Whole Gospel Ministries

MID-WEEK MANNA FROM PASTOR NAT’S DESK:

December 4, 2024

The Third Person of the Godhead Series – Part 39

JOY: THE SECOND ‘FRUIT’ OF THE HOLY SPIRIT – Part 12

    “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, JOY, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, (and) temperance: against such [fruits] there is no law.” Gal. 5: 23, 24, KJV (Authorized Version, A.V.)

There is no divine law whatsoever from eternity past to eternity future that can ever be against THE FRUITS produced and manifested in the lives of the true believer. In fact it is the indisputable proof and living evidence of “the word of their testimony” that “the Holy Spirit of truth” is indeed abiding in the “body temple” of the professed believer. (1 Cor. 3:16, 17; 6:19-20).  It is “by their fruits,” not by any “great swelling words of professions, “that ye shall know them.” 

These scripturally identified and defined “fruits of the Spirit” are also the inevitable products of the works of righteousness” (in stark contrast to the “works of the flesh” verses 17-21), produced by genuine “righteousness by faith” patterned after the example perfected by Christ in His incarnated human flesh nature, verily “the second Adam” (see John 1:1-3, 14; Rom. 8:1-8; 1 Cor. 15:45-50; Heb. 5: 8, 9, etc.). It is that of “faith that works by love” (Gal. 5: 6), and “purifies the soul” from all the defilement of sin. 

All that is yet carnal is “earthly,” “fleshly,” and “worldly,” and are “at enmity with the law of God” and “war against” the Spirit, the truth, Christ and His perfect righteousness and sinless purity.

As the month of December traditionally is “the Season to  be JOLLY,” and most still heartily sing “JOY to the world,” etc. we must clear-eyed where truth is concerned: the “joy” of the world fallen in sin, and the “joy of the Lord” are at the opposite ends of the truth spectrum. And Satan, “the father of lies and murderer from the beginning,” and the master deceiver and “central power of the earth and “the prince of the power of the air” has, sadly and fearfully continues successfully to switch or confuse one for the other by his diabolical schemes. 

Thus, I will start this subject of the “joy fruit” of the Holy Spirit from His side, the spiritual side as “spiritual things are only spiritually discerned.” Here is what this joy IS NOT, as determined by “the Spirit of Prophecy which is the Testimony of Jesus” for these last days: 

1. It is not a “jovial disposition” for such in fact has a “leavening” not sanctifying “effect upon the churches.” (Evangelism, 63). 

2.  It is not “jovial talk,” too much of which men and women indulge in. (Vol. 2 Testimonies for the Church, 455; Counsels on Health, 569. 

3. It is not a “jovial mood,” for believers who “run in this as naturally as water flows DOWNHILL.” (Gospel Workers, 130). 

No wonder that Paul admonished the early churches agains indulging in jesting, joking, etc. Jesus never ever left such an example for sanctified believers. Gods’s servant cited this one of the over as dozen ways we are denying Christ! 

To be continued next MWM, God willing. Bless all, NMF.

MID-WEEK MANNA FROM PASTOR NAT’S DESK:

November 27, 2024

The Third Person of the Godhead Series – Part 38

LOVE: THE FIRST ‘FRUIT’ OF THE HOLY SPIRIT (Part 11)

Jesus said to His true disciples then and through all time:

     “If you LOVE ME, keep My commandments. And I will pray the Father that He shall give you ANOTHER COMFORTER, that He might abide with you forever. Even the SPIRIT OF TRUTH whom the WORLD cannot receive, because it seeth Him not, neither knoweth Him: but ye know Him for He DWELLETH with you, and shall be IN you.” John 15: 14-17, KJV. 

     “He that hath MY COMMANDMENTS, and keepeth them, he it is that LOVETH ME: and he that loveth Me shall be LOVED OF MY FATHER, and I will LOVE HIM, and will MANIFEST Myself to him.” 

     “Judas (not Iscariot but Jude) said unto Him, Lord, how is it that Thou wilt manifest Thyself unto us, and NOT unto the world? Jesus answered and said unto him (Jude), If a man love Me, he will keep My words: and My Father will love him, and WE (the Father, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit) will come INTO him, and make OUR ABODE with him.” verses 21-23. 

    “Ye have heard how I said unto you, I GO AWAY, AND COME AGAIN TO YOU [through the Holy Spirit!]. If you loved Me, YE WOULD REJOICE, because I said, I go unto the Father: for My Father is greater than I.” verse 28. 

John 15: “Herein is My Father GLORIFIED, that ye bear MUCH FRUIT; so shall ye be My disciples. As the Father hath loved Me, so have I loved you: CONTINUE YE IN MY LOVE. 

    “If ye keep My commandments, ye shall ABIDE

In My love: EVEN AS I have kept My Father’s commandments, and ABIDE in His love. These things have I spoken unto you, that MY JOY MIGHT REMAIN IN YOU, and that YOUR JOY MAY BE FULL. This is My commandment, that ye LOVE ONE ANOTHER, AS I have loved you.” verses 8-12. 

It is only when the Holy Spirit abides in the heart and dwells in the body as His temple will the “fruits of Christ’s love”

be manifested in the true believer and disciple towards God first and then towards his “neighbor” or fellow finite mortals! 

It is this love that “greater than faith or hope” 1 Cor. 13: 13)! For it is that “love that works by love” (Gal. 5:6) and purifies the soul” through the “baptism with fire by the Holy Spirit!”

To be continued next MWM, God willing. Bless all, NMF.

MID-WEEK MANNA FROM PASTOR NAT’S DESK:

November 20, 2024

The Third Person of the Godhead Series – Part 37

LOVE: THE FIRST “FRUIT” OF THE HOLY SPIRIT (Part 10)

I am quoting hereunder excerpts from the inspired pen of God’s servant, bolding the word “love” where it appears, emphasizing what it does for those in whom the presence of Christ abides through the Holy Spirit! (all bracketed words mine): 

    “A life in Christ is a life of restfulness [not restlessness]. There may be no ecstasy of feeling [the stuff of carnal pleasures], but there should be an abiding, peaceful trust. Your hope is not in yourself; it is in Christ.

     “Your weakness is united to His strength, your ignorance to His wisdom, your frailty to His enduring might.

    “So you are not to look to yourself, not to let the mind dwell upon self [the idolatry of self-love], but to LOOK TO CHRIST. Let the mind dwell upon HIS LOVE, upon the BEAUTY OF HIS CHARACTER [and ‘the beauty of holiness’]. 

    “Christ in His SELF-DENIAL. Christ in His HUMILIATION [in the incarnation, ‘the great mystery of godliness’ that God Creator, ‘the Word from the beginning, was made and was manifest in the flesh and dwelt among us.” John 1:1-3, 14; 2 Tim. 3:16]. Christ in His purity and holiness. Christ IN HIS MATCHLESS LOVE—this is the subject for the soul’s contemplation.

     “It is by LOVING HIM, copying Him [as our human-divine Example and Pattern Man], depending wholly upon Him [the sum and substance of the whole gospel truth of the plan of salvation] that you [and I] are to be TRANSFORMED INTO HIS LIKENESS.” – E. G. White, Steps to Christ, pp. 70, 71. 

     “If we abide in Christ [by the indwelling and infilling of the Holy Spirit], if the LOVE OF GOD   dwells in us, our FEELINGS, our THOUGHTS, our ACTIONS will be IN HARMONY with the will of God.” -Ibid, p. 66. 

David, “the man after God’s own heart,” by inspiration of the Holy Spirit, wrote of Christ’s  testimony and witness as the Example for all His true disciples through all time: 

     “O, how I LOVE THY LAW! It is my meditation all the day.” Ps. 119: 97. 

     “Great peace have they WHICH LOVE THY LAW: and nothing shall offend them!” Verse 165, KJV. 

     “And this is LOVE, that we walk after His commandments. This is the commandment, that, as ye have heard from the beginning, ye should walk in it.” 2 John 6. 

    Jesus, our living, loving Savior  declares: “If you LOVE ME, keep My commandments.” John 14:15. 

The highest and most sublime expression of love, adoration, and worship of the creature to the Creator, and the redeemed to the Redeemer is obedience “constrained by love” alone to His law of love, the transcript of His character! 

To be continued next MWM, God willing. Bless all, NMF.

MID-WEEK MANNA FROM PASTOR NAT’S DESK:

November 6, 2024

Third Person of the Godhead Series – Part 35

LOVE: THE FIRST ‘FRUIT’ OF THE HOLY SPIRIT (Part 8)

     “But unto the Son He (the Father) saith, Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever: a scepter of righteousness is the scepter of Thy kingdom. Thou hast LOVED righteousness, and HATED iniquity (sin, transgression); therefore God, even Thy God (the Father) hath anointed Thee with the oil of gladness above Thy fellows. And Thou, Lord (the Son), in the beginning has laid the foundation of the earth; and the heavens are the works of Thy hands [as the Creator]: They shall perish but Thou remainest; and they all shall wax old as doth a garment; and as a vesture shalt Thou fold them up, and they shall be changed: but Thou art THE SAME and Thy years shall not fail.” Heb. 1: 8-12, KJV. 

 In no place in the Bible will we find such an astounding statement except in the Scripture cited above: that the Father addressing His only-begotten Son as God! And in reiterating His office and role as the Creator of the universe, the heaven and the earth, emphasis is made that righteousness is the scepter-authority of the eternal throne of Him “who is the same yesterday, today, and forever.” As the existence of a throne implies a kingdom, His is a kingdom of righteousness even as it is a kingdom of grace, and glory.

Thus, the love ‘fruit’ of the divine Spirit, is one and the same as the love of the Father manifested in “giving His only begotten Son” to fallen humanity to become one with them in the mystery of the incarnation “for the suffering of death,” and the love of the Son for His fallen, undeserving creatures that He volunteered to offer His own sinless life and sin-cleansing blood as the penitent sinner’s only Substitute and Surety. 

This is the divine “selfless love” which proceeds only from and is imparted to fallen humanity by the Holy Spirit of Christ and the Father. It is divine love that loves the sinner unconditionally and hates sin unconditionally—in the same breath. One without the other is not the love of the Godhead but of finite, sinful mortals. 

It is only such love of, in, and from God the Father in Christ through the indwelling Holy Spirit in the heart of the penitent sinner, that “constrains” (2 Cor. 5:14) him to obey God’s commandments lovingly, willingly, voluntarily, and by practice and repetition, spontaneously; it becomes habitual, then a part of the character. Nothing less will suffice or is acceptable in the judgment for indeed, “God is love.” Once more, this love hates sin unconditionally for “our sins and transgressions separate us from God.” 

The highest and most sublime  form of worship is the unquestioning, intellectually and spiritually-founded loving obedience to God’s law of love and righteousness. It is only this love that “conquers all” for together with divine grace, empowers the striving disciple to successfully “resist the devil” (James 4:7) and victoriously “overcome even as Christ overcame.” (Rev. 3:21).

This is the love that is “greater than faith or hope” (1 Cor. 13: 13, 1-12); love that absolutely “nothing can separate God from us”(Rom. 8:35-39). By this, you will know them by their fruits.” 

To be continued next MWM, God willing. Bless all,  NMF.

MID-WEEK MANNA FROM PASTOR NAT’S DESK:
October 30, 2024

The Third Person of the Godhead Series – Part 34

LOVE: THE FIRST ‘FRUIT’ OF THE HOLY SPIRIT (Part 7)

Before proceeding further on the specific “love” that is a “fruit of the Spirit,” that is, of, and emanating from Him who the Bible describes as “GOD IS LOVE” (1 John 4: 8, 16) we answer to valid inquiry of some as to what this ‘fruit’ definitively means.

Hereunder is a succinct yet comprehensive definition (bolding mine):

“Fruit. [Hebrew, generally ‘peri,’ ‘fruit’; ‘taburah’; ‘product (of soil or toil); Greek generally ‘Karpov’.’] Basically the product of trees and vines, but frequently, in figures of speech, the END RESULT of any work or activity. Thus, the PRODUCE of the land is designated ‘fruit’ (Gen. 4:3; Lev. 25:19, etc.), as is the OFFSPRING of man and beast (Gen. 30:2; Deut. 28:4; Micah 6:7; etc.). SPEECH is poetically designated ‘the fruit of his mouth’ (Prov. 18:20); WORK, ‘the fruit of her hands’ (ch 31:16); and the REWARDS of evil deeds, as the ‘fruits of one’s deeds’ (Isa. 31:10, RSV); etc.

“In the New Testament, IN ADDITION to its usual meaning, ‘fruit’ is frequently used as a figure of speech for the OUTWARD ACTIONS OF ONE’S LIFE, particularly those indicating WHETHER THE HEART IS RIGHTEOUS OR EVIL (Matt. 3:8; 7:16, 17; Luke 6: 43, 44; Phil. 1:11). Similarly, in Gal. 5:  22, 23, the CHRISTIAN GRACES are called ‘The FRUIT of the Spirit.’” -SDA Bible Dictionary Complete with Atlas, Commentary Reference Series, Vol. 8, Review & Herald Publishing Asso., 1960. 

Simply put, this is the PERFECT LOVE OF THE PERFECT CREATOR AND PERFECTED REDEEMER, whose PERFECT LOVE-GIFT to totally-undeserving, fallen, sinful, carnally-minded, stubborn-hearted mortals, is His transforming love that, when received willingly, enables and empowers the sinner to OBEY, OUT OF LOVE, HIS LAW OF LOVE AND RIGHTEOUSNESS.

Thus Jesus declares to all penitent sinners: “If you love Me, keep My commandments.” John 14:15. It is the love of the Father IN Christ imparted through the Holy Spirit, Christ’s Successor and Vicegerent, verily our “other Comforter.”

Notice:
“The Holy Spirit comes to us as a Comforter. By the transforming agency of His grace, the IMAGE of God is REPRODUCED in the disciple; he becomes a new creature. LOVE takes the place of hatred, and the heart receives the DIVINE SIMILITUDE [likeness].” E. G. White, The Desire of Ages, p. 391.

To be continued next MWM, God willing. Bless all, NMF.

MID-WEEK MANNA FROM PASTOR NAT’S DESK:
October 23, 2024

The Third Person of the Godhead Series – Part 33

LOVE: THE FIRST ‘FRUIT’ OF THE HOLY SPIRIT (Part 6)

Under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, Paul, “the apostle to the Gentiles,” wrote what is famously known and quoted from as “the love chapter”of 2 Corinthians 13.

Paul was unique among the first apostles in a couple of aspects; one outstanding one was he alone was “caught up to the third heaven. . . Into paradise “either by vision or dream-vision (like Jacob) “to the third heavens, even paradise itself.” Writing in the third person, he humbly relates this in 2 Cor. 12: 1-11. Be sure to read it unhurriedly and without preconceived ideas for it reveals the context on which the familiar words, “My grace is sufficient for thee” (verse 9) applies to.

As might be normally expected, Paul did not, however, describe what his EYES BEHELD there, like “gorgeous mansions,” or any of the familiar patriarchs, prophets, and kings.

Why? Simply because they returned to the dust from where man was made from, and will only be arise from their dusty graves in the “resurrection of the just” when Christ, in His “love that conquers all,”
returns in His second advent, bringing His “reward of eternal life” to “all who loved Him by keeping His commandments.

Rather, the only “good report” Paul brought back down to earth with him as it were, of his sacred, otherworldly experience and trip to the third heavens to share with us finite, mortal earthlings was (emphasis mine):

“I HEARD UNSPEAKABLE WORDS, WHICH IS NOT LAWFUL FOR A MAN TO  UTTER.” Verse 4. 

Without “uttering these heavenly words Paul nevertheless provides more spiritual insight but not any details elsewhere, writing (emphasis mine):

“Eye hath not seen, NOR nor EAR HEARD, nor has entered into the heart of men what God has prepared for those who love Him." 1 Cor. 2:9. The rest of the chapter says that the Holy Spirit is prepared to reveal “the deep things of God” but can only be “spiritually discerned.”

Thus, when we read again, even repeat by rote memory the love chapter of 1 Corinthians 13, we now know that this love, called “charity” in the KJV (A.V.) has absolutely nothing of “eros” in it, is not based on “philos,” neither its substitute though of “brotherly love,” nor ever “platonic” but exclusively “agape,” selfless love.”

Fallen, sinful mortals with carnal minds and hearts are all born with sinful propensities, which are all “at enmity,” not in agreement or harmony with truth, righteousness, self-denial and self-sacrifice. Selfishness is part of the nature of fallen mortals. The love that it is capable of is precisely that. One cannot expect pure water from a polluted well or spring. The source must first be purified.

But where the plan of redemption is concerned, there is absolutely no provision whatsoever for “self-cleaning,”
self-cleansing, or self-atonement, even if we “give our bodies to be burned,” etc.

It is only by living faith in the cleansing power of the blood life sacrifice of the Lamb of God “to take away sin and its guilt, and receive by “asking, seeking, and knocking for the Holy Spirit” and His “baptism by fire” to “consume sin” (Matt. 3: 11, 12; Mal. 3: Mal. 3: 1-6; Heb.13: 28, 29; Deut. 4:24; 9: 3; Isa 5:24) will any striving believer be able to “overcome even as Christ overcame”(Rev. 3:18-22) “the world, the flesh, and the devil.”
By these enlightenment we can better understand and appreciate the sublime privilege of knowing the LOVE OF JESUS that reveals the fullness of God, as declared by Paul herewith (emphasis mine):

 “For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,  of whom the family in heaven and on earth is named, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory [glorious character] to be strengthened with might by His [Holy] Spirit [dwelling] in the inner man [heart, mind, conscience]; 
 “That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith. That ye, being rooted and grounded in LOVE, may be able to COMPREHEND with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; and TO KNOW THE LOVE OF CHRIST WHICH PASSETH KNOWLEDGE, THAT YE MIGHT BE FILLED WITH ALL THE FULNESS OF GOD. 
 “Now unto Him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, 
“Unto Him be glory in the church through Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen.” Eph. 3:14-21, KJV. 

To be continued next MWM, God willing. Bless all, NMF.