Casting Demons Into Pigs

In the Biblical book of Mark, the apostle describes how Jesus freed a man 'possessed by the devil' by casting his demons into pigs.

 The event is known as the Miracle of the Swine, and now a 1,600-year-old slab found on the eastern shores of the Sea of Galilee could pinpoint the exact location of this incident.

The Third Temple Of Ezekiel's Vision

https://www.rapturenewsnetwork.com/plans-third-temple-israel-people-get-ready-jesus-coming-soon/

Calvary Chapel Of Costa Mesa 1972

click picture to see larger image

This awesome book can still be found on the net. 

Try Googling.

Some are in used condition and some are brand new!

A must read for anyone who was there and wants to recall those incredible times and needs a reminder of what the Jesus People Movement did in their youth...

This was from Calvary's short "evangelical phase."

Which I was introduced to when I was 17 years old by Calvary Chapel.

Back in those days we would hit the beaches witnessing and invite everyone to come with us to Calvary Chapel of Costa Mesa on Monday nights.

Pastor Chuck Smith would share from the Word of God and at the end of the service he would give an 'alter call.'

He would say something about salvation while all of us young Christians were quietly praying for those present who needed to be saved among us.

 Then "While every eye closed and every head bowed" he would give an invitation to accept Christ by lifting their hands up until Chuck acknowledged them.

After this he would say, "you can lift your heads now.

 And then he would give the scripture about:

Matthew 10:32
Whosoever therefore shall confess me before men, him will I confess also before my Father which is in heaven.

Then he would invite anyone who had raised their hand to come forward and confess Christ before man.

For those of us who were there it was such a great time to be able to have the freedom to participate in the reproductive process of the Body of Christ!

All of us would clap and be elated to see people getting up and accepting Christ.


We were encouraged to get out there and share our faith in witnessing and bring in the sheep.

It was a major priority for Calvary Chapel to reach the lost. And it is a major priority for Jesus Christ to reach the lost:

Matthew 18:11
"The Son of Man has come to save that which was lost."

It was a major priority for all of us kids also!

Reaching out to the lost is one thing that we can't do in heaven that we can do here on earth.

You can worship God in heaven.

You can sing songs to God in heaven. You can learn God's Word in heaven.

 But one thing you can not do in heaven is share your faith with a nonbeliever.

Why?

Because everyone in heaven is a believer.

 Once you take your last breath of air you will never again be able to talk to a lost person.

Since this is true, shouldn't it be a priority of your life to reach out to all the lost people on earth while you can?

Then one day, without any kind of warning or explanation, Calvary Chapel shifted gears midstream and stumbled a lot of us...they very suddenly became subtle Calvinists as it were and the book "The Reproducers" quietly disappeared from the book shelves.

(Note 5-7-2016 the book has since been reprinted)

They became a Bible teaching church, almost exclusively without telling me or any of my other Christian friends who had worked hard to bring in the sheaves.

We got alienated.

 Chuck's Monday night fish~net was put away to dry behind "The Block Wall".

The emphasis on salvation took a back seat to Bible teaching.

In one of Pastor Chuck Smith's addresses to the Calvary Chapel's Minister's conference he mentions his shift from Evangelism to teaching.

I didn't get to read the transcript of this address until just last year (2009).

A light went on in my head. "So that is what had happened to us so many years ago!"

He truly stumbled myself and a lot of my generation of the Jesus People by his sudden shift with no explanation what so ever to any of us.

He just did it.

We were left to drift by his midstream change of course.

He just took hold of the helm as captain of the ship and changed course while we were not really looking or paying much attention to the subtle change.

 Gone were those incredible moments at church that Chuck would evangelize with the express purpose of catching the fish we were bringing into his church with much personal effort on our part.

Slowly the trickle down effect hit us hard.

The handing out of tracts and the sharing our faith on the streets was no longer emphasized and evangelism was no longer a priority of Calvary Chapel.

The evangelical zeal of the church waxed very cold.

God burdens our hearts to reach the lost, but we must get out there and start practicing those conversations.

2 Timothy 4:2-8
Preach the Word. Be ready in season and out of season...

This means that we should be ready to preach the Word at all times, any other time would be wrong. We are to go for it, do it!

 Share your faith, the Mormons are doing it, the Jehovah's Witnesses are doing it...what about us who know the Truth?

How did you come to Christ? 

Did anyone share the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ with you? Didn't someone lead you to Jesus?

"I would sooner bring one sinner to Jesus Christ then unravel all the mysteries of the divine Word, for salvation is the one thing we are to live for."
Charles Haddon Spurgeon

"O my friends, we are loaded down with countless church activities, while the real work of the church, that of evangelizing the world and winning the lost, is almost entirely neglected!"
Oswald J. Chambers

We should want to see people in heaven so much that we would be willing to do anything for them to know Jesus.

"When preaching and private talk are not available, you need to have a tract ready...Get good striking tracts, or none at all. but a touching gospel tract may be the seed of eternal life. Therefore, do not go out without your tracts."
Charles Haddon Spurgeon

Proverbs 11:30
The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life; and he that winneth souls is wise.

"To be a soul winner is the happiest thing in the world. And with every soul you bring to Jesus Christ, you seem to get a new heaven here upon earth."
Charles Haddon Spurgeon

Those evangelical meetings on Monday nights with Chuck Smith were so glorious!

 The atmosphere was charged with the manifested presence of the Holy Spirit.

As if to say to us in confirmation, "Well done my good and faithful servants."

A hundred and fifty years from now, will it matter if you made a million dollars, drove an expensive vehicle, graduated from college?

No.

The only thing that will be important then is whether you know the Almighty God who created you, because you will be in one of two destinations forever...and ever and ever.

It is very important to get people to realize that it is the eternal, not the temporary, things that matter. They must be told about salvation through Jesus Christ before they enter eternity.

To enter eternity with out Christ is eternal damnation.

Do you care about this?

Do you care about why Christ died upon the cross, about His main emphasis in going to the cross?

If you want to see your friends in heaven, invite them.

 If you don't want to see your friends in heaven don't invite them...

It doesn't matter whether people like us or not.

Jesus was perfect, loved everyone perfectly, and still got nailed to a cross.

Jesus did His part over two thousand years ago, and now it is time for you to do yours.

When leadership is wrong does not give us the right to ignore the ministry left to us by Christ! Use the breath that Christ has given you to preach the gospel message to every living creature.

Acts 13:47
For so hath the Lord commanded us, saying, I have set thee to be a light of the Gentiles, that thou shouldest be for salvation unto the ends of the earth.

"If sinners be damed, at least let them leap to hell over our bodies. And if they perish, let them perish with our arms about their knees, imploring them to stay. If hell must be filled, at least let it be filled in the teeth of our exertions, and let not one go there unwarned or unprayed for."
Charles Haddon Spurgeon


John 6:47
"Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me has everlasting life."

How will they know if you remain silent?

Romans 10:9
"If you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved."

Not that you might be saved, but you will be saved.

1 John 5:12-13
"He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life. These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life, and that you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of God."

If you died tonight, are you 100% sure that you would go to heaven?

Christian, you have assurance of salvation and others do not. Step out in faith, tell someone about Jesus, the only way to heaven, and you just might be someone's answer to prayer.

Hell is a very real place, according to the Bible. we need to convince people of its reality and warn them not to go there.

We need to plunder hell to populate heaven.

Share the good news of Jesus Christ with others.

BEHOLD, NOW IS THE ACCEPTED TIME; BEHOLD, NOW IS THE DAY OF SALVATION 

2 Corinthians 6:2

A tragedy is knowing someone will be dying and going to hell for eternity, and not caring enough to do anything about it.

"The Word of the Lord was made to me a reproach and a derision daily. Then I said, "I will not make mention of Him, nor speak anymore in His name." But His Word was in my heart like a burning fire shut up in my bones; I was weary of holding it back, and I could not.
Jeremiah 20:8,9

We are given the honor and the privilege that angels do not have!

We get to invite others to heaven through Jesus Christ.

We get to deliver the invitation that Angels can not deliver.

We are inviting you to decide what you want to do with the invitation.

 Do you have the confident assurance that if you were to die that you would go to heaven?

While you can if you accept Jesus Christ and His death upon the cross on your behalf to redeem you from your sins.

Christian reader, when was the last time you talked with a lost person?

"You cannot stop their dying, but oh, that God might help you to stop their being damned! You cannot stop the breath from going out of their bodies, but oh, if the gospel could but stop their souls from going down to destruction!"
Charles Haddon Spurgeon

David Sloane

***
Update
5,7,2016

Now you can read the book "The Reproducers" for free in PDF here. 

Or you can purchase a reprint of the book here. 

One man's take on Calvary Chapel history in free PDF here.

Interview with Erik Janson

A Lawsuit Over Costco Golf Balls Shows Why We Can't Have Nice Things For Cheap (qz.com)

Unless you're a golfer, you probably don't think about golf balls. 

But a new US lawsuit about these little-dimpled spheres has an economics lesson for all shoppers, showing why consumers have cause for concern when companies use court for sport. 

Costco, the wholesale membership club, rocked the golf world in 2016 when it started selling its Kirkland Signature (KS) golf balls at about $15 per dozen, a quarter to a third the price of popular top-ranked balls.

 Industry insiders called it a "miracle golf ball" for its great performance and low cost, and Costco

sold out immediately. 

It's planning to release more in April. 

In response to the bargain ball's reception, however, Acushnet -- which makes the popular Titleist balls -- sent the membership club a threatening letter. 

It accused Costco of infringing on 11 patents and engaging in false advertising for claiming that KS balls meet or exceed the quality standards of leading national brands.

Your Life Vision In Christ If You Saw Lonnie Frisbee And Or Brant Baker

Lonnie Frisbee Youth Pastor At Calvary Chapel

Imagine if John the Baptist came of age during the 1960s counter culture, the charisma of Jim Morrison flowing from the mantle of an Old Testament prophet.

 Meet Lonnie Frisbee, a seeker turned Jesus freak evangelist who compelled thousands towards a profession of Christian faith.

 It was during a trip into a canyon that Frisbee claimed that God gave him a vision of his future as an influential evangelist to the hippie generation.

http://lonniefrisbee.com/

 

So many of us trace our Christian roots to this man.

The power of God flowed when he preached.

He walked in supernatural gifts of the Holy Spirit.

Everywhere that he went there were 'divine~appointments' that always resulted in salvation or healing of others.

Brant Baker and Lonnie Frisbee were close friends.

Lonnie had introduced me to Brant at his 'Costa Mesa' clothing store.

Both men had an impact upon their generation.

Both men have gone to be with the Lord.

Today it is us who are still walking this earth who were impacted by the ministry of these men.

You who were there when these men ministered, what is your 'vision' today?

 Vision being a clear conception of something that is not yet reality, but which can exist.

How do you answer this question?

Your vision uniquely belongs to you as a person called of God.

 As you pray, it will become clear to you.

You have a passion for God and His ways.

 You want to see your vision become reality.

Ephesians 3:20

Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us...

According to His power that is at work.

Working within you.

 That power is the mighty power of God's Spirit who lives inside of you, enabling you to fulfill the vision He has given to you.

God's power is actually working within you for the fulfillment of your dream.

Exceeeeedingly abundant!

Beyond all that you could ask for, think about, or imagine.

You can't grasp all that He wants to do for you.

It is and will always be steps ahead of you.

Your potential is determined by the assignment God gave you to do.

 Whatever you were born to do, you are equipped to do.

 God gives you the ability to fulfill your responsibility.

God does not call qualified men.

 He makes men qualified whom He calls.

Faith is vision in the heart.

 Sight without vision is dangerous because it has no hope.

 God gave us vision so that we would not have to live by what we see.

Vision is so powerful it can live beyond the grave.

 Lonnie Frisbee and Brant Baker have spiritual children born of their vision in God who are alive today.

 Children who know God and know of His power.

Children who have struggled with their vision in God for years.

 Satan has tried and tried to convince them that it was all just a foolish dream.

It was not.

That flame flickering inside is the vision.

 That vision that can and will inflame future generations for Christ...

If you allow it...

 For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands.

2 Timothy 1:6

 http://shekinahfellowship.blogspot.com/2016/03/please-stop-quenching-holy-spirit.html

 http://shekinahfellowship.blogspot.com/2015/04/there-is-real-need-in-church-today.html

 http://shekinahfellowship.blogspot.com/2014/07/from-prophetic-school-scriptural.html

 http://shekinahfellowship.blogspot.com/2013/03/revival-revival.html

Mining Christians For Profit

"Please insert some PayPal cash before accessing today's teaching."

 Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy, drive out demons. Freely you have received; freely give.

Matthew 10:8

Did Jesus understand that we modern day disciples of His would need to generate lots of cash, way beyond our actual needs?

After all we need buildings and equipment, and insurance and staff and a lot of nice clothes and some of us need to get from point A to point B in a hurry so we need personal private jets  with operating flight crews and maintenance and we need to pay for publicity and we need to buy up our own books so we can get them on the New York Times best seller list and sell a whole lot more books than we could have otherwise...and a lot of other things.

 Jesus Cleanses the Temple



The crowds replied, “This is Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth in Galilee.”



Then Jesus went into the temple courts and drove out all who were buying and selling there.

  He overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those selling doves.

  And He declared to them, “It is written: ‘My house will be called a house of prayer.’ 

But you are making it ‘a den of robbers.’”
Matthew 21:11-13

 During Jesus’ ministry, the temple officials were “selling,” and worshipers were “buying,” access to the temple (Matt. 21:12). 

Their “buying and selling” turned “God’s house” into a “robbers’ den” (21:12–13), a “synagogue of Satan” (Rev. 2:9; 3:9). 

Only those Jews who aligned themselves with the priests, the sacrificial system, and the temple buildings were allowed to enter the temple for worship.

 If anyone approaching the temple did not have the mark of the beast, that is, if they did not align themselves with what the temple now represented apart from Christ, they could not “buy or sell” in order to offer the appropriate sacrifices.

If I receive revelation about the Scriptures from the Holy Spirit for free, do I now get to share my revelation to only those who can pay me?

Mining Christians for money?

Hiding what I freely received behind a paywall until Christians can pay up.

You need to give money if you want to get what those who are mining you have to offer.

You need to open your wallet like Jesus said, right?

No!

He explicitly said: 

  Freely you have received; freely give.

We must take another look at the above statement and pause while reflecting on it's meaning.

No one, not you or I , get to cross out freely give.

Especially if we received our revelation from the Holy Spirit and the Bible.

Have Christians been brain washed into thinking that Matthew 10:8 is just an optional statement?

Allowing themselves to be mined for money?

But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money....having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people. 
2 Timothy 3:1-5

Notice that lovers of self couples with lovers of money.

Get a name, get known far and wide, get money.

Christian take a real close look.

A Tree and its Fruit

Matthew 7
15Beware of false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. 16By their fruit you will recognize them. Are grapes gathered from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? 17Likewise, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit.…

Are you being mined for money?

Do Christians really need to monetize everything?

What is the average cost of website hosting? 

Quality Streaming live is now free for anyone. 

This man of God gets it.

He gives you options.

You can have access to all of his materials freely or you can choose to pay for them if you want to support his ministering.

He leaves it in the hands of God and you!

By the way, his teaching of the Bible is some of the finest you will find on the net today.

No pay walled ministry on his website trapping the ministry that he offers to Christians.

He obeys Jesus.

Here are some other men of God who get it.

They do not mine Christians for money, they freely minister to Christians like Jesus told His disciples to do.

  Freely you have received; freely give.

Next time you come up against a paywall between you and ministry, walk away!

But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money....having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people. 
2 Timothy 3:1-5

There is nothing wrong with you giving your voluntary support, tithes and love offerings to those in ministry that you choose to give to.

But being made to do as such before you can be ministered to is entirely another issue that goes against the words of Jesus Christ to His disciples.

Like I said, stop and pause and take a hard look at what is going on and ask yourself if you are being mined for money.

 Then Peter said, "Silver or gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you. 

In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk."
Acts 3:6

http://www.forwardprogressives.com/joel-osteens-missing-600000-pat-robertsons-questionable-friends/

Is Australia Becoming A Cashless Society? (abc.net.au)

Pastor Tilson Shumate is real big on last days things. Myself not so much.

I guess it was the 70's when a lot of ministries were based on really hyping last days stuff to the point of burn out.
 The Jesus People were real big on the topic.

I wonder what they would have thought about the Trump Tower being at 666 Fifth Avenue in New York?

 The Late Great Planet Earth would have included the United States. Anyone familiar with Lindsey’s timetable will remember that it was all to happen before 1988. Of course, these publishers are counting on people not remembering or not even knowing of past failed predictions.

One of the biggies is the cashless society, demonetisation.
We are seeing a generation that has no problem with it today.

With paypal and bit coin and Google wallet  , net banking, debit cards,etc it is now very possible to not handle cash.

Revelation 13:17 is used as the operating prophetic text on this issue:

 “And [the Beast] causes all, the small and the great, and the rich and the poor, and the free men and the slaves, to be given a mark on their right hand or on their forehead, and he provides that no one will be able to buy or to sell, except the one who has the mark, either the name of the beast or the number of his name.”

 How does this translate into a cashless society? The “mark” is the key to the transaction. Nothing is said about what the people are using to buy or sell. It just says that they can’t buy or sell without the “mark.”

 What if the world decides to make gold the coin of the realm? Wouldn’t this be a good thing? How could we oppose a world currency based on gold since it’s written into our constitution?

 “No State shall enter into any Treaty, Alliance, or Confederation; grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal; coin Money; emit Bills of Credit; make any Thing but gold and silver Coin a Tender in Payment of Debts; pass any Bill of Attainder, ex post facto Law, or Law impairing the Obligation of Contracts, or grant any Title of Nobility” (Art. 1, sec. 10).

Even the Bible considers gold to be a normative currency for everyone.

Right from the beginning the Bible speaks of gold:

 Genesis 2
¹⁰ And a river went out of Eden to water the garden; and from thence it was parted, and became into four heads.
¹¹ The name of the first is Pison: that is it which compasseth the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold;
¹² And the gold of that land is good: there is bdellium and the onyx stone.

Find Havilah and you find gold that is good.

But there is another (much better) gold:

 Jesus tells the church of Laodicea, “‘I advise you to buy from Me gold refined by fire, that you may become rich. . .’” (Rev. 3:18).

How were the people to buy gold from God? Buying gold refined by fire is symbolic and relates to spiritual worship.

The control of economic transactions drives modern claims of a one-world government controlled by the antichrist during the great tribulation. 

Using every means at his disposal, including the technology of a cashless society, the Antichrist and his demands will bring the world into its greatest-ever moral and economic turmoil.

Such chaos will make the stock market crash of 1929 look like a minor economic adjustment.
Revelation 13:16, 17 is the biblical point of entry for discussion of the cashless society, a one-world government, global economics, and biblical prophecy.

***

 Australia's Reserve Bank will roll out an instantaneous money-transferring technology later this year, "which will push Australia even further towards being a cashless society," according to ABC.

 An anonymous reader quotes their report: In 2014, 12 financial institutions signed up to build the "New Payment Platform," partly as a way of bringing Australia up to speed with other countries that are ahead in the race to becoming completely cashless.

 Sweden is on track to become the world's first completely cashless economy, and just last November India got rid of its highest denomination bills, effectively eliminating 90 per cent of its paper money... 

 The "New Payment Platform" will mean money can be transferred almost instantaneously, even when the payer and payee are members of different banks. 
 
"It's estimated that somewhere between about $3.5 and $5 billion in Australia every year is lost in tax revenue due to the sort of cash economy," says an economics professor at the University of New South Wales, who predicts Australia could be cash-free by 2020.

 The Australian Payments Association reports that over 75% of the country's face-to-face payments are already tap-and-go, and ATM withdrawals have sunk to a 15-year low.

Riot Control Vehicle That Dominates

Ouch!

Are you an urban police force thinking about how to control your fellow humans? Look no farther! Your pals at Bozena have an all-new RIOT system, a crowd-control killdozer for all your protest-suppressing needs!

US Workers Face A Higher Risk Of Being Replaced By Robots (cnn.com)

There's a surprising prediction for the next 15 years from the world's second largest professional services firm. 

An anonymous reader quotes CNN: Millions of workers around the world are at risk of losing their jobs to robots -- but Americans should be particularly worried.

 Thirty-eight percent of jobs in the U.S. are at high risk of being replaced by robots and artificial intelligence over the next 15 years, according to a new report by PwC. Meanwhile, only 30% of jobs

in the U.K. are similarly endangered. The same level of risk applies to only 21% of positions in Japan. 
 
61% of America's financial service jobs "are at a high risk of being replaced by robots," according to the article, vs. just 32% of the finance jobs in the U.K. (Those U.S. finance jobs tend to be "domestic retail operations" like small-town bank tellers, whereas U.K. finance jobs concentrate more in international finance and investment banking.)

The firm's chief economist sees a world where new jobs are more likely to go to higher-skilled workers, and he ultimately predicts "a restructuring of the jobs market...

The gap between rich and poor could get even wider."

'New' Clouds Earn Atlas Recognition (bbc.com)

Twelve "new" types of cloud -- including the rare, wave-like asperitas cloud -- have been recognized for the first time by the International Cloud Atlas. 

From a report: The atlas, which dates back to the 19th Century, is the global reference book for observing and identifying clouds.

 Last revised in 1987, its new fully-digital edition includes the asperitas after campaigns by citizen scientists. 

Other new entries include the roll-like volutus, and contrails, clouds formed from the vapour trail of aeroplanes.

 Since its first publication in 1896, the International Cloud Atlas has become an important reference tool for people working in meteorological services, aviation and shipping. 

The first edition contained 28 coloured photographs and set out detailed standards for classifying clouds. The last full edition was published in 1975 with a revision in 1987, which quickly became a collector's item. 

Now, embracing the digital era, the new atlas will initially be available as a web portal, and accessible to the public for the first time.

 ***

All of these "New" cloud formations are a direct result of man manipulating the weather for various reasons. 
http://www.geoengineeringwatch.org/

Why American Farmers Are Hacking Their Tractors With Ukrainian Firmware (vice.com)

Tractor owners across the country are reportedly hacking their John Deere tractors using firmware that's cracked in Easter Europe and traded on invite-only, paid online forums.

The reason is because John Deere and other manufacturers have "made it impossible to perform 'unauthorized' repair on farm equipment," which has obviously upset many farmers who see it "as an attack on their sovereignty and quite possibly an existential threat to their livelihood if their tractor breaks at an inopportune time," reports Jason Koebler via Motherboard.

 As is the case with most modern-day engineering vehicles, the mechanical problems experienced with the newer farming tractors are often remedied via software.

From the report: The nightmare scenario, and a fear I heard expressed over and over again in talking with farmers, is that John Deere could remotely shut down a tractor and there wouldn't be anything a farmer could do about it.

 A license agreement John Deere required farmers to sign in October forbids nearly all repair and modification to farming equipment, and prevents farmers from suing for "crop loss, lost profits, loss of goodwill, loss of use of equipment [...] arising from the performance or non-performance of any aspect of the software." 

The agreement applies to anyone who turns the key or otherwise uses a John Deere tractor with embedded software. 

It means that only John Deere dealerships and "authorized" repair shops can work on newer tractors.

 "If a farmer bought the tractor, he should be able to do whatever he wants with it," Kevin Kenney, a farmer and right-to-repair advocate in Nebraska, told me.

 "You want to replace a transmission and you take it to an independent mechanic -- he can put in the new transmission but the tractor can't drive out of the shop. 

Deere charges $230, plus $130 an hour for a technician to drive out and plug a connector into their USB port to authorize the part." 

"What you've got is technicians running around here with cracked Ukrainian John Deere software that they bought off the black market," he added. 

***

Kind of like itunes music.

You think your buying music but you don't actually own your copy of the music.

When agreeing to download songs on the iTunes Store, users are paying for the license to listen to the song on an Apple device; they are not purchasing the song itself.

 Apple is not the only digital distributor that restricts users from limitless sharing or transferring of legal downloads. Amazon and Google Play have similar jargon in their terms and conditions.

Clinging to the industry of distribution, record labels devised these terms in the digital era to ensure that future generations would pay for new formats.

***

 A corporate squabble over printer toner cartridges doesn't sound particularly glamorous, and the phrase "patent exhaustion" is probably already causing your eyes to glaze over. 

However, these otherwise boring topics are the crux of a Supreme Court case that will answer a question with far-reaching impact for all consumers: 

Can a company that sold you something use its patent on that product to control how you choose to use after you buy it? The case in question is Impression Products, Inc v Lexmark International, Inc, came before the nation's highest court on Tuesday.

 Here's the background: Lexmark makes printers. Printers need toner in order to print, and Lexmark also happens to sell toner. Then there's Impression Products, a third-party company makes and refills toner cartridges for use in printers, including Lexmark's. Lexmark, however, doesn't want that; if you use third-party toner cartridges, that's money that Lexmark doesn't make.

 So it sued, which brings us to the legal chain that ended up at the Supreme Court. In an effort to keep others from getting a piece of that sweet toner revenue, Lexmark turned to its patents: 

The company began selling printer cartridges with a notice on the package forbidding reuse or transfer to third parties. Then, when a third-party -- like Impression -- came around reselling or recycling the cartridges, Lexmark could accuse them of patent infringement. So far the courts have sided with Lexmark, ruling that Impression was using Lexmark's patented technology in an unauthorized way. 

The Supreme Court is Impression's last avenue of appeal. 

The question before the Supreme Court isn't one of "can Lexmark patent this?" Because Lexmark can, and has. The question is, rather: Can patent exhaustion still be a thing, or does the original manufacturer get to keep having the final say in what you and others can do with the product?

Kate Cox notes via Consumerist that the Supreme Court ruling is still likely months away. However, she has provided a link to the transcript of this week's oral arguments (PDF) in her report and has dissected it to see which way the justices are leaning on the issue.

***

Patents Are A Big Part Of Why We Can't Own Nice Things (eff.or

Today, the Supreme Court heard arguments in a case that could allow companies to keep a dead hand of control over their products, even after you buy them. The case, Impression Products v. Lexmark International, is on appeal from the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, who last year affirmed its own precedent allowing patent holders to restrict how consumers can use the products they buy. 

That decision, and the precedent it relied on, departs from long established legal rules that safeguard consumers and enable innovation. When you buy something physical -- a toaster, a book, or a printer, for example -- you expect to be free to use it as you see fit: 

to adapt it to suit your needs, fix it when it breaks, re-use it, lend it, sell it, or give it away when you're done with it.

  Your freedom to do those things is a necessary aspect of your ownership of those objects.

 If you can't do them, because the seller or manufacturer has imposed restrictions or limitations on your use of the product, then you don't really own them. Traditionally, the law safeguards these freedoms by discouraging sellers from imposing certain conditions or restrictions on the sale of goods and property, and limiting the circumstances in which those restrictions may be imposed by contract.

 

 But some companies are relentless in their quest to circumvent and undermine these protections. 

They want to control what end users of their products can do with the stuff they ostensibly own, by attaching restrictions and conditions on purchasers, locking down their products, and locking you (along with competitors and researchers) out. 

 If they can do that through patent law, rather than ordinary contract, it would mean they could evade legal limits on contracts, and that any one using a product in violation of those restrictions (whether a consumer or competitor) could face harsh penalties for patent infringement.

Freedom In Christ Not Legalism Or Religious Bondage Or "A Message For Dan."

Freedom

Our guest (JRS) in this post gave this Word to a group of young Southern California prophets originally back in the seventies. 

This is apostolic level teaching.

 What is spirituality and what is religion?

 How do we keep from becoming legalistic and mechanical in our lives?

This teaching makes it quite clear and comprehensible.

 Most current day Christians are caught up in religious bondage of one sort or another.

I would read this over and over until it got into my spirit.

 This is the kind of teaching one would expect of an apostle.

I present to you:

***

Freedom in the Spirit

A great deal of discipline and austerity will be found in the life~style of true prophets in the days to come.

 Unless they are exceedingly careful, they could fall into the trap that destroys prophets: the trap of a legalistic approach to God, thinking that this is the only way to get a Word from God.

Therefore, we must define circumcision and grace respectively, in order to measure up to what God wants and not fall back under bondage.

The fifth chapter of Paul's epistle to the Galatians is like a great charter of all liberty and grace.

Read in its entirety, verse by verse, it will be more than just a review of doctrines; it will penetrate your very being until you begin to think and feel and to react according to its phrases.

If you are not careful, these terms and phrases will only become mechanical to you; but if you absorb the meaning of them, they will become tremendously liberating.

We must be free in Christ.

 For freedom did Christ set us free (the purpose of freedom is freedom): stand fast therefore, and be not entangled again in the yoke of bondage. Galatians 5:1.

Notice that bondage is defined here as a yoke.

However, the word "yoke" does not always have a negative connotation.

Paul wrote to his true "yoke-fellows" (Philippians 4:3).

Jesus said, "Take My yoke upon you..." (Matthew 11:29).

The yoke is pictured in the New Testament as the symbol of harnessing us for service and for the battle before us.

 It ties us irrevocably to another, to Christ, or to a fellow~worker.

 To be true yoke-fellows may look like bondage, but it is not.

There is a difference between a yoke of bondage, a yoke of service, and a yoke of love.

Galatians 5 deals with the origin and nature of bondage.

 Whether that bondage comes through the flesh at one extreme, or through religion, it is still the yoke of bondage.

God does not desire to see us under a yoke of bondage.

In Galatians 5, "circumcision" is applied as a term of religious bondage.

 Behold, I Paul say unto you, that, if ye receive circumcision, Christ will profit you nothing.

 No statement could be more blunt.

 What is circumcision?

 Circumcision is an outward religious sign or expression or ritual or austerity of the flesh that is given as evidence of God's acceptance.

 It may also be a rule by which one is accepted.

At the beginning, Abraham received the sign of circumcision, because he had been accepted and had received a covenant with God (Genesis 17:9-14).

 When God gave him this sign, Abraham was uncircumcised; but he received the covenant by faith.

The minute you divorce the faith of Abraham from the circumcision ritual, you have destroyed it.

Nothing profits from it; nothing of any benefit results.

Do you see why we must be careful not to set certain standards and rules and regulations whereby prophets are accepted?

God forbid that we would ever create an order of prophets who all wear sackcloth or burlap, and hold their austerity to the flesh as a sign that they are accepted by God.

The Word says that if we were to pursue such a course, Christ would profit us nothing.

 That is why Jesus condemned the Pharisees.

 There was no evidence of any spiritual walk among them, but they had all kinds of outward evidences, religious rituals and observances- pool it all together and call it circumcision.

Circumcision signifies that something has been cut off.

 Circumcision was a ritual by which the foreskin of the male was cut off.

This was supposed to be a sign of God's acceptance of Abraham and all of his descendants.

There is still disagreement about circumcision from a medical viewpoint.

 For quite a season doctors circumcised boy infants almost immediately after birth, because it could be done easily when the child was very small.

 Now there is a growing tendency to believe that the foreskin should remain and that circumcision makes no difference in promoting better health.

Circumcision came into the picture because it was originally a sign of God's favor upon Abraham and the covenant of faith that God had made with him.

But if it becomes just an austerity of the flesh to prove that a man is accepted by God, and if it is like the word "shibboleth" that at a certain time some had to pronounce to prove that they were people of God (Judges 12:6), then true freedom will not work for us.

Yea, I testify again to every man the receiveth circumcision, that he is a debtor to do the whole law.

As soon as a man attempts to please God by religious ritual, then he has to please Him in every respect.

He then loses the benefit of substitutionary righteousness, transference of righteousness, and identification with Christ's righteousness.

 He loses it all the minute he undertakes to be righteous in his own self.

A spiritual walk with God cannot be a program of discipline. It has to be an appropriation from God.

Ye are severed from Christ, ye who would be justified by the law; ye are fallen away from grace.

 Righteousness has to come from an outside source by a miracle transference of nature until you are

no longer unrighteous, but righteous by virtue of a nature from an outside source.

 Otherwise, you will try to generate righteousness within yourself.

Religious people without faith set about to build up their own respectable righteousness through discipline, asserting that every day in every way they are becoming better and better.

 They would be the type that loves the slogan, "WWJD", (What would Jesus Do) since they are at the controls of their own righteousness.

In their eyes and by the standards which they have established, they claim to be accepted by God.

That typifies the oldest religious effort there is.

 It was manifested at the tower of Babel, when men tried to build their own way up to heaven (Genesis 11:1-9).

You do not work up to God; God reaches down to you.

In no way can you come with any works of righteousness that have a merit before God.

You do not work up to the cross to receive salvation, but you surely work diligently from the cross.

As soon as God takes hold of you, you go to work.

 Because your life is redeemed, you are qualified.

But you do not work up to God.

 

 When God touches you, you work outward from what God has done in your life.

God lifts you to Himself, and you reach into Him.

If you try to take the stairs, you will never get there.

Take the elevator.

Take His provision.

 Be lifted into His very presence.

Paul said, "You are fallen away from grace if you believe that righteousness is generated from within you."

 No real righteousness can come forth that way.

That is why the Law was imposed in the Old Testament; every man making an effort to keep it would be proven a sinner before God.

 The Law came to give the knowledge of sin.

 If there were no Law, we would not know what sinners we really are.

 The Law came that we might see sin to be exceedingly sinful and realize that we cannot with our human nature produce in any way the righteousness that God will accept.

The Law had to come in order to reveal the fact that grace was the only route, yet invariably believers are deceived into trying to keep a few rules and regulations to be righteous (WWJD).

 You absolutely will not be righteous because you keep certain laws, even if you write your own laws (which is what many people do).

Galatians 5:5 presents the way to righteousness so simply.

 For we through the Spirit by faith wait for the hope of righteousness.

 Righteousness has to come from an outside source to our inward nature.

We do not produce it, but we actually receive righteousness from another.

Whose righteousness?

 Christ's righteousness.

 What can we do for that righteousness?

Believe.

Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness (James 2:23).

God, foreseeing what He would do through Abraham, reached ahead to the work of the cross by which salvation was to come; and because Abraham was faithful to believe, God accounted the righteousness of Christ to him and laid it all before him.

 Abraham was righteous in God's sight, even though he still made many mistakes.

As we walk on with the Lord in these times, there is no reason we cannot have a far greater understanding of righteousness than Abraham had.

 This is a time that the Lord is going to rain righteousness upon us.

Hosea 10:12 says that it is time to seek the Lord until He comes and rains righteousness upon us.

 The work that Christ does in the earth will be finished quickly in righteousness (Romans 9:28).

 The King James version says that He will cut it short in righteousness.

We may need to increase austerity and discipline in our approach to God, but this does not mean that we can attain righteousness through that.

We must discipline ourselves to the course of faith and to the course of grace, not to the course of law. Let us give ourselves over to the grace of God and believe for Him to rain righteousness upon us.

The Body of Christ today will not be focused on cleaning itself from the little problems of people who walk into the spiritual sanctuary of God with "muddy feet."

 Those who come from a background of sin where they have become tolerant of sin and abounding iniquity and the changing moral standards often do not even have a conscience about sin.

When they finally come to God, they trample into the Holiest of Holies with very "muddy feet."

 But God says to them, "I will make you clean and righteous. What counts now is not what you were, but what I am going to rain upon you. I will give you My righteousness."

We shall never be able to come into true righteousness by all sorts of discipline.

Although we are not under the Law but under the grace of God, and God does not look upon us to enforce little rules and regulations, yet God's sense of righteousness and holiness remains the same whether we are under the Law or under grace.

 What God wants out of us does not fluctuate.

God looks at a the man who is under the Law and He says, "You will never make it because your righteousness is like filthy rags" (Isaiah 64:6).

He looks at the man who sees grace as only an excuse to cover up his sin nature, and He says, "That is not grace either."

Grace brings a hope of righteousness and a faith.

For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision (the austerity of the flesh that tries to please God) availeth anything, nor uncircumcision.

The Christian world is filled with people who through the years have taken truths from the Word of God, and instead of finding the spirit of them, they let them deteriorate into a legalistic observance.

 For instance, some people cling to religious modes of dress.

Such customs have become to them like circumcision, a sign of goodness that they hold; but in truth they are filthy rags.

 Christ said that the outward appearance of the pharisee is like a whited sepulcher, beautifully polished but rotten inside, filled with dead men's bones (Matthew 23:27).

Inside is the filth and the evil just the same.

We certainly do not want that form of deceit. Dead men's bones are dead men's bones.

Whether you polish the outside of the tomb of circumcision, or rip it open and let the bones lie there in plain sight, they are still filthy bones.

The basic nature of sin is still there.

If circumcision does not avail anything, and uncircumcision does not avail anything, then what does?

 But faith working through love.

Believe God.

 Take hold of God, and let Him transform you.

You can change, but because of willpower and a regimentation of your thinking and of your life.

You will change because you are going to be a believer.

When you believe, God's nature will be given to you and imparted to you.

All change comes from outside of you.

 It is not generated within you.

 It comes to you, and it is put within you; then it grows and develops.

God gives you a transplant of righteousness.

 He takes out of you a heart of stone, and he puts in you a heart of flesh (Ezekiel 36:26).

He takes out the heart of wickedness, and he puts in another heart.

Medical science has begun to make heart transplants, but God was doing this first.

 He promises to take out of you what is wrong and put in you of Himself what is right.

 God imparts and imputes His righteousness to you.

God sees you functioning with His heart, His faith, and walking in His righteousness, and He exclaims, "That is better!" 

You look up and say, "I love you, Jesus." 

And He responds, "You love Me because I first loved you. If I had not beamed My love to you, it would not have transformed you.

You are only loving me back with my own love. You are believing with My faith. You are walking in My righteousness and in My holiness. You are moving in My power and in My grace."

This is what is acceptable in the sight of God.

This is righteousness that you want. God wants to bring it forth in you.

 See it!

Embrace it to your heart!

Let the Lord minister to you and make it alive to you.

We seem to sense our total dependency on God's grace in elementary salvation, but then we forget it.

We start a new life in the grace of God, but later we tend to think that it is all up to us.

There is an austerity and a diligence that we must exercise, and the Word constantly exhorts us to that.

 The only caution is not to go back to deadly legalism, thinking that we can produce righteousness of God.

The Galatians fell into a great deal of difficulty when they forgot that the only thing that works is faith working by love.

 Paul wrote to them, "Ye were running well; who hindered you that ye should not obey the truth?"

 He looked at all of the Galatians who had fallen, and he said, "You were doing well running the race. Who tripped you? God did not trip you. These hindrances must have come from some other source."

Hindrances come from the devil and from our own flesh. If we are not open to them, we will not be subject to them.

Above everything else, remember that Satan is a religious spirit who comes as an angel of light, and his ministers are transformed as ministers of righteousness (II Corinthians 11:14).

There will be those who will rise up full of the devil, using their egotistical religious judgment to condemn those who are really walking with their God.

 Satan will be walking around in men who appear as ministers of righteousness.

That is the way the devil comes.

More people will go to hell over religion than will ever go to hell over sin.

 Would you like to have that explained?

First of all, sin is sin, and every human born is shaped in iniquity; thus all are assumed to be condemned already (Psalm 51:5).

But how many will go to hell as sinners with a focus on religious observances which make them think they are going in the right direction?

That is where the great multitudes are being deceived.

 Everyone has some kind of religion, even atheists.

 The Russians who do not believe in God are building seminaries that train people not to worship God.

 Representatives of the Greek Orthodox Church of Russia are predominant in the World Council of Churches.

 Men raised and steeped in atheism are controlling many Christian churches.

Years ago, a preacher came to a sawmill to preach.

 The lumberjacks were rough, accustomed to going into town to carouse and drink, and they did not want to hear any preacher tell them that they were sinners.

 But they agreed to listen the next Sunday if they could give him the subject.

 The deal was settled.

The next Sunday the lumberjacks all sat down and said, Reverend, we decided that you are to preach on the subject, "To hell with Religion."

 That was like baiting a bear, and so the preacher then preached on how people were going to hell with religion.

It is not how orthodox you are that counts; it is how transformed you are.

 A man may be very orthodox in his style of religion and adhere to it very closely; yet all his he is doing is going through an outward religious sign or ritual or austerity of the flesh as his evidence to the world that he is accepted by God.

But God does not accept that, and such a man will go to hell with religion.

Paul wrote to the Galatians, "You were running well, Who tripped you?" 

When you slip back into that legalistic pattern, you will fall on your face every time.

 He asked, "Where is the joy? Where is the blessedness that you spoke of?" (Galatians 4:15).

They were once bubbling over with joy.

Whenever God is performing a work in your life, there is joy and a rejoicing in everything.

When that goes, it is just a heavy burden, and you are carrying your heaven on your shoulders.

This persuasion came not of him that calleth you. (It did not come from God.)

 A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump.

 Every time we see that little leaven of legalism, it should strike a godly fear in our hearts.

How we must keep it out before it permeates everything!

 It reaches through to a person's spirit.

 You can see it in a person, but you do not know how to stamp it out.

 Even after almost all of it has come out, the little that remains will start festering again and corrupt the whole nature of that person.

Legalism is deadly, because it is the lie of Satan, which says that the flesh can religiously produce righteousness.

The lie of the devil says that if you try real hard, you can produce righteousness.

 It is true that we must bear hard on the way that we live and the way that we walk, but it cannot be with a legalism to produce righteousness.

 Instead, we must refuse to give expression to the flesh, in order that we might seek God according to the Spirit and receive.

 There must be a great deal of worship and appropriation.

The idea must always be in your mind that by the grace of God His prophets will come forth.

An end~time apostolic company will be a ministry of grace in the earth.

If you produce everything that legalism can produce, you have conformed to a certain straitjacket of conduct, and you do not violate it.

You have the old nature harnessed up.

You are able to name a long list of sins, though it be a vast catalog, and say, "I am not guilty of doing any of these things. I am in my religious straitjacket which I have worked hard to produce."

That is like trying to manufacture a living person.

 Suppose all the necessary tissue and the flesh were somehow put together; there is still the problem that no one has breathed into him the breath of life.

 There is no generation of divine nature in him.

If he can go through the motions he is still an imitation.

We may be able to produce something and say, "see, God, we have measured right up. We have everything here."

Will He accept that?

No!

 The artificially good man is a foreign and a strange thing to be banished from His sight, because it is not His creation.

 If we are anything at all, we are a new creation (II Corinthians 5:17).

If we are not that, we are nothing.

We are to be a new creation of God, created in Christ Jesus unto good works (Ephesians 2:10).

 It is true that the growth and development of our natural bodies depend upon the way we eat and the way we exercise.

To grow spiritually, we must learn the rhythm of drawing from God and ministering out; then drawing from God and ministering out.

 Soon we will find ourselves growing.

Exercise is a factor in our growth in the grace of God, but it remains exactly that- a growth in the grace of God.

 It is not a legalistic conformity we adhere to, until we produce something that looks like God.

 A new creation will not just look like God; it will be God!

It is very difficult even for an Evangelical Fundamentalist to grasp this truth.

Many are still trying to imitate Christ in every way.

That is where their doctrine breaks down. Paul said, "For me to live is Christ" (Notice: is Christ). Philippians 1:21.

 In other words. "I am appropriating Him in everything I do.

When I am running, I am running in Jesus; I am not running for Jesus. 

When I preach, it is Christ within me coming forth.

 I am not working for the Lord."

Many young converts want to go out and work for the Lord.

 They want to go out in the harvest field and work for Jesus.

He does not need anyone to work for Him; He just needs someone to be a channel through whom He can work. Jesus wants to work through you!

There is a difference!

 Although it looks like the same, there is as much difference as between night and day.

Take a close look at the man who is out working for Jesus.

He may have the right expression on his face; he may look more religious and more spiritual than those through whom Christ is working because they are relaxed.

They do not wear a certain pained expression.

They are not bound in a disciplined straitjacket.

 They are free.

 Every time they breath, they are breathing Jesus.

 Every time they speak, they speak Jesus.

They do not pray for God to do something; they stand with Christ who proclaims it through them.

 They are moving in God, and God is moving in them.

By the time Paul had reached the ninth verse, all the prophets had been convinced to go the route of grace, and so he continued: "I have confidence to you~ward in the Lord, that ye will be none otherwise minded: but he that troubleth you shall bear his judgment, whosoever he be.

 But I, brethren, if I still preach circumcision, why am I still persecuted? then hath the stumbling~block of the cross been done away." Galatians 5:10,11.

 That stumbling block of the cross comes when you believe for the imparted righteousness.

Who are the legalists?

Anyone who is persecuting the living Word of grace.

 The reproach, the stumbling block of the cross, is on those who walk by grace.

 What is the real message of the cross?

 To believe that you morbidly go through the sufferings for the work of the cross is a distortion of truth.

The work of the cross and what Christ did in the cross are rarely understood by people.

The stumbling block of the cross should be defined.

The Lord laid upon Jesus the iniquity of us all (Isaiah 53:6).

Christ suffered vicariously on our behalf.

The cross was an instrument by which one man suffered for all of us.

One man was suffering for the sins of another, in order that He could see those sins forgiven and put the man in the place where, without condemnation, He could minister life from God to him; and that man could become a new creature.

As the work of the cross is being done in you and you suffer, you are not dying, but you are appropriating Christ's death.

 What you suffer in the work of the cross is just God putting pressures on you to push you to the place where you will appropriate the merits of His death and submit to an experience of His death.

 It is the work of His cross in you.

 Never get the idea that it is your cross, or you will go back to a legalistic effort which believes, "Well, Christ died; now I have to go and die too." 

No, you have to appropriate His death.

 Do you understand the difference?

The work of the cross takes place under pressures that God puts on you so that you will not stop short of going right on to the perfection and the resurrection life that He has provided for you.

You are not really dying, though you may feel as if you are dying.

The symptoms are all the same because the pressure is on you.

You are put under such pressure that nothing of the carnal life is worth living for.

You are forced to appropriate more of Him.

Necessity places you where you need something from Him so desperately that you reach out and grab it from Him.

 Afterwards, you strut around, saying, "You know, I had a real meeting with God. 

You would just be amazed to see what the Lord made so real to me.

 It was wonderful!"

 The Lord looks down and chuckles, "If I had not put him in a vice and squeezed him, he would not have hollered and cried to Me, and his heart would not have been met like that."

The work of the cross is found in the pressures of the Spirit of God upon you to get you to appropriate the full measure of the sufferings of Christ on your behalf.

Paul said, "If I am preaching circumcision, then why am I being persecuted?" 

Pharisees are never persecuted. No one ever persecuted the legalist's circumcision.

 They experience a little trouble now and then over minor things, but there is no real persecution against them.

 Persecution comes upon the people who are on the trail of true righteousness, because they come forth with real righteousness.

The other people look at their own substitutions; and knowing that they do not have true righteousness, they get angry at those who have it.

Why did Cain persecute his brother?

 Because his own deeds were unrighteous and his brother's were righteous.

Do not think that Cain was not religious.

He brought the fruit of the earth to the altar, and he must have had quite a display.

 He went through the motions, probably calling on God, "O God, be pleased and look at what I am doing!"

Meanwhile Abel was being exceedingly blessed because he approached God in the right way.

So Cain, because his own deeds were unrighteous and his brother's were righteous, persecuted him (Genesis 4:1-11).

The pattern is always the same.

Persecution comes from people who are religious against people who are spiritual.

The people who are religious condemn the people who are spiritual, but they do not condemn the people out in the world, no matter how wicked they are.

The wicked are not a challenge to the ones who esteem themselves to be religiously superior.

 A man never persecutes those who in his opinion are inferior.

He tends to be condescending and tolerant of the man who he thinks is on a lesser scale then he himself.

 He always persecutes the one who he knows has the truth.

 II Timothy 3:12 gives the reason behind the persecution: ...all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.

Galatians 5:12 defines what the circumcision party was in the mind of Paul.

 "I would that they that unsettle you would even go beyond circumcision (an entire cutting off of the unit).

The New American Standard Bible says, would even mutilate themselves.

 In other words, if they want to be religious, let them be extremely religious.

"For ye, brethren, were called for freedom. 

Freedom from what?

 Freedom from the religious program, freedom from the circumcision bondage, freedom from the yoke of bondage, as it is identified at the beginning of the chapter and described thereafter in every verse.

"Only use not your freedom for an occasion of the flesh." 

You were called to be free.

 Even though you are not bound by some legalistic discipline in a religious sense, be careful that your freedom is not diverted to an occasion to the flesh.

Years ago, young people who were raised under legalism dressed austerely and always had a chaperon when they went on dates.

 They could hardly even hold hands.

Where that no longer exists, what will happen to those who go out and cuddle for a while, thinking they are free?

 In their so~called freedom, they will awaken the flesh.

Where circumcision does not avail anything, uncircumcision surely does not either. Only a new creature, only a new creation, avails anything.

You can tempt the flesh and give an occasion to the flesh and fall right back into sin.

Just because you are not on a religious course of legalism does not mean that you cannot fall into a pitfall on the other side.

There is only one way that you can go~ by the grace of God and becoming a whole new creature.

Faith which works by love brings freedom. Only do not use your freedom for an occasion to the flesh.

Why is that so many single girls lose their virtue in the bedroom?

A girl can blame the man who tempted and seduced her, but she had no right to be there with him.

 Stay away from the occasion to the flesh. That is not legalism; that is just good sense.

"But through love be servants one to another."

That is the whole purpose of our freedom.

One of the best safeguards we have is that we can take our liberty and determine how to use it.

We are free to become servants of one another.

That is the approach that should exist even in courtship.

 If people are drawn together by a mutual attraction, it indicates an inferior relationship.

It is better if they are drawn together by the manifestations of God's love, rather than a fleshly capacity of love.

Christian girls who seem to be attractive are the handmaidens to the Body of Christ.

 Likewise, Christian men who seem to be desirable are not those with the image of a seducer, but men who serve the people of God.

  The divine love that emanates from them draws every relationship that exists in their lives into a rightness before God, because they have used their liberty to choose to be servants of one another.

There are new standards of acceptance among the members of Christ's Body.

We shall look to see the emanating love of a new nature in a brother.

 We shall look to see the evidence of grace, the faith that is working by love.

 We will see the liberty that has deliberately chosen the bond~servant role to fulfill.

 These will be the qualities to look for in one another.

"For the whole law is fulfilled in one word, even this: Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.

 But if you bite and devour one another, take heed that ye be not consumed one of another."

 Love edifies and constantly makes an addition of Christ to your brother.

 It constantly appropriates more of Christ in yourself.

 But criticism and viciousness that exist in your spirit and your attitude becomes destructive.

The Body of Christ is self~destroyed if we bite and devour one another and are consumed one of another.

"But I say, Walk by the Spirit, and ye will not fulfill the lust of the flesh."

 As we come up into the realm of grace and learn how to walk in the Spirit of the Lord, what takes place for us then?

 The mechanism for the fulfillment of the flesh disconnects within us.

The Bible tells us how this mechanism works.

 When lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin; sin, when it has had it's perfect work, bringeth forth death (James 1:15).

So all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the pride of life, starts a certain process going (I John 2:16).

A man is just as good as dead if he gets on the first rung of the ladder - that particular process by which his old flesh leads him to sin - because he will surely climb right to the top and jump off.

It is not legalism for a man who has been an alcoholic to know that he should not even smell a cork, let alone go to a party where drinks will be given to him; he knows better.

 He knows that he must not take that first step, or else the lust will start to conceive, and it will bring forth one sin after another.

The next thing he knows, he will be hopelessly lost in it.

 So he does not give an occasion to Instead, he spends his time worshiping the Lord.

He walks in the Spirit, and he does not fulfill the lust of the flesh.

He does not walk into the area where that first trigger will be pulled, that first domino will be toppled.

A man who knows that he is weak morally does not allow himself to be in a situation where the sparks start flying, where he knows that he is already set to commit fornication before he is through with that route.

  He does not want to sin against God and make a bond that will be destructive to his walk with God, and then have a difficult recovery.

 If he knows better, he wears blinders against such a situation.

That is not legalism; it is just good sense.

 He knows that he cannot start out on a toboggan and decide to slide for only ten feet.

He knows that if he goes ten feel, he will go all the way to the finish before he stops.

So it is not legalistic for him to declare, " I am going to walk in the Spirit, and I will not fulfill the lusts of the flesh."

 It is just that certain. "I will walk with God, and I will be interceding and praying."

Intercession for today's apostolic company to come forth has resulted in more people being liberated from the bondage's of flesh then every before.

When they spend all night praying, they are too tired afterwards to think about the things of the flesh.

They are rejoicing in the will of God.

They are sowing to Spirit, and they are reaping life everlasting (Galatians 6:8).

 If they had been sowing to the flesh, that is what they would reap.

One reason that laziness is closely aligned with sin is that laziness invariably throws a person into the place where the first trigger is pulled.

Lazy people have little resistance to sin, because they are constantly exposed to the things in the flesh that trigger off the actions and reactions in the fleshly world.

 A man who is busy serving God is able to subordinate every instinct of the flesh, every process of his body, and bring them into subjection.

 In his dedication to walk with God and to walk in the Spirit, everything else is completely dominated.

Walk in the Spirit, and you will not fulfill the lusts of the flesh.

This is grace; it is not legalism..

Ask the Lord to make this real to you and to teach you to walk in the Spirit.

For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are contrary to the one to the other; that ye may not do the things that y would.

 But if ye are led by the Spirit, ye are not under the law (Galatians 5:17,18).

You are not under the law if you are led by the Spirit of the Lord. Galatians 5 contrasts a man who is spiritual with a man who is religious.

Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these: fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry.

  These sins have a religious origin.

Do not think that the flesh cannot be religious.

 Your religious instinct comes from the flesh; it does not come from the spirit.

 Sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousies, wraths, factions, divisions (denominational-ism and everything that divides the Body of Christ is included here), parties (a kind of divisive spirit), envyings, drunkenness, revelings and such like; of which I forewarn you, even as I did forewarn you, that they who practice such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.

 Verses 19-21.

 The flesh leads a person into these things.

But what does walking in the Spirit and walking in the grace of God lead us to?

 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, meekness, self-control.

Self-control is not another legalistic measure.

 It is one things to be legalistic, and it is another thing to be in complete control of every faculty, every desire, every interest, every function and every instinct of one's self.

 By the Holy Spirit you become completely able to walk as a new creature coming forth in Christ.

Against such there is not law.

You are not under the law, because you are actually motivated by godly incentives that are not controlled by man.

 The flesh is motivated by motivations that have to be controlled.

Lust leads to fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry.

All these things are the instincts of the flesh, and they must by regulated.

 Consequently, in ancient times every such work of the flesh was under control.

 In this sophisticated day, sorcery or witchcraft in America is not put under the category of the works of the flesh to be regulated by laws.

Nevertheless, when it is operating, the individuals involved often break certain other laws for which they can be prosecuted.

The law is set to keep down everything that the flesh produces.

Almost all works of the flesh are put under some kind of law or control.

Every government has had to enact laws to control the weaknesses of the flesh.

 However, no government that exists at the present time should control the way that people worship God.

 Someone who moves in the Spirit with pure love finds the will of the Lord and conforms to all the divine principles which are not under the law.

The civil law cannot make any rule about them.

 There is no law about joy.

You can be just as joyful as you want to be.

You can draw in the Holy Spirit and be completely filled with joy, for there is no law against it.

What about peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, and faithfulness?

No one has invented a law to regulate any of these yet.

That is why Paul said that against such there is no law.

And they that are of Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with the passions and the lusts thereof.

 If we live by the Spirit, by the Spirit let us also walk.

 Let us not become vainglorious, provoking one another, envying one another.

This is the way to pursue a life in the Spirit.

We are not to be just a free, happy-go-lucky people, but we must seek to walk in God and have this faith which will become very real to us.
 Corinthians at approximately the same time, telling them that he brought his body into subjection in order to fight a good fight and not be as one who beat the air (I Corinthians 9:26,27)
The same apostle who wrote this epistle to the Galatians also wrote to the Corinthians.

The Apostle Paul was determined.

He placed a discipline upon his body, but only so that he could do the will of God.

 It was not to merit favor with God.

 It was not a religious form of circumcision or a religious, fleshly austerity.

He disciplined his body to make it serve him.

All of us would be wise to follow Paul's example.

We want God to direct us in finding ways to promote our health and strength.

But the objective is not just to be healthy, but to be able to handle the whole flow of ministry that God would require of us.

 For instance, we do not want to be subject to headaches when we want to move in revelation.

 We want our bodies to be able to serve the Lord, to be temples of the Hold Spirit (I Corinthians 6:19).

We may not end up health food faddists, but we certainly do not want to be junk food addicts either.

Let us look to the Lord to teach us how to take care of our bodies.

By revelation, born of the Spirit of the Lord, we can set ourselves to become today's prophets of God in the earth.

That is grace.

It may look like the same kind of discipline that the legalist has, but the legalist goes nowhere with his discipline because it is sterile and abortive.

That which is born of the flesh is flesh.

 A boar and a sow will never produce anything else but PIGS, PIGS, PIGS!

Likewise, that which is born of the flesh is FLESH, FLESH, FLESH!

It may be legalistic and disciplined, but it cannot rise to the new level of life, because you cannot generate and produce that.

 Your flesh can produce nothing but religious flesh, It just gets a little m ore religious and little fleshy the harder you try, but it is still PIGS, PIGS, PIGS!

But that which is born of the Spirit is SPIRIT!

Reach out for the grace of God, because what has to come forth is GOD!

 Not PIGS, but GOD!

We have to born of the Spirit.

 This sets our goal.

As we walk with God, having come out of that which has religious contamination in it, we must beware that we do not become smug, because we still may have some of it in ourselves.

Just because we climb up twenty feet, and look back over where we have bee, does not mean that we do not have a long climb to go before we really understand how to appropriate grace perfectly.

We must be careful not to compare ourselves among ourselves, but to see how God is speaking to us specifically (II Corinthians 10:12).

There may still be too much legalism left in our walk with the Lord for us really to break through to the miracle that God is to do through us.

Let us very diligently and personally seek the face of the Lord on this, for just a little leaven will leaven the whole lump.

It does not take much.

Seek God to take it all out.

Lord, we thank You for purchasing this wonderful priceless freedom that we have in Christ.

Thank You for Your righteousness.

We believe.

We know that Your grace is sufficient.

2 Corinthians 12:9 "And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me."