Tag Archives: test

Two Approaches To Jesus: Which Is Mine?

Paul Luckett | Brainflurry.com - Two Approaches To Jesus: Which Is Mine?

There are two types of people who come to Jesus:

– Those who come to get something and when they don’t get it they fall away,

and

– Those who are willing to give everything for Him.

Only one group is saved.

“So likewise, whoever of you does not forsake all that he has cannot be My disciple.”
— Luke 14:33

God often tests us by taking things.

Consider Job.

These tests are not because God needs any information, but to reveal our heart: whether we’re of the world or whether we’re God glorifying salt—whether we have the wandering heart of the first group so that we can confess it, humble ourselves in repentance, and cry out to God to give us the steadfast heart of the second.

Why? These two things go hand in hand: His glory and our good.

I definitely struggle with the first nature that is still with me. I’m striving to kill it and to yield to His bringing forth in me the second.

The Ultimate Test

Paul Luckett | Brainflurry.com - The Ultimate Test

Who we truly are is revealed not by what we do but by what we want.

That is the ultimate test. What we want is the measure by which we will be ultimately judged.

Truth and facts don’t matter when they conflict with what we want.

Reason is not pure. It is merely a device to justify our desires. We have a breathtaking capacity for rationalization.

Not what we do, but the condition of our heart is the principle thing, which is exposed by what we truly want.

What we want indicates who we’re with which in turn is indicated by what we’re willing to lose.

If we’re with Jesus we have a new heart that wants the kingdom of God, first—that is, above all.

The test of whether we have that heart and whether it truly wants the kingdom of God is what we’re willing to lose to get it.

“For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel’s will save it.”
— Mark 8:35

“So when Jesus heard these things, He said to him, ‘You still lack one thing. Sell all that you have and distribute to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.’ But when he heard this, he became very sorrowful, for he was very rich.”
— Luke 18:22-23

“Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ”
— Philippians 3:8

“But recall the former days in which, after you were illuminated, you endured a great struggle with sufferings: partly while you were made a spectacle both by reproaches and tribulations, and partly while you became companions of those who were so treated; for you had compassion on me in my chains, and joyfully accepted the plundering of your goods, knowing that you have a better and an enduring possession for yourselves in heaven.”
— Hebrews 10:32-34

So, test yourselves, whether you’re in the faith (2 Corinthians 13:5).

And we can do that with one question:

What do I want most?

For me, I want to be in God with you,

I think.

God will test that. Am I willing to lose comfort and convenience for that? Am I willing to lose “being right” to be reconciled?

The demonic industrial church with her false teachers and prophets teach that the indication of your relationship and favor from God is what you gain.

But the whole counsel of God revealed in the person of Christ says His heart is indicated by what you’re willing to lose for Him.

What do you want most?

Stress Test

Paul Luckett | Brainflurry.com - Stress Test

Under what conditions does love stop being love?

This is what this life is designed to test:

our love for God,

and under what conditions does the love we have fail? What thing, if lost, would cause our love to end?

We are not subjected to fiery trials to test our love for God because God is a sadistic megalomaniac,

but because the first commandment:

‘And you shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.’
— Mark 12:30

is necessary to perform the second commandment:

‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’
— Mark 12:31

and is the only bond strong enough to accomplish God’s grand design: His ever increasing glory through Oneness, making us inseparably one with God.

“Jesus answered him, ‘The first of all the commandments is: “Hear, O Israel, the LORD our God, the LORD is one.”‘”
— Mark 12:29

“I in them, and You in Me; that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that You have sent Me, and have loved them as You have loved Me.”
— John 17:23

The love that you love God with is the source of the love for everyone else, and however strong your love for God is, it is the limit of how strong your connection is to the person dearest to you.

If the love you have is less than God’s love, everything supported by it, everything built around it and everything connected to it will fail at some point.

There are some weights in life that anything less than love will not survive.

And there’s a coming day, the great and terrible day of the Lord, where whatever is within anything less than love will be destroyed.

So, our love is tested FOR OUR GOOD, so that our love is perfected,

because God’s love never fails
— 1 Corinthians 13:8

so that we, and everything built on and connected to that love lives and not dies, that our communion as One may be perfect

all for the wonderful glory of God.

What an amazing thing it is that we can be a part of that!

So, I encourage you to count every hardship you’re enduring as all joy! Remembering the point of the test.

Throat Punched: A Reality Check

Paul Luckett | Brainflurry.com - Throat Punched: A Reality Check

I recently got hit with something so hard that it made me question the nature of reality itself.

It caused me to question everything I believed was real, including God.

I cannot test spiritual things the same way I test physical things (scientifically) because I cannot control (harness, measure, manipulate, evoke, etc.) spiritual things in any way. (I find the true state of reality to be that I am not in control but am subject to powers that are.)

I can only observe where the spiritual current takes us.

“These things we also speak, not in words which man’s wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual.”
— 1 Corinthians 2:13

In the same way, my computer code cannot control (harness, measure, manipulate, evoke, etc.) anything I do not give it the ability and parameters for. The only way my code would know anything about my world is what I tell it or to the extent of the ability I give it to interact with my world.

The only way I know of spiritual things is what the Creator tells me.

“The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but those things which are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law.”
— Deuteronomy 29:29

God has revealed that we were abiding in death and that He sent Jesus to save us,

“Most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life.”
— John 5:24

I claim that Jesus saved me out of the disastrous spiritual current that leads to death and put me on the path that leads to life.

How can I know that’s real? How can I test that?

I can observe where the spiritual current takes me.

Jesus claims to heal as an aspect of this salvation and The Way that leads to Life.

So, for me healing is one of many tests.

Have I been healed? Am I being healed? Or, am I just coping? Are my beliefs merely a coping mechanism?

A key distinction between managing symptoms and true healing is the restoral or establishment of healthy function. Has the ability that existed or would have existed prior to the disease or injury been restored?

I can say unequivocally: yes. I have been healed.

In the past, I had been mortally wounded spiritually, emotionally, psychologically to the extent there was real physiological damage.

My injury rendered me unable to relate to people, especially certain people, in a healthy way that led to our collective growth and improvement.

I was closed up and cut off, with severely diminished capacity to enjoy Life, as a result of the pain and, at times, a conscious decision in an attempt to protect myself.

But, since,

“God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.”
— 2 Corinthians 4:6

now, I am wide open.

I do not have the resentment and bitterness that was keeping me secluded, that was killing me and that was keeping me from enjoying Life.

Do I still struggle?

No doubt.

But, the operation is complete.

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.”
— 2 Corinthians 5:17

Notwithstanding, I’m in therapy to lift the dead layers of flesh, to work out the stiffness and atrophy sin causes, and to get full range of motion (sanctification).

This is where I observe the spiritual current of living water in Jesus Christ takes me: I have inextinguishable (eternal) Life that I didn’t have before that allows me to relate to others in a healthier way.

I may struggle with therapy —the sanctification process, but my healing is real.

“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.”
— 1 John 5:13

Citizenship Test

Paul Luckett | Brainflurry.com - Citizenship Test

I am not saved just because I claim Christ.

The only way to be saved is to be found in Christ.

Christ is King.

To be in Christ means to recognize Him as Master and to gladly submit to His rule.

“Then [the thief on the cross] said to Jesus, ‘Lord, remember me when You come into Your kingdom.'”
—Luke 23:42

I will be judged according to which kingdom I’m in, the kingdom my heart has allegiance to.

My salvation is evidenced by which kingdom’s commands I obey, not which kingdom I claim.

“But why do you call Me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do the things which I say?”
—Luke 6:46

Forgiveness is one of the foremost indications whether the Kingdom of God has jurisdiction in my heart.

“For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.

But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.”
—Matthew 6:14-15

“Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Do you not know yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you are disqualified.”
—2 Corinthians 13:5