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Sometimes even Yahweh’s people need to be AWAKENED to their real spiritual state! Here, in this reprinted article, is revealed the SHOCKING condition some are in.

      PAINFUL as it may be, much as we hate to admit it, Yahweh’s ministers have come to realize that there are some individuals physically among Yahweh’s people who are spiritually not of Yahweh’s Congregation. They are progressing toward a certain destination—the Lake of Fire! This could easily include YOU!

      Before you were baptized and began building the character of a disciple, you should have sat down to count the cost—as Yahshua said in Luke 14:25-33. He said you were to love Yahweh more than any relative—even your own husband or wife—and more than your own life also (verse 26). He concluded by saying “So then every one of you who does not forsake all his possessions is not able to be My disciple” (verse 33).

      Have you really forsaken ALL that you have? Do you really consider that your life no longer belongs to you, but to Yahweh—to do with as He wills?

      There is no use “kidding” yourself. Some of you new converts—and some who have been in among Yahweh’s people for years and years still have a CARNAL mind! It’s time for even Yahweh’s people to wake up. Now let me explain.

Like Corinthian Congregation

Among the strongest and most corrective epistles that the Apostle Paul wrote were his two letters to the Corinthians. He addressed them as “to the Congregation of YAHWEH” (1st Cor 1:2), yet he said “that there are disputes among you” (verse 11). Some were following a man instead of Yahshua. Others were following other men.

Because they liked men’s persons instead of Messiah, because they had a spirit of contention or argument about many things, and because they had not fully SURRENDERED to Yahweh and the guidance of His Spirit, Paul could not write to them as he would to fully converted, spiritually minded people. Instead, he said, “And, brothers, I was not able to speak to you as to spiritual ones, but as to worldly ones, even as to babes in Messiah” (1st Cor 3:1). And that is the exact condition of some of you who now read this article!

Many of you still look on things from the point of view of a CARNAL mind. You have seen much of the truth as a correct argument, and you have gone along with it and have been baptized. But when a particular truth is applied to you personally, you often resist it and stick to your own way. Whether it is child rearing, or proper eating and health habits, or coming out of the world of social media, and for some, even keeping their own doctrine.

As many have indicated by their actions—which speak louder than words – they want to go along with Yahweh and His Congregation “up to a point.” And what is beyond that point that they are unwilling to give up?

The answer is SELF! That big part of self they still think is pretty good, after all, and that they never learned to hate, to REPENT of, and to BURY in baptism. All this may be revealed when a situation arises where the human self has to be denied in order to obey Yahweh. Maybe a man has to give up his life-long job in order to fully keep Yahweh’s weekly and annual Sabbaths. Or it might be refusing to leave old friends that are not conducive to your spiritual well being.

It might be that someone in the Congregation has been given an honor or position that you thought you—your self—should have. Or perhaps you think Yahweh’s minister has “offended” you in some way.

Suddenly, your “spiritual” attitude changes—and we find that yours was only a surface conversion—at least so far—and that you have surrendered to Yahweh only up to a point. Then, you forget about Yahweh’s conditions of total surrender, and you began setting forth conditions that Yahweh and His Congregation will have to meet in order to keep it in your good graces.

You will often begin to accuse one of Yahweh’s ministers and perhaps compare him unfavorably with another person. In your mind, and in your words, you will try to create sides. You will have the same carnal, contentious spirit that some of the people at Corinth had. You may begin to judge or accuse others —often Yahweh’s ministers—and forget the fact that Yahweh is your JUDGE, that Yahshua is the living Head of Yahweh’s Congregation, and that Yahweh’s ministers are responsible to Him—not you, and that He will take care of them!

Real Examples

These attitudes just described are just a sample of the kind of carnal ways that some of YOU— perhaps without realizing it—have fallen into. Unless these attitudes are changed—REPENTED of —they will lead to death in the Lake of Fire.

And we in Yahweh’s ministry KNOW that many of you dear brethren, whom we love very much, are in such a spiritual state at this very moment. Our job is to warn you—to help you CHANGE before it’s too late.

Following are some examples of the carnal minded attitude some of you have. Read these carefully and apply them to yourself—not to the other fellow.

As Paul wrote the people in Yahweh’s visible Congregation at Corinth: “Examine yourselves, whether you are in the faith; test yourselves. Or do you not yourselves realize that Yahshua Messiah is in you? If this is not true than you are rejected” (a reprobate) (2nd Cor 13:5).

A very common fault in many brethren, particularly those who are older and have absorbed more of this world’s religions, is that they tend to keep their own standard of right and wrong—and view everything from that standpoint. Often, they tend to look down upon others in the Congregation who don’t go by their own human moral code. They forget that sin is the transgression of Yahweh’s revealed Torah—not human ideas and imagination. WHY?

Isn’t it because you have never fully surrendered your will to Yahweh? Isn’t it because you are stubbornly hanging on to part of your old SELF- perhaps the religious part, the part you still think is pretty good, the part you never crucified and buried with Yahshua in baptism (Romans 6:3-6)?

Do you realize that one in the attitude I have described is setting himself up as the judge of Yahshua Messiah and condemning the perfect life that Yahshua led?

Anyone in that attitude is rejecting the perfect example that Yahshua set for us. Perhaps without realizing it, he is setting himself up as wiser than YAHWEH ALMIGHTY. He is full of a self- righteous spirit.

Compare with Yahshua

Too many people forget that Yahshua set the only perfect example, and that we should compare our ideas with His teaching and His example before we condemn others. The truth of the matter is that Yahshua—if He were now living in the flesh—would be a great disappointment to many so- called “Christians” today, for He would not follow their ideas at all.

Yahshua said that man should LIVE by every Word of YAHWEH (Luke 4:4). You’d better find your ideas in the clear teachings and examples of the Bible before you try to impose them on others.

Some people have grown bitter or have gone off into sin because they looked to human examples. Many times, I have heard the remark, “Well, if one of the ministers can do that (what they self-righteously may think is wrong), then I can surely do this” (what Yahweh says is SIN).

Have you ever heard talk like that? It matters not whether or not the minister might be setting a perfect example in every case, you are to obey YAHWEH and to follow Yahshua’s example. Compare yourself with Him.

Yahweh’s People Carnal?

Using the real or imagined faults of others as an excuse for your SIN is a practice that will lead to your own condemnation. It is the attitude of a CARNAL mind. Many of you are going to wonder if people in Yahweh’s Congregation could ever be carnal.

The point to remember is that Yahweh’s true Congregation is a spiritual organism, not a visible, fleshly body of people.

It is composed of the begotten sons of Elohim– For as many as are led by the Spirit of Elohim, these are sons (children) of Elohim (Rom 8:14). But Elohim’s true children, meeting together to carry out the mission of His congregation, have always had among them some who were not fully converted—who were CARNAL-minded. And it seems that even of those who were really converted, some would always fall away.

As mentioned before, Paul addresses First Corinthians to the “Congregation of Yahweh” at Corinth. Yet he immediately shows that some of the physical members of the group were CARNAL (1st Cor 3:1). Paul could also see the carnal tendency even in some of the elders at Ephesus and he warned: “and out of you yourselves will rise up men speaking perverted things, in order to draw away disciples after themselves” (Acts 20:30).

The Parable of the Ten Virgins

In the parable of the ten virgins (Mat 25:1-13) Yahshua showed the FEARFUL condition Yahweh’s people will be in when He returns!

Notice that all of the virgins (disciples) started out with oil in their lamps. But the wise virgins took extra oil. They took extra pains to continually receive more of Yahweh’s Spirit, symbolized by the oil. They read their Bibles daily, prayed without ceasing, and kept their focus on the work of Yahweh.

But the unwise virgins didn’t grow spiritually. They were self-satisfied and complacent— perhaps spiritually proud. They weren’t hungering and thirsting for righteousness. They thought they would “get by all right.” When they came to enter into the marriage supper, Yahweh said: “I DON’T KNOW YOU.”

They had run out of oil—out of Yahweh’s Spirit! They hadn’t been growing spiritually. They still had to be regarded as CARNAL-minded—as “babes in Yahshua” (1st Cor 3:1).

Yes, there have always been the two distinct classes of people within the visible Congregation of Yahweh. One is going into the Kingdom. The other is not.

Where do YOU stand in Yahweh’s sight?

Carnal Principle

Each one of you had better “examine” yourself in the light of these facts. It doesn’t matter how long you think you have been converted—this means you!

Remember that we are commanded to GROW in grace and knowledge (2nd Peter 3:18). You must continually drink in more of Yahweh’s Spirit to grow—and to become spiritually minded.

A spiritual mind will be willing to admit error and change. It will grow into new truth. It will soak in every sermon looking inward to how they can change.

Spiritual-minded people love Yahweh’s Torah, and “NOTHING shall offend them” (Psalms 119:165). They will not be continually getting their “feelings” hurt by Yahweh’s ministers or by others, and they will not love this present worldly system (Jacob 4:4).

On the other hand, the carnal-minded person is easily upset by anything and everybody. He is not looking to Yahshua – but to men’s persons. Naturally he will find fault.

He is always quick to “stumble” on any real or imagined stumbling block, because instead of growing—he has remained a spiritual “babe” with a carnal mind.

He will accuse and find fault especially with Yahweh’s work and His ministers— always thinking he has a better way, and will try to find his way around the Torah of Yahweh and the judicial order of Yahweh in the Congregation.

In the presence of such a person, a converted believer usually senses that he must be careful to avoid an “argument” or “hurt feelings.” The carnal mind is stubborn, unyielding, selfish.

Paul wrote: “Because the mind of the flesh is enmity towards Elohim; for it is not subject to the Torah of Elohim, for it is not possible to be so. And those being in the flesh (carnal minded) are not able to please Elohim” (Romans 8:7-8). And what is the fate of such individuals? “To be carnally minded is DEATH” (Verse 6).

May Yahweh help all of us to honestly “examine yourselves” and repent and grow where Yahweh’s Word shows you must. Make sure you are really in Yahweh’s Congregation.