The How To
Build A New Testament Church Seminar
7:00 PM – 7:45 PM Session # 1 Tuesday
What is a Believer?
The Purpose of the Cross
1Co 1:23 But we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumblingblock,
and unto the Greeks foolishness;
Greek; We proclaim
Christ from moment to moment as having been crucified (perfect tense)
·
The cross is used to
kill, still and silence our natural life so that the person of Jesus Christ can
be discerned, heard, and obeyed.
·
It sets us free from our
sins and hurts through death so that we can hear the Spirit of God, submit to
God and follow Him.
·
The cross frees us from
bondage and sin for us to move in God’s power.
·
The cross is activated
every time that we obey the Lord. The “law
of the cross.”
The Person of
Christ Living Within.
·
The believers’
responsibility is simple and hard; They
must become so dead to themselves, as to allow some one else within them to
live a totally separate life from theirs, mainly that of the Lord.
·
The other person living within lives a separate from ours.
Christianity is a substitution of and a
transference of lives.
·
The lives are diametrically opposed. One is natural and one is
spiritual
·
Two lives cannot compete.
One must die and the other one live.
·
If we are full of ourselves,
our plans, and agendas, hurts, sin, and bondages, we will not only snuff out
Christ’s life within us; we will be unable to discern it! Christ speaks to us in a still small voice.
Three Aspects
of the Believer’s Walk.
John 14:20 At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me,
and I in you.
·
The “YE
IN ME” is our obedience/ abiding in the Lord.
·
Our
obedience causes us to abide or remain in Him.
John 15:10 If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide
in my love; even as I have kept my Father’s commandments, and abide in his
love.
·
If we obey
Him, He will manifest Himself to us,
·
Jesus is
able and wants to live the same life that He lives in the Father, within us.
John 14:21 He that hath my commandments, and keepeth
them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my
Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him.
Colossians 2:3 In whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom
and knowledge.
Ephesians
3:8 Unto me, who am less than the least
of all saints, is this grace given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the
unsearchable riches of Christ;
·
Christ’s
manifestation in you will also manifest along with Him, all of God treasures,
which reside in Him;
·
This is
now the “I IN YOU”; Christ, and all that He has and is, becomes automatically
assimilated in us by revelation. In
other words His reality becomes our reality.
The revelation of the Son of God in us becomes assimilation, and
assimilation becomes reality, and with Him comes our assimilation of all of
God’s inheritance that resides within Him..
This is the Christian walk!
Phil 2:12 ¶ Wherefore,
my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more
in my absence, work out (Katergazomai) your own salvation with fear and trembling.
13 For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his
good pleasure.
q
The Lord “works in” you by His grace. To put forth His energy, therefore to be effective
at His work. Only the effectual
working of the Lord allows us to katergazomai
q Every time we obey His rhema word we
have “worked out.” This is the word katergazomai –
accomplish and complete. Working
according to grace.
q When we work out without receiving the rhema word we fall away from grace. This is the law. God’s faith and power are not
present. We cannot katergazomai.
q Dead works are done apart from the rhema
word of God. Hebrews 6:1
q Good works are done by the rhema word.
Mat 5:16
Luke
1:37 For with God nothing shall be
impossible.
Rom
10:6 But the righteousness which is of
faith speaketh on this wise, Say not in thine heart, Who shall ascend into
heaven? (that is, to bring Christ down from above:)
7 Or, Who shall descend into the deep? (that
is, to bring up Christ again from the dead.)
8 But what saith it? The word is nigh thee,
even in thy mouth, and in thy heart: that is, the word of faith, which we
preach;
q Every time the Lord works in,
it carries His measure of faith and power which. This is grace.
John 17:8 For I have given unto them the( Rhema)
words which thou gavest me(Perfect tense); and they
have received them, and have known surely that I came out from thee, and they
have believed that thou didst send me.
John 10:25 Jesus answered them, I told you, and ye
believed not: the works that I do in my Father’s name, they bear witness of me.
q
Every work of God is translated into a rhema
word. This allows us to be able to
identify what the Lord desires from us.
The works of God also reveal the Person of Christ. John 17:8 & John 10:25
Col 2:6 As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye
in him:
q In the same manner & content that you
have received Christ, conduct your life in that revelation.
7Rooted and built up in him, and
stablished in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with
thanksgiving.
q
Rooted –
perfect participle
q
Built
Up- Present middle: Continuous building
up of one thing on top of another. The
result of being rooted.
q
Established
- Present middle: Continuous act of making yourself strong in the Lord so that
there is not chance to be deceived or to backslide.
q
The
actions are all are own. Middle
tense.
q
Glory
Eph 3:21 Unto him be glory in the church by Christ
Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen.
q
The church’s most important
job is to bring forth the glory of the Lord into all of the earth, and through
out all eternity.
q
Glory is the invisible God
becoming visible.
q The glory of
God is of supreme importance. Through
it, men are ushered into eternal salvation, physical healings take place,
people are set free from demonic oppression, spiritual gifts are displayed, and
revival of cities and nations that ultimately change civilization are started
and carried out.
q
Civilization’s most
essential requirement, and its most desperate need, is to be capable of
beholding an invisible God, who desires to make Himself plainly evident,
through Jesus Christ in His glory.
q
The key to all of
humanity’s needs, past, present, and future, lie locked in the Person of
Christ. To the proportion that the
invisible Christ becomes visible to mankind by His glory, is to the exact
proportion that all of mankind’s needs will be met and answered forever.
q . The church of Jesus Christ is GOD’S ONLY UNIVERSAL
INSTRUMENT, which can make Him visible by the fullness of His glory.
Eph1:12 That we (the church) should be to the praise of his glory, who
first trusted in Christ.
q Aside from His
glory as seen in creation, God has made for Himself no other avenue that will
allow Him to become visible in a real, personal and intimate way to people.
The Praise of His
Glory
Eph1:12 That we (the church) should be to the praise of his glory, who
first trusted in Christ. {
John
12:32 And I, if I be lifted up from the
earth, will draw all men unto me.
q
God’s
glory manifested through the church becomes the object of the world’s praise to
God. The more glory, the more
praise. The more glory, the more that
Jesus Christ will be lifted up, and draw all men unto Him.
Abounding Into
Us
Ephesians
1:3 Blessed be the God and Father of our
Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us (Accusative voice)with all spiritual blessings in heavenly
places in Christ:
q The manifestations of these
blessings occur in the heavenly places or where the glory or presence of God
dwells. This is why effective worship
in our churches is so vital. This is
why spending time in God’s presence is so vital.
Eph 1:7 In whom we have redemption through his
blood, the forgiveness of sins,( according to the riches of his grace;
8 Wherein he hath abounded toward us ( INTO US) in all wisdom and
prudence;)
· The church is viewed as a receptacle into which all of
the blessings, the presence of God, and God’s inheritance, through Christ is
funneled into, and manifested by.
What does it mean to abound?:
· He has excelled towards us; He has been affluent, rich,
or dealt in excellence towards us. He has made to abound to or He has conferred
to us this thing superabundantly.
q
This is God’s mode of
dealing with His saints at all times.
The
abundance of blessings comes within the limitations of wisdom & prudence.
q
Wisdom
then, is performing all things in accordance to the will, dispositions,
arrangements, and timing of God.
q The superabundance that comes into our
life is limited in proportion to doing all things in conformity to God’s will,
and carrying them out step by step in His direction and His timing. This is
what it means “toward
us in all wisdom and prudence;”)
Eph 1:9 Having made known unto us the
mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he hath
purposed in himself:
q The revelation of Christ is manifested
in the riches of His grace & the revelation of Christ manifests the riches
of God.
q As we walk in wisdom and prudence we cause the abundance of these
riches to come forth, which reside within the proportion of Christ.
q Revelation; riches; obedience unlocks the door to the riches which
furthermore manifest the Person of Christ.
q Herein lies the whole activity of the
church.
v
Obedience,
riches, revelation participation, building up, the work of the ministry, more
revelation more riches and so forth. This is the unending cycle of the building
up of the church.
Gathering
Together In One
·
Secondly, the
revelation of Christ is defined as The Christ that would fill all and in all. The revelation of Christ brings the harmony
of all things, even those that are in the universe.
10
that in the dispensation of the
fullness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which
are on earth; even in him:
· Blessings are
given to us to manifest the Christ and then to bring everything in our lives
and in our local assemblies back to Christ, and give Him the preeminence in
everything.
q
Preeminence brings reconciliation and harmony his is part of the
definition of reconciliation or gathering all things back into Christ. Part of the work of Christ is to gather all
things unto Him and underneath Him so that harmony or reconciliation can take
place.
Eph 1:23 Which is his body, the fulness of him that
filleth all in all.
q
Christ desires to fill all people with his fullness as well as
every part of every person with His fullness.
The Riches Of
Christ and the Hope Of the Calling
Eph 1:17 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:
18
The
eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope
of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the
saints,
Ephesians
2:7 That in the ages to come he might
shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ
Jesus.
Ephesians
3:8 Unto me, who am less than the least
of all saints, is this grace given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the
unsearchable riches of Christ;
q The riches of God are the unreachable
and unsearchable dispositions and arrangements of God. All the riches of God
reveal Christ because in Christ dwells all the riches of God. Christ likewise, reveals al of the riches of
God.
q
God’s
inheritance in His saints is the possessions, arrangements, and the attributes
of God’s blessings funneled into the saints to reveal Christ.
q
All is
given by the Father to reveal Christ.
q
His riches then are known
instrumentally by the church, and are located within the church itself. Explain the evangelistic church per se.
q
All of
these riches are brought forth by the hope of each saint’s or local assembly’s
hope of their calling.
q
The hope of
the calling is the God’s specific and tailored call to a church or an
individual to fulfill His will and counsel.
q
The hope of our calling becomes a reality through each saint’s or
church’s obedient response to the call of God.
The call of each church is to reveal the Person of Christ as a prophet,
evangelist, and apostle, depending upon the hope of the calling.
q
The hope
of our calling is fulfilled then upon an effectual call; or to those to whom
God’s call has come with effect.
The Church Is
The Fullness
Eph 1:22 And hath put all things under his feet, and
gave him to be the head over all things to the church,
23
Which
is his body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all.
·
God from His fullness fills all believers’ with all blessings,
which will set them free to reveal His Son..
If Christ filled the whole universe, so the church is filled with Him.
·
The church then is a
society that is in vital connection with the Lord, sustained by His power, and
it is the instrument by which our Lord works.
· This
church then is filled with Christ’s pleroma or with all that constitutes the
very Christ Himself.
· The church then, is not
only Christ’s body, but is the ONLY universal agent that is filled by Christ
and can fully manifest Him.
· The church is what makes Christ
complete.
q
The body
of Christ will be filled with Christ’s fullness as, and when, it grows up into
the fullness of Christ. The more is the
maturity and obedience of every believer, and the more that each believer
fulfills his or her calling, the more will be the fullness or the very essence
of the Lord in that local body by each believer’s revelation.
8:00 PM – 8:45 PM Session #
2 Tuesday
The Spirit versus the Soul
1 Corinthians 6:19 What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you,
which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?
2 Corinthians 6:16 And what agreement hath the temple of God
with idols? for ye are the
temple (Naos) of the living God;
as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them;
and I will be their God, and they shall be my people
q
As human beings, God fashioned us with a spirit, soul and
body. In our present dispensation of
the Holy Spirit, God deems all believers as His Holy of Holies.
q
The Lord designed
the OT tabernacle as a reproduction of our approach to God, our worship, and
our walk with Him.
q
The tabernacle/temple of the Old Testament was designed with
an Outer Court, the Holy Place, and the Holy of Holies. Symbolically this
characterizes for us today as temples of God, our body, soul, and spirit
respectively.
q Exodus 25:30 And thou shalt set upon the table shewbread(The bread of the faces) before me
alway.
q The presence of God and the Word.
q Ex 30:1 ¶ And thou shalt make an altar to burn incense upon:
of shittim wood shalt thou make it.
q Exodus
37:17 And he made the candlestick of pure gold: of
beaten work made he the candlestick; his shaft, and his branch, his bowls, his
knops, and his flowers, were of the same: ,
q The Holy Place
symbolic of our souls then demonstrated an area of constant activity.
q However the activity has little to do with
agendas and programs, but much to do with cultivating an ever-deepening
relationship with the Lord. We enter
into Holy of Holies through our prayer life, the study of the Word, and an
obedient relationship with our Lord..
q
The table of shewbread with its twelve loaves of bread laid
out daily, depicts the bread of life or the Word of our God. The altar of incense is a demonstration of
our prayer life before God. The
candlestick symbolizes the light of the truth that comes to us through the Word
of God and our obedient relationship to Him.
This is how we enter.
q
The model of the
Holy Place compels us then to constantly occupy our soul life with the Lord
Jesus and His will for us. Any believer
that desires to completely fulfill the scope of the calling that God has for
him or her, will have little time for anything else, but God Himself. The high priest in the days of the OT
tabernacle would not stop however at the Holy Place. He would proceed on to the Holy of Holies, symbolic of our spirit
and the indwelling Holy Spirit. The Holy Place was the preparation that must
take place for him to accomplish
Heb 9:3 And after the second veil, the tabernacle
which is called the Holiest of all;
4
Which
had the golden censer, and
the ark of the covenant overlaid round about with gold, wherein was the golden
pot that had manna, and Aaron's rod that budded, and the
Exodus 25:22 And there I will meet with thee,
and I will commune with thee from above the mercy seat, from between the
two cherubims which are upon the ark of the testimony, of all things which I will give thee in
commandment unto the children of Israel.
Numbers 7:89 And when Moses was gone into the tabernacle of the congregation
to speak with him, then he
heard the voice of one speaking unto him from off the mercy seat that was upon the ark of testimony,
from between the two cherubims: and he spake unto him
q The Holy of Holies
symbolic of our spirits and the indwelling Holy Spirit is a place of general
inactivity. There is no light in this
chamber except for that which came from glory of God. The Holy of Holies is a place of communion, or of dialogue with
the Lord. The Holy of Holies represents
a position of discernment, communion, revelation, and commissioning. The tables of the Covenant or the Ten
Commandments in the Ark represent God Himself, His presence and His character. It is within our spirits then that very essence
of God dwells. It is our spirits that
reveal Him and manifest Him to the world by the rhema word and our spiritual
gifts.
·
The Ark of the Covenant or the Ark of the Testimony represents
the very character of God thus giving Him testimony here upon the earth.
·
Please notice the four
factors about the Ark present in this scripture. It was overlaid with gold.
Gold in the Bible symbolizes anything, which is solely the work of God
without the aid of man. For us to give
evidence of the Lord our ministries and churches must be the sole work of the
Lord. We are simply coworkers with
Christ as He builds, raises up, and directs.
q Second, we
find the golden pot that has manna. We
must live in utter dependence to Him.
It is a life of faith, obedience, walking on water, and parting the
seas. In the Sinai desert, the
provision of God was for one day. There
was no surplus and there was no lack.
q I am not
against financial prosperity, but somewhere our doctrines that one of God’s
main focus is to financially prosper us, does not sit totally right with a life
of utter dependence on God’s daily provision so as to see the Lord work in
power. If our doctrines of financial
prosperity are kingdom oriented so as to finance Christian works around the
world, those doctrines are correct. If
our doctrines are to protect us from having to live a life of faith they are
not correct.
q For us to
learn to hear the voice of God we must be stripped down to a life of utter
obedience. The financial prosperity message severely cripples this process.
q Thirdly, we
see Aaron’s rod that blossomed. It
tells us that in our Christian life and that of our churches must absolutely
every area of our lives must go through the cross.
q Finally, the
tables of the Covenant illustrate for us a genuine and accurate representation
of whom the Lord is. We must give
testimony or testify to the Lord Jesus living within us. This is the essence of Christianity. Christianity is not about Christian
activities but about giving testimony.
q Our testimony
must be sufficient and clear enough so that the jury of the world at can reach the verdict of whether to accept
or reject Christ for them.
q
Man’s spirit, or
God The Holy Spirit, is defined as a pneuma. Our word
pneumatic originates from this, and has to do with air or breath. The Meridian Webster dictionary defines
pneumatic as something that is “moved or worked by air pressure”. Our spirit is the organ, which God has given
us to embrace, discern, and manifest the pneumatic or windy movements of the
Holy Spirit. Our souls were never
equipped for this function!! The human
spirit is the organ that gives residence, or is home to God’s Holy Spirit.
John 4:24 God is a Spirit(pneuma): and they that worship him must worship him
in spirit(pneuma) and in truth.
John 3:8 The wind(pneuma) bloweth where it
listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it
cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit.(pneumatos).
q
What is our soul then?
The soul (pyche or psuche in the Greek)
is the combination of faculties that consists of the mind, intellect, will, and
emotions. The soul performs rational
and intellectual functions. The
rational will never capture the wind!
q
1
Thessalonians 5:23 And the very God of
peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit(pneuma) and soul(psyche) and body(soma) be preserved blameless
unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Heb4:12 For the word of
God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even
to the dividing asunder of soul
(psyche) and spirit( pneumatos) , and of the
joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.
q
The role of the human spirit is generally a passive or
inactive one. The soul on the contrary
is always active. Our spirit
works as a protective womb for the presence and the motions of the Spirit of
the Living God within us. It is very
much connected with our hearts, and our consciences.
.
John 15:26 ¶ But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you
from the Father, even the
Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me
q The role of
our spirit is not to do, but to give an eye witness account. Our homes have no other function but to house
its dwellers. The building is really of
no importance. The activities that take
place within it are the ones of consequence what our Lord does.
q We are
“character witnesses who observe, and give evidence to the reputation, conduct,
and moral nature” of the indwelling Christ to a dying world. (Meridian
Webster dictionary definition). It is only God’s activity that counts, and often it has little do
with ours. Our busy activities many
times get in the way of the Lord. The
body of Christ gets deceived because it does so much instead of just
being. Does a bottle work, or does it
simply demonstrate what is inside? God
does need a lively Christian with a head full of bustling programs and
agendas. He needs a dead one that will
display Him. Remember, we are
dead! Christ is the one living in
us.
q The soul, as I
said earlier, is a combination of our mind, will, intellect and emotions. Its function contrary to the spirit is not
to reveal, but to actively work and choose.
It is the mediator between our bodies and our spirits. The soul is constantly involved in a
struggle to choose between the promptings of the Holy Spirit and the promptings
of our carnal flesh, our un renewed minds, the world, and the trickeries of
Satan. The Spirit of the living God
within us, must become manifested enough to win the battle for the soul.
q
The responsibility of the soul then is to submit itself
continuously to the Holy Spirit. When
it does that, the soul will take us in the ways of the Lord. God must bring our will to a point where it
has no more desire than to submit itself to the wishes of the Holy Spirit.
q
Our emotions must be
healed and stilled before the Lord by the cross, so that we can attend to that
“still small voice within”.
q
Immature believers, or believers that are still bound in the
throes of demonic oppression or past hurts, are unable to discern clearly the
quiet voice of the Lord within. Because
the emotions are still screaming out, they drown out the presence of the Lord.
q
All deliverance, inner healing, counseling, and therapy must
be directed at setting us free to hear and uncompromisingly obey the Holy
Spirit. Healing is the means of
becoming spiritual or pneumatic Christians.
Our mind and intellect must be renewed by the word of God so that it can
adequately understand what the Holy Spirit wishes.
The Natural versus the Spiritual Christian
q
There are three
types of people, and two types of
believers.
q
There is the carnal,
(sarkikos or fleshly) the natural,(psychikos; or psychological man: the man of the soul, or psyche) and the spiritual.(pneumatikos; or spiritual man:
the man of the spirit, air, or
breath) Believers are either natural or spiritual.
q
God desires all of us to be “pneumatic Christians;
discerning the breath of the Spirit of the living God.”
1Cor
2:9 But as it is written, Eye hath not
seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things
which God hath prepared for them that love him.
10 But God hath revealed them( taking the lid off) unto us by his Spirit: for
the Spirit searcheth(sounds out) all things, yea,
the deep things of God.
11 For what man knoweth the things of a
man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth
no man, but the Spirit of God.
q
These
verses explain to us that the only way for us to know instinctively the things
of God is through our spirit.
14 But the natural man(psychikos) ( receiveth(to welcome with open arms) not the things of the Spirit of God:
for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are
spiritually discerned.
(to investigate, examine and determine
something so as to render a decision)
15 But he that is spiritual(pneumatikos) judgeth all things, yet he himself is judged of no
man.
q . The natural
Christian will not welcome the things of the Spirit of God. Our Lord many times works through seemingly
irrational means. Our souls quite the
opposite works logically and rationally.
God must heal our souls so that they can uncompromisingly submit
themselves to the leading of the Holy Spirit. Only the spiritual man can
accurately investigate the plans of God.
Only can he sound them out and render decisions in line with the will of
God. God can only truly bless what
comes from His Spirit. Any work done
outside of the Holy Spirit carries a transitory blessing at best!
Rom 8: 5
For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they
that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit.
q They that are according to the flesh,
think, plan and have an intellectual focus in the flesh.
5
For
to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.
q Thinking in such a way will bring death
on all angles.
6
Because
the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God,
neither indeed can be.
q
It is hostility into God. It is hatred in its disposition
towards God that results in active opposition towards Him.
q
Absolute negative.
It cannot hupotasso with the Lord; neither does it have the dunamis
power to.
We Cannot Touch The
Work of God; We Must Simply Obey Him
·
· God Does Not
Need us to Soulishly Help Him!!
Let us look at the story of Uzzah, an enlisted man in King David’s
service:
2 Samuel 6:3 And they set the ark of God upon a new cart,
and brought it out of the house of Abinadab that was in Gibeah: and Uzzah and
Ahio, the sons of Abinadab, drave the new cart.
2 Samuel 6:6 And when they came to Nachon's
threshingfloor, Uzzah put forth his hand to the ark of God, and took hold of
it; for the oxen shook it.
2 Samuel 6:7 And the anger of the LORD was kindled
against Uzzah; and God smote him there for his error; and there he died by the
ark of God.
2 Samuel 6:8 And David was displeased, because the LORD
had made a breach upon Uzzah: and he called the name of the place Perezuzzah to
this day.
q
King David had assigned Uzzah in the transporting of the Ark of
the Covenant back to the land of Israel, after its release from enemy hands due
to Israel’s sins. There was a point in
the journey when the ark began to fall from the cart probably due to rocks on
the road. Uzzah reacted in humanly
haste, concern and wisdom to hold the Ark from tumbling to the ground. God immediately struck him dead! Was our Lord being cruel? Absolutely not! God did this to protect His character and the very laws, which He
binds Himself by. One is that human
flesh cannot touch God’s glory and live.
Secondly, the Spirit of God does not need our fleshly help or
wisdom!
1 Corinthians 3:9 For we are labourers together with God: ye
are God’s husbandry, ye are God’s building
q
The problem in our churches is too much flesh.
7:00 PM – 7:45 PM Session # 3 Wednesday
Spiritual Authority and Resurrection
Num
17:7 And Moses laid up the rods before
the LORD in the tabernacle of witness.
8 ¶ And it
came to pass, that on the morrow Moses went into the tabernacle of witness;
and, behold, the rod of
Aaron for the house of Levi was budded, and brought forth buds, and bloomed
blossoms, and yielded almonds.
9 And Moses
brought out all the rods from before the LORD unto all the children of Israel:
and they looked, and took every man his rod.
q Flesh cannot touch God
and live. This is why God has already
passed verdict and condemned our flesh to die.
There is no hope for it, is in cancer stricken and it must go. God thusly commands everything in regards to
our relationship to Him, to die and be resurrected. Anything that is left of our flesh will only produce death and
will hinder God’s work through us. Even
our best-intentioned church programs and plans must all be taken through the
cross of Christ.
Hebrews 9:4 Which had the golden censer, and the ark of
the covenant overlaid round about with gold, wherein was the golden pot that had manna, and Aaron's rod that budded, and the tables of the
covenant;
q Authority and power can only come
through death and resurrection
q Aaron was not only
Moses elder brother, but also the chief priest over the nation of Israel at the
time of its deliverance from the hands of the Egyptians. During their forty-year trek though the
Sinai Desert; a major dispute arose among the people as they questioned Aaron’s
authority to be priest over them. God
quelled the dispute in a most amazing way.
He commanded all those contesting Aaron’s authority to bring forth bare
rods of almond trees. The Lord caused
Aaron’s rod to miraculously bud flowers and blossom, while those of the rebels
were left naked. In this, God
decisively arbitrated that He had chosen Aaron and had bestowed the spiritual
authority to be high priest upon him.
This action on the part of God was so eternally significant that God
commanded Aaron’s rod to be permanently laid in the Ark of the Covenant as a memorial
to all generations.
q
This tells us that what is of God must pass through death and
resurrection. The problem with our
churches is that little passes through the cross. God cannot use flesh. He has condemned it. We must preach,
understand and embrace the cross.
Dead Versus Good Works
Heb 6:1 ¶ Therefore
leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection; not
laying again the foundation of
repentance from dead
works, and of faith toward God,
Heb 9:14 How much more shall the blood of Christ, who
through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living
God?
q
Dead works are
the works of religious performance, soulish burdens, guilt and condemnation.
·
· Dead works are all works done outside of the voice of the Spirit
of God.
v 2Co 3:7 But if the ministration of death,
written and engraven in stones, was glorious, so that the children of Israel
could not stedfastly behold the face of
Moses for the glory of his countenance; which glory was to be done away:
v A glory is energized within dead works,
v but it is a glory that is being rendered useless, idle, and
inoperative
v All activities being done outside of the
voice of God in our spirits will manifest the blessings and the glory of God
temporarily.
v The ministry of death must be done away.
8
How shall not the ministration of the spirit be rather glorious?
v Much more abounds the office or
ministration of the Spirit in glory.
9 For if the ministration of condemnation be
glory, much more doth the ministration of righteousness exceed in glory.
10 For even that which was made glorious
had no glory in this respect, by reason of the glory that excelleth.
v For all things done outside of the
Spirit of God (dead works) that have been glorified by the church indeed are
not glorified because much greater is the glory through the ministry of the
Spirit.
11 For if that which is done away was
glorious, much more that which remaineth is glorious.
v For if the thing being done away was done (dead
works) through the intermediate agency of glory the things of the Spirit abide
permanently in the sphere of glory.
1Pe 1:25 But the rhema of the Lord endureth for ever. And this is
the rhema which by the gospel is preached unto you.
Walking After the Flesh
Romans
8:9 But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God
dwell in you.
Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.
q
Romans eight and nine tells us that if we have been “born
again” we are no longer
in the flesh, but
in the Spirit
q
. Now let us look at what appears to be a scriptural
discrepancy but is not.
Romans 8:1 ¶ There is
therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.
Romans 8:4in
order that the just requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh
but according to the
Spirit.
q
Romans eight and one is speaking to those “which are in Christ Jesus”! That can only mean Christians, can’t
it?
q
Those, which are in
Christ Jesus, can order their Christian lives either in conformity to the flesh
or to the Spirit!
q
In Romans eight and
four, Paul uses the term “in
us who walk.” Paul, whose is a Christian,
is obviously including himself in the class of people whom he calls “in us”.
Romans 8:9 But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the
Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.
q
In Romans eight and nine
Paul tells us that we cannot be in the flesh, while in verses one
and four he tells us that we can walk according to, or after the flesh.
q We are not in the
flesh, but we can conduct our lives in the flesh?
Romans 8:1 ¶ There is
therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.
Romans 8:4in order that
the just requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.
q Herein, lies the
great responsibility of our “soul life” as it must choose. As the mediator between the promptings of the
voice of God in our spirits, and the works of the flesh in our bodies, our soul
must uncompromisingly yield itself to the Holy Spirit and pull our physical
bodies along with it to line up to the Spirit’s desires as well. We will then
be pliable vessels in the hands of the Lord.
This is defined as “walking
after or according to the Spirit.”
q Believers either
through a life of compromised obedience, ignorance to the work of the cross of
Christ, or not knowing the difference between the spirit and the soul, conduct
a good part of their lives independently of the voice of the Holy Spirit.
q All of these things
appear good in themselves but they are nothing else than the subtle works of
the flesh operating through a “soul life’ which has not yielded itself to the
voice of the Holy Spirit. Hence the
most noble and well-meaning Christian can “walk after the flesh, though none of them are in the
flesh.”
Fulfilling the
Law in The Spirit
Romans 8:4 That the righteousness of the
law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the
Spirit.
o
In the Old Testament, the
house of Israel attempted to fulfill the Mosaic Law through the flesh,
resulting only in the knowledge of sin and the deteriorating process which we
just finished describing in our position # 4.
o
The fulfillment of the Law
is defined as; the validation, or the fulfillment of all the legal requirements
pertaining to God’s law.
o As we conduct our lives habitually after
the Holy Spirit, the fulfillment and validation of God’s righteous Law will
automatically transpire in us.
o
All of the efforts that the
house of Israel had to make in trying to fulfill the Mosaic Law have become a
guaranteed reality to us. Why is that?
Romans 10:4 For Christ is the end of the law for
righteousness to every one that believeth.
q Romans ten and four tell us that Christ
is the accomplishment, and the closure of God’s righteous Law. Christ is also the purpose, the aim, and the
goal of God’s law.
q The principle of the “end of the Law”
dwells within Christ. As we walk in the
Spirit, the Person of Christ is
revealed within us. The “end of the
Law” resident in Him, is revealed with Him, and becomes an experiential reality
in us.
q Positionally speaking, we became as
righteous as God is two thousand years ago, because every one of His
requirements and ordinances has been perfectly fulfilled in us, by Christ, “the
end of the law.
2 Corinthians 5:21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew
no sin, so that in him we
might become the righteousness of God.
Romans 8:30 Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he
also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified,
them he also glorified.
q
Because we were made as
righteous as God is, we have been justified. That is, we have been pronounced
as innocent as God is of sin. Because
we are as innocent as God is, we were also glorified. We have received all of
the attributes, which makes God, God.
All of His power, all of His authority, all of His freedom, joys and
liberties were given to us. Everything
resides inside the Person of His Son.
Gal 6:15 For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision
availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature.
q Galatians six and fifteen tells us that
the only thing that has inward strength in our Christian lives is a “new
creation”. This new creation is no else
than the revealed Person of the Lord Jesus Christ.
8:00 PM – 8:45 PM
Session # 4 Wednesday
A Study on Faith
What Is Faith?
q
In the scriptures, is not
our faith, but it is the faith of the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ as He
lives His life in us that counts
q
The Faith of God
Mark 11:22 And Jesus answering saith unto them,
Have faith in (Have
the “God kind” of faith, or the faith OF GOD!) God.
Gal 2:20 I am crucified
with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the
life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith, of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave
himself for me. (Greek: The life which I now live in the flesh, I live in
faith, this being the faith which dwells in the Son of God. (Genitive
Greek case signifying possession)
The Rhema Word is The Faith of
God
q The faith OF CHRIST is His rhema word. This is a
crucial point!
Romans 10:17 So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Rhema word of God.
(Greek: So then faith gets its life from hearing, but the type of
hearing, which describes faith, must be exclusively one which comes through the
rhema word of God.
Romans 10:8 But what saith it? The rhema word is
nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart: that is, the rhema word of faith,
which we preach;
John
14:10 Believest thou not that I am in
the Father, and the Father in me? The rhema words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself: but the
Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works.
q The rhema word
is the translation of the works of God into something that our spirits can
discern and understand. The rhema word
is usually worked out through our spiritual gifts.
q Every rhema
word represents an itemized description of God’s measure of faith, as He
has tailored it for every situation in which He speaks the rhema word
into. It is therefore an account of
what the Lord can accomplish within a particular circumstance.
q Works of God;
rhema word; spiritual gifts, works of God.
The Rhema Word is the Power of God
Luke 1:37 For with God nothing( Rhema word) shall be
impossible.
(The
English is a poor translation: Greek: For with
God every rhema word has the (indwelling) dunamis power to come to pass.
q Secondly, the rhema word not
only carries with it God’s measure of faith, but also God’s measure of dunamis
power adapted for, and greater than the circumstance into which God
speaks it into, assuring God a complete victory.
The Rhema Word
Reveals Christ
John 10:25 Jesus answered them, I told you, and ye
believed not: the works
that I do in my Father’s name,
they bear witness of me.
John 17:8 For I have given unto them the rhema words which thou
gavest me; and they have
received them, and have known surely that I came
out from thee, and they have believed that thou didst send me.
q Thirdly, every
rhema word reveals the Person of Christ. As Christ is revealed, the faith and power that He possesses, is
manifested alongside with Him.
Romans 10:6 But the righteousness which is of faith
speaketh on this wise, Say not in thine heart, Who shall ascend into heaven?
(that is, to bring Christ down from above:)
7 Or, Who shall descend into the deep? (that
is, to bring up Christ again from the dead.)
8 But what saith it? The rhema Word is nigh thee,
even in thy mouth, and in thy heart: that is, the rhema word of faith, which we preach;
q Verse six and seven of Romans ten tells
us that we are not forced to take extraordinary measures to bring the Lord down
from heaven or to bring up from the dead.
In other words, we do not have to travel far and wide to find the
Lord. As we go on to verse eight we
suddenly find that the apostle Paul has switched gears from the Lord Jesus and
is now talking about the rhema word. He
says that Christ is not far from us, because the rhema word is near to us; even
in our mouth and in our heart.
Therefore the rhema word is the revelation of the Person
of the Lord Jesus Christ, or is what brings the Lord Jesus to us as we walk in
the Spirit.
q
In verse
eight of John chapter seventeen, likewise, we observe that the rhema word
reveals the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ.
q
Likewise
the rhema word when obeyed will outwardly reveal the same work of God that He
performed within us.
q
The rhema
word reveals the works of God. The
works of God bear witness of the Lord.
Likewise the rhema word reveals Christ.
The works of God is Christ.
John
14:10 Believest thou not that I am in
the Father, and the Father in me? The rhema words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself: but the
Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works.
John 10:25 Jesus answered them, I told you, and ye
believed not: the works
that I do in my Father’s name,
they bear witness of me.
John 15:26 But when the Comforter is come, whom I will
send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from
the Father, he shall
testify of me:
John 17:8 For I have given unto them the rhema words which thou
gavest me; and they have
received them, and have known surely that I came
out from thee, and they have believed that thou didst send me.
q
Everything
is manifested by spiritual gifts, which are used to manifest the Spirit of God,
which bears witness of Christ through the works of God.
Spiritual Gifts
First Cor 12:6 And there are diversities of operations, but it is the same God
which worketh all in all.
7 But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every
man to profit withal.
John
15:26 But when the Comforter is come, whom
I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which
proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me:
The Faith of Abraham & The Church
Romans 4:17
¶ (As it is written, I have made thee a father of many nations,) before him
whom he believed, even God, who quickeneth the dead (corpses), and calleth those things which be
not as though they
were.
Greek
translation and also my own paraphrase; Abraham once and for all, (aorist tense) believed
God. Who is the God whom he believed
in? Abraham
believed in the God whose nature is to continuously give life to the dead i.e.
(Greek; Circumstances which are so dead that they are corpse like). He is also the God who continuously calls the
things which are not, as
if they are. (The word “as” is a very interesting
word. It means in the same manner as,
or having the same content).
q This tells us
that the nature of our God is to call forth the things, which are still not
physically in existence as having the same reality and essence of things, which
are in existence. This is one of the
facets of faith!
q Abraham’s faith in God was so great, that out
of corpse like circumstances, and out of things, which in reality do not exist,
God made Abraham into a father of many nations and millions of people. This is
called the faith of Abraham.
q Most believers today, especially in the
United States, know little about this measure of faith, which in reality is the
normal operation of faith. Because
our comfort and security levels are too high, our faith is dysfunctional.
q Let us look at
another aspect of Abraham’s faith. In
Romans four and eighteen we find that normal faith functions in the realm of
hopelessness. What I mean to say by that is that the Lord must bring us to a
point where He destroys our dependency on everything that is around us and that
we can grasp and forces us to depend solely on His rhema word. That is
faith! Abraham, when all hope was gone,
founded His life on hope. The hope that
he had lost was that every circumstance around him around Him was corpselike.
The only hope that He founded His life on was the rhema word of God. This is the faith of God
Romans 4:19 And being not weak in faith, he considered
not his own body now dead ( now in a permanent state of a corpse) , when he was
about an hundred years old, neither yet the deadness ( the
corpse-likeness) of
Sara’s womb:
Romans 4:18 Who against hope believed in hope, that he
might become the father of many nations, according to that which was spoken, So
shall thy seed be.
q To utter ( perfect
tense) signifying the rhema word.
Greek:
Abraham, with all hope gone, believed on a foundation of hope, that he
might become the father of many nations, in relation to the rhema word which was
spoken, So shall thy seed be.
Hebrews 11:1 ¶
Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not
seen.Greek: Now faith is the title
deed of things hoped for, and the full assurance of things that it is
impossible for us to see in the present.
·
Abraham’s secret is found in Hebrews eleven and one. Most of us at one time have had in our
possession a title deed to an automobile or a home at the time that we
purchased these items. Though we may
not have actual physical ownership of these objects for a season of time after
closing on them, we know without a shadow of doubt that they belong to us
because of the title deed. Therefore
faith, is the title deed of what we have hoped for thus giving us a full
assurance of that thing that is ours but that we presently yet cannot see.q Faith’s title
deed is the rhema word of God. Every
time that God gives us a rhema word we have obtained a title deed to what God
promises. This is the hope that Abraham
based his whole life upon when God had stripped all hope of what he could
discern with his natural senses.
·
Romans
4:12 And the father of circumcision to
them who are not of the circumcision only, but who also walk(Greek: march as a soldier ) in the steps ( footprints) of that
faith of our father Abraham, which he had being yet uncircumcised.
·
We are commanded to march (in Romans four and twelve,) as
soldiers whose duty is to keep in line with the footprints made by the type of
faith that our father Abraham had. If
we do so, God will make us spiritual fathers and mothers of the multitude of
things that pertain to His kingdom. The
reason why we are spiritual fathers and mothers of so little is because we do
not allow God to strip us down to the point where we hope and live out of His
rhema word alone.
The
Administration of God’s House Which is In Faith
1Tim 1:4 Neither give heed to fables and endless genealogies, which
minister questions, rather than godly edifying which is in faith: so do.
q The administration of all affairs
belonging to God are always in faith.
·
The King
James does a poor job of translating of the Greek. Where the KJV has “godly
edifying,” the Greek says” administration or management” of God’s affairs. The
word is actually defined by two words meaning the law of the house.
1 Corinthians 4:1 Let a man so
account of us, as of the minister( under rowers) of
Christ, and stewards
(The law of the house) of the mysteries of God.
q
Ephesians 3:2 If ye have heard of the dispensation of the grace of
God which is given me to you-ward:
·
We find this same word in
Ephesians three and two though here it is written in the English as
“dispensation.”
·
We are entrusted with the
management, oversight, and the administration of all that pertains to the
affairs of God or to all that involves the economies of the kingdom of our
God. A pretty serious responsibility!
When Paul talks bout the dispensation of the grace of God he refers to his
management and administration of the giftings and callings of God giving to him
by the Lord for the benefit of others.
·
We are entrusted with the management,
oversight, and the administration of all that pertains to the affairs of God or
to all that involves the economies of the kingdom of our God (hence we could
say that it is the same as the laws that govern what belongs in the house of
God.).
·
Our
management and administration of God affairs can and must only happen in the
realm of faith.
·
As we studied before, God’s
faith always originates with the voice of the Lord because His Word always
carries within it the measure of faith needed to make the Word come to
pass.
·
Therefore
if we are to correctly manage the affairs that pertain to God it can only be
done through a strict reliance to the voice of the Holy Spirit, and our
stepping out in faith and walking on water to fulfill the Word. When we operate
like this we activate the affairs of God upon the earth, bringing them to order
and causing them to come to pass in utter completion. Unbelief, which is
resistance to the voice of the Holy Spirit, is the worst of the manager’s of
God goods. A steward as found in the next scriptures is exactly the same
combination of words.
7:00 PM – 7:45 PM Session # 5 Thursday
Walking in the
Spirit by the Law of Faith and the Righteousness of God Which is By Faith. (The Success of the NT Church)
The Law of
Faith
Romans 3:27 Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By
what law? of works? Nay: but by the law of faith.
(Or
the law belonging to faith.)
·
A law declares to us that
under a particular set of circumstances; specific results will always come
about, without fail.
q
The
law of faith
operates in this fashion.
The voice of the Holy
Spirit wills or desires something within us. His
desire or work translated for us as a rhema word.
John
14:10 Believest thou not that I am in
the Father, and the Father in me? The rhema words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself: but the
Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works.
John 10:25 Jesus answered them, I told you, and ye
believed not: the works
that I do in my Father’s name,
they bear witness of me.
John 17:8 For I have given unto them the rhema words which thou
gavest me; and they have
received them, and have known surely that I came
out from thee, and they have believed that thou didst send me.
John 15:26 But when the Comforter is come, whom I will
send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from
the Father, he shall
testify of me:
Grace
Romans 10:6 But the righteousness which is of faith
speaketh on this wise, Say not in thine heart, Who shall ascend into heaven? (that
is, to bring Christ down from above:)
7 Or, Who shall descend into the deep? (that
is, to bring up Christ again from the dead.)
8 But what saith it? The rhema Word is nigh thee,
even in thy mouth, and in thy heart: that is, the rhema word of faith, which we preach;
·
Romans
ten, six through eight are some of the most vital verses describing the
revelation of Christ, grace, and our walk of faith. If we closely examine what these scriptures are telling us, we
find the following. The reason why we
do not need to bring Christ down from above, neither do we need to bring Him up
from the dead, is because the rhema word is near to us; in our mouths and
hearts. In other Christ is not far,
Christ is near, because the rhema word is near. The rhema word is the
revelation of Christ in the progression of time.
·
God’s
grace is also activated by the rhema word. The rhema word reveals the Person of
Christ and what He desires. The revelation of Christ will manifest His
activity, hence His grace. As we obey the rhema word, it will automatically
activate this grace, because Christ is always faithful to fulfill his own rhema
words.
q
If we hear
and obey the rhema word it reveals Christ Jesus within us who will labor by His
grace to bring it to pass.
Peter 1:13 Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind, be
sober, and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ;
Gal 1:15 But when it pleased God, who separated me
from my mother’s womb, and called
me by his grace,
16
16 To
reveal his Son in me, that I might preach him among the heathen; immediately I
conferred not with flesh and blood:
Gal 2:20 I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I
live; yet not I, but
Christ liveth in
me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of
the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.
·
Revelation of the Son comes by the rhema word. So grace operates
as we believe and obey the rhema word.
·
The apostle Peter tells us that grace is brought to us whenever
the Lord Jesus is revealed.
·
In Galatians one fifteen
and sixteen the apostle Paul defines grace as God revealing His Son in him, so
that the very Person of Christ might be preached to the lost.
·
What is grace? Grace is Christ
doing everything in us, and for us, through His superhuman energy. Grace is something that belongs to God,
because it is associated with the person of Christ, and His revelation. Grace is exerted or comes forth every time
that Christ is present.
1 Corinthians
15:10 But by the grace of God I am what
I am: and his grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain; but I laboured more abundantly
than they all: yet not I, but the grace of God
which was with me.
·
Notice
Paul’s use of vocabulary in First Corinthians, as he describes grace to us.
Though he labored in the gospel, he was not the one laboring, but it was the
Person of Christ laboring in him by His grace.
Grace then is the power, the superhuman effort, the spiritual gifts, and
the glory of Christ all laboring in Paul, by Christ Himself.
Rom 3:22 Even the righteousness of God which is by
faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no
difference:
q
The Lord’s labor of faith
and power in us is called grace. It comes by his rhema word.
q
God’s righteousness, are
the works and deeds which He executes in our lives to marry our
“circumstantial” daily walk to that of our accomplished position in Christ, and
make it one. God’s
righteousness brings the reality of “who we are in Christ” into our daily
walks, and makes it a reality to our daily circumstances. His grace gradually conforms our
circumstances to “who we are in Christ.”
q
This process is called the
righteousness of faith, because it involves the deeds and works of God as
released or activated into our lives through our faith.
q
God’s righteousness then, is always released by our faith in
His rhema word.
q
His accomplished grace in us is translated outwardly by His
righteousness, or His accomplished work of grace that makes us Christ like, as
we believe His rhema word. This is the law of faith!
Romans
6:14 For sin shall not have
dominion over you: for
ye are not under the law, but under grace.
q
Sin shall
absolutely not Lord it over you.
·
Verse fourteen of Romans six is a tremendously significant
verse in our victory over sin. Paul declares to us in this verse that sin will not
have dominion over us because we under grace. The more then the person of the
Lord Jesus is revealed in us, the less will be the dominion of sin. The “works of the law” would have had never
given us dominion over sin. In fact it
would had brought out more and more sinfulness in us as we miserably failed to
overcome.
·
How does grace achieve for us the victory that eludes” the
works of the law”? The answer is
revealed for us in Romans eight and two. You will notice that there is also
another law mentioned here. The “law of sin and death” resides in us, this
we know already. This other law termed as
“the law of the
Spirit of life” resides in Christ.
The second law can be deribed as that whenever we yield to, and are led
by the Spirit of God; the same Spirit of God will release to us the “God kind
of life” which is eternal life.
·
Rom 8:2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ
Jesus hath made me free
from the law of sin
·
Greek: Freed me.
·
This law, which releases to us the eternal life of God, is
stronger and more powerful than the law that releases sin and death! Hallelujah!
This is how sin is overcome. Our own efforts will only bring out more
sinfulness. The revelation of the Person of Christ, and the law of the spirit
of life dwelling in Him, in conjunction with His grace laboring in us, will set
us free.
·
The more the revelation of Christ the more we will get to
the “end of the law” and the revelation of the law of the Spirit of life.
Rom 5:17 For if by one man’s offence death reigned by
one; much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of
righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ.)
q
Romans five and seventeen tell us the following; through the
sinfulness of Adam, sin and death reigns in humanity. Those that receive Christ
however, reign in this world because of the “God kind” of life released in
them. The condition for this to happen is by us having an abundance of grace
that labors to bring the righteousness of God into us. This is what frees us. Abundance of grace is the result of the
abundance of the revelation of the Person of Christ.
Eph 1:19 And what
is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, according to
the working of his mighty power,
·
Greek: And what is the surpassing greatness of His
power INTO US THE ONES WHO ARE “CONSTANTLY BELIEVING” (present participle).
This power is defined as the energy put out by God as an exhibition of the
outward dominion of His inward strength.
·
In other words, if we
continuously believe the rhema word of God, He will honor our faith by putting
forth into us the surpassing greatness of His power as defined above.
Galatians
5:4 Christ is become of no effect( becomes deprived of all effectiveness.)
unto you, whosoever of you are justified
by the law; ye are fallen from grace.
Gal 5:6 For in Jesus Christ neither circumcision
availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision; but faith which worketh by love.
·
Greek paraphrase : The only
thing that has any inward strength to
execute God’s outward dominion and victory for us in our lives is faith that is energized by a walk of divine
and self sacrificial love.
Rom
3:28 Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith
without the deeds of the law.
q
This is why
it says in Romans 8: 28 that a man or woman will be pronounced as innocent from
sin as the Lord Himself, when he or she live by faith. When the Christian life is lived by the
law of faith, it will produce the character of Christ automatically. If however we
operate by the law, Christ is not revealed in us to labor by His grace. We are
left to labor by our own power. We have
rejected the law of faith and have fallen into the law of works. The grace of Christ thus becomes
stifled, useless, and breaks down. The
righteousness of God, which is by faith, does not come about and we remain in
our sins instead of being changed into the image of Christ.
Romans 3:31 Do we then make void
the law through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the law.·
·
We establish. “We establish,”
in this verse is in the present tense.
This means that we make the whole essence of the Old and the New
Testament and what it contains for us to stand and thus be effective from
moment to moment by a life of faith.
Romans 4:6 Even as David
also describeth the blessedness
of the man, unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works,
·
Blessedness:
This word is defined as a blessed happiness or a state of inward
happiness.
The man or woman of God that live by faith come into a state of
happiness which is the result of the liberty in Christ that is produced in them
by their living by the law of faith apart from their own efforts.
Romans 15:25 ¶ Now to him that is of power to stablish you according to
my gospel, and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of
the mystery, which was kept secret since the world began,
Romans 16:26 But now is made manifest, and by the
scriptures of the prophets, according to the commandment of the everlasting
God, made known to all nations for the obedience of faith:
·
Greek: The prophetic
scriptures ( or by
the same token, words of prophecy)reveal the Person of Christ who dwells within us in a mystery
form. Christ must be preached in this
way. The revelation of both His Person,
and the gospel, is what establish us in the faith. The reason why Christ is revealed through prophetic preaching is
to cause the nations to become saved and to obey Him. This obedience is one, which is by faith.
·
Christ is
revealed through the scriptures and the preaching of the gospel. The apostolic/
prophetic ministries in action.
Gal 3:2 This only would I
learn of you, Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing
of faith
· Greek paraphrase:
Do we receive the things of the Spirit by our own efforts and strength,
or by a hearing, which is made up purely out of, and promotes a walk of faith?
Gal 3:5 He therefore that ministereth to you the Spirit,
and worketh miracles among you, doeth he it by the works of the law, or by the
hearing of faith?
·
Greek paraphrase: He that supplies, furnishes and ministers to
you the things of the Spirit, and likewise works of dunamis power(s), does He do
it through your own efforts and strength, or through a hearing that is made out
purely of, and promotes a walk of faith?
The Fruit of the Spirit
Gal 5:22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy,
peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,
23 Meekness, temperance: against such there is
no law.
·
First of all please note there are not many
fruits, but one fruit produced by the Spirit.
This fruit is nothing more than the revelation of the person of the Lord
Jesus Christ. The fruit of the Spirit
is the character found in Christ Himself.
·
Though there is only one fruit, as with any
fruit, it develops in stages.
·
When the Lord who is love comes into our
live, the revelation of His Person produces an ongoing liberty in our lives,
which brings us into state of progressive joyfulness. This is part of the Lord’s inward work in us. We could call these
two phases of the fruit of the Spirit as a work of inward grace. We now see
some of God’s outward accomplished work of righteousness.
·
Longsuffering, is defined as our long endurance with the quirks,
frailties, and blind spots of others. We can only be longsuffering as Christ is
revealed in us, because it is the fruit of His character. The revelation of
Christ also brings gentleness and goodness.
·
As we grow in Christ we learn to
operate by His rhema word or His faith.
Learning to live by faith will restrict and bind our whole life to live
in accordance only to the Lord’s voice.
·
As I have said before, the more restricted
we live in accordance to the voice of the Lord, the greater we shall be in the
kingdom of our God. This restriction is called meekness.
·
Meekness is defined as yielding up all of
our rights to Christ.
·
Self control it not our self-control but
Christ’s. Self-control is the result of
living a life in all meekness before the Lord. When we live in all meekness we
become as free as Christ is and fully blossom into His self-control.
8:00 PM – 8:45 PM Session # 6
Thursday
Fundamentals
of The Word of God
The Word of God
John 8:32 And ye shall know the truth, and the truth
shall make you free.
·
A
progressive type of knowledge.
q
Truth is defined as what is
reality, genuine and accurate according to fact. It is not what we incorrectly believe about the Word of God that
will set us free, but what we believe about it, which is genuine and according
to fact.
2Tim 2:15 Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a
workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.
· Paul tells us
in 2 Tim 2:15 that we must all stand as workmen before God that have been
approved by Him. The kind of approval
that the Lord demands from us is the same as that of a fine metal that has been
purified by the fire taking out all of its impurities. The result is that is
has now become approved and stamped as a fine metal and worthy to be used for
the highest of purposes. The way that we become approved as people of God fit
for His highest purposes (in this particular scripture) is our ability
to rightly divide the Word of God.
· Most of us
have been to an orthodontist who we know as the guy that straightens out our
teeth. Ortho is defined as
straight. Dontist means teeth;
hence this doctor is the “tooth straightner.”
·
To
rightly divide is the word orthotomeo.
Tomeo is to make a cut. To rightly divide the Word of God is to make a
straight cut into the Word of God. The man or woman of God must know and live
the Word of God so thoroughly that he or she can make a straight cut into the
Word, knowing, living and presenting it to others in a straight, truthful and
accurate way. One expositor said that
our ability to present the word in such a straightforward way will in fact lay
a path before us that is as straight as our knowledge of the Word. This path before us becomes the road in
which others and we travel upon.·
If
we do not know the Word of God in this way can we ever become workmen that have
past the test and stand approved before God?
2Tim
3:15 And that from a child thou hast
known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation
through faith which is in Christ Jesus.
·
Knowing
the word of God has the dunamis to let you know and carry out your life according
to the will and ways of God resulting into salvation.
·
Discuss
wisdom as the will of God. The ways of
God involve His timing.
Psalms 103:7 He made known his ways unto Moses, his acts
unto the children of Israel.
2 Tim 3:16 All scripture is given by
inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for
correction, for instruction in righteousness:
·
Please observe with me the progressive order of benefits found
through our intimate knowledge of scriptures.
·
Inspiration: All scripture is God inspired and is
therefore profitable for teaching
·
Reproof:
Intimate knowledge of the scriptures brings correction to us by exposing
sin and blind spots in our life. If we heed to the exposure brought to us
through the Word it will brings us freedom in Christ.
·
Correction : Correction here means to be restored
to an upright state resulting in salvation.
Do you notice the order? Reproof
brings exposure of sin. If we
heed we start to become free. As we become free the Word of God then starts to
restore us to an upright state.
·
Instruction: This talks about
mentoring and discipling and the final release into our ministry. Exposure,
restoration, mentoring, and call to ministry.
17That the man of God may be perfect,
thoroughly furnished unto all good works.
·
Greek: The man or woman of God becomes thoroughly equipped and
furnished by the Word of God for every Spirit led work; The man or woman of God
is equipped and fitted with every necessary piece of equipment by the Word of
God for anything that the Lord might have for him or her require to do. When we went to battle Sadam Hussein in the
Persian Gulf in great part we won because we were thoroughly equipped with the
best of arms, technique, and personnel.
It is our deep knowledge of God’s Word that furnishes us with the
spiritual equipment necessary to successfully carry out God’s holy missions.
·
Complete,
equipped and fitted with the necessary resources needed for the job at hand.
·
By being thoroughly equipped and furnished by the Word of God
for every Spirit led work, the man of God is equipped and fitted with every
necessary piece of equipment for everything that the Lord might have for him or
her to do. Without a good knowledge of
God’s word how can that ever happen?
2Tim 1:13 Hold fast the form of sound words, which
thou hast heard of me, in faith and love which is in Christ Jesus.
·
Have at
hand or posses a model. That model
being one of healthy words.
·
Faith and love
is the relationship in which sound doctrine is kept.
Titus 2:1 But speak
thou the things which become sound doctrine:
Speak those
things, which are conspicuous or eminent as healthy teaching.
Discuss those
things, which relate to doctrines of men.
Eph 1:3 ¶ Blessed be
the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all
spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ: }
7 In whom we have redemption through his
blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace;
8 Wherein he hath abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence;
q q The believer has been already blessed with every
spiritual blessing that the Lord has for him or her. We do need the Lord to bless us. Verse eight of Ephesians one
tells us that the abundance of the Lord’s blessings comes to us in the realm of
wisdom and prudence. Wisdom is the will
of God, prudence is the understanding His will and then fulfilling it step by
step in accordance to His voice, in all things that He calls us to do. Therefore the blessings of God come only to
the extent that we lay down our own will to do His.
Col 1:5 For the hope which is laid up for you in
heaven, whereof ye heard before in the word of the truth of the gospel;
Col
1:6 Which is come unto you, as it is in all the world; and bringeth forth fruit, as
it doth also in you, since the day ye heard of it, and knew the grace of God in truth:
q
Fruit
bearing in the kingdom of God is made up of two dynamic features. God always begins by working first in our spirits,
and outward to our bodies, bringing spirit, soul, and body into subjection of
His voice.
q
The end of
verse six in Colossians says, “and knew the grace of God in truth:” The
word “knew” is the Greek word “epiginosko”. This word portrays for us a knowledge, which
probes and grasps the object that it is seeking about because it is thorough,
accurate, and complete.
q
For us to
benefit from the dynamic fruit bearing qualities of the gospel we must know it in
full knowledge and truth.
Col 1:10 That
ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every
good work, and increasing in the
knowledge of God;
q
The word
of God has the dynamic ability to first work inwardly in each of us, cleansing us
and filling us with God’s presence. Knowing the truth of the Word will reveal
the Son of God who will then work by his grace to bring His victory and fruit
sbout.
q
The infilling of God’s presence through His
word then works outwardly to produce our spiritual gifts and ministries and
compels us to go into all of the world for Christ’s sake. This is the two fold
fruit bearing operation of the Word of God.
1 Tim 4: 6 ¶ If thou put the brethren in
remembrance of these things, thou shalt be a good minister of Jesus Christ, nourished up in the words of
faith and of good doctrine, whereunto thou hast attained.
·
The words
that nourish up must be made up of faith and good doctrine or must operate in
that realm to be effective.
· Being continuously fed on the words,
which are made up of faith and find their expression and life by a walk of
faith.
· Also the “words of faith and of good teaching” are the words,
which are in accordance with God’s truth and through which the gospel finds its
expression and life. This is our defense against seducing spirits and doctrines
of devils.
·
Whereunto thou hast
attained Should read, “which you have closely
followed.
I
Tim 1:3 As I besought thee to abide
still at Ephesus, when I went into Macedonia, that thou mightest charge some
that they teach no other
doctrine,
2 Timothy 1:13 Hold fast the form of sound words, which thou hast
heard of me, in faith and love which is in Christ Jesus.
(Greek: Hold fast to
the model of healthy or wholesome words, which thou hast heard from me.
·
Many of us can remember
building a model car or airplane. Once we had the model built we mounted it up
high on a shelf for all to see. We must
likewise have the Word of God as one of the primary models in our lives mounted
high before our eyes. This model of the gospel must be built out of something
that is called sound
words.
·
“Sound words” is a medical
term that means healthy or wholesome. Sound words are healthy because they are
true or are in accordance with what is factual concerning the Word of God. In our “health craze” society we must never
forget the health that comes to us from knowing and living in accordance to
sound doctrine.
·
It is impossible for us to
build a model of healthy words that we can frame before our eyes to unless we
know the Word of God in truth or in accordance to fact. To know the Word of God
in fact implies that we must do some serious study of the Word before we can
truly know it in truth.
Titus 2:7 In all things
shewing thyself a pattern of good works: in doctrine shewing uncorruptness, gravity, sincerity,·
·
Incorruptness: Our knowledge of the Word of God must
be so thorough that our teaching cannot be subject to the decay of time, error,
or the opposition that comes from those that challenge our teaching. When we live in accordance to a model of
God’s incorrupt doctrine, our doctrine will finally vindicate even when the
whole wide world says that we are wrong. The Lord will lift us up and put those
that oppose us to shame. Incorruptness must stand the test of eternity in that an
incorrupt nature cannot be subject to decay.
Our knowledge and obedience to the Word of God will have an everlasting
impact on our lives. Let us look at the
following scripture;
Titus 2:7 In all things
shewing thyself a pattern of good works: in doctrine shewing uncorruptness, gravity, sincerity,
·
Gravity: This has to do with the godly character built in us through the
knowledge of the Word of God, which incites reverence and respect from others.
Our life and our preaching must be so grounded on the sound words of the gospel
that others will reverence the Christ being displayed through us and deeply
respect and listen to what we have to say as true men and women of God. “When
E.F. Hutton speaks everybody listens.” We must be people that have a burning
message from God at all times.
The Importance of
the Rhema Word
·
John 1:1 In the beginning was the LOGOS (word), and the LOGOS(word) was
with God, and the LOGOS(word)
was God.
·
The
“logos” describes “the word of God” as an idea or a concept,
usually in a written form. The “Rhema
Word of God” however is a personally spoken, through the mouth of God to
us, in regards to a particular circumstance.
We have all said at one time or another, “this scripture really leaped
out at me”! This is a “rhema word”
given you by the Lord to minister to you in a particular situation. Gross misunderstanding and ignorance of the
distinction between these two types of “words”, lends greatly to the
weak state of our church today, and spells the difference between spiritual
life and spiritual death.
·
Matthew 4:4 But he answered and said, It is written, Man
shall not live by bread alone, but by every RHEMA that proceedeth( from moment to moment) out
of the mouth of God.
·
The church does not learn
to live in total dependency to the personal word of revelation from God to it,
moment by moment. Beloved, our learning
to do this is the difference between spiritual life and death!
·
Luke 1:37 For with God nothing shall be impossible.
The literal interpretation of this verse is as follows: Every “rhema” of God has absolute power to come to pass!
·
The
power of the living word of God will never ever cease. The more of the rhema we have revealed
within us, the more we will operate in the power of God. If everything were done in accordance to
the rhema we would be experiencing an eternal power that allowed for our
progress to never cease. We would go
from faith to faith and glory to glory.
·
Luke 5:5 And Simon answering said unto him, Master,
we have toiled all the night, and have taken nothing: nevertheless at thy RHEMA I will let down the net. The disciples of Jesus had been painfully laboring throughout the
night to catch fish, and had accomplished little. This account describes perfectly the activity of our
churches. Much of our goings-on have
been spent upon programs, agendas, and committees, and little upon the
guidance, strategy, and power of the Holy Spirit through the rhema. Notice that the “one rhema” of
Jesus brought a huge catch.
John 3:34 For he whom God hath sent speaketh the RHEMAS of God: for God giveth not the
Spirit by measure unto him. .
·
Each time we hear, speak,
and act upon the rhema word, the power and the Spirit of God are
released. This is the key to a healing
and deliverance ministry.
·
John 6:68 Then Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom
shall we go? thou hast the RHEMAS of eternal life.
·
· Only the voice of God produces eternal
life and brings permanent results. Even
the best voices of our intellects, promoting church activities and functions,
which have not been commanded by the Lord will generate some spiritual death.
·
John 12:47 And if any
man hear my RHEMAS and believe not, I judge him not: for I
came not to judge the world, but to save the world.
·
John 12:48 He that rejecteth me, and receiveth not my RHEMAS>, hath one that judgeth him: the word that
I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day.
·
What a sobering admonition
Jesus gives us here! Can you imagine
that our willful disobedience to the voice of God during our earthly
life will be our judge in the next one?
·
John 15:7 If ye abide in me, and my RHEMAS abide in you, ye shall ask what ye
will, and it shall be done unto you.
·
The Father will only answer
our prayers when they are in accordance with a rhema word spoken by Him to
us. So important to our churches.
·
The rema
word of God is the only qualification for us to enter into the works of God and
not the works of the flesh. Or
subsequently God works only in relationship to the rhema word.
·
Many times we take the name of Jesus as a “magic wand” and have
believed that asking in that name will get us anything we want. My brothers and sisters, our asking and
receiving must always be in accordance to the rhema of God. God will always honor his rhema word
since it comes from Him. According to
His rhema, our prayers will always be answered, and we will get anything
that we ask for!
John 17:8 For I have given unto them the RHEMAS which thou gavest me; and they have
received them, and have known surely that I came out from thee, and they have
believed that thou didst send me.
·
This
scripture supports the vital importance of spiritual gifts. The revelatory words of God make manifest
the Christ to the world. Christ today dwells in glory. Glory is what makes the invisible Christ
visible! How we need the full
manifestation of spiritual gifts in our churches for the full manifestation of
Christ. What a ploy of the enemy it is
to shut them out, or to tell us that they are not needed today.
·
Romans 10:17 So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing
by the RHEMA of God.
·
We must shed some extra
light on this ever-important and much quoted scripture. God wants us all to
move in faith, and will take us from faith to more faith, until it becomes
totally naturally to live in it. However,
as we have been learning, everything must start with the voice of God revealed
within our hearts. Obedience acts upon
the rhema, and faith is developed through our obedience. I heard a true story of some kids that
attempted to walk on the ocean or maybe a lake like Jesus and Peter. They
drowned, because they had attempted this miracle without the rhema. Remember brethren, stepping out into
ministry without having heard the voice of God is presumption, and you and I
will really get burned.
·
Ephesians 5:25 Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ
also loved the church, and gave himself for it;
· Ephesians 5:26 That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water
by the RHEMA.
· These
scriptures “hit home” at one of the very major problems within our churches
today. The church will only be purified
and made holy by the revelatory word of God.
The rhema is what washes the bride of Christ and heals and restores
it. Let me ask you a question. If the flow of spiritual gifts is curtailed
in our congregations, and the rhema is quenched, how will the church ever be
washed and made holy? Pretty serious
stuff!
·
Ephesians 6:17 And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword
of the Spirit, which is the RHEMA of God:
·
Brethren, it is time for us
to know that the only offensive weapon that we have against Satan and his
schemes such as sickness, bondage, and sin is the rhema word of
God. If we don’t know how to operate in
the revelatory word of God, we will never attain a complete victory against the
devil, the world, and the flesh
·
Peter 1:25 But the RHEMA of the Lord endureth for ever. And this
is the RHEMA which
by the gospel is preached unto you.
·
Finally my beloved brothers and sisters; our witnessing and
evangelism must be always done in the power of God through the rhema, if
it is it to be truly effective.
Evangelism programs are good yes, but without the living word spoken
into the lives of every lost soul that we encounter, the results might only be
temporal.
v
v The
eternal quality of the rhema word.