Trey Knowles: RISALA 13 - YOUR POVERTY

Why don’t I recognize you? What is this image you glorify? What is it that you display on your body? You are adopting practices of pagan nations—tattoos and self-cutting. Is this how you choose to honor my Lord Yeshua? Look around—how many do you see who are unmarked? Those who are marked claim wisdom, yet they become fools, exchanging the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal human beings, birds, animals, and reptiles.

My Lord created your inmost being; He knit you together in your mother’s womb. Why do you smoke? Why do you use drugs? I do not know the spirit that has you entangled. Do you not see the sorcerers—the scientists you have made rich—who are making you sick and slowly killing you? Why do you place your faith in what is trying to destroy you? Are these drug dealers protected by governing bodies, influencing, advertising, and commercializing the temptation of your addiction? Have you not realized that you are being tempted by Satan’s cabinet?

Therefore, those who practice such murderous sorcery and deception will face judgment and will not enter the kingdom of heaven, for this kind of work does not come from my Father, but from the devil himself.

Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. Therefore, glorify God in your body.

Why do you drink alcohol? Is not my Lord’s Spirit good enough for you? My Lord has made you rich in the Spirit. Since you choose to drink alcohol, let it become a curse to you. For Solomon spoke wisely: “Let beer be for those who are perishing, wine for those who are in anguish; let them drink and forget their poverty and remember their misery no more.”

Do not be upset; it is you who contaminate the Spirit of God. And it is written in 1 Corinthians 3:17: “If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy that person; for God’s temple is sacred, and you together are that temple.”

For those who suppress the truth, you become so far gone, so depraved that you cannot distinguish right from wrong. You align yourself with your own destruction, yet this is your choice.

The acts of your own flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you that those who live in such unrepentant behavior will not inherit the kingdom of God. If you love God our Father, and if you love the Lord, keep the commandments of God.

You already know that you shall not kill, for this commandment was written in stone by God. Anyone who hates a brother or sister is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life residing in him.

Why do you empower yourself with weapons? Is this something you spiritually idolize? Why is there destruction in your heart, and why do you hold a spirit of revenge? You may have the right to carry, but why not carry the Spirit of the Lord?

I worry for you, because you are becoming like those who glorify violence—colonizers with transportation vehicles, those who carry swords and guns and indoctrinate revenge through books and television, empowering themselves through threats of shedding blood. Do not become like them. Do not take revenge, my dear friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,” says the Lord.

What do you do with these detestable acts? Such deeds lead to death and become an abomination. They exchange what is natural and pursue what is driven by lust. They become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed, and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, and malice. They are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant, and boastful. They invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; they have no understanding, no fidelity, no love, no mercy. I look around and see churches on every corner, yet righteousness is far away.

Although they know God’s righteous decree—that those who do such things deserve judgment—they not only continue in these acts but also approve of those who practice them, celebrating what should bring repentance.

The wicked will reap what they sow, because they denied the Spirit which my Father has given. This is the reason for their poverty.

For what agreement is there between the temple of God and idols?

لۡ يَٰعِبَادِيَ ٱلَّذِينَ أَسۡرَفُواْ عَلَىٰٓ أَنفُسِهِمۡ لَا تَقۡنَطُواْ مِن رَّحۡمَةِ ٱللَّهِۚ إِنَّ ٱللَّهَ يَغۡفِرُ ٱلذُّنُوبَ جَمِيعًاۚ إِنَّهُۥ هُوَ ٱلۡغَفُورُ ٱلرَّحِيمُ

“O My servants who have transgressed against themselves, do not despair of the mercy of God, Indeed, God forgives all sins. Truly, He is the Most Forgiving, the Most Merciful.” Not willing for anyone to perish but come to repentance.

Sincerely,
TREY KNOWLES
Grace and Peace.