Tim Hayes – Snapshots

Any Other Gospel

The Four Spiritual Laws is likely the most popular gospel tract ever written, the most widely distributed of all time, likely over 2.5 billion. It summarizes basic Gospel truths in four simple points:

God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life. (Jn 3:16; 10:10)
Man is sinful and separated from God. (Ro 3:23; 6:23)
Jesus Christ is God’s only provision for man’s sin. (Ro 5:8; 1Co 15:3-6; Jn 14:6)
We must individually receive Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord. (Jn 1:12; Ep 2:8-9; Re 3:20)

The tract ends with instructions to “receive Christ” by praying a prayer inviting Him into our heart and committing our life to follow Him, assuring us that if we prayed sincerely we’re now a child of God regardless how we feel.

While each of these four laws is scriptural on the surface, the actual gospel (or good news) presented in this tract — that if we sincerely ask Christ to forgive our sins and come into our heart and save us, that He will — is not. In fact, it is so vastly different from the Biblical reality it amounts to another gospel (2Co 11:4), a false one. It distorts each of these four spiritual principles and encourages an unbiblical response to them.

While the Bible equates receiving Christ with supernatural rest in the Person and finished work of Christ (He 4:3), this false gospel substitutes a mechanical “sinner’s prayer” technique, and also incorrectly defines every key term: repentance, sin and faith. It even explicitly normalizes unbelief by discounting the primary evidence of saving faith: assurance of salvation. (1Th 1:5)

The true Gospel is that Christ delivers those who believe on Him from their violations of His law: Torah. (Mt 1:21, 1Jn 3:4) As we trust Him to do so, He saves us from both the penalty we deserve for breaking Torah by dying for us in our place (Is 53:11), and He also saves us from our tendency to break Torah (Ro 6:14) by writing His laws into our minds and hearts. (He 8:10)

When God changes how we think about deliberately breaking Torah and gives us hearts fully submitted to God (repentance: 2Ti 2:25), and reveals to us that His blood has paid our sin debt in full (faith: Ro 3:25), that Father God has now made His Son Jesus Christ to be sin for us (2Co 5:21), we cannot rightly pray and ask Jesus to save us… because we will confidently know that He already has.

This supernatural knowledge will be accompanied by several significant changes within our hearts: we will love Jesus Christ (1Co 16:22); we will start obeying Torah (1Jn 3:9); pleasing God will become the most important thing to us; we will be willing to forsake anything and everything to follow Him. (Lk 14:33)

So long as any of these evidences of saving faith are not present, no one should be assured of salvation (2Co 13:5); rather, we should diligently continue seeking God, asking Him to reveal Himself to us and give us repentance to acknowledge and rest in the truth (2Ti 2:25) until He gives us faith and a new heart, assuring us of our eternal safety. (He 11:6) We should strive to enter the narrow gate into salvation (Lk 13:24), examining ourselves and systematically proving it to ourselves (2Co 13:5), diligently making our calling and election sure (2Pe 1:10), until doubting our salvation the tiniest bit is entirely foreign to us. (1Jn 5:13)

But this tract, rather than encouraging us to wait on God until we experience this deep, supernatural, inward change in what we are trusting in as the basis for our salvation, shifting entirely away from dependence on ourselves and our own works to the finished work of Christ — which is the only act that can save us, and experience how this change in our faith system is transforming our hearts to love and obey Christ from the moment this first appears within us, we are told we are now a child of God even if our beliefs about Christ and salvation have not changed and we feel no different since we started reading the tract.

In other words, this gospel assures us of eternal life simply because we asked for it, regardless what we actually believe or how we feel. This teaches us to depend on the act of praying sinner’s prayer for our salvation rather than on Christ Himself and His finished work, and it positively affirms the reality of our salvation even if we have no evidence of this faith at all, no true faith in Christ.

So, what this tract is actually doing is inoculating us against the true Gospel by offering us false hope of Heaven based upon our own work: our act of sincerely praying the sinner’s prayer.

This framing of the Gospel implies Christ has died for everyone but that His death saves no one, that believing on and resting in the atonement of Christ is insufficient, that faith does not save us, that we must do something else besides believe.

The message effectively presents Christ’s sacrifice as ineffectual: not actually saving us as we believe, only making it possible for us to save ourselves by deciding to pray the sinner’s prayer and “receive Christ”. So, in trying to distill the Gospel for us, it explicitly denies Christ’s atonement as the divine act which saves us when we rightly receive Christ and believe on Him. (Jn 1:12-13)

While presenting Jesus as the only bridge to God, this false gospel lies to us about how we cross this bridge; it deceives us about how Christ truly accomplishes our salvation: by dying for us as we believe in Him and manifesting the reality of this faith in our hearts. It leads us up the path to the narrow gate (Mt 7:14), offers us a cheap substitute for entering in through this gate, and then turns us away, assuring us we have entered in and that all will be well as we continue on down the broad road to destruction. (13)

There is only one true Gospel; trusting any other gives false hope of Heaven, which may be the most dreadful possible state we can ever be in — thinking we’re eternally safe when we’re not. God’s curse upon those who willfully participate in such deception is evidently just. (Ga 1:8-9)

After so many millions have been misled by this shallow, evangelistic travesty, is it any wonder Christ Himself prophesies of the many who will come to Him expecting open arms, only to hear Him say, “I never knew you. Depart from me, you who practice lawlessness.” (Mt 7:22-23)

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Who Am I?

Self-identity, understanding who we are and what makes us unique and valuable, seems simple but it can be elusive. Ultimately, no one else can tell us who we are; we must discover this for ourselves, and that can take time.

At 80 years old, Moses is evidently still struggling with self-identity. Four decades earlier he’d been a rising star in the most powerful house on the planet, a man of valor, trained in all of the wisdom of Egypt, mighty in word and deed. (Ac 7:22) He was prepared and eager to deliver God’s chosen people from centuries of unjust suffering and bondage. (25) But a couple of missteps landed him in the backside of the dessert, feeding sheep, evidently married to a woman who may very well have been crushing his spirit into oblivion. (Ex 4:24-26)

When God finally confronts Moses and calls him out to fulfill his life’s purpose, his immediate response is, “Who am I?” (Ex 3:11) Moses acts as if he no longer has any idea who he is, what he is about, or why he has been born into this world; after years of what appears to be pointless suffering, he now seems blind to his life purpose and calling. He’s likely been feeling defeated, depressed, that his life has been wasted. God’s call in this context must seem surreal, too good to be true.

Yet God’s next words are profoundly healing: “Certainly, I will be with thee.” (12) When God shows up everything changes. (Ro 8:31) This is His eternal promise to all who serve Him. (He 13:5)

When we leverage our gifts and calling independently of God, we invariably serve ourselves, lose our way and get into trouble. (Jn 12:25) God’s purposes for us are all about Him, not us; we can’t rightly fulfill them without Him. (Ro 12:1-2)

Jehovah God has made each of us with His own hands (Ps 119:73), and He is ordering our steps. (Pr 16:9) The very idea of having a purpose implies we’re designed by Someone and created for His pleasure, not our own. (Re 4:11) We cannot fulfill our purpose apart from Him; we are complete only in Him (Co 2:10); in Him we have everything we need. (Ph 4:19)

What seem like wasted years, suffering from ignorantly trying to fulfill God’s will our own way, not knowing any better (1Ti 1:13), become strategic building blocks, crafting the required foundation as He remolds and reshapes us, preparing us for His mission. (Ps 23:23-24)

In Moses’ case, he not only needed all the wisdom of Egypt, he also needed to be at home out in the desert, to know it like the back of his hand. And he desperately needed to be set free of his selfishness, ego, self-will and self-confidence in order to navigate the chaos before him and effectively lead God‘s chosen people. God needed to destroy Moses and rebuild him from the ground up before He could use him, and a broken 40-year marriage was evidently the perfect chisel, as it is for many in God’s infinite wisdom. (1Co 7:28) Every child of God eventually needs a good, strong scourging (He 12:6); there’s no other way to get where we need to be, yet it’s a beautiful thing as we endure it in His grace. (11)

It’s never too late to recognize God’s hand in our lives, turn ourselves completely over to Him, with all of our baggage, wounds and scars, and begin to discover and live out our purpose, in Him and with Him and for Him. (Ro 11:36) He knows our frame, and remembers that we are dust. (Ps 103:14)

The world can’t validate us because it didn’t design us and it doesn’t know our hearts. God’s gifts and calling define who we actually are, who He has designed us to be; we must find ourselves in Him and through Him, keeping our eyes fixed on Him, the Author and Finisher of our faith. (He 12:2)

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Are There Few?

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When Christ was asked, “Are there few that be saved?” (Lk 13:23), He didn’t answer directly; perhaps the question is too significant to answer with a simplistic Yes or No.

What is a reasonable estimate of how many will make it to Heaven? If it’s 7 out of 10 we might not panic, figuring we’re better than most. But if it’s more like 1 in 10,000 … well that’s a wake-up call to make our election sure (2Pe 1:10), to work out our own salvation with fear and trembling. (Php 2:12)

Christ’s reply is not the least bit comforting: “Strive to enter in at the strait gate: for many, I say unto you, will seek to enter in, and shall not be able.” (Lk 13:24) The implication is very few will make it to Heaven (Mt 7:14); many, thinking they have a personal relationship with Christ (Lk 13:25-26), will be turned away, much to their own consternation and horror. (27-28) Even many who call Christ Lord and think they’re doing great work for Him will be cast out because they didn’t do God’s will; He never knew them. (Mt 7:21-23)

Christ is warning us to diligently seek salvation, to earnestly lay hold on eternal life with all our might (1Ti 6:12) and ensure beyond any doubt that our lives reflect the reality of divine salvation. (He 6:9) It’s exactly what we’d expect Him to say when the odds we’ll make it are slim to none if we’re the least bit negligent. (He 2:3) He’s telling us to pursue Him and eternal life as our top priority, to leave no stone unturned, leaving nothing to chance, and to let nothing get in our way or distract us. (Mt 18:8)

Does God give us any further indication that the odds any particular soul is safe are extremely slim? Consider the ante-diluvian population, where only eight souls were saved (1Pe 3:20) out of perhaps 100 billion. In this present age, the remnant is evidently so small John says the whole world lies in wickedness (1Jn 5:19); the percentage is evidently negligible, dust on the scales of humanity.

Could it be that most people will spend their entire lives and never know a single soul that’s actually going to Heaven? That even the most devoted among us may only encounter a tiny handful of saints?

Of course, we dare not claim to know for sure who’s in or out; thankfully, only God knows the heart. But we should be willing to pursue Heaven all on our own, undaunted even if no one else seems to care or have any clue about it. We’re only responsible for making our own election sure. Since God Himself tells us to do so (Is 55:6-7), we should, confident He will show us the way. (He 11:6)

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The Whole Law

During the apostolic era, Christians were viewed as members of a Jewish sect, a subset of Judaism; the Twelve Apostles and their disciples were passionately Torah-observant (Ac 21:20), including the Apostle Paul. (24) As the Holy Spirit lead them to delight in Torah as the law of God (Ro 7:22), the early church remained Torah-centered; except for their love for Messiah, they looked and acted Jewish.

The distinct religion which we now call Christianity began to emerge late in the 1^st century, distinguishing itself from Judaism by rejecting Torah as God’s Law. Though Christ plainly warns against this (Mt 5:17-18), and though Paul anticipates this type of apostasy (2Ti 4:3-4), desperation to escape the devastating Fiscus Judaicus, the additional tax imposed by Rome upon all Torah-keepers, beginning shortly after the destruction of the temple in 70 CE and continuing for hundreds of years, opened the door wide to deception. The relentlessly crippling financial burden — imposed simply for being Torah-observant — drove post-apostolic leadership to wrest key Pauline passages (2Pe 3:16) to decouple the burgeoning, predominantly lower-class gentile Christian population from its biblical foundation. (Ps 11:3)

Since no reasonable soul would believe all of Torah has been abolished, especially laws such as Do Not Kill, Do Not Commit Adultery, etc., key figures such as Justin Martyr and Ireneus began to arbitrarily partition Torah into moral and civil or ceremonial laws, claiming ceremonial commands were temporary shadows fulfilled by Christ and civil laws were only for Jews. They started encouraging believers to cease sabbath observance, abandon God’s feasts, ignore dietary laws, leave their children uncircumcised, etc. Conveniently, as it turns out, they began teaching precisely what suffering believers were desperately wanting to hear: how to stop being identified as Jewish and avoid debilitating taxation without renouncing their faith in Christ.

Thus the “itching ears” predicted by Paul a few decades earlier played itself out in the churches (2Ti 4:3-4), corrupting the faith and starting yet another false religion. The burdensome tax continued right up until just before this new religion, Christianity, was officially recognized as the state religion under Constantine (380 CE). Evidently, this is no coincidence, but calculated extortion and deception. In retrospect, we should expect as much; as God further reveals Himself (1Co 2:8) Satan strategically creates the clever counterfeit. (2Co 11:13-15)

Yet the trained soul perceives that dismissing parts of Torah as civil or ceremonial openly contradicts the plain teaching of Christ Himself (Mt 5:17-18) and changes the very definition of sin (1Jn 3:4), amounting to a radical departure from the faith which was once delivered onto the saints. (Ju 3) We know Torah is spiritual (Ro 7:14); it is all good if we use it lawfully. (1Ti 1:8) Rejecting this arbitrary partition of Torah collapses the entire superstructure of Christian dogma like the proverbial house of cards and exposes Christianity as a massive fraud. (Mt 7:26-27)

Even so, most Christians accept this artificial classification of Torah as a given, mentally substituting whatever definition of the law they happen to prefer in any biblical context. They instinctively dismiss the parts of Torah they despise while thinking they are respecting God’s law as a whole, and they do not even seem to realize they are doing so. (I certainly didn’t.) Pointing it out and challenging this key step might be a gamechanger for the elect: challenge them to show from scripture where and how God partitions His laws like this. When we stop doing so, Torah-relevance becomes an all-or-nothing proposition (Mt 22:40), as it should be (Is 8:20), exposing biblical objections to Torah observance as inherently inconsistent: they simply cannot stand. (2Ti 3:16-17)

The reality is that deliberately and routinely breaking any part of Torah defines one as a lawbreaker. (Ja 2:10-11) Intentional, willful disobedience is the defining characteristic of Satan and his own. (1Jn 3:8)

Yet God’s mercy towards sins of ignorance (1Ti 1:13) is evidently graciously extended to those who remain blinded by the enemy (2Co 3:14), who literally cannot see what they are doing. It is no small thing to acknowledge this level of deception and repent; it effectively amounts to following another Jesus, a very different one, evidence that the Jesus preached in Christianity since the 2^nd century is not the Jesus of the Bible. The same language is used, but the actuality is quite different.

Preaching Christ as Messiah offering to save us from breaking Torah, equipping and enabling us to live in obedience to Torah (Ro 8:4), reveals who is willing to receive the true King and who is content to follow the counterfeit. (Ro 8:6) The foundation of God stands sure, having this seal: Jesus Christ knows those who are His (2Ti 2:19), and He is saving us from our breaking of Torah. (Mt 1:21)

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King of Kings

Jehovah God, as revealed in the Tanakh (Old Testament), is King of the Universe. (Ps 103:19) His beloved Son Jesus Christ, as revealed in the New Testament, is King of Kings and Lord of Lords. (Re 19:16) They are One. (Jn 10:30)

Jehovah God, as the King, has a kingdom: the Kingdom of Heaven. (Mt 4:17) He also has a set of statutes (Ps 119:34), commandments and laws by which He governs the nations. (Is 2:3)

Jehovah’s laws are embodied in Torah, the Mosaic Law (Mt 5:19), which He has openly proclaimed (De 4:5-6); they are readily available to all who will obey Him. (Ro 3:19)

Breaking Torah is the definition of sin (1Jn 3:4), and there’s no excuse for doing so deliberately (Ro 1:20); defiance makes both Jehovah God the Father and Jesus Christ His Son very angry. (Ps 2:12)

If Jehovah were to let us all go our own way, we would all defy Him, violating Torah as a manner of life, and thereby reject Him as our King, and His kingdom would be empty. (Ro 3:12) So, He chooses some of us to be His people (Ep 1:4) and comes to save us from breaking Torah (Mt 1:21), delivering us not only from the penalty we deserve for breaking it (Ro 6:23), but also from the very practice of habitually doing so. (1Th 5:23)

Jehovah saves us from the penalty we deserve for breaking Torah by paying this eternal penalty Himself on our behalf (Is 53:11), and He saves us from our very tendency to violate Torah by writing Torah into our minds and hearts. (He 8:10)

Jehovah gives us assurance of His ability and willingness to save us from our breaking of Torah by raising Jesus Christ from the dead. (Ac 17:31)

All those who desire to be saved from breaking Torah come to Jesus Christ for deliverance (Jn 14:6); He gives us a change of mind about breaking Torah and sets us free from our sin. All those who wish to continue breaking Torah as a manner of life will be trodden down by Him. (Ps 119:118)

The above truths expose all world religions as false, counterfeit, darkness: they each radically depart from The Way; they’re not even close. Judaism rejects Messiah as Savior from sin, trying to deserve Heaven by keeping Torah (Ro 10:1-4); Christianity rejects Torah as God’s eternal Law (Mt 5:18), proclaiming another Jesus (2Co 11:4) which abolishes Torah and invites us to break it as a manner of life. (Is 8:20) Every other religion is even farther from the truth.

The road to Destruction is paved and guard-railed by religion, false prophets promising life while leading us to death, and most everyone is coasting comfortably along for the ride, trusting they’re in good company. (Mt 7:13) Yet the way of Eternal Life is narrow, found by very few (14): it’s only one Person wide. (Jn 14:6)

Seeking God starts by seriously exploring what He Himself actually says (Mt 5:17), rather than trusting others to interpret for us. (2Ti 3:15) The King Himself calls upon us to search the Tanakh for ourselves, for it testifies of Him. (Jn 5:39) If the Tanakh does not persuade us nothing else will. (Lk 16:31) He tells us to strive to enter His Kingdom (Lk 13:24), so we seek God until we find Him (Je 29:13); we lay hold on eternal life (1Ti 6:12) until we know we have it. (1Jn 5:13)

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As In a Glass

Torah’s role in spiritual life has always been controversial, swinging between extremes; we’re either abusing it trying to earn right standing with God (Ro 10:3) or claiming it’s largely obsolete, fulfilled (abolished) by Christ.

The reality is the entirety of Mosaic Law, “the ministration of death, written and engraven in stones”, is so glorious unregenerate souls cannot bear to look deeply and honestly into it (2Co 3:7a); the god of this world has blinded their minds (2Co 4:4) such that they cannot yet see Christ’s glory in Torah. (2Co 3:14a)

In other words, the beauty of Torah is hidden, or veiled, to those whose hearts have not yet turned to God. (15) Once we receive Christ, Who is the perfect embodiment of Torah, as He truly is the veil or blindness is healed and this covering over our heart is taken away (16), such that we can now enjoy Christ’s glory through Torah. (14b)

Torah by itself, though it is powerless to make anyone righteous (Ro 8:3), being the ministration of condemnation, is unfathomably glorious (2Co 3:9a); God’s righteous standard is spectacular, amazing, breathtakingly desirable (Ps 119:20), more precious than gold. (Ps 19:10)

Even so, the Gospel is even more glorious than Torah. (2Co 3:10) Torah was never intended as a means of salvation; rather, in showing us how God requires us to live, Torah exposes our sin and condemns our carnal mind, revealing our desperate need of redemption. (Ga 3:24) Though Torah will become obsolete (2Co 3:11) in the new Earth, until then (Mt 5:18) it gloriously reveals the nature and character of God so we may be transformed into His likeness. (Ps 119:35)

Redemption and salvation are discovered in God’s New Covenant as He writes Torah into our hearts (He 8:10), ministering true righteousness into us, which is even more glorious than Torah alone. (2Co 3:9b) Since our unregenerate mind is enmity against God, unwilling to submit to His Law (Ro 8:7), He must supernaturally give us new minds and hearts which delight in Torah (Ro 7:22); this is the miracle of the new birth, and it is by means of Torah (1Pe 1:23), through which God saves our souls. (Ja 1:21)

Thus, the glory of the Gospel itself enhances and extends the glory of Torah by creating the practical reality of it within us (Ep 2:10); the New Covenant enables us to keep Torah in spirit and in truth, to obey it from the heart such that the righteous requirements of the law are actually fulfilled in us as we walk after the Spirit. (Ro 8:4)

God works His righteousness into us over time as the Spirit transforms us into the image of Christ through Torah (Ps 19:7a), grafting Torah into us as we behold the glory of Christ’s character and essence embodied in Torah (Ps 119:18); Torah serves as the glass or mirror reflecting God’s nature into us by the Spirit. (2Co 3:18)

If Christ were preached as He truly is, honoring the entire Torah (Mt 22:37-40), offering to save us from our tendency to violate Torah (in other words, to sin – 1Jn 3:2), by supernaturally engrafting Torah into our hearts and minds (He 10:16), transforming us so we will love His laws and meditate on them all day long (Ps 119:97), even ranking us eternally based on how we honor it all (Mt 5:19), and threatening to trample underfoot all who will not submit to Torah (Ps 119:118), who would receive Him?

As it turns out, those who will not receive this Christ, who willfully persist in despising Torah and discounting it (He 10:26-27), are indeed following another Jesus whom Paul did not preach (2Co 11:4a); they’ve received another spirit (2Co 11:4b), a seducing spirit (1Ti 4:1), not the Holy Spirit; they’re accepting another gospel (2Co 11:4c), one promising freedom from Torah rather than giving us repentance and engrafting Torah into the core our being, making it an integral part of us.

Most who think they’re safe in Christ are not (Mt 7:21-22); they’re still on the wide road to destruction (Mt 7:13-14), heedless of their fate, only in the end to hear from Christ Himself the most dreadful of all pronouncements: “I never knew you, depart from Me, you who work iniquity (practice lawlessness).” (23) Unlearned and unstable, they wrest the words of Paul, as they do also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction. (2Pe 3:16)

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Kings and Priests

The quest for healthy masculinity lies in the pursuit of Christ Himself: He is the ideal Man in every respect, the very embodiment of infinite, perfect masculinity. (Co 2:9) In pursuing His likeness we find everything we need in Him. (10) Through Him we study Him, we contemplate Him, we align our beliefs and wills with His as He enables and equips us (Php 2:13): we follow His steps. (1Pe 2:21)

We might begin to comprehend the masculine essence of Christ by observing how He perfectly fulfills the triune role of Prophet, Priest and Warrior-King: He’s the ultimate Prophet (De 18:18), reconciling us to God (2Co 5:19) as our Great High Priest (He 4:14), revealed as the ultimate Warrior to destroy all satanic works (1Jn 3:8b), reigning supreme as King of Kings (Re 19:16). He also, as our Brother (He 2:11-12), calls us to put Himself on (Ro 13:14), to emulate Him as prophets (1Co 14:31), priests and warrior-kings. (Re 1:6)

The Prophetic role is the foundation: godly masculinity is grounded in wisdom (Pr 23:23) and truth (Ep 6:14a); we pursue the truth about God, about ourselves and others: about all of Reality. (Pr 23:23) In speaking truth we do so in love (Ep 4:15), seeking to edify rather than shame or manipulate; we don’t force the truth, casting pearls before swine (Mt 7:6), or weaponize it. (Pr 12:18)

The Priestly role builds on truth and love relationally, both pursuing the divine romance ourselves and also inviting others into it. (2Co 5:20) The priest is the ultimate peacemaker, first finding personal healing and reconciliation with God, and then facilitating soul restoration amidst relational chaos in both family and community. He develops emotional intelligence, opening his own heart to feel the pain of others (He 4:15), empathizing with those who are ignorant and lost (He 5:2) yet keeping healthy boundaries. He’s free to be wisely compassionate, not enabling sin while gently promoting the way to freedom. (2Ti 2:24-26)

The warrior-king wields the truth and authority of God to bring his sphere of influence into order before God. His weapons are not carnal and fleshly, but mighty through God to expose and dismantle spiritual strongholds. (2Co 10:4) He begins by mastering himself (Pr 25:28), disciplining his mind (2Co 10:5) and body (1Co 9:27) for the glory of God. (1Co 10:31) Then as servant-king he leads by gentle example (2Ti 2:24-25) and self-sacrifice (Ep 5:25), prayerfully empowering others in their pursuit of God. (Php 1:9-11)

This is an iterative journey, building healthy masculinity layer upon layer, dismantling the dead weight of the carnal mind one lie at a time. These three facets of divine masculinity: prophet, priest and warrior-king, are interconnected, divine qualities the Spirit of Christ manifests in men seeking to live according to His design. He will glorify Himself in a uniquely masculine way within each brother submitting to Him; we may not all look and act in exactly the same ways (1Co 7:7), but we’re all pursuing the same Master, and God Himself will show us the way. (Php 3:13-15)

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Touched With the Feeling

To say I hate the way western civilization has emasculated men, trying to turn us into women, is an understatement. In struggling with my own confidence, masculinity and identity as a man, Feminism demanding we “get in touch with our emotions” while rejecting our competence and strength hasn’t helped, to say the least.

In pursing healthy masculinity, trying to understand God’s design for men and looking for His perfect standard, I need not look very far at all: the perfect Man, the Prophet-Priest-Warrior-King, lives inside and beckons me onward in my journey.

God has already made me both a king and a priest (Re 5:10), inducting me into an holy, royal priesthood (1Pe 2:5, 9), so Christ’s kingly, priestly qualities are to imbue my manhood.

A central quality of a kingly priest is compassion for those who are ignorant, who have lost their way. (He 5:1-2) Godly masculine love for others should be always looking for how best to encourage and edify them in their connection with God. (2Co 5:18-20) This not only requires me to be closely connected with God myself, but to carefully observe the needs of others and meet them where they’re at.

My example here is Christ Himself, of course, my great High Priest (He 4:14), Who knows me intimately and is always praying for me. (He 7:25) He has not only personally experienced the deepest traumas, temptations and suffering life can offer (He 4:15b), enabling Him to empathize with me, He is Personally touched with the feeling of (my) infirmities. (He 4:15a) This key phrase translates sympatheō, implying a deep, visceral sympathy or co-suffering; it’s not mere pity from afar; it’s an empathetic resonance where He feels the weight of my weaknesses as if they are His own, rooted in shared experience with me.

In other words, Christ is so in touch with His own feelings, so emotionally intelligent and connected, so secure in Himself, that He so fully acknowledges my feelings and connects with them that He invites me in my joy and pain into shared emotional experience with Himself; He allows the feelings of my personal ups and downs into His own heart and lets me touch Him where it’s real, where it matters most.

Father God is not afraid of my pain, of my fears, of my feelings of inadequacy; He knows all there is to know about me. (Ps 139:1-4) In knowing me and loving me, He is inviting me to know myself, and to love myself, to become more like Him, emotionally intelligent and free, not controlled by emotions, but embracing, embodying and mastering them for His glory.

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Being Confident

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I have often struggled with self-confidence, insecurity, feeling tense, uneasy, routinely second-guessing my abilities, decisions and beliefs. I don’t admire this quality, either in myself or others. I’ve wondered how to develop godly self-confidence.

What exactly is self-confidence? We might define it as a feeling of certainty, assurance, strength and peace when making decisions, resulting in a humble assertiveness, boldness, decisiveness and stability. It’s evidently on a spectrum; there are degrees of confidence. And it might also vary within the same person in different scenarios; we might feel confident in some contexts and not others.

If we look for godly examples and mentors, we should first meditate on the ultimate embodiment of self-confidence: Jesus Christ. As a man, He was so supremely confident it was astonishing to those who experienced Him. (Mt 7:28-29)

The opposite of self-confidence is evidently unbelief, fear and doubt: fear of failure, fear of Man, wanting to please others (Ga 1:10), fear of being mocked, persecuted, disrespected or excluded from relationships. (1Jn 4:18) This is ultimately grounded in mistrusting God. (Is 26:3)

We can have confidence in our physical and/or intellectual abilities, skills and knowledge, and in our interpersonal skills in navigating complex relationships and social contexts, and in our relationship with God Himself. (2Co 5:6-7) Since they relate to different life dimensions we ought to treat each area differently.

Confidence in our abilities and skills may be developed by disciplining and training ourselves, learning about our aptitudes and pushing ourselves to become stronger and more capable. (Pr 22:29, Ps 18:34) Knowing ourselves through experience is evidently the key to this type of self-confidence.

And we should note that developing such confidence is godly. Refusing to acknowledge, appreciate, develop and leverage the gifts God has graciously given us to serve Him is to sin against both Wisdom and Love. (Ep 4:7-8, Ja 1:17) Neglecting them is generally grounded in ungodly fear (2Ti 1:7), which despises God Himself. (Mt 25:24-26)

Confidence in interpersonal contexts may be mere presumption, assuming we’re right because we hate being wrong, but this is pride, an abomination to God (Pr 16:5), thinking more highly of ourselves than we ought. (Ga 6:3) The fear of God shuts this down (Pr 9:10), moving us to consider differing points of view and learn from others (Ja 1:19), without doubting our own ability to know and rest in the truth (1Jn 2:21) because we trust God to reveal it to us. (1Jn 2:20)

So, how do we know what to say or do in a given relational circumstance? If we cannot control how others will respond (and we can’t), and we’re not to be primarily concerned with what others think of us (1Co 4:3), or to assume we’re right by default (1Co 8:2), how then can we be confident we’re doing/saying the right thing, at the right time, in the right way?

It must come down to motive. The fact is, when we’re serving others in love and wisdom rather than in foolishness and selfishness, we fulfill the ultimate moral law. (Ro 13:10) Second-guessing this is to sin against the highest good. If we’re aligned with Love, and thus aligned with God Himself (1Jn 4:8), what is there to be afraid of, regardless of the outcome? (1Jn 4:18) Even if we miss the mark on occasion, at least it isn’t moral failure — it’s a growth opportunity: it’s nothing to fear because we’re building on a solid foundation. (Mt 7:24-25)

Christ-like confidence is thus grounded in proving what is that good, and acceptable and perfect will of God (Ro 12:2), and then doing God’s will, prayerfully trusting He will manage the outcome as He wills. (Php 4:6-7) It is trusting God is at work in us (Php 2:13), that He’s empowering us (2Co 3:4-5), and that He will continue to do so. (Php 1:6)

How then do we know whether we’re walking in wisdom and love? We must be observant, studying ourselves, noticing our motives, how we’re feeling and thinking and what we’re ultimately pursuing. Through healthy introspection we keep asking God to search us and know us, revealing the deepest places of our inner selves to us, exposing all which is not Wisdom and Love (Ps 139:23-24), trusting Him to heal us (2Ti 2:25-26) and give us more wisdom (Ja 1:5) and love. (Php 1:9)

Knowing our gifts and calling are from God, and that He expects us to actively engage them in glorifying Him, heals weakness, timidity and indecision. We’re reminded that our worthiness isn’t self-earned but received from God (1Co 4:7), and that we are secure in Him (Re 1:5-6), freeing us to accept ourselves (Ep 1:6) and satisfying our need for validation and affirmation. (1Th 2:4)

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Searching All the Inward Parts

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In our hectic, turbulent, broken world, many are looking for ways to cope with stress, fear, trauma, depression, anger, loneliness and addictions, chasing after inner-healing through various fads, trends, ancient mystic rituals, or self-help techniques. Yet Scripture reveals a simpler, organic, coherent and integrated path: God’s gift of cleansing breath, a profound, natural rhythm for aligning body, mind, soul, and spirit into authentic wholeness.

God has created our soul and spirit, the parts of our being making us fully human, by breathing into us (Ge 2:7), and it is primarily by breathing that our own soul and spirit sustain our body to keep it alive. As breathing in provides life-sustaining oxygen to our body, and as breathing out removes carbon dioxide and other toxins, we may find a parallel in leveraging our natural breathing for our spiritual healing and cleansing.

The idea is simple, discovered in the following text: “The spirit of man is the candle of Jehovah, searching all the inward parts of the belly.” (Pr 20:27) The word translated spirit here is neshamah (נְשָׁמָה), which more directly means “breath,” “breathing,” or “life-breath” and is closely tied to the act of breathing itself, or the breath of life; it’s the same word used in Creation: “…and breathed into his nostrils the breath [neshamah] of life; and man became a living soul.” (Ge 2:7)

The text says in effect that our spirit-breathing is Jehovah’s candle: a candle provides light in the darkness, enabling Him to see, and the text says He uses it to search, evidently with the intent to explore and discover something. Yet why would God search for anything when He already knows everything? And why would He use a candle to aid His searching when the darkness and the light are both alike to Him? (Ps 139:11-12) And why would He use our breathing, the very life-pulse of our human spirit which He Himself creates, as His candle to achieve this?

And what exactly is God searching through? What is He exploring? The verse tells us; it is: “All the inward parts of the belly” — the deepest places of our spiritual, mental and emotional framework, and all of the mysterious metaphysical interconnections between our metaphysical and physical bodies. God actually possesses (is intimately connected with) our reins (literally, kidneys, the most hidden places of our being, Ps 139:13); He is evidently keenly interested in and leverages these intricate relationships as He sanctifies and cleanses us.

God evidently searches through and explores these deep places within us through and within our breathing, directed by our spirit, as He works within our wills both to will and to do according to His good pleasure (Php 2:13), inspecting our entire, integrated spirit-soul-mind-body along with us, searching for anything which is misaligned with His living Word (He 4:12), exposing any darkness which needs to be cleaned up, rooted out, and realigning every part of us with Himself. As we breathe deliberately and focus prayerfully, God invites us to become co-laborers together with Himself (1Co 3:9), inspecting ourselves in God and with God, as He guides us to sanctify and cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God. (2Co 7:1)

To put this into practice and benefit from God’s design, we may define any kind of breathing technique which fits this general pattern and relies solely on our personal interconnection with the living God. We might sit or lie, quietly resting (Ps 46:10), and inhale — conscious of symbolically drawing in the divine life of the Spirit of Christ (Jn 20:22), hold our breath while asking God to probe along with us for anomalies, and exhale — symbolically relieving stress, lies, worries and thanking God for forgiveness, freedom and deliverance. (Ga 1:4)

And rather than meditating on nothing (as many evidently do, emptying our minds 1Pe 1:13) to let the enemy in like a flood 2Co 2:11), or using our mental focus to meticulously count and measure our breathing itself, we should actively and intentionally use our minds to integrate scripture meditation into our breathwork (Ps 119:97), wielding the sword of the Spirit as we engage (Ep 6:17), focusing on God’s nature and His truth, noting anything within us stirring contrary to Him in the slightest way. (Ps 139:23-24)

Praying in the Spirit through breathing sessions (Ju 20-21, Job 27:3), saturated with the Word of God (Co 3:16), always studying our emotional and physical responses, relying on the Spirit to guide us into all truth (Jn 16:13), what should we expect as a result? Deeper discipline, better mental, spiritual and physical health, freedom from hidden soul-wounds, and grounded, unshakable alignment with God’s design.

Whenever we pursue healing—whether from trauma, stress, or sin—wisdom approaches it holistically: true restoration touches body (temple of the Holy Spirit), mind (renewed thoughts), soul (emotions and will), and spirit (connection to God), bringing all into harmonious alignment. (1Th 5:23)

Paul embodies and exemplifies how he leverages this spirit-body connection in his own pursuit of discipline, wholeness and holiness: “But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway.” (1Co 9:27) His “keeping under” is a purposeful training, like an athlete building strength through voluntary, self-imposed, well-placed challenges. Focused, prayerful breathing exercises offer us another tool, a natural, biblical way to practice this spiritual subjugation of the physical body. By introducing mild, intermittent breath holds—creating a controlled cycle of alternating oxygen saturation and deficit—we train the body to relax under stress, improve metabolic efficiency, and submit to the soul’s God-directed will.

This mirrors God’s pattern of faithful, measured trials. (1Co 10:13). In focused breathing, the gentle tribulation of a breath hold builds a type of bodily, neurological patience and hope through repeating, rhythmic patterns of stress and relief, similar to how God strengths us through trial. (Ro 5:3-5) With each breathing cycle, the body relearns trust, the mind stays present, and the soul rests in God’s deliverance.

Even God’s chastening follows the same, wise pattern: “Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby.” (He 12:11) These breathing techniques “exercise” us gently—never overdone, always with discernment—yielding peaceable fruit. As we mature, repeated experiences of God’s faithfulness transcend suffering, teaching us self-control on the deepest levels, producing wholeness where body relaxes, mind renews, soul restores, and our spirits abide in Him. (1Jn 2:28)

And as one begins to engage in this design, a powerful benefit unfolds during the breath hold: a natural body scan. We can focus intently on our body and how it is responding, especially during the stillness of the breath hold, sensing our heartbeat, our energy, our peace. Traumas may have lodged in specific areas of our body: envy rotting the bones (Pr 14:30), guilt, grief and anxiety burdening our bowels and agitating our bones (Ps 38:3-8), deceit infecting our heart (Je 17:9), hardening and weakening our emotional core, making it callous and insensitive. (Mk 3:5) This isn’t perfect peace, indicating mistrust of God, being out of sync with God. (Is 26:3) As sensations arise—tightness in the chest, knots in the gut, tension in the shoulders—our breath, entwined with our spirit, is God‘s candle, illuminating hidden disconnects between mind, body, soul and spirit.

Here, awareness becomes a window into prayerful healing. As disturbances surface, we explore: “Why am I feeling nervous, panic, anxiety, tension, resentment, bitterness, anger?” (Ps 77:3) Then we look for the embedded lies and renounce them: “Casting down imaginations… bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ” (2Co 10:4-5). We find repentance to replace darkness with light, deceit with truth, and deliver ourselves from the snare of the enemy. (2Ti 2:25-26) We invite Jehovah Father God to heal us, to restore our soul and lead us in the paths of righteousness for His name’s sake, one sanctifying step at a time. (Ps 23:3)

This isn’t about redeeming corrupt Eastern practices, which fragment the human experience into isolated energy centers (e.g. chakras), or mindlessly chanting mantras to connect with an impersonal spirit of the universe. This is reality itself: the Spirit of the living God quickening our mortal body in real time (Ro 8:11), cleansing and sanctifying us with the washing of water by the Word (Ep 5:26-27), shedding light and love abroad and within us to realign every fragmented, disconnected, broken part of our being. (Ro 5:3) It’s reclaiming precious facets of Jehovah God’s original blueprint for us, where His own life-giving breath infuses and nourishes every part of us. From the very beginning, breath bridges the physical (dust/body) and the spiritual (living soul), and He continues this creative work within us today. (Job 33:4)

This is natural, biblical wholeness—body, mind, soul, and spirit unified in Christ. Breathe in the breath of God, inhaling and exhaling with purpose and intention (Eze 37:5), leveraging it to train ourselves in trust, grateful for each new breath as if it were our first, the free gift of God, ever mindful of how our entire being is lovingly and intricately interconnected with Him (Ac 17:28), and step into all the fullness Father God has intended for us from the beginning. (Ep 3:19)

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