I want you to know how much I have agonized for you and for the church at Laodicea, and for many other friends who have never known me personally.
My goal is that they will be encouraged and knit together by strong ties of love. I want them to have full confidence because they have complete understanding of God’s secret plan, which is Christ himself.
In him lie hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.
(Colossians
2:1-3 TB)
With this concept in mind, in
anonymous recovery, it took close to a decade, after the spiritual awakening
began, to even begin to understand, much less believe and have the following
scripture operative in human consciousness, which is Colossians 2:8-10 (TB):
Don’t let anyone lead you astray with empty philosophy and high-sounding nonsense that come from human thinking and from the evil powers of this world, and not from Christ.
For in Christ the fullness of God lives in a human body, and you are complete through your union with Christ. He is the Lord over every ruler and authority in the universe.
For many years, in disciplined
private daily bible study, when we would get to this chapter each year, the attitude
when reading these scriptures was, "surely, these words apply to other
people." In other words, as we look back, we can see how
much self will we still had to let be conquered, by His Spirit, in
unity
in
anonymous recovery efforts, that were ahead; continued ego deflation at
depth. But we are glad that we
were allowed to experience homelessness, pennilessness, and personal
powerlessness built down to firm bedrock, so that the new faith that the Holy
Spirit was creating became unshakable; undying optimism based on faith,
which is created during the process of anonymous recovery. But, let us not be deceived,
in that the aforementioned scripture mentions fullness. That is the true noahhite
hope and goal. But, ANONYMOUS recovery is mandatory.
The reason that we are pleased and thankful are expressed in the following:
As spiritual growth matures, we understand that some choose the king of kings
as their higher power. Therefore, we have to learn how to be kings, and
helpmates grow into becoming their queens. The Adam and Eve concept has
not been canceled. The first book of Corinthians refers to Christ as being the Last Adam, in some
translations:
The Scriptures tell us, “The first man, Adam, became a living person.” But the last Adam—that is, Christ—is a life-giving
Spirit.
(1 Corinthians
15;45 TB)
But we understand that our noahhite agreements
will be experienced, understood, and fulfilled before the hope expressed in
the above scriptures can be manifested, in an individual's life. Let us clearly point out that since we must be born of
water
and Spirit,
which is for those that are to be reborn, we found that the water baptism
from John had to be completed, in the first nine steps of anonymous recovery
according to Matthew 3:7-11:
But when he saw many Pharisees and Sadducees coming to be baptized, he denounced them. “You brood of snakes!” he exclaimed. “Who warned you to flee God’s coming judgment?
Prove by the way you live that you have really turned from your sins and turned to God.
Don’t just say, ‘We’re safe—we’re the descendants of Abraham.’ That proves nothing. God can change these stones here into children of Abraham.
Even now the ax of God’s judgment is poised, ready to sever your roots. Yes, every tree that does not produce good fruit will be chopped down and thrown into the fire.
“I baptize with water those who turn from their sins and turn to God. But someone is coming soon who is far greater than I am—so much greater that I am not even worthy to be his slave. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.
In our
copyrighted book HIS FATHER'S TEMPLE, we go into detail about the baptism of
fire. We will not get into that topic, in this website because it is a
process too, which is a requirement for the rebirth. But the water
baptism represents a repentant life for all that travel the journey to God,
for all that are to be chosen. And as the original anonymous recovery
text book states, "we must not shirk at anything."
This sounds rather drastic and extreme, to admit it all. But the truth
is that these steps are about getting us out of trouble, for the long
haul. And we are glad that the original anonymous text book states,
"we asked for strength and direction to do the right thing."
We certainly had not a clue, nor did our sponsors. But growing along
spiritual lines and learning how to claim spiritual progress provided what
is needed.
