We hear in Protestant circles that salvation is by faith and whoever believes in works are legalistic and a “cult”. Most of the “legalists” I’ve met may not be “works-based” after all. Especially if they understand that it’s their faith/belief/or trust in the Almighty to do what they can’t do for themselves. I don’t believe you can seek to establish your own righteousness and truly believe in the Holy Spirit which cleanses you and establishes the Lord’s righteousness within you. Most “faith-alone” believers are quite legalistic themselves. They spent most of their spiritual lives constantly repenting from one sin to the next, taking the Bible literally and afraid to enjoy life because they might “sin”.  A Spiritual writers group on LinkedIn asked: “Should we take the bible literally or seek hidden meaning?” My answer is to seek hidden meaning because in doing so you will seek hard and fast after God. When you hunger & thirst after His righteousness, He fills you. When you draw nigh unto God, He draws nigh unto you. Although you can’t come to God unless He draws you, the effects of sin on humanity have a way of hardening people’s hearts which makes them not want anything to do with God. The sad part is  it’s not always their sins but that which is done to them-such as violent trauma that has a tendency to spiritually wreck them. Either way, our actions don’t get us to heaven or to hell but the lack of faith in God that leads to our actions is what God looks at. God’s ways aren’t man’s ways so a good person in God’s sight is not someone who is charitable and philathropic but someone who loves Him with all their heart, soul, mind, and strength and trusts Him and is seeking after Him. You don’t become a believer when you believe or trust in a finished work but when you fall in love with God and commit your life to following Him. It’s all about a heart that has been set free by the supernatural grace of God. Grace as defined in the Strong’s is a divine influence upon the heart that is manifested in the life. If you have a life-controlling issue you have struggled with for years and you’re “waiting upon the Lord” for your breakthrough, remember “now is the day of salvation/healing”. Maybe He’s calling you to step out in faith and claim the victory. The greatest mystery in life we will never understand is how God’s sovereignty and man’s free will work together and if we  understood this the different denominations might stop bickering back and forth and become true unitarian christianity. When we reach out and pray over the Jews first and pray for Messianic Restoration  we defeat anti-semitism. I know I recommitted after I got into Judaism about a year ago and found a book entitled “restoring the jewishness of the Gospel” by Daniel H. Stern. In closing, don’t seek the bible for knowledge & wisdom. The worship of knowledge is gnosticism. The bible is a spirit-filled book but won’t speak to you unless you’re going after the Word of God Himself. Yea, that’s my revelation lately. Shoot me down or call me a false prophet I don’t care anymore. The bible is a book but the Word of God is a Man that reveals Himself through it to anyone who responds to His grace and seeks after it; and He can speak through anything that glorifies Himself yet we confine Him to 66 books. However, to all you new agers, He won’t speak through anything that denies His Son of His Holy Spirit. You can accept the Son but if you reject the Holy Spirit you still reject the one true God. Are you merely a believer or a follower? Assurance & Peace come from abiding in the vine by the supernatural infilling. of the Spirit.