Perhaps nothing can be more troublesome than finding our wishes and dreams betrayed by our own flesh. This is one of the most difficult trials of this life. We really want to live a spiritual life, but we find that our body and brain let us down. Is there a way to escape this conflict and come out the victor?
There are decisions we can make in life that start us on paths that are not good. This kind of living has made the news recently concerning both young and mature people living an “easy” and dangerous life. These are only prime examples of a kind of life that affects millions. They have money, friends, and can do what they want. This can lead to doing things that are anti-life. Drugs, alcohol abuse, out-of-control sex, and wild parties play a major role in bringing people down.
The Scriptures tell us to guard our path, to learn wisdom, and have understanding and knowledge and let them guide our way. But if we don’t follow this way, from a very early age, we can make mistakes from which we may never recover in this lifetime. Some may call this karma. It is more like what you sow, so shall you harvest.
The Scriptures use farming as an example of life. A sower can plant good seed and look forward to a good harvest. But if someone comes along and sows bad seed and weeds, then the harvest can be destroyed or overcome by the weeds. When that happens in life, a harvest of evil can mature later.
For they sow the wind, and reap the whirlwind. Hosea 8:7
You have ploughed wrongness, you have reaped unrighteousness. You have eaten the fruit of deception. Hosea 10:13
Where can we find good seed to sow in our life? And how can we recover from the evil after it had been sown? These are tough questions and require tough answers.
I wrote in another post about how all killing will be placed upon the religions we follow that came out of Babylon. “In her was found the blood of the prophets and of the set-apart ones, and all who have been killed on the earth.” Revelation 18:24. That is a very serious indictment, but when understood, it is very true.
The Christian religion, taking its cues from Paul, no longer takes the Law or Torah seriously. Rarely have they spent sufficient prayer and meditation in the Law to learn what it really does say. I have even heard preachers on the radio, TV and on the Internet tell the people that all the prophecies of the Old Testament were fulfilled and we should only read what Paul wrote. Absolute and deadly nonsense.
When we understand the Law, what it says and to whom it applies, suddenly the mind is open to what a righteous life is all about. But too often cults or sects arise and lacking understanding they try to impose their interpretation of the Law when they have absolutely no authority to do so.
The Law is not designed for only a select few people in some religious way. It applies to all who live and breathe. That includes everyone from the chief rulers of nations to the poorest person alive. There are Laws for rulers and for personal relationships. There are Laws for priests (Levites), too, and if we are not priests or Levites, these are not for us, except we can learn the spiritual meaning of these laws.
And that is where the problem is. Religion would not find a place in the Law, because the people were to be taught and helped by “Kings and Priests.” If these fail in their responsibilities, then all the rest of the populations suffers. And what makes the end result worse is when the duties of the priests are supplanted by the misguidings of religion.
“And now, O priests, this command is for you. If you do not hear and if you do not take it to heart, to give honor and respect to My Name,” says Eyahuwah of hosts, “I shall send a curse upon you, and I shall curse your blessings. And indeed, I have cursed them, because you do not take it to heart. See, I shall rebuke your seed and scatter dung before your faces, the dung of your festivals. And you shall be taken away with it.
“And you shall know that I have sent this command to you so that My covenant with Levi might continue,” says Eyahuwah of hosts. “My covenant with him was life and peace, and I gave them to him, to fear. And he feared Me and stood in awe of My Name.
“The Torah (Law) of truth was in his mouth and unrighteousness was not found on his lips. He walked with Me in peace, and turned many away from crookedness. For the lips of a priest should guard knowledge, and they seek the Torah from his mouth, for he is the messenger of Eyahuwah of hosts.”
“But you, you have turned from the way. You have caused many to stumble in the Torah. You have corrupted the covenant of Levi,” says Eyahuwah of hosts, “and I also, I shall make you despised and low before all the people, because you are not guarding My ways, and are showing partiality in the Torah.” Malachi 2:1-9
“What are we to do? Where are the priests? Where are those who can show us the way?”
Exactly!
The days of punishment are coming. The days of reckoning are at hand. Let [my people] know this. Because of the greatness of your your crookedness, the prophet is considered a fool, the ‘man of the Spirit’ is [thought] ‘mad,’ and great is the enmity. Elahim’s watchman over you, Ephraim [the Western Nations], is the prophet, but [you set] a trapper’s snare in all his paths. Enmity and hatred is against the House of his Elahim. They have deeply corrupted themselves. Hosea 9:7-9
We suffered in the past, suffer now, and will suffer in the future because of three things:
- The priests (Levites) abdicated their duties and their covenant with Eyahuwah.
- Religions, sects, and cults sprung up and taught the people another way and, in trying to hold on to the people, millions have been killed by them and their way.
- We do not listen to the instruction and help available in the Scriptures.
I received some horrific news a short time ago that a young man, a friend, had taken his own life. He was not a evil person. He was a genuine person who wanted to do right, but he made some mistakes that led him to try to solve his situation by stopping his life. He was troubled by this conflict of spirit against flesh.
My friend sought comfort and help from drugs, including Xanax, and the drugs took control. He could not escape the cravings of his own body. He wanted to do right, but he did not have the strength. The flesh was weak.
I don’t blame my friend for taking his life. It is sad, troubling, and not to be forgotten. The questions “Why?” and “What could we have done to prevent this?” cannot be answered by the “wisdom” of this world, because this world, sadly, does not know the Way!
My friend, like so many others, could no longer stomach this world and how his life and actions worked within it. His problems were pitted against the solutions he formulated in his mind. Perhaps he only saw that he could not overcome the weaknesses of his own flesh, and so he felt helpless. Instead of continually bringing frustration and anguish to those he loved, he felt that the only rational solution was to cut off the “offending member,” which in this case he felt was him. Whether this was an act courage or depression only he could say.
But there is good news!
According to the promises, he will be raised from the dead and given a new clean body and a fresh start on life. So will many other people who died as a result of the failure of those whose job was to “turn many away from crookedness.”
The great message of the gospel is the good news that people, like my friend, will be saved from the evil in this world. He will not be condemned and “sent to hell” as the Christian religions think fitting. Instead he will stand on his feet, in his next waking moment, and someone will be there to embrace him and tell him to come. He will be told that his suffering is over. His torment has passed. He can then enter into the Kingdom of his spiritual Father on earth. There he will find Kings and Priests who will help him to understand Life. He can build his own house, and no one will take it from him. He will plant vegetables, fruit trees, and flowers in his own gardens that he will enjoy and no thief will steal from him. He will be at peace. He will see his daughter and all the people he loved. He will live a very long and happy life. His joy will be greater than his sorrow ever was.
That is true not only for him, but for all. When we know the truth, it will set us free.
What can we do now?
We must make straight paths for our feet and not let ourselves be turned out of the Way. We must purify our bodies, and turn from anything that would destroy our hope. We must exercise wisdom in everything we do. We must seek for understanding and good knowledge that will provide clarity for all the decisions that we must make in this life. And we must look forward to our future with hope and assurance that the One who made the promises through our fathers and through the prophets will do exactly as He said He would. All of these things are available NOW from the Source of our Life.
But if we scoff and turn away from truth during this life, we face uncertainty in this life, frustration, suffering and trouble. NOT because there is a “mean” God someplace that wants to inflict pain and suffering, but rather because our own actions bring this on us. The Scriptures provide warnings and instructions that could save us now, if we listen and take action combined with fasting, prayer and meditation.
Wisdom calls aloud outside. She raises her voice in the broad places. At the head of the noisy streets she cries out, “How long, you simple ones, would you love simplicity, and scoffers delight in their scoffing, and fools hate knowledge?
“Turn at my reproof. See, I pour out my spirit on you. I make my words known to you. Because I called and you refused, I have stretched out my hand and no one inclined, and you spurned all my counsel and would not yield to my reproof.
“Let me also laugh at your calamity and mock when your dread comes, when your dread comes like a storm, and your calamity comes like a whirlwind, when distress and anguish come upon you. Then let them call on me, but I will not answer. Let them seek me, but not find me.
“Because they hated knowledge and did not choose the fear of Eyahuwah, they did not accept my counsel. They despised my reproof; therefore, let them eat the fruit of their own way, and be filled with their own counsels. For the turning away of the simple slays them, and the complacency of fools destroys them.
“But whoever listens to me dwells safely and is at ease from the dread of evil.” Proverbs 1:20-33
