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PHILIPPIANS 2:1-11 – EXHORTATION
Philippians 2, "If there be therefore any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the spirit, if any bowels and mercies, fulfill ye my joy, that ye be like minded having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind. Let nothing be done through strife or vain glory, but in lowliness of mind, let each esteem others better than themselves. Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others. Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus, who being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation and took upon him the form of a servant and was made in the likeness of men, and being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Wherefore God hath highly exalted him and given him a name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth and things under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father."
Hallelujah! What is God talking about here? He is telling us in verse 5, "Let this mind be in you." I am suggesting to you that in the first four verses, he is describing what our mind, what our thought processes would be like if we are manifesting or walking in the mind of the Lord Jesus Christ. He says that we are going to have love. We are going to have the same love as Jesus. We are going to be of one accord and one mind.
Brethren, we cannot be of one accord and one mind while we are walking in the mind of fallen Adam, because fallen Adam is divided. We have been preaching here recently that the living soul that died has been dispersed. It has been set one against the other. When you have one, two, four, or five hundred or five million people manifesting the spirit of Christ, then there would be no dissension. Everybody will be in total and perfect agreement, because Christ is not divided, and wherever He manifests, He is thinking and moving and operating in the same manner.
Where fallen Adam manifests, there is dissension, there is disagreement, there is trouble, because fallen Adam is dispersed. Where he manifests in each vessel, those vessels are set one against the other. The church world today is under a deception. They think that they can be in agreement with one another while they are walking around in the fallen adamic mind. In fact, they do not even have a revelation that if you have received Christ, you now have two minds. They talk about being covered in the blood of Jesus, but they do not know that the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ is a new mind.
There is a new mind in the earth. There is a new kingdom in the earth. There is a new foundation of power in the earth of men's souls. If you have the Lord Jesus Christ, you have two minds. You have two foundations of power inside your mind; one ruled by Satan, the fallen adamic mind, and the other ruled by the Lord Jesus Christ. We go back and forth from one to the other. I would say the average Christian walks in the fallen adamic mind frequently, doing religious works, thinking that he is manifesting Christ. Brethren, the fallen adamic mind cannot manifest Christ. Anything, any behavior, any thought that comes forth from the fallen adamic mind, no matter how Godly it might appear on the surface, is nothing more than a religious work.
If you are manifesting the mind of Christ, but gently doing your housework, or doing your labor, the love of God will be flowing through you because it is coming from the foundation of power known as the Lord Jesus Christ. This message has to get out to the church, and it has to get out to the world. You have two minds, you are double minded, and there is sweet water and bitter flowing forth from you, from the same vessel, and, brethren, these things ought not to be.
We are told to have the same love, to be like-minded, to have bowels of mercy, and fellowship in the spirit. Brethren, the church has to learn to discern the Spirit of Christ. If you are discussing doctrine, or if you are talking about Scriptures and there is any dissension, if there is any division whatsoever, you are not discussing those Scriptures out of the mind or the foundation of power of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ does not strive with Himself. He is in perfect peace and in total agreement.
The words you are saying do not determine what spirit you are manifesting. Many people have come to me and said, "I do not understand why he is mad at me, I said it to him in the sweetest, most gentle voice I could muster." I looked at the woman who said this to me once and said, "Sister, it was not your tone of voice that upset him, it was the meaning and the intent of the words that you spoke, and the meaning and the intent of the words that you spoke were rooted in witchcraft."
We have people all throughout the church world who are just like the people in the world. They think that if they speak with a tongue as butter, they are okay. You are not okay, brethren, even if the words that you speak are okay. In this hour, we are dealing with motives, and the church has to get spiritual. I have never seen a more carnal bunch of people than the people in the church world today.
If you meet up with somebody and you talk with them, and after speaking to them you form an opinion that you could not discern a manifestation of the Lord Jesus Christ on them, brethren, that is not gossip. That is not saying something unkind about the person. That is a judgment that you have made; that the person calls themselves saved, but that you have not been able to discern the Spirit of God on that person. That does not mean that they are bad. It does not mean you are condemning them. It is not criticism, and it is not ungodly, it is the truth.
We have to get over these religious works. We are commanded to try the spirit on all men to know who we are talking to. Brethren, we have to know who we are talking to. People are going to come to us in an apparent sweet spirit, and it would not be Christ. They would be speaking words (the Scripture says) like butter, and their intent and their motive will be to destroy us. They will come to us with smiles on their faces and suggestions in their mouths, and it is all coming forth from a witchcraft spirit. If you rise up and do what they tell you to do, you are worshiping the God that is in them, and his name is Satan, the unconscious part of the carnal mind. He has come to you in a man, he has made a suggestion to you, and you have done it, because you have been deceived by soft words and a nice smile.
Jesus said, "If it were possible, the very elect would be deceived." Brethren, we can, as He said, "hold fast to that which you have." Do not give up what the Lord has given to you. Do not give up any position of authority that you hold in righteousness. Do not be subject to mind control, and do not be subject to witchcraft, and do not believe their lies when they tell you that you have to step down and give them authority. They are not going to come to you just like Satan, the unconscious part of the carnal mind, is not going to come to you dressed in a red suit with horns and a tail.
The people through whom Satan, the unconscious part of the carnal mind, is manifesting are going to come to you as loving friends. They are going to be in the church, and they are going to unseat you from whatever authority the Lord Jesus Christ has given you. They are going to try to take what is yours, and they are going to try to tread you under their feet and utterly consume you. These are treacherous days, people, and we have got to know what spirit we are talking to. If you cannot discern the spirit, ask God for discernment, because your life could depend on it.
We are commanded in Philippians 2:1 to fellowship in the spirit, to have bowels of mercies. Brethren, seek out the people that are manifesting the Spirit of God. There is safety in the Spirit of God. Unfortunately in this hour, nobody is in the Spirit of God a hundred percent of the time. You have to keep your eyes open, your ears open, and if you do not have discernment, you have got to get it. Pray for it because you cannot enter into the kingdom without it. Satan, the unconscious part of the carnal mind, will trip you up and destroy you without a question of a doubt. There is no fellowship in the spirit unless you are in the same spirit. Now, you could both be in Satan, or you could both be in Christ.
Verse 2, he says, "Fulfill ye my joy that you be like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord and one mind." Brethren, this message that we are double-minded has got to get out into the church world. We were single-minded in fallen Adam, and as soon as we receive the Lord Jesus Christ, we have become double-minded. Both bitter water and sweet water come from our mouths. Sometimes we speak words motivated by the Lord Jesus Christ, and sometimes we speak words motivated by the Satanic mind, the unconscious part of the carnal mind, or the soul known as fallen Adam. Those words could be kind words, they could be good words, but they are going to lock you out of the kingdom if you live your whole life in the fallen adamic soul. God wants us to transfer into Christ. He is requiring us to transfer into Christ. He is asking us to discern Satan, the unconscious part of the carnal mind, in our mind, to reject his thoughts, to put them away and to ask Christ to manifest in us.
I have frequently taken to praying to the Lord, saying, "I do not want these thoughts, I do not want these thoughts, please make them go away." Thoughts of dissension, thoughts of criticism, thoughts of unkindness, thoughts that lack love, I do not want them. We are commanded to think on the high things of the Spirit of God. It just happened to me today. I prayed, I said, "Oh God, I do not want these thoughts, I want to think about the love of God, and I want to think about your appearance, I want to think about what the world is going to be like when we are all walking in the Spirit of God."
Do you know what a Christian is? A Christian is somebody that manifests Christ. It is not somebody that speaks in tongues, and it is not somebody that goes to church any number of times. It has nothing to do with how much money you give, and it has nothing to do with how much you know the Bible. Some of the greatest heathens in the world could argue with you Scripture for Scripture. Brethren, a Christian is someone who manifests the Spirit of Christ, which is characterized by love, peace, joy, temperance, longsuffering, kindness, and the other fruits of the Spirit.
As I have preached on other tapes, all of the church is not the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ. Not everybody that calls themselves a Christian is a Christian. Those that are living out of the love of God, whether they are in "church," or whether they are out in the world, if that love is coming forth from Christ, if they are a law unto themselves, they are a part of the Church. Glory to God, Hallelujah.
Verse 3, "Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory, but in lowliness of mind, let each esteem other better than themselves." He is talking about motives, brethren. He is talking about motives. In this New Covenant, motives are the most important thing. Let nothing be done when your motive is strife or vainglory. Do not pray for people when your motive is pride. Do not be kind to people when it is really an affront to them. Did you ever hear somebody put a knife in somebody's back with the sweetest softest voice? In this covenant we are dealing with motives.
You are not going to be blessed for acts or behavior that are motivated by a desire to be acknowledged, that are motivated by a desire to receive acclaim, or fame, or worship. Do you know that men want worship? They want to be appreciated, they want to be accepted. That is all pride, brethren, that is all pride. Everything that we do for another human being should come forth from the milk of human kindness; it should be done because of mercy and compassion. It should make no difference to us whether that person or any other person knows that we are the vessel that the Lord God has used to bless them. Man is looking for worship. It is throughout the whole church world. There are very few people walking in a true Spirit of Christ, very, very few.
I went to a church once, and the pastor was making an announcement. He was looking for volunteers. He printed a whole list of jobs that needed to be done in the church. There were about 22 suggestions of how you could help in the ministry, and he said to this one woman, "What would you like to do?" She went past the whole list, which included typing and cleaning, passing out tapes, reproducing tapes, all kinds of little things that needed to be done, and she said, "Well, I want to manifest the gifts." Well everybody wants to manifest the gifts, brethren, but we are still living in a realm of labor, and there are things that need to be done.
There is office work. There are telephone calls, there is visiting the sick. There is no glory in it. There is no glory in cleaning the toilet bowls, and there is no glory in doing some menial typing, but the ministry would not function unless you do it. In this hour, Jesus is looking at our motives. He wants to know why you are doing everything that you do. If you are not doing it out of a motive that comes forth from the love of God, you are going to be in that category that is going to be outside the gate saying, "Lord, Lord, I cast out demons in your name, why am I locked out?" "You are locked out because you cast out demons to puff up your pride. You cast out demons because it made your soul feel good. You did not do it because I told you to, nor did you do it because you had mercy on that person."
Verse 4, "Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others." Did I skip something there? Yes, I skipped something there. Back in verse 3, "...but in lowliness of mind, let each esteem other better than themselves." You know what that means, brethren? It means when you find yourself in a conflict with somebody, give it to the other guy. That is what Paul is telling us. Give it to other guy. If there is any kind of conflict whatsoever, turn it over. If two people want the same ministry, turn it over. Give it to God. There are people that manifest a wrong spirit, and you say to me, "Well, am I supposed to turn it over to them, and then I get another ministry and then I turn it over to them? I will wind up with nothing. I will have nothing." Now see, here is a big misunderstanding in the church. No, you would not wind up with nothing.
Paul said, "Why do you not take the loss?" "Well, maybe I will go bankrupt if it is money, or I will wind up sitting in the back of the church with nothing to do." That is not right. Brethren, what this counsel means is that when you turn it over to someone who is striving with you, you have automatically identified who is the party that is not manifesting Christ. You remember me teaching you that if there is any kind of strife or conflict, either one or both of these people are not manifesting Christ? If you are the one that says, "take it, it is yours," you have automatically identified the person who is not manifesting Christ. Give it to them, let them have it, because God in heaven is your judge. He is not going leave you with nothing. Can you hear this? He is not going to leave you with nothing.
You see, this is the part that is not in the Scriptures. You know how we teach here that there is so much that is unsaid? Paul says, "Give it up." He does not say in words, "If you give it up, God will exalt you." If you give it up, God will exalt you, God will exalt you. Give it up, do not strive with anybody. If somebody takes something, whether they need it or they do not need it, let them have it. If they have something that is yours, well you know, it would not kill you to let it go once in a while. It would not kill you to let it go.
I know somebody who once borrowed some money from me, a very well meaning person. It was three dollars, and when they gave the money back, it was two, and I discerned in their heart that they really thought they borrowed two dollars from me, and I just forgot about the dollar. I just thought about it, and I sought the Lord, and I felt that I would be embarrassing the person, and I just forgot about the dollar. Just make peace brethren, just make peace. God will exalt you in due season, it is not worth it. It is not worth it to haggle over anything in the church.
In the church that I was raised up in, there was always somebody that was trying to steal the ministry that the Lord had for me, and I was blocked out of a lot that the Lord had for me. Well, he gave me this ministry, now I have my own ministry. There is nothing that man can steal from you, there is nothing. He cannot steal a ministry from you, he cannot steal money from you, he cannot steal your husband from you unless God lets him. I know sometimes these things happen, but, brethren, I am telling you, you cannot lose if you manifest Christ in a given situation. It might look like you are losing for a brief moment, but you cannot lose. You cannot lose! There is nothing that they could steal from you that God would not give you back double! That is the size of it.
We are exhorted to be lowly of heart, to not strive with our brethren. Let it go, you know, let it go, brethren. Seek God, if God tells you to confront the person, you have to confront the person in a spirit of righteousness. That is a different situation, that is a different situation. Most of the time two believers are manifesting the carnal mind, and they are going at each other. Just back off, brethren. It is not worth it. It is not worth it because you have fallen, at least for that moment in that situation, out of God's grace. He is not going to bless you when you are defending yourself. He is not going to bless you when you are striving over a couple of what He considers very minor and little things.
The Lord Jesus Christ is exalted in peace between the members of His body. Back down, be humble, and only confront an issue when you are convinced that it is the mind of Christ in you standing up in righteousness to rebuke a wrong doer. If Christ is not manifesting in you, run from the conflict. Run from the confrontation, give it over. Give it over unless you know for sure that it is totally unrighteous to do so. Glory to God. The church is filled with believers seeking power, seeking position, seeking glory, seeking to be exalted. Brethren, come to church and humble yourself, submit yourself to God, learn, and receive deliverance that Christ should appear in you.
We are in Verse 3, "...let each esteem other better than themselves." Esteem others better than yourselves. Now, brethren, this does not mean that you get into a religious spirit. "Well we have two musicians in the church, who is going to sing the songs?" "Well you sing the song, you sing better than me." "No, you sing the song, you sing better than me." "No you sing the song because you sing better," and in the meantime nobody is singing the song. Somebody has to give in. This could get to be a religious work in pride. Somebody get up there and sing the song!
Do not strive, give it up just as soon as someone else is struggling with you. Take the attitude that the other person is better than you. They are a better preacher than you, they can do a better job of teaching the kids, they are better than you. Just give it over to the other person, and God will exalt you. He will establish you, and when He gives you a ministry, nobody will be able to rip it out of your hands. Nobody will be able to do it. Esteem your brethren better than you, and not only in competition, or in things like that, but in any kind of situation.
If you see somebody in need, do not be afraid to help them. Do not be afraid to give them money, do not be afraid to give them food, do not be afraid to give them clothing. Just check it out with the Lord, but do not look down on people that are having problems. Consider everybody better than yourself, and treat them with respect. This is really hard for people that have had privileged upbringing.
Do you know when I started working in Manhattan, years ago, I was an eighteen year old girl, and I started working for high level law firms, which were in prestige office buildings. In those days they had elevator operators, and I would see all these sophisticated, very wealthy old-money men, lawyers, professionals get into the elevator. They would say what floor they wanted to go to, and when they got to that floor and exited the elevator, they would say, "Thank you." I was amazed that they were thanking this elevator man for doing his job. It was consistent, everybody said "thank you," including me too, but I really did not understand it.
Then I found a Scripture for it, there is a Scripture for it. There is a Scripture for it in one of Gospels. Jesus said, "When you come into the field, and you are tired, and you want to call your servant to give you food, did it ever occur to you that maybe you should tell your servant to sit down and you should feed him?" Now this does not mean that you should, if you are in that position, pay a maid and have her sit down while you do her job. We are talking about a state of mind. If you are wealthy enough to employ a maid, and you are paying her money, well then, she has to do her job. In the relationship of employer and maid, she is suppose to submit to you, but in the relationship of human being to human being, you are to esteem each other better than yourself.
Am I confusing you, is this making any sense to you at all? We are all human beings, and if you make a contract with somebody to employ them, they have to do that job. It does not matter whether they are doing some highly skilled job, or whether you are training them to be an attorney, or whether you are hiring them to clean out your sewer, or do some job that is really unpleasant for you, they have to do their job. However, once you come out of that relationship of employer-employee, you are two human beings, and God requires you to treat these people with the respect of a human being. The Scripture says that we should do that because we fear our God in heaven, who has authority over us.
I find a lot of people in the church just cannot tell the difference between an ungodly rejection and a Godly refusal to accept rebellion or ungodly behavior in an employer-employee relationship. The church is just filled with rebellion. If there is any negative reaction from someone that has authority over them, they assume they are being rejected. Brethren, if you are out of order, if you have wrong thinking in your mind that requires a rebuke, and you are rebuked, that is not rejection. That is the love of God. If it is done properly, that is the love of God. Hallelujah. We are all human beings in God.
I saw a movie once, it was one of those Biblical movies, with Charlton Heston, where he was a rich man. Does anybody remember the name of it. He was a very wealthy man, and he was a prince in Judah. Ben Hur, yes, it was Ben Hur. I do not know how accurate it was. It showed you the relationship that Ben Hur had with his bond-servant, a man that had served him all of his life, that had married and borne children in his house. According to the law of the land, Ben Hur owned the land and so owned his daughter. He owned the man's daughter, and there was such respect, and honor, and love between them that the Romans could not even cope with it. There was love, and kindness, and humility from Ben Hur to his servants, and love, honor, respect and undying devotion on the part of the servant towards Ben Hur.
Now, in this society, that is almost impossible. There is so much pride in this society. This has been my experience. Of course, there are exceptions to the rule; however, this has been my experience. There is so much pride in the people in this society, that to take a job as a maid or servant, it inhibits them from having a relationship with the person that hires them. This is because they either feel inferior because they do not have the same kind of money, or they are filled with envy and resentment for the people that have the money. This is my experience.
Every time I have ever seen somebody that was in a position where they were two believers, and one had money and the other was employed by that person, the friendship ended because of either pride or envy. The people that had the job that paid less money, that required less education, whatever, could not maintain the relationship with the wealthy person. The wealthy person humbled themselves and tried to have the relationship, and the other person could not. They could not deal with it, their pride just ripped them to pieces.
It goes both ways. There is pride on the part of the people that might have better jobs, or think that they are more spiritual, and then, sometimes it goes the other way around. The Scripture says, "We are to esteem each other better than ourselves," and that has nothing to do with an employer-employee relationship.
As I talk to people in the church, it just becomes more and more obvious to me how little they understand God's principles. They think if you are manifesting the love of God, it only manifests in kindness and love and giving, giving, giving whether they are entitled to it or not. It just amazes me how many people in the church think that because they have a spiritual call on their life, they do not have to work, and you are supposed to support them. if you do not want to do it, they say that you do not have the love of God. Brethren, you do not know what the love of God is if you believe that. The love of God says, "If you do not work, you do not eat." That is what the love of God says. You better read the Bible.
On the other hand, neither is it Godly to be giving things away, giving things away, giving things away, without people working for their keep. If you are the person that wants to do the getting that you do not work for, that is ungodly. If you are the person that is doing all the giving, and not standing in righteousness, requiring these people to pay their fair share, then you have a problem, and you are contributing to that other person's delinquency in Christ. Everybody has to pull their own weight. There is no room for any free loaders in Christ, although the church is full of them. They are trying, but that does not mean that God is glorified in it, and we are sent to manifest righteousness to them. You do not work, you do not eat. Glory to God.
We are up to Verse 4, "Look not every man on his own thing, but every man also on the things of others." That means do not worry totally about your own needs, but also worry about the needs of others. Brethren, that does not mean that you are supposed to live in poverty while you give everything to other people. I have also seen this go in two directions. I have heard it preached, "Do not buy a pair of shoes, give that money to the church." Do you know somebody in the congregation did it. Somebody in the congregation did it. Someone that really did not have any money and was saving for a pair of shoes gave that money to the church. I went into that preacher's house a month or two later, and he had just had a beautiful breakfront made by a carpenter for him, erected in his house. I went into that preacher's house, and I could not believe it.
Brethren, do not be stupid, use your brains. You have to take care of your family. If you do not take care of your family, you are worse than a heathen. Neither does it mean that if you have a house to live in, and food on your table that you cannot have a TV set or any other nice thing, and that you have to be supporting every poor person in the church. No, brethren, it does not mean that either. It means that you seek God as to whom you help, how you help, and in what way you help them. Your own needs need to be met, your own children need to be educated, but there should be some room for looking upon the needs of others.
On the other hand, if there is a person in the church whose life is not in order; they are not holding a job, they are not doing everything they can to help themselves (sometimes people do not have jobs, and they are just in trouble), then you have to seek God as to whether you are supposed to help meet their needs. If they are not doing everything they can to help themselves, and they are living in abject poverty, and they have no clothes, and they have no food because of their own stubbornness and rebellion, well you really have to seek God about what you are suppose to do. I really would not.
I would only question it when there are children in the family. I would have to seek God on the individual situation if there were children in the family. If it was an adult person, and their needs were not being met because of their stubbornness, and their pride and rebellion against God, if it was obvious to me that there were jobs that were offered to them, but those jobs did not meet up to their qualifications, I would not give them a dime. When you have no food to eat, you take any job that is legitimate that comes your way . You take any honest work that you are physically, and emotionally, and intellectually capable of doing. You do not say, "That is not the kind of job I want, I want a better job," and then knock on your neighbor's door and say, "Feed me." If you are the person that feeds somebody like that, you are contributing to their delinquency.
COMMENT: Scripturally, if a person is working and they are not making ends meet, and they have children, should they go to their family first to ask for help or do they go to their church?
PASTOR VITALE: Scripturally, you go to your family first, and not only do you go to your family first, but if you have no parents, if you are a woman without a husband, and you have no parents, and you have no husband, and you have no brother or sister, the Scripture says that your nephew is supposed to give you money. I am sure this is a very unpopular Scriptural teaching in America today. Your dead brother or sister's son is supposed to help you. I mean, that is a big laugh in this country today. You cannot even get your own kids to help you. Yes, you do go to your family first.
That is in the New Testament, I cannot give it to you off hand, but if you want, I will look for it for you. (1 Timothy, Chapter 5) As a matter of fact, the Scripture clearly states that if you are a widow under the age of sixty the church should not support you, that it is not in the best interest of younger women to be supported by the church. They should go to work.
COMMENT: What if they were working, and they still could not make ends meet for some reason, should they go to their family first?
PASTOR VITALE: Yes, they are to go to their family first. The Scripture continues, "So that the church can help the widows that are widows indeed." These are widows that just have absolutely nobody to help them, and are destitute and on their face before God everyday. For such, the blessings should come from the church.
Welfare is a very ungodly institution. The problem in this country is that the whole system that God has set up has totally collapsed. It has utterly collapsed. What do we do if, God forbid, we find our self in that situation? We have to do a lot of praying, and I have known situations where He has sent young widows to welfare because there is just nobody else to help them. We have to start rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem somewhere, and I do not really know anybody, even in the church, that wants to take on the burden of a young person with a child. They just do not want to do it, and it is just the whole mental state of this country.
Brethren, welfare is breaking the back of this country, and it is because God's laws are not being implemented. God's laws for problems like this are the family, and the family is just utterly scattered. The weak are supposed to be taken care of by the strong, and the family includes cousins, aunts, uncles, nephews, and nieces. I was reading in the book of Genesis the other day, and it says that Abraham's brother died, and he took his brother's son, Lot, and they went to where God told them to go. The Scripture says, and he took his "son." He called him his son.
I have a nephew that lives across the street. He has not been over here in a year, and things are just not operating. My father lent him money to get the apartment across the street, and he did not pay him back for a while. He went out and bought a $5,000 motorcycle before he paid my father back. The system that God set up is not functioning, and because it is not functioning, we have to take each situation individually, because nobody or very few people are doing what they are supposed to do.
While we are on this Scripture, I want to put this on this tape for those of you who are familiar with this Scripture. It says that only widows that are widows indeed should be supported by the church; those who have no relatives, no husband, father, brother or nephew, those who have washed the saint's feet, and those who have been the wife of one husband. We have widows out there that were married to a man for fifty-two years. He died on them, and they married another guy. They were married for three years, and he died on them. Now they are not eligible for welfare from the church because they had two husbands? Give me a break, brethren, give me a break!
Use your brains, the Scripture cannot possibly mean that. "The wife of one husband." Brethren, that means you could only have one husband at a time. The Scripture is not talking about having consecutive husbands; it is talking about having two husbands at one time. Paul is talking about being married and being adulterous. That is what he is talking about.
I prayed about that for years, and one day I was working on this job where the man that I was working for happened to be married to this lady, a born again woman as a matter of fact, and he left her. He had a girlfriend, and he gave the girlfriend a job in the office as a book-keeper. He was a very disturbed man, and this particular day his wife called (she used to call and cry on the phone to me). She called, it was before a holiday weekend, and she wanted him to come home. My understanding was he had not divorced her, he had just moved out, and he had his own place. He was not living with this other woman, but they went around together a lot.
His wife had called on the phone, and she had told me that she was going to try to get him to agree to come home for this three or four day weekend, the fourth of July, or whatever, and I put the call through. After the call, he came out of the office all upset, and I knew that she had pressured him. He went running down the hall, and I saw him talking to his girlfriend, and they got into a spat, and God quickened to me immediately what had happened. The girlfriend wanted to spend the fourth of July weekend with him, and his wife had made him feel guilty (she must have been crying on the phone, whatever), and here he was arguing with his girlfriend. The Lord spoke to me as clear as a bell, and He said to me, "You see that man, he has two wives."
Brethren, if a woman has been a fine wife for one year, for five years, for fifty years, and her husband dies and she marries again, that does not disqualify her from benefits from the church. Please, let us get out of this letter of the law, it will kill you. I have a flash for you, if a woman was married for any amount of time, and she got divorced, and she married again, and she was a faithful wife to her husband, and she served him with all her heart, and he died, she is not disqualified from benefits from the church either.
COMMENT: I also felt that way about that Scripture that talks about the deacons (and there is another office it refers to), and it says they should be the husband of one wife. I thought that this meant one at a time, you know, because they use that against you if you are divorced and hold an office. I even said that to one pastor at one time, that could they actually use that against you if you have been divorced? I thought it meant if you have more than one at one time.
PASTOR VITALE: Absolutely, that was a word that I got directly from the Holy Spirit. He spoke to me as clear as a bell. There is just such persecution in the church against divorced people. I saw a murderer come into that church that we went to. The man had been convicted of murder, and the pastor prayed for him. I hear he got off. I do not understand what happened. I do not know if you were in the church at that time, but this man was convicted in Florida. Do you remember that guy? He was convicted of murder, he was going to be sentenced, and the whole church rose up in his defense, and they stood behind him and they prayed for him, and somehow he got off. That is okay, but if you are divorced, even before you got saved, you are persecuted for the rest of your days in the church. Very demonic people.
First of all, we are supposed to be forgiven. If it was before you were saved, you are supposed to be forgiven, and even if it was after the Lord called you. Do you know that some divorces are legal? Some divorces are legal, you know, even if it was while you were in God. Well, there are situations where your husband or your wife leaves you, and there is nothing you can do about it. You do everything to get them back and do not succeed, you are eligible to remarry. What if you left your husband, and you made a mistake? What if your husband left you, and he made a mistake, and then you married somebody else and he repented? Once he repents, brethren, he is supposed to be forgiven.
You can be a deacon in the church and if, God forbid, you should ever have that kind of a need, you are eligible for benefits from the church. All of these Scriptures, if they do not sound right, if they do not sit right with your common sense, or with your mercy, pray about it, because something has got to be wrong, something has got to be wrong.
I remember when God first gave me this revelation about two husbands, I mentioned it to a man. He did not have any official office in the church, but he was highly respected in the church, he had a lot of religious spirits though. I mentioned it to him, and he said, "Oh well, I guess that it could be." I said to him, "Well, yes, you know, and since God showed me how we had it so wrong, I am really praying about this question of women pastors." The Scripture that the church bases its prejudice upon that women cannot be pastors is the Scripture that says, "...and a pastor should be the husband of one wife." They assume that women cannot be pastors.
I said, "Well, if there were such a misunderstanding about this question of having one or two wives, meaning simultaneously and not consecutively, well then, maybe there is a possibility that a woman could be a pastor." He got so upset. We were riding in a van together, and we were on an evangelical evening. He was so upset that he stopped talking to me. When he got out of the van, he would not even look at me. I could not believe it.
Then finally, God gave me the answer. If God calls you, and you are in a female body, you better go. If He calls you to be the elder over a group of people, which a lot of religious Christians would call a pastor, you better do it. You better not sit down because some man tells you that you have to be the husband of one wife to be a pastor. You just better do what God tells you.
The answer to that problem is that if you are manifesting the Spirit of Christ in the ministry that God gives you, you are male, and the one wife that you are husband to is your soul. It does not matter what your body is. Jesus is concerned with your spiritual condition, and if you are one with Jesus, ruling the ministry by His Spirit, then you are male, and the one wife you have is your soul. Your spirit is the Spirit of Jesus Christ, and the one wife you have is the soul of Jesus Christ.
If your wife is the soul of fallen Adam, your house is not in order. Do you hear what I am saying? He says, "Your house has to be in order, your children have to be in line." You cannot have rebellion in your house if you are going to be a pastor, although the word is not pastor. I think it is bishop in the Scripture. Your house has to be in order. That means that your fallen adamic soul cannot be running wild, causing your spiritual man to do things that he should not be doing. If that is your spiritual condition, you are not eligible to be a bishop over a ministry. It has nothing to do with your body. God help us, God help us.
Someone called up a woman that was going to this ministry. He had heard that there was a woman preacher here but does not know me, never even met me, does not know the first thing about me. He called up this woman and he said, "Do you not think that your husband should be the preacher in that ministry?" That man was the least spiritually mature man in the whole ministry, and this other person thought that because he had a male body and certain sexual organs, this qualified him to be a preacher. Do you know that Hitler had a male body and male sexual organs. Does that qualify him to be preacher? Give me a break, God have mercy on us.
COMMENT: What you are saying about the widows, is there any church that supports them? I do not know of any church that does that.
PASTOR VITALE: Well, I only know what I heard, and I heard the pastor at one local church say that they help widows, but I do not know if he supports them. I was there one day when he did make an announcement that there was this woman, her husband was gone, whatever happened, and he asked if anyone would go over and mow the lawn for her. She had three children, and she was devastated, and she could not handle it. He did ask for volunteers to mow her lawn, and he got them. Someone volunteered to go. I think he said that they gave money to people, but I do not think he was their sole support. I think he would help them when they started going under.
The only church that I know of that really did that was the apostolic church that Peter, in the Scripture, was in charge over, and the Lord just spoke to me about that yesterday. We do not live like that today. There is no communal living in the church, and every time you find a church that goes communal, there are all kinds of rumors and things happening. They go cultish. It just does not seem to work out. I will tell you, I would really hesitate, if I heard a voice telling me to sell everything that I had and give it to the leader of my church. You know, I would really hesitate. I would really want to check that out to find out if that was God.
The Lord could not even tell me to do that because if I sold everything and gave it to that man in the church that I was raised up in, I would have no place to live. It was not a communal situation. Everybody had to have their own home. The Lord just spoke to me about that the other day. He said, "The reason that it was like that in the apostles' days, and it is not like that now is that the apostles were in full stature, and, for all intents and purposes, they were Christ. Christ was standing in full stature in Peter."
That means if you sold all of your land, and you gave it to Peter, you could know that you were safe, and that all of your needs were going to be met, because it was Christ incarnate in Peter ruling the church. In this hour, everybody is a natural man, and they just cannot deal with the power, they just cannot deal with the power. Do not sell all of your land and all of your property, and give it and all your money away.
I met someone that did that. They came into that church that we went to. They had been on the other side of the country somewhere, and they had gotten involved with this cultish church, and they had sold everything. They were a young couple. They sold everything and they gave it to the church. They stayed there for a couple of years, and they had great damage done to their minds. I do not remember any of the details, and now they were in this area. The Lord sent someone from our church to this woman because they needed a great deal of deliverance. They lived in Rocky Point, and it was very supernatural.
The woman came into the church. She got a lot of deliverance, but her husband would not come. Their hearts were broken. They had given everything, their life savings, to these people that utterly betrayed them. I would not recommend that to anybody in this hour. I really do not know what is going to happen when Christ appears in full stature again in the sons of God. I have no idea if we will have a similar situation or not. You do not sell everything and give it to a man that is not manifesting Christ in full stature. You have to be out of your mind, in my opinion, to do so.
To go back to your question, I do not know any church that is fully supporting widows rather than them being on welfare. I will put it on this tape, that is what God said we are supposed to do. The welfare situation is devastating, it is destroying our country. We just have to get back onto God's laws. The only example I know of (well, I have not seen that much of it) is that when Bill Britton died, his wife went to live with their daughter. There was no question about it. They just followed Scriptural principles. She just moved into her daughter's house. That is the way it is supposed to be. Somebody has got to start doing it.
You cannot expect church principles to be restored over night, but somebody has got to start doing it somewhere. I hear Christians talking, "Oh, I do not want to live with my mother," or "I do not want my mother to live with me," or "I do not want this," or "I do not want that." Somebody has got to start doing it somewhere, and if there is a problem, you just have to believe God that He would sort it out. Unless you get a personal word from the Lord not to do that, you should do it. However, God can override every principle in the Bible, and He can tell you, in your case, you are not to do it. We have to start getting back somehow. Somebody has to take the first step. The country is falling all around us, and who knows how much longer the social security benefits are going to be given out. There are all kinds of rumors that the fund is collapsing. I do not know whether it is true or not.
Let us try and wind this down here, glory to God. We are in Verse 5 in Chapter 2 of the book of Philippians, "Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus..." What Paul is telling us is that we cannot do all of these things that we are talking about, unless we have the mind of Christ. If we try to do it out of our fallen adamic mind, it is going to be a religious work, and God will not be glorified in it.
Verse 6, talking about Jesus now, "....who being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God..." He was in the form of God, and that word "form" means "shaped through the adjustment of parts." Jesus had a part that was like one of the parts of God. There was something about Jesus that was like God the Father, that He could say He was in His form. Does anybody know what part of the man, Jesus Christ of Nazareth, was just like the Father? His spirit. Jesus Christ of Nazareth had the Spirit of the Father. His human spirit had been changed, and it was now the Spirit of the Father. "For he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit." He said, "I and my Father are one." Well, how could Jesus be a man on the earth when He and His Father are one? In the spirit of the man, Jesus Christ of Nazareth, He and His Father were one.
The Father was dwelling in what had once been the human spirit of a man. The Father was dwelling in the fullness, in the soul and the body of the man known as Jesus Christ of Nazareth. The Scripture is saying, "Let this mind be in you." When you have the mind of Christ, this is what is going to happen to you. You are going to be like Jesus, you are going to do all of these things, because you are going to have the mind of Christ, " Who being in the form of God (who had the Spirit of God), thought it not robbery to be equal with God." Because His Spirit was the Father, He could say that He was one with God.
He did not think he was stealing anything from the Father to say that He was equal with God. Why? Because God is Spirit, God does not have a soul or a body. Jesus was the Spirit of the Father, plus a soul and a body. He did not take anything away from the Father. He became the soul and the body of the Father, but they were one in the Spirit. Glory to God.
Verse 7, "Made himself of no reputation." He did not exalt Himself, He was just a humble man. "...and took upon Him the form of a humble servant, and was made in the likeness of men." Well, what happened here, I just read in Verse 6, that He was in the form of God, and in Verse 7 it says, "He took on the form of a servant." Well, how could that be? The Scripture must be inconsistent, it was written by a man, it could not have been written by the Holy Spirit because it just contradicted itself. It just contradicted your carnal mind, brethren, and I suggest to you that His spirit was in the form of the Father, and that His soul was in the form of the servant.
His soul was in the form of the servant, and the soul was serving the Spirit of God. How was the soul serving the Spirit of God? The Spirit of God wanted to appear, and to appear, He needed a soul and body, and this soul was in submission to Almighty God, which was in Jesus Christ of Nazareth. In His Spirit, Jesus was in the form of God, but in His soul, He was in the form of a man. He was in the form of the living soul that died, but it was a manifestation of the living soul that was in total submission to the Almighty God.
"....And he was made in the likeness of men." How was he made in the likeness of men? He had a soul, and He had a spirit, and He had a body. That spirit was the Spirit of God, and the soul was in submission to it, but He was in the likeness of men. He looked like every other man, but His spiritual condition was different.
Verse 8, "And being found in fashion as a man..." Glory to God, that word "fashion" means "external condition." "...He humbled Himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross." Now, I have always heard this preached that He submitted Himself to death. Jesus Christ never submitted Himself to death. He put every enemy under His foot in that man known as Jesus Christ of Nazareth, even death. He overcame death when He rose from the dead. What are we saying here? The Scripture says that He humbled Himself, to whom? He humbled Himself unto His Father.
I suggest to you that Jesus Christ of Nazareth could have left that body at any time, and returned to the realm of the spirit and not have had to put up with all of the discomfort that He put up with in this world. He humbled Himself to the Spirit of God, and He became obedient unto death. He became obedient, submissive unto His Father, and that word "unto" can also be translated "concerning." He became obedient to His Father concerning death, even the death of the cross. Glory to God, Hallelujah.
That word "obedient" means "to submit to the judgment, or discipline, or discretion of another." It means "to yield up the authority that you have to another person." I suggest to you that He yielded up the authority that He had as the Son of God, because His Father, who was greater than He, told Him that He wanted Him to go to the cross. He did not submit to death, He submitted to His Father. Glory to God. He became submissive even concerning death, even the death of the cross.
I remind you that Jesus Christ of Nazareth was nailed to that stake, but something much greater happened at that time. The soul of Jesus Christ of Nazareth was nailed or crucified to death himself, even Satan, the unconscious part of the carnal mind, and that He is now nailed to the Spirit of the living soul that died, and He is going to be nailed to Him in every vessel, every member of the living soul that died, and He shall be with us for the life of the ages, nailed in many members to the spirit of the living soul that died, to the existence that lives in the earth.
Thus, God shall have His word performed that man shall have been made in the image of God. Jesus Christ shall be joined for the life of the ages to the spirit of Satan, the unconscious part of the carnal mind, to the living soul that died, who will live in another form when Jesus Christ nails Himself to Satan, the unconscious part of the carnal mind. Satan, the unconscious part of the carnal mind, shall be destroyed, but Satan, the unconscious part of the carnal mind, shall live again in another form as the flesh of Almighty God. He shall be the flesh of Almighty God, in total submission to Him.
Verse 9, "And wherefore God hath also highly exalted Him and given Him a name...", or a spirit. Names in the Scriptures are spirits. God has given Him a spirit, "...which is above every name," and that is the Spirit of Almighty God. It is the highest spirit know to man, known to the universe, known to everything we know. He is the God above all gods. The Lord God has given Him a spirit that is greater than every other spirit.
Verse 10, "That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, glory to God, and things in the earth, and things under the earth." Now we studied that in the book of Revelation. At the Spirit of Jesus, every knee should bow of the things in heaven, of all the spirits, and the things of all the souls, and things under the earth, all of the manifestations of Satan, the unconscious part of the carnal mind. When Jesus Christ enters into a vessel of a man, when He enters into my mind, when He enters into your mind, your spirit, and your soul, and Satan, the unconscious part of the carnal mind, in you shall yield unto Him. Glory to God.
Unfortunately for us, not without a battle, but He shall yield, and if Jesus Christ has entered into your mind, He is at war with the Satanic mind in you, the unconscious part of the carnal mind, your unconscious mind, but the Scripture says that your human spirit, your human soul, and Satan, the unconscious part of the carnal mind, shall bend his knee. He shall come under foot of the Lord Jesus Christ in your mind. That is the hope of glory, Jesus Christ in you, the hope of glory.
Does anybody know what it means? I know here you know what it means, but do they really know what it means? Anybody you talk to is waiting to go heaven. If you ask them what this is all about, they will say to you, "Where are you going to go after you die? Are you going to hell or are you going to heaven?" Well what does Jesus Christ in you, the hope of glory mean? What does it mean, if you are going to fly away to heaven somewhere?
The whole church is just steeped in false doctrine. It is starting to make me nauseous, I cannot bear it anymore. It is so horrible. Glory to God. "At the name of Jesus," or at the Spirit of Jesus Christ. This means when He appears in you, your spirit, and the Satanic, the unconscious part of the carnal mind, in you shall come under His feet, under His dominion, in submission to Him, and He shall rule and reign in your mind, and righteousness shall come forth from the earth.
Verse 11, "And that every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father." When Jesus Christ puts your human spirit under, well, who remembers how He puts your human spirit under his dominion, anybody remember how He is going to do that? He is going to fertilize it, and He is going to reproduce Himself in your human spirit, and the Son is going to appear in you. Jesus Christ is being born in you, and your human soul and Satan, the unconscious part of the carnal mind, shall come unto total submission to the Lord Jesus Christ in your mind. When that happens, your tongue will say, "Glory to God, Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father," because out of the mouth proceeds what is in your heart.
When I first used to be in deliverance many years ago, after we would pray for somebody, and we wanted to find out if the demon was out, and the person was not manifesting anymore, we would say to the person, "Say Jesus Christ is Lord." I must have heard fifty million demons answer back, "Jesus Christ is Lord." The demons can say Jesus Christ is Lord. It has got to come from the soul of Jesus Christ within you. Demons will say anything to you, brethren. We, in this hour, must learn to discern the spirit that is talking to us. Hallelujah, glory to God. That is the catch word for the hour, motives, brethren, the discernment of the motives and the intents of people's hearts.
As we become spiritual men, we are going to find ourselves responding to people's motives, and to the true Spirit operating in them. We are going to find ourselves in great conflict, because we are coming up against people that say, "I did not mean that," and you are going to know that they really meant it. They may not even know it, they may not even be in touch with their own motives, and we are going to have to seek God as to how to deal with these people. The way I deal with them is that I only confront them when God tells me to do so, otherwise I just hold the truth in my heart. Glory to God. Any questions that I can answer before I end this message?
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