The First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution protects the freedom of speech, religion, and the press. It also protects the right to peaceful protest and to petition the government.
The amendment is the act of changing for the better; it’s an improvement. A correction or alteration. Parang reset, but it is initiated by the person!
In a reset, somebody else does it for you, and for our reset, it is God who is doing it. But an amendment is when you come to the realization that something is not right, and you choose to make amends.
1 Peter 4:1
Therefore, since Christ suffered in His body, arm yourselves also with the same attitude, because he who has suffered in his body is done with sin.
Matt 5:14-15
“You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. 15 Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead, they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house.
Matt 5:16
In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.
This is the Second Amendment that God desires for us in these last days – TO SHINE!
Q? What has been hindering many Christians to manifest their light in a dark world?
One must know what is the problem because if you don’t know that you have a problem, you will just keep on doing the same things, and you will not make an amendment. It takes maturity to summon the courage to accept that something is wrong in your life. One cannot engage in a spiritual battle if he is spiritually immature!
What is spiritual immaturity?
Simply put, spiritual immaturity means it is the flesh that is manifesting!
What is the profile of an immature person?
EASILY OFFENDED
Immaturity is the root cause of all offenses whether spiritual or emotional, it is the basis of all offenses because it is focused solely on the ‘self’ and ‘ego.’ There is no place you can go where you will not be offended because God will allow you to be offended in order for you to mature.
Luke 17:1 NKJV
Then He said to the disciples, “It is impossible that no offenses should come, but woe to him through whom they do come!
The leaders of Israel were all offended at Jesus, that’s why in their immaturity, they crucified the King of Glory. Jesus only preached the truth, but many can’t handle the truth! [exposes them]
Simply put, it is very difficult to work with someone who doesn’t want to mature, change, or grow. How do you motivate or even push someone like that kung ayaw?
I believe maturity is a choice!
Even with Jesus on board, He will never push anyone to do something they are not willing to do, that’s your own personal choice, He lets you decide for yourself! [barbero]
Luke 5:39
And no one after drinking old wine wants the new, for he says, ‘The old is better.'”
The biggest sins that offend God are those sins that we don’t know about. Many believe that they are doing what is right, or nothing is wrong, so they don’t change. Many hearts have become hard that conviction cant penetrates anymore, so you don’t feel the new move of God in your life! [break the old jars]
Truth is, when you are told to make amends, you take offense.
Offense means to cause somebody to be angry or to be hurt…
to insult or hurt the feelings of somebody…
to be rude, to attack a person.
All offenses don’t happen in the mind, they happen in the heart, they are the signs of the last days – church splits, members going away, backsliding, lawsuits, etc.
We have all been offended at one time or another, or maybe you felt you have been offended – they are not the same. One is caused by a real attack with the intention to hurt, but the other is caused by a spirit that makes you think you are being attacked; they are both demonic in origin.
The heart of the problem is the problem of the heart!
Everything can be traced back to the heart, every relationship you will ever encounter is based on the heart and not on the head. When a relationship begins to die, the first thing you lose is the person’s affection, that affection comes from the heart and not the mind…
Today, the mind has been disconnected from the heart, for many Christians today, faith is in their heads and not their hearts. You know it theoretically, but you don’t believe it in your heart – that’s why there is a distinction between what you know, what you believe, and what you do.
You know something is not right, you believe someone has to change and make amends; but it won’t be you. The problem gets worse, till all the affections are gone, then separation happens.
Ezek 11:19
19 I will give them an undivided heart and put a new spirit in them; I will remove from them their heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh. [surgery]
What is the purpose of this surgery?
Ezek 11:20 Then they will follow my decrees and be careful to keep My laws. They will be my people, and I will be their God. [amendment]
Before the time of Moses, everything was committed to memory because there was no writing yet; until God gave Moses His commandments!
Ex 31:18
When the Lord finished speaking to Moses on Mount Sinai, He gave him the two tablets of the Testimony, the tablets of stone inscribed by the finger of God.
God’s original intent was for it to be written on the heart because anything that is not done in the heart will not make any difference, it will not instill change. The stone was the symbol of the Jewish heart – it has also become the symbol of many Christian hearts today.
The amendment has to happen in the heart and not just in the mind. People whose hearts are set only on feelings and emotions are the ones who get easily offended – they look at who are the people with them and they only want to hear nice things said about them.
They are those who are prone to deception and lack commitment. It is very easy for these people to backslide and leave the church, or backstab their leaders.
TRUTH: It really doesn’t matter what you hear people say about you, or who are the people on your side, or whatever your circumstance, what matters is your heart; you must be willing to fight the battle!
REMEMBER: The devil is fighting for your heart and not for your things, if you are allowing yourself to be defined by things, you are a shallow believer and very immature.
You cannot speed up maturity by performing, or by knowing things – maturity happens only when you obey God and become an overcomer even if the situation gets tough. The motivation for all that Jesus did was not His faith, it was the love of the Father.
Because of that love, Jesus never struggled with anything that the Father had asked Him to do. He was not concerned with what the people would say, He was only concerned with what He saw the Father was doing.
But in Gethsemane, He struggled! There comes a time in our lives when we have to face the battle alone, when we struggle alone when we have to die alone!
The death of Jesus was in Gethsemane, and not in Calvary!
Calvary was so that the world would see…
But Gethsemane was for the Father alone to see!
When a person is wounded, they don’t want to hear anything from a fellow Christian…
Lalo na kay Pastor!
Instead, the enemy becomes their best friend…he comes to fellowship with you in your bitterness and he will tell you everything you want to hear. To justify your bitterness, the enemy tells you that you don’t need that relationship…pastor, brother, sister, husband, wife…
He will justify to you why it’s ok not to be in the house of your Father, that you are better off being an orphan than to have a Father who allows pain and hurts to come to you. After taking the bait, the enemy will leave you with all the junk in your heart and in your mind…
The offense, the rebellion, the anger, the bitterness… Now you are thinking like him, you are thinking the same things towards God and His children…
Your heart has been deceived! But Jesus died without any anger, bitterness, or hurt – you know it when He said in Luke 23:34 “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.“
A wounded heart does not forgive, but a broken heart always does!
Ps 51:17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, You will not despise.
Make that amendment, desire to be a light for the Lord. Put away all offenses, all bitterness, and let the love of God fill your whole being.