I am once again reminded of the simplicity that is in Christ
(2Corinthians 11:3) as I ponder this Scripture:
Deuteronomy 30:19 I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose LIFE, that both thou and thy seed may live:
Joshua knew the meaning of these words:
Joshua 24:15 And if it seem evil unto you to serve the LORD, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.
Our choice is whether or not we will serve the only true God
whom Jesus prayed we would know —for to know Him is life eternal
(John 17:3).
As I was meditating on these words, I called to mind countless other Scriptures with the same message —CHOOSING LIFE. I have put into two columns the words used in Scripture which denote the choice we are making —and we do indeed make this choice all day every day. And we experience the consequences of that choice. I have included Scriptural references because they are so worthy of our meditation if we are indeed serious about choosing Life.
DEATH LIFE
cursing blessing
devil God
(Ephesians 6:11; James 4:7; 1John 3:8, 10)
flesh Spirit
(Galatians 3:3; 5:16)
carnal mind mind of Christ
(Philippians 2:5; 1Corinthians 2:16; Romans 8:6-7)
hell heaven
(Psalms 139:8; Luke 10:15)
born of the flesh born of the Spirit
(John 3:6; Galatians 4:29)
old man new creature
(2Corinthians 5:17; Romans 6:6}
fear faith
(Matthew 8:26)
this world kingdom of heaven
(John 18:36)
beneath above
(John 8:23)
darkness light
(1John 1:5)
letter Spirit
(2Corinthians 3:6)
seeking things seeking kingdom of heaven
(Matthew 6:33)
looking at the seen looking at things unseen
(2Corinthians 4:18)
without within
(Luke 17:21; Mark 4:11)
law grace
(John 1:17; Galatians 5:4)
law of sin and death law of the Spirit of life
(Romans 8:2)
lies truth
(John 8:44)
wisdom of this world wisdom of God
foolishness to God foolishness to man
(1Corinthians 3:19; 2:14)
corruption life everlasting
(Galatians 6:8)
double-minded single eye
(Matthew 6:22; James 1:5-7)
Looking at these two lists, we can quickly see the radical difference between the two states of consciousness (awareness). I would like to refer to the right (LIFE) column as God consciousness
and the left (DEATH) column as sin consciousness
—sin
being defined as the belief that we are separated from the God who brought us forth out of Himself (James 1:18 Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.)
We did arrive in this world alive
(Romans 7:9 For I was alive without the law once: but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died.). But, like Adam and Eve and the prodigal son before us, we very soon lost sight of our oneness with our Father and quickly departed from Father’s house (the kingdom of God) to take up residence in a pig sty
of our own making (Luke 15:11ff).
We see from this story of the prodigal son that when our attention is fixed on this world,
(John 18:36 Jesus answered, My kingdom is not of this world: if my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight, that I should not be delivered to the Jews: but now is my kingdom not from hence.) that which is seen
or perceived with the five senses (2Corinthians 4:18 While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.), which Jesus referred to as the world of appearances
(John 7:24 Judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgment.) or the without
(Mark 4:11 And he said unto them, Unto you it is given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God: but unto them that are without, all these things are done in parables:) rather than on the kingdom of heaven which is within
(Luke 17:20-21 And when he was demanded of the Pharisees, when the kingdom of God should come, he answered them and said, The kingdom of God cometh not with observation: Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you.), we are seeking the things
of this world which are temporal
rather than the righteousness
that we experience when seeking the kingdom of heaven (Matthew 6:33 But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.). We understand neither that when we seek the Giver rather than the gift, all the things will be added
nor that all things
(all visible manifestations of God’s abundance and love) are already ours anyway —as the Father told the elder brother of the prodigal (Luke 15:31 And he said unto him, Son, thou art ever with me, and all that I have is thine.)
Since we have all thought that we were generated out of man (Matthew 23:9 And call no man your father upon the earth: for one is your Father, which is in heaven.), we therefore have to follow Jesus in the regeneration
(Matthew 19:28) and be born of the Spirit
(born again
) (John 3:3 Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. John 3:6 (KJV) That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.) —or be awakened (1Corinthians 15:34 Awake to righteousness, and sin not; for some have not the knowledge of God: I speak this to your shame.) to our true identity as sons of the living God (1John 3:2), the new man
who was created in righteousness and true holiness
(Ephesians 4:24).
It is possible for me to become aware that the old man
or man of sin
(that I thought I was when I thought myself separated from God) was destroyed on the cross (Romans 6:6), that it was crucified
and that now the Christ is living in me (Galatians 2:20). I can experience walking in the light
and being cleansed from all sin
(mistaken identity; sense of separation) (1John 1:7) so that I am the light of the world
(Matthew 5:14), bringing light into the darkness. I can not only know the truth
but can also know that I am one with that Truth (John 14:6), the Son who has made me free (John 8:32,36).
Romans 8:2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.
Jesus has made it possible for me to cease seeking justification through the law (the things I do or don’t do) (Galatians 5:4) (Romans 3:20 Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin. Romans 3:28 Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law.); for I am now under grace
(Romans 6:14 For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace.) and can know that I am justified by faith without the deeds of the law
(Romans 3:28). I can know that I am saved
by grace through faith and not by works
(Ephesians 2:8-9), that righteousness is not something that I earn but that it is the gift of God,
free for the taking (Romans 5:17-18).
I can, as Paul did, begin to live not by my own faith, but rather by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me
(Galatians 2:20). And that love which passeth knowledge
(Ephesians 3:19), that love from which I can never be separated (Romans 8:39) is the perfect love
that will cast out all the fears which have caused me so much torment (1John 4:18) since my first thought of separation from my Father, the thought that caused me to be afraid (Genesis 3:10).
That thought came from the carnal mind,
the father of lies which never abode in the truth,
that Jesus called the devil
(John 8:44). And by listening to that carnal mind, I chose death.
Romans 8:6-7 For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.
But that death
can now be swallowed up in victory
(1Corinthians 15:54) and have no more sting
(1Corinthians 15:56 (KJV) The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law.) because I have the capacity to choose LIFE
as I was instructed (Deuteronomy 30:19).
Sounds pretty simple, doesn’t it? The distinctions are clear. So why do we find ourselves experiencing the cursing
that comes from choosing death rather than the blessing
of choosing Life?
I believe God has revealed to me our greatest difficulty in our personal process of choosing life. It can be seen in the Scriptural distinction between the single eye
and what is referred to as double-mindedness.
- Matthew 6:22
- The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light.
- James 1:5-8
- If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him. But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. For let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord. A double minded man is unstable in all his ways.
I call particular attention to these Scriptures because they so perfectly describe our experience when we choose Life and also when we don’t make that choice.
Of course not making the choice for Life IS choosing death. There is absolutely no way we can have one foot in each realm without disastrous results. I can personally testify to the hell of attempting to do so and the instability that follows.
I have wanted to partake of the wisdom of God while relying on man’s wisdom at the same time.
- 1Corinthians 2:14
- But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.
- 1Corinthians 3:19
- For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, He taketh the wise in their own craftiness.
It’s like trying to mix oil and water. The still small voice within is instructing me (Isaiah 30:21 And thine ears shall hear a word behind thee, saying, This is the way, walk ye in it, when ye turn to the right hand, and when ye turn to the left.) while the many outside voices of reason are demanding to be heard and obeyed (1Corinthians 14:10 There are, it may be, so many kinds of voices in the world, and none of them is without signification.). I do indeed feel like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed
as I constantly waver in the muddle of indecision.
I have also tried to make decisions based on the letter
of the Word rather than the Spirit
and found out that the letter
does indeed kill
(2Corinthians 3:6), that it is only the words spoken to me personally by the Spirit of God inside that bring life:
John 6:63 It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.
How true are those words, the flesh profiteth nothing
! For every time I’ve attempted to operate by the letter
I have found myself sowing to the flesh
and reaping corruption
:
Galatians 6:8 For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting.
But when I choose to know and serve the only true God
by the Spirit (following the direction of the still small voice of the Father who has taken up His abode inside me) rather than by the letter
(following the words in a book, which very quickly becomes a list of dos and don’ts), I find myself reaping life everlasting.
Looking again at the two juxtaposed columns above, the one representing choosing life and the other choosing death, we must realize that we can’t have it both ways. We can’t be a little bit under the law and a little under grace. We can’t have our attention upon both the seen world of appearances and the unseen world of harmony that is the kingdom of heaven. We are either within
where there is righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Ghost (Romans 14:17) or without
with the fearful and unbelieving
(Revelation 21:8) who can’t know the mystery of the kingdom of God
(Mark 4:11).
We cannot straddle the fence between the two. We either believe the truth or we believe the lies. We walk in the light or we walk in darkness. We let
the mind of Christ be in us as it was also in Jesus (Philippians 2:5) or remain carnally minded.
We have to remain single eyed and stop trying to jump from one column to the other. We must CHOOSE between the two. Only then can we experience the stability of the house built upon a rock which cannot be shaken, no matter how furious the storm (Matthew 7:24-25) —the stability that comes when we cease wavering between two states of consciousness and CHOOSE LIFE!
That will mean losing the life
that is no life at all and finding the LIFE that is Christ —the only life that there is.
- Colossians 3:3-4
- For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory.
- Matthew 16:25
- For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it.
Again we hear the words:
Deuteronomy 30:19 I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose LIFE, that both thou and thy seed may live:
Do we dare make that choice for Life and never again waver between the two choices? We have nothing to lose but that so-called life
of instability (which is actually death) and which has brought upon us all the cursing
that we so abhor. Is it not time we awaken from our sleep?
Ephesians 5:14 Wherefore he saith, Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light.