"This game is about running, throwing, catching and hitting. What is so difficult about that?"....Paul Richards, Baltimore Orioles Manager, 1955-1961.
Pretty basic statement. I have always appreciated it. It stuck with me over the years. Running, throwing, catching and hitting. So if I want to play baseball I need to learn four basic skills to get started. This same rule applies to all sports in varying ways. In football you have throwing, catching, running, tackling and blocking. In soccer you have running (lots of it), passing, trapping, shooting and saving. You get my point. In all sports you have basic fundamentals that have to be taken on and exercised in the course of a game to gain superiority over your opponent. I think we can all agree on that. With that said, here is our spiritual application....
In our walks with the Lord we also have fundamentals, basic practices or skills that the Lord wants us to learn and exercise over and over. He wants us to continually put certain things into practice so that we can continually discern and operate in His will for our lives:
"Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me - put into practice. And the God of peace will be with you." Philippians 4:9
Paul's admonition to the believers in Philippi was to take the things they were learning, receiving, hearing from and/or seeing in Paul and put them into practice. What were these things he was referring to? When Paul stayed up through the night with the believers in Troas, what was he talking about (Acts 20:7-12)? Why did Paul stay in Corinth for two whole years (Acts 19:9,10) and have daily discussions in the lecture hall of Tyrannus? What was he sharing with all of these people? Was he just evangelizing non-believers, healing the sick and casting out demons? Or was there more?.....
Is it possible that in all of these times we just referred to, that Paul taught fundamental spiritual skills? Was he teaching them how to run, throw, catch and hit...spiritually speaking? I believe he was. In 1 Corinthians 3:10 it says the following:
The word foundation comes from the Latin root fundare. Fundare is also the Latin root of the word fundament from whence we get the word fundamental. So out of of the word fundare we get both the word foundation and the word fundamental. They both mean the same thing in Latin. The Romance languages (English, French, Spanish and Portuguese) are rooted in Latin..... Spiritually speaking, what do we understand from this? What was Paul doing over the course of time in all of these churches?.........It's simple really. He was giving them spiritual foundation. He was teaching them how to operate in spiritual fundamentals. Once he evangelized them he was showing them how to run, throw, catch, hit, block, tackle, kick, shoot, pass, trap........He was giving them fundamental skills. What fundamentals do you ask? Let's take a look.
In Hebrews 6:1-3 we get a partial glimpse of spiritual fundamentals......
"Therefore let us leave the elementary teachings about Christ and go on to maturity, not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith in God, instruction about baptisms, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment. And God permitting, we will do so."
Here we have an almost complete list of spiritual fundamentals. I say almost complete for this reason......I believe, when we look at the totality of the scriptures, especially in the New Testament, we find a few more things that are foundational that make this list complete: Prayer, Spiritual Warfare, and The Heart. The psalmist said "The sum of thy word is truth. (Psalm 119:160). Paul stated that he had been commissioned to preach the word of God in all it's fullness (Colossians 1:25). I am not downplaying the passage in Hebrews 6. What the writer stated is true. However, in looking at the totality of scripture, from a foundational, fundamental perspective, I believe the writer of Hebrews would agree that what I am about to say is true. I believe with all of my heart that the things that make for sound fundamentals fall into the following areas: Baptisms, Prayer, Faith, Works, The Heart, Spiritual Warfare, Laying on of Hands, The Resurrection of the Dead and Eternal Judgment.
Baptisms. There are three of them: Water, Spirit and Fire. Water is a one time of occurrence that has spiritual symbolism. The Spirit baptism is distinct from the water baptism, most often evidenced by tongues, prophecy and various manifestations of power. The Fire baptism is progressive and seasonal as we abide on the narrow path.
Faith. Simply put, Faith is God talking to us and us acting on what we hear (Romans 10:17). It's that simple. And within God talking to us, we come to grow in our understanding that the Lord speaks to us in a variety of ways: Song, Wisdom & Understanding and words of Knowledge, Remembering, Prophetically, dreams and visions. We come to understand that within the realm of faith, of God talking to us, that God ultimately speaks to the heart and that there is a unique relationship between the voice of our hearts and our conscience within us. God speaks to our consciences by way of our heart. We learn that in God there is a formula to faith. Simply Put....The Fear of the Lord leads to Faith > Faith leads to Works > In God's work we find discipline, discipleship and deliverance (DDD) > Through DDD we mature in the way's of love which ultimately is the character of God. So in summary we have Fear>Faith>Works (DDD)>Love........We learn that Pursuit is an element of faith. We learn that the Gospel is simply put.....hearing God which is walking by faith. We learn that the gospel of salvation and the Gospel of the kingdom are different...one composed of the other. We learn that Endurance is an element of faith. We learn that forgiveness is a vital component of keeping the "Faith engine" running like oil in the engine of your car. We learn what "The Faith" really means.
Prayer. It has 4 Levels. The first level is the driver of the other three. The first level is composed of facets. I call the first level "Spiritual Prayer." It is composed of the following facets: It's Continuous. Self Examination and responding to conviction. Repenting from anxiety caused by past memories, current distractions and vain imaginations. Worship in Song. Thankfulness and Praise. Listening. Praying according to God's will with your mind and with your spirit in Tongues........All of these are facets of the first level of spiritual prayer. As we become efficient in this first level the Lord takes us into the second Level while still operating in all things on the first Level. I call the second Level.....Waiting on God. The second level is about the way of the Eagle, about pressing in and waiting for your spiritual updraft to take you to new spiritual heights. The second level has 3 facets.....Effectual Fervent Prayer, accosting God and Persistence.......The Third Level is simple. It is about Awakening the Dawn. It is about grazing on the grass that is drenched with the early morning dew. It is a level in and of itself and it comes and goes in seasons......The fourth level is called The Night Watch. It's about the all-night wrestling match at the Red Sea and by the brook in the hill country of Gilead. It is about Gregoureuo, about pressing through the wall and breaking forth into another level and season of God's destiny for us and the lives of those close to us.
Works. Let's talk about works. Are they optional? What do the scriptures say? What was Paul telling the church in Troas? What did he explain to the churches in the regions of Galatia? What did the apostle James explain about works to the twelve tribes scattered among the nations? What did he say? What did the Lord Jesus say about works to the church in Sardis? What was he expecting from them in this area?........ It's about God having detailed plans for our lives and for the Body of Christ corporately. We are created for specific works and in turn God gifts us and prepares us for specific works. Faith leads to works. We need to show a pattern of God's work. We are to maintain his Work and be zealous for them. What scriptures talk of this? We are to complete the work God gives us to do both seasonally and in the fullness of our lives. Where does it speak of this? Are we judged for our work? Does the gospel of Matthew, Romans, James, 1 Peter and the book of Revelation speak of it? What about Trust in the process? What about morality without works? Do we see "Morality" and "Good Morals" being taught without Faith and Works? What happened to the Israelites in the desert while they had the ten commandments but nothing to do while Moses was on the mountain for forty days? Did Morality without works lead to wicked acts? What about the deliverance of the soul and works? Do we change while we do the work God calls us to do? Is this an optional process?.....Paul discussed these things will all of the churches.
The Heart. It's where we hear God. Their is a relationship between the heart and the conscience that needs to be understood and explained. It is where our "wills" reside. The sinful nature starts in the heart. A hard heart = a seared conscience. Sin ripens when grace is rejected. Be circumcised. Purify your hearts. Subtle/Hidden motives lie within the heart. From Stone to Flesh. Did man have a conscience in the days before Christ was a man on the earth? What was the status of the conscience in B.C. days?
Have any of you hit a saturation point yet? Good. I think I have. We are supposed to get to a saturation point and then come back for more later. We have not even explored Spirit/Soul/Body, the Laying on of Hands, the Resurrection of the Dead and Eternal Judgment, The Millennial Rule of Christ and vital facets of Spiritual Warfare. They are all foundational, fundamental areas that HAVE to be covered if we are going to play the Spiritual Game correctly. They are foundational. They are fundamental.
Why do you think Paul stayed in Corinth for two years? For what reason was Paul constantly dispatching Timothy, Silas and Titus to churches they had ministered in? Why? What areas where they covering? What was the topic of conversation, the doctrine, the teaching and the counsel all centered around? I submit to you that they were building foundations. They were covering fundamentals. Folks, when we operate in sound fundamentals, nothing can stop God in and through us. That is when we move mountains, when waters part, the dead are raised, the sick healed, the demon possessed are set free, the blind see, the lame walk. When we are foundationally, fundamentally sound in all of these basic areas then the indivudual believer and the body as a whole becomes a force that no demonic principality, no power, no spiritual force of evil in high places can resist.
The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil's work. (1 John 3:8)
Do you have fundamentals? Is your foundation strong? Do you abide in the foundation as it was set in your life? Is the work complete or are you still needing areas shored up in your life? Let's talk about the night watch....Or how about Awakening the Dawn? Do we know what it's like to Awaken the Dawn for months at a time? What happens? Are you baptized in the Spirit? Have you ever prayed in another language that was either a human language or a tongue of angels? What does God's voice sound like? In what way's does He speak? Are we being faithful in the work God has called us to? Are we even doing what He has called us to do? Are we delighting in the Fear of the Lord so that we maintain wisdom in our hearts on a daily basis? Do we still Fear him? Or has that fear slackened or been snuffed out all together? Do we have fundamentals? Are we foundationally strong? Do we have the essence of Fundare abiding within us? And are we teaching others to do the same? Are we operating in our Fundare?
Many questions to be answered. Many things to discuss as we go forward with God. Our passions, our desires, the things that drive us, who we are in Christ and our callings in him need to have its roots ultimately finding it's way back to our foundation......Our developing prayer life, hearing his Voice, .....all of the facets of foundation. It all comes back to our foundation. Foundation. Do we have and are we abiding in the fullness of foundational fundamentals? This is the question I feel confronted with personally, in my own walk, in my own journey. Am I abiding in my foundation as it has been given to me?
JEB
jayblackshear@yahoo.com
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