Matt 5:13-17
Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted? it is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men.
The word of God reveals to us that we are the salt of the earth and one of the things about salt is that salt is always held by a container or a salt shaker.
Salt is never useful until it gets out of the salt shaker and is applied to the very thing that needs to be salted.
The word of God tells us that salt is good for nothing except to be trodden under the foot of men if the salt is not applied to that which needs salted.
Philem 1:6
That the communication of thy faith may become effectual by the acknowledging of every good thing which is in you in Christ Jesus.
To become effectual salt we need to begin communicating and releasing all the good things that Christ has done within us through the communication of our faith. We need to begin releasing the salt that is within us, expressing all the good things that Christ has done on the inside of us.
How does this take place in our life?
It happens by acknowledging every good thing that Christ has done on the inside of you.
Two things that is important
#1 you need to know who you are in Christ Jesus
#2 you need to know what he has done on the inside of you.
Why are these two things important because how can you give away what you do not know that you have, how can you express and walk in the wonderment of freedom when you are bound by bondage
Take condemnation for example, we are told through scriptures that we are not to walk in condemnation and yet even though we are commanded to have no condemnation many of Gods children still walk in it.
Romans 8:1
There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.
There are many of God’s people who are bound by the shackles of fear and guilt, they have been made free by the blood of the Lamb but they are bound within their own self made prisons.
They have no supernatural revelation concerning the good things that are on the inside of them, they relate to unworthiness, to fear and guilt, they are ever conscience of their inadequacies and their failures; they are well acquainted with discouragement and even their communication of their relationship with God is that they are just sinners saved by grace.
But to acknowledge and to communicate by faith the good things that are on the inside of them because of what Christ has done in them is for the most part a foreign concept.
That the communication of thy faith may become effectual (or in other words it begins to work) by the acknowledging of every good thing which is in you in Christ Jesus.
When you begin to acknowledging that God loves you regardless of your performance, that God is pleased with you because of faith, that God has placed power within you, that God wants to heal you, deliver you and prosper you, when you begin acknowledging about your redemption and what Christ has done on the inside of you, how your blessed by the indwelling of the Holy Ghost then the communication of your faith begins to become effectual.
Hear the word of the Lord
3 John 2
Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth.
This is God speaking through John and I believe with all of my heart that if the child of God really understood what Christ has done on the inside of them then they would be like a little child at Christmas, they would be filled with joy, with expectation and anticipation, there would be hope and belief and it would be new every morning.
Lam 3:22
It is of the LORD’s mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not.
They are new every morning : great is thy faithfulness.
The LORD is my portion, saith my soul; therefore will I hope in him.
You and I both know that we do not have to tell our children to go and tell all of their friends about how good Mom and Dad were to them on Christmas morning, you do not have to tell them to go show their friends there new bicycle, there new ipod, their new clothes, they just do it and they do it because of the expectation and joy of being a child.
Christ states in
Matt 18:3
And said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children , ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.
The Lord tells us that we need to be converted and become as little children
The word to be converted in the Greek is strepfo and it means to turn back to
Why is it that we lose our excitement?
Why is it that we lose our expectation and anticipation, because we lose our conversion as little children, we stop turning back and becoming like a child and so we lose our expectation and anticipation, our passion.
We lose the excitement of what Christ has done in us and the communication of our faith stops working because we stop acknowledging all the good things that are within us because of Jesus Christ
2 Cor 4:3-5
But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost:
In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.
If the gospel be hid it is hid to them that are lost in whom the god of this world has blinded the minds of those who believe not.
Notice what the scripture says that is being hid
The light of the glorious gospel of Christ who is the image of God
The word of God calls it the glorious gospel, it is news that is too good to be true, it is freedom and deliverance from bondage.
Why is it that every one does not want this glorious light?
It is because their minds are blinded by the spirit of anti-Christ instead of being impacted by this glorious light of this gospel.
Why has the child of God lost their perspective of this glorious light? Why do they relate it to church when they are the church.
Look at,
2 Cor 4:16
For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day.
For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory;
Allow me to bring some things to light
Paul has made a statement here that I believe very few of God’s children really understand.
He says “For our light affliction”!
It was Paul who was persecuted more than any one else
Look at
Acts 9:15
This is the Lord speaking to Ananias and telling him to go pray for Saul because he is a chosen vessel unto the Lord
But the Lord said unto him, Go thy way: for he is a chosen vessel unto me, to bear my name before the Gentiles, and kings, and the children of Israel:
For I will shew him how great things he must suffer for my name’s sake.
Now most people when they read this verse of scripture automatically assume that the Lord is bringing suffering into the life of Saul who is soon to become Paul because he has become a chosen vessel of the Lord
Notice it does not say that God is going to make him suffer because he is a chosen vessel but rather He will suffer because he will bear the Lord’s name sake before Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel.
The word of God tells us that all who live Godly in Christ Jesus will suffer.
2 Tim 3:12
Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.
Now look at,
2 Cor 11:23
Are they ministers of Christ? (I speak as a fool) I am more; in labours more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequent, in deaths oft.
Of the Jews five times received I forty stripes save one.
Thrice was I beaten with rods , once was I stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck, a night and a day I have been in the deep;
In journeyings often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils by mine own countrymen, in perils by the heathen, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren;
In weariness and painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness.
Beside those things that are without, that which cometh upon me daily, the care of all the churches.
These are what Paul calls his light afflictions, in my estimation the apostle Paul had problems bigger, greater and more severe than most people who have lived on the face of the earth.
And Paul said it is but a light affliction.
How is it that a man who suffered more than you and I have ever thought about suffering how could he make such a statement.
I will tell you that he did not say these things because of the things that were taking place on the outside of him, he said those things because of what was taking place on the inside of him,
The reason that he was able to write and say these things was because of the way that he processed and focused on the things that were taking place in his life that were coming against him.
And he gave us a key as to how he thought,
For our light affliction, which is but for a moment,
What does that mean which is but for a moment,
What does that tell us about Paul?
It tells us that his thinking, his viewpoint, his focus was always turned towards eternity
I believe that this one key would really minister to us if we would really grasp what Paul is telling us,
Let me ask you a question,
What is it that is bothering you today and how will it effect you a hundred years from now.
Paul looked at things in the light of eternity and this is the reason that he could say that his problems are but a light affliction and they only last for a moment and because of his focus, his viewpoint because of the way that he thought concerning all of his problems he said that these things worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory;
And then he said in
Rom 8:18
For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.
What a tremendous statement to make and yet without understanding many will be turned off by what Paul is saying,
I thought for a moment about the holocaust, about the tremendous amount of suffering that the Jews endured at the hands of Hitler and his regime of evilness.
Some times it boggles the mind to try to piece together the immense amount of suffering that some people have had to go through.
These people suffered to an extreme and not only did they suffer to an extreme but the demonic evilness that was unleashed against them is almost too much to bear.
Chairs and sofas were covered in their skin, tables and lamps made from their bones, they were starved, beaten, raped, they were herded into make shift showers which were human gas chambers.
Hundreds of people crowded together as the gas was released through shower heads, men, and women and children trying to escape the gas as they lie convulsing on the dirty floor of those showers.
And to try to understand the fullness of this evil on this side is just too overwhelming and you might wonder how can this travesty ever be righted and justice ever be served.
And from this side it looks like it can never be righted, from this side it looks like there can never be peace or joy, but to those who knew the lord as their Savior, to those who view things from the eternity side they understand what Paul is saying
That the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.
Since we do not have the benefit of seeing it from the other side
We can do what Paul has done and that is to accept Gods word by faith and to view and focus on things from the eternity side
So I need to say this and my prayer is that no one is offended but if you have a heavy burden, and that heavy burden has got you down it is because you are not looking at things in the light of eternity
Listen to Paul
Phil 3:10
That I may know him , and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death;
That I may know him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings
What does he know that we do not know?
Why would he want to know about the fellowship of His sufferings?
Why would he want to know about being made conformable to His death?
Most of God’s people want to know about His resurrection power, how do I get that power and how do I walk in that power, but to want to know the fellowship of his sufferings, to want to know about being made conformable to his death.
Very few desire to go to this place.
What does Paul know that many of us do not know?
Here is what he knows
That God comforts us in all of our tribulations so that we know how to comfort others.
2 Cor 1:3-5
Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort ;
Who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God.
And because of this,
Paul actually looked forward to suffering because he knew that it brought revelation, it brought knowingness and he knew that the Holy Spirit would be there to comfort him
Paul looked at things far different than most of Gods people and because he looked at things from the other side, from the eternity side He had a relationship with the Lord that very few of God’s people have.
The second thing that Paul did was that he did not place things in the realm of things that are seen but in the realm of things not seen.
2 Cor 4:18
While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.
Paul tells us that the things that are seen are temporal or temporary and the things that are not seen are eternal.
Paul did not look at things in the physical realm He looked at them in the spiritual realm.
Everything that Paul had you can have——-IF YOU WANT IT