Rules for the studies, and especially the Vow Study:
- For more detailed and personal examples, see [CostStudy]
-Rule requiring the vow to be witnessed:
Scripturally, God’s rules about how He wants things done, and even some of the reasons for these ways, are usually clear. This is especially true in this issue of certain actions and decisions being "witnessed." We need to consider a special grace provided for us this great day, awaiting us in Scriptures [all things must be found in Scriptures, unless specifically overruled by the throne of heaven itself (Gen 41:40), which is an extremely rare event.]
This particular grace is recorded in the account of the centurion’s faith, in Matt 8, and how it will help us to deal with God’s rule about required witnesses:
Deut 19:15
15 "One witness shall not rise against a man concerning any iniquity or any sin that he commits; by the mouth of two or three witnesses the matter shall be established. NKJV™
We are soon headed into God’s great courts, for Judgment Day, and as such He is preparing His case against all His enemies. As part of this case development, He will gather all witnesses to all significant events, such as the required vow before the studies should begin. As noted above in the Law of Moses, there must be two or three witnesses to establish a matter, depending on which type of matter it is. But, with the vastness of this project, the need for quick action [the urgency of Esther’s imposing, dated decree], and the shortage initially of "anointed" servants, God left us a jewel in His Word, to turn to, and by faith and trust in His merciful graces, to call upon in such special circumstances.
So, turning to Matt 8:5-13, what we find is a powerful movement by the Holy Spirit, allowed purely on the basis of a special faith. It must be understood, though, that this was no ordinary faith, nor simply such a powerful faith that it was considered many times greater than the proverbial "mustard seed" most all of us know so well [Luke 17:6]. This particular faith the centurion had was in the power within the commands of Jesus, which just happens to be the central function of this whole plan of God’s. He believed that all Jesus had to do was to speak it, and that things would then come to be. This kind of faith is very pleasing to God, because this was the problem in the Garden: our forefathers doubted the absolute power of God’s words, so much so that we opted instead for Satan’s words, trusting that they would deliver where God’s Word could not. So, to trust in the direct commands of the Word of God [that is Who Jesus is, after all], is the ultimate form of faith, and precisely why Jesus pronounced it so.
Therefore, if a person is blessed in the Spirit enough to be able to believe in the Scriptures with all their heart [Acts 8:37], that they tell us that this is the plan of God, then the Holy Spirit will validate that faith, and witness the vow with that person, making for two witnesses in the interim, that is until such reasonable time that an anointed man of God can also witness and validate the vow.
Someone must be held accountable for these vows, that the people making the vows are truly informed, and actually understand both the costs and the finality of them; we have proven to be unfaithful in both of these areas in our times past [in both the responsibility of overseers to properly do their jobs, as well as the people living up to their own vows]. Our history is full of undisciplined and cheap promises to our God, and a flock who never truly picked up their crosses, and followed Jesus, fully expecting to forsake all of this world in the process. Most often we would take this vow on the weekend, and then the following Monday we would be back at our "day jobs," continuing on in our former lives of business as usual; family, jobs, houses, and all the other things and ways of this world. So, any time those nails begin to sink deep, in pain we did not bargain for, then we would simply turn away from that part, denying the cross instead of ourselves. This teaching is central in what Jesus instructed us, and in those instructions He even mentioned the concept of losing one’s soul:
Luke 9:23-26
23 Then He said to them all, "If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me. 24 For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will save it. 25 For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and is himself destroyed or lost? 26 For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words, of him the Son of Man will be ashamed when He comes in His own glory, and in His Father's, and of the holy angels. NKJV™
This problem of not truly denying self was also part of the denial of Jesus that the disciples themselves exampled, when they too simply returned to their "day jobs":
John 21:2-3
2 Simon Peter, Thomas called the Twin, Nathanael of Cana in Galilee, the sons of Zebedee, and two others of His disciples were together. 3 Simon Peter said to them, "I am going fishing."
They said to him, "We are going with you also." They went out and immediately got into the boat, and that night they caught nothing. NKJV™
The reason God placed these Scriptures in the Bible is for us today, that we could know what the problem really was; this is actually the difference between taking the kingdom, and not taking the kingdom, for God.
Therefore, if a person truly believes this with all their hearts, and have read substantially the costs laid out by Jesus our Lord, and the experiences and sufferings the disciples went through in the examples of Scriptures, then the Holy Spirit can and will witness to the truth of their faith for the vow during that interim period, in all the good faith of our Lord [Rev 3:14]. Within this grace provided by our Lord, I say, as the Lord’s anointed, that a minimum requirement for this exception would be that the person in question must have carefully read a minimum of the four Gospels, the book of Acts, and Hebrews 11, specifically focused upon the Scripturally stated costs of true discipleship, as expected by our Lord.
Holy Spirit witnessed:
-John 5:32
32 There is another who bears witness of Me, and I know that the witness which He witnesses of Me is true. NKJV™
-John 5:36
36 But I have a greater witness than John's; for the works which the Father has given Me to finish — the very works that I do — bear witness of Me, that the Father has sent Me. NKJV™
It remains the duty of such a person to seek out, at the earliest reasonable convenience, a correctly anointed man of God, to gain that witness we must have [see Acts 19:1-7]. But Spirit will not be withheld in the duration until that witness is finally made.
- additional items will be added to this page, as the Spirit leads, and time becomes available.
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