In the Secret Book of James (Hidden Scriptures), we can read how James reasoned that perhaps he and other apostles should be spared the temptations of Satan because, “…we have forsaken our forefathers and our mothers and our villages and have followed you.”
Yeshua explains to James that “conversion” is a “gift” accepted by only the willing and that this willingness requires more than simply a bit of uncomfortableness. He speaks, “What is your merit when you do the will of the Father if it is not given to you by him as a gift, while you are tempted by Satan?”
The Jews were subject to the torments of Satan because they refused to heed anything the Messiah had to do or say to them. In short, they rejected him outright because He wouldn’t “deliver” them from the Romans. The “Church,” as we are all prone to easily accept as those seeking the will of Yahweh, also falls prey to the anguishes, miseries, and sufferings of Satan because they willingly disregarded, and still do disregard, the ENTIRE Words of Yahweh, removing and hiding Scriptures said to be revealed to the “Elect” in the Last Days.
Yeshua further comments to James: “But if you are oppressed by Satan and are persecuted and you do the Father’s will, I say that he will love you and will make you equal with me and will consider that you have become beloved through his providence according to your free choice. Will you not cease, then, being lovers of the flesh and being afraid of sufferings?” (emboldening added)
“Or do you not know that you have not yet been mistreated and have not yet been accused unjustly, nor have you yet been shut up in prison, nor have you yet been condemned lawlessly, nor have you yet been crucified without reason, nor have you been tried shamefully, as was I myself, by the evil one?”
It appears that the words of Jeshua are telling us that in order to be doing the “Father’s will” we should expect suffering for His sake as He describes to James, i.e. “…have not yet been mistreated and have not yet been accused unjustly, nor have you yet been shut up in prison, nor have you yet been condemned lawlessly, nor have you yet been crucified without reason, nor have you been tried shamefully…” (emboldening added)
Most “Christians” i.e. “The Church,” are comfortable in their incomplete religious affiliations of community service and do-goodery, being willing participants in the works of the Whore of Babylon, corrupt local and national governments, and the fleshly existence of this sinful Satanic world.
Yeshua then asks James, “Do you dare to spare the flesh for whom the spirit is an encircling wall? If you contemplate the world, how long it is before you, and also How long it is after you, you will find that your life is but a single day and your sufferings one single hour. For the good will not enter the world.”
We are quite comfortable in our fleshly existence, partly because we have been kept from knowing all the truths of the Scriptures. What Yeshua is saying to James is that the “Church” is too comfortable in their “worldliness” and wants to know if members of the “Church” are willing to seek the fullness of Yeshua’s will and salvation.
Yeshua’s challenge to James thus becomes, “Scorn death (death in this instance means the spiritual death that results in our willing desire to refuse to “Come out of her my people” while enjoying our relative comfort of a worldly lifestyle deficient of and not completely filled of His Spirit), therefore, and take concern for life. Remember my cross and my death and you will live.”
If we find ourselves living in relative comfort, perhaps our spiritual existence is void and/or incomplete. In other words, Satan has us under his control and there is little need for him to exercise his torments against us.
We like to mouth that “freedom” isn’t free. I wonder if those who do can also see that freedom in eternal life, although a gift of Yahweh, taken by our free choice, comes with a price as well?
