Matthew Chapter 7

Matthew 7:7-12 ~ Understanding Proper Behavior Toward God and Man

When Jesus comes into my life, He takes over. But I am still human. I am still in the flesh. So I have to constantly communicate with Him because I am the one in the fog. I do not understand spiritual things. I am not able to know exactly what God wants me to do every minute of every day. That is what faith is for. Faith is trusting Him for who He is. If He is God and His Spirit have come in and possessed me and have taken over my life, then I am to trust Him. He is beyond me. He is beyond all the human beings on the earth right now collectively together. He is bigger than the whole universe and He asked me to trust Him. So I am asking for His will to be done. And I have to do that constantly because I have feelings and thoughts and desires that interfere with trusting the Lord.

Matthew 7:15-20 ~ The Correct Understanding of False Prophets

In this way every good tree is producing good fruits, but the corrupt tree is producing evil fruits.  That makes sense. An apple tree produces apples. An orange tree produces oranges. An evil tree produces evil fruit. Not work, but fruit. The expression of the life of the spirit in the tree. So then from their fruits you will exactly know them.  Whatever spirit is speaking through them, whatever spirit is motivating them, whatever that spirit is trying to get you to do, determines whether it is the Spirit of God or not. Not if it is "religious." Not if it seems "good." It is the spirit and motivation behind it. Is that spirit presenting Jesus Christ, and all He has done for us, and all that He is to us? And the blessing and mercy and grace that He pours out upon us?  Is that what the spirit is presenting? Only God's Spirit does the work of God.

Matthew 7:21-23 ~ The Correct Understanding of Salvation

Here is the great thing for you and I this morning: He already knows everything about us. The thing that saved me is the Spirit of Jesus Christ coming in to my heart or into my spirit. A person must receive Him, not mentally or religiously. A person must experience a spiritual birth. That is what Jesus said. You have to be born again. You have had a physical birth, now you must experience a spiritual birth by receiving the Spirit of Christ into your spirit, to where His Spirit and your spirit become one. That is very intimate. I have experienced that spiritual birth. He knows me.

Matthew 7:24-29 ~ The Correct Understanding of the Word of God

My life is like a house. I have a household. I have other people around me, but I have my own house and I am a household of other people. And I am building my life. What is it based on? You say, "Well, God's word." That is fine. But God's word takes me to Christ.  It is Christ who is the foundation and I am building according to His words. That is the blueprint, that is the construction, that is the wisdom.