What do I mean when I say this? Allow me to give an illustration. The other day while relaxing on my front porch, an acquaintance came up to me and sat down on the steps to talk. He worked nearby and we had talked before, often about the Kingdom of God. He informed me that he was still having pain in his neck, which hindered his life and work greatly. He had recently had surgery and was still having severe pain from time to time. He said that he had turned his life around from what he used to be and he would appreciate it if we would pray for him. I assured him we would. We had been praying for his healing for months, as we knew about his ongoing pain. But this day, when he sat and talked with me, out of the blue he mentioned that if the opportunity came up he would have sex with a woman, being that he was single, as long as she was also single! I will admit I was surprised! Now, what does God’s constitution have to say about having sex without being married to that person? Marriage is honorable among all, and the bed undefiled; but fornicators and adulterers God will judge. Hebrews 13:4 Flee sexual immorality. Every sin that a man does is outside the body, but he who commits sexual immorality sins against his own body. Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? 1 Corinthians 6:18-19
Do you recall when the Lord Jesus healed the man at the pool at Bethesda? Remember what the King told him when He saw him in the temple? After this there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. Now there is in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate a pool, which is called in Hebrew, Bethesda, having five porches. In these lay a great multitude of sick people, blind, lame, paralyzed, waiting for the moving of the water. For an angel went down at a certain time into the pool and stirred up the water; then whoever stepped in first, after the stirring of the water, was made well of whatever disease he had. Now a certain man was there who had an infirmity thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there, and knew that he already had been in that condition a long time, He said to him, “Do you want to be made well?”
The sick man answered Him, “Sir, I have no man to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up; but while I am coming, another steps down before me.”
Jesus said to him, “Rise, take up your bed and walk.” And immediately the man was made well, took up his bed, and walked.
And that day was the Sabbath. The Jews therefore said to him who was cured, “It is the Sabbath; it is not lawful for you to carry your bed.”
He answered them, “He who made me well said to me, ‘Take up your bed and walk.’ ”
Then they asked him, “Who is the Man who said to you, ‘Take up your bed and walk’?”
But the one who was healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had withdrawn, a multitude being in that place. Afterward Jesus found him in the temple, and said to him, “See, you have been made well. Sin no more, lest a worse thing come upon you.” John 5:1-14
It is my belief that the King saw the environment or company he was keeping and that it would lead him back into a world of disobedience. The Lord Jesus was admonishing him to change his life so he would not ultimately end up worse than before his healing. Here is what I mean when I say “there’s no giving just 50 percent in the Kingdom”: We want the King’s best for our life, but don’t want to give Him our best. Have you heard the saying, “having your cake and eating it too”? That is what people want! You want His healing for your body, but don’t want to live by the King’s commands. We want all of His blessings of the Kingdom, but still want to enjoy all the pleasures of the world, while ignoring His commands. “If you love Me, keep My commandments.” John 14:15 Too often, Believers enjoy the pleasures of the world, while praying for His continued grace and mercy, and wonder why their lives are filled with chaos, pain, worries and woes. What is causing the quarrels and fights among you? Don’t they come from the evil desires at war within you? You want what you don’t have, so you scheme and kill to get it. You are jealous of what others have, but you can’t get it, so you fight and wage war to take it away from them. Yet you don’t have what you want because you don’t ask God for it. And even when you ask, you don’t get it because your motives are all wrong—you want only what will give you pleasure.
You adulterers! Don’t you realize that friendship with the world makes you an enemy of God? I say it again: If you want to be a friend of the world, you make yourself an enemy of God. Do you think the Scriptures have no meaning? They say that God is passionate that the spirit He has placed within us should be faithful to Him. And He gives grace generously. As the Scriptures say, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.”
So humble yourselves before God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Come close to God, and God will come close to you. Wash your hands, you sinners; purify your hearts, for your loyalty is divided between God and the world. Let there be tears for what you have done. Let there be sorrow and deep grief. Let there be sadness instead of laughter, and gloom instead of joy. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and He will lift you up in honor. James 4:1-10 NLT
The Lord Jesus gave the same reply to the woman caught in the midst of adultery. He didn’t condemn her. Read what He told her, just as He did to the lame man He had spoken to earlier. Now early in the morning He came again into the temple, and all the people came to Him; and He sat down and taught them. Then the scribes and Pharisees brought to Him a woman caught in adultery. And when they had set her in the midst, they said to Him, “Teacher, this woman was caught in adultery, in the very act. Now Moses, in the law, commanded us that such should be stoned. But what do You say?” This they said, testing Him, that they might have something of which to accuse Him. But Jesus stooped down and wrote on the ground with His finger, as though He did not hear.
So when they continued asking Him, He raised Himself up and said to them, “He who is without sin among you, let him throw a stone at her first.” And again He stooped down and wrote on the ground.
Then those who heard it, being convicted by their conscience, went out one by one, beginning with the oldest even to the last. And Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst. When Jesus had raised Himself up and saw no one but the woman, He said to her, “Woman, where are those accusers of yours? Has no one condemned you?”
She said, “No one, Lord.”
And Jesus said to her, “Neither do I condemn you; go and sin no more.” John 8:2-11
In the Kingdom of the Lord God, there is a standard that we must adhere to and that is told in His constitution. It contains the Lord God’s laws, commands, principles, rights, benefits and responsibilities. Then He tells us to choose to follow Him. We live with those choices. Now listen! Today I am giving you a choice between life and death, between prosperity and disaster. For I command you this day to love the Lord your God and to keep His commands, decrees, and regulations by walking in His ways. If you do this, you will live and multiply, and the Lord your God will bless you and the land you are about to enter and occupy.
But if your heart turns away and you refuse to listen, and if you are drawn away to serve and worship other gods, then I warn you now that you will certainly be destroyed. You will not live a long, good life in the land you are crossing the Jordan to occupy.
Today I have given you the choice between life and death, between blessings and curses. Now I call on heaven and earth to witness the choice you make. Oh, that you would choose life, so that you and your descendants might live! Deuteronomy 30:15-19 NLT
Just like the man who told me that he was a believer, but wanted to indulge in the flesh (what God’s Word calls fornication) if the opportunity presents, be careful of the company you keep and the thoughts you entertain. Ambassador Paul writes of this very thing: I wrote to you in my epistle not to keep company with sexually immoral people. Yet I certainly did not mean with the sexually immoral people of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or idolaters, since then you would need to go out of the world. But now I have written to you not to keep company with anyone named a brother, who is sexually immoral, or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or an extortioner—not even to eat with such a person.
For what have I to do with judging those also who are outside? Do you not judge those who are inside? But those who are outside God judges. Therefore put away from yourselves the evil person. 1 Corinthians 5:9-13 You have heard that it was said to those of old, “You shall not commit adultery.” But I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart. Matthew 5:27-28
Remember, your faith in the King is your greatest asset in the Kingdom.
W.R. Luchie
www.kingdomcitizens.org
All scriptures are New King James translation except where noted.
These articles may only be reproduced, in print or on the internet, if the author's name and website address are sited at the end of the article as originally placed. Thank you.
Do you recall when the Lord Jesus healed the man at the pool at Bethesda? Remember what the King told him when He saw him in the temple? After this there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. Now there is in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate a pool, which is called in Hebrew, Bethesda, having five porches. In these lay a great multitude of sick people, blind, lame, paralyzed, waiting for the moving of the water. For an angel went down at a certain time into the pool and stirred up the water; then whoever stepped in first, after the stirring of the water, was made well of whatever disease he had. Now a certain man was there who had an infirmity thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there, and knew that he already had been in that condition a long time, He said to him, “Do you want to be made well?”
The sick man answered Him, “Sir, I have no man to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up; but while I am coming, another steps down before me.”
Jesus said to him, “Rise, take up your bed and walk.” And immediately the man was made well, took up his bed, and walked.
And that day was the Sabbath. The Jews therefore said to him who was cured, “It is the Sabbath; it is not lawful for you to carry your bed.”
He answered them, “He who made me well said to me, ‘Take up your bed and walk.’ ”
Then they asked him, “Who is the Man who said to you, ‘Take up your bed and walk’?”
But the one who was healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had withdrawn, a multitude being in that place. Afterward Jesus found him in the temple, and said to him, “See, you have been made well. Sin no more, lest a worse thing come upon you.” John 5:1-14
It is my belief that the King saw the environment or company he was keeping and that it would lead him back into a world of disobedience. The Lord Jesus was admonishing him to change his life so he would not ultimately end up worse than before his healing. Here is what I mean when I say “there’s no giving just 50 percent in the Kingdom”: We want the King’s best for our life, but don’t want to give Him our best. Have you heard the saying, “having your cake and eating it too”? That is what people want! You want His healing for your body, but don’t want to live by the King’s commands. We want all of His blessings of the Kingdom, but still want to enjoy all the pleasures of the world, while ignoring His commands. “If you love Me, keep My commandments.” John 14:15 Too often, Believers enjoy the pleasures of the world, while praying for His continued grace and mercy, and wonder why their lives are filled with chaos, pain, worries and woes. What is causing the quarrels and fights among you? Don’t they come from the evil desires at war within you? You want what you don’t have, so you scheme and kill to get it. You are jealous of what others have, but you can’t get it, so you fight and wage war to take it away from them. Yet you don’t have what you want because you don’t ask God for it. And even when you ask, you don’t get it because your motives are all wrong—you want only what will give you pleasure.
You adulterers! Don’t you realize that friendship with the world makes you an enemy of God? I say it again: If you want to be a friend of the world, you make yourself an enemy of God. Do you think the Scriptures have no meaning? They say that God is passionate that the spirit He has placed within us should be faithful to Him. And He gives grace generously. As the Scriptures say, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.”
So humble yourselves before God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Come close to God, and God will come close to you. Wash your hands, you sinners; purify your hearts, for your loyalty is divided between God and the world. Let there be tears for what you have done. Let there be sorrow and deep grief. Let there be sadness instead of laughter, and gloom instead of joy. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and He will lift you up in honor. James 4:1-10 NLT
The Lord Jesus gave the same reply to the woman caught in the midst of adultery. He didn’t condemn her. Read what He told her, just as He did to the lame man He had spoken to earlier. Now early in the morning He came again into the temple, and all the people came to Him; and He sat down and taught them. Then the scribes and Pharisees brought to Him a woman caught in adultery. And when they had set her in the midst, they said to Him, “Teacher, this woman was caught in adultery, in the very act. Now Moses, in the law, commanded us that such should be stoned. But what do You say?” This they said, testing Him, that they might have something of which to accuse Him. But Jesus stooped down and wrote on the ground with His finger, as though He did not hear.
So when they continued asking Him, He raised Himself up and said to them, “He who is without sin among you, let him throw a stone at her first.” And again He stooped down and wrote on the ground.
Then those who heard it, being convicted by their conscience, went out one by one, beginning with the oldest even to the last. And Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst. When Jesus had raised Himself up and saw no one but the woman, He said to her, “Woman, where are those accusers of yours? Has no one condemned you?”
She said, “No one, Lord.”
And Jesus said to her, “Neither do I condemn you; go and sin no more.” John 8:2-11
In the Kingdom of the Lord God, there is a standard that we must adhere to and that is told in His constitution. It contains the Lord God’s laws, commands, principles, rights, benefits and responsibilities. Then He tells us to choose to follow Him. We live with those choices. Now listen! Today I am giving you a choice between life and death, between prosperity and disaster. For I command you this day to love the Lord your God and to keep His commands, decrees, and regulations by walking in His ways. If you do this, you will live and multiply, and the Lord your God will bless you and the land you are about to enter and occupy.
But if your heart turns away and you refuse to listen, and if you are drawn away to serve and worship other gods, then I warn you now that you will certainly be destroyed. You will not live a long, good life in the land you are crossing the Jordan to occupy.
Today I have given you the choice between life and death, between blessings and curses. Now I call on heaven and earth to witness the choice you make. Oh, that you would choose life, so that you and your descendants might live! Deuteronomy 30:15-19 NLT
Just like the man who told me that he was a believer, but wanted to indulge in the flesh (what God’s Word calls fornication) if the opportunity presents, be careful of the company you keep and the thoughts you entertain. Ambassador Paul writes of this very thing: I wrote to you in my epistle not to keep company with sexually immoral people. Yet I certainly did not mean with the sexually immoral people of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or idolaters, since then you would need to go out of the world. But now I have written to you not to keep company with anyone named a brother, who is sexually immoral, or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or an extortioner—not even to eat with such a person.
For what have I to do with judging those also who are outside? Do you not judge those who are inside? But those who are outside God judges. Therefore put away from yourselves the evil person. 1 Corinthians 5:9-13 You have heard that it was said to those of old, “You shall not commit adultery.” But I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart. Matthew 5:27-28
Remember, your faith in the King is your greatest asset in the Kingdom.
W.R. Luchie
www.kingdomcitizens.org
All scriptures are New King James translation except where noted.
These articles may only be reproduced, in print or on the internet, if the author's name and website address are sited at the end of the article as originally placed. Thank you.
