The Call Of Believers

What are believers called to do?

I was ending a walk recently when I came across a student of a local Bible school in front of my house.  I asked him if he had read what the Man of Truth (Yeshua HaMashiach aka Jesus Christ) said in the Sermon on the Mount that believers needed to do to be great in his kingdom.

Instead of answering my simple question, he started telling me about his efforts at leading people in “The Sinner’s Prayer”.  He then asked me how many people that I done this with.

I guess that this is what he thought the Man of Truth said in the Sermon on the Mount for people to do to be great in the kingdom of Heaven.  However, it had nothing to do with what the Man of Truth actually said.

In his kingdom, a few will be part of the nobility, and most will be part of the commoners, with all under the rule of one king – the Man of Truth!  He said that which class believers will be in depends entirely on what they do with the least important commandments of the Law of Truth (Torah aka The Law) (Matthew 5:17-19)!

Those who keep the lessor matters of the Law of Truth as well as the weightier matters of the Law of Truth – and teach others to do the same – will be part of the nobility.  Those who keep only the weightier matters of the Law of Truth will be part of the commoners.

So, the commandments of custom are for separating those who will be part of the nobility from those who will be part of the commoners in the kingdom of Heaven – not to be part of the kingdom!  Those who try to keep only these commandments will not even enter the kingdom (Matthew 5:20)!

In fact, any who does not keep the weightier matters of the Law of Truth will not be inheriting a place into the kingdom (1 Corinthians 6:9-10).  The great deception is telling people otherwise.

However, there is a problem with his entire approach to evangelism.

The Man of Truth never called us to lead people in “The Sinner’s Prayer”.  He called us to make disciples out of people by baptizing them and then teaching them to obey his commandments (Matthew 28:19-20).

The Man of Truth called us to preach the Gospel throughout the entire world (Mark 16:15).  He called us to preach that people must repent to obtain the forgiveness of their sins that his death, burial, and resurrection made possible (Luke 24:46-47).

The type of “evangelism” that this man espoused has been proven to be totally ineffective in studies by groups like the Billy Graham Association.  A study of commitment cards filled out by people who were led to say the magic words in places with large populations like Atlanta that held crusades numerous times over a decade proved this.

It found that sometimes the same person “made a commitment” as many as five times at five consecutive crusades.  Some even did so every night of a crusade that went on for multiple nights.

Follow up interviews revealed things like some people went down just to shut up the person who brought them to the crusade.  They hoped by going down and saying the magic words that the person would stop talking to them about the Man of Truth.

Others went down to make a commitment because they were overwhelmed with emotion.  However, as soon as the emotions that moved them dissipated, so did their commitment.

Yet others were very sincere but after they filled out their card they were given no further instructions.  So, a year later they were back at another crusade because there had been no meaningful change in their lives, and they were just as lost as before.

So, the Billy Graham Association conducted another study to find out why this was happening.  Their study showed that the root of the problem was that those who “made a commitment” were never disciplined afterwards. 

So the Billy Graham Association changed the way they conducted crusades to work with local churches to ensure that those who came down were afterwards placed in a local church and taught from the Book of Truth.  After they began following the actual instructions of the Man of Truth, then the number of recycled committers went down greatly.

All of these things concerning large crusades are also true about street “evangelism” focused on getting people to repeat “The Sinner’s Prayer”.  The man may as well have been asking me how many people I got to repeat a prayer out of emotion or just in hopes that doing so would cause me to stop talking to them about the Man of Truth.

The reason that people like this man do this is that they can get a whole bunch of people to repeat the magic words in the same amount of time that it takes to really disciple just one person.  It would take a real commitment on their behalf to meet with someone weekly and be available during the week to provide guidance to help them learn how to really follow the Man of Truth through the challenges of life.

It is much easier to talk to people whenever it is convenient than to do this.  It is much more comfortable to tell people that they only need to repeat the magic words than to tell them that they must make a commitment to obey the Man of Truth in everything and the cost of keeping that commitment.

So, they get a lot of people to repeat the magic words or fill out commitment cards.  It is easy to get a lot of people to make a commitment that costs them nothing.

We were never called to get people to make a commitment that costs them nothing.

Our commitment must be genuine so that we cannot be run off by the brutality of this world nor bought off with the things of this world (Matthew 13:19-23).  We are called to keep our commitment to obey his words at all times (Luke 8:11-15).

The Man of Truth warned us that family members would cause us to be killed for obeying him (Matthew 10:21).  He called us to turn our families into our enemies by obeying him (Matthew 10:34-37). 

The Man of Truth called us to be hated by everyone so that we are forced to flee our homes to save our lives (Matthew 10:22-23).  He called us to cause our friends to reject us, insult us, and speak badly about us to other people for obeying him (Luke 6:22).

The Man of Truth called us to die when he called us to follow him (Luke 14:26-27).  He called us to become martyrs as we take the Good News to the remotest parts of the Earth (Acts 1:8).  [The Greek word translated as “witnesses” is “martyr”.]

Even though not everyone who obeys the Man of Truth is going to be killed for doing so, all of us will be persecuted in some manner (2 Timothy 3:12).  If we let that persecution cause us to back off from obeying him, then the Father of Truth (YHVH aka God aka THE LORD) will have no pleasure in us (Hebrews 10:38-39).

If we do not tell others about the Man of Truth and deny knowing him before people, then he will not tell  the Father of Truth about us and will deny knowing us before Him (Matthew 10:32-33).  If we are ashamed of him, then then he will be ashamed of us (Mark 8:38).

So, it is better to never make a commitment to the Father of Truth than to make one and not keep it (Ecclesiastes 5:4-5).  Therefore, the Man of Truth told us to count the cost of our commitment to follow him and not to make that commitment if we were not willing to pay the cost (Luke 14:28-33).

So, the Man of Truth has called us to break every rule of this world for winning friends and influencing people by revealing the true cost of their commitment before asking them to make it.  In fact, the world would title a book of his methods as “How to Lose Friends and Irritate People”.

However, this man had been trained at the Bible Training Center to talked about how the Father of Truth wanted to give them health and wealth.  It is not hard to see why he was able to get lots of people to say the magic words so the Father of Truth would give them prosperity without the commitment that the Man of Truth demands.

We were never called to preach prosperity.

This man then told me that I had a poverty mentality because I was not dissatisfied with the things that I had.  He could not see that I had given up the worthless pursuit of gaining bigger, better, newer things so I could gain true riches.

I told him that I was putting my treasure in Heaven as the Man of Truth had told us to do (Matthew 6:19-21).   I told him like Peter the Jew (Sh’mon aka Simon aka Simeon aka Cephas aka The Apostle Peter) and John the Jew (Yochanon ben Zebedee aka John son of Zebedee aka the Apostle John), I had something better than financial prosperity (Acts 3:6).

I told him that I was heeding the warning of the Man of Truth to not spend my life working for things that will not last into eternity (John 6:27).  I told him that I have a 100% chance of losing my house, my car, and everything else in this life, so I was investing my time, talents, and treasure in things that mattered (1 Timothy 6:6-7). 

I told him that that the Man of Truth relied on others to take care of his basic needs while he was preaching (Luke 8:1-3).   I told him that the Man of Truth did not even have a place to lay down his head (Luke 9:58).

I told him that the Man of Truth said that life does not consists of what we own (Luke 12:15).  I hold him that Paul the Jew (Shaul aka Saul aka The Apostle Paul) commanded that if we have food, clothing, and shelter to be content (1 Timothy 6:8).

I told him that real ministers of the Father of Truth like Paul the Jew suffer lack at times (2 Corinthians 6:4-5).  I told him that they are content whether they have little or much because their strength comes from the Man of Truth (Philippians 4:11-13).

I reminded him that we are warned against those who teach that gain is godliness (1 Timothy 6:3-5).  I told him that by faith the Prophets of Truth went about in goatskins, destitute, and living in caves, but the world was not worthy of them (Hebrews 11:37-38).

I then told him that Elisha the Prophet of Truth died from sickness (2 Kings 13:14).  Even the wife of Ezekiel the Prophet of Truth died from a stroke (Ezekiel 24:16-18).

Also, Epaphroditus had been sick and almost died from working so hard in the ministry with Paul the Jew (Philippians 2:25-30).  I reminded him that Paul the Jew had left Trophimus at Miletum sick (2 Timothy 4:20).

I reminded him that the Man of Truth said those who had health and wealth were often blind and poor (Revelation 3:17).  So, he told us to see the world through his eyes so that we would no longer be blind and gain the true riches that can only come through the fire of persecution (Revelation 3:18).

At this point, the man told me to stop judging him.  I told him since I had only quoted from the Book of Truth, that I was not judging him, but the Holy Spirit was convicting him.

We were warned to never get off of the path that we were called to walk.

This man then began to speak a lot of nonsense about how the Father of Truth was going to take away my health for the warnings that I had given to him to seek after true riches.  He said that he was speaking the Word of Faith.

At this point I got angry, so I told him to stop speaking out of his own head and saying it was from the Father of Truth for that is what the Prophets of Lies did (Jeremiah 23:16).  I told him that the Spirit of Truth (Ruach HaQodesh aka The Holy Spirit aka The Holy Ghost) is never going to give a message that is contrary to the Word of Truth that came from the Spirit of Truth (2 Peter 1:21).

I told him that the Spirit of Truth is only going to give us messages to guide us in walking in the way laid out in the Word of Truth (Isaiah 30:21).  I told him that the Father of Truth gave us the Word of Truth to use in warning each other when we get off the path that we had been called to walk (2 Timothy 3:16-17).

I also told him how the Man of Truth had stood between death and the Impossible Girl three times.  I told him about how my son had died from Covid and the Father of Truth raised him from the dead as confirmed by many witnesses in stories on two different news stations.  I told him how a year ago that I could not walk more than five minutes without having to stop to catch my breath, but the Father of Truth had been restoring my health over the last year to the point where I can walk at least an hour now.

I told him that the Father of Truth did things like this to confirm that the Word of Truth that I spoke to other people was His words (Mark 16:20).  I told him that I had never healed anyone by my own power or holiness, but these things were done by the Spirit of Truth to confirm that the Word of Truth that I preached was from the Father of Truth (Acts 3:12-15).

Then he asked me if I wanted to pray with him and I shouted “No” at him because once we know the truth then we should never agree with a lie (1 John 2:21).  The Spirit of Truth will only give us truth that agrees with the Word of Truth, so we are called to not pray in agreement with someone who speaks anything that is contrary to the Word of Truth (1 John 2:27).

This man proceeded to go ahead and pray for me anyways.  He asked the Father of Truth to bless my health, my family, my money, and so on.

However, there is no reason to believe that there was any power in his prayer.  After all, power is given to confirm the Word of Truth that came from the Father of Truth – not the Word of Faith that came from the imaginations of men.

We are called to demonstrate the power of the Good News.

The Man of Truth told his disciples to wait until they were given power before they began to preach the message of repentance and forgiveness of sin (Luke 24:47-49).  The last thing he told them before returning to Heaven was to not go around telling people about him until after the Spirit of Truth came upon them and gave them power (Acts 1:8-9).

So, the Apostles of Truth confirmed the message of the resurrection of the Man of Truth with great demonstrations of power – healings, signs, and wonders in his name (Acts 4:29-33).  In like manner, Stephen the Jew – who waited on tables – demonstrated great power to confirm the message of the Gospel (Acts 6:2-8).

Paul the Jew also brought the Gentiles into obedience to the Man of Truth by confirming the message of the Gospel with demonstrations of power from the Spirit of Truth (Romans 15:18-19).  He did not win them over with enticing words but with demonstrations of this power (1 Corinthians 2:4).

The kingdom of the Father of Truth is not built by people speaking words out of their own imagination but by these demonstrations of power (1 Corinthians 4:19-20).  This power comes from preaching the Word of Truth (2 Corinthians 6:7).

The power to perform signs and wonders to confirm the Gospel is the greatest when persecution for preaching the Gospel is the greatest (2 Corinthians 12:9-12).  The message of Gospel comes with power to confirm it and persecution to oppose it (1 Thessalonians 1:5-6).

The power to confirm the Gospel will never come without persecution for preaching the Gospel (2 Timothy 1:8).  Therefore, we are commanded to keep away from those who deny that the Father of Truth still confirms the Gospel with demonstrations of power because they do not love the Father of Truth enough to endure persecution for preaching the Gospel (2 Timothy 3:4-5).

So we are called to have all five experiences that come from a relationship with the Spirit of Truth in our congregations.  However, we can never experience the power that comes from the Spirit of Truth without experiencing the persecution that comes from the Father of Lies (HaShatan aka Satan Aka The Devil) as this man had been taught at the Bible Training Center.

We are called to do everything for the glory of the Father of Truth!

The Man of Truth called us to pray for the kingdom of the Father of Truth to come so that His will will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven as well as for our daily bread (Matthew 6:9-11).  He told us to seek His kingdom first, and the Father of Truth will make sure that we have food, clothing, and shelter (Matthew 6:31-33).

In like manner, whoever gives to help the poor lends to the Father of Truth and He will repay them (Proverbs 19:17).  They will never lack anything (Proverbs 28:27).

Therefore, the Man of Truth called us to give to the poor and promised what we gave would be given back to us in good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over (Luke 6:30-38).  He told us to give to the poor and we would store treasure in Heaven – and our heart would be there instead of in this world (Luke 12:33-34).

The Man of Truth called us to give up everything in this world to follow him and promised that we would get it all back greatly multiplied as well as eternal life (Matthew 19:27-29).  He however told us upfront that these things would come with persecution (Mark 10:28-29).

We are called to give up everything that we have a 100% chance of losing anyways in order to gain something far more valuable that we can never lose (Romans 8:18).  We are called to suffer for a short while in this temporary life to gain exceedingly great wealth in a life that lasts forever (2 Corinthians 4:17-18).

So, there is nothing unreasonable about the Man of Truth calling us to sacrifice our lives to show our love for him (Romans 12:1).  After all, he gave up everything to show his love for us (Philippians 2:5-8).

If we suffer for the Man of Truth, then we will also reign with him (2 Timothy 2:12).  Therefore, we have been given everything that pertains to life and godliness, so we can have a part in the divine nature that comes from the glory and virtue that we were called to experience (2 Peter 1:3-4).

Therefore, we are called to do everything for the glory of the Father of Truth (1 Corinthians 10:31).  After all, He has called us to share in that eternal glory by sharing in suffering with the Man of Truth (1 Peter 5:10).

However, this man had his eyes on this temporary world, so he thought that I had a poverty mentality when in truth I have been pursuing true riches.  He had been blinded by teachers who had their eyes on the temporary instead of the eternal.

Finally, I told him what I had been led by the Spirit of Truth to tell him in the first place.  I told him what the Man of Truth said in the Sermon on the Mount that we must do if we want to be great in his kingdom.   

He could not believe that the Man of Truth really said this.  It meant people that he thought were great in the kingdom were least in the kingdom – if they were in the kingdom at all.

So, it is important to understand everything that we have been called to do.

Like many, this man had zeal in his efforts to do the will of the Father of Truth, but without the knowledge of what the Man of Truth called us to do (Romans 10:2).  Paul the Jew even persecuted believers when he had zeal without this knowledge (Philippians 3:6).

Those who have zeal for the Father of Truth - but do know Him - will even think that they are doing His will by killing believers (John 16:2-3).  Therefore, our zeal must be accompanied by the knowledge of what we were called to do if it is going to be good (Galatians 4:18).

We must know that the Father of Truth watches over the fatherless, the widow, and the foreigner (Deuteronomy 10:17-18).  He is a father to the fatherless and the defender of the widow (Psalm 68:5).

He has called us to also take care of the poor and fatherless (Psalm 82:3-4).  There is no true repentance that leads to salvation unless we answer this call (Isaiah 1:16-18).

Likewise, the Man of Truth had called us to no longer be part of this world (John 15:19).  He has called us to bring the Word of Truth to the world without being part of it (John 17:14-18).

We are called to even think differently than the people of the world because our minds have been renewed by the Word of Truth (Romans 12:2).  We are called to live in a manner pleasing to the Father of Truth in this present world and to never be ungodly like the world nor desire the things that the world desires (Titus 2:12).

Therefore, we are called to not love secular (means “of the world”) music and the like because we are called to make known the love of the Father of Truth that is opposed to these things (1 John 2:15-16).  We are called to a religion that is pure in His sight that takes care of the fatherless and widows WHILE ALSO keeping ourselves unspotted by the world (James 1:27).

So, we must remember that the Man of Truth faced every temptation that we face in this world, but without ever sinning (Hebrews 4:14-15).  This means that he never transgressed the Law of Truth because sin is transgression of the Law of Truth (1 John 3:4). 

We are called in like manner to live a sinless life like him since he has taken away our sins (1 John 3:5-6).  We are called to also obey the commandments of the Father of Truth while living in this world (1 John 5:1-4).

This is impossible for those who have a mind that is dominated by their flesh which interacts with this present world (Romans 8:7-8).  However, we have been called to have the mind of the Man of Truth (Philippians 2:5).

We can keep the righteous commandments of the Law of Truth because we are called to let the Spirit of Truth direct our lives (Romans 8:4-5).  The Spirit of Truth dwells in every believer so we can live a righteous life because the Man of Truth lives in us (Romans 8:9-10).

Also, The Spirit of Truth strengthens us so the Man of Truth can live in us (Ephesians 3:16-17).  Therefore, we can hope to live like the Man of Truth in this world because he makes us strong enough to do so (Colossians 1:27).

The Man of Truth became like us, so we could become like him (1 John 3:1-2).  Therefore, we are called to be like him while living in this world (1 John 4:17).

Are you doing what believers were called to do?

Perhaps someone has led you in the Sinner’s Prayer or you filled out a commitment card.  However, that is not what the Father of Truth requires you to do to be saved.

It is not even enough to be baptized, for you must show that have truly repented by doing what the Father of Truth desires (Matthew 3:6-8).  You must take meaningful action to show that your faith in the Man of Truth is genuine (James 2:14-18).

You must do the will of the Father of Truth to be saved (Matthew 7:21-23).  You must obey the Man of Truth in everything to be saved (Luke 6:46-49). 

There is no salvation without true repentance (2 Corinthians 7:10).  There is no true repentance without total surrender (1 John 2:3-5).

The Man of Truth showed this by living in total surrender to the will of the Father of Truth (Luke 22:42).  He was even obedient in going to the cross, so you must likewise be obedient to him in everything (Hebrews 5:7-9).

Total surrender is the narrow way to salvation that few will find (Matthew 7:13-14).  The call of total surrender goes out to many, but only those who answer it will be chosen (Matthew 22:10-14).

Total surrender is the only means of eternal security.  The time of salvation begins with total surrender.

You may not have lived in total surrender to the Man of Truth up to this point, but you can come into the House of Truth today.  After all, it is how you end that determines if you are one of the chosen few.

Come to the Man of Truth in total surrender because you believe that the Father of Truth raised him from the dead (Romans 10:9).  Then you will be able to answer the call to come out of darkness and live in His marvelous light (1 Peter 2:9).

Come into the House of Truth!