Talents
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            A talent. Just what is a talent? The Greek word for "talent" is talanton. It means a balance; a certain coin.  A Greek talent was 82 1/4 pounds in weight.  A talent of gold was double a talent of silver. Thus, with gold at $ 350.00 an ounce a pound would be worth $ 5,600 and 164 1/2 pounds of gold would be worth $ 921,200 in 1992 value ( Using figures from Easton Illustrated Dictionary).

            In the parable of the talents that is found in Matthew 25 we find one man gets 5 talents which is 5 X $921,200. That is a sum of $ 4,606,000. Consider that. If you were given today almost five million dollars would you feel secure in your abilities to invest and be responsible for that sum?

            Hear and understand. The parable was for a lesson. If God gave you that amount, H would feel that you could handle that amount. If you feel that you could not take the responsibility for that amount, then you do not know who you are in God. The gifts from God come without recall. The abilities that we have are God given. These gifts are part  of our Christ nature. These gifts help us develop who we are in Him. Failure to understand that if God gives us 5, 2 or 1 talent to invest, He gave it to us because He knows that we can do what it takes.

            Adam's false humility pulls back from the responsibility of it all. Adam does not want to be involved for fear of failure. The adamic nature walks in the fear of failure. Adam knows only death and considers death a failure. The Christ nature merely sees failure as a stumbling block along the pathway of successfully growing up in God. God will not give us, more than we can bear. With each trial He provides the means of escape. As an example, a few weeks ago I was supposed to receive remuneration for a trip. The business people refused to give me what they should. Adam could have fought for it, and won what was legally right. But the Christ nature backed off. I told the men I would accept whatever they decided to reimburse me. Shortly thereafter I received the full amount. God honors. Adam fights.

            Perhaps you are the second man in the parable. He received a little less than 2 million dollars to invest. Finally one man received just less than one million to invest. The Lord gave to the two men a sum that He felt confident they could invest it. But the third man looked at himself and did not see the vision that the Lord had of him. The Lord focused on who he was in Christ. The man focused on who he was in Adam. You can never be who you are as long as you believe a lie, which is living in the Adam nature.

             "...To every man according to his several ability...". God gives to you according to your ability. But accountability is up to you. Today there is a shaking going on which is to bring us to the place of accountability. It is one thing to proclaim your sonship in Christ and it is another thing to manifest it. The Lord is today checking the talents given. If you feel that you cannot manage a situation, then you are to be held accountable based on His knowledge of what you can do not your(adamic) understanding of what you think you can do.

            In Matthew 18:23 the word "account" in the Greek is the word "logos". It is the same word used in John 1 where it states: "In the beginning was the Word...". The Lord is holding the saints accountable who are called to the high calling to see if they measure up to the level of the Logos that is in them. He is seeing whether or not each person is manifesting the Logos in their life. The talent of Matthew 25 is the Logos. How much of Him has consumed your Adam and is revealing the Christ nature?

            Salvation is free. But relationship with Him costs. Hay, wood and stubble will not reveal Him but will be consumed. The burning away of "trash" comes only from personal trials. The Master of the house gave the talents to the servants to prove to them who they really were. By all outward appearances the servants were the same. They wore the same clothes, served the Master in the house, etc. But He saw their abilities.

            He has given us the talents. We are to invest the talents. These talents are not money, although that was used in the parable. These talents are His very own nature. There is no doubt that we have received of His fullness (Col.1:19, 2:9, Eph. 1:23). But the adamic man will not recognize the truth because if he does then the religious man cannot be the captain of god of himself. As long as the religious nature facet of the adamic fallen nature dominates the Christ nature cannot manifest.

            Thus, the person given the one talent dominated by the adamic nature buries God's nature in their flesh so deeply that when the Master returns, He removes it from the earth. Dead earth allows a god-seed to germinate. But this person's adamic earth was not dead. The carnal nature was alive and thereby destroyed the ability to produce Christ. The religious nature of the adam while "seeking to be like God" doesn't really want to be like God because it has set itself up as God in the temple of God.

            2 Thessalonians 2 ties in with the parable of the talents because when God comes suddenly to His temple (the Greek there is NAOS which means the body [see also 1 Cor.6:17 for same word] not HEIRON which means building), God destroys the man of sin. The person who received the one talent and has it taken away is destroyed by the brightness of the manifestation of the others.

            Matthew 25:25 shows that the servant put the talent into the earth. That means that he took the life of God and tried to have it produce on the lower plane, the adamic nature. Adam cannot produce Christ. Adam can only produce death. The life of God is an everlasting gospel (Rev.14-4-8). It is an angelic message, meaning that it comes from the heavens and not of the earth. In fact, it releases men from the earth and actually redeems them from the earth! But that servant who takes the life of God and plants it in the earth is called wicked.

            Who was called the wicked one? Satan. Was not Peter called Satan by Christ? Satan is the wicked adamic nature which seeks to devour, destroy and decimate the life of God. Therefore the Master called the servant wicked. Thus, the person who received the one talent, living in the carnal, fallen nature of Adam cannot identify with the God nature in himself because if that person did identify himself with God, that person would no longer be a god unto himself. Adam was made in the image of God but being religious did not recognize that he was in the image of God and separated himself from what he was in order to become what he thought God was ! !  In effect, Adam made himself an idol of himself.

            Two recognized their abilities when given the opportunity. One failed. The Master had many servants but he picked these few. Out of these, two were successful. Consider the price of success. A friend of mine describes it this way:

 Knowing what to do

_________________

 Doing it

         All the servants knew what the Master expected. The line drawn above is the price to be paid. Two of the servants knew what to do and DID IT. The third knew what to do and did not do it. But BOTH paid the price didn't they? The two received increased reward when the Master returned. The one had it taken away. There is a price to be paid for this walk of fullness. Knowing it and talking it will not DO IT.

            The next few years before the changing of the millennium will determine the price. Will the Master find you accountable (having enough of the Logos in Matthew 18)? The line represents the cost that is required. We are all running the race. Only one is the winner. The winner has paid the cost.

            The prize is ALL. Nothing else matters. Only the prize matters. Everyone will cross the finish line but only one wins.  I have a picture in my office of a hurdler and the quote of Philippians 3:14 underneath it. 

            If you have not seen a race, which includes hurdlers, please do so. We should consider the time of preparation needed to be a world-class hurdler. Early morning training, a coach told me, would include 1 and 1/2 hours of weightlifting followed by 4-5 miles of cross-country running. The afternoon would be filled with speed drills and technique training lasting at least 2 hours. The early evening would close the day with an hour of running. Most track people are students at an university and would carry the full-time student load besides!

            Training like this brings blisters, shin splints, cuts, bruises, dirt embedded in the knees and hands and other problems. Yet, the effort in the race is only what the spectator sees.

            The team's success is contingent on the hurdler doing his part, even as the body of Christ depends on each other. As he practices alone with his own thoughts, the mental attitude plays a great part in the success or failure of the individual. The agony, the doubts, the physical stress all present temptations to quit.

            But this person has NEVER looked at the practice all the while training. He has always looked at the prize. He hurdles over many hurdles in order to finish the race. Whether he runs THROUGH them and hurts his shins, TRIPS over them and stumbles on into another one or successfully clears each one, he must finish the race. The prize is the goal, not the finish line.

            His eye is NOT on the hurdle. The hurdler is actually concentrating on his technique as he hurdles. Why would he count steps? In practice he has found the hard way. He discovered that it takes a certain number of steps to stretch his legs to the maximum without over extending. By doing such he can get maximum thrust for effort.  Also he has learned to live within his abilities (should we say recognize his ability to invest talents?).

            Fluid motion with good physical technique will win out over muscular abilities and even talent of the individual. It is the technique that means success. Success has a pattern; success is good work habits. The Christian walking in the wilderness of Adam is learning good work habits of the Christ nature. How? He learns to depend on God and not his adamic nature. He realizes his abilities are in God in whom he lives.

            Be faithful to the technique. What is Christian technique? It is being inchristed, that is, Christ being made manifest in your flesh (2 Thess.1:10) as you are conformed to His Image (Romans 8:29, 12:2). The purpose of the desert is to see if you are walking in that realm. When you are in Adam the trial is to see if you are dead to the world (Col.2:20). While you are in the Adam, the trial is to see if you are dead to the law (Romans 7:4).             If Christ was versed in the letter (law) of the Scriptures rather than the spirit of the Scriptures, He would have fallen to Satan's wiles. This natural life is a sifting place for us to come into the spirit of the Scriptures rather than a literal or legalistic understanding.

            When the hurdler runs, his eye is not on the crowd (spouse, child, family, friends, etc.). His eye is not on the finish line. His focus is one-eyed not two. Chrysostom stated centuries ago "that he who runs looks at the prize and not the crowd". He concentrates on his technique while running. Technique wins races.

            He runs looking unto the finisher of the faith (Hebrews 12;2). His eye is on the prize, his inheritance which is God. He runs with patience (Hebrews 12:1). He is not weary (Isaiah 40:31) because he has trained and developed techniques that enable him to succeed and he therefore rests in the Lord as he proceeds. The runner that has started the race is stripped (1 Cor.9:24) of his old nature and is being changed as he presses on (Phil.3:14). He runs for the crown (1 Cor.9:25)

            1 Corinthians 9:24 and Philippians 3:14 use the same word for prize. It is found only twice in the Bible. It takes discipline to win the prize and the trials create that opportunity.  God gave the men 5, 2 and 1 talent. Satan did not give them the talents. God gave them the talents in order to see if each could measure up to the fullness of the stature of Christ in them.

            The talents given to each were not given to their Adam nature. God did not give these talents to the corrupt nature of man. But the religious nature of man, which is the adamic and fallen nature, wants to be like God, but also lies to itself that it has no God talents.

                        But this is the DAY, not in the sense of time but in the sense of relationship. We are the Lord's day. We do not live in the day of Adam, but in the day of Christ Jesus who is manifesting Himself through us all. Our life is hid with Christ in God scripture declares. We are alive in Him while abiding in earthen vessels, which are being changed from the earthy to the heavenly man.

            What about the men who did accept the challenge in contrast to the one who did not? Consider that they had the mark of Christ in their body even as Paul bore about in his body the marks of Christ (Galatians 6:16). Some might say that the marks on Paul were physical marks that were brought about by the beatings, stonings etc. that he experienced. Truly they were, but they were more than that. These physical marks were only a shadow of the nature of Christ he revealed. Do you really think the world of religious leaders would have stoned him if he had not revealed the nature of God which so troubled the Pharisees? They stoned him because Paul DID reveal the nature of God.

            The word "mark" as found in Acts 17:29, and eight times in Revelations starting in Revelation 13:16 is the word "charagma" in the Greek. It means an etching or scratching. It comes from the root word "grapho" which means to write and we use the English word graph, graphite (lead for pencil, ie writing instrument). It does not mean a literal mark as in the "mark of the beast" but the other half of the word "charagma" comes from charax which is the Greek from which we can get the English word character, as found in Hebrews 1:3 where in the King James we read "express image". Thus, the Revelation 13:16 "mark of the beast" is not literal, but means the person has the character, the nature, the personality of the beast. The one who took the one talent and hid it identified, sinned (missed the mark) by not realizing who he was in Christ and had his identification with the beast nature.

            By the same token Revelation 7:3 states harm not the earth until the saints of God are sealed in their foreheads. The word sealed in the Greek is "sphragizo". The root derivation means to place a signet ring on, like a king would do to a document, but it even goes further to the root "phren" which mean to seal the mind and feelings. Thus, the sealing of the Lord is a sealing of the mind/feelings and the lower order cannot touch you. This mark is significantly different than that of the beast. But the key is that both marks are spiritual.

            The one was given five talents. The other was given two. These two men identified with the character, the nature of the Lord and had their mind sealed, delivered from the earth realm. "Harm not the earth until the saints are sealed." Once the saints have the mind of Christ they cannot sin. Once they move, live and have their being in His nature they cannot do anything outside of who He is. Paul was in such a place as were the two from the parable. These vessels were "chosen" vessels.

            A chosen vessel is far different from a vessel of honor or mercy. A vessel of honor is a piece that is put out on the table for many to see. It is quite valuable but more decorative even if it has some use. An example of a vessel of mercy is the custom in Israel whereby a an urn of water would be taken and placed in the center of town for travelers to pour water from in order to freshen up or the travelers pour a drink from the urn. Truly, this is a vessel of mercy giving life, water, to all. But a chosen vessel is one that the shop keeper has for sale, but is on the back shelf. It is special. In is one of a kind and only it will receive the signet stamp (the sealing of the Lord) on it as a means of personal identification. The other vessels do not receive it. The price is not negotiable. The price is whatever the maker says. It is a chosen vessel. (This information provided in a sermon by brother Cronk).

            These three were chosen vessels. But two were willing to pay the price, pay a price that Paul was willing to pay. Paul stated that he was willing to be a castaway in order to bring others in. These two were willing to risk the test of millions of dollars because they had confidence in Him who saw what they were. These two accepted the statement and faith of the Master. These two were willing to lose it all, but confident that they would not.

            The third was not willing to lose his flesh. Remember he was a chosen vessel. He had the mind of Christ. But he was not willing to lay down all. Jesus had the mind of Christ. But at the garden of Gethsemane Jesus had to subjugate the flesh. In the garden, Jesus removed all desire for the flesh. He gave up the idea of immortality. The adamic man, the old nature seeks to grasp immortality. In fact, that was part of the sin of Adam in the garden. In wanting to be like God, Adam wanted to be immortal. Adam lost it all in the garden. How many of the chosen vessels bring about failure trying to hang onto the flesh?

            But just as Adam died in the garden, so did Jesus. Adam died to life. Jesus died to the desires of the flesh wanting to live. The third chosen vessel in the parable was given one talent. He buried deep into the earth. He did so in the hope of preserving his flesh, living a little longer, willing to be reprimanded or chastised because the "leeks" of Egypt looked good. The third man's hope was in the flesh. He wanted to live. In the garden Jesus did not identify with his flesh, but with the will of His Father. He died to the flesh in order that He might live. Immortality came to Christ when He ascended because He gave up the life He had. The third man's hope was IN the life he had, seeking to give it immortality. Flesh and blood CANNOT inherit the kingdom (1 Cor.15).

            There is a price to be paid. Consider its cost. Everyone will pay the price. Non-action predetermines the cost. Deciding not to press into Him now automatically determines the price to be paid and when. Two of the men weighed the gift of the talents given to them and considered the cost. If they failed, they would be punished. If they did nothing they would be punished. But they realized that their Master had confidence in them when he gave them the talents to be used. So, they believed that they could pay the price, take a step of faith, do something they had never been given the chance to do, walk a path they had never seen before nor even considered and be rewarded. They identified with the nature that the Master (God) saw in them.

            A talent is a heavy weight in the natural (82 lbs.!) and it is also a heavy weight in the Spirit. The chosen vessels of this age have been given their talents. It is the close of the age and the dawning of the new. What will you manifest in the new day, the Lord's Day? The price will be paid regardless.

Knowing what to do

_________________

 Doing it

 

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