Sadly, virtually all churches today have disqualified leaders who are not blameless, and who teach diabolical false doctrines that are putting the church into bondage.
But we can be like Paul, overcoming by God’s grace, running our race to win!!!
I put together this list:
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Paul worked out his own salvation by God’s grace/enablement/empowerment, as he taught others to do:
…work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God who works in you both to will and to work, for his good pleasure. – Php. 2:12-13
I beat my body and bring it into submission, lest by any means, after I have preached to others, I myself should be rejected. – 1 Cor. 9:27
Those who belong to Christ have crucified the flesh with its passions and lusts. – Gal. 5:24
Paul didn’t just say it, but actually made Jesus Lord of his life, ‘pressing on’ to take hold of ‘that’:
…I count all things to be loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus, my Lord, for whom I suffered the loss of all things, and count them nothing but refuse, that I may gain Christ and be found in him…. that I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, becoming conformed to his death; if by any means I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.
Not that I have already obtained, or am already made perfect; but I press on, if it is so that I may take hold of that for which also I was taken hold of by Christ Jesus. Brothers, I don’t regard myself as yet having taken hold, but one thing I do. Forgetting the things which are behind, and stretching forward to the things which are before, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
Let us therefore, as many as are perfect, think this way. If in anything you think otherwise, God will also reveal that to you. Nevertheless, to the extent that we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule. Let us be of the same mind. – Php. 3:8-16
As Paul predicted, most are on the highway to hell. We, however, can overcome like Paul:
For the time will come when they will not listen to the sound doctrine, but, having itching ears, will heap up for themselves teachers after their own lusts; and will turn away their ears from the truth, and turn aside to fables. …
I have fought the good fight. I have finished the course. I have kept the faith. – 2 Tim. 4:3-4, 7
Paul made sure he was ALWAYS right with God and men:
Herein I also practice *ALWAYS* having a CONSCIENCE VOID OF OFFENSE toward God and men. (Acts 24:16).
The writer to Hebrews was in complete sync with Paul:
Therefore let us also, seeing we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, lay aside every weight and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising its shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
For consider him who has endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, that you don’t grow weary, fainting in your souls. …
Therefore, lift up the hands that hang down and the feeble knees, and make straight paths for your feet, so that which is lame may not be dislocated, but rather be healed.
Follow after peace with all men, and the sanctification without which no man will see the Lord, looking carefully lest there be any man who falls short of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and many be defiled by it; lest there be any sexually immoral person, or profane person, like Esau, who sold his birthright for one meal. For you know that even when he afterward desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no place for a change of mind though he sought it diligently with tears. – Heb. 12:1-3, 12-17
When Paul saw Jesus face to Face, he had no condemnation. Why, because he made sure he walked according to the Spirit. He put to death the deeds of the body so he could live:
There is therefore now *no condemnation* to those who are in Christ Jesus, who don’t walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. …
…the mind of the Spirit is life and peace….
…if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. 14 For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are children of God.
…we are children of God; and if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if indeed we suffer with him, that we may also be glorified with him. – Romans 8:1, 6, 13-14, 16-17
Let’s be like Paul, overcoming by the Holy Spirit’s grace/enablement, running our races to win!:
…let us walk by the same rule. Let us be of the same mind. – Php. 3:8-16
Jesus desires not only that we abide in Him so we can live eternally with Him, but that we’d be ‘ONE’ with Him and each other that His joy would remain in us and that OUR JOY WOULD BE FULL!:
1 “I am the true vine, and my Father is the farmer. 2 Every branch in me that doesn’t bear fruit, he takes away. Every branch that bears fruit, he prunes, that it may bear more fruit. 3 You are already pruned clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. 4 Remain in me, and I in you. As the branch can’t bear fruit by itself, unless it remains in the vine, so neither can you, unless you remain in me. 5 I am the vine. You are the branches. He who remains in me, and I in him, the same bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. 6 If a man doesn’t remain in me, he is thrown out as a branch, and is withered; and they gather them, throw them into the fire, and they are burned. If you remain in me, and my words remain in you, you will ask whatever you desire, and it will be done for you. 8 “In this is my Father glorified, that you bear much fruit; and so you will be my disciples. 9 Even as the Father has loved me, I also have loved you. Remain in my love. 10 If you keep my commandments, you will remain in my love; even as I have kept my Father’s commandments, and remain in his love. 11 I have spoken these things to you, that my joy may remain in you, and THAT YOUR JOY MAY BE MADE FULL.
12 “This is my commandment, that you love one another, even as I have loved you. 13 Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. 14 You are my friends, if you do whatever I command you.
Jesus promised to give us His glory as we become ‘ONE’ with each other in Him that the WORLD WILL KNOW!:
Not for these only do I pray, but for those also who believe in me through their word, that they may all be one; even as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be one in us; that the world may believe that you sent me.
The glory which you have given me, I have given to them; that they may be one, even as we are one; I in them, and you in me, that they may be perfected into one; that the world may know that you sent me, and loved them, even as you loved me. Father, I desire that they also whom you have given me be with me where I am, that they may see my glory, which you have given me, for you loved me before the foundation of the world. …that the love with which you loved me may be in them, and I in them.” – John 17:20-26
‘ONE’ is what we should be focusing on — overcoming, like Paul, strong together:
‘Let Us Be ONE’ Prophecy Continues 10/8/08: “It’s TOO LATE to REVERSE what’s been done for MY MEN have been REJECTED … Now is the Time to OVERCOME and GET RIGHT With ALL … FREEeeeeeeeeeeeee———DOM at last … Your HEART will SWELL with LOVE and it will be EASY to REMAIN In Me when others are On The BOAT With You”
