JACOB'S LADDER

LOSE YOUR LIFE TO SAVE IT

Matthew 16:25
For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it. 26For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?

So what does it mean to save your life or to lose your life? Some have taught it means we must give up everything, home, clothes, life, fun, etc. etc. and live only for God. Others have said, we die to our ego and desires and seek only the things of God. And yes, even more have taught that we stop receiving and we live a life of giving.

Now all of these are all well and good, but what really do these scriptures mean? What is the great advice Jesus is giving us here? You see scripture is good for our instruction, and in it, is hidden the very KEY to living a fulfilled life and overcoming this world in Christ (the power and wisdom of God). For that is what CHRIST is…

1 Corinthians 1:24
But unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, CHRIST the POWER of GOD, and the WISDOM of God.

And the scriptures tells us the only way to find TRUE LIFE is in CHRIST.

Colossians 3:3
For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God.

Our LIFE is hid with CHRIST (the power and wisdom of God) IN GOD… So our life is IN GOD, and the power and wisdom that comes with knowing this… What it means to be dead would be the opposite of life, if life is in the power and wisdom of God, then death would be the opposite. Death would be ignorance. In fact, that is what death is… it is to be carnally minded.

Romans 8:6
For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.

To be focused on CARNAL things, temporal things, worldly things is IGNORANCE… Which equals spiritual death. Meaning when we are focused on things that don’t truly matter, instead of the TRUTH that does, we are not living our life, we are existing in darkness.

The world we live can almost be looked upon as an illusion. The world outside of us is TEMPORAL, SENSUAL, meaning it is not INFINITE, it will dissolve away. And the only way we know and experience this world is by our five senses. (sight, touch, taste, smell, hearing) There in lies the trap.

We focus so much of our attention on the cares of this world, which are the very THORNS that strangle the life within us. We worry so much about the cares of this world, the bills, the thrills, the lies, the ties, the ups, the downs, the smiles, the frowns, that we have been tricked into being it’s prisoner. These THORNS which were placed on JESUS’ head, are the same thorns thrust into ours. (Our Thinking)

Luke 8:14
And that which fell among thorns are they, which, when they have heard, go forth, and are choked with cares and riches and pleasures of this life, and bring no fruit to perfection.

There is not peace or hope in the sensual world. We are IN THE WORLD but we are NOT OF THE WORLD. Which is why this world will never bring us joy. Our joy must be found in LOVE and LIFE, in Christ (the power and wisdom of God)… but as long as we are IN THE WORD (which is the lusts of the eyes, lust of the flesh, and the pride of life) we are meant to be LIGHTS OF IT!

Matthew 5:14
Ye are the light of the world

And we must find a way to let that light shine, we must find a way to LIFE OUR LIFE by finding the TRUTH that is HIDDEN WITHIN US…
Now, despite what many say we can find the TRUTH hidden away in many things, not just scripture. We don’t need the bible to know God, we don’t need the Torah to know God, or any other holy book. Abraham did not have a bible, nor did Isaac or Jacob, or many others for that matter. You see, God is within us all, and His HOLY SPIRIT is our teacher.

Let me briefly explain what the HOLY SPIRIT is… First of all, the word HOLY simply means “SET APART, SEPARATE”… The word SPIRIT literally translates into MIND… in fact Jesus said, his WORDS, which are spoken thoughts” are SPIRIT…
So the HOLY SPIRIT is a MINDSET that is SEPARATE from the world. The POWER and WISDOM of God, which is CHRIST, which is our LIFE is our guide, our savior, and our great reward.

And it is within us all… so it doesn’t matter if you have a bible or any holy book or not, what matters is the truth being revealed from within you… WHICH IS THE KINGDOM OF GOD.

The truth is taught/remembered regardless of where and when a person lives. In fact, God says, the time will come for us when we will need no other teacher than God Himself…

Jeremiah 31:34
And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the LORD: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the LORD: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.

So is this world an illusion? Are we like Neo from the movie the MATRIX, slaves in a prison we cannot see? The answer is YES. The Result is death and the only way out is CHRIST. But here is the rub, you see humanity has been conditioned to put their faith on what their senses tell them is true. For most, SEEING IS BELIEVING… For me, however, Believing is UNDERSTANDING and seeing the world around me can also be looked at, as if a man be walking through a dream.

“Row, Row, Row, Your boat, Life is BUT A DREAM.”

A MAJORITY of scripture deals with SLEEP. Humanity spends 1/3 its life ASLEEP… Believe it or not, 1/3 of scripture deals with the SLEEP put on man.

When we sleep we are no longer CONSCIOUS of the temporal world. We drift off into nothingness (it seems) or we drift off and our mind creates new wonders, new worlds, our experiences in these dreams can be terrifying and wonderful, and in those moments we believe our experience to be real. yet the moment we wake from our SLEEP, we understand the NIGHTMARE OR DREAM was a FIGMENT of our IMAGINATION. It was not real. No loved ones were ever lost, no crimes were ever committed, no adultery, no sin, nothing, it was all MAKE BELIEVE.

But when we wake and re-enter this world, we call EARTH. We are snapped back into what we call REALITY. But the question should be asked… IS IT REAL?

THE LIFE WE LIVE HERE, regardless of what, and how, we live it. Is a mere shadow of eternity. It is whisp, here today and gone tomorrow. So what is it about OUR LIFE here that we should LOSE, so we can SAVE ourselves?

Many interpret dreams and their significance, but few pay attention to the SYMBOLS in the sensual world, the SYMBOLS and PARABLES humanity is living in. You want to find out what is going on spiritually, look at what is going on physically. For everything around you, where you livem, what you drive, how you eat, your relationships, how your children act, who you love, what you hate, to the name of the street you may be living on… THEY ARE ALL PIECES TO THE PUZZLE called THE MEANING OF LIFE!

Romans 1:20
For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse:

We understand the things of God, also by understanding the things God has made. No matter where you turn, there is a lesson, God is teaching. Think of your life as a great adventure. You are lost in the Matrix of TEMPORAL THINGS. We know everything we see around us, will one day perish… But who we are, in ESSENCE does not and cannot end. The question we should ask, is, why then do we continue to put our faith in things that will fail us.

The great trick of the CARNAL MIND (Our ignorance/enemy/liar) is the belief that things of this world can save us. Jesus told us, to be in the world, but not of the world. We are commanded to OVERCOME THE WORLD.

And what is the WORLD? What are the CARES OF THIS WORLD? What is this WORLD we must OVERCOME as Christ overcame?

1 John 2:16
For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.

The world is our SENSUAL CONNECTION to the ILLUSION created by the FALL.

Ephesians 5:14
Wherefore he saith, Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light.

We need to WAKE UP from the DEATH of our SLEEP. (Our ignorance) the dream tells us GOD IS FAR, FAR, AWAY. The DREAM tells us, we are horrible, terrible, sinners, doomed for destruction. But CHRIST came to SAVE not to CONDEMN.

As the LIGHT OF THE MORNING wakes us up after the long sleep in the NIGHT. The LIGHT of CHRIST wakes us from the IGNORANCE we have existed in.

Genesis 28:16
And Jacob awaked out of his sleep, and he said, Surely the LORD is in this place; and I knew it not.

When you wake up, when CHRIST (The power and wisdom of God) GIVES YOU LIGHT (THE TRUTH) you will know GOD is IN YOU. And you will no longer look outside of yourself for a SAVIOR, for you will know that CHRIST IN YOU is the HOPE and the GLORY.

So what does it mean to LOSE YOUR LIFE, to SAVE IT?

Does God want us to give up our homes, families, and lives pack our bags and become a missionary? Does he want us to turn our backs on our hopes and dreams of being a singer, actor, architect, chef, etc. etc… Does God want us to live a life that is not a life at all, OR… Does God want us to live a life that is full, filled with peace, and every one of our desires met, because it is God who placed those desires in our hearts to begin with?

There is more to us than we have believed. Who we THINK WE ARE, is NOT WHO WE ARE. Like NEO in the MATRIX, one day we will wake up and find out all of our labor, suffering, hardship, and pain, was in vain. We will LET GO OF THE REIGNS of our LIVES, FOR THE REIGN OF HEAVEN (God’s ways)

Which by the way, is the proper translation for KINGDOM. The KINGDOM (reign) of God, is not a literal castle, it is being bridled and led by the LORDS OF HOSTS.

In scientific terms, A HOST is simply a VESSEL used by ANOTHER. That is what we are in a nutshell, we are the HOST that GOD uses to fulfill His great purpose in OUR LIVES. But we have been conditioned that GOD IS SEPERATE FROM US, and that WE (our ignorant) ego is in control. We have been conditioned to seek salvation without, not within. It is this ANTICHRIST nature that sits in the TEMPLE of GOD (OUR MIND) and declares HIMSELF to be GOD. Mankind, in their SLEEP OF IGNORANCE (DEATH/CARNALITY) believes HE IS IN CONTROL of his LIFE. But he is A LIE, a creation of IGNORANCE.

You are not who you think you are, you are MORE.

Want to find out who you are? Seek first the Kingdom of God and EVERYTHING will be added unto you. And what is the Kingdom (Reign) of God that God commands us to seek? John tells us, The Kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost.

We are meant to be ruled by Righteousness, Peace and Joy in God’s Holy Spirit. God desires us to live the life that he has ordered for us to live. So how do we achieve Righteousness and joy?

By dying to who we THINK WE ARE, and SAVING who we REALLY ARE in CHRIST.

2 Thessalonians 2:8
And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming (revealing)

Scripture states, Christ cannot COME (be revealed, manifested in the flesh) UNTIL the ANTICHRIST (son of perdition) = OUR CARNAL EGO is revealed for what it is.

In other words, people, who we think we are, is the ENEMY OF GOD. And once we learn, that the OLD MAN MUST DIE, the NEW MAN is renewed within, and the OLD MAN (EGO/CARNAL MAN/1ST ADAM) is destroyed with the BRIGHTNESS (TRUTH) of his coming (revelation)

To find this, is not easy. It is not even an easy thing to write or tell. But God has a plan. Like a winepress, we will be tested until pure.

Jesus taught, there WILL be tribulation in this world. He told us to endure until the end, he taught us that to know the Kingdom we MUST pick up our cross daily and follow him. So there will be hard times, there will be pain and suffering, but how we react to those trials will directly affect whether we inherit the kingdom on earth. We will learn that we REAP WHAT WE SOW, we will learn, there is NO OTHER WAY IN, but the DEATH TO SELF (ego) and the RESURRECTION of Christ.

In the book of Hebrews 12:11, Paul writes, no chastening for the present seems joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby.

You see suffering, and enduring, produces humility and peace. Sounds crazy, but the truth is THERE IS SUFFERING AND TRIBULATION in the world. Everyone has hard times. We cannot control the tough blows that come our way. However, Jesus in the scriptures above was giving us great wisdom. Wisdom that will SAVE us, Wisdom, that will produce that joy and righteousness, wisdom that will lead us to the Kingdom of God. Everything in our lives, is a symbol. Look at it, pray about it, seek God to see why this or that has come upon you. Nothing happens by chance, and nothing is meaningless in this life.

OUR THOUGHTS are the key to freedom. The FREEDOM is found when OUR THOUGHTS ARE GOD’S.

“I only say what the Father tells me to say”

This is why, scriptures tells us that we will be judged for every idle thought and word. We must allow GOD TO TAKE THE REIGNS… We must LOSE OUR LIFE (EGO/CARNAL/THINKING WE ARE IN CONTROL) and WAKE UP and realize, “God is GOD and there is NO ONE BESIDE GOD.”

God has long promised a day of rest that he prepared for man where he will cease from his own labors. Pay close attention to those last words… CEASE FROM OUR LABORS… This is the Sabbath day rest and on this day we are to rest from OUR WORKS. That’s it. We are to REST. We are to CEASE OUR LABOR.

When Christ says, he that will save his life will lose it, he is not telling us to give up living the life God gave us. It is merely giving up the thought that we are in control, IT IS GIVING UP THE ILLUSION that salvation and TRUTH is found outside of us, FOUND IN MANMADE DOCTRINE AND RELIGION.

We are told “do NOT put our trust in man”. But, when trouble comes we immediately begin to work out how WE can fix these situations. We work out every twist and turn, and usually we enter into a wicked thought and way, where we begin to manipulate and lie, and most of the time we get angry and take our frustrations out on others. We put our trust in MAN, we put our trust in OURSELVES not God.

When trouble comes, WE try to SAVE our lives, but in our own pathetic effort, we end worse than we were to begin with. We end up LOSING the life God wants us to live, one filled with Righteousness, Peace and Joy.

You see this passage, found in all the gospels is teaching us that God is in control.

When we put on the flesh of our older brother Esau (self effort, carnal thinking, works) to try to trick the Father into delivering us our blessing, we end up suffering greatly because of it. We in fact, Lose our life by trying to save it.

Now I want to point out what our LIFE is to begin with. This will add yet another layer hidden from view to the literal scholar as opposed to the spiritual seeker. Scripture teaches us clearly, what our LIFE is…

Colossians 3:4
When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory.

Through self effort, we lose Christ, we lose the Truth and the Way into the Kingdom. Through self effort we put our faith in man and not God. This is why Jesus was so clear when speaking on this subject.

Paul understood and declared in Romans 14:7 “None lives to himself, and no man dies to himself.” You see, it is error to believe we are in control. We live unto the Lord and we die unto the Lord. We must give up the belief that this is “Our” life, and that we can rule it.

24Then Jesus said to his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.

To find the Kingdom we must give up TRYING to find the Kingdom to begin with. We must learn our lessons. We must willingly reap what we have sown. We must forgive those who hurt us, pray for those who use us, and love others as we love ourselves, do unto others as we would want done… This is a great truth and until we do these things we will never know that peace that passes understanding… Which means, we MUST first UNDERSTAND this lesson to find peace.

Truly, it shouldn’t matter if we lose out job, our relationships, if we get sick, if we are used and abused, if a storm takes our homes away, but it does matter to us and when tragedy comes, when hard times knock at our door, it hurts. But if we continue to put these Burdens on our own shoulders, and continue to try to “save our life” instead of understanding God is in control, and taking the yoke of Christ whose burden is light, we will only make things harder for ourselves.

Matthew 16:25
For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it. 26For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?

We need to lose our own efforts, we need to stop worrying about everything that happens, we need to give that up and let our suffering go. We need to LOSE OUR LIFE to save it. Jesus taught us we must lift up our cross and follow him.

We must do as Christ did, for he was our example. He didn’t blame others, he forgave them, he didn’t fight against his situations he gave into them by giving them over to God. He didn’t want to suffer and die, he prayed for the cup to pass, but Christ knew it was beyond his control. He knew to SAVE HIS LIFE was to ACCEPT that HIS LIFE WAS NOT HIS OWN. Which he so eloquently stated to his disciples, I can do NOTHING of myself. Without the word of God I can’t do anything, but with the Word of God I can do all things!

This is good advice that Jesus is giving us. It is given to us, so that we too can have heaven on earth.

In Romans 8:8, we are taught that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared to the glory that will be revealed in us.

You see, we must realize that our trials are there for us, not to hurt us, but to teach us to GIVE UP THE REIGNS. The more we kick against the “pricks” the more we will suffer.

No one literally needs to die to have life, but we must get rid of the thought that we are in control, we must stop going to that tree of good and evil, and saying if I do this I get good, and when bad things happen believing we are being punished.

Look, it ALL works together for the good of those that love the Lord. If you Love the Lord you UNDERSTAND that EVERYTHING, even the bad, is there for YOUR GOOD!

In closing, if we take Christ’s advice to heart and if we TRULY give up our LIVES (Our efforts, will, worry, doubt, fear, anger, hate, etc. etc.) and believe that God is in control, than we WILL HAVE A LIFE INDEED.

Jacob
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