Salvation - What It Means In A Nutshell

We have been delivered (rescued, ransomed) from sin’s:

 1.     Penalty - Christ became our propitiation (sacrifice) to avert the wrath of God. 

·       Rom. 3:25 - Whom God hath set forth [to be] a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God;

·       2 Chr. 5:21 - For he hath made him [to be] sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.

2.     Power - The body of sin was circumcised (cut away) in Christ.

• Rom. 6:6 - Knowing this that our old man (Gal. 2:20; Rom. 5:24; Rom. 6:14) is crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. (7) For he (1 Pet. 4:1) that is dead is freed from sin.

The body of sin is what Adam put on when he willingly yielded his members to Satan.  Whom ye yield your members to obey, his servants ye are.  It is a prison, a yoke of bondage, whereby Satan takes us hostage and darkens the eyes of our understanding to the things of God.  It is the body of death.

• Col. 2:11 - In whom also ye are circumcised (cut away) with the circumcision made without hands in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ (Col. 3:5; Rom. 6:6; Rom. 7:24; Gal. 5:24.
• Col. 2:13 - And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath He quickened (made alive) together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses.

3.     Presence - We no longer have to deal with sin in our lives if we yield our members to Christ because He became sin for us. 

• Rom. 6:16-18, 22 - Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness? (17) But God be thanked, that ye were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you. (18) Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness. (22) But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life.

For further consideration, break down all the scriptures above and then study the following words:
Regeneration, Propitiation, Salvation, Ransom, Amnesty, and Reconciliation in both Hebrew & Greek to understand what it means to be forgiven of sins.  Chow!    

 

 

 

Only Believe That I AM He

Jesus Christ and Him crucified,

It was for you and me that He died.

God’s justice demanded a blood sacrifice

A human being had to pay that price.

A human whose blood would satisfy

A human whom God would not deny;

So Jesus came in the form of a man,

To this barren, forsaken and sin soaked land –

He gladly answered the Father’s call

He became a burnt offering for us all.

The requirements of the law had to be fulfilled,

To the Father’s request, He said, “I will.”

The burnt offering pleased the Father, you see --

In covering man and all our depravity.

A Holy God could not be approached,

By sin filled man and his reproach.

The justice of God would have destroyed us all

If Jesus hadn’t humbly answered His call,

He took the brunt of that awful curse --

That would have fallen on the earth. 

We would have been dead forever in sin,

If Jesus had not taken us in --

He’s the Great Shepherd of the fold,

He gave His life for our lost souls.

Jesus, our perfect example, we say –

Personally, I’d have it no other way.

He shed His blood at Calvary

To save a no good sinner like me.

I jump for joy, and I clap my hands –

Because Jesus satisfied God’s demands.

And I hear the Father saying to His Son,

Well done, my Beloved; I am pleased; well done.

It was Jesus who came and set me free

From the misery of sin and its penalty.

A Holy God, His perfect Son,

The God man Jesus, the Holy One!

He gave Himself a perfect sacrifice,

That I might have eternal life –

He brought together God and man most lost.

By perfectly dying on Calvary’s Cross. 

And the blood that was shed that faithful day,

Is still showing us the light and the way;

Over 2000 years ago when it was first shed –

It stills has the power to do what He said.

To cleanse us and save us perfectly from sin

Won’t you let Jesus take you in?

And all He asks for you to be free,

Is to only believe that I AM He! 

 

 

Convert The Soul

Psalm 19:1 - The law of the Lord is perfect converting the soul. 

The soul is the seat of our thinking, decision making and our feelings. Conversion of the soul is a matter of spiritual life and death. Initially from a soulish standpoint, man was designed to choose God above all else.  Satan masterminded the fall of man so man would be on his side rather than God's.  If you will recall the words "to be like God," came from the mind of Satan. God only creates in His image and after His likeness.

The fall destroyed the very life of God that was in Adam.  It destroyed the light, the higher knowledge, that gave Adam the power to love God with all his heart, soul, mind and strength.  Before the fall, there was nothing in him to cause him to choose anything but God.  The serpent deceived Eve because Adam had been eating from her hand all along like two lovers feeding each other.  Don't think Satan hadn't studied their intimate exchange and copied it!  He copied what God had already established, twisted it and perverted it.

Now, the soul needs to be converted because it is that part of us where we decide what we are going to do, not based on the word of  God, but based on our five (5) senses.  Our five senses only respond to the stimuli of our environment.  Since our environment was affected by the curse, we live in a world where we are enslaved to a system and a way of  thinking that is not of God.  In other words without the Spirit of God, we are naked which makes us ashamed and subjects us to condemnation.  Our understanding in the soulish realm was darkened.  Renewing the mind according to Romans 12:2 is the same as converting the soul.   

Body, Soul and Spirit

We need to dissect the body, the soul, and the spirit to understand what is happening in each:

• The body is what holds us on the planet.  It is just a shell in which God breathed the breath of life and man became a living soul (Gen. 2:7; 1 Cor. 15:45).  It is used to interact with our environment.  So the body is not the problem.
• This living soul is the seat of our mind, will, and emotions.  It is the purveyor of our thoughts, our decision making, and our feelings. Without the soul, we would be robots without free choice.  God wants man to be free to choose Him over everything else every time.  This living soul is what has caused man problems since Adam.  Because it is free to move between the body and the spirit, it determines whether we are carnal and lean to our own understanding or whether we receive the things of God and become spirit beings. God never intended for born again believers to operate in the flesh or according to the world's system or way of doing things.  Because of the soul, man became stuck in the fleshly realm and allowed his religiosity to rule his thinking.  Religiosity is not bad as long as it doesn't supersede God's plan. The living soul is a renegade if it is not corralled.  It can be corralled two ways. (1) If it is influenced by the body, man will reject the things of God and choose the world every time. (2) If it is influenced by the spirit of God, man will walk in the spirit and the blessings of God will overtake him.  The living soul causes man to be double minded and unstable in all his ways.  This is where the problem lies.
• The spirit of God in man must be brought to power before it can coral the soul.  It's always two against one and not a fair fight. If the body is allowed to dominate the soul, they gang up on the spirit, and it will be powerless as long as they dominate it.  Even though we have the spirit of God in us, He is a gentleman and will not overpower us or make us do anything.  The only way for the spirit to come to power is through the Word of God.  It is the energy, the dynamite, that empowers the spirit to overwhelm the soul and bring it into obedience into the knowledge of Christ.  The spirit has no effect on the body but when it is brought to power, it will overwhelm the soul and in turn they both overwhelm the body and make us putty in God's hands.  The soul is actually the heart of man for lack of a better definition. It is the core of man's being that must be brought into subjection to the Word of God.  It is still that two against one theory now operating for the better and our own good. If God gets our heart, He has us. We were sealed with the Holy Spirit when we were born again.  Therefore, the spirit cannot be corrupted by the body or the soul (Eph. 1:13, Eph. 4:30).  The Word of God is the only mechanism that can change man effortlessly and bring out what is sealed in our born again spirits.  In Hebrew it is called the arrabon; i.e. the promise.  It is a part of God Himself in man, and that's what He is coming back for.  It translates into this:  The eyes of man were enlightened (Eph. 1:17-19).  He woke up to God.  He took off the old man of the flesh and put on the new man which after God was created in true holiness and righteousness and renewed in knowledge after the spirit of Him (Eph. 4:24, Col. 3:10).  

Subjection of the soul is important because it becomes the valve through which the spirit of God flows through the body and makes us complete and out toward others.       

To Those I Love

Eph. 1:17-18a - That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him: (18a) The eyes of your understanding being enlightened;

Before we were ever born, Christ made provision for our sins past, present and future (Heb. 10:14).  Fast forward to today where many of us have experienced so much in the church until some of us no longer look on it favorably.  I understand how you feel.  I've lived that life and God had to bring me full circle and help me to really understand that "I am the church."  God dwells not in buildings made with hands (Acts 17:24).  He is not concerned about brick and mortar.  That is Old Testament news.  His greatest concern is about the hidden man of the heart.  If God gets your heart, He has all of you and can get you to do whatever He wants you to do.  The only way He can get our heart is through His Word.  Read the parable about the seed and the sower in Luke 8.  It talks about the ground, which is the heart, and the seed, which is the Word of God.  You don't need a revelation to see how the four types of ground affected the seed.  In the first three types of soil, there were negative affects even though they all heard the word.  But the seed that fell on good ground sprung up 30, 60, 100-fold. 

The whole point that I am making is the only way for your eyes (heart) to be enlightened is through the word of God. There is too much that follows in this same passage of scripture for us to be blind to what the Word of God does in us, to us, and for us.  There is too much at stake in this life and the one to come.  According to Jer. 17:9a, the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked.  We don't look at our selves that way because many of us believe beyond a shadow of a doubt, that we are good hearted.  I've heard many people use the phrase, "God knows my heart."  Here it is in Jeremiah.  It ends with "who can know it?  The condition of our heart is what affects the Word of God, which is a very sobering thought.  If you say you know your heart, then that means you are constantly weighing your thoughts and intents, and only God can do that.  Therefore, we should constantly look into the Word, and use it like a mirror to see how we measure up.  Be honest with yourself; put your religiosity aside.  You only have to please your God and Savior Jesus Christ in this life.  His name is the only one that matters. 

By studying the word daily, referencing it daily, meditating on it daily, and putting a premium on it at the expense of all else, you will experience an effortless change of heart (the eyes of your understanding).  You will desire the things that God desires, and it becomes quite intoxicating.  You will see yourself in a whole new way and you will understand that being "accepted in the Beloved" is your position in Christ.  It is a fixed position in place, time, or state; i.e., Sonship, fellowship, and relationship.  There is no fear in love.  Perfect love casted out fear (1 John 4:18).

Are You A Son?

A study of the word father: God -- as Father == chastened the children of Israel, His son.  When He saw that they could not keep His holy commandments, He sent His only begotten Son to keep them in their stead and to pay the supreme sacrifice for us, as sons.  We have the wrong understanding of the correction He ministered to His children for their disobedience.  In the Old Testament, it was called the rod of correction because there was no salvation.  There was no mediator between God and the people.  Job said if only there was a daysman (Job. 9:33 a mediator) between me and God.  God told the children of Israel in advance what would befall them if they were disobedient (see Deut. 28:15-26, and Lev. 26). 

Today, we call tsunamis, floods, snow storms and other calamities as acts of God.  Do we understand the significance of Christ dying on the cross?  It was so there would be a Mediator between God and man.  He gave the supreme sacrifice of His only begotten son so that under grace his born again sons would not have to face His chastisement and wrath.  Jesus is our peace.  He is our propitiation, which is a sacrifice to avert the wrath of God.  We used to sing a song, “Jesus paid it all.  All to Him I owe, sin hath left a crimson stain, and He washes white as snow.”  He died a death we could not die (because we had sinned).  He paid a debt we could not pay (Heb. 9:22 the law demanded a blood sacrifice) because we were so destitute we couldn’t afford a lamb.  He became our sacrificial lamb and brought us out of the prison house.  Now are we the sons of God.  His mercy protects us from what we do deserve (we deserve to be punished) and his goodness gives us what we don’t deserve (Eph. 1:3 all things that pertain to life and godliness). 

 

Gal. 4:6 Because ye are sons God hath sent forth the Holy Ghost into your heart whereby ye cry "Abba Father." 

Effects Of The Word

Historically, the majority of believers have relegated the Word to ministers, pastors, evangelists.  But the laity have not availed themselves to the all important effects of God's Word on their lives.  Over the past six years, I've been an avid reader of the word.  I've studied it in Hebrew, Greek, and with others who were astute and had an intimate relationship with God.  By an intimate relationship I mean one where God speaks to you out of the Word daily.  It doesn't take years and months to get an answer when you're daily inclining your ear at His gates and listening to the beat of His heart.  I abandoned denominational lines because it did not provide me with the level of truth that I desired.  I learned that the Holy Ghost, my Comforter is always the teacher, and He was given to lead and guide me into all truth.  I could not get it in Bible Class or Sunday School.  I have no doubt that God speaks collectively through a leader in those arenas.  But it's in quiet time with the Lord that He teaches from a depth that can't be shared with others.  Unless they have the same level of commitment and have enough of the Word on the inside, they can not ascend to the height of understanding that comes after years of investing oneself in the Word at the expense of all else.  My spiritual eyes have been enlightened. 

I understand why Paul went to the Arabian desert to be alone with the ascended Christ.  There is a place where only in quiet solitude you can hear the Master breathe inspired words of life that are so simple until you have to ask, "Is it really this simple?"  It's in quiet solitude that the Lord corrects years of error, frustration, questions that needed answers but I wasn't ready to receive them.  It's in quiet repose in the wee hours of the morning when the Lord wakes me up from a dead sleep to reveal a truth that my mind might not grasp at any other time.  It's in the still of the day, before the birds have had a chance to sing, that the Lord opens heaven and I can feast on the truth that leaves me yearning for more.  So when He calls, I respond because I don't want to miss anything.  I've found that now I'm anxious for nothing.  If they fire me, so what!  God will take care it! I would rather be at home in the Word. When people speak in anger, I more readily shrug it off because I don't have time for such mindless escapades.  I have been changed on the inside and the Holy Ghost holds me in check like nothing else ever could. I'm holding the hand of the Master, and His desires are my desires at last.  Peace at all cost!  Love without dishonesty or empty words.  A desire to see everyone reach the level of completeness that I experience everyday from spending time in the presence of God. 

Prepare Your Heart

2 Chronicles 12:16 - And he (Reheboam), did evil, because he prepared not his heart to seek the LORD.

Matthew 13 - If you look at the parable of the sower, it is about the different types of ground where the seed was planted.   Some was sown by the wayside, but the enemy caught away what was received.  Some seed was sown on stony ground but having no depth, the seed could not take root.  Some was sown among thorns and the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches choked it. But he that received the word on good ground is he that hears the Word, understands it, and bears fruit some 30-, 60- and 100-fold.  Stop!  The seed is the word of God and each person's heart receives it with joy, but depending on the condition of the heart, the Word is adversely affected. 

If you want supernatural manifestations of the Word of God in your life, prepare your heart to receive the Word.  Some of us have sat by passively and expected the preacher to prepare our heart.  Others think because they were filled with the Holy Ghost, their heart's are already prepared.  A slogan in computer-speak is garbage in/garbage out.  If you don't put some effort into preparing your heart to receive the Word, like Reheboam, you will do evil.  God has a purpose and a plan for our lives, but we can't do our own thing, think what we want to think, say anything we want to say, and expect our lives to be perfect because we say we believe in God.  The Word is what quickens our dead spirits.  If there is no word in us, there will be no quickening.   

The heart is deceitful and desperately wicked.  It has a propensity, a bent, to be disobedient! 

• Adam sinned because he was disobedient.
• When Moses smote the rock instead of speaking to it like God told him, he was disobedient.
• When King David was supposed to be out to battle but at noon day was on the roof top, he was disobedient.
• When Solomon married women who were idol worshippers, they turned his heart away from God and he was disobedient.
• When Paul was taking men and women bound to Jerusalem, he was disobedient; but God stopped him.

Consider this the hand of God stopping you because you are disobedient.  Take the time to prepare your heart.  He promised to bless the work of our hands (Deut. 28:8 and again in vs. 12).  If God uses what we furnish Him, then give Him what He has given you ~ His Word. 

Be blessed in Jesus Name ~

Accepted In The Beloved

Man has failed to hear the precious words of the Lord which drop like dew on parched places.  He that hath an ear let him hear is recorded seven times in the Book of Revelation.  Seven, God's perfect number.  What does that mean to you?  He has perfect hearing and as His sons, we should have perfect hearing as well.  The Word of God doesn't decry salvation in the way that we think.  It is an expression or declaration of the death, burial and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ.  Why?  So that we will know the depths to which He humbled Himself to bring us into His Sonship. 

If any man be in Christ, he is a new creation.  Old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.  2 Cor. 5:17

Focus your eyes on the Father and His Son, Jesus Christ.  The story is so beautifully laid out in scripture.  Don't miss God's testimony: Christ: and Christ's testimony:  God in you the hope of glory.  They both bear witness of the other. 

Take the sword of the Spirit off the shelf, or wherever you have so nicely laid or displayed it.  Walk through it's pages and find out what God is saying about His Son that He so greatly loved and has now accepted us in the Beloved (Eph. 1:6). 

The Precious Word of God

Man has been so caught up in distinguishing himself by denomination, until the precious words that drop like dew from the Master's lips are falling on deaf ears.  He that hath an ear let him hear is recorded seven times in the

Christ Our Surety

Heb. 7:22 - By so much was Jesus made a surety of a better testament.

By Jesus we get full assurance of the excellent covenant that God made with us and the truth and stability of the promises connected with it.  The covenant of grace started in Genesis 3:15 when God promised that the seed of the woman would bruise the serpents head.  The prophets prophesied that this grace was to come.  When Jesus came to His own they rejected Him and crucified Him.  But it was ordained of God according to His eternal purpose in order that the Gentiles might be partakers of the saints in light.

As born again believers, we stand in fulfillment of the promise and are reaping the benefits of Jesus as our surety, built on better promises, a better priesthood, a better covenant that was not revealed in times of old.  The work of God is that we believe in His death, burial, and resurrection.  Since He hath given us all spiritual blessings in heavenly places as well as exceeding great and precious promises as well as a better hope, which is an inheritance undefiled and incorruptible reserved in heaven for us, it behooves us to invest time in the word of God.  We would be sadly remiss if we were ignorant of His mercy, grace, wisdom and knowledge.  Jesus is more than everything we need Him to be.  He is the anchor of our souls, our peace, our joy and our redeemer.   He has ransomed us from the enemy and we've been translated into the kingdom of His dear son.  Christ is in us the hope of glory! 

Hope In God

God has a plan for our lives.  He hastens His word to perform it (Jer. 1:12).  He knows the thoughts that He thinks toward us, thoughts of peace and not of evil that He might give us an expected end (Jer. 29:11). 

• Hope thou in God.  Hope is a future expectation of something good.  Hope thou in His promises which are beyond our present and whatever future we have in our minds. 
• Hope thou in the infallibility of God.  Wherein God, willing more abundantly to shew unto the heirs of promise the immutability of His counsel, confirmed it by an oath.  That by two immutable things (his promise and the oath) in which it is impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us (Heb. 6:17-18).   
• Hope thou in the eternality of His word.  He said so shall my word be (before one jot or tittle pass away heaven and earth shall pass away), that goeth forth out of my mouth.  It shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish what I please and prosper (to rush to succeed, to be profitable) in the thing whereto I send it (Isa. 55:11). 
• Believe (and by believing that He is the son of God, you will have life in His name) in the Word of God and don’t move off of it.  Always look into the word for a promise to stand on while you wait for the manifestation of what God said would surely come to pass.   If Christ atoned for it, it is yours as a son of God.  By faith in the Word of God, it is already yours.  It is finished!

God is attracted to Himself.  His eyes go to and fro throughout the whole earth seeking to show Himself strong to them whose hearts are perfect toward Him (2 Chr. 16:9).  This is a promise fulfilled at the Cross of Jesus Christ where he led captivity captive.  It means He paraded Satan and his demons in a Roman Procession to show that he was now harmless against us.  That in in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of His grace in kindness toward us through Christ Jesus (Eph. 2:7). Grace is God's unearned,  undeserved and unmerited favor.  Invest time in the Word, hope in God, and believe in His Son.    

The Importance Of The Word

The word gives us a heightened sense of awareness not only of the scriptures but of truth in general.  I am convinced that we read the scriptures too fast and read right over the golden nuggats that God is trying to show us.  People everywhere are talking about God, but very few give the sense of what the scriptures are really saying.  It's a higher, simpler knowledge that only a renewed mind can understand.  It's not about being deep or speaking eloquently.  It's like reducing a fraction to its lowest common denominator and then reducing it some more. 

What if we didn't need money the way we think we do.  God promised to bless the work of our hands and the power on that statement alone speaks volumes.  It means that whatever we put our hands to do would prosper.  Look at Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, David, and Solomon.  Back up and look at the children of Israel when they came out of Egypt.  They are a picture of what happens when you give.  They had been giving for 400 years and the Egyptians gave back pressed down, shaken together and running over.  The children of Israel received the spoils of war without ever having to fight a battle. 

There is a power in the Word that we should hunger to experience.  It will drive us closer to God just to see what He is going to say or show us next.  It's like liquid gold.  The more truth you get, the more truth you'll want.  Remember, the Holy Ghost is aways the teacher.  The word will get better, gooder, sweeter, and become so marvelous to the taste until nothing else will satisfy.  I am encouraging you to take one word and meditate on it until a clause forms.  Then meditate on the clause until a paragraph forms.  Meditate on the paragraph until a story forms.  That's how the word works.  A mustard seed grows into a mighty tree.  Don't get in a hurry and don't rush.  Let me know what you experience so we can rejoice together. 

Dispensation of Grace

John 3:6 - That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.

I received a revelation about the Dispensation of Grace unlike I had ever seen before.  I hope I can explain it without losing the thought.  We have been so caught up in our natural existence until there is a disconnect between who we are spiritually and the lives we live naturally.  We struggle to live life in the natural to the neglect of our spirit man.  As a child we had a saying, "Seeing is believing."  From a religious viewpoint, we want to see and make things happen.  Unfortunately what Christ died for us to have is not based on the work of mens hands (human effort).  

The Spirit realm is not meat and drink (Rom. 14:17).  It is not about works.  We think there is something we can do to be accepted of God.  We need to move away from that humanistic ideology.  Years of going to church has engrained  doing in our minds.  We need our minds renewed (Rom. 12:2).  We need knew mental models. We need visions of what God wants to do to us, in us, and through us. If we would invest time  in the Word, it will open the door to a whole new level of knowledge.  The "hands-on model" of the Old Testament has been done away with.  The stories of how they fought, how they loved, and who they were as men of renown are pictures for us see who God is.  We are greater than the Old Testament characters because we have a better covenant, built on better promises and a better High Priest, Jesus Christ our Lord.  The dispensation of grace is about the unmerited, unearned, undeserved, free flowing favors of God.  Jesus, Himself, has made us accepted in the Beloved.  His grace is like the sun that sends its warming rays and all we have to do is rest in them. 

We are spirit.  We are in Christ; He finished the work and His blood covers us.  We have been born again; we were regenerated.  We are a brand new species of being.  We have put off the body of sin and put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness (Eph. 4:24).  We are new creations in Christ with power beyond what we can see, touch, hear, taste and smell.  The Dispensation of Grace is our oyster.  The only way to become who we are is by the washing of the water of the Word (Eph. 5:26).
 
Rom. 11:33a - Oh the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God. 

Walk Out What You Believe

Many people have been told to walk out what they believe by coming to church, paying tithes, singing in the choir, serving on the usher board.  The list is almost endless.  The truth of the matter is those things are all good if put in the right perspective.  But, to walk out what you believe is to practice what the Bible says.  This is quite simple once you understand that you "yourself" are not required to do anything to gain God's approval.  In attempting to do so, you would be putting yourself back under the bondage of the law.  You would be saying that the sacrifice of His Son was not good enough for you.

The law was given because God wanted to show the children of Israel how sinful they were so they would realize their need for a savior.  Instead, being the stiffnecked generation that they were, they forsook the law and murmured and complained against God.  When the 2nd generation elders came to enquire of the Lord in Ezekiel 20, in anger God said, "I will not be enquired of by you," and proceeded to rehearse not only the history of the sins of their fathers, but their sins as well.  Ezekiel 20 is a picture of the longsuffering of God.  He suffered with their misgivings through the wilderness.  He said they tempted Him 10 times.  When they failed to worship Him as God, He allowed the 1st generation, 20 years and upwards, to die in the wilderness.  He promised that their children whom they said would be a prey in the wilderness would inherit the promised land, which they did.  But they disobeyed by giving their sons and daughters to the heathens in marriage and worshipped the idols of the people of the land when God had given them explicit instructions not to do so.  Then the rest of history finds them, as an entire nation, refusing to return to God.  But God always had a remnant who obeyed. Him

Keeping the law is not meant for a born again believer today.  This is the dispensation of grace, the free flowing, unmerited favors of God.  Jesus died for us.  He took our sins and gave us His righteousness.  His judgment at the cross was payment for our sins, and God would be unrighteous to try the same sin twice.  Therefore, as born again believers we can claim the promises of God back to Adam.  When we learn who we are in Christ and as we grow in the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ, we become more aware of our spirit side.  To walk out what you believe, as I've stated before, is quite simple if done in the spirit and not in the flesh (according to your five senses).  Following are a few examples: 

1 Thes. 5:18 - In all things give thanks for this is the will of God concerning you."  Do just that "in all things give thanks" whether good, bad, or mediocre.
 
2 Ti. 2:22a - Flee also youthful lusts.  Run for your life from those things that tickle the flesh! 

Practicing sin always leads to something worse happening.  Remember, sin is a thing that takes you into bondage.  Ask an alcoholic!  Ask an addict!  Ask someone that smokes!  They really cannot help themselves.  The power is not there. 

1 Chr. 5:6 - Know ye not that ye are the temple of God and that the spirit of God dwelleth in you.

Respect and give reference to what belongs to God.  You have been bought with the precious blood of Jesus.   When you were polluted in your own blood, Christ died for you.

James 4:17 - Submit yourself therefore to God.  Resist the devil and he will flee from you.  

Resist means to actively fight against the devil.  If you don't give him permission, he can't do anything to you.  Remember the battlefield is the mind.  God gave us power over all the power of the enemy (Luke 10:17).  The word power means inherent power residing in a thing by virtue of its nature.  If you truly believe you are a son of God, then you know that you are a new creature in Christ.  But we need the word of God to renew our minds (Rom. 12:2); transformation takes place effortlessly.  The word has an inherent power like the power residing in you.  Mix the word with faith and good things happen by virtue of the power working in you. 

Don't give the devil an inroad into your life by doing things to defile your temple.  Walk out what you believe by developing an intimate relationship with God through His word.  As the Holy Ghost teaches you, your walk with God will become effortless and you will constantly go back for more.   

A Message To Ministers

GLORY IN THE LORD

Hearken, my beloved brethren, Hath not God chosen the poor of this world rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which He hath promised to them that love Him? (James 2:5)

·        1 Cor. 1:27 - But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise: and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty; (28) And base things of the world and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are: (29) That no flesh should glory in His presence. (30) But of Him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption: (31) That according as it is written, He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord.

·        2 Cor. 10:17-18 - But he that glorieth (boasteth), let him glory in the Lord. (18) For not he that commendeth himself is approved, but whom the Lord commendeth (Rom 2:28).  See Circumcision vs. Uncircumcision; there has been a change in circumcision).

·        Prov. 27b - So for men to search (seek) their own glory is not glory.  Define glory.

1 Tim. 6:17-18 - Charge them that are rich in this world, that they be not high minded, nor trust in uncertain riches, but in the living God, who giveth us richly all things to enjoy (Jer. 9:23; 48:7, Eccl. 5:18-19);

·        Jer. 9:23 - Thus said the LORD, Let not the wise glory in his wisdom, neither let the might glory in his might, let not the rich glory in his riches: (24) But let him that glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth me, that I AM the LORD, which exercise lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness, in the earth: for in these I delight saith the Lord.  

·        Jer. 48:7 - For because thou hast trusted in thy works and in thy treasures, thou shalt also be taken: and Chemosh shall go forth into captivity with his priests and his princes together. 

·        Psm. 52:7 - Lo (behold), the man made not God his strength; but trusted in the abundance of riches, and strengthened himself in his wickedness (destruction).

·        Eccl. 5:18-19 - Behold (see) which I have seen: it is good and comely to eat and to drink, and to enjoy the good of all his labor that he taketh under the sun all the days of his life, which God giveth him: for it is his portion. (19) Every man also to whom God hath given riches and wealth, and hath given him power to eat thereof, and to take his portion, and to rejoice in his labor; this is the gift of God.

1 Cor. 2:1-2 - (Paul speaking to the Corinthian Church)

(1) And I brethren when I came to you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God (Christ).

(2) For I determined not to know anything among you, save (except) Jesus Christ and Him crucified.

Divine Titles for God - Part II

Ps. 16:2 - O my soul, thou has said unto the Lord, Thou art my Lord should read “O my soul you have said to Yahweh (LORD), you are my Adonai (Lord).”   David is saying to Yahweh, you are my Master and my Owner.  You can’t put Adonai in every place for Yahweh because it does not give an accurate picture of Yahweh.  He is not Owner or Lord in every place.  In Greek they translate Lord Curios, which means Master and Sovereign.  Curios also means Jesus the Messiah and you have to go back to the Hebraic idea to know the name expresses the heart of God. 

Moses said please show me your glory.  God said no man can see my face and live so I will show you my back parts.   (To see God’s face before the cross would mean automatic death because God hates sin.) Under law, Moses could not see God’s face.  God must hide him in the cleft of the rock (which is Jesus the rock of ages cleft at the cross) to show him His back parts.  Under the Old Testament God was always leaving because his eyes are too holy to behold evil (turning His backside to the people).

In the New Testament, under grace we behold the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.  That’s why when the woman with the issue of blood took the healing from Jesus, He had to turn around to face her so she would not think she took the healing by stealth because whatever was causing her to hemorrhage might still be there.  He wanted her to be well and he said daughter be of good comfort, your faith has made you well, go into peace (rest, ease, security) and remain well.  Not only does He want her well, He wants her to stay well.  What a wonderful Savior.  See how tenderly He addresses her as “daughter.”  She is the only one that Jesus addressed as daughter.  She has her healing and knows that Jesus loves her.  The woman is a picture of what Jesus came to do for mankind.  The face speaks of God smiling the light of His countenance on us.  The back parts of God speak of darkness.     

Gen. 3 - How the devil comes against your mind -- Satan said, Hath not God (Elohim) said.  The snake cannot use the name Lord.  He uses Elohim.  The devil said, Hath not God (Elohim) said.  Eve used Satan’s lingo, Elohim.  Which god is she talking about?  How you think and address God is how you receive from God.  People in the world call God the man upstairs and cannot receive from God because their revelation of God obstructs them.  LORD God (Yahweh Elohim) made everything.  By Him were all things created, and for His pleasure. 

During the last supper Jesus said one of you will betray Him.  Each of the disciples said, “Lord is it I”?  When it comes to Judas, Judas betrayed his answer and said, “Rabbi, is it I”? (Matt. 26:23).  Jesus said thou knowest.  Today Christianity makes Jesus a teacher or Rabbi and not someone to feed from.  Jesus said, I am the bread of life.  He that eats from me shall live together and shall never hunger.  (Take eat this is my body that was broken for you.  Take drink this is the blood of the new covenant which was shed.) He is not just someone to follow.  We can feed from Him and find power, wholeness, life, strength, prosperity, and renewal of our youth.  When we are fed, we can learn to do what He tells us to do.  We must see Jesus as God in the flesh to feed from, worship, spend time with, and then He will empower us from within.  We must not imitate Him because when we imitate a person, we are left in our own strength.  His strength causes us to be like him.  Christ-centered messages allow us to feed on the Lamb of God. 

1 Sam. 17:46-47 - David was a man after Gods’ own heart long before he killed Goliath. 

1.  He had the heart to bring the Ark of the Covenant (Jesus) back in the midst of God’s people. 

2.  He knew something about the names of God at age 17. 

He said to Goliath, this day the Lord (Yahweh) will deliver you into my hands that all the earth may know there is an Elohim in Israel.  All of the earth understands the Elohim (creator).  But that all Israel may know that Yahweh does not save by sword or spear for the battle is Yahweh’s and He will deliver you into my hands.  David knew the difference.  The world has never had the revelation of who Yahweh is.  Even Satan doesn’t know, but Christians are supposed to know who Yahweh is.  Yahweh is the one that fights.  The physical battle is not mine, it is the Lord’s whether its sickness, finances, my enemies, Satan, etc.  Stop fighting; the Lord will take care of it, not just God.  When unbelievers hear God, they say He is my God also.  Make sure you know the Lord. 

Exo.  6:2-3 - When God appeared to Moses He said, I am Yahweh and I appeared unto Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob as God Almighty, (El Shadai), but by my name Yahweh I was not known to them.  Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob used the name Yahweh, but they were more familiar with the name God Almighty. 

2 Chron. 26:5 - As long as King Uzziah sought Yahweh, Elohim caused him to prosper.  The one who put the diamonds and gems in the earth caused him to prosper.   Elohim and Yahweh is the same God, but the name Elohim is in charge of the earth, weather, riches, movement and earthly events.  We don’t seek Elohim, we seek the Lord (Yahweh) and God (Elohim) will arrange everything to make us prosper.  Elohim is the hand of God; Yahweh is the heart.  When you want to know someone, spend time getting to know His heart.  The hand will move when the heart is moved.  Jesus had compassion on the sick and then his hand moved to heal.

Yod Hey Vav Hey is Yahweh.  It is made up of 3 Hebrew words, I was (yeh-yeh), I am (ho-yeh), I will be (ha-vey).  Rev. 1:4 - God who is and was and is to come.  Jesus can change our past.  Jesus reached into Rahab’s past and changed her future.  She married the son of the captain of Judah (Salmon) and they had a son named Boaz who married Ruth, who produced Obed.  Obed produced Jesse.  Jesse produced David who became king and Jesus came out of the lineage (42 generations) of Rahab (who was a prostitute).  He can go to the was and change what was to what is.  Vav is a hook or a nail but it is like a conjunction and means “with.”  Everything hangs on Vav.  

Ayer, asher, ayer means I am that I am which means I will be (a blank check) and I will continue to be what I will be.  Whatever you need, God will be that.  If you need health say God is my health; i.e. I AM is my health.  God is full of grace and goodness. 

Yod Hey is yah where we get hallelujah (praise, boast).  From Yah we get Yeshua (Jesus saves).  Names ending in yah include Jeremiah, Hosea, Zechariah, Isaiah

Gen. 1:3 - God said Let there be light and there was light.  This was the first time ever that God spoke in the Bible.  In Hebrew the word light is Owr.  In Hebrew God said Y’whiy orw.  The first words of God were, “Light be.”  The first word out of His mouth was His name (Yod Hey) which creates everything.  Yahweh is 3 Hebrew words put together.   Yahweh is the God who is and was and is to come.  We don’t have to be victims of our past (like Rahab). 

·        Yahweh Jireh - Provider

·        Yahweh Rapha - Healer

·        Yahweh Tsidkenu -

·        Yah is Yeshua and means Yahweh saves.

·        Yahweh Nissi - the Lord my Banner (Ex. 17:14-15 - war with Amalek)

·        El-elohe-Israel - God, the God of Israel (after his meeting with Esau)

·        El-Bethel - The God of Bethel (the house of God)

·        Yahweh has to do with relationship, covenant and grace. 

·        Jesus (Yeshua) means Yahweh saves.

When Jesus finally came, the angels said the baby’s name would be Yahweh Yeshua, Yahweh saves not Yahweh judges.  When He comes into our life he saves us from the judgment of God, the curse of the law, and he saves us from ourselves.  He saves our minds from depression and He can save our finances.  When we think of Tiger Woods, we think of golf.  When you think of Jesus, think of salvation.  When we invite him into our life, the eternal effect is that he saves us from the judgment of God but there are also other effects like the forgiveness of sin.  People think salvation is all about going to heaven, but that is too shallow.  That saving begins to manifest; every day he saves us.  He will save our face.  He saves us from looking old (the health of our countenance).  God has blessed us with all spiritual blessings right now in this present world. 

Jewish believers will say Adonai (small L-o-r-d), which has its place.  Adonai means master, owner.  The root word comes from dan which means judgment.  Yahweh has the idea of the heart of grace.  We cannot have a relationship with the hand.  We cannot talk to the hand and get to know people.  You can’t get to know people with their back turned to you.  You can only have a relationship face to face.  He made known His acts (his hand) to the children of Israel, but he made known His ways (heart) to Moses. 

God told Noah to build an ark, and Elohim the Creator brought the flood.  Before the flood, God showed the people grace.  They were contrary to the law of God, which had not yet been given because God did not want to give the law.  He wanted the people to know that He was a gracious God.  The flood was what the people deserved because of their heinous acts. 

Elohim and Yahweh Elohim is not a separate person it is the same one.  It is Jesus.  But there is an aspect of God that is judicial, holy, righteous and just, but Yahweh comes before Elohim.  The aspect of grace comes first.  Once we understand this, we will understand the cross.  Grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.  If truth had come first, we would all be dead men because the truth was we deserved death because of the fall of Adam.  But the cross shows the mercy of God.  God was protecting us from what we deserved.  The wages of sin is death, and we deserved to die.  Jesus was our remedy.  He died for us and appeased the wrath of God. 

Ps. 85:10 - Mercy and truth are met together; righteousness and peace have kissed [each other at the cross].

God told Noah to bring the animals two-by-two.  God brought some two by two into the ark.  Some were migratory birds and some of these birds flew across continents to go back to where they were born.  Like salmon in the ocean, they can find the exact same tributary, stream or river all the way back to where they were born and spawn and die. No one can explain it.  The migratory bird and the salmon are Elohim’s creation; no one can come close to God’s creation.  Man has copied God’s creation. You have heard the saying “blind as a bat.”  Today our radar communication came from the bats.  Man learned it first from the blind bats.  If you watch a documentary and see someone step into cave, all the bats are stirred and fly all over the place, but not a single bat in a confined space fly into each other.  They have radar and man copied it.  We have eyeballs and step outside of the darkness into the light and bump into each other because we can’t see where we are going.  Man copied Elohim’s creation, but no one can improve on it.  It takes the Lord one chapter (Gen. 1) to explain his Elohim nature.  It takes the Lord many chapters to explain His grace. 

Genesis 7:16 - Male and female of all flesh went into the Ark as Elohim commanded, and the Lord (Yahweh) shut his Beloved in from the judgment.  It is so beautiful and accurate.  When it comes to creation bringing them two by two Elohim is involved.  When it comes to shutting his friend safe and secure from the waters of judgment, Yahweh shuts them in.  A writer will get all of these divine titles jumbled so it shows that the Bible is divinely inspired. 

Revelation:  Elohim is plural in operation.   Elohim does not speak of a plural in the terms of what it means to be plural in English.  That’s ascribing man’s definition to God.

Divine Titles for God - Part I

Know The Divine Titles

What we know about God’s names determines how we receive from God. 

·        The name Jesus means Yahweh saves.  Jesus did not come to condemn, He is here to save.  He saves us from the judgment of God. 

o   Yahweh (the heart of God) is who He is;

o   Elohim (hand of God) is what He does. 

o   Jesus is the Greek version of Yeshua.  But His name is Yahweh which means Yah saves. 

·        In creation He is just God (Gen. 1).  God revealed Himself in a progressive way starting at Gen. 1.

·        His name is LORD God, Yahweh Elohim (Gen. 2). 

The names of God in the Old Testament and of course the name that Jesus came to reveal was “Abba.”  The names in the Old Testament also uncover many of the truths that lie hidden there.  In fact, we learn the nature of God and what He is like based on the names of God.  When God changes a person’s nature, He changes their name.  When we say in the Name of Jesus, the devil comes out because the name is the person.  God said I will exalt Him because He has known my name (Psm. 91:14).  When you know God’s name, good things happen to you. 

Genesis 1:1 - The very first name the Bible records is Elohim.  When we find G-o-d in the Bible whether OKJV or NKJV it is always Elohim.  It is always Creator God, Mighty God, El.   

·        El means strength and power. 

·        Elohim means Creator God.

·        God in his heart is Yahweh; i.e., L-O-R-D (all caps), that is the name Yahweh.  People who speak English changed the Hebrew name.  The Hebrew do not pronounce the “J.”  God’s name is not Jehovah; people who speak English pronounce it that way.  Jehovah is a title.  Yahweh is always the God of covenant, who is gracious to us and our friend.  Yahweh is the God who shows grace. 

·        G-o-d is God in his hand and power (creation).  Long before you see God’s hand, His heart moves first.  You will not find Lord here. 

·        Adonai (small L-o-r-d) means Master, Owner, Boss.  Jewish believers will say Adonai, which has its place.  The root word comes from dan which means judgment. 

·        In Genesis 1 you always see Elohim said, made, saw.  God said, God made, God saw; that is Elohim.  When it comes to creation it is always Elohim. 

Genesis 2:4 - This is the history of the heaven and earth.  Now we find Yahweh Elohim (God of grace [covenant], God of power [creator]).  Vs. 7 The Lord God formed man and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life. 

When God made man He is no longer Elohim per se, He is now Yahweh Elohim; i.e., the heart of God.  Yahweh is the God who shows grace, the heart of God.  Elohim is the God of power, the Almighty one.  Long before the hand moves, the heart is moved.  When we see a beggar begging; our heart is moved and our hand will move to our wallet.  The world knows God as Creator and judge.  The world does not know Him in covenant fellowship and grace (Lord).  This shows how accurate the Holy Spirit is.  The world believes in a God of power, the Mighty One, the man upstairs.  They use a term that expresses Elohim; i.e. Elohim is the hand of God.  That’s why when a Christian says God, the world thinks we are talking about the same one when we are not. 

LORD God is never God Lord.  It is Yahweh first, the Lord is my shepherd.  As we learn this, the Old Testament will open up to us.  Very interestingly, the Jewish people because of superstition and fear they take the name in vain will not pronounce the name Yahweh.  They change Yahweh to Adonai which means Lord as in Boss, Master, Owner because of a fear that they have.  They say Adonai instead of YHVH (Yahweh).  Many people think that Yahweh is owner and master, but He is not. 

The greatest command in the Old Testament is Hear O Israel the Lord our God is one Lord (Deut. 6:4).  If you read carefully it does not say Adonai it says Yahweh Elohim.  Gensenius, a Hebrew and Greek scholar, says the Jews from superstition and reverence for the word of God read it Adonai which means a writer from a previous age is in the text.   Even Messianic Jews will say Adonai. The problem is that in some places where Yahweh is mentioned, Adonai cannot be used.