One thing I know for a fact, you must be open to the Holy Spirit, and you must be willing to obey what the Word of God says. No compromises, if it is not in the Scriptures, it will avail you nothing. This is not to say that the Lord does not use men today and has in the past to expound upon His truths, but the final authority must be the Word of God, whether you want to follow those truths or not is left entirely up to you.
As I have mentioned before, one of the finest things about heaven will be that we all finally know truth, no more religious factions, no more separate interpretations of the Scriptures, we will all know the truth. The greatest problem, if you will, that I have with these individual religious doctrines today is that they do not serve Christ fully as Lord, specifically those who claim that those that follow their prescribed ideologies must perform some sort of work, that some deed must be done along with the shed blood of Christ for the atoning of our sins. The word I usually use is blasphemous, and yes, I say it to their face, in one form or another.
It is inconceivable to me that there are so many millions that have been deceived in this area, that think that dust has the ability to save. I believe it is why Mark 12:40 says that “These shall receive greater damnation,” for they know their error. “Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened.” (Romans 1:21) It is actually easier to witness to someone in a cult than it is to those who have been deceived by this incredible lie, but in a way it is understandable.
Because of the sinful nature that we are all born with, we all see ourselves as on the throne of our lives, we are the creator of our destinies. To remove us from that throne is to usurp the only real power we have, and that is why so many individuals believe they must be baptized, must eat the wafer god, must say the right words in the right way and a thousand other works that must be accomplished, for without that throne, we have nothing. “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God.” (Eph. 2:8) That says we have nothing, nothing in ourselves, nothing to offer that could add any merit to the cross in anyway. It is pride, that is what every person’s throne is made of, pride, and it is all we have and so it is the main thing that we will hold onto.
To give God the glory is to take glory away from ourselves, to honor and praise His name is to submit to His will and give up all that we believe is not only rightly ours to keep, but to give away as we please. It does not honor the Lord one bit to come to Him with anything, He already owns everything, including you. “Behold, all souls are mine; as the soul of the father, so also the soul of the son is mine: the soul that sinneth, it shall die.” (Eze. 18:4) We have absolutely nothing at all to offer Him.
The life that you hold so dear He will end in His time, you will stand before Him, and He will do with you as He pleases, you have nothing to offer Him, you have no words of value that He will hear, all that you are belongs to Him. To believe that a work, any work at all, will appease the Almighty, will make His face to shine upon you, will grant you extra favors is beyond ridiculous. “For there is no respect of persons with God.” (Romans 2:11)
Submit, complete and total submission to His will, that is the mark of one who has been crucified with Christ, not just obeying but fully submitting.
There are two verses that you must understand, the first takes everything away from you, it leaves you with absolutely nothing. “I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.” (John 15:5) The other places the power of God inside of you, to be used for His glory and His alone. “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.” (Phil. 4:13) No man will walk into the kingdom with anything but the cross the Lord has commanded us to carry. (Matt. 16:24)
