One of my life's greatest challenges has been the need to be liked. I want to crucify and bury this sin with my old man, and all the rest of his ways that keep me so full of myself. I'm not sure why I'm this way, but I was rejected by my father who abandoned me while I was still in the womb. Subsequently, my step-father barely knew me, though he adopted me at the age of four - spending very little time with me, and he too abandoned me. Once I left home at the age of 18, he never contacted me once, ever.
As a prophetic, Jewish apostle, I've experienced plenty of rejection, some my fault, some not but the desperate need to be liked can be a kind of torment.
Jesus says I'm blessed when men revile and persecute me and He says "take my prophets for an example of suffering" but it hasn't been easy. Some cannot enter into fellowship with me because they're carnally minded. Some are tares. Only true brethren can (and will) show me love. Really, only the Holy Spirit and my wife have stuck with me through thick and sin. Really, in the midst of my rebellion they never forsook me. May they both be rewarded with rich, vibrant fellowship with me for all my remaining days.
Here at the English Village I work at (in South Korea), I was completely ignored when I first arrived here, this with over 50 co-teachers. When they would make plans to get together, i could hear them, but they never invited me. Even in the office, they used to chat and joke with each other but never with me. Some would not even say hello or good morning to me. But I didn't realize then what a blessing that was for me. During those first few months I entered into the sweetest fellowship with the Holy Spirit since I first met Him thirty years ago. It's been wonderful. And if people here were friendlier to me, I wouldn't have spent so much time with my Lord's sweet Spirit. Really, His friendship is better than any humans, it's better than the friendship of everyone on earth combined. I'd rather He like me than anyone, really. Time alone with Him is so much sweeter and satisfying than anything else I can think of. I want to take a moment and Thank God for being such a good friend to me, for sharing His heart with me and wisdom. I love revelation from the Holy Spirit more than food or drink. Selah. 

"Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the patterns of the world, and not after Christ"  Some men wield the scriptures with pride, creating teachings and traditions that say "hey, we've got this! We have this figured out" when really - the goal of all scripture is to simply teach us to love, God and each other, by entering into and maintaining a personal relationship with the God who is love. We must not allow ourselves to become the enemy's "Spoil" by submitting to men who want to use us for their own gain...whether that gain be glory for themselves or money or both.
To summarize, my point is, having people adhere to a set of rules and doctrines that they are only required to agree with in their minds, that they then try to keep with their minds, their strength, will set them up for failure. What we should be teaching them is not to follow a set of rules or laws or doctrines or traditions, with their minds and intellects but to follow Christ with their hearts by inviting the Holy Spirit to dwell inside. He will lead them into what He calls holy, what He says is righteous, and it comes from the inside out - holiness stems from our relationship with Him, it comes from who He is. Righteousness comes from Him, what He did (and does). Our place, our part, is to submit to and obey Him daily - not a set or rules or doctrines our church makes us "Christian". We are to be defined as Christians by our knowledge or even wisdom but by our relationship with Him. We must, like the Apostles, follow Him "Come, follow Me".
Revelation, directly from His Spirit to ours, is what brings wisdom and understanding. Knowledge, in and of itself, appeals to our pride. It puffs us up inside. Christ within us, on the other hand, humbles us....if He is in our hearts, not just our minds, we are constantly bowing before Him, surrendering to Him daily.
Every religious church service in America (and around the world) is full of traditions of men. Everything from when they meet, where they meet, when the service starts, how it's conducted, who speaks when, how worship is done - all of it is "traditions of man"! I've seen services led by the Holy Spirit and they look and feel nothing at all like the typical service you are used to. Why is this so? Why do so many accept man's leadership and not God's? Because flesh wants flesh to rule over it. The people desire a king. "All seek their own, not the things which are Jesus Christs" "Every man did that which was right in his own eyes".

Father has shown me why Moses could not enter into the Promised Land. He represents the Law while the "promised land" represents Heaven (or our return to paradise) and the Law of Moses cannot take us into Heaven (our promised land), only the Law of Christ can.
I can imagine Moses - at the Resurrection, gazing upon the Promised land and finally getting to enter it. This is also why Joshua was the one to lead his people to their promised home, for "Joshua" is Greek for "Jesus". This analogy continues to hold true when we examine the Biblical reason Moses was denied entrance into the Promised land. He struck the rock rather than speak to it. Through the law, man is trying to become Holy enough to enter the Promised land, i.e. Heaven, through his own strength and effort. Even though they tried their best to obey all 666 of God's commands, they could not do it, which was the whole point of the Law after all - to prove to, to reveal to mankind our desperate need for a Savior - we simply cannot save ourselves.
When Moses struck the rock, the rock represents Christ, our source of (eternal) life (water came from the rock, water is essential to life). With the Law, we are trying to get what we can only get from Christ - holiness, righteousness, by using our strength (this is religion). Moses used his arm; the only thing WE, in and of ourselves can do to get what we need from Christ, our Rock of Salvation, is speak to Him (confess with your mouth), words of repentance, words of humility, asking Him for mercy, asking Him for His blood to be the atonement for our sins. Speaking (as Moses was commanded to do) represents our spirits, striking represents our flesh. The Law represents our flesh, our own efforts to be "good", good enough to gain entrance to Heaven but Jesus emphatically declared NO MAN IS GOOD except Christ the man, Why is our flesh dying? Because of our sin, because our sinful flesh cannot gain entrance to Heaven. This is why we're given a "glorified body", one that is sinless, that has never sinned, when we enter into God's Holy presence forever.
The sad thing is, both Jews and Christians today are still trying to please God and gain His favor, by keeping a set of rules and laws. All man made religions do this - Islam, Judaism, Christianity, and all who follow them will perish with the using All religions deceive men into believing - follow us, our instruction, our doctrine, and you will become holy enough to have God grant you Eternal life in paradise. Just believe our doctrines, our teachings.....it is enough.
Jews use God's word in pride, making it into a set of teachings to follow, teachings given by men trying to interpret and obey the Word apart from the Spirit that inspired it to begin with, but Christians do the exact same thing. Even "Pentecostal holiness" churches whose point of pride is that they allow the Holy Spirit into their meetings are full of do's and don't's, all of which are outward but do nothing to provide inward holiness, which can only come from our holy God dwelling within.
"WHEREFORE IF YOU ARE DEAD WITH CHRIST FROM THE RUDIMENTS OF THE WORLD, WHY, AS THOUGH LIVING IN THE WORLD, ARE YOU SUBJECT TO ORDINANCES (rules, laws, touch not, taste not, handle not, which all are to perish with the using), AFTER THE COMMANDMENTS AND DOCTRINES OF MEN? All will perish with the using! If we trust in a set of rules and doctrines to save us, we will perish! Because we are still doing it in our own strength and wisdom. If our hearts are focused on a set of doctrines, of we think something we do can save us, we will perish. Only by believing upon Jesus, not a set of teachings about Him, can we be saved It is Christ Himself who saves us - He must be the focus of our hearts, and when our hearts are full of Him, we will gain access to His mind, His thoughts, not man's. The "commandments and doctrines of men" "HAVE INDEED A SHOW OF WISDOM IN WILLING WORSHIP AND HUMILITY AND NEGLECTING OF THE BODY". Religious Christianity appears to be holy and right, but it's a show - it's all about a public display proving how humble and worshipful we are. Like Judaism, they use (and twist and misrepresent) Scripture, which babies swallow without question, having no idea what is God's wisdom and what is man's.

To be continued.... 

We do not want the "Christ in us" to remain immature, a baby. Just as Christ grew within Mary, so must He grow within us. Just as Christ grew "in wisdom and stature before God and man", we want Him to grow in wisdom and stature in us, but to do this, we must decrease so He can increase. As John the Baptist declared "He must increase but I must decrease". This is a truth of all ministry....if we wish for our "ministry" to grow in wisdom and stature before God (He always comes first) and man (inwardly, then outwardly), we must decrease, continually. Each time we give up more ground to Him, each time we die a little more to self - that portion of our soul that died can then be resurrected by Him, only now, in His image and likeness. Indeed, we cannot experience His resurrection life without experiencing our deaths. In this way "He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for My sake shall find it". Paul said - "For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain" - Paraphrased - "In order for me to live (real life, eternal life) I need Christ, so the more I, that is self, that is my old man, die, the more I gain Christ".
The life we lose for His sake is the life the old man lives, where we hate Christ and all His ways, where we cling to our religion in His name but not to Him, where our old man dresses up real nice and sings songs to Him and gives Him money but doesn't know Him. No matter how much we dress up our old man in three piece suits and ties and cologne, he still stinks to God. The old man may look pious outwardly but he never changes inwardly - he cannot change. He's made his deal with the devil. He will secretly feed on fleshly lusts and desires which is why he must be crucified (lost) daily. If we lose him (the old man), we find him (the new man). By the way, once we've crucified the old man, it's possible to resurrect him, and if we've crucified our new man, we can resurrect him too. If you've crucified the wrong version of you, it's not too late to switch sides, to join the winning team. In Christ, we win by losing. We lose self, we gain Christ and we find self, we find ourselves, who we were always meant to be, not the false version of ourselves the world loves and embraces.
Feed your new man and starve your old man. "IF any man will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me". We cannot follow Christ unless we deny ourselves. Self and Christ don't mix. We will serve one and deny the other but we cannot serve both. Either the old man or Christ will live inside us. As we deny ourselves and follow Christ instead, we will find ourselves growing in wisdom and stature before God and man - Stature: The degree of development (maturity) attained i.e. the level of achievement. Paul, rightly so, complained of encountering too many Christian babies, able to drink milk only, unable to eat meat. Oh if Paul were alive and teaching today! He'd be shocked at all the babies who think they're mature Christians! He'd be appalled at the milk people believe is meat. "I have yet many things to say to you but you cannot bear them now". "Of whom we have many things to say, and hard to be uttered, seeing you are dull of hearing - for when for the time you ought to be teachers, you have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of milk and not of strong meat".
Again, the scriptures reiterate that everyone should be ministering to everyone, not just a few to the many. And again, we see a maturity problem. Folks, time and again I've asked Christians to name the foundational doctrines of Christ, the first principles of the oracles of God, and they cannot. I mean, in thirty years not a single Christian I've met can name them, much less understand and teach them, yet the writer of Hebrews calls them foundational, all other doctrines of Christ (not of devils or men) are built upon these six foundational doctrines found in Hebrews 6:1&2.