SLAVERY IS A CONDITION OF THE SOUL

Conditioning of the soul is what makes a slave. It is like a beautiful yellow canary that lived his entire life in a cage who decides to stay in it even after cage door was opened.

Religion, systems, traditions, cultures, methods and beliefs condition souls of men.


TRUE FREEDOM AND WORSHIP

No one can enjoy freedom if he/she is bound to a system. It applies to all aspects of life.

Even a Christian is not free, because Christianity is a religion. Christians like anybody else must Know Jesus Christ, the God-man in intimate relationship to be set free.

Christianity is a system full of ramifications, a huge bag of traditions, methods and beliefs, a religious culture detached of life and mystically spiritualized to let men/women try to escape from themselves. They can't.

Jesus Christ is a Person Who sets people free to live who they truly are; to live to worship Him and worship is they live, work, relate to each other and entertain themselves.

It is a second to second journey of an eternal walking of breathing liberty in every heartbeat to this unending life, free of fear and death, whose lives hope only for their King and His unshakable Kingdom.

FREEDOM TO WORSHIP. TO LIVE IS WORSHIP.

Even little matters bind us, because anything I can’t renounce to live freely for Jesus masters my soul. It is not a matter of speaking, it is a matter of being. Jesus only masters if He does it exclusively.

On this instance pastors and ministers (in the religion systems) can’t preach the Truth without costing them their position, employment and salary.

Muslins alike, per example, kill their children when they convert to Christ. Christians kill themselves because of their traditions, yet not literally for many reasons.

Men fight for subsistence and in many societies for extravagant living that lead them to be prisoners of money. Money slaves many, even those who doesn't need to strive to survive.

What kind of master is that, that mercilesly set anyone in bondage? The worse master of all people is money along with the legitimate need people have of providing for them and their families.

But even though when the cost of living may be high it is only a mirage in the world of our God who “feeds the birds and clothes the grass of the field.” A fake need always will entice people into slavery.

And generally anything I am bound to is my master. As I am not free, therefore I am in sin. I may be able to break the bondage of my master, but until Jesus sets free I am still a slave. The Freedom to be a true Freedom must be permanent. The slightest possibility of going back into slavery denounces the falsity of a proposed freedom. "If the Son sets you free you are free indeed."

I am not free indeed if I continue being who I am.

Freedom is not a condition. Freedom has to do with Who I am, the identity I carry.


The only way for freedom, if I want to be free (to be) I must become like Jesus, to Whom He is. This is what it means "You shall know the Truth and the Truth shall set you free." Only Jesus was and is fully free.

“Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.” (See John 8:31-46)

A MATTER OF BEING WHO WE ARE AND NOT DOING IT


Third, we can't continue doing things for God with the best intentions but not in Truth.

We "do ministry" in structures that will keep us "doing more ministry" instead of being the ministry (the service) of God.

II Corinthians chapter 5 declares:

16 So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer.

17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!

18 All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation:

19 that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation.

20 WE ARE therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God.

21 GOD MADE HIM WHO HAD NO SIN TO BE SIN for us, so that IN HIM we might BECOME the righteousness of God.

NO PEACEFUL PATH FOR CHANGE IN THIS WORLD


In fourth place, we must be convinced that there is no way to break traditions and old paradigms in PEACE.

As soon as you challenge the status quo and do things even slightly different or not as usual, wait for strong reaction and revenge.

Established systems persecute people of new systems.

People bound to systems are revengeful.

It is very easy for man and woman to enlace themselves into structures, systems and methods. It is their inside culture. It is their very nature.

Man's idolatry heart always makes something for him to be served and to be enslaved, so don't expect smooth and peaceful changes.

Change will infuriate someone.

Idols are not broken without offense, because before someone makes a sculpture or paint a portrait it was manufactured first in the heart. The idol is nothing. What makes it valuable is the heart that made it or owns it.



Systems, structures and idols are not like children, but for men they become alike.

First they become possessions (our own) and second we want to help them grow, we take pride of them and they become untouchable and indestructible.



Many call them “pieces of art”, but try to take them off and break one smallest of those pictures in some churches and you will discover that they are more than art: they are idols!

Change a tradition, sing a different song, do something new, burn their books and history, just try it... and you will know how much it costs.

Methods, systems, cultures and man made idols are idols of the heart. Destroy them and you may pierce many hearts.

Though in our culture we are convinced we do need systems, watch out!, new systems become old systems as soon as they are inaugurated.

And they are like a corpse of death.

Our thinking made us an flaunty image that smells rotted flesh before our Living God.

For instance, man doesn't need water, food or anything to exist. Man needs God. He is the Source of Life.

But this is hard to believe with a man-system-mindset. Because though I drink water and eat food, these are only provisions of God. Ultimately I only need Him, because He is the One Eternal.

In the Bible all systems were transitory like the donkey that carried Jesus through Jerusalem.

From ALPHA passing through time and space all the way to OMEGA, the house, the tabernacle, the temple, the ark, the sanctuary, the stones, the mountain of the Lord, the city and the list goes on, they all became the Being - God and His People.

All buildings have passed away. Even all existing heavens and earth soon will be gone.

We are God’s House, God’s Tabernacle, God’s Temple; God’s Ark; God’s Sanctuary, God’s Stones and We, The Church (people) are the Mountain and The City.

And my final point as simple as it could be is:

God always had used People. God always uses people. Men/Woman is the only method of God.

Josimar Salum