BLESSINGS FROM SETTING SPIRITUAL GOALS

My Dear Precious Child, Paul was blessed to have fellow ministers to send to the cities where he knew converts to Jesus Christ and those ministers could take Paul's place as the apostle. Timothy was one of them. Luke was one. Epaphroditis was another. Paul sent Timothy and Epaphroditis to the Philippians to teach them the marvelous revelations when Paul was unable, because of being imprisoned, to speak and meet with them. Paul wrote to the Philippians that he was confident that those ministers were seeking things of Mine instead of things of their own interests like many other ministers were doing. Epaphroditus had been sick and had almost died but I had revived him. After he was healed he also ministered to Paul in ways that Paul could not do for himself because of his chains and imprisonment. (Philippians 2:25-29) After telling the Philippians to rejoice in the Lord always, in his letter Paul warned the people about false prophets, calling them dogs and workers of evil. Paul had a particular affinity for those false prophets because they prey on weak people who are not well established in Christ Jesus and are prone to choose to return to Jewish law, which bring curses into the lives of people instead of My blessings. In fact, Paul warned against the false believers who insisted on circumcision of men, as was instructed in the Mosaic Law by Me as a sign of things to come, which is the circumcision of the heart, removing the veil that is over the hearts of people that separate them from Me. Paul eloquently put in the letter that he, the other believers and you are the circumcision and that you worship in the Spirit of God and you glory in Christ Jesus rather than putting your confidence and trust in the flesh. Paul wrote to the believers that even he was confident there because he had formerly been circumcised before He met Christ Jesus on the road to Damascus. He said that he, more than any men, had reason to be confident in the circumcision of the flesh because of his religious heritage. He wrote that he was so formerly dedicated that he even persecuted the church of Christ Jesus. He bragged that he had been above disapproval when it came to dispensing justice according to the law. (Philippians 3:1-5) Paul wrote that he had formerly prized his Jewish heritage and its laws which at the time he considered to be gain instead of loss in his being of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews and in legal circles he was a Pharisee, one of the elite. He had felt no disappointment in dealing out justice with respect to the Jewish law. But when he became a new person in Christ Jesus, he reappraised what real loss was, and he reassessed that all of the old religious things had been a loss in his life and were forfeited by him. His new emphasis was in knowing Christ, to know the power of His resurrection, knowing how to share in His sufferings and how to be conformed into His death. He was looking forward to arriving at the resurrection of the dead. (Philippians 3:7-11) Paul wasn't foolish enough to think that he had attained it or had attained his goal but he was vigorously racing to grasp the prize ever since he had been grasped by Christ Jesus. Paul wrote that his entire emphasis in life was to forget what laid behind in his life and to push forward to what laid ahead, which was the finish line to which I had called him, which was life on high with Christ Jesus. He emphasized that everyone in the earth who is mature in spiritual matters must have the same attitude. (Philippians 3:15) He wrote to the Philippians that they must continue of the course that Paul was experiencing, no matter that they had achieved. His instructions were to continue to become imitators of Paul and his ministers. He admitted that many people had fallen away. He admitted that many formerly committed believers had also fallen away and had become enemies of Christ, that their gods were their bellies and their glories were set on things of the world instead of My kingdom of God. Paul made it clear that his citizenship and the citizenship of every believer is in My heaven and that Christ gives to all believers a new body, remaking it according to the pattern of His glorified body which is to have a new form and by its power He subjects everything to Himself. (Philippians 3:17-21) You have the privilege of partaking in His glorious events when you set your mind on attaining what Paul chose as his goal. Paul had given up his belief that Jesus Christ was coming back to earth in his lifetime and he had, instead, set his goal on being made into the image of Crist with the mind of Christ, which was My desire for him. Your Father of Miraculous Works