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 and Spiritual Blessing upon Spiritual Blessing and even 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."
All of God's Promises were granted to you as an inheritance, when you were born-again. We became heirs of God and fellow heirs with Jesus, at our new birth. Most of these Promises have remained unused in our Christian walk, because we've lack any understanding about them. God's Promises aren't conditional and don't depend upon rituals or works, for His family. Paul writes in 2Corinthians 1:19-20 (Amplified), "For the Son of God, Christ Jesus (the Messiah), Who has been preached among you by us (by myself, Silvanus, and Timothy), was not Yes and no, but in Him is always the Divine Yes. For as many as are the Promises of God, they all find their Yes answer in Him, Christ. For this reason we also utter the Amen (So be it), to God through Him, in His Person, and by His Agency, to the Glory of God."
Notice how the above scripture tells us that it brings Glory to God, when we accept His Promises and say Amen to them. When we deny or refuse His Promises, then our faith is removed from receiving them and God doesn't receive Glory. We must return to the old covenant and find the Promises that were reserved for the new covenant family of God. We've somehow forgotten them and have patterned ourselves after the Law, instead of family.
Galatians 3:16-18 (Amplified) says, "Now the Promises (covenants, agreements), were decreed and made to Abraham and his Seed (his Offspring, his Heir)." God doesn't say, "and to his Seeds, descendants or Heirs" as if referring to many persons, but He says, "his Seed, his Descendant, his Heir," which is singular and obviously refers to One Person, Who is None Other than Jesus Christ. Verses 17-18 go on, "This is my argument; the Law, which began 430 years after the covenant concerning the coming Messiah, does not and cannot annul the covenant previously established (ratified), by God, so as to abolish the Promise and make it void. For if the inheritance of the Promise depends on observing the Law, as these false teachers would like you to believe, it no longer depends on the Promise; however, God gave it to Abraham as a free Gift solely by virtue of His Promise."
We've been trying to "deserve" the fullness of His Promise, through works, rules and regulations of religion. If we could earn His Promise, then Grace wouldn't be needed and we would still under Law. Paul writes through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit in Galatians 5:4 (Amplified), "If you seek to be justified and declared righteous and to be given a right standing with God through the Law, you are brought to nothing and so separated (severed) from Christ. You have fallen away from Grace (from God's favor and unmerited Blessing)."
Romans 4:15-16 (Amplified) says, "For the Law results in Divine wrath, but where there is no Law there is no transgression of i either. Therefore, inheriting the Promise is the outcome of faith and depends entirely on faith, in order that it might be given as an act of Grace (unmerited favor), to make it stable and valid and guaranteed to all his descendants; not only to the devotees and adherents of the Law, but also to those who share the faith of Abraham, who is thus the father of us all."
These Promises could only come to completion in Jesus Christ, Who is the Seed to those the Promises were for. We are in Him and are His Seed and heirs, according to the Promise. The Father has said to me that, "This is the year of understanding." We read God's Word with our intellect, missing the Truth of the Spiritual understanding. We've been like those Jesus described in Mark 4, "Having ears, we don't hear and having eyes, we don't see." If all the Promises of God are "Yes and Amen in Jesus," then what else is left to do?
Once the Promise has come, it's no longer a Promise. It's been fulfilled and has become Truth. They are still Promises, to the world and those who are outside God's family. Those of us who are born-again and belong to God, have received these as our inheritance from the Last Will and Testament of our Lord Jesus Christ. This inheritance was legally yours, when you became God's child. There's no need for Jesus to die again or to be raised again, in order to validate His will. It's fulfilled.
We find one of God's Promises in Isaiah 54:7-10 (Amplified), where God says, "For a brief moment I forsook you; but with great compassion and mercy I will gather you to Me again. In a little burst of wrath I hid My Face from you for a moment, but with age-enduring Love and Kindness I will have compassion and mercy on you; says the Lord your Redeemer. For this is like the days of Noah to Me; As I swore that the waters of Noah should no more go over the earth, So have I sworn that I will not be angry with you or rebuke you. For though the mountains should depart and the hills be shaken or removed, yet My Love and Kindness shall not depart from you, nor shall My covenant of peace and completeness be removed says the Lord, Who has compassion on you."
We must read these scriptures with understanding from God's Holy Spirit. The above scripture tells us that God made a Promise to Noah, that the water would never completely flood the earth again and God gave the rainbow as a sign to remind Noah of this Promise. God gave us the cross of Christ as a sign, like the rainbow was to Noah, to remind us that we could rest in His Promises.
Noah was never anxious about another flood overtaking the earth again, because he could see the rainbow. We shouldn't be anxious when things don't go right for us, thinking that God is doing it. God said He will never do these things to us again and this is one of the Promises that are Yes and Amen in Jesus. In Isaiah 54:14-15 (Amplified) God says, "You shall establish yourself in righteousness (rightness in conformity with God's will and order); You shall be far from even the thought of oppression or destruction, for you shall not fear, and from terror, for it shall not come near you. Behold! they may gather together and stir up strife, but IT IT NOT FROM ME. Whoever stirs up strife against you shall fall and surrender to you."
These are Promises fulfilled in Jesus, but we must accept and walk in God's Grace and Truth, by faith, and received them. We keep trying to get God to do something in our lives, without realizing that these Promises are already ours. Jesus has already fulfilled them and Grace has come. We must, by faith, accept and trust in His fulfilled Promises.
A promise is always in the future, but the Truth is always in the now. Hebrews 11:1 (Amplified) tells us, "Now faith IS the assurance (the conformation, the title deed), of the things we hoped for, being the proof of things we do not see and the conviction of their reality, faith, perceiving as real fact what is not revealed to the senses."
Our senses still look at the Promises as being, "for the future." Faith though, looks at the Promises as being, "the confirmation, the title deed, and the proof of" what we have eyes to see and ears to hear.
Please take time to read and understand and receive the following scripture, as being not only for us today, but for you personally. Thus, Colossians 1:9-14 (Amplified) says, "That you may be filled with the full, deep and clear, knowledge of His will in all Spiritual Wisdom, in comprehensive insight into the ways and purposes of God, and in understanding and discernment of Spiritual things."
No comments:
Post a Comment