Refining. Part 1.

This past break my foundations have changed. I've noticed how empty I get and how quickly I need to refill myself.

Basic theology for all of you out there: Jesus fulfills, yet not for our sake but for his. Humanity was created with the purpose of Loving God. Make an invention without a purpose and what does it do? God is inherently part of us, and the most important part of all: he provides in us our purpose.

Identify a purpose for anything. We created a pen to write. Writing dominates what a pen does. A train carries people/supplies from point A to point B. The concept is quite simple, yet so important. Purpose dominates

Most apologists would locate the most eminent sin (or thing that makes us incoherent with God) is man trying to be God or trying to replace God. Ironic. Of all the temptations it was first for Eve to try to become greater than God, so that we might rule ourselves. However in trying to do so we died. We tried to create our own ambition, our own aspiration and mold our own future apart from God when we reached for knowledge of good and evil.
Specifically the tree of life is mentioned in the record. Initially God meant us to live forever, but it is that kind of domination that kills us. When purpose dominates and we try to dominate that which dominates ourselves there is only one result, which is death. Sin may become difficult to identify in its abstract definition of separation, incoherence or disobedience with God, but Jesus tells us we may know men by their fruit. In the end there is an understanding of the beginning. End products speak of the process, intent and path that are taken. God never meant for an end in us, but he created one in order that we may understand our beginning and our original purpose.

Deem it a refining process.

Throughout Jesus’ entire ministry it was the exact same sin in the garden that he was dealing with. This sin of man trying to rule their own life and present themselves as self-existing, self-sustaining people who have no need for their God to pierce the core of who they are. Instead they would have Jesus tell them what they need to do superficially, so they could do it and get on with their deaths. All the while they were misunderstanding that God looks through to the heart of situations. God did not care about how nice they were or how much they sacrificed. Intentions have always been at the center of what God desires. God desires our intentions.

Only when our intentions are his intentions can we survive in a state without sin.

1 Samuel 15:22-23 ESV And Samuel said,
“Has the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices,
as in obeying the voice of the Lord?
Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice,
and to listen than the fat of rams.
23 For rebellion is as the sin of divination,
and presumption is as iniquity and idolatry.
Because you have rejected the word of the Lord,
he has also rejected you from being king.”

New testament tie in:

Matthew 5:27 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ 28 But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart. 29 If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell. 30 And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body go into hell.

(ESV)

Hebrews 4:12 God’s word is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. (That’s only a part of that scripture.)

Over and over Jesus tried to make us understand who he was, and his purpose. Reconciliation with the father is laid plainly for us in the Gospel of John, and Jesus is made known as our refiner.
John 6:25 When they found him on the other side of the sea, they said to him, “Rabbi, when did you come here?” 26 Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you are seeking me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves. 27 Do not labor for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you. For on him God the Father has set his seal.” 28 Then they said to him, “What must we do, to be doing the works of God?” 29 Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.” 30 So they said to him, “Then what sign do you do, that we may see and believe you? What work do you perform? 31 Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’” 32 Jesus then said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but my Father gives you the true bread from heaven. 33 For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” 34 They said to him, “Sir, give us this bread always.”
35 Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst. 36 But I said to you that you have seen me and yet do not believe. 37 All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out. 38 For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me. 39 And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day. 40 For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.”
41 So the Jews grumbled about him, because he said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven.” 42 They said, “Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How does he now say, ‘I have come down from heaven’?” 43 Jesus answered them, “Do not grumble among yourselves. 44 No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day. 45 It is written in the Prophets, ‘And they will all be taught by God.’ Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me— 46 not that anyone has seen the Father except he who is from God; he has seen the Father. 47 Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life. 48 I am the bread of life. 49 Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. 50 This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. 51 I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.”

52 The Jews then disputed among themselves, saying, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” 53 So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. 54 Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. 55 For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. 56 Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him. 57 As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever feeds on me, he also will live because of me. 58 This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like the bread [3] the fathers ate and died. Whoever feeds on this bread will live forever.” 59 Jesus [4] said these things in the synagogue, as he taught at Capernaum.
60 When many of his disciples heard it, they said, “This is a hard saying; who can listen to it?” 61 But Jesus, knowing in himself that his disciples were grumbling about this, said to them, “Do you take offense at this? 62 Then what if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before? 63 It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life. 64 But there are some of you who do not believe.” (For Jesus knew from the beginning who those were who did not believe, and who it was who would betray him.) 65 And he said, “This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father.”
66 After this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him. 67 So Jesus said to the Twelve, “Do you want to go away as well?” 68 Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, 69 and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God.”

(ESV)

This situation is exactly the same as the first sin with one exception: The ending. Simon Peter answered for the twelve in the best way that he ever could have. It is unnatural to want to give up our right to rule our lives, but is entirely unnatural to rule the lives God has given us. Progress is evident in Simon Peter’s answer.

61 But Jesus, knowing in himself that his disciples were grumbling about this, said to them, “Do you take offense at this? 62 Then what if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before? 63 It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life.

Matthew12:38 Then some of the scribes and Pharisees answered him, saying, “Teacher, we wish to see a sign from you.” 39 But he answered them, “An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. 40 For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. 41 The men of Nineveh will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and behold, something greater than Jonah is here. 42 The queen of the South will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and behold, something greater than Solomon is here.

43 “When the unclean spirit has gone out of a person, it passes through waterless places seeking rest, but finds none. 44 Then it says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came.’ And when it comes, it finds the house empty, swept, and put in order. 45 Then it goes and brings with it seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they enter and dwell there, and the last state of that person is worse than the first. So also will it be with this evil generation.”

46 While he was still speaking to the people, behold, his mother and his brothers stood outside, asking to speak to him. [1] 48 But he replied to the man who told him, “Who is my mother, and who are my brothers?” 49 And stretching out his hand toward his disciples, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers! 50 For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.”

(ESV)

Would you have me leave you? is what Jesus is asking. Then you would have a sign. Matthew records Jesus saying that there will be no sign except his resurrection, which they will deny. However there is an understanding of why he did not show a sign. A wicked and adulterous nation asks for a sign. Power. God has power, but he doesn’t want us to be about his power. We would be an adulterous nation without Love if we did the father’s work only because of a miracle. Everyone Jesus healed believed before they were healed. Miracles were an outcome of their “eating the bread of Life”

The Original Greek word for “eat” that fits into John 6 has a specific connotation behind it. It doesn’t simply mean eat, but devouring with the purpose of sustenance or living. Meat is what is referred to when using this particular word. God refers to himself as bread of life that sustains the body like meat. “Phago is the word, but the o has a strait line over it. I couldn’t find the symbol for it.)

Deuteronomy 8:1 “The whole commandment that I command you today you shall be careful to do, that you may live and multiply, and go in and possess the land that the Lord swore to give to your fathers. 2 And you shall remember the whole way that the Lord your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness, that he might humble you, testing you to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep his commandments or not. 3 And he humbled you and let you hunger and fed you with manna, which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that he might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word [1] that comes from the mouth of the Lord. 4 Your clothing did not wear out on you and your foot did not swell these forty years. 5 Know then in your heart that, as a man disciplines his son, the Lord your God disciplines you. 6 So you shall keep the commandments of the Lord your God by walking in his ways and by fearing him. 7 For the Lord your God is bringing you into a good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and springs, flowing out in the valleys and hills, 8 a land of wheat and barley, of vines and fig trees and pomegranates, a land of olive trees and honey, 9 a land in which you will eat bread without scarcity, in which you will lack nothing, a land whose stones are iron, and out of whose hills you can dig copper. 10 And you shall eat and be full, and you shall bless the Lord your God for the good land he has given you.
11 “Take care lest you forget the Lord your God by not keeping his commandments and his rules and his statutes, which I command you today, 12 lest, when you have eaten and are full and have built good houses and live in them, 13 and when your herds and flocks multiply and your silver and gold is multiplied and all that you have is multiplied, 14 then your heart be lifted up, and you forget the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery, 15 who led you through the great and terrifying wilderness, with its fiery serpents and scorpions and thirsty ground where there was no water, who brought you water out of the flinty rock, 16 who fed you in the wilderness with manna that your fathers did not know, that he might humble you and test you, to do you good in the end. 17 Beware lest you say in your heart, ‘My power and the might of my hand have gotten me this wealth.’ 18 You shall remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you power to get wealth, that he may confirm his covenant that he swore to your fathers, as it is this day. 19 And if you forget the Lord your God and go after other gods and serve them and worship them, I solemnly warn you today that you shall surely perish. 20 Like the nations that the Lord makes to perish before you, so shall you perish, because you would not obey the voice of the Lord your God.
(ESV)

The Hebrew word used to for “live” in Deuteronomy 8:3 is Châyâh. Meaning to live, to revive, to keep alive, to nourish, to preserve, quicken, recover, repair, restore, Save, to be whole.

Deuteronomy 8 plainly states God’s desires, and they synch exactly with Jesus. Live on God’s word and don’t deviate from it. Moses acted this out when he fasted for 40 days on mount Sinai and received the law.

John’s Gospel opens with these statements:
John1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. 4 In him was life, [1] and the life was the light of men. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

9 The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world. 10 He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. 11 He came to his own, [2] and his own people [3] did not receive him. 12 But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, 13 who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.
14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. 15 (John bore witness about him, and cried out, “This was he of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me ranks before me, because he was before me.’”) 16 And from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. 17 For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. 18 No one has ever seen God; the only God, [4] who is at the Father's side, [5] he has made him known.

(ESV)
Jesus is the word of God, and he went into the wilderness before he began his ministry. God's spirit descended upon him in the form of a dove, and he immediately went out into the wilderness where he fasted for 40 days. :)

Satan comes and tempts Jesus, but he answers back with scripture. The main scripture he uses is Deuteronomy 8:3.

Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word from the mouth of God.

After a period of 40 days of fasting Jesus began his ministry and started on the real meat and potatoes of what God wanted him to do.

After leaving Egypt the Israelites wandered in the wilderness for 40 years. Archaeologist believe they have found this stretch of wilderness and identified the number of people that made up the nation of Israel. They have come to the conclusion that the number of people, would not be able to survive in the wilderness. Their claim is that the land was too infertile to supply for that many people for more than a week or so.

After 40 years in the wilderness God led the Israelites to their promised land, and what God really had planned for them.

God kept the Israelites in the wilderness until a new generation that was refined was ready to take hold of what he had for them. He was refining until they truly Loved him.

In John 6 he tells the people, because you are hungry not because you saw a miraculous sign you are coming to me now.

So far he’s addressed two types of believers: People who believe because of a sign (a wicked and adulterous nation), and people who believe because they are hungry for the things of this world. On one hand are people who believe in him for the weak reason of what they have seen, and the others believe trying to see what they can get out of him.

But neither group truly believes or Loves

The Israelites in the wilderness saw the parting of a sea, a river flow from a rock in the desert, the sweetening of a bitter river with a tree, they walked around in the same clothes for forty years, bread fell from the sky and quail came when they wanted something new besides manna. All these things happened in a place that wasn't supposed to support them in any way whatsoever.

Yet God is yearning for something more from his children. Something more simple than anything that anyone has tried: Intimacy: A heart that removes itself from everything else and focuses on God. It’s not a heart that memorizes verses or reads the Bible a million (though those things are good). He desires a people that has one thing on their mind God. Not what God is doing, but God. For when we focus on God we do what he wants without thinking about it.

This concludes part 1
I do not know how many parts there will be, but God is doing something with this message and he has opened my eyes to the things he has done in such a different way that it changes the entire way I look at Jesus.