Hebrews
6
HEB 6:1 Therefore leaving the principles of the
doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection; not laying again the
foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God, 2) Of the
doctrine of baptisms, and of laying on of hands, and of resurrection of the
dead, and of eternal judgment.
Here are 6 foundational truths that the Lord builds
our salvation upon.
1) Repentance from dead works
This requires the definition
of dead works. So let’s start with defining a living work. Yeshua is the
Way the Truth and the Life. Yahweh is the only source of Life that there is.
ALL Life comes from Him. So a living work is a work that He inspires and that
contains His life because He put Life in the work and He put Life in us to
perform the work. The result of the work is more Life transferred to others.
This kind of work literally has divine Life in it and it can produce Life in
those who receive the work. A dead work is any effort that does not contain
Yahweh’s divine Life. Obviously any work inspired by Lucifer is a dead
work. Also any work that comes from man is a dead work no matter how well
meaning it is. If Yahweh did not call for the work to take place and identify
the object of the work and indicate the timing of the work, then it is a dead
work. We as believers are to turn away from (repent) our human works and Lucifers works and find and carryout Yahweh’s works.
All of Yahweh’s works are inspired by the Holy Spirit and revealed to
men. This is what is meant by being lead by the Spirit. We listen to the Spirit
and obey the revelations and urges that He gives which result in a Living work,
that is, one that has eternal value. Works that are the results of mans
programs, agendas, principles, and desires are all dead works and accounted as
sin.
Please allow me to illustrate.
One of my jobs at the fellowship at which i was an
elder was to disciple some of the other small group leaders. Practically this
meant getting together with them once a week for an hour of two and seeing how
they were doing, help them with any problems in their small groups or any
personal problems. In other words hold them accountable. I did this for a few
years with 10 - 20 men, that is until the Lord drew me
up short. The pastor of the fellowship met with me weekly (for 10 years) for
the same reason. One morning i was at my desk at the
lab where i worked and the Lord placed the pastor and
my lab director in front of me and asked who do you want to be like? (My lab
director was preparing me to replace himself). I
looked at the Lord and said neither one, but You. He
left and for the next few minutes i was bathed in the
revelation of following men verses following Yeshua. All those years and all
those men had been following me. Had any of them actually become more like
Yeshua or more like me. It had all been a dead work!
That afternoon i ceased being a discipler
and became a disciple. Several other men came to me for discipling
and i declined explaining the story.
2) Faith toward God
Faith in God is the root of
our salvation. Our dead works are not a basis of salvation, but a detriment. We
cannot participate in Living works if we have not placed have faith in the
person of Yahweh and are being lead by the Holy Spirit. Until we are born again
we have put our faith in something or someone other than Yeshua. We may have
put our faith in our parents, or ourselves, or our works, or education, or
skills, or beauty, or popularity, or theology, or church, or church
attendance… None of these are worthy of our faith
nor will any of them save us eternally. There is only one who can save us
eternally, that is Yeshua, the only begotten son of the Living God, Yahweh. It
is He and He alone who will decide who is saved and who is not. So we must place
our faith in His Love for us, His redemption of us and His ability to lead and
save us. Faith is not intellectual in nature. It is not
believing than Yeshua exists nor that He did what He said He did. It is trusting Him out of our relationship with Him to Love us,
redeem us, provide for us and lead us to Father. Faith is the substance of
things hoped for and the evidence of things unseen. Many christians stumble over this verse. What does it
mean? Partially (He always has much more depth than we can comprehend) that
there must be some substance and evidence for our faith to be real. In other
words there are tangible results when faith is at work. Those results are
actually called faith. When we are born again and we go from depression to joy
that is faith. The evidence was the joy. When the blind see, or the tooth stops
aching that is faith, substance and evidence. We called upon Him and received a
tangible result. If our case was brought up in a court of law we would be
convicted based upon the evidence. If we have much faith there would be much
evidence and many convictions. The result of faith is our testimonies of
Yeshua's love for us as evidenced by His works in and through us.
3) Baptisms
There are several baptism
listed in the scriptures; the baptism of repentance, baptism in water, baptism
in the Holy Spirit, baptism of fire, and the baptism of suffering. Each of
these has a role to play in the believers walk.
The baptism of repentance was
the baptism that John the Baptist used. It was for preparing the individual to
receive the Messiah by removing the person’s sins. It was unique in
history. It was used only by John at the time of Yeshua’s appearance to
prepare men’s hearts to receive Yeshua’s words and works.
It was replaced by water
baptism or as some call it Christian baptism. Water
baptism involves the immersion in water of the new believer as a sign of his
death and resurrection, His death to sin and the world and resurrection into
the
I was baptized in water as a baby,
only a few days old at the time. I did not choose to be baptized,
i do not remember that baptism. It was meaningless to
me. However, my parents dedicated me to the Lord at the same time. I do not
choose nor remember that either but that does have meaning for me, and was
valuable. Baptism in water is our choice as an indication of being born again.
I was baptized in water in a farm pond again when i
was 9 at my request and that was meaningful.
The Baptism in the Holy Spirit
is what happened at Pentecost. This is where the Holy Spirit of Yahweh falls up
on and fills up the individual believer. The Holy Spirit and the
believer’s spirit unite. There is one initial baptism of the Holy Spirit
and many refillings. The Holy Spirit brings with Him
the power of God, the gifts of the Spirit and the fruits of the Spirit. If
water baptism is the transition between the two Kingdoms, then the Holy Spirit
baptism is the empowering to overcome sin and Satan and to receive revelation
and clear direction from Father. The Holy Spirit will lead us to all Truth. The
gifts of the Spirit; { But the
manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal. 8: For to
one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom; to another the word of knowledge
by the same Spirit; 9: To another faith by the same Spirit; to another the
gifts of healing by the same Spirit; 10: To another the working of miracles; to
another prophecy; to another discerning of spirits; to another divers kinds of
tongues; to another the interpretation of tongues (I Cor.
12)}. are the tools that we need to overcome our flesh, sin and
Satan and to commune with Yeshua and Father. The fruits of the Spirit; {But the fruit of the Spirit is love,
joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness,
self-control. (Galatians 5:22)} are the results of the work of the Holy Spirit transforming
us into fruitfulness. This baptism too, should happen shortly after being born
again. Usually this is the result of other believers who have already
experienced the baptism of the Holy Spirit, laying on hands and asking for the
baptism of the Holy Spirit for the new believer. We practice baptizing the new
believer in the Holy Spirit immediately after their baptism in water.
The baptism of Fire comes from
Yeshua when He is transforming us into His image. It is often accompanied with
feeling very hot and struggles with the flesh. The purpose of this baptism is
to melt away of the flesh and human strength; of mind, feelings, and soul so
that He can fill us with His Fire. It is usually a good time to fast as this
helps break the strength of the flesh. It can happen more than once. He is
making us into vessels to contain His presence. His presence is the power that
sets the captive free, heals the sick, causes the blind to see and raises the
dead. His purity in us attracts the captives, the sick, the blind and the dead.
Years ago when the Vineyard
movement started we met John Wimber. My wife fell in
love with him. I liked him enough but i just did not
see why she was so enamored with him. So i made the
fatale error of asking her what he had that i did
not. Her response was; he is just a big
teddy bear. He is so kind and gentle. (Implying that i was not.) I was pretty hard and bristly, even
though i did not want to admit it. Well lots of fire
later and i guess i'm not
as hard and bristly as i was,
at least that is what i'm told.
The baptism of Suffering is
another tool that the Lord uses to prepare us for service. It involves
suffering some kind of persecution unjustly. We pass the test when we accept
the accusations silently without getting angry having forgiven those who
persecuted you, as he did before His accusers.
The last three baptisms are
singular in beginnings but can go on for the rest of our lives at various times
as the Lord perfects us for his pleasure and purposes. The result is much good
fruit. We usually do not ask for the baptisms of fire and suffering, they come
upon us, usually without warning. We can, however, ask for them.
My son and daughter
experienced the baptism of suffering when the Lord sent them and some of their
friends to a Christian Church in our area to say that the Lord was offering to
move with power in their congregation. The Lord had given my son a prophecy for
them, however, they stopped him from speaking it and had a little inquisition
with the group asking them to leave the church and not come back. My son was
sad because they had refused what the Lord had to offer. He has actually had curses prayed upon him by
one pastor, using the laying on of hands.
1) Laying on of hands
This is the method of
transferring spiritual benefits from one believer to another. When believers
touch one another there is a touching and unifying of their spirits. The laying
on of hands is used; to impart the Holy Spirit, to impart the Lord’s
Presence, to impart the gifts of the Spirit, to bring healing and deliverance,
as the Lord leads.
2) Resurrection of the dead
This is the promise of Yeshua
to all believers. We are all to receive a glorified body after our old body has
died. This new body will be eternal and we be able to
operate in both the physical realm and the spiritual realm.
3) Eternal judgment
This is the final state of
humans, eternal judgment. We will spend eternity either with Yeshua or with
Satan, depending upon our decision to accept Yeshua’s salvation. If we
refuse we will spend eternity with Satan and his demons and fallen angels in
torment forever. If we accept and walk out our salvation by enduring until the
end then we will spend eternity with a glorified body with Yeshua forever.
There are temporal judgments that come upon men for their sins, specifically
unbelievers. However, as a believer all judgments against us have been placed
upon Yeshua. He may very well train us, but training is not judging.
Calamities, sickness, etc. for believers comes from
Satan's attempts to destroy us. We are to over come
them by our Faith in Yeshua as we seek His instructions and carry them out.