For Your Profit

Proverbs 3:5,6

Marcus Lemonis, also known as 'The Profit' to cable viewers, hosts a television show with the intent to help failing/struggling businesses. He appears to be a very successful businessman ready to invest his resources. It appears that these businesses approach him because his reputation testifies of his ability to settle and strengthen. For his resources and abilities he requires a percentage of ownership in the business and FULL CONTROL of operations.

He explains the parameters to the current owners and they agree or he excuses himself from the process. Those who follow his advice seem to be very glad in the end. His resources and abilities stream-line the operation and bring growth. There are those who approach him for assistance but are unwilling to agree to his requirements. They want help but their current state of mind causes them to think that he wants too much in return.

"Trust in the Lord with all your heart, (trusting, as Jesus did, that God would raise Him from the dead {Romans 10:9}) and LEAN NOT on your own understanding; in all YOUR WAYS acknowledge Him and He will direct your paths (or make them straight)."

Mr. Lemonis makes a requirement for his investment and abilities. God, as He instructs in the proverb, desires that we trust in Him with all our heart, understanding what is the hope of Jesus Christ's calling. The mechanism for this victory is sending no roots down as you lean, ready to acknowledge Him as He speaks.

"Now no chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but painful; nevertheless, afterward it yields the peaceable fruits of righteousness to those who have been trained by it."(Hebrews 12:11) Those who follow Mr. Lemonis' chastening receive a healthier business. Those who receive the chastening of the Lord receive the reward that is in His hand - eternal life; exceedingly, abundantly above all we ask or think according to the power that works within!

Jesus Had What He Said

Mark 11:11-23

"And Jesus went into Jerusalem, and into the temple. So when He looked around at all things, as the hour was already late, He went out to Bethany with the twelve. Now the next days, when they had come out from Bethany, He was hungry. And seeing from afar a fig tree having leaves, He went to see if perhaps He would find something on it. When He came to it, He found nothing but leaves, for it was not the season for figs. In response Jesus said to it, 'Let no one eat fruit from you ever again'. And His disciples heard it."

John 5:19,20 reads, "Then Jesus answered and said to them, 'Most assuredly I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He sees the Father do; for whatever He does, the Son also does in like manner. For the Father loves the Son, and SHOWS Him all things that He Himself does.....' "

John 12:49,50 reads, "For I have not spoken on My own authority; but the Father who sent Me gave Me a command, what I should say and what I should speak. And I know that His command IS everlasting life. Therefore, whatever I speak, just as the Father has told Me, so I speak."

Therefore, we must conclude that the Father told Jesus to end the existence of that fig tree. 

"Now in the morning, as they passed by, they saw the fig tree dried up from the roots. And Peter, remembering, said to Him, 'Rabbi, look! The fig tree which you cursed has withered away.' "  Jesus had what He said; and immediately began to teach them how to have the same by removing that which stands in the way: "this mountain".

"This mountain" would stand between us and becoming one with the Father and the Son who are One (John 17:21); between us and becoming the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ. "This mountain" is the unwillingness to turn to God as Jesus Christ, the Living Word, is being revealed to us.

"For assuredly, (Jesus Christ) says to you, whoever says to THIS MOUNTAIN, 'Be removed and be cast into the sea', and does not doubt in his heart but believes that those things that he is saying will be done, HE WILL HAVE WHATEVER HE SAYS." He will understand clearly and act upon only those things the Father (in the name of the Son, by the ministry of the Holy Spirit) is showing him!

We Have The Petitions That We Ask .....Of Him

1 John 5:14,15

"Now this is the confidence that we have IN HIM, that if we ask anything ACCORDING TO HIS WILL, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked OF HIM."

In 2006, as I was leaving the office for the day, the Lord spoke to my spirit by the Holy Spirit: "Ask of Me, of Myself I will give to you!" It was loud inside me and I remember it exactly. God, by His Holy Spirit, reminds me of this regularly. God's will for man is a new creation of their spirit; the empowerment of man by the Holy Spirit that we may be witnesses to Him - becoming the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ. Every one the same yet different callings within it.

An example would be a son/daughter asking a father/mother to explain and teach to them the very best attributes of their heritage so that they themselves could do likewise. Natural man always has shortcomings. Jesus was tempted in every way yet without sin! I expect a heart-felt request like that would elicit a heart-felt response from the parent. How much more from God the Father regarding his Son so that "we may know what is the hope of His calling"?

When James and John, the sons of Zebedee, asked Jesus to appoint them seats to His right and left IN HIS GLORY, Jesus replied to them, since they asked: "You do not know what you ask. Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with (meaning death on the cross)? Jesus said that was not His to give them. If we ask of the Father, in the name of Jesus Christ, so that we may be one with them by the Holy Spirit, we cannot ask amiss. Of Himself He gives!

These Children of John's Gospel Knew About All Things

 1 John 2:18-21, 24-27; 1 Corinthians 8:2 

"Little children, it is the last hour; and as you have heard that the Antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come, by which we know that it is the last hour. They went out from us, but they were not of us: for if they had been of us, they would have CONTINUED WITH US, but they went out that they might be made manifest, that none of them were of us."  (Us: John, Paul, Peter etc...)

"But you have an anointing from the Holy One (Jesus Christ) and you know all things. I have not written to you because you do not know the truth, but because you know it, and that no lie is of the truth." These had an understanding from/of the Holy One which empowered them to continue with what John, Paul, Peter...etc. were teaching and doing.

"Therefore, let that abide in you which you heard from the beginning. If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, you also will abide in the Son and in the Father. And this is the promise that He has promised us - eternal life. These things I have written to you concerning those who try to deceive you. But the anointing which you have received from Him abides in you, and you do not need that anyone teach you; but as the same anointing teaches you concerning all things, and is true, and is not a lie, and just as it has taught you, you will abide in Him."

Paul admonished the Corinthian church: "if anyone thinks that he knows anything, he knows nothing yet as he ought to know."  Paul could be saying that unless one knows "all things", the things that they think they know will be as good as nothing; that what we think we know could cause us to be puffed up (the leaven of the Pharisee) making no room for the anointing of the Holy One; that knowing "all things" from the Holy One, who is love, will edify (build up) us and others for eternal life. 

"He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not, with Him, freely give us ALL THINGS?" (Romans 8:32)

Our Master, who sits at the right hand of God, will reveal this to you by the Holy Spirit, making what is written alive and eternal!

Irreconcilable

 2 Timothy 3:1-9; 10-12; Corinthians 5:12-21, 6:1

"But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come (times of stress); for men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving (irreconcilable), slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having a FORM OF GODLINESS but denying its power

(denying the power of godliness). And from such people turn away! For of this sort are those who creep into households and make captives of gullible women loaded down with sins, led away by various lusts, always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. Now as Jannes and Jambres resisted Moses, SO DO THESE ALSO RESIST THE TRUTH, men of corrupt minds, disapproved concerning the faith; but they will progress no further, for their folly will be manifest to all, as theirs (Jannes/Jambres) also was."

irreconcilable - incapable (unwilling) of being brought into harmony or adjustment; implacably opposed (Webster's)

"For we do not commend ourselves again to you but give you opportunity to boast on our behalf, that you may have an answer for those who boast in appearance and not in heart. For if we are beside ourselves, it is for God, or if we are of sound mind, it is for you. For the love of Christ compels us, because we judge thus: that if One died for all, then all died; and He died for all, THAT THOSE WHO LIVE SHOULD LIVE NO LONGER FOR THEMSELVES, BUT FOR HIM WHO DIED FOR THEM AND ROSE AGAIN. Therefore, from now on, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet we know Him thus no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, AND HAS GIVEN US THE MINISTRY OF RECONCILIATION, that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, AND HAS COMMITTED TO US THE WORD OF RECONCILIATION. Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you (the Corinthian church) on Christ's behalf, BE RECONCILED TO GOD!  For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. We then, as workers together with Him also plead with you not to receive the grace of God in vain......."

"But you (Timothy) have carefully followed my (Paul's) doctrine, manner of life, purpose, faith, longsuffering, love, perseverance, persecutions, afflictions which happened to me at Antioch, at Iconium, at Lystra - what persecutions I endured. And out of them all the Lord delivered me. Yes, and all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution.....

reconcile - to bring into agreement or harmony; make compatible or consistent; to restore to communion in a (the) church (Webster's)

Paul taught the Corinthian church that they must allow themselves to be brought into agreement; they must allow themselves to be made compatible and consistent on Christ's behalf so they may be ambassadors for Him as Paul had become; to be brought into communion with Jesus Christ. We are charged the same way!

"This is The True Grace of God"

1 Peter 5:1-12

"The elders who are among you I exhort. I who am a fellow elder and A WITNESS OF THE SUFFERINGS OF CHRIST, AND ALSO A PARTAKER OF THE GLORY THAT WILL BE REVEALED; Shepherd the flock of God which is among you, serving as overseers, not by compulsion but willingly, not for dishonest gain but eagerly; not as being lords those entrusted to you, but BEING EXAMPLES to the flock; and when the Chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the crown of glory that does not fade away. Likewise you younger people, submit yourself to your elders. Yes, all of you be submissive to one another, and be clothed by humility for....'God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble'."

"Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God that He may exalt you in due time, casting all your care upon Him for He cares for you. Be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. Resist him, steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same sufferings are experienced by your brotherhood in the world. But may the GOD OF ALL GRACE, who called us to His eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after you have suffered a while, PERFECT, ESTABLISH, STRENGTHEN and SETTLE you." 

"By Silvanus, our faithful brother as I consider him, I have written to you briefly, exhorting and testifying that THIS IS THE TRUE GRACE OF GOD IN WHICH YOU STAND. She who is in Babylon, elect together with you, greets you; and so does Mark my son. Greet one another with a holy kiss of love. Peace to you all who are in Christ Jesus. Amen."

God cares for you the way a devoted gardener cares for their growings: He removes the deadness of your works so that the works of faith in Jesus Christ, with pruning, may develop, testifying of Him! I am convinced that the "elder(s)" in this passage understand this true grace of God and are willing to persevere with Him in it. Their example assists the younger ones to persevere in the "TRUE GRACE OF GOD". 

The Gospel According to Mark, Chapter 11:20-26

"Now in the morning, as they passed by, they saw the fig tree dried up from the roots. And Peter, remembering, said to Him, 'Rabbi, look! The fig tree which you cursed has withered away'. So Jesus answered and said to them, 'Have faith in God, for assuredly I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, "Be removed and be cast into the sea", and does not doubt in his heart but believes that those things that he says will be done, he will have whatever he says. Therefore, I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them and you will have them. And whenever you stand praying, if you have anything against anyone, forgive him, that your Father in heaven may also forgive you your trespasses. But if you do not forgive, neither will your Father in heaven forgive your trespasses."

We should remember that Jesus said, "I can of Myself do nothing. As I hear, I judge; and My judgement is righteous, because I do not seek My own will but the will of the Father who sent Me."(John 5:30) We should remember that whatever Jesus said came to pass!

Now, an amplification of what Jesus said to Peter and those who were (are) inclining themselves to follow Him for discipleship:

"You will need to hold fast to this revelation from God. For assuredly Jesus Christ says (to all those who are inclining themselves to follow Him for discipleship) whoever says to the this mountain, 'Be removed and be cast into the sea', and does not doubt in his heart, but believes, recognizing and receiving the grace of God which makes him strong to stand in this matter so the removal of this mountain will be complete, he will have whatever he says because he will clearly understand and act upon only those things that the Father, in the name of the Son, by the ministry of the Holy Spirit are inspiring him to say and do. Therefore, Jesus Christ says to you, no matter what you think to ask for when you are praying, pray this that you have received from Me and you will have it."

It seems clear to me that Jesus' is teaching here the process by which "this mountain" will be removed so that His Way can be made straight.  "This mountain" impedes us from receiving Him as He comes (Mark 11:18), from submitting to and persevering with Him! (John 6:53-67)