Friday, November 16, 2018

Lesson 113 GRACE AND TRUTH-GOD'S WILL

     John 1:16-17 (Amplified) says, "For out of His fullness (abundance), we have all received, all had a share and were all supplied with, one Grace after another, Spiritual Blessing upon Spiritual Blessing and favor upon favor and Gift heaped upon Gift. For while the Law was given through Moses, Grace (unearned, undeserved favor) and Spiritual Blessing and Truth, came through Jesus Christ."
     Acts 11:26 (Amplified) says this about the Christians in the early Church, "And when he had found him, he brought him back to Antioch. For a whole year they assembled together with and were guests of the Church of Antioch, the disciples were first called Christians."  Acts 26:28 (Amplified) tells us, "Then Agrippa said to Paul, You think it a small task to make a Christian of me just offhand to induce me with little ado and persuasion at a very short notice."  1Peter 4:16 (Amplified) says, "For if one is ill-treated and suffers as a Christian which he is contemptuously called, let him not be ashamed, but give glory to God that he is deemed worthy to suffer in His Name."
     The term, "Christian," means more than a title and is an identification of the same anointing and character that Jesus had here on earth.  The world today, identifies us by our denomination, instead of the anointing.  We refer to our Lord Jesus as "Christ," which is identifying Him by His Own anointing.  Jesus is the Christ, the Anointed One.  As Christians, we're also identified by this same anointing in the Holy Spirit, which is the Anointing.  One cannot be saved and not be anointed, because it's the Presence of the Holy Spirit living in us, Who is the Anointing.  This identifying distinction sets the Church apart from all different men on this planet.  The new creation man is those who are anointed, Christians.
     The word "Christian," according to The Strong's Concordance #5545 means, "A unguent, or smearing, i.e. figi, the specific endowment, (Chrison) of the Holy Spirit, anointing, unction."  #5546 says, "Krist-tos, a Christian, i.e. follower of Christ, Christian."  #5547, #5548 say, "Krist-os, Anointed, i.e. the Messiah, an epithet of Jesus Christ."  #5530 says, "Akin, through the idea of contact; to smear or rub with oil (by impl) to consecrate to an office or religious service, anoint, to handle, to furnish what is needed; give an oracle, graze, touch slightly, light upon, to employ or by extension, to act toward one in a given manner, entreat, use."
     The above words all describe a Christian, as one who is anointed by the Holy Spirit to strengthen and furnish what is needed.  1John 2:20,27 (Amplified) say, "But you have been anointed by (you hold a sacred appointment from, you have been given an unction from the Holy One), and you know all the Truth (or you know all things)."  Verse 27 says, "But as for you, the anointing (the sacred appointment, the unction which you have received from Him), abides permanently in you; so then you have no need that anyone should instruct you. But as His anointing teaches you concerning everything and is True and is no falsehood, so you must abide in (live in, never depart from) Him, being rooted in Him, knit to Him, just as His anointing has taught you to do."
     Most of us have been taught that God's Anointing is only for "certain people."  This was true under the old covenant, where for the most part, only kings, priests, prophets and certain leaders were under the Anointing (it only came upon them) at certain instances.  Under the new family of God though, the Anointing doesn't only come upon us, but lives within our own spirit, forever.  This is the Anointing or Presence of the Holy Spirit that has now become one with our new creation spirit and abides within us forever.
     This Anointing was so prevalent in the early Church, that they were called, "the Anointed ones" or "Christians."  The Anointing was manifested in such a way that the signs and wonders followed the members of the early Church everywhere and they were called, "Jesus followers."  We've been talked out of this outward revealing of God's Anointing and believe it's only for certain people.  If you're born-again, then the Same Spirit, the Same Anointing and the Same Holy Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead, is living within you and through you.  Paul says in Galatians 2:20 (Amplified), "I have been crucified with Christ; in Him I have shared His crucifixion; it is no longer I who live, but Christ (the Messiah) lives in me; and the life I now live in the body I live by faith in, in adherence to and reliance on and complete trust in, the Son of God, Who loved me and gave Himself up for me." 
     The Holy Spirit says this in Hebrews 10:38 (Amplified), "But the just shall live by faith, My righteous servant shall live by his conviction respecting man's relationship to God and Divine things, and by holy fervor born of faith and co-joined with it, and if any man draws back and shrinks in fear, My soul has no delight or pleasure in him."
     A Christian is one who is now anointed by and in the Father, by the indwelling Spirit of God.  A Christian is one who lives by his/her "faith and holy fervor born of faith in God and Divine things without drawing back in fear."  A Christian depends on the Anointing, to furnish whatever is needed to reveal Jesus, to the world.  A Christian is an anointed who and a reflection of our Lord Jesus.
     We are no longer only human, as some in the past have taught.  You are a new creation who is born of the Holy Spirit and filled with His Anointing and the Super-natural ability to set the captives free.  Don't allow the enemy to deceive you into thinking that God's ability can't work in and through you, like it did in the early Church.  Hebrews 5:11-12 (Amplified) says, "Concerning this; we have much to say which is hard to explain, since you have become dull in your spiritual hearing and sluggish, even slothful in achieving spiritual insight. For even though by this time you ought to be teaching others, you actually need someone to teach you over again the first principles of God's Word. You have come to need milk, not solid food."
 

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