Part 2 of 3 Parts
The Following Message Has Been Transcribed For
Clarity, Continuity Of Thought, And Punctuation By
The LEM Transcribing & Editing Team.
PROPHECY
Thus saith the Lord: All is ready saith God. I have made preparation in heaven and I have made preparation in earth, saith the Lord. And I shall descend, yea even the archangel with the last trump. I shall descend with my message saith the Lord, and I shall appear in the sons of men, and many shall wonder saith God. And there shall be woos, and there shall be ahahs, and there shall be wailing, and there shall be gnashing of teeth. And the whole world shall sit up on its knees saith the Lord, for never, never before and never after, shall such a sight have been seen upon the earth as the manifestation and the glory of God of the first fruits company. Never have the eyes of man beheld such glory, saith the Lord. I shall appear in my sparkling glistering Spirit, saith the Lord. All the world shall see those that are spiritual and those who are not spiritual. I shall open the eyes of the blind, saith the Lord. And I shall open the ears of the deaf, saith God, and there shall not be one which shall not see, saith the Lord. And they shall fall to their knees, and they shall cry, saith the Lord. They shall cry for their wickedness, and they shall cry for the lost and past opportunity. Those who had not understanding, saith the Lord, there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth. Indeed, saith God, there is more to what has been going on in your life than playing church. There is more involved here than the good works of your flesh. There is my Spirit and my life that would appear in you, saith God. When you were a child I blessed you in your childishness, but it is the hour to grow up saith the Lord. And I call you up higher, and I call you to put away your childish ways, for the hour is at hand, and those who are ready shall surely enter in, and those that are not prepared, they shall not enter in. There shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth.
This is what I saw in the spirit. I saw a big gust. It looked to me like a tornado, but it was like a big funnel, but it was long like a tornado. I knew that this was heaven. I knew this was the realm of the Spirit and this was the earth. All of the life and power of God, which was so great up here that it was being channeled into this restricting narrow area like a funnel and poured out on the earth. What does that mean? It means all of the power of God, the Spirit without measure, is being forced into this restricted area. What is this restricted area? It is us. It is us. It is like pouring water into a glass. The unlimited Spirit of God without measure was whirling like a tornado. It has been forced all the way through this funnel and it is going to appear on the earth. Without a doubt in my mind, it is going to be in our lifetime. I am hoping it is going to be real soon. The Lord keeps telling me it will be soon, but I keep telling Him, Lord, you know your soon is not a soon to a human being. There is not a doubt in my mind that it is going to be in our lifetime.
The scripture clearly states that when He descends, when He comes down without measure, He is coming with a shout, the last trump. That is this doctrine. The doctrine has to be a part of it. It has to be a part of it. He is coming by His Spirit and He is coming with His word. You are not going to be in full stature with a false doctrine. It is impossible, impossible, saith the Lord, impossible. Glory to God. Hallelujah.
Mary, I feel to say something to you and I hope you do not mind. I hope you have not misunderstood me. There is nothing wrong with wanting to minister to people. God wants us to minister to people, but that ministry can come out of our adamic soul or it can come out of Christ. For a season, and I cannot tell you He is going to do this to everybody. He did it to me, and it looks to me like He is doing it to you. I cannot tell you it is going to happen to everybody. For a season, He is saying to you, Mary, give up the ministry, because you are ministering out of your adamic soul. I want to tell you again, it is not your behavior that is making me say this. It is a spiritual discernment. Lay it down. What He is saying to you is lay it down, and I am going to give it back to you in a measure that you cannot even imagine, when it comes out of my soul. His soul has to be developed in you. That is His word to you. There is nothing wrong in ministering. People misunderstand me all the time, and sometimes I hear what they are thinking, and I get all upset because I am not at all saying you should not be ministering to people. The sons are here to minister to the people, but for this season it has to come forth in you, His very spiritual life. There is no doubt in my mind about the way you pour out your life for God's people, and the wonderful things that you do. Mary, if they do not come out of Christ, you are going to die. If they do not come out of Christ, they are just works. His life must appear in you, and He wants to give it to you. Glory to God. He is not calling everybody in this hour. I just pray for peace upon you. I see the turmoil that you are in. Yes, well there is your confirmation. Then after He does it in you, you will be out doing things again. It is only for a season. I just rebuke all that turmoil in you. I just pray that the Lord helps you, in the Name of Jesus. Amen.
Everybody that is called to this ministry, God does the work, but we have to have certain raw material, which of course was given to us. Everything that we have is given, but it is not my intention to lift anybody up in pride, but the Lord has shown me that a lot of people that are called to this ministry, they are the complete opposite of being lifted up in pride. They have the tendency to think how could it possibly be me. What is it that He sees in me? I could never do it. It really is a negative manifestation of pride when you feel that way. Pride is the condition of the natural man, so everybody has pride. Let us no get religious here. Everybody has pride. Some measures of pride are more destructive than other measures of pride, but everybody has pride because adam is pride. It is a flip side of the coin. One side of the coin says, well I am great and of course He called me. I am the best. I prophesy in the church, and I cast out demons. On the other side of the coin is the people that say, well I do not know why He would pick me. He must have made a mistake. I cannot do this, and I cannot do that, and I am this, and I am that. The people in both camps have a manifestation of pride. Why? Because it is opposing the will of God.
If the will of God has called you, you are called. No matter how your carnal mind looks at it, and says either I deserve it or I do not deserve it, whatever your carnal mind is saying to you, the fact remains that God has called you. To oppose His call in any way is a manifestation of pride. Even if you think you are not worthy, it is pride. What I am trying to tell you is that not everybody in this hour is not called to this ministry. The people that are called to it are very strong people. I am not lifting up anybody. We all know that everything you have has been given, but we must find that middle line. We do not want to exalt ourselves, but neither do we want to deny the truth. The truth is that it has been given to us, that we should be strong enough to overcome. I want to tell you that this processing is rough and tough. Those of us that have entered into it, it is painful. Everybody here has had a hard life. Why have we had a hard life? It was in preparation for this last final hard experience that is going to result in the birth of Christ in us. I want to tell you that some soft person, that has been raised with no trouble in their life, will not survive it. I am convinced of this. He is taking people that He gave spiritual strength to, that He gave very hard lives to, so that they could survive by the spiritual strength that He gave them, even before they had a relationship with Him. Everyone in this ministry is a survivor.
After we have been beaten, and tossed to and fro for many years, He brings us to this stage where we are toughened up enough that we are going to get through this obstacle course. We are going to get through this birth, and He will be born in us, and He will appear in us. If you are here, you are called to the first fruits company. Now it is not guaranteed that you are going to go through, but if you are willing to pay the price, I believe it is guaranteed. As we were saying earlier, what happens here is that our adamic soul panics, and many people that God has called have taken off in the exact opposite direction. At this point, I just sit here and wave goodbye. I used to cry. I used to pray for the people like my heart was breaking. Now I just say, well Lord, I am too busy, and I bless them, and I pray for them. If there is any special prayer you want to give me for them, if there is anything I can do to help them, I am here to do it, but I cannot spend hours praying for someone that has turned their back on God. I am too busy. Does anyone not know what I am talking about? If you have a problem, I will pray with you, I will help you, but if you are one of the people that have decided not to answer the call, I recognize that there is nothing I could do.
When the Lord Jesus Christ says to you, alright, I accept your rejection, there is nothing I could do. I have go to go on. I have to get myself through. Paul said, that is was possible for him to be praying for all these people, and ministering to all these people, and for himself to be shipwrecked. Well, that is possible for me. I want to tell you that I love all of you, and I love everybody that I minister to, but if it comes to me tripping over you to the point that I do not make it, I am not going to trip over you. I am going to make it. Does anybody not know what I am talking about? I will help you to the fullest extent that I can, short of my not making it. I pray a lot of people through. I want to tell you I pray a lot of people through that do not even know that I pray for them. They have no idea of the kind of warfare I enter into. They have no conception, whatsoever, of the high realm of the spirit that the Lord permits me to enter into on behalf of some people, and in particularly you. Someday you will see. Someday, you will be doing it for someone else, and you will know what I was permitted to enter into on your behalf.
We are called to a great calling. It is going to happen in our lifetime, but we have got an enemy, and he is in our mind telling us all kinds of lies. He is an unseen enemy. If God has not revealed him to you, as we learned about in the number 31 series, if your spiritual eyes have not been opened, that you can see the enemy in your own mind, I do not know what to tell you. You can be seduced, but your one help, your assurance to get through is to continuously pray for the will of the Lord in your life. It is your passport to spiritual maturity. You really cannot fail, and that is what happened with you. You really cannot fail, no matter what your adamic soul is doing to you. If God looks at your heart and He makes a judgment that you really want His will in your life, and either you are in confusion or you are seduced, or whatever the problem is, He is going to take care of you. That is your insurance policy.
A couple of weeks ago I preached in I Corinthians 7. I preached an exhortation on verse 1 and verse 35. Actually, I did the whole chapter. When I listened to the tape, the Lord quickened to me that I really could not leave it in the condition that it was in. Starting with verse 36, I was really going to have to do some research and look up a lot of the words that had deep meanings that an exhortation could not satisfy. I have not given you that tape yet. I held it back. I guess I am going to make it a series. I do not know what I am going to call it yet, but it will be I Corinthians, Chapter 7. Verses 1 thru 35 will be the exhortation fromthat other meeting, and I cut off the balance of the tape. Tonight we are going to do a word by word study in verse 36 and then, Lord willing, there will be one more part to this series, which will also be word by word. Then I will finish it off. Glory to God.
I Corinthians 7:36: But if any man think that he behaved himself uncomely towards his virgin, if she pass the flower of her age, and needs so require, let him do what he will. He sinneth not, let them marry.
I would like to remind those of you who were here, that we discovered in the prior tape, in the exhortation, that this word, virgin, in the Greek can also be translated virginity. The conventional church world has taken I Corinthians 7 and translated it in such a manner that Paul is speaking about a man who is not behaving comely in a proper manner towards a virgin woman that he is in love with. We found out in the first part of this series that both men and women can be virgins, and that virgins are human beings who have never had a sexual experience. We found out that there are physical virgins and that there are spiritual virgins.
For this series, we are dealing with human beings that are physical virgins that have been divorced, both men and women. When the Scripture refers to the word, virgin, it could be referring to a man or a woman. We found out that in most instances, it is referring to a man. That this chapter is spoken by Paul to the spiritual men of the church, to human men and women that are spiritual men. The one verse that was referring to human women is verse 34. There are two verses. The one I will mention here is verse 34, where Paul says there is a difference between a wife and a virgin. There is a difference between a married woman and a virgin, but all of the other verses referring to virginity, we found that Paul was talking about a human male and his virginity, a human male and his virginity. Should he get married or should he remain a virgin? We are going to find out, as we continue now in verse 36 that Paul, as he so frequently does in the Scriptures, will cross over the line without any sign that he is doing it, between human male virgins and spiritual male virgins.
Now remember, we have been made virgins again, in the spirit, so that we can marry Christ. In principle, we are virgins. What does that mean? It means the Lord has forgiven us the sin of our spiritual adultery, but we are commanded to stop committing adultery in our mind. Am I confusing anybody? We are going to find out in verse 36 that Paul crosses over the line and sort of mixes up the condition of human sexual virginity and spiritual virginity. What I am trying to say, and I am having trouble getting it out, is that when he is talking about human beings, he is talking about both human men and human women who have a spiritual relationship with Christ. You will see as we go along, the two categories that he puts them into is not a human man and a human woman. The first category are those human beings who have conceived Christ and the second category are those human beings who have not conceived Christ. We are talking about spiritual men and women. Those human beings who have conceived Christ are spiritual men, whether your body is male or female, you are a spiritual male. If you have not conceived Christ, you are a spiritual female, whether your body is male or whether your body is female.
There is a big deception in the Church. We have spiritual women ruling in the pulpits because they are in male bodies, and they are keeping many spiritual men out of the pulpit because those spiritual men happen to be in human female bodies. Have you wondered about the scripture that says the woman should be silent in the church? We know this cannot be true. Women prophesy, and the scripture says quench not prophesying. Well, that appears to be a contradiction, but there is never a contradiction in the Scripture. You do not understand what the Lord was talking about. The answer to that problem is that Paul was not talking about human men or women. He was talking about spiritual men orspiritual women. He was saying that someone who was not preaching or teaching or playing music or casting out demons, anyone who was ministering spiritual ministry in any form that was not by the Spirit of Christ, which would make him a man, should not be in ministry. If it is not Christ in you, you are a spiritual woman and woman should be silent in the church. The Church is in a big mess because they think Paul is talking about your genitals, and he is not. Glory to God.
I Corinthians 7:36:
But if any man think that he behaveth himself uncomely towards his virgin, if she pass the flower of her age, and need so require, let him do what he will, he sinneth not: let them marry. KJV
I remind you that this is the translation of the King James Translators, who have taken all of these Greek words and inserted their own opinion and carnal understanding and have come up with this verse which is nothing at all what the Lord is saying. The first word, but, is Strong's #1487 and it can also be translated if or whether. I believe we are going to be translating it if. The King James Translators put the word, but, in. It can be just translated if. The Greek words, if any man, is Strong's #5100 and it can refer to some person or to any person or any object. It is an indefinite word that is in the Greek that means anyone who might. We talked about this once before. For example, any human being who permits Satan to manifest through him, anyone, or any human being that might let Christ manifest through them. It is an indefinite hazy word meaning that any human being who fulfills the conditions of a particular act. It means you. Anybody not know what I am talking about?
But if any man think, and the word, think, is Strong's #3543. Now they translated it think. It means to do by law. It means to do by law. Now what does that have to do with the word think? It is from a root, Strong's #3551 which means to parcel out or to regulate something by the law. To regulate something by the law, and it also means a principle, a spiritual principle, which is a law. The King James translators translated it think. It is talking about legalism. It is talking about the law. If any man think that he behaveth himself uncomely. To behave oneself uncomely is one Greek word. It is Strong's #807 and believe it or not, it means to be deformed or shapeless. I have found as we have done these alternate translations in the Scripture, that there are some passages in the Scripture that are very much more confusing than the other scriptures. The more unclear the passage, the more likely it is for the King James translators to not interpret it correctly. Why do I say this? Because the more unclear the passage, the more likely it is that the passage has a spiritual significance. Most spiritual significances have gone right over the heads of the King James translators.
When we get into these passages, and we look up these words, we find out that the words that the King James translators used are not even what is in Strong's. This is one of those cases. To behave oneself uncomely means to be deformed or to be shapeless. It is used of a bald man. Scriptural principles consider bald to be deformed. What does it mean to be deformed? It is to be unnatural. It is from another root that indicates possession in the sense of being opposite to the material or substance. Well if it is not material or substance, it must be of the mind. That is what it means. It must be of the mind. It is used to describe something that comprises everything in a person which strikes the senses. We are talking here about the personality, about the thought processes of the thinking. We are not talking about the person's body.
It says here, if any man thinketh that he behaveth himself uncomely. It is talking about a condition of the mind. It is not talking about a couple or a man or a woman that has gotten involved in an ungodly sexual behavior. It is saying the man who cannot control the lust in his mind. That is what it is saying. If any man thinketh that he behaveth himself uncomely toward his virgin. The Greek word translated toward is #1909 and it can also be translated about. I am going to translate it about. He is thinking in his mind about his virgin in a way that is in line with the mind of Christ. The word, virgin, is Strong's #3933 and Strong's clearly states that that word can be translated virginity. The way the King James translators translated it, they chose to translate it virgin, which gives you the impression that this man, whose mind is not godly towards his virgin, that it is not godly towards his girlfriend or another person. I am going to suggest to you that the Lord is saying to us here, that the spiritual man, who in his mind is not thinking in line with Christ, with regard to his own virginity, on how to deal with his virginity, is what we are talking about here.
I have an alternate translation on that first phrase. We broke this verse down into five phrases and this is the first phrase. We are translating it, if anyone is deformed in his thinking, because of a legalistic attitude about his virginity. I am going to go over that with you again. In the King James it says, but if any man. We are translating it, if anyone. The King James says, if anyone thinks. We are saying if anyone is deformed in his thinking. It is not just thinks. This Greek word clearly states that it is a thinking that is not in line with God, if anyone is deformed in his thinking. The word think is talking about the law. The King James says that he behaveth himself uncomely, and we are saying because of a legalistic attitude about his virginity. We are rejecting the King James translators' choice of the word virgin as referring to a person outside of the spiritual man. It is the spiritual man. He is deformed in his thinking. He is a spiritual man, but he is not thinking out of the mind of Christ. The reason he is not thinking out of the mind of Christ is because he has a legalistic attitude about his sexual state of being. What does legalistic mean? We are going to find out as we go on that what this means is that he is being influenced by custom and tradition to think about it in a certain way.
Congregation: Are you talking about spiritual virginity?
Pastor Vitale: No, physical virginity.
Congregation: If he is not right in his mind about physical virginity and he is having sexual lust, you are saying, right?
Pastor Vitale: Yes, we will find out as we go on that it is dealing with lust, and more specifically, how to deal with that lust.
Let me give you an overview, so you know what I am getting at. The Lord has shown me, through this verse, that what Paul is talking about is spiritual men, believers in whom Christ is being formed, that have lust in their mind or lust in their body. Because of custom and tradition, they have been told, and they believe and agreed with this telling, that the answer to their lust is to get married. If you have lust in your body, go get married and let it rip. Well, that is the truth of what they tell men. They do not tell it to young women that much, but they tell it to young men. It is only this last generation that women have lust. Before this generation they were trained to suppress it. That is what they tell young men. Get married, and then it is okay. They do not tell you that it could be dealt with in Christ. They say, yield to it, but yield to it in Godly parameters. I declare to you that that is the answer for a natural man. That is a Godly answer for a natural man. Paul is saying here that it is a Godly answer for a believer in whom Christ has not been conceived.
Now I want to make this very clear that this verse is not about marriage. Paul is not saying do not get married. Hear me now. He is not saying do not get married. He is saying, if you have a problem with lust and Christ is conceived in you, the answer to your lust is not marriage. The answer is Christ. If God has given you a wife, if you love a woman, if you want to get married for any Godly reason, marriage is okay for a believer in whom Christ is being formed. However, do not think marriage is the answer to your lust. Do not get married to satisfy your lust. In case you do not know it, young ladies, a lot of people, especially men, get married because they have lust. They want a Godly expression for their lust. That is the truth. Of course, they pick somebody that they like, but if it was not for that, they probably would never get married. That is the truth. In an unsaved man, and in a carnal believer, it is acceptable. It is an acceptable remedy for a human problem. It is a Godly remedy that is acceptable to the mind of God for a human problem, except for those who are called to the high calling. Does anybody not know what I am talking about?
Alternate Translation of I Corinthians 7:36; If anyone is deformed in his thinking because of a legalistic attitude about his virginity,
I want to put in another point over here. We are going back a lot to our study in Daniel 7. I know I mention it a lot, where we found out when we did a word by word in Daniel 7 that the natural man sees Christ as deformed or perverted. In case I have not made it clear in the past, I want to make it clear now. When the natural man looks at Christ, it is not his body that he thinks is perverted. It is his mind. Adam thinks that the way that Christ thinks is deformed. It is perverted. I want to tell you what someone just said to me the other day. They do not know the Lord at all. They were talking about a political candidate that just announced his candidacy. They said he is a horrible person. I said why is he a horrible person? He says openly that aides is a judgment from God. It was a young woman and she believed it. That was what she said to me, that he was a horrible person because he is against homosexuals. I want to tell you that the carnal mind thinks that the mind of Christ is deformed. We are not talking about a body here. God is a mind. He is a mind. Alleluia !!!
Continuing with, if she pass the flower of her age. If is Strong's #1437. It can also be translated in case that, provided that, and it is often used in connection with other words to imply indefiniteness or uncertainty. What are we saying here? If anyone is deformed in his thinking because of a legalistic attitude about his virginity, in that case, in that event, if that situation applies to you, or for the person to whom this situation applies, we are going to translate that phrase for our purposes; then in that event. The word she is, if she pass the flower of her age. The word, she, is Strong's #5600 and this pronoun, that is the Greek word translated she, can also be translated he. It is translator's license. Although it does not say it in the King James Translation, in the Greek, the word is really she is. If she pass the flower of her age. If she is past the flower of her age. We are going to say he is. The tense of the verb is indefinite. It can be translated he may be, he might be, he should be. In the event that he should be, in the vessels to whom this applies, is he past the flower of his age?
Strong's #5230 can also be translated beyond his prime, beyond the acme. Do you know what an acme is? Let me tell you what an acne is. An acme is a high point. If you have a mountain, the very peak of the mountain is the acme. This phrase can be translated past the flower of her age means to be beyond one's prime, to be beyond the acme, to be beyond the point, to be superior to, to be overripe. It means to be above and beyond something. Beyond what? I am going to suggest to you that it means to be beyond the best that can be accomplished out of a man's adamic soul. You have gone beyond being a natural man. Brethren, everybody here, you are too far gone to turn back. I am telling all of you, you are too far gone to turn back. You have gone beyond the point of no return. Amen.
Superior to what? If a man is superior to his adamic soul. How can he be superior to his adamic soul? Well, he has already started to live out of Christ. You are superior to your adamic soul, or to an adamic man, or to a Christian in whom Christ is not being formed, or to a Christian in whom Christ is being formed, but that person is not living out of Christ. If you have gone beyond the point of being a carnal person one hundred percent of the time, you are superior to an adamic man. This is what Jesus meant when He said that John the Baptist was the greatest of the prophets, but the least in the kingdom of God is greater than John the Baptist. Glory to God.
Alternate Translation of the second fifth of I Corinthians 7:36; In the event that he has spiritually ascended beyond the point of carnality. Why? Because Christ has been conceived in him. So what have we got so far? If anyone is deformed in his thinking because of a legalistic attitude about his virginity, in the event that that person. What person? The person that is deformed in his thinking. In the even that that person has spiritually ascended beyond carnality because Christ has been conceived in him. Now what is it saying? It is saying that there are people that can be deformed in their thinking, but still not have Christ conceived in them. The people that are deformed in their thinking, that do not have Christ, they have no choice. The only Godly way to deal with the problem is to get married. But in the event that one of these people has Christ begun to be formed in them, we have a different set of rules.
Next phrase. And need so require. We have got your mind is deformed because you are deformed in your thinking. You have a legalistic attitude and you are developed spiritually beyond carnality. If you fulfill those three requirements, and need so require. Let us find out what that means. This phrase is the translation of two Greek words, and need so require, and is Strong's #3784 and it means to be under obligation or to owe. There is a second word there that was not translated because it did not fit in with their translation. That word means to be. It is Strong's #1096 and what it is really saying is, to be under obligation to be. If you fulfill those three requirements, if you are deformed in your mind, if you are legalistic, and if you have spiritually descended above adam, you are under an obligation to be. You see, they tried to fit it into their doctrine, and to fit it into their doctrine, they had to leave the verb to be out, when it is really saying that you are under an obligation to be. If you fulfill the three requirements, if you are deformed in your thinking, if you have descended beyond Christ, and if you are legalistic, if you are yielding to custom as to how to deal with your problem, you are under an obligation to. Scripture says you have no choice.
Let us find out what you are under an obligation to do. Let me tell you this. This word, to be, also means to generate or to come into being. What it is saying is the answer to your problem is to live out of Christ, to bring Christ into being. I am repeating myself a lot tonight. I am just trying to yield to the Holy Ghost. If you are deformed in your thinking because you have a legalistic attitude about virginity, or if you have been convinced by your mother jumping all over you. Do you know we had a woman of God with a powerful anointing in this ministry, and she fought her mother for three years and she finally left. Her mother did not want her here because there were no men here that she could get married to. Her mother prayed in the Catholic Church and prayed to Mary three times a day to get her out of this ministry because there were no eligible men in the ministry. You see, if you are deformed in your thinking, if you think that you have to pick a church to go to, your mind does not line up with the mind of Christ. You are conforming, or yielding to tradition, or relatives, or the thinking of ungodly people that are denying the scripture that says seek ye first the kingdom of God and its righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you.
That means you are deformed in your mind because you are yielding to tradition.
When you are in that condition and you have also ascended beyond carnality, you are under an obligation to cause Christ to appear in your mind. You are under an obligation to resist tradition, to resist the deformity in your mind, and to have Christ appear as your mind. What does that mean? What you think should be Christ. What do you mean what you think? What you think about your virginity. What you think about the fact that you are in a lifestyle whereby you have no Godly outlet for sexual activity. What you think about it should be the thoughts of Christ. If you do not have Christ, if He is not being formed in you, the Lord will look away and will say deal with your lust, go the way of tradition. God bless you and go and get married. I want to tell you this whole church world is looking at their virginity with their adamic mind. I do not know anybody that preaches this. I want to tell you something, God would never give this to a married person to preach, nor would He give this message to a single person that is not living it because they would never stand. You have to live what you preach or Satan will just reveal you before the whole world. You have seen it happen. That poor man has my greatest compassion. He tried to preach the Bible, but his life was not lining up with what he was preaching. He was made a laughing stock before the whole world. May God have mercy on his soul. The reason you do not hear it preached is that there are very few people that can preach it, because you have to be living it to preach it.
This is what Paul is saying. Once Christ is being formed in you, the Lord will not accept you thinking with your carnal mind. It is not enough to have Christ formed in you. You must live out of Him. You must exchange your thoughts. You must exchange your beliefs. You must exchange your traditions for the truth that is in the mind of Christ. You are under an obligation to do it. You do not have a choice. When you think with your adamic mind, there is a necessity for repentance. It is sin to you when the mind of Christ has been rooted in you in a particular area and you yield to your adamic thoughts. No condemnation, but you should know that you did not do well that day. You ask the Lord to forgive you, and you try again. It is always a failure when you manifest the carnal mind and the mind of Christ is available to you in that area. It is the one step backwards while you go two steps forward. Praise the Lord.
Let me read you all three phrases together. If anyone is deformed in his thinking because of a legalistic attitude about his virginity, in the event that that person has spiritually ascended beyond carnality because Christ has been conceived in him, he is then under an obligation to manifest Christ. Continuing with let him do what he will. The Greek word translated let him do it is Strong's #4160 and it means to agree. It means let him agree. What do you mean let him agree? Do you agree with him? Let him agree with Christ. Let him reject his adamic thoughts and agree with Christ. Agree to do what? To follow. It also means this. The Greek word, Strong's #4160 can also be translated to follow some method of expressing by deeds the feelings and thoughts of the mind. Now if your feelings and the thoughts of your mind are Christ, you will seek first the kingdom of God and its righteousness, waiting on the Lord. If you express the deeds and the feelings and the thoughts of your societal pressures, it is revealed that you are living out of adam, even though Christ is being formed in you. For you, this is a sin. To the man that does not have Christ, it is not a sin. It is acceptable for a six month old baby to go in his diaper. It is not acceptable for a six year old child to do it or for a sixteen year old. Hallelujah !!!
Continuing with let him do what he will. That means let him do it. Let him agree with Christ and let him express Christ through his feelings, and thoughts of the mind. Let him do what he will. The word translated what, that is what it means. It can be translated who, which, what or that and it is Strong's #3739. The Greek word translated he will is Strong's #2309. He will can also mean to desire, to determine as an option, to choose or to prefer. Let him prefer what he will. Let him agree. We are translating that, let him agree then that the preferred mind will be expressed through his deed. Let him agree with Christ that the preferred mind will be expressed through his deed. Let me go over that with you again. Let him do what he will. Let him do it. That is Strong's #4160 and it means to agree, to agree with Christ. The word what can also be translated that, let him agree that. He will is Strong's #2309 and it can be translated to prefer. Let him agree then that the preferred mind be expressed through his deeds.
He sinned not, let them marry. The word not is Strong's #3756. It can be translated not or never. The word sin means sin and it is Strong's #264. The word marry is Strong's #1060 and it is just the word that means to marry. It is in the form of the verb that can be translated let them marry, let it be. The word, he said, is not let them marry. There is another word in there that is not translated here. I will just leave that out. This last phrase can be translated let them marry the one who never sins. The King James translators say, he sinneth not, let them marry. What it is really saying is let them marry the one who never sins. If you have a lust problem, do not marry a human woman. Why? I am going to tell you why. Because you are still going to have a lust problem, and it is still going to be competing with your mind for devotion to Christ. He has to be number one in your mind. When you have a lust problem, for the natural man you get married and you can do it five times a night if your wife agrees. You are not going to have much energy left over for the Lord. Paul is saying, if you have got this problem, if you cannot stop thinking about it, the answer is not a woman where the marriage bed is undefiled. The answer is to marry Christ and let us get this thing purged out of you.
I want to go over that one more time because the translation is so different from what was in the scripture. He sinneth not. The word, he sinneth, simply says to sin. He sinneth not. It can also be translated never. The word, marry, he just has three words there; not never, to sin, to marry. That is what the Greek says. The King James translators said, he sinneth not, let them marry. The Lord says let them marry the one who never sins. It is translator's license. I cannot prove it to you. Anyone that translates will tell you it is translator's license. Three Greek words. How are you going to translate it? How are you going to put it into understandable English? Are you going to say he sinneth not, let them marry or are you going to say let them marry the one who never sins. I want to tell you, that the King James translators never even thought this was a possibility, the one who never sins. Who is the one who never sins? Amen, it is Jesus. With their carnal mind, they never even thought of marriage to Jesus. The thought never entered their mind.
I am going to ask you to note here the change from him to them. Paul is talking about him and then all of a sudden he says them. This is very common in Paul's writings. He switches back and forth between a singular and a plural pronoun between him and them. When he does that, he is indicating on the one hand that he is speaking to or about the corporate adamic man, which is he, and on the other hand, he is speaking about the many members of the corporate adamic man. It is a hidden way of saying he is one spiritual man, but I know that he is in many members.
This is our alternate translation of I Corinthians 7:36; If anyone is deformed in his thinking because of a legalistic attitude about his virginity, in the event that he has spiritually ascended beyond carnality because Christ has been conceived in him, he is under an obligation to manifest Christ. Where? In his mind. Let him agree then that the preferred mind will be expressed through his deeds, through what he is going to do about his problem. Let them marry the one who never sins. Let them agree then that the preferred mind will be expressed through his deeds. What is his choice? Marry a human woman and still continue to be obsessed with lust in an undefiled marriage bed or marry Christ, through which his lust will be purged, and he will have a free mind, and a free body to serve the kingdom of God. Hallelujah!!!
I want to refine this alternate translation a little bit. As I said, this verse sounds so different than what is in the scripture. It sounds so different than what is in the scripture that if I jump from the scripture to my final alternate translation, you would never be able to follow how I got it. We are just going to follow this through a little and refine it a little more. Glory to God. I just want to make one more comment about the phrase, let them marry the one who never sins. We can also say let them marry the one who is incapable of sin. I found in the Church that there are some believers that do not understand that there is a difference between never sinning and between being incapable of sin. To never sin implies that you have a choice. It implies that if you were to refuse to continue your warfare, for example, you could sin, but you have a choice. You choose to continue the warfare, and you are victorious in your warfare, and you therefore never sin, but it definitely implies that you could sin, if it were possible. The one who is incapable of sin, that statement is clear. He cannot sin if he wants to. He cannot sin if he wants to.
I want to suggest to you that the phrase, he who never sins applies to the believer in full stature. It applies to the condition that Jesus Christ of Nazareth was in before the resurrection. He had Satan under his feet. Again, we saw in the temptation, that is described in the gospels, that He definitely did have a conflict and a temptation by Satan, and that Satan had the authority to test Him. That means that if He did not maintain His position and His authority, He was capable of sin. I am suggesting to you that after His crucifixion, resurrection, and glorification, He is no longer capable of sin. He is now a Glorified Spirit, and that Glorified Spirit is in your mind and He is in my mind, and He is incapable of sin. He has totally defeated Satan, and slain him, and of the twain He made one new man, and that new man is in your mind and in my mind. The new man, the Glorified Man is incapable of sin. The natural man who has ascended to full stature by taking authority over his sin filled adamic soul may never sin, but he is still capable of sin. Glory to God.
Let us take it from the beginning, a phrase at a time. If anyone is deformed in his thinking, if your thinking and thus your lifestyle is not lining up with the mind of Christ, because what you think, you do. As you think, you are, so if your thinking is deformed, your lifestyle will be deformed. If you are about to say to me, well, I know someone that has lust, but refuses to yield to it. Brethren, I declare to you that if something like that is not dealt with in Christ, you will either eventually yield to it or it will take its toll on your life in some way, either in the form of physical or mental illness. A natural expression of humanity that is suppressed produces disease. The Church knows that and the world knows that. Our humanity and our human nature must be dealt with. Suppression never gets us anything. Suppression is sweeping the family skeleton under the rugs. We have all kinds of institutions with mentally disturbed and insane people who could not cope in their adamic souls with what happened to them in their lifetime. Passion and lust, if we have it, is a human condition that must be dealt with. It cannot be pushed under the rug.
It is just like the water that was pressing up against the dike, and the hole sprang in the dike. Did you ever hear that little story about the Dutch boy that put his finger in the dike? If you see a wall and the water is pressing against it and pressing against it, and pressing against it, you will see a leak here and a leak there and a leak there and a leak there, and all of a sudden the water will come gushing through the wall and knock it down. That is what our human condition is when we try to deal with it in our adamic soul. It is powerful. The living soul, which is our unconscious mind, is powerful. People who run away from problems, or refuse to deal with them through denial, are people who are troubled.
We have a whole country full of troubled people today. We know that one of the most obvious signs of alcoholism and other compulsive diseases is that these people are denying the truth about themselves, or the truth about their families, or the truth about their life situations. They are involved deeply in denial. The result of it is that they really cannot stand the pain, so they drink, but they are so involved in denial that they do not know why they drink. Their drinking or drug addiction is an ungodly adamic answer to their pain, because they do not know how to deal with their pain in a Godly manner. They were never taught. Glory to God.
If anyone is deformed in his thinking, you are therefore deformed in your lifestyle. We are saying that your lifestyle is not lined up with Christ. Glory to God. What was Jesus' lifestyle? Brethren, Jesus was a eunuch. Jesus was a man in whom Christ was formed. He ascended to a high spiritual authority where there is no marriage. If you believe that you can ascend to full stature and still be married, your mind, your thinking, and of course your lifestyle, is not lined up with the mind of Christ. Now I am going to say it one more time on this tape. I am not against marriage, and neither is Paul against marriage. Nor was Jesus against marriage for those people who are abiding in an adamic lifestyle. You may have a relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ and still be very carnal and very adamic. There is no condemnation in this, in that you cannot ascend to full stature unless you are called to it, unless you are granted special dispensation by the Lord to go on to perfection. It is not your choice.
For those who Jesus is calling up to full stature, you may find that no matter how hard you pray, there is no husband or wife coming your way. Then you have two choices. You can try to produce one for yourself or you can yield to the Spirit of God. For those that are not called in this hour, the Lord is most likely giving you a mate. I see in the Church a lot of people that are called to a high calling in Christ, and they cannot get this revelation into their spirit. They moan and they groan. I want to tell you that I was one of them for quite a few years. They moan and they groan. They pray for a mate, a husband or a wife, and they cry and they say, Lord, why not me. They are angry and in all forms of emotional distress because they cannot accept this truth that we are bringing forth here today. There is a sacrifice involved in being caught up to full stature. Jesus can do whatever He wants. Many, to whom He is calling to this high calling, He has made a judgment that either they will not marry or they will not marry now. That is why you pray and you pray, and you pray, and no husband comes forth for you.
Brethren, do not tell me that Jesus cannot provide a husband or a wife for you if He wants to. Do not tell me that our society is so corrupt that there is not one human being that the Lord can raise up to be your mate, because that is not true. If He has a mate for you, He will produce him. If He has not produced him it means, that at least for this season, He does not have one for you. We suffer, those of us that are single. We suffer and we are tormented. The reason for our torment is that our thinking is deformed because of tradition and pressure from our family and friends. Because our thinking is deformed, our lifestyle is deformed. We are not spending every moment that we have serving God, but we are spending hours or more than that, moaning and groaning over this issue. Some of us run to singles groups and do all forms of things to bring a husband or a wife into our life in our own power. Brethren, that is not something that Jesus Christ did. Glory to God. Hallelujah.
If anyone is deformed in his thinking, thus your lifestyle is not lining up with the mind of Christ. If anyone is deformed in his thinking because of a legalistic attitude about his virginity. Because of a legalistic attitude about virginity, because he is conforming to custom, and not the Scripture, with regard to his thoughts about virginity, or with regard to his thoughts about marriage. This is usually because of pressure from friends and relatives who are manifesting anti-christ in your life. Brethren, he that confesses not that Jesus is come in your flesh is an anti-christ. If you are trying to walk in this revelation, and they come to you and torment you, or put condemnation on you, or put pressure on you, or pray psychic prayers to have you get married, brethren, if he is not with us, he is against us. If you are manifesting Christ in your mind, and they are coming against you, they are not manifesting Christ. I am not telling you that your beloved relatives are no good. I am telling you that any human being is capable of manifesting anti-christ at any given moment.
If you are trying to live for Christ, and all these people are coming to you, and putting pressure on you to conform to tradition, in that confrontation, they are your anti-christ. What are we to do with anti-christ? We are to overcome him, but it is really hard to overcome an enemy when we do not understand that he is our enemy. It is very hard to overcome an enemy when we see our sweet little grandmother in front of us saying it is just for your good because I am worried about you. I am concerned about you. It takes a spiritual mind. It takes the mind of Christ to see anti-christ in our sweet little grandmother and not condemn our sweet little grandmother. We must understand that this is a spiritual confrontation, and the Lord is requiring us to agree with Him, in His mind, that He knows best. He will decide whether or not we marry, and if we do marry, when we do, at what point in our lives. Glory to God.
In the event that that man has ascended beyond carnality, because Christ has been conceived in him. This means in the event that Christ is being formed in him, the man that is going through this conflict. In the event that Christ has already started to be formed in him. Glory to God. That man is under an obligation to manifest Christ. That man is under an obligation to agree with the mind of Christ. Once Christ begins to be formed in you, your sole relationship to adam is to resist him, to overcome him, and to destroy him. There is no acceptable situation under which you shall agree with Adam and glorify God. Once Christ begins to be formed in us, we are to agree with Christ in everything, in every area of our life, and in every area of the affairs of this whole world system. Glory to God.
He is under an obligation to manifest Christ. He is under an obligation to cause the preferred one to come into being. Where? In his mind and in his personality. Not adam.
Let him agree, then, that the preferred mind will be expressed through his deeds. Let him agree with Christ, an agreement with Christ, and not adam, that the preferred mind, that the mind of Christ shall be expressed through what he is thinking, and through what he does. What is he doing? He is either marrying or not marrying. He is either out there in singles' groups looking for a mate or he is not. He is either spending hours or whatever amount of time praying about or trying to bring himself into a condition of marriage or he is spending that time working towards the kingdom of God, following the scripture that says, seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and these things shall be added unto you. Let him agree with Christ, that the mind of Christ will be expressed through his deeds. Let the mind of Christ be expressed through his decision, whether or not to marry in accordance with what Christ is saying about his life. Glory to God.
Let him agree with Christ about marriage. I am going to repeat it one more time. Everybody in the Church is not in the same spiritual condition. The Lord does have a husband or a wife for some of you. You have got to find out what the Lord has for you. You do that by praying, Lord God, I think I would like to get married, but nevertheless, Lord, your will and not mine. Please help me to not try to bring this forth under my own strength because nothing but disaster can come of it. Be my protector, and be my Savior, and be my husband, be my father, be my big brother, and protect me from falling into a marriage that you have not ordained. Glory to God.
Let them marry the one who never, or is incapable of sin. Let them agree then to marry the one who can never sin. If anyone is deformed because of legalism about his virginity, then in the event that he is gone beyond the point of carnality, he is under an obligation to cause the preferred one to come into being. Where? In his mind and in his deeds. Let him agree then, to marry the one who can never sin. Agree or marry the one who can never sin, and you can not go wrong. You cannot go wrong. Of course, this comes in degrees. We know that Jesus Christ of Nazareth was completely married or joined to the Spirit of His Father. For those of us that are just striving towards and moving towards full stature, we can be married to the Lord or in full agreement with the Lord in certain areas and not in others. This scripture is not just saying come to full stature. It is saying agree with the Lord in one issue at a time as He calls you to it. If you are a single person and struggling with this issue, the Lord is encouraging you to marry Him, at least with regard to this issue, and accept His judgment as to what will be in your life, and hopefully, go on to full stature. Glory to God.
Let us try to put it into more understandable English. If anyone's lifestyle does not line up with Christ's lifestyle, if you are suffering from lust, or if you are in fornication, masturbation, or any other perversion, and that person is conforming to custom with regard to his virginity by seeking to marry as a solution to his problem, then in the event that Christ is being formed in him, and that is for the ones in whom Christ has begun to be formed, and that is not true of every believer, the answer is not in adamic marriage. Marriage is not the solution to a problem with lust. But that one is under an obligation to marry Christ. Let him agree, then, to marry the one who can never sin or agree with the wisdom of God that the answer to his problem is not a physical sexual outlet, but a deeper union with Christ.
I would like to take this opportunity to mention this to you. I do not know what is going on today, but I know that when I was a young woman, it was a common thing for homosexuals to marry heterosexual people. Homosexuals were still in the closet, and they did not want a socially unacceptable lifestyle. Many of them would marry, hoping to deal with their homosexuality through marriage. Now this is not lust. This is perversion. In many instances they caused great emotional distress to their mate and to their children, both male and female homosexuals. That was their motive for marrying. This is a reality. I am not making this up when I tell you this. People have many reasons for getting married. It may sound like I am being very hard on you young women, but let me tell you something. Years ago, when parents really had something to say about who their daughter married, or who their son married, when young people would not marry someone without their parental blessing. You know, young people did not have to hear all of this junk. This is filthy junk that we are talking about here. This is spiritually dirty stuff. I do not like to talk about it myself, but you know parents, at least fathers knew about these things. If they saw some of these qualities in a young man that their daughter brought home or in a young woman that their son brought home, they did not tell them why. They just would not give their blessing. They broke it up. Young people did not have to be confronted with this filth. Unless the Lord is with you and helping you, I can understand how it can really sound like a negative message towards marriage, but it is not a negative message towards marriage. It is the truth. All this stuff goes on in the world. In past generations, young people did not have to deal with it. Their parents, who knew what was possible in this life, who knew the danger, dealt with it.
There is a real role reversal problem in our society, whether you know it or not. It is very serious, and every ten years or so, it is getting more and more severe. The male in this country is being utterly crushed, utterly crushed. Spiritually, what is happening to him, although not many would confess it, what is happening to him spiritually, and when I say him, I mean the typical American male. It is not happening to everybody all at once. The male is being forced into a female role. There is a dream, there is a lie in our society that we can be androgynous, which means there is no difference between a man and a woman. Our United States Army will tell you we have an androgynous army. There is no difference between a man and a woman. They make no distinction. Maybe in the Army they could do it. Women can carry guns and go to combat, and whatever they do. Spiritually, I am telling you there is no such thing. Either you are male or female. What is happening in this country, and probably elsewhere, is that the women have spiritually and unconsciously conspired. They have risen up to such a degree of spiritual authority that they have become spiritual men. Nature will not tolerate an androgynous society.
It is the same principle of every action must have a reaction. The women have become men. There are going to be large numbers of men that are going to become women. I am not saying that every man in the country, but those men that are not really strong, a large majority of men, they are being crushed under this Jezebel spirit in the American woman. The whole nation is a victim because very few people understand what is happening spiritually. Women are taught Women's Lib. Go out and do. It is what we are taught. If your husband does not do it right, and you are not happy, go out and divorce him and break up the family. That is what we have been taught for almost fifty, sixty, or seventy years now. The result of it is a society where the average woman is very strong, and a large percentage of men are so weak that it puts them in the category of women. Unless God intervenes, it is not going to stop.
I want to remind you, and we have talked about this before. I do not know if you remember it or not, but if you do any kind of a study on pagan religion, you will find it is always a female goddess. The goddess is always female. What am I saying? I am saying to you that Christian nations have dominant male roles. We are becoming a pagan nation. Now of course, there are exceptions to what I am saying. I do not want anyone reading this transcript snaring my words. The majority of society, that are pagan, are matriarchal societies. The women rule. It is not true of all of them, but the majority of them. We are becoming a matriarchal society, and that is the direct opposite of what Christianity preaches. We are becoming a pagan nation. If you do not know what I am talking about, that is what I am saying. We are becoming a pagan nation. Do you have a question?
QUESTION: Are you saying that the way the Catholic Church practices is a perverted understanding of these scriptures?
PASTOR VITALE: Yes, very much so, because Paul said clearly that to be celibate is a gift. As we just went through the Scripture, we found that the Scripture was saying, if Christ is being formed in you, then you could do it. In the Catholic Church, unless it is one unusual man, Christ is not being formed in him. It is the adamic man that is forcing himself into a forced celibacy that is not natural for the adamic man. It is natural for the spiritual man. It is not natural for the adamic man, so it is ungodly. Did I answer your question?
QUESTION: It sounds like what you were saying earlier, that if a person cannot get to that point, where he is moving in Christ or Christ is being formed in him, let him marry and have the Godly outlet for it, but the lust is going to remain.
PASTOR VITALE: I am not sure what you said. Let me tell you what I think you said and you tell me if it is correct. Okay? You were taking the King James Version and I think what you asked me was if they cannot deal with it, it is okay for a son to marry if he has lust, but then the lust will remain. Is that what you said?
QUESTION: Yes. It seems so. I do not have my Bible here, but I am not sure what it says there.
PASTOR VITALE: The King James Translation says it is not sin, let them marry.
QUESTION: You said the answer is to marry Christ. Then you said, but if they marry, they either have the lust within the marriage or they do not marry and then they marry Christ. I am left with the impression that lust is in marriages.
PASTOR VITALE: You had better believe it. Lust is in marriage. Perversion is in marriage. Every wickedness that is in the world is in marriage.
QUESTION: You do not understand what I am saying. I understand that. I am saying that there is no way out of it. Like once you marry, you do not get rid of the lust. It is only stimulated and the person remains with that lust the rest of their lives even if they marry. The only way to get rid of it is to stay single and marry Christ. Is that what you are saying?
PASTOR VITALE: No, that is not really what I am saying.
QUESTION: She said after you get rid of the lust and it is purged, can you marry? Then you said yes. I thought there is a realm of purity in marriage where lust does not exist. Is that so?
PASTOR VITALE: We are on fine lines here. I have an opinion on this and I really cannot say it is the Lord. I have a personal opinion. This is my personal opinion. Let me say this first. I would not say that you cannot get delivered from lust if you are married, but I would think that it would be much more difficult than if you are not married. Why? Lust is an addiction to the flesh. Anything you are addicted to, you get rid of it by giving it up completely. Then you come back to moderation. Do you know what I am saying? You give it up completely and after you give it up completely, you learn how to partake of it moderately. If you are married and you have another partner, it is going to be very difficult to do, especially if you are a Christian and Satan is working against you. He will have your other partner wanting sex all the time, and scratching at you and screaming that they are not satisfied. You would be trying to resist. Anything is possible in Christ, but that does not sound too likely to me.
QUESTION: If the person is separated from marriage and single, can they marry Christ and that lust be purged? No doubt lust would be purged if they married Christ, but then can they marry a person in the natural?
PASTOR VITALE: This is my opinion. In my opinion you would then become eligible for marriage. If your motive for marriage is not lust, you are eligible for marriage, but this is the big but. If you go through this deep purging with the Lord, and you get purged, and lust is gone, and you have married Christ in such a close vital union, the chances of you wanting to get married will be greatly diminished. It would be acceptable to the Lord, but would you want it after you have entered into this vital union with Christ?
QUESTION: When you marry that person and that lust is purged, is it going to be total freedom from that lust in both of their lives? If both of you have gone through that marriage with Christ, and you are living out of a high realm in Christ, will having sex drive you down to begin to lust again? Is it an open door for lust of the flesh or demons of lust or a lower realm or all of those things?
PASTOR VITALE: Paul clearly said he keeps his body under. He said all things are lawful to us, but all things are not expedient. To answer your question, of course it would be a temptation to fall into a snare again. Everything in moderation. If you once had the problem, there is the possibility if you are not on top of it and disciplining yourself continuously.
The Lord spoke to me and reminded me of a family that I knew as a young believer when I first entered into the Deliverance Ministry. The whole family had a lot of sexual problems including the two teenage children. I think there was incest between the brother and the sister. There were a lot of sexual problems. The daughter came in as a young teenager and she had a vital relationship with the Lord. Her relationship with the Lord was strong enough to make her eligible for deliverance, which is unusual for a teenager. The whole family got delivered and they were in the Church for about five years or so and then a couple of years later I heard that the young lady got married. I remember what the Lord taught me at that time. That is what I am trying to put on the transcript. Now this was not lust. This was perversion, but I guess it applies to both. In some circumstances He will bring some people into a deep ministry, or He will bring them into a deliverance ministry, for the purpose of cleaning them up enough so that they could have a normal life. People that are really troubled and crying out to God get this help.
These people came out a major denomination. They were not even baptized with the Holy Spirit, but they were crying out to God day and night. They knew there was something wrong in their family. They went from a major denomination without being baptized in the Holy Spirit into a hot and heavy deliverance church. God kept them there five years, cleaned them up, and released them back into the world in a condition where they could live a Godly life. It was not so much the parents, but the young lady married a man in a major denomination. She is in a very mild church. To answer your question, depending on the Lord's plan for your life, He can clean you up and put you back into the world or He can clean you up and keep you to Himself depending on Him. I am sure the same word applies to us. It can go either way.
QUESTION: I want to ask something that came up earlier while I was talking with another believer. We were talking about marriage. She pointed out that some men in the marriage will love the woman because they appreciate her and they will want sex because they love her for her person. Others will do it because their bodies are craving sex. She was saying how do you tell when you are courting if the man has lust for you? Is he lusting out of the craving in his body or is he really loving you and being affectionate? What is his motive? Is it really lust or does he really love your person?
PASTOR VITALE: When you are in Christ, you have the Lord to help you understand that unlike the people that are not in Christ, Years ago it was not at all uncommon to have an engagement that would last two or three years. The sign to a woman that a man loved her for herself was that he would not even try to touch her before marriage. Now it is corny, but I remember as a teenager, where a man would say to you I have too much respect for you to touch you. Now the young people laugh at this. It is a joke to them, but it is not a joke. That was the sign. People would know each other. Depending on how young they were when they first fell in love, fifteen or sixteen, sometimes they would know each other for four, five or six years. They would not do anymore than kiss each other goodnight. I am not talking about heavy necking or petting in the car.
QUESTION: If that friend that you are seeing is pressuring you a little bit, and wanting to kiss or something, do you know right away that is lust and you should back off? Even though that is old fashion, should we stand on that now, and not let them hold our hand? Should we really be like this and expect it to be that way because that is the Godly thing to do?
PASTOR VITALE: I cannot say that is the Godly thing to do. That is my opinion. I really believe that two people should marry because they are good friends, because they respect one another, because they have developed a relationship whereby they have something in common. What they have in common is not being in the back seat of a car. They should have something in common that they enjoy doing together. They should like each other, respect each other, enjoy each other's company, and have fun together. When you have a relationship that is grounded and rooted in that, then you go ahead and have sex. To have sex first is to enter into a marriage with one and a half hands tied behind you. What happens to a lot of people is passion. This passion may come as a shock to you. I know you are young, but this passion does not go on forever. The way we expressed it, when I was in the world, was you know you have to get up out of bed sometime. You have got to open your eyes and look at who you are sleeping with sometime. When all your passion is spent, then you are going to see the person as they really are, and lots of people decide they cannot stand what they are in bed with. Married ladies, am I speaking the truth? (Laughter)
They wake up one morning. They have been having sex five times a day for two years and they wake up one morning and they say aaugh. Who is that in bed with me? I cannot stand him. He does this and he does that, or she is a slob or she is dirty or she does not know how to cook, or whatever their problem is. Am I right or am I wrong? We say the honeymoon is over. It does not happen to everybody. I am not saying it happens to everybody. I am saying this is what happens to a lot of people that get into a relationship based on their sexual attraction for one another. That is what I am saying. Of course there are happy marriages.
QUESTION: If we are seeing a friend and they decide that they want to hold hands and we say no, and they decide they want to cut it off, we should let go. We should stand for the standard that they should not touch us period?
PASTOR VITALE: If that is your standard, you should stand for whatever your standard is.
QUESTION: If I went out with a guy and I started feeling those feelings, like I want that affection, should I just not go out with guys at all until I am free of that?
PASTOR VITALE: I really do not know what to tell you. I would pray for you along those lines. This is my personal opinion that it should just be a friendship. Why do you have to get involved sexually, even to the point of heavy kissing?
QUESTION: The reason I said that is because if it is in the mind, are we putting ourselves in a vulnerable place to where we are going to give into it?
PASTOR VITALE: I would think so. It is the nature of the man to try to seduce you, if you show that you are willing to do somewhat. We have got a big problem in this country today. It is the nature of the man to try to seduce the woman and we have got women in this country going up into a man's hotel room at 2:00 o'clock in the morning and then claiming that he raped her. Well maybe he did rape her. I am not saying that he should not be punished for it. I am saying we have a problem in this country. Young lady, what are you doing in a man's hotel room at 2:00 o'clock in the morning?
This is again the spirit of castration upon the men of our nation. They are being crushed down into a female role. Let me get back to my point. The nature of a man is to try to seduce a woman. If you do something that they perceive as encouragement, they will move on you and they will try to seduce you. You have to reap what you sow. No one has the right to rape anybody and no one deserves to be raped. I am not saying that. If you have made a decision in your heart that you want a marriage based on a friendship and you want to save sexual relationship for after the wedding, you must be cautious. If you have really reached that decision, and you do one little thing or you let yourself be alone with him, or you kiss him once or twice, it can be a snare. What I am saying is that it is the nature of the man to pressure you for more. You really cannot get mad at him.
QUESTION: Why does Paul say in Corinthians that it is good for a man not to touch a woman?
PASTOR VITALE: Paul said it is a good thing to be without a sexual relationship, but he did claim that it is not for everybody and that it was a good thing.
QUESTION: I thought he was addressing this issue we are talking about, that he was telling the man that it is good for a man not to touch the woman.
PASTOR VITALE: No, it means sexual intercourse. He is saying it is good to abide without sexual intercourse. We were talking about tradition in this message tonight. Our society tells you that it is not a good thing and that you will become neurotic. Maybe that is a truth for the natural man, but for the man in Christ, he says, if this is the call that is on your life, do not let tradition condemn you because it is a good thing.
My definition of neurotic is basically a fearful person that has fear to such a degree that they are not functioning adequately in society. Our society will tell you that if you are a natural man and you do not marry, they will say you are afraid of marriage, afraid of women, or afraid of the responsibility. Why are you not married? It is normal to be married. You must be afraid of something. That was what I meant when I said neurotic. It is the whole society and that is what they feel. Paul said, if you are in Christ, if Christ has called you to a walk that excludes this, it is a good thing. He said very carefully, do not try to force it on anybody, but if God has called you to it, for them to try to force marriage on you is witchcraft. He said do not be condemned by society. It is a good thing if you are called to it. It is not for everybody. Do not condemn the people that do it. Someone made a very interesting point at a recent meeting. She said nobody condemns the priests and the nuns for being celibate. I have never heard of anyone condemning a priest or a nun for being celibate. Only some reprobate people do, but most people respect the nuns and the priests. If you are a born again Christian, or Pentecostal, or charismatic, everyone is out there at their prayer meetings praying for a husband for you, whether you want one or not. I am telling you the truth.
CONGREGATION: Scripture says that some are born eunuchs or made eunuchs. I would like to have the understanding because they choose or because they were made one.
PASTOR VITALE: Some people have an accident and are damaged and forced to be a eunuch. They are made that way by the world, castrated.
CONGREGATION: Then there are some who choose to be. My question is the ones that choose to be by the kingdom of God, how do they differ from the ones that are born eunuchs? Do the ones that are born eunuchs have a special gift that they do not even desire sex and are always happy? The ones that choose, but they struggle, do they come to a point where they are happy?
PASTOR VITALE: You just made an assumption that the ones that are born eunuchs are always happy. It is not a good thing. I knew one man who called himself asexual. They are not happy because if they are not in Christ, no woman is going to want them. They are usually very lonely unhappy people. The reason it is good to be a eunuch in Christ is that you have this intense union with Christ. To not have that nor to be able to develop a healthy relationship with a woman, that is a curse. They are not happy.
CONGREGATION: Then there is no such thing as those that are born eunuchs that were called from the womb to be eunuchs. Do you know my train of thought here, where they are born, grow up, and know from their childhood days that they were called to be single. They have a union with Christ, and they know they were called out from the womb, and they are born eunuchs. There is no such thing?
PASTOR VITALE: I think there are some people that are born eunuchs from the womb, but if they are, I think they would probably go through a lot of pain trying to live a natural adamic life until they found out that they were born eunuchs from the womb.
CONGREGATION: I am trying to find out how do you know if you are a eunuch? Were you born that way, did you choose that way, or did God choose it for you, and you find out later?
PASTOR VITALE: I think you are crossing over between the spiritual eunuch and the natural eunuch. The ones that are born eunuchs are the ones that do not have any sexual parts. It is physical.
CONGREGATION: Now I have the understanding of that. The one that chooses to be a eunuch is the one who, on purpose for Christ, struggles with lust, but they overcome it. Every natural man lusts.
PASTOR VITALE: Some degree of lust is normal. Sexual activity is normal, the lust of the flesh. We are in an animal body.
CONGREGATION: Lust of the flesh eunuchs do have to overcome. They just do not live a happy life where they are always interceding for someone. They have to fight that natural lust, right?
PASTOR VITALE: They fight it, but as every form of sin, once you get it under your feet, the battle is not what it was. Let me put this on the blackboard for you in the form of a circle. If you have a problem in your life, and you are trying to battle this thing, it has a lot of strength when it is on the same level as you. For a period of time, you could be very uncomfortable battling with that thing. Once Jesus gives you the victory, and it goes under your feet, it goes down here and you are treading on it. You are on top of it. Every once in a while it will get a little message out to you, but you just step on it. There is no comparison with the old battle. I am at this point, and I really have no problem with it at all. I have a deep understanding in my mind of where Christ has called me to, and I want it. It is under my feet, but it is still very much there. I have to be very careful what I let pass my eyes and my ears. I watch a lot of movies, and the Lord teaches me through movies. I pray before I take a movie out of the library, and I will not take an R rated movie out. I have taken R rated movies out that seemed harmless. My one example is in one movie that was going along fine, and all of a sudden, in front of my eyes were two lesbians kissing and embracing passionately. I had no time to reject it.
10/01/10 mjs
