Value of the Spirit
By
Gary Primo
Jan. 18, 2014
What is first and foremost in your mind? Is it riches? Is it finding the perfect mate? Finding a job? Putting meat on the table? Seeing that your kids get a good education? All of these are typical (and practical) physical pursuits.
Following baptism, we are expected to put off all such physical pursuits and follow after HaMashiyack. We are to have ONE all encompassing spiritual goal of being promoted into the new creation. Nothing else in this physical world matters as much as this one spiritual goal. Everything in this world will eventually pass away. That is why spiritual treasure is more important than anything we treasure in this world. Everything we have in this world, we lose in death. The spiritual treasures that we store in heaven, endure beyond death and into all of eternity.
In this world, physical wealth is priority number one. If you are worth what Bill Gates is worth, you are likely are very highly respected and admired human being. All the world bows down before you. Many would likely kill to be in your shoes.
Yet, Bill Gates is not going to be taking any of his great wealth with him into the grave. And, he is going to die someday. In death old Bill goes right back to nothing – unless Yahuwah, who has power over death, decides otherwise. (Which will not be likely in Bill’s case).
On the other side of the coin we have Pedro (fictitious). Pedro is a Believer from (let’s say) Mexico, Pedro has been poor all his life and struggles at working in the fields to support his wife and 12 kids. Because he has nothing nor expects his situation to ever change – his only hope is in HaMashiyack and the promise of salvation. It is the only treasure he has. He; therefore, puts every ounce of energy into following and pleasing Yahuwah. No one ever respected or admired him while physically alive. He goes into the grave when he dies with nothing of physical value; but emerges from death with the promise that Yahushua made fully fulfilled in him.
Who is the richer man? Who is the wiser man? Which should have had the respect and admiration of others all along?
The other value of spiritual treasure is that no one can steal it from you – unless you give it over to them (deny Yahuwah).
Back in the fifties, Germany, Japan and numerous other countries placed all their gold with the Federal Reserve in the U.S. for “safe keeping”. Recently, Germany asked to “see” their 674 tons of gold. They were told they couldn’t. Germany then asked for their gold back. They were told that the Fed could not return all of the gold – only 10% over 7 years. The very first installment was approximately 50% short of the promised delivery amount. Plus the Germans were told that the reason for the delay was that they had to re-melt and reform the gold bricks.
Meanwhile, every nation that entrusted their gold to the Fed identified their gold with a distinctive seal. That seal guaranteed that the weight and the purity of the gold remained the same as when it was deposited. The gold bars that the Germans received back were not only lighter in weight; they were also lighter in purity. The same thing happened when England received some of their gold back from the Fed not too many years ago.
In other words they did not get their own gold back, but someone else’s. The question is – “What happened to their gold?”
The answer – first they borrowed on it, and then they sold it to pay off the loans (likely to the Chinese who are buying up gold and silver en mass at this very moment. In other words, the Federal Reserve pulled off the biggest robbery of all recorded history; and now the truth is just beginning to come out. What is going to happen when all of the nations demand their gold back? The Feds are only going to be able to say, “Sorry about your luck.”
This can never happen with spiritual treasure. It is stored in the safest place in the universe. We can trust 100% in Yahuwah, who is watching over our treasure. We can also trust that our treasure is gathering plenty of interest as we grow and grow in the spirit.
In our daily struggle with this life, we may not always find time to focus on the spiritual treasure that we are storing. We are constantly bombarded with distractions – things that demand our immediate attention. However, by applying scriptural principals to our everyday life, we store up treasure in heaven at the same time. Therefore, it is quite possible to juggle both situations at the same time.
One of the facts of life is that nothing remains the same. Everything is constantly moving, growing and changing. That is the way life was meant to be. The same goes with the spirit. We are born of the spirit at baptism. We are expected to grow in the spirit from that point on. We are not to remain infants.
In baptism, we crucify and put to death the old man of sin. We emerge from the water a brand new spiritual being in embryo. I like to compare this stage to that of a caterpillar. The caterpillar symbolically enters the cocoon in death and emerges as a beautiful butterfly – seemingly a total different creature. The same happens with us. We put to death the old man for good and emerge as a totally new creation – eternal and a source of life, rather than a recipient of life.
Some of the people I talk with have had a pretty rough time throughout life and have been left feeling pretty desperate. Some are physically disabled and feeling very depressed. Sometimes they have trouble seeing their own spiritual value to Yahuwah.
We are all being tested in this life, so that Yahuwah can be sure of our spiritual condition before promoting us into the His future Kingdom. Yahuwah saw something of value in each and every one of before He called us. He has to be sure that we will never again become corrupted. Everything that remains corruptible is going to be burnt up and destroyed when the Father finally comes to dwell with His creation. All memory of the pain of the past will be left at the doorstep. An exciting and glorious future awaits all who overcome and endure to the end.
Believers can be compared to someone who has just won the lottery. They have won the grandest prize of all. Afterward, lottery winners have to carefully plan how to invest their winnings so that it can grow and become worth even more than the original winnings. This is what we are to do with our spiritual winnings as well. We are not to squander it by sacrificing it for physical gratification. Neither are we merely to store it away somewhere and forget about it. That is an example of a lazy servant.
Gaining spiritual wealth is something that we are all capable of, regardless of our physical situation. It is easy; and it does not cost us a dime. All we have to do is walk in Yahushua’s footsteps - think the way he thought, talk like he talked and do the things that he did. That is how we make our spiritual treasure grow. It does not matter if you are the lowliest beggar in the street or a quadriplegic – as long as you are mirroring the image of HaMashiyack in every aspect of your life, you are gaining spiritual treasure in heaven. We do not need to be good looking, popular, eloquent of speech or very charismatic. Those are the qualities that humans look for. They are not qualities that Yahuwah concerns himself with. He only looks for one thing – if we are following in Yahushua’s footsteps.
Like I have written about in other articles, Yahushua’s walk is centered around love. When he manifested himself on the earth, he was the perfect image of the Father. Everything he did centered around his love for his creation and for his Father. All we are required to do is to love both the Creator and the creation in the exact same manner that Yahushua did. Is it that hard to love like that?
Yahushua would not have set such an example for us if it were impossible for us to attain. Therefore, it is entirely possible to love like Yahushua did. All we need to do is practice. Practice with our spouses and our children. Practice with our friends and coworkers. Practice with the stranger on the street and the lowly beggar on the street corner. We must even practice with our enemies and people we disagree with.
Yahuwah tests us all to give us the opportunity to add to our spiritual treasure. All we need to do is think good thoughts, speak good and comforting words and do good deeds. How hard could it be?
Apparently very hard indeed! We too often allow our emotions to govern everything we think, say and do. We are quick to become angry, envious, bitter, judgmental and slanderous. We end up in arguments with our spouses and kids before we even realize it. Once we have behaved badly, it is pretty difficult to go back and undo the wrong. We would be much better off correcting the action in our mind before speaking or acting. Our first thought should be, “What would Yahushua say or do in this situation?”
Another problem we have in attaining spiritual treasure is self-justification. We feel guilty about what we said or did; but rather than apologize and ask forgiveness for our words or behaviour, we attempt to justify what we said or did. This does not work. There is no justification for any Believer to talk or act in an unrighteous manner. Fortunately Yahuwah is quick to forgive when we repent. Unfortunately, those whom our words and actions hurt are not as likely to forgive us as quickly as Yahuwah. They say foresight is better than hindsight. That is a very wise saying.
Pride is something else that can inhibit our spiritual growth. When in my former church (the Worldwide Church of God) we were told not to read the literature of any other religious group and not to fellowship with anyone outside of our church. Some members took this instruction to heart and snubbed anyone outside of the church. Yet when Yahushua walked the earth, he was accused by his enemies of consorting with tax collectors, prostitutes and drunkards. What was his reply?
Matt. 9:9 - And as Yahushua passed forth from thence, he saw a man, named Matthew, sitting at the receipt of custom: and he said unto him, Follow me. And he arose, and followed him.
10 - And it came to pass, as Yahushua sat at meat in the house, behold, many publicans and sinners came and sat down with him and his disciples.
11 - And when the Pharisees saw it, they said unto his disciples, Why eat your Master with publicans and sinners?
12 - But when Yahushua heard that, he said unto them, They that be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick.
13 - But go ye and learn what that means, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice: for I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.
If the first century church followed a rule such as what the WCG taught, the gospel would have never gone forth into the world. That original group of Believers would have merely stagnated and died off. We are expected to go out into the world and bring to the masses the word of Yahuwah. To do that, we have to interact with the world. We cannot allow our pride to diminish our spiritual treasure.
Another obstacle to our spiritual growth is a lack of confidence. It is easy to lack confidence in ourselves, but if we are truly allowing Yahuwah to work through us, our confidence should be in Him, not ourselves. Are we confident that Yahuwah can do all things? (We had better be!) Then we should be confident that Yahuwah can do all things through us, also. It is His spirit working in and through us – not our own. We are nothing. Yahuwah is everything. If we lack confidence in him, it is because of doubt. We must put all doubt out of our minds when it comes to Yahuwah.
Yahushua has given us the greatest gift of all – the promise of eternal life, if and when we overcome the world and the god of this world. The god of this world is HaSatan. He is the one this world worships. He is the god this world trusts in. It is not to be so with us. All of our trust should be in Yahuwah. Our trust will be rewarded with eternal life, while the trust of the rest of the world will be rewarded (punished) with eternal death. We are the wisest of the wise; the richest of the rich. We have what no other human being can ever hope to have. We are a special and unique treasure to our heavenly Father. We are his pride and joy.
Just knowing this should give rise to great joy in our lives – but that is not always the case. Why is that? It is because we yet doubt, distrust and otherwise fail to act like we believe Yahuwah at all. These attitudes stem from our general experiences with dealing in worldly circles. Once imbedded in our psyche, these attitudes are hard to shake off when dealing with Yahuwah. Yet shake them off we must, if we desire that intimate relationship with Yahuwah that our Messiah enjoyed.
We have one all encompassing goal – to become one with the Father as Yahushua did. He is our example. He is the one we are to emulate. We are to become like new-born babies at baptism – trusting in Yahuwah like we did with our parents when we were young. That trust should only grow stronger as we progress along our journey – until we reach the point where we can with confidence say to a mountain “Get up and move” and it will.
Take some time today to pray and meditate on this message and ask Yahuwah to reveal to you how to restore the trust you had as an infant, so that you can put 100% of your trust in Yahuwah – devoid of all doubt and miss-trust. Demonstrate to Yahuwah that you value the gift that He freely gave you above all and anything worldly. Demonstrate to the world that Yahuwah’s word is true and sure and that they too can trust implicitly in our Creator.
The world may not understand our joy; but we certainly should.
Yahuwah Bless
G.P.