August 25th.

The Scripture declares that the whole world is a prisoner of sin, so that what was promised, being given through faith in Jesus Christ, might be given to those who believe.

The body is meant for the Lord, and the Lord for the body.
He who unites himself with the Lord is one with him in spirit.

The only option for the son who is after his Father's heart is to consider himself united with the Lord, so that marriage to another human is out of the question for him. His first and only consideration should be to the Lord, and this is what should be taught to the young man who wants to follow him—to be as he was, not as the animals are. The animal's highest achievement in this natural existence is to produce offspring with its own DNA in them, therefore he achieves the promotion of his own life beyond the grave for himself—the only way he can continue to live by depositing his seed and creating one which carries an actual physical part of himself onward into the next part of his cycle of existence.

Give to Caesar what is Caesar's, and to God what is God's.

Sexuality in all its forms, from the subtle eye glances that achieve a safe king of acceptance for the participants to full on bonding of the body in intercourse, is what the humans participate in because they're instinctually driven to mate. Marriage between them is a human convention controlled by them with laws, like they control everything in their culture, and should be regarded as such—for the humans, not for God's sons. The sons of God have already begun the process of transformation to what they are becoming—not human, but something unheard of in the world. Fantastical, futuristic visions cannot even come close to defining the beings that the sons are becoming, because those things are based on a human visions of how things might be, driven by what dead animals are driven by. Humans don't have any conception of what could be, because they are base animals who cannot know anything about the vast perfection of God and what He has planned for those who love Him.

The disciples said to him, "If this is the situation between a husband and wife, it is better not to marry."

Jesus replied, "Not everyone can accept this word, but only those to whom it has been given. For some are eunuchs because they were born that way; others were made that way by men; and others have renounced marriage because of the kingdom of heaven. The one who can accept this should accept it."

This isn't a command forbidding marriage, just advice to the one who wants to follow him who knew what things were worth, that human marriage was irrelevant for him because it is an institution maintained, regulated and participated in by animals for their purpose. The Son had another purpose because he heard the voice that told him as much, and it wasn't just to become another animal, participating in their systems and becoming as they were.

"Everything is permissible for me—" but not everything is beneficial. "Everything is permissible for me—" but I will not be mastered by anything. "Food for the stomach and the stomach for food—" but God will destroy them both. The body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. By his power God raised the Lord from the dead, and he will raise us also. Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ himself? Shall I then take the members of Christ and unite them with a prostitute? Never! Do you not know that he who unites himself with a prostitute is one with her in body? For it is said, "The two will become one flesh." But he who unites himself with the Lord is one with him in spirit.

Paul opens up the option of marriage for the Corinthian believers, but only as a consolation for those who could not help themselves, who were still actively allowing themselves to be led by the basest of all the cravings and impulses of the animal nature, the mating instincts coupled with their own perversity that was turning them not into devoted sons for the Father but mere animals who were burning up with sexual urges so much that they were creating havoc within the body of God's Christ. Paul was basically giving them over to the lesser of evils so that perhaps they could escape with their lives if they weren't going to seek to be found pure and honest before the Father. He was throwing them a bone in saying that if those in question could not even help themselves, if they burned up with lust so that they could not help but think impure thoughts and couldn't do anything except be led by the animal lusts and urges, then they should get married—but only as a consolation to possibly put a lid on the chaos they were causing, making the representative of God's family look like a pack of wild animals.

[[[000]]]

The better thing is to be as we are becoming—not led by the animal nature so much that we cannot even help ourselves, and so must enter in to what the humans celebrate and run after, what is entirely an animal institution. The son of God knows that his former, empty way of life—being led by the animal urges, cravings, desires, needs and impulses because of the animal instincts inside him—is over, and that the new life has begun in him. Denying the instinctual urges isn't a legalistic thing, it's one of devotion because that one doesn't want to be defined by those animals urges, as an animal who listens to them and obeys them. He can feel the seed growing, the spirit taking over and making him more and more devoted to the Lord, so that he wants less and less to remain devoted to himself, constantly devoting his life to satisfying the animal instincts in him that drive and define him as merely an unclean animal.

He feels that there is something a thousand times better than what the humans do, but it's not realized so he must choose to keep searching and seeking for what he knows is there, but can't just get and grab for himself (like he can shop for a wife and secure on of those for his own benefit—to selfishly pump out some replicants who carry his DNA). The son believes that his human lineage and legacy stops with himself, and the act of trying to promote his own evil by creating another one of him through marriage is against the desire of the Father because it just means that he doesn't want what the Father wants so instead of waiting and searching for what's hidden he is settling for the animal way, doing what they do.

Then I looked, and there before me was the Lamb, standing on Mount Zion, and with him 144,000 who had his name and his Father's name written on their foreheads. And I heard a sound from heaven like the roar of rushing waters and like a loud peal of thunder. The sound I heard was like that of harpists playing their harps. And they sang a new song before the throne and before the four living creatures and the elders. No one could learn the song except the 144,000 who had been redeemed from the earth. These are those who did not defile themselves with women, for they kept themselves pure. They follow the Lamb wherever he goes. They were purchased from among men and offered as firstfruits to God and the Lamb. No lie was found in their mouths; they are blameless.

There is a reason why the 144,000 aren't defiled by women, because they chose to search for what is obviously hidden and secret and have not settled for what the animal nature is offering them, what the humans run after. The thing that makes one most fully bound to the animal is binding oneself in this kind of union, to another animal, which is why the Son didn't do that but chose to be fully wed to, in the sense of being bound up by, not his own agenda but the Father's desire and purpose for him. Those who are worthy to follow him have also chosen to not participate in the human convention, not because they are self-righteous but because they understand that what they want cannot be gained by reaching out with their own hand and grabbing what they think might fulfill them on the fundamental levels that define them by what they choose, which is what they want to settle for. Waiting for the Father to give the Son what He wants to give him is the hard thing, what almost all of the animals are unable or unwilling to do. If it says something about the son and his desire to be above all the rest by being able to wait for the Father to deliver him, then that is a valid position to be given because there is none higher than what the Son of God attained to because he did wait for the good thing and didn't grab for himself. That is what pleased the Father.

The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life—only to take it up again.

It isn't easy to be transformed, which is why the human religious institutions are packed full of animals whose devotion to their gods can only be half-hearted and not genuine, merely social institutions with no ability to show anyone the way to the Father. Their version of the transformation is from one kind of animal (bad) to another (good)—bad and good being defined as those who aren't like the rest and therefore are a threat to the pack, versus those who conform to the pack and become like all the others so they aren't a threat. If the call isn't there then they can ascribe whatever meaning they want to the words and make them serve what they have instituted and control, which they very efficiently do.

The identity defined by following the instinctual dictates inside him means he cannot become a son as long as he is purely animal (one led by the animal instinct). Unless he's been chosen to become a son by the only One who can choose—the Father of all the sons—then he cannot bypass what must be according to the One who chooses. That is the assertion of the religious institutions, that anyone and everyone can just reach out their hand and grab life, which according to the words they claim to be experts about, isn't possible. That tree is guarded by an angel with a flaming sword, which is the declaration that it doesn't happen that way. The humans don't overtake the angel, they just get cut down.

The animals marry and are given in marriage, and it's a good thing for them, because within that process they can theoretically, temporarily find the dim and temporary version of what the sons are looking and waiting for—the promise and guarantee of not being left alone forever, not being forgotten by their Father in the grave, as is the destiny of all animals. That promise comes through the relationship, and that relationship comes from searching and waiting, and never taking by the power of that one's hand to get for himself what the Father—who has chosen to be hidden for the purpose of seeing who will search and wait—can only give to him, which is the relationship that guarantees the son's clear and lasting position, because he was willing to search and wait, and refrain from taking by the power of his own hand.

The judgment of God has already been pronounced in His sons; the Father has chosen the son to become what the animals cannot ever be. The word assures him that he is bound and given to another, so there is no need to continue looking to be bound up in the natural, with another human who can never fulfill the son because that is a purely human process. Although the old nature is still a power within him, which keeps trying to own and control him and makes it difficult to hope in the spiritual things, nevertheless he begins little by little—as that nature is taken out of him—to understand that the sons of God will not be married or marry once the resurrection has taken place, and he feels an actual urge to be led by the spirit instead of the animal nature.

At the resurrection people will neither marry nor be given in marriage; they will be like the angels in heaven.

Since the spirit lives in the sons, they have necessarily been judged worthy by God to be transformed from dead to living, a reality that doesn't need to be validated or approved by the humans because they won't even see this reality—so they could never have anything to say about it except, "No, that can't be because we can't see it and it doesn't make sense or agree with the reality that we know and have chosen to accept." However, the name of God has already been written on His sons' foreheads because they have been chosen to have His life and the reality that He is their true Father revealed to them. The seal and deposit, which guarantees that the word is faithful and true, lives in the son's heart. It is the promise of the redemption of these lowly bodies, not as a base animal but a son of God. That is the living promise, which keeps growing, that assures us our Father is not going to forget us in the ground.

I tell you the truth, at the renewal of all things, when the Son of Man sits on his glorious throne, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or fields for my sake will receive a hundred times as much and will inherit eternal life. But many who are first will be last, and many who are last will be first.

The son who is given this great gift of the Father's reality—that He has chosen him—now has the chance to respond as to whether he wants what the Father is offering him and conform to that reality, or whether he wants what the animal nature is offering and just continue along with what he has been all his life. If he has been given surety that he is already a citizen of the kingdom of the spirit, then he understands and accepts that the right to bond with another human in the human institution of marriage is something he can happily give up, considering what he is being offered. Not begrudgingly either, because even from a purely selfish standpoint we begin to see that the things the humans love and run after are things that weigh us down, that prohibit us from being purely devoted to the Lord. So much participation in the humans' ways is just another declaration that we don't actually believe that word in us, that we don't actually understand that that would be taking from the Lord what is rightfully his. Because his body is his most beloved and prized possession, the son of God offers it up to the Lord as the best thing that he can offer. His body becomes a sacrifice of thanksgiving to the One who owns him now, who has given him the gift he could never hope to attain to otherwise. That is the declaration that we do believe, and that we desire to be bound up forever—what the institution of marriage is a copy of—with the Lord, our true husband and master.

Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

To live as an animal is all an animal can do. In the world, finding a wife and being  married is the right and purpose of the human animals. To offer his body to the Lord as his spiritual act of worship and give up his right to become bound to any other besides the Son in his declaration to do the Father's will above his own, is the son of God's first option, which pleases the Father more than anything because it is not mouth babble or intention, but the most genuine declaration of what he wants, shown by what he did, not what he said. To renounce marriage for the sake of the kingdom of God, and be concerned about the Lord's affairs—how he can please the Lord—is not something that can be understood when he's young, when the animal is still so strong within him, because that animal craving/urge is one of the strongest. When he's older, it's all he will want to be and do, because he becomes more and more driven by another nature, to please the Lord, and the Father, and to become more and more his.

If he chooses the marriage route, then that's a done deal—there is no undoing that and his permanent status will be as one who is defiled by a woman. Then the chance to attain to being one of the group of those who follow the Lamb wherever he goes, who become purchased from among men and offered as firstfruits to God and the Lamb, in whose mouths no lie is found because they have been made blameless according to their choice and the Father's reward, will not be available to him. That isn't to say anything about being remembered by the Father, only about the reward. For those who are chosen, the reward is to be close to the Father and the Son. Following the Lamb wherever he goes is the closest one can get, because like the Lamb he has chosen the right and rejected the wrong in a real way, because he did the hard work of waiting and searching and not giving up. If it's all just a big democracy where everyone's the same then there isn't any point in trying to please the Father by suffering and not choosing to gratify by the power of his own hand, and the Son's obedience means nothing as an example to the others about the choices available to be made.

A married man is concerned about the affairs of this world—how he can please his wife— and his interests are divided.

An unmarried man is concerned about the Lord's affairs—how he can please the Lord.

Our life rests on the assumption that we have had the spirit of life planted in us already, and the purpose of God is that the seed germinates and grows, and doesn't stop, which is the process of transformation in the nutshell. Knowing this more and more, we begin to live, act and make decisions as though we are spirit instead of flesh—as we have the ability and opportunity to. It's an entirely unnatural thing to engage in spiritual acts of worship—offering our bodies to the Lord instead of the animal, the serpent, ourselves—and we unite with the Lord in spirit in this way.

The lie is that we are not spiritual, that the word hasn't spoken to us, and that we are just like everyone else. But the Lord has overcome the flesh, and as the word speaks to us, we learn to live as strangers in the world, knowing that we actually do live in another world. We slowly start knowing that it has already begun within us, as we feel that spirit growing inside our body. We, as citizens of the kingdom of the spirit, begin to live as such, and we give up the old ways by which we used to live our lives, what defined us as what we were—animals led by the animal nature, defining us as purely natural, not in any way spiritual, like God.

Endure hardship with us like a good soldier of Christ Jesus. No one serving as a soldier gets involved in civilian affairs—he wants to please his commanding officer.

If it is a burden for us to remain unmarried, that is okay, because we know how much we have been given by the Lord's work, and how much he suffered doing it so that the Father could have His family of sons with Him where He is (spiritual, not natural). In response to this understanding we are willing to also suffer for his sake, on his account, which is our response of love toward him. Never a demand, but a desire for a willing heart that knows and wants to respond in this way to him—out of the reciprocity of love, responding to what we know we are being given because the word in us tells us.

I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God.

We are a mixture of flesh and spirit because the spirit lives in us, but our old nature is still present within us, pulling us down to the earth, the dirt and the dust of the temporary, dying creation. The seed, which is the spirit, has been planted and the spirit is growing in us like a plant in the garden, but there are still weeds. In the same way that a healthy plant will overtake the weeds, the spirit within us will overtake the earthly, dead animal nature that is still an integral part of us.

Once, having been asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, Jesus replied, "The kingdom of God does not come with your careful observation, nor will people say, 'Here it is,' or 'There it is,' because the kingdom of God is within you."

Then he said to his disciples, "The time is coming when you will long to see one of the days of the Son of Man, but you will not see it. Men will tell you, 'There he is!' or 'Here he is!' Do not go running off after them. For the Son of Man in his day will be like the lightning, which flashes and lights up the sky from one end to the other. But first he must suffer many things and be rejected by this generation.

Just as it was in the days of Noah, so also will it be in the days of the Son of Man. People were eating, drinking, marrying and being given in marriage up to the day Noah entered the ark. Then the flood came and destroyed them all.

It was the same in the days of Lot. People were eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building. But the day Lot left Sodom, fire and sulfur rained down from heaven and destroyed them all.

It will be just like this on the day the Son of Man is revealed. On that day no one who is on the roof of his house, with his goods inside, should go down to get them. Likewise, no one in the field should go back for anything. Remember Lot's wife! Whoever tries to keep his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life will preserve it. I tell you, on that night two people will be in one bed; one will be taken and the other left. Two women will be grinding grain together; one will be taken and the other left."

"Where, Lord?" they asked.

He replied, "Where there is a dead body, there the vultures will gather."

The reason that nobody understands what an incredible thing it was for the spirit of the living God to inhabit the bodies of a handful of sons in the first century is because they think that now, in the time of desolation predicted by the Lord, there is no desolation. They think that the Lord must still be living in the bodies of some, if not countless, humans—just as he did in the first century, because they love to believe the lies that men tell, made up by other men so long ago, an integral part of the abomination that was being set up in the temple of God's body, which brought the desolation that exists in the present time.

Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God?

You are not your own; you were bought at a price.