Michael continues by asking the question: How did we get to the place where we needed to be fused, reconciled, made at peace with God?
The devil’s original “con-fusion” was when he tempted Eve in the Garden of Eden. God gave Adam and Eve only one commandment: “of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it. For on the day thou eat thereof, thou shalt surely die.”
In His temptation of Eve, The devil sowed seeds of doubt and confusion. First he questioned God’s love. He implied, “God doesn’t really love you. He doesn’t want what’s best for you. He wants to keep you ignorant of the knowledge of good and evil.” Second, he questioned the word of God.... “did God really say?”. She knew exactly what God had said. However, when she considered the devil’s lies and questioned the word of God, then she was caught in devil’s strife, confusion, and contention against God. When you doubt the Word of God and the Love of God, you’ve taken the devil’s bait, hook line and sinker. All he has to do is reel you in.
On the day that Adam and Eve sinned by eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, they died that very day. What died? Their spiritual connection with God. Jesus Christ came to redeem us from the sin nature we inherited from Adam. Through His atoning sacrifice on our behalf, we were saved when we repented of our sin, accepted His free gift of atoning sacrifice on the Cross in our place for our sins, as our Savior, confessed Jesus as Lord and believed that God raised him from the dead.
Now that we have peace with God having been “born again” of God’s spirit, how do we manifest the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace? We do this by keeping the two great commandments: to love God above all and your neighbor as yourself.
Not many people know, but the Ten Commandments given to Moses on Mount Sinai were not so that He could punish the children of Israel when they stepped out of line. This is what the world thinks. The Ten Commandments were actually God’s “terms of endearment” with Israel. They were God’s wedding vows with Israel. The first commandment covers all of the other commandments. The first commandment in the KJV says, “thou shalt have no other Gods before me.” However, the ancient Aramaic text says, “thou shalt have no other God’s between your face and my face.” Why? Because we’re attached face to face in the unity of the spirit, in the bond of peace and charity. The love of God is the bond that binds us together.
When you have your vertical relationship intact, loving God above all, then all of your horizontal relationships will fall in line. If you keep the first commandment to love God above all then you don’t have to worry about the other nine “sins of commission.” You just have to worry about the one “sin of omission,” not loving God “with all thy heart, soul, mind, and strength.”
There are two types of salvation and two types of repentance. One is the new birth when we’re made whole because we received the gift of God’s Holy Spirit according to Romans 10:9-10. The other is “working out your own salvation” , your own wholeness with fear and trembling.... with reverence awe, and respect. Philippians 2:12.
Prayer is fusing our heart with God’s heart ... so is studying and meditating on the Word of God. To fuse our hearts with God’s heart means that we have a common standard for truth. That common standard is the Word of God and Jesus Christ, the Word of God made flesh. 2 Timothy 3:15-17 tells us, “From childhood you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.” If God is love and Scripture is His word, then the word of God is the love of God.
How do you overcome con-fusion? You fuse your heart together with God’s heart using the love of God which is the bond of perfectness in the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace. Then we can love our neighbors as ourselves. We can serve God by serving others, for Jesus said, in that you have done it unto the least of these my brethren, you have done it unto me.
We are called to counter confusion with fusion in the unity of the spirit by bearing one another’s burdens.... by serving in the body of Christ. We’re all individual components within the body of Christ. He has fitted us each into the body with a particular function and purpose as he has seen fit. Ephesians 4:15-16 says, “But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ: From whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplies, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, makes increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love.”
How do you counter confusion? To overcome confusion, fuse together by endeavoring to keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace by loving God above all and your neighbor as yourself. How long shall we continue to battle against confusion? I’d encourage you to read all of Ephesians chapter 4. Verse 13 states: “Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ: at the return of Jesus Christ.”
An old hymn of the faith says, Blest be the tide that binds our hearts in Christian love,
The fellowship of kindred minds is like to that above. Before our Maker's throne we pour our ardent prayers; our fears, our hopes, our aims are one, our comforts and our cares. We share each other's woes, each other's burdens bear, and often for each other flows the sympathizing tear. When we asunder part, it gives us keenest pain, but we shall still be joined in heart, and hope to meet again. The glorious hope revives our courage on the way: in perfect friendship we shall live in God's eternal day.
God bless you all!
Your brother in Christ, Michael
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