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Prelude to Light |
This is the message we have heard from Him and announce to you,
that [Yahweh] God is
Light, and IN Him there is no darkness at all. (1st
John 1 verse 5.)
[Yahweh] God is Love (Agape), and those who abide in Love (Agape), abide in Yahweh God, and Yahweh God abides in them. (1st John 4 verse 16.)
The apostle John, hearing and witnessing the TRUTH of Jesus Christ, announces to the world that Yahweh God is Light and is absolute TRUTH. There is no possibility of error within the infinite abundance of the Spirit of Yahweh's Infinite Mind and Soul. With the Light of this revelation knowledge, John also tells us that Yahweh God is Agape Love. Even so, all of Yahweh God's inherent characteristics of supreme goodness, exist within the Light of Yahweh God's intrinsic Holiness. The angelic seraphim's do not cry to one another in vain, for they experientially behold and sense the Glory of Yahweh God's Holy Essence; for the Seraphim's cry one to another: Holy, Holy, Holy is the LORD OF HOST, the whole earth is full of His Glory. (See Isaiah 6).
Apparently, there is no need for the angels to proclaim Yahweh God's many attributes, for they are inclusive within His Infinite Holiness. Yahweh God, in His intrinsic Holiness, remains Eternally constant in all of His attributes, but the Glory of His attributes are veiled to humanity, because of the darkness of the human mind, with its limitations innately encased within fallen flesh. If we see things only from our own perspective, then our own minds can lead us astray, and we stumble in the darkness of our own perceived light. If the light that is in you be darkness, then how gross is that darkness. The Holy Spirit of Yahweh God is the only One Who can illuminate those same minds of fallen flesh, so that darkness turns into Light, and despair into hope, and hope into the joy of Yahweh God's Salvation IN His Own Lamb slain before the foundation of the world. (See Romans 5 verse 1 thru 5.) The Light of Yahweh God is waiting to fill the whole of our being, displacing our darkness, so that we can shine like lamps revealing the TRUTH in the Light of the Messiah Yeshua's Salvation Gift to this world of darkness. (See Luke 11:33-35.)
Isaiah, a man called by Yahweh God to prophesy of the TRUTH, saw himself in a vision in the Presence of the LORD OF HOST, and through Yahweh God's Spirit of Grace, Isaiah experiences infinite purity. In his encounter with infinite Holiness, Isaiah says of himself: Woe is me, for I am undone because I am a man of unclean lips, dwelling in the midst of a people of unclean lips: For my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of Host. Listen and consider the Salvation Word of Yahweh God, as Jesus Christ applies the Word of TRUTH to the thoughts of mankind: For from the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. (See Luke 6 verse 45.) Isaiah's revelation experience causes him to begin to see the true essence of his own heart and that of the heart of all mankind. In our sin corrupted flesh we are all undone.
Jeremiah, later called to be a prophet of Yahweh God confirms the condition of man: The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it? (Jeremiah 17 verse 8.) The spirit of Isaiah's own mind was corrupted within its own limited understanding of his self centered flesh, and his mouth certainly could not speak of that intrinsic Holiness of the King, the LORD OF HOST. But then a seraphim takes a hot coal from the altar and places it upon the lips of Isaiah's mouth, saying; This has touched thy lips, and your iniquity is taken away and thy sins are purged. From the fiery moment that the cleansing Grace of Yahweh God touched Isaiah's lips, the heart of Isaiah was cleansed from iniquity, and he was set apart to become a spokesperson of the Holiness and Righteousness of Yahweh God Almighty. Isaiah would prophecy of Yahweh God's future judgment against the sin of Israel and the world, and then of Yahweh God's redeeming mercy in the coming Messiah, the Son of Adam. But who will believe in Isaiah's report. Who will hear in their ears, and listen to the Heart of Isaiah's message of Yahweh God's Redeeming Love IN His Son Christ Jesus?
Yahweh God Almighty, is infinitely Holy, far beyond man's understanding and ability to define the essence of Yahweh God's Holiness. St Paul also speaks of his encounter with the heavenly, and of hearing and seeing things that were impossible to explain. (See 2nd Corinthians 12 verse 1 thru 5.) These wonderful marvels of Holy Yahweh God and His very Essence, leaves the philosophy of man in the mire of his dark thoughts, and his expressions of understanding only serves human vanity. Nevertheless, within Yahweh God's Holiness, there He is as Perfect Love, reaching out with mercy to lost mankind. Through His Holy WORD of Righteousness, He extends to us, through our faith IN Jesus Christ, His clemency for our nature of defiling sin. John and the other apostles, further declared that the Glory of Yahweh God came in the flesh, as the prophesied Messiah, to reveal Holy Yahweh God's redemptive Love for lost mankind, Jew and Gentile alike. For Yahweh God so loved the world that He gave the Holy LIFE of His only begotten Son, to be a reconciling offering for the rebellion of Adam and for the sinners of Mankind, so that whoever believes in the resurrected Christ of Yahweh God should not perish, but would gain eternal LIFE within the sacrificial Love of Jesus.
In the Garden of Eden, Yahweh God's Holy Presence was manifested to Adam and his Wife Ishshah, who was renamed Eve after they were both banished from the Garden. However, in Satan's beguiling deception, Adam and Ishshah, to be renamed Eve, were blinded to the TRUTH, and did not see Yahweh God's Love within His one restriction for them. For Yahweh God had forewarned them not to eat or touch the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, for it would bring forth their enslavement to sin and death. And now, with their disobedience to Yahweh God's Word, then death has come to all men, and now what we call love has become self serving, and centered in the survival of self. The love and trust for Yahweh God of the living, was lost in the heart of the children of Man/Adam, through Adam's sin of self serving idolatry. This very sin of self-idolatry, is passed on to all generations of man kind, and subsequently, we can see within ourselves that the nature of self being first, has set aside Yahweh God of the living, with ungodliness being perpetuated in all of Adam's generational seed of death until this day. In the natural man, we all love and do what is right in our own eyes of self justification, always seeking our own inward gratification.
Jesus teaches: For if you love them which love you, what thank have you? For sinners also love those that love them. And if you do good to them, which do good to you, what thank have you? For sinners also do even the same. And if you lend to them of whom you hope to receive, what thank have you? For sinners also lend to sinners, to receive as much again. But you love your enemies, and do good, and lend, hoping for nothing again; and your reward shall be great, and you shall be the children of the Highest: For He is kind unto the unthankful and to the evil. Therefore you be merciful, as your Father also is merciful. (Luke 6 verse 32 thru 36.)
In Yahweh God's Salvation plan for mankind, EHEYEH ASHER EHEYEH, (the I AM that I AM) gave Moses the Torah, to constrain the children of Israel from doing the inevitable evil, contained within their self seeking hearts. Hindsight reveals for the most part, that the Jews did not understand the Love of Yahweh God when seeing the multiple restrictions and provisions contained within the Torah's quarantining instructions. The whole of the Torah, containing the Covenant in animal blood sacrifices for disobedience, were all part and parcel to bring forth Yahweh God's Eternal Covenant Promise, given in the Garden of Eden. (See Genesis 3 verse 15.) The genetic seed of Ishshah, known as in English as Woman, was taken from the side of Adam, and would be conceived by the Spirit of Yahweh God to become the flesh of the Man Jesus Christ and would vanquish the power of the seed of evil. In a final understanding, the Covenant people of Israel were forgetful to Yahweh God's Promised New Covenant, and did not keep all of the Covenant laws, because of the weakness of their selfish flesh. Nevertheless, Yahweh God would keep His Covenant Promise, and would oversee and maintain the True genetics of Adam; for the seed of the virgin Woman would be impregnated by the Word of Yahweh God, the Almighty. All of this was ordained before the foundation of the world, for Yahweh God's Lamb was ordained to be slain for the sins of mankind.
At Yahweh's designated time in His creation, the WORD of Yahweh God came into the world at His Eternal Father's behest, to save mankind from their innate self-serving sins of death. The Sacrificial Obedient Love of the sinless Christ, was poured out upon a cross, to bring the hearts of the children of Man, into a greater first Love for Father Yahweh God, Who gives LIFE to those who have faith IN His WORD. The consummate act of overcoming Love was manifested in time, when the WORD of Father Yahweh God came into this world, to be conceived in the ovum seed of a virgin woman, and to be born the Son of Adam/Man: For Jesus Christ, the only begotten of the Father would then give Himself to a cruel death on the Cross, so as to reconcile sinful mankind to their Creator.
Witness the TRUTH of Yahweh God, for only the perfect Sacrificial Love and total Obedience in the LIFE of the last Son of Adam, Who was given for the sin and death of the first Adam, would satisfy the Holiness of the Almighty Yahweh God. Sin and death came by the first Man's rebellion, and in Yahweh God's justice, there would be a second Man that would overcome the sin and death of the first Adam. Being born in the flesh as the Son of Man, Jesus Christ came fully in the weakness of human flesh, to be a surrogate for mankind’s sin's breading death. Our sin and death could not hold the Righteous Son of Man in the grave, for Yahweh God was well pleased with the selfless Love that Christ offered for all sinners, and Yahweh God resurrected to LIFE the sinless Lamb from the corruption of our sins and death.
It is essential to see, that the Love of Jesus was not centered in Him self, but was centered in the absolute selfless Love and Trust of His Father Yahweh God. For Yahweh God so loved the world, that He gave the most Perfect Sacrificial Gift of His Beloved Son, as the Infinite's measure of a Perfect Love that overcomes this world of sin and death. It was the Holy Righteousness of Yahweh God's greater Love for mankind that was manifested on the cross in the lifeless Body of the crucified Jesus Christ. Yahweh God is Love, and in Him, there is no shadow or darkness at all. Life is in the Blood, and the LIFE of Jesus Christ is His Soul that is centered in His Father Yahweh God, and is the LIFE of Perfect Love that is greater than our understanding. The Sacrifice of Yahweh God's Perfect Love that is ONE IN His Son Jesus Christ, was poured out upon the dust of the earth, so as to reconcile the world unto the only Lord Yahweh God of the living. (See 2nd Corinthians 5 verse 19.) Mankind's Faith in Christ's Perfect Love and Trust of His Father Yahweh God will cast out all fear and confusion in the mind of man. That Perfect Love came to us, as a Gift of Peace from Yahweh God in His giving of His only begotten and beloved Son. (See 1st John 4 verse 16 thru 19.) Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren. Every good thing given, and every Perfect Gift is from above, coming down from the Father of Lights, with Whom there is no variation or shifting shadow. In the exercise of His Will, He (Yahweh God) brought us forth by His Word of TRUTH, so that we would be a kind of first fruits among His creatures. (James 1 verse 16 thru 18.)
The Salvation Gift of Yahweh God's Love, is expressed in His resurrection of Jesus Christ, the Son of Man, and when applied within the whole of our souls, never fails, in spite of the weaknesses of our flesh! The on going application of the antiseptic Salve of Yahweh God’s Love, through His Spirit IN the Blood of Jesus Christ, leads to the sanctification of the life of the soul, and the renewing of the spirit of the mind of the believer, who through new born faith in the sacrifice of Christ Jesus, has begun to trust in the Spirit and TRUTH of Yahweh God's spoken WORD. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness: And the blood of Jesus Christ His Son, cleanses us from all sin. (1st John 1 verse 9 then 7.) How often have you heard a pastor quote verse 9, and not the leading Word of Yahweh God contained in verse 7, which proclaims the necessary New Covenant Blood of Yahweh God's Cleansing Grace? It is impossible for faith in the WORD of Yahweh God to exist in man's unbelief in the TRUTH.
Our faith must find its center in the whole Person of Jesus Christ and Yahweh God's Unfailing WORD of Sanctifying Grace through His Spirit of TRUTH. Then we can find rest in Christ's Resurrection Faith and Righteousness IN His Father Yahweh God, and not in the strength of our own presumed goodness. Christ alone is the only WAY into the kingdom of Yahweh God, for no man can enter into the kingdom of His Father, unless he first passes through the Door of LIFE IN Jesus Christ. Truly, through faith IN Yahweh God, we are born of the regenerative seed of the WORD of Yahweh God, germinated through the perfection of the Love IN Jesus Christ that comes from the Father's same unselfish Love.
And Jesus dismissing Himself, says: For I have not spoken of Myself; but the Father, which sent Me, He gave Me a Commandment, what I should say, and what I should speak. And I know that His Commandment is LIFE everlasting: Therefore, whatsoever I speak, even as the Father Said unto Me, so I Speak. (John 12 verse 49 thru 50.)
However, Yahweh God's Love and Grace through His Spirit, can be rejected with man's continued love for selfish sin, or hidden away with false knowledge, or supplanted with man's traditions, all born out of the prideful mind of flesh, thus making the solid Rock of Yahweh God's WORD ineffectual for so many souls. If God is Love, and infinite Light, with no shadow or darkness within the heart of His spoken Word, then what part of the following scripture is not Holy, absolute TRUTH? “This is My Blood of the New Covenant that is poured out for many for the remission of sin.”
Let's begin to reason together, and make no further grievous mistake concerning Yahweh God's New Covenant WORD and His unmerited Grace, given for the sanctification of sinful man. Holy, Holy, Holy Yahweh God is the Eternal God of Covenant, and has Personified His New Covenant, with the Sacrifice of His Lamb. For Emanuel was conceived in the flesh of Adam. as Yahweh God's only begotten Son and the Eternal WORD of TRUTH that speaks of His Holy Father Yahweh God. For Yahweh God so loved the world that He gave His only Begotten Son to be made in the flesh of Man, and being in the Perfect Love of Yahweh God, Jesus was sacrificed for the sins of the world. Sin and death has no hold what so ever on sinless Jesus Christ as the Perfect Agape Love of Yahweh God Almighty.
The Holiness of Yahweh God is not understood by earthly man. If any man is not clothed IN the righteousness of Jesus Christ and the Perfection of His Love, then it would be impossible to come into the Presence of Yahweh God's Holiness, for Yahweh God's absolute Holiness would destroy that man. (See Isaiah 6.) A person of Faith IN Jesus Christ, may not understand all that is written, or given through the Spirit of Holy Yahweh God, but wisdom would say, it is better to acknowledge our ignorance before Yahweh God and man, rather than to proudly degrade the Spiritual Wisdom of the Holy undefiled spoken WORD of Jesus Christ: And the WORD said, "Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted." (Matthew 23 verse 11, NIV). ”For the Word of (Yahweh) God is Living, and Active, and Sharper than any two-edged sword, and Piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart. Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in His Sight: but all things are naked and opened unto the Eyes of Him, with Whom we have to do". (Hebrews 4 verse 12 thru 13.)
We refuse to limit Yahweh God and the Power of His WORD in any manner, and the wise of heart would say, Amen. By Yahweh God's Grace and His immeasurable Love, we have envisioned scriptural statements that are thought to be metaphoric, and have found them to be of spiritual substance, which will cut to the substance of the error of man's ignorant thoughts. When the Lord Jesus says, "I AM the Door", then believe without supposition, for He will be the Eternal Substance of that Door, which no man can open, and no man can close. I AM the WAY, the TRUTH, and the LIFE: No man comes unto the Father, but by Me. (John 14 verse 6.) I AM that I AM, for, I Will Be what I Will Be.
To proceed to the next chapter, please click on The Essence of Light.
Robert Glenn Pratten with my beloved wife Rose Labez Pratten