The Call

Everything on The Consider Podcast and website has to do with the call for all men and women to repent. Such is an offer of mercy for those willing to follow Jesus by hating their life and picking up their cross. After all, even the demons believe in God, but they are terrified. You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that–and shudder. James 2:19

---

Zero

Download File

Text Zero

The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you are spirit and they are life. (John 6:63)

The equation

We can easily understand and find the conclusion to the following equation.

1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 x 0 = 0

Anything multiplied by zero always equals zero. Even young children learning their multiplication tables find it fascinating that zero times zero equals nothing. Likewise, zero is the total amount of true faith in Jesus if we believe by the power of the flesh. A Christian may pray, give, serve, sing, hear God’s voice, or work in the name of Jesus, but if it be by the power of the flesh, zero is the total reward. Jesus was absolutely clear on this matter; to do anything for Him in the power of the flesh amounts to “nothing.”

The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you are spirit and they are life. (John 6:63)

Those who allow the suffering cross of Christ to do its work will discover these words of Jesus to be “life.” Satan does not fear the religious man, he only fears the man who carries the cross God has placed upon him. Indeed, Sa- tan holds no terror for the multitudes that have picked up a cross they designed for themselves in the name of Jesus, because that too is a work of the flesh and counts for nothing.

Not

The Christian life does not include going to God in prayer asking Him to bless our plans, wants, and desires. If we have plans or desire something and pray about it, that does not reveal a surrendered life but is a demonic, self-centered one that demands God bless us our way. Yet, most everyone in the church today prays such prayers. People often say, “Well, I prayed about it,” as if praying about it is the same as a “yes” answer. This is no different from the world and in reality rebellion and witchcraft, where the magic words of the spell are, “I prayed about it,” and “In Jesus name.” It is violence against the righteousness that is in Christ and a flagrant sin against the name of God.

You shall not misuse the name of the LORD your God, for the LORD will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name. (Exodus 20:7)

No matter how noble we think our intentions, if we pray in the power of the flesh, it equals zero. Even if the Holy Spirit tells us to pray or do something, if done in the power of the flesh, such things also equal zero. Even if something is Biblical, it is zero if done by the flesh. Indeed, believing that the flesh counts for nothing, by the power of the flesh, is a double zero.

Is

The surrendered life bends our knees, asks God to show us His will and then does only that will as the Holy Spirit empowers. There is no need to look for projects to do for the Lord, God already has works prepared for us, (Ephesians 2:10). All we need to do is discover that will and surrender to the Holy Spirit so that God’s work is done through us (1 John 4:9). When we devise works, asking God to bless them, we perform acts that amount to zero, for they are works of the flesh.

We must hate everything and feel unconcerned about anything else (John 12:25) but God’s will. The Bible calls every Christian to be like Jesus by picking up a cross that crucifies us to ourselves, where our wills, wants, and strengths are killed. To say with Jesus that if God does not show us to do something, we will not do it. If God does not tell us to get out of bed, we don’t get out of bed. We must only do what we see the “Father doing.” If the Father does not give to the poor, we don’t give to the poor. If the Father does not sing in church, a surrendered disciple does not sing in church. If the Father does not put His arms around another and speak gentle words, then neither does His disciple. This demonstrates the surrendered life, the crucified life. To love others only by God’s strength; to teach only by God’s wisdom and power produces the fruit of the crucified life (1 Peter 4:11).

Jesus gave them this answer: “I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does. (John 5:19)

The true Spirit-filled life hears from God not only exactly what to teach, but how to declare that wisdom. When we study the Bible and then teach it the way we think best, we sin deeply before God. The zero is only overcome as we speak what God tells us to declare, refusing to speak of our “own accord.” Only those who know moment by moment the command of how and what to say are led of the Holy Spirit.

For I did not speak of my own accord, but the Father who sent me commanded me what to say and how to say it. (John 12:49)

Heart’s desire

But you say, “Scripture says that God will give us the desires of our heart.” Would you expect God to give Hitler the desires of his heart if he prayed in the name of Jesus? Of course not! So why would you expect the same of yourself? The answer to that question is that you still think of yourself as someone noble in Jesus. You falsely think your flesh is better than the flesh of Hitler. Until you allow the Holy Spirit to convince you that God feels grieved He made you and that you are worthless, you will never honestly be moved in true righteousness (Romans 3:12). Unless you receive from the Holy Spirit this truth about who you are, your humility equals zero, for it is a work of the flesh. God may move and use you, but you are not a disciple, but only a slave in the Son’s house (John 8:35), used by God to serve true disciples.

The flesh is completely worthless, no matter how much it declares, “Praise the Lord,” or how much it evangelizes or preaches the message of the cross. In fact, the flesh will even agree that it is worthless to keep from being crucified with Christ. So even agreeing your worthlessness by the power of the flesh is a deception and a big fat zero. If something does not come from the Holy Spirit at each moment, it equals zero. This is why we are told to only “pray in the Holy Spirit.” For the prayers of the flesh are but sinful mutterings, even if done in the name of Jesus.

But you, dear friends, build yourselves up in your most holy faith and pray in the Holy Spirit. (Jude 1:20)

Diligent study

Go to Bible College, read your Bible daily, and listen to any number of sermons you chose, if done by the power of the flesh you remain doomed. You will merely puff up yourself and those you win for Christ in self-righteousness. The rebuke Jesus gave His followers was extremely clear. Study all you want, but if God does not guide that study and give enlightenment by way of the offensive cross, you have accomplished nothing. That is why so much division fills the church. We refuse to hate our opinions and wisdom about the Bible and so we see the bad fruit of zero throughout Christendom.

You diligently study the Scriptures because you think that by them, you possess eternal life. These are the Scriptures that testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me to have life. (John 5:39-40)

So many people diligently study their Bibles, yet perish all because they refuse to go to Jesus and pick up the painful, offensive cross God designed just for them. How many speak, teach, and preach about the Bible but with the arm of the flesh? So many Christians think they have won multitudes to Christ, but they have gained their numbers by the same spirit and purpose with which worldly clubs gain members. How much religious fervor amounts to a big fat zero? We win others to Jesus by our flesh, and they respond with their flesh and go out to make more members in the same way. Therefore, the church rejects the concept of zero and stubbornly refuses to repent.

Surrendered

In the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus wrestled against His will to the point that He sweated blood. We, too, must wrestle against the strength and wisdom of the flesh that seeks to accomplish God’s will some other way. There is no shortcut. If you remain unwilling to suffer in your body as the Holy Spirit leads (1 Peter 4:1), you will never overcome the zero factor. Indeed, only as we overcome sin by the power of the Holy Spirit do we really become more Christ-like (Romans 8:13). So much striving to overcome the flesh is simply flesh seeking to overcome the flesh in the name of Jesus—an absurdity doomed to failure before it begins. No wonder so much failure and worthless Christian material floods the market today.

Jesus prayed His will, but surrendered to the Father’s. This should be our daily walk and in doing so, we pass from zero to life. Jesus wrestled to the point that God’s will became His only joy.

He withdrew about a stone’s throw beyond them, knelt down and prayed, “Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done.” An angel from heaven appeared to him and strengthened him. And being in anguish, he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground. (Luke 22:41-44)

Jesus did not go to the cross whining and complaining about God’s will. Jesus did not try at each step of His crucifixion to find some fleshly gratification as He walked toward the cross. No, Christ fell to the ground, died to His will and arose in the garden full of joy about God’s perfect, pleasing will. This is the same process each and every true disciple of Jesus must pass through in order to reach a place where the strength of the flesh does not perform Christian acts. Whether it be church fellowship, evangelism, giving, Bible study, or prayer, all that does not have some measure of the sufferings of Christ, by the leading of the Holy Spirit, remains worthless. This avoidance of the sufferings of Christ is why the church seeks to make every “work” in Jesus fun. Rather than being filled with the inexpressible, unfleshly joy of the Lord, the church replaces it with fun. This rejection of fleshly joy and embracing the sufferings of Christ given by the Holy Spirit separates those who put confidence in the flesh from those who find no satisfaction in it.

For it is we who are the circumcision, we who worship by the Spirit of God, who glory in Christ Jesus, and who put no confidence in the flesh (Philippians 3:3)

If you desire the true peace of Christ, the full mercy of God, and the power of the resurrected life, then stop doing religious things in Jesus by the power of the flesh. Let the Holy Spirit crucify your works done by the religious flesh, for the flesh counts for nothing—for zero.

The Consider Podcast
Examining Today’s Wisdom, Folly and Madness
www.consider.info

Former Salt Shaker Bookstore

---

The Salt Shaker Christian bookstore, because of persecution by Washington State Authorities, was destroyed and ran out of the town of Enumclaw. Just part of the proof that Sound Doctrine Church was walking the narrow road with Jesus.

For you, brothers became imitators of God’s churches in Judea, which are in Christ Jesus: You suffered from your own countrymen the same things those churches suffered from the Jews, who killed the Lord Jesus and the prophets and also drove us out. They displease God and are hostile to all men. 1 Thessalonians 2:14-15

It was a beautiful store. A result of the hard work of Sound Doctrine Church. In the store was a free rack because, as Jesus said, "Freely you received, freely give." The following track is a small reproduction of the love that burned in our hearts to give freely.

---

Materials

Cultural Christianity is part of God’s powerful delusion to decieve the "Christian" element of mankind.

Disclaimer & Information

Post Number

This Post's ID Number Is= 15629

1. Remember the Post ID Number.
2. Enter the post number and it will be find.

See Post ID System For List Of Posts