Lesson 90 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 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."
     Many in today's Church believe that some of the above things "aren't for us" and/or "aren't needed to get to Heaven, so I don't need to know about them or walk in them."  The Father though, thought they were necessary for our full deliverance, otherwise He wouldn't have put them on Jesus, during His earthly walk. 
     The Curse of the Law still functions in even the lives of born-again believers, today.  We continue to walk in the very things that the world walks in, despite our being redeemed from them.  Many believers don't understand what the Blessings of Abraham have provided them and believe it doesn't make a difference in their lives.  The Blessing God Promised to Abraham, was the Promise of the Holy Spirit, as well as the Blessing in our earthly form.  When we received the Holy Spirit as Promised, we received God Himself into our very spirit and natural body. 
     The indwelling Promise that's within us, lived inside Jesus, Paul, John, Peter and those before us.  We have the same Spiritual Blessings at work within us, just like they had.  Errant preaching and teaching has left us not understanding these Blessings in our Christian walk.  Proverbs 4:7 (Amplified) instructs, "The beginning of Wisdom is; get Wisdom, skillful and Godly Wisdom! For skillful and Godly Wisdom is the principal thing. And with all you have gotten, get understanding, discernment, comprehension, and interpretation."
     Many who have Wisdom, which is God's Word, have no comprehension, discernment, interpretation or understanding of what it really means for their life as a new creation in Christ Jesus.  We conduct our lives, as though we're still only human, but we're not.  We are born of God, filled with the Spirit of God and are children of God.  God left nothing to chance, when He sent Jesus to the cross for our sake.
     We've never been taught who we are in Christ and conduct our lives believing that the only benefit of being born-again comes when we leave this earth for Heaven.  We've abstained from sin (as well as we're able) and have tried walking upright with the Father, but we've neglected the things of the Spirit that would make it easier to walk our earthly lives.
     We've mostly neglected the Spiritual Blessing and the Holy Spirit's Presence living inside us.  1Peter 2:24 (Amplified) says, "[Jesus] Personally bore our sins in His Own Body on the tree, as an altar and offered Himself on it, that we might die (cease to exist) to sin and live to righteousness. By His wounds you have been healed."  Isaiah prophesies about Jesus in Isaiah 53:4-5 (Amplified) saying, "Surely, He has borne our griefs, sicknesses, weaknesses, and distresses, and carried our sorrows and pains of punishment, yet we ignorantly considered His stricken, smitten, and afflicted of God, as if with leprosy. But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our guilt and iniquities, the chastisement needful to obtain peace and well-being for us was upon Him, and with the stripes that wounded Him we are healed and made whole."
     When did we stop believing that the same Jesus Who bore our sins, didn't bear our disease and peace and well-being?  When did we forget that the Father thought everything Jesus did, was important for us?  We've stood against sin in our lives and have abstained from sin as we knew it, but somehow we've forgotten that the other things Jesus suffered on Calvary, are no longer important for us.  We get sick, depressed, fear punishment from God and continue to carry our own sorrows and pain.  Do we believe that these things are valid to our redemption or do we really think that Jesus did these things for nothing?
     The Father thought our wellness of heart and mind were equally important or He would never have placed them and allowed Jesus to bear them.  We need to learn to resist sickness and disease, just like we learn to resist temptation and sin.  The Same Holy Spirit Who works by God's Word to keep us from the evil one, works in the same manner to keep us in all other things included in our Redemption.
     We've come to believe that, "Everyone gets sick sometime, just like everyone sins sometimes."  We don't have to sin at some time or anytime.  If we sin, then it's because we choose to do so, instead of resisting and the same is true in every area of our redemption.  When symptoms of sickness come upon us, then the Same Word and Holy Spirit Who keeps us from sin, will also bring to pass His part for healing.  We've never been taught to resist sickness, only sin.
     Many of the Spiritual Blessings found in John 1:16-17, are never brought to manifestation in our lives, because we continue to see ourselves as being "only human."  These Spiritual Blessings come from the inside-out, not from the outside-in.  Healing comes from the strength of the new creation spirit and is manifested in the natural man, just like our righteousness and peace with God.  If the inward man isn't allowed to live through you, then you still only live through you as a natural man and by your own merits.  You cannot be righteous before God, except by faith in His Grace.
     Romans 4:16 (Amplified) says, "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."  The same faith that led you to receive and believe in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, is the same faith that inherits the Promise of His full redemption in our natural bodies too.  It works from our born-again new creation spirit and is made manifest in our natural man.
     Many of today's believers don't resist sickness, but believe that the Father puts it on us, in order to teach us something.  This rejects and dishonors what Jesus accomplished for us, on the cross.  Even if you succumb to sickness, then you must not allow the enemy to condemn you it in, anymore than if you commit sin after being saved.  You go to God's Throne of Grace, receiving mercy and Grace in your time of need and continue to stand and trust in God's Word.  You will find that you will get sick fewer and fewer times, just like when you first got saved and yielded less and less to sin.
     Satan is a liar and deceiver and his plan is based upon trying our faith, so that if something doesn't work the first time, then we quit trying.  This is the entire arsenal satan uses against us.  If we don't quit, then we will win.  Faith must be allowed to grow in our hearts and in our spirits, so we will be strong in the Lord and in the Power of His Might.  God's Might and strength is in His Word and His Spirit, which abide within our spirit. 
     Do the things we say, have anything to do with how we believe?  Definitely!  We speak our faith in either good or bad.  We speak what we believe.  God cannot bring things that we speak which are contrary to His Promises, to pass in our lives.  When we speak sickness, God cannot honor that, but He will not override our right to say those things.   
    

Lesson 89/Part 2 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 and Spiritual Blessing upon Spiritual Blessing and even favor upon favor and Gift heaped upon Gift. For while the Law was give through Moses, Grace (unearned, undeserved favor) and Spiritual Blessing and Truth came through Jesus Christ."
      Paul admonishes the Church, in Galatians 6:7-8 (Amplified) saying, "Do not be deceived and deluded and misled; God will not allow Himself to be sneered at, scorned, disdained, or mocked, by mere prevention's or professions, or by His precepts being set aside. He inevitable deludes himself who attempts to delude God. For whatever a man sows (Jesus told us that "Words are Seeds."), that and only that is what he will reap. For he who sows to his lower nature (flesh, sensuality), will from the flesh reap decay and ruin and destruction, but he who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap Eternal Life."
     You've proven that your heart is fertile soil, when you believed and allowed God's Word to come into you and you were born-again.  In Proverbs 4:20-27 (Amplified) God says, "My son, attend to My Words (consent and submit to My sayings). Let them not depart from your sight; keep them in the center of your heart. For they are Life to those who find them, healing and health to all their flesh. Keep and guard your heart with all vigilance and above all that you guard, for out of it flow the Springs of Life. Put away from you false and dishonest speech, and willful and contrary talk put far from you. Let your eyes look right on with fixed purpose and let your gaze be straight before you. Consider well the path of your feet and let all your ways be established and ordered aright. Turn not aside to the right hand nor to the left, remove your foot from evil."
     Notice, God tells us to, "GUARD YOUR HEART ABOVE EVERYTHING ELSE" and "PUT AWAY FALSE, CONTRARY, WILLFUL SPEECH."  As Christians, can we speak contrary, dishonest and willful speech, giving these words place in our lives?  I believe that the answer is, "Yes."  I don't believe our Heavenly Father makes our wrong words come forth from our mouths, but I do believe we have an enemy who will take our faith-filled words, that come out of our unguarded heart, and use them against us.  When we're born-again, you have power in your words, to use for the lower nature or the Spirit nature.  Both have power, but one is for good and one is for evil.
     Jesus spoke to a fig tree and killed it.  He spoke to a dead man, giving him Life.  Which Word was more powerful?  Through Him, we now have power in our words, they are seeds to sow.  Our Father gave us a mandated to "Guard your heart against seeds that are sown from another source."  Both will determine what you speak (sow) into your Life and the lives of others. 
     When things aren't right and results aren't what they should be in the lives of God's children, then we should listen to the words we're saying, in order to determine what we've been hearing.  We must guard our hearts.  God gave Adam the job of tending the Garden of Eden.  God sent men into Canaan to spy out the Land which He had already given to them (the Promised Land) in Numbers 13:30-31 (Amplified), which says, "Caleb quieted the people before Moses, and said, Let us go up at once and possess it; we are well able to conquer it. But his fellow scouts said, We are not able to go up against the people of Canaan for they are stronger than we are. So they brought the Israelites an evil report of the Land which they scouted out."  Numbers 14:10 (Amplified) continues, "But all the congregation said to stone Joshua and Caleb with stones, But the Glory of the Lord appeared at the tent of Meeting before all the Israelites."
     Notice, the words (seeds) which were spoken into the whole congregation.  Only twelve men saw the Land.  Two of them (Joshua and Caleb) said "Let's take the Land," while the other ten said, "We cannot take the Land."  The words (seeds) of the ten, entered into the hearts of the Israelites (believed to be 2-5 million men, women and children), which produced a harvest of an evil report.  This led to the people calling for the stoning of Joshua and Caleb, because these two believed God for the Promise.  Words are seeds and we must be careful what we sow with our mouths.
     Seeds will grow, despite who sows them.  If a Christian sows poison ivy and a non-believer sows poison ivy, then both will reap what they sow.  Bring out the Benadryl, because simply being a Christian will not change the seed.  One can't sow poison ivy and reap tulips.  The Law of Genesis says, "Everything produces after its kind."  If you want the Spiritual Blessings to manifest in your life, then you must sow seeds of Blessing, instead of seeds that are contrary or willfully against them.  Confess what God says about you and speak in-line with God, instead of contrary to Him.  You reap what you sow.
     Do a Words study for yourself about what God says about people who speak in opposition what what His Word says.  Allow the Holy Spirit to teach, by His Presense.  Jesus said that, "The Holy Spirit would lead us into and show us all Truth."  Today, even the government, our kid's schools and social media are pushing us to speak only what they deem as politically correct.  Words to matter and the Words of a Spirit-filled believer, have the power to change things.  When you sow Word Seeds into the heart of a non-believer, those Seeds have the power to get them born-again into a new creation.  Do you suppose the power of your words stop at your lips?  Guard your heart above all that you guard and don't hear or speak the wrong seed.

Lesson 89 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 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."
     The different Graces, Spiritual Blessing and Truths that came through Jesus Christ aren't something we earn or deserve.  They are all free Gifts, given by Grace.  Every person who receives Jesus as Lord and Savior, has been freely given these things by Grace, but they must be accepted by faith, according to Romans 4:16 (Amplified) which says, "Therefore, inheriting the Promise is the outcome of faith and it 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."  We've all become heirs of the Seed, Who is Jesus, and are all eligible for the Promise."  Galatians 3:29 (Amplified) tells us, "If you belong to Christ (are in Him Who is Abraham's Seed), then you are Abraham's offspring and Spiritual heirs according to Promise." 
     God Promised Abraham that through him, the Promise of the Holy Spirit might be made manifest and by His Seed (Jesus), we could be restored back unto God by faith in this Promise.  Galatians 3:14 (Amplified) says, "To the end that through their receiving Christ Jesus, the Blessing Promised to Abraham might come upon the Gentiles, so that we, through faith might all receive the realization of the Promise of the Holy Spirit."
     Today's Church has fallen short of what the above scriptures are telling us.  We've believed that the Promise of the Holy Spirit solely means, "Speaking in Tongues."  This is one of the manifestations of the Holy Spirit in our lives, but speaking in Heavenly languages also includes the manifestation of Heaven within us.  The Spiritual Blessings means that the Father Himself (and all that He is), can now live in and through us, like He did in Christ Jesus.
     The Promises God made to mankind throughout the Bible, are now made Truth in Jesus, by faith.  Even though they're made secure in Jesus, they must be received by faith.  We've struggled with the Super-natural things Promised to us in God's Word and even though the Promise is now Truth, we still struggle with it in our faith.  We strive to find ways of deserving certain Promises and make excuses for the lack of manifestations of the Promises in our lives.  We unsuccessfully establish laws of our own, which must be followed in order to make the Promises work.  We've believed that if we dress in certain ways or worship on designated days, then we could qualify to receive these manifestations, but these things didn't work.
     Of course we're to live differently as born-again believers, but this isn't what qualifies us to receive the Promise.  When we were born-again, the Promise of the Holy Spirit was made manifest withing us.  This is actually God Himself now living in our spirit and in our natural body.  Now, the One Who made the Promise, is living in us to fulfill His Promise.  Jesus said that "It wasn't Him, but the Father in Him Who did the works."  This is the Promise of the Holy Spirit: a new creation, a new line of being born of the Spirit, now living in this earth.  The Spiritual Blessing is God's Own Life and Being, living in us.  All that Heaven is, has now become ours and is living in us and through us, by faith. 
     We've forgotten (or maybe never understood) what this really means in the believer's life.  By Grace, we've been granted the ability to speak God's Word in power and purpose and set the captives free.  Paul writes in Ephesians 5:1-2 (Amplified), "Therefore be imitators of God, copy Him and follow Him Example as well beloved children imitate their father and walk in Love, esteeming and delighting in one another as Christ Loved us and gave Himself up for us, a slain Offering and a Sacrifice to God for you so that it became a Sweet Fragrance."
     When God worked through Jesus by His Holy Spirit, He Loved the people and restored to order, all that was "out-of-order" in His Kingdom.  He gave sight to the blind and healing to the sick.  He gave wholeness to the lame and freed the captives.  This is the full manifestation of what our Spiritual Blessing is truly about.  Through the Holy Spirit, we're to bring the Spiritual Blessing of God to this earth, through faith in His ability, like it was through Jesus.  These things are all manifested by faith in His ability through us, by Grace, for the good of all mankind.  We can't give to someone else, what we don't believe ourselves. 
     Yesterday, I wrote about Charles Capps and the ministry of Revelation he was given for the Church, concerning the words we (as Spirit-filled believers) speak.  I'm not talking about our only quoting scriptures, but that we keep our words in line with God's Word.  Jesus gave "The Parable of the Sower" in Mark 4:14 (Amplified), saying that, "The Sower sows the Word."  The "Word" Jesus was speaking about, is God's Word.  Jesus said also taught that "all words are Seeds," in this Parable.  Romans 10:17 (Amplified) says, "Faith comes by hearing."  Faith in God comes by hearing the Word of God and the Sower sows the Word.  Faith in other things, also comes by hearing.
     Most of us have read Mark 11:23 many times, but I'd like to present it in a different way today.  We've been talking about word being seeds, so let's look at words that aren't in line with God's Word (wrong seeds).  Remember that, "Faith comes by hearing."  Suppose you've been hearing that, "Sickness is God's way of teaching and correcting you" and you allow this seed to be sown in your heart as faith.  Faith comes by hearing and when this is sown continually over some time, then it becomes rooted in your heart.  You now believe this in your heart and are speaking it out of your mouth.  If you're not doubting these things in your heart, then will they come to pass when you speak them from your mouth?  Jesus spoke about the words coming out of your heart, in Matthew 12:37,36 (Amplified), saying, "For by your words you will be justified and acquitted and by your words you will be condemned and sentenced."  He said in Verse 36, "But I tell you, on the Day of Judgment men will have to give account for every idle (inoperative, non-working) word they speak."
     When born-again believers don't understand the Revelation of the power of our words, then we allow the enemy to gain control over certain things in our lives, by not speaking words that line up with the Truth of God's Word.  Jesus taught that, "Words are Seeds and our hearts are the soil."  Can a born-again man speak an evil response from his heart?  Keeping in mind that, "Words are Seeds," let's read Galatians 6:7-8 (Amplified), "Do not be deceived and deluded and misled; God will not allow Himself to be sneered at, scorned, disdained, or mocked, by mere pretensions or professions, or by His precepts being set aside. He inevitably deludes himself who attempts to delude God For whatever a man sows, that and only that is what he will reap. For he who sows to his lower nature (flesh, sensuality) will from the flesh reap decay and ruin and destruction, but he who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap Eternal Life."
     TO BE CONTINUED..... 

Lesson 88 GRACE AND TRUTH-GOD'S WILL We've finished haying for this year!!! Hooray!

     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."
     The Church has disputed "what is really God's will for us today," for many years.  Jesus taught His disciples how to pray in Matthew 6:9-13 (Amplified) saying, "Pray, therefore, like this; Our Father Who is in Heaven, Hallowed (kept Holy) be Your Name. Your Kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in Heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgiven us our debts, as we also forgive (left remitted, and let go of the debts, and have given up resentment against our debtors. And lead (bring) us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one, For Yours is the Kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen."
    According to Jesus' instruction to pray above, it's God's will is that we live here on earth, like we will live in Heaven.  If God's will was for us to pray this way, then we need to understand what His will for us is in Heaven.  What do you suppose God's will for us is, when we get to Heaven?  Do you suppose we'll have such things as hospitals, doctors, and soup lines in Heaven?  Will there be wars to fight or funerals to attend there?  Will there be prisons, police or crime in Heaven?
     I hope we're not living in Heaven yet, but I also know that the things happening in our lives here on earth, aren't His will for us either.  We're still living on a fallen earth and the Curse of the Law is still in affect, but that doesn't mean we're subject to it.  Galatians 3:13-14 (Amplified) tells us, "Christ has purchased our freedom, redeeming us from the Curse (doom) of the Law and it's condemnation, by Himself becoming a Curse for us, for it is written in the Scriptures, 'Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree (is crucified)' To the end that through their receiving Christ Jesus, the Blessing Promised to Abraham might come upon the Gentiles, so that we through faith might all receive the realization of the Promise of the Holy Spirit."
     Who is the Holy Spirit?  Isn't He the Same God and Father Who was also in Christ Jesus?  Would our Father lead us any differently than He led Jesus?  Would His will be any different for us, than it was for Jesus?  If this is true, then what Jesus taught us to pray in Matthew 6:9-13 wouldn't be Truth and Grace.  We're not to look at Jesus as though He was the Only One that Father ever intended to walk this way, but we're to see Jesus as the Example of how all God's children are to be.
     I fully understand that we're not the Lord Jesus, but I also understand God writes through Paul in,  Romans 8:16-17 (Amplified) saying, "For the Spirit Himself, thus testifies together with our own spirit, assuring us that we are children of God. And if we are His children, then we are His heirs also; heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, sharing His inheritance with Him, only we must share His suffering if we are to share His Glory."
     We seem to think that Jesus' earthly ministry was "simple for Him, because He was Jesus."  Jesus' earthly walk was far more difficult than anyone could ever know.  Satan knew exactly Who Jesus was and what Jesus was about, at the time of His earthly ministry.  Jesus was the only "real enemy" satan had to deal with and stop, at that time.  There weren't two and a half billion Spirit-filled heirs of God satan had to deal with then.  Jesus was the Only One and satan constantly focused all of his armies of demons and his weapons of warfare on Jesus' destruction.
     The Father didn't exempt Jesus from satan's attacks on earth.  Jesus just kept Himself above satan's attacks, by walking in the Word.  Religion dismisses many things Jesus did as our Example, believing "they're not important for us to know."  This has led to the lowering of Christian's standards for walking with God and has left us open to things that aren't the Father's will for our lives, like it is in Heaven.  Jesus was our Example of how to walk in this earth as children of the Most High God.
     We find an example of Jesus' earthly walk in John 3:34 (Amplified), but most of us have never paid attention to this scripture.  Thus, it says, "For since He Whom God has sent speaks the Words of God (proclaims God's Own Message), God does not give Him His Spirit sparingly or by measure, but boundless is the Gift God makes of His Spirit."  When was the last time we've thought about what we're speaking?  Do we speak God's Own Words or do we just speak? 
     If God increased the boundless Gift of His Holy Spirit in us causing the words we spoke to come to pass, then what would the results be today?  Would we speak life to a dead man or would be speak death to a live man?  Would we speak calm to a storm or would we speak what the Weather Channel speaks and cause destruction?  Would we speak cleansing to the leper or would we speak about how badly he smells and stay away from him?  Would we speak healing or disease?
     God brought Revelation to the Church many years ago, about the words we speak, through Charles Capps.  It was the Revelation of the power of our words, as born-again children of God.  Many in the Church have rejected this Revelation as "foolishness."  We mockingly name this Revelation, "Name it and claim it" or "Blab it and grab it."  We've lost sight of Truth, in what we say.  We foolishly speak contrary to God's Word and then wonder why things aren't working for us.
     God's children have rejected many of God's Revelations, but His Grace continues to watch over our foolishness.  Could you imagine how the world would look, if God gave us His Spirit without measure and what we said would come to pass, like it did with Jesus?  Jesus only spoke God's Word and His will and God honored what Jesus said with the Power of the Holy Spirit.  What would happen in our lives and the lives of those around us, if God honored our words in the same Power He did with Jesus?  You might answer, "I don't think it makes a difference what we say."  Romans 10:10 (Amplified) tells us, "For with the heart a person believes, adheres to, trusts in, and relies on Christ and is so justified, declared righteous, acceptable to God, and with the mouth he confesses, declares openly and speaks our freely his faith and confirms his salvation."  Salvation doesn't mean going to Heaven when we die.  According to The Strong's Concordance (#4991)  the word "salvation" means, "rescue, or safety physically or morally, deliver, health, salvation, save, or saving" and (#4992) "defender, defense, salvation."
     So, the above scripture means that the things we say from our hearts and out of our mouths, will either bring deliverance or not.  Paul tells us to, "Speak out our faith and confirm our salvation."  I know you confirmed your saving salvation and were born-again, by confessing Jesus is your Lord, but do you confess Him in your daily walk, by speaking out your faith?  Or, do you speak faith-filled words from your heart which God cannot confirm, because they're not His Words?
     Don't be so quick to dismiss things they "sound new," when you haven't gone to the Lord about them.  God to God's Word and see what He says about idle words, that don't Bless.

Lesson 87 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 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."
     Hebrews 1:1-2 (Amplified) says, "In many separate Revelations, each of which set forth a portion of the Truth, and in many different ways God spoke of old to our forefathers in and by the prophets. But in the last of these days He has spoken to us in the Person of a Son."
     God's way of speaking to us and revealing Himself to us, is by and through the Person of Jesus, His Son.  The only way we can come to the Truth of Who He really is, is by knowing and watching Jesus, in His earthly ministry.  Under the prophets, we could only see and come to know a portion of the Truth.  We've come to many different ways of our understanding of God by the prophets, but our understanding of our Heavenly Father must come by and through Jesus Christ.
     God has chosen to reveal Himself to us in these Last days, in a way that the prophets under the old covenant, could only receive a small glimpse of.  None would dare speak of God as their "Father" or even hint at being "His Son."  The outcry and indignation of the Jews that Jesus spoke to in His earthly ministry, was a result of their not understanding the Truth (not only a portion of the Truth, but the Truth in Bodily Form).
     We continue struggling today with the "Old Testament God" and the "New Testament God."  Much of our doctrine has been slanted by the Law, instead of Grace.  We still expect God to deal with us, like He did with the Old Testament people.  The only Example we have of our Heavenly Father, comes by knowing and watching Jesus, as He went about revealing "Father," to those who only knew God and the Law.
     Today, many see salvation as a means for going to Heaven and be with the Lord, after leaving the earth in death.  Although this is Truth and is Glorious, we've missed the greater Truth.  Jesus didn't just come, so that we could go to Heaven and be with Him when we die, but the Greater Truth is that He still operates on this earth through the Church.
     Ephesians 4:12-13 (Amplified) says, "His intention was the perfecting and the full equipping of the saints (His consecrated people), that they should do the work of ministering toward building up Christ's Body (the Church) That it might develop until we all attain oneness in the faith and in the comprehension of the full and accurate knowledge of the Son of God, that we might arrive at really mature manhood, the completeness of personality which is nothing less than the standard height of Christ's Own Perfection, the measure of the stature of the fullness of the Christ and the completeness found in Him."
     The Body of Christ's  job is to allow Him to actually live again in this flesh and blood world, through us.  Our job isn't just to go to Heaven, but we're to allow Jesus to walk on earth and continue like He did in His Own earthly Body, through us.  Through the Father living in the Church, like He did through Jesus, we're to do the work of the Father.  Much of our Christian walk has been "trying to be perfect," but the only thing perfect about us, is the One Who lives in us.
     Jesus doesn't want to only live in us, but to strive in us and do the same work and will that the Father sent Him to do in His earthly Body.  This is our greatest work.  We're to allow Him to live again here on earth, in us.  We are His Body and He is the Head.  The Head directs the Body and we're to receive our orders from the Head and respond to His orders.  It must seem to Jesus sometimes, like His Body is paralyzed and cannot or will not respond to His commands any longer.
     Just prior to His Ascension, Jesus told His followers in John 14:15-16,26 (Amplified), "If you really love Me, you will keep (obey) My commandments, And I will ask the Father and He will give you another Comforter, Counselor, Helper, Intercessor, Advocate, Strengthener, and Stand-By, that He may be with you forever."  Jesus continues in Verse 26, "But the Comforter, Counselor, Helper, Intercessor, Advocate, Strengthener, Stand-By, the Holy Spirit Whom the Father will sent in My Name (in My Place, to represent Me and to act on My behalf), He will teach you all things; And He will cause you to recall (will remind you of, bring to your remembrance of everything I have told you."
     According to Mark 16:15-20 (Amplified), the early Church went forth everywhere preaching the Gospel and instructing them to lay hands on the sick and cast out devils.  Verse 20 tells us, "And they went out and preached everywhere, while the Lord kept working with them and confirming the Message by the attesting signs and miracles that closely accompanied it, Amen, so be it."
     The Body was obeying the commands of the Head, in the above scripture.  It wasn't like the Body had a stroke, but it obeyed the commands of the Head, Jesus.  Jesus wants to lives in this earth through His Body (the Body of Christ, the Church).  The Plan and will of Jesus and the Father, have not changed.  We, the Body of Christ, has stopped hearing the commands from the Head and have established our own way of doing things.  Paul writes 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, by adherence to and reliance on and complete trust in, the Son of God, Who loved me and gave Himself up for me."
     We've never truly gotten hold of the Truth that Jesus wants to live in this earth, through His Body (the Body of Christ, the Church), just like He did in the earthly Body He knew before His death on the cross.  We must allow ourselves to be His Body.  His ministry has never changed from then until now.  He only has a different Body to live in and through now.  Jesus still wants to do the same things He did then, in this earth through us.
     Salvation is not simply about our going to Heaven when we die, but it's about having Jesus live again on the earth, through us (His Body).  His life and mission has never changed and we're supposed to be continuing them.  Jesus changed us to be like Him, so He could continue His walk here on the earth.  Jesus never intended us to be another religion, but to be His Body.  It's His hands that we lay on the sick.  It's His feet that take this Body, to where He says to go.  It's His voice that speaks to devils.  It's His Spirit that enables us to do His Work and it's His Life that we're supposed to be living here on earth, like He did in His former Body.
     Hebrews 13:8 (Amplified) says, "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever."  The same things Jesus did in His earthly Body before Calvary, He still does in the Body we've become on this earth.  We're the Body of Christ.  

Have A Blessed Labor Day!

Lesson 86 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 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."
     In the previous blog, we learned that these Spiritual Blessings were Promises that Abraham couldn't received at the time.  They were reserved for this generation of the Church or God's Own children by the new birth and the out-pouring of the Holy Spirit.  Abraham was Promised these things that were to come through his Seed, Who was Jesus Christ.  This is no longer a Promise, but a Truth.
     So long as it was a Promise, it was something for the future and now that Jesus has come, it's no longer a Promise, but has become Truth in the believer's lives.  Many are still waiting for the fulfillment of God's Promise, not realizing the Promise was and is fulfilled in Jesus.  This is why John 1:16-17 says, "Out of His fullness we have all received."
     Abraham was Blessed by God, but the fullness of the Promise couldn't be fulfilled as far as the Spiritual Blessing was concerned.  Abraham wasn't born-again, so the Spiritual Blessing was a future even that God's Promise laid before him.  We're recipients of the Grace that came through Jesus and we're not only Blessed with the natural things of the Promise, but we've obtained the Spiritual aspect as well.
     God prospered Abraham with the earthly Blessing in all that he did.  This is also part of our Blessing of Abraham, but now it goes further into the Spiritual Blessing.  Through Jesus, we've been raised with Him and have becomes sons and daughters of God, instead of just servants.  God's Grace that delivered Noah and those who heeded His direction, has come to rest upon us as a cloak or mantle upon our lives, not counting our trespasses against us, but putting them under the Blood of Jesus.
     These Spiritual Blessings and Gifts, far surpass anything man has ever received from God before.  Romans 5:17 (Amplified) says, "For if because of one man's offense (trespass, lapse), death reigned through that one, much more surely will those who receive God's overflowing Grace (unmerited favor) and the free Gift of righteousness, putting them in in right standing with Himself, reign as kings in life through the One Mane, Jesus Christ (the Messiah, the Anointed One)."
     This free Gift of righteousness is one of the many Spiritual Blessings that came through the fulfillment of the Promise.  Romans 5:5 (Amplified) says, "For if we have become one with Him by sharing a death like His, we shall also be one with Him in sharing His Resurrection by a new life lived for God."  When do we share this new life lived for God and reign as kings in life through Jesus?  Not when we die and leave this earth, but when we (by faith) accept the fact that we NOW live through Him in this earth; a new life for God.
     Satan has deceived the family of God, causing us to think these Spiritual Blessings are for the hereafter.  We're now made alive to God through the result of His Promise and we're to reign as kings in this life on earth.  Romans 8:11 (Amplified) says, "But if the Spirit of Him Who raised up Jesus from the dead dwells in you, then He Who raised up Christ Jesus from the dead will also restore to life your mortal, short lived bodies through His Spirit Who dwells in you."
     Even though sin killed us and God likened our bodies dead and buried with Jesus, God (by His Holy Spirit) has granted life back into our mortal bodies, in order to carry out the things we're to do in this earth for and through Him.  We're not only made alive in our spirit, but now that same spirit has given God's Life back to our mortal body.
     God and we both, need this earthly body to fulfill the mandate that was given to the new creation family of God.  God's family is to go into the world and proclaim the Gospel, lay hands on the sick, cast out devils and preach Christ Jesus to the lost.  We need these earthly bodies, in order to do what God's called us to do on this earth.  The body has no life once the spirit leave it and this is why the Holy Spirit has restored life back into this mortal body.  We're to function in two realms simultaneously, but now this mortal body is to be sustained and led by the Spirit of Promise.  Romans 8:16 (Amplified) says, "The Spirit Himself thus testifies together with our own spirit, assuring us that we are children of God."
     Romans 8:30 (Amplified) tells us, "And those whom He foreordained, He also called, and those whom He called, He also justified, acquitted, made righteous, putting them in right standing with Himself, and those whom He justified He also gloried, raising them to a Heavenly dignity and condition or state of being."  This is something He has already done in Jesus and not something He is going to do in the future.
    Have you ever seen yourself as "glorified and raised to a Heavenly dignity, condition or state of being?"  Have you ever thought of yourself as "being righteous before God?"  How do you become justified in the eyes of a Holy God?  By faith, you receive "the fullness we have all received, all had a part, 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," according to John 1:16-17.
     This is the Truth of the Promise that has come to reality in Christ Jesus.  This is the Promise of the Spirit made to Abraham and as Abraham was, so now we, by faith, walk in the Truth of that Promise.  Romans 1:17 (Amplified) says, "For in the Gospel a righteousness which God ascribes IS REVEALED, both springing from faith and leading to faith, disclosed through the way of faith that arouses to more faith, as it is written, The man who through faith is just and upright shall live and shall live by faith."
     Let's combine the last part of the above scripture about living by faith, with Romans 6:4-5 (Amplified) which says, "We were buried therefore with Him by the Baptism into death, so that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the Glorious Power of the Father, so that we too might habitually live and behave in newness of life For if we have become one with Him by sharing a death like His, we also shall be one with Him in sharing His Resurrection by a new life lived for God."
    If we were crucified with Christ and buried with Him, then in order to "live this life in newness for God," we must also have been raised together with Him, even in this mortal body that has newness of life by His Holy Spirit.  In Romans 1:17 (Amplified) Paul says this about us, "That through faith are just and upright shall live and live by faith."  Paul went on 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 (by adherence to and reliance on and complete trust in) the Son of God Who loved me and gave Himself up for me."
     Now we have a revelation of what Paul wrote in Romans 1:17, saying, "The just and upright shall live and shall live by faith."  Your life in the spirit and body are sustained by your faith in the Truth of the Promise of the Spirit that God made to Abraham for and through Jesus.

Lesson 85 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 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."
     The Promises of God through His Word, were contingent upon the Law and obedience to the Law.  Natural man couldn't keep the Law, so the fullness of God's Blessing  couldn't be realized in the abundance of His covenant.  The Spiritual Blessing couldn't be fully realized, until the Holy Spirit came to dwell in the spirit of the new covenant family of God.  Jesus said in John 10:10 (Amplified), "The thief comes only in order to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have and enjoy Life, and have it in abundance (to the full, till it overflows)."
     Abraham walked with God in a state of Grace, but he was unable to receive the fullness of the Promises, until his Seed (Who was Jesus) could come into this earth and restore that which was lost in the Garden of Eden.  He could enjoy and prosper int the natural things of this earth, but the Spiritual Blessing was still only a Promise.  In Christ Jesus, the Promise is now fulfilled to the new creation family of God.
     Hebrews 11:13,14 (Amplified) tells us, "These people (Noah, Abraham, Enoch, Sara, and Abel), all died controlled and sustained by their faith, but not having received the tangible fulfillment of God's Promises, only having seen it and greeted it from a great distance by faith, and all the while acknowledging and confessing that they were strangers and temporary residents and exiles upon the earth."  Verse 14 says, "Now those people who talk as they did show plainly that they are in search of a fatherland, (their own country)."
     Ephesians 3:18-19 (Amplified) says, "For it is through Him that we both, whether far off or near now have an introduction, access by One Holy Spirit to the Father so that we are able to approach Him. Therefore, you are no longer outsiders, exiles, migrants and aliens, excluded from the rights of citizens; but you now share citizenship with the saints, God's Own people,  consecrated and set apart for Himself, and you belong to God's Own household."
     This was and is the Promise Abraham and the Old Testament saints were looking forward to, but couldn't obtain until the new creation and the birth of the Holy Spirit in mankind.  Galatians 3:13-14 (Amplified) says, "Christ purchased our freedom, redeeming us from the Curse (doom of the Law and its condemnation), by Himself becoming a curse for us, for it is written in the scriptures, Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree (crucified). To the end that through their receiving Christ Jesus, the Blessing Promised to Abraham might come upon the Gentiles, so that we through faith might all receive the realization of the Promise of the Holy Spirit."
     Many look upon the Day of Pentecost and the speaking of tongues, as the fulfillment of the Promise.  True, these people, along with millions more since that day, have entered into the Promise of the new birth by the coming of the Holy Spirit.  But, we've failed to understand the Spiritual Gifts that accompanied this Promise of Fulfillment.  Many dismiss the new language and the benefits of that language, but that isn't the only Gift that comes with the Promise of the Holy Spirit.  The Gifts of the Spirit listed in 1Corinthians 12, aren't necessarily the fulfillment of the Spiritual Gifts John 1:16-17 refers too.
     The main Gift we're to recognize is the Gift of Life, which is being born-again and becoming God's children.  We're no longer "outsiders," but we're citizens of His Own family and His Kingdom.  This was part of God's Promise that Abraham couldn't receive, until Jesus.  The Spiritual Gifts found in John 1:16-17 have been fulfilled in those who are born-again (us).  Galatians 4:5-7 (Amplified) says, "To purchase the freedom of, to ransom, to redeem, to atone for, those who were subject to the Law, that we might be adopted and have son ship conferred upon us, and be recognized as God's sons. And because you really are His sons, God has sent the Holy Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying Abba, Father, Father. Therefore, you are no longer a slave (bond servant), but a son, and if a son, the it follows that you are His heir by the aid of God through Christ 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."
     The fullness of the Promise comes by faith and then by walking in your inheritance.  You must receive it BY FAITH.  Even though it's yours already, you'll only enjoy this new found Life in Christ Jesus, as you accept by faith, the things of this Promise of the Holy Spirit.  Although we've received Jesus as our Lord and Savior, we cannot accept the things He provided for us here, unless we put faith in this Promise.
     God has "made good" His Promise of the Holy Spirit that He Promised to Abraham to be "heir of the world."  Romans 4:13 (Amplified) says, "For the Promise to Abraham or his posterity, that he should inherit the world, did not come through observing the commandments of the Law, but through the righteousness of faith."  When we read about these Spiritual Gifts, Graces, and Spiritual Blessings in John 1:16-17, we sometimes overlook the Power of what was said about, "now." 

Lesson 84 GRACE AND TRUTH-GOD'S WILL

     John 1:16-17 (Amplified) tells us, "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."
     God made what we call, "Noah's Ark," in order to preserve the Seed.  God directed Moses to build an Ark, in order to hold the Ten Commandments and deliver God's Promise to Abraham.  The seed of Noah produced the son who sired Abraham, according to Genesis 11:10,27 (Amplified) which says, "This is the history of the generation of Shem (one of Noah's sons); Shem had a son called, Terah."  Verse 27 says, "This is the history of the descendants of Terah. Terah was the father of Abram, Nahor and Haran, and Haran was the father of Lot."
     In Genesis 3:15 (Amplified), God says to the serpent, "And I will put enmity between you and the woman and between your offspring and her Offspring. He will bruise and tread your head under foot, and you will lie in wait and bruise His heel."  God preserved Noah and his family, in order to protect His Promise concerning the Seed.  Genesis 6:8-9 (Amplified) says, "But Noah found Grace (favor) in the eyes of the Lord. This is the history of the generations of Noah. Noah was a just and righteous man, blameless in his evil generation. Noah walked in habitual fellowship with God."
     Genesis 12:1-3 (Amplified) says, "Now in Haran (Noah's grandson) the Lord said to Abram; Go for yourself, for your own advantage away from your country, from your relatives and your father's house, to a land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation; and I will Bless those who bless you (who confer prosperity or happiness upon you), and curse him who curses or uses insolent language toward you; in you will all the families and kindred of the earth be Blessed, and by you will they bless themselves."
     A covenant, Promise, and solemn pledge was made between God and Abraham in Genesis 17.  God kept His pledge and covenant with Abraham, down through Abraham's children.  God Blessed Abraham's offspring from Isaac down through Joseph, in the land of Egypt.  After Joseph was made Prime Minister of and died in the land of Egypt, another Pharaoh arose who didn't know Joseph.  This Pharaoh set out to destroy all the male Hebrew children, but God once again determined to hold fast to His Promise and His Promised Seed.
     Genesis 2:2-3 (Amplified) says, "And the woman became pregnant and bore a son; and when she saw that he was exceedingly beautiful, she hid him three months. And when she could no longer hide him, she took for him an Ark or a basket made of bulrushes or papyrus, making it watertight by daubing it with bitumen and pitch. Then she put the child (Moses) in it and laid it among the rushes by the brink of the River Nile."
     After becoming a grown man, Moses was exiled because of his connection to the Hebrews in Genesis 2:23-25 (Amplified) which says, "However, after a long time, nearly 40 years, the king of Egypt died; and the Israelites were sighing and groaning because of the bondage. They kept crying, and their cry because of slavery ascended to God. And God heard their sighing and groaning and earnestly remembered His covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and with Jacob. God saw the Israelites and took knowledge of them and concerned Himself about them (knowing all, understanding, remembering all)."
     God honored His Seed, His covenant and His Promise to Abraham, along with the declaration He made in Genesis 3 about the Seed of His Promise.  So far, God twice made an Ark, in order to protect and preserve that which was yet to come.  Exodus 40:20-21 (Amplified) says, "Moses took the Testimony (the Ten Commandments), and put it into the Ark, and set the poles in the rings of the Ark, and put the Mercy Seat on the Top of the Ark. Moses brought the Ark into the tabernacle and set up the veil of the screen and screened the Ark of the Testimony as the Lord had commanded him."
     God set up another Ark above, to protect His Promise and His covenant to mankind.  Today, the Ark of the covenant the the solemn pledge of God's Promise have been set before us with the veil removed, according to Hebrews 10:19-20 (Amplified) which says, "Therefore brethren, since we have full freedom and confidence to enter into the Holy of Holies by the Power and Virtue of the Blood of Jesus. By this fresh, new, and Living way which He initiated and dedicated and opened for us through the separating curtain, veil of the Holy of Holies, that is through His flesh."
     Jesus has now become the Fullness of the Promise to His Seed and to His pledge is the Last and Only True Ark of the Covenant, through our relationship with the Father.  2Corinthians 1:19-20 (Amplified) says, "For the Son of God, Christ Jesus the Messiah, Who has been preached among you by us (by myself and Silvanus and Timothy), was not Yes and No, but in Him is always the Divine YES. 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."
     The Promises God made to mankind, from the Garden to the present, are all ours through Christ Jesus.  These include those made to Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses and the prophets, until now.  Galatians 3:16, 17 (Amplified) says, "Now the Promises (covenants, agreements) were decreed and made to Abraham and his Seed, his Offspring, His Heirs."  God didn't say, "And to his seeds, descendants, or heirs," as if referring to man persons.  God said, "And to your Seed, your Descendant, your Heir," in obvious reference to One Individual, Who is none other than Jesus Christ, the Messiah.  Verse 17 goes 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."  Galatians 3:13-14 (Amplified) says, "Christ purchased our freedom, redeeming us from the curse (doom of the Law and its condemnation) by Himself becoming a curse for us, for it is written in the scriptures, Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree (crucified) To the end that through their receiving Christ Jesus, the Blessing Promised to Abraham might come upon the Gentiles, so that we, through faith might all receive the realization of the Promise of the Holy Spirit."
     Galatians 3:23 (Amplified) says, "But the scriptures picture all mankind as sinners shut up and imprisoned by sin, so that the inheritance, Blessing which was Promised through faith in Jesus Christ (the Messiah), might be given (released, delivered and committed) to all those who believe (who adhere to and trust in and rely on Him)."
     Revelations 11:19 (Amplified) says, "Then the Sanctuary of God in Heaven was thrown open, and the Ark of His Covenant was seen standing inside His Sanctuary---."
 

Lesson 83 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 and 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."
     The Spiritual Blessing couldn't come into the lives of those before, because the new birth (being made alive in spirit) couldn't come until Jesus bought and paid for Adam's transgression.  As a whole, we have never really understood that we were dead in spirit, before being born-again.  We were alive, but unto God.  Adam's fall in the Garden of Eden resulted in man's connection to God's Holy Spirit to be broken, which left mankind in spiritual death and brokenness.  Our only source of connecting with God, now came through those whom God could speak to and would obey His commands.
     God's covenant or His family, were started out in Grace and Truth.  There was no Law, only Grace and Truth at the beginning.  God's family was to walk with and fellowship with Him, by Grace and Truth.  After Adam's fall, God Promised that the Seed of a woman would crush the devil's head in Genesis 3:15 (Amplified), saying, "And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; He will bruise and tread your head underfoot, and you will lie in wait and bruise His heel."
     God's entire Plan of redemption was to be determined by the Seed, that would bring His sinless Son Jesus into this world.  Mankind was sinful and could only produce "after kind."  Genesis 1:12 (Amplified) says, "The earth brought forth vegetation; plants yielding seed according to their own kinds and trees bearing fruit in which was their seed, each according to its kind. And God saw that it was good, suitable, admirable and He approved it."
     This Law of Genesis still works and everything (including man) can only produce after kind.  One can't plant corn and get green beans.  One can't plant peach trees and get apples, because everything still bears fruit after its own kind.  Man was to bear the seed, in order to continue and preserve his kind.  After the fall, God now needed to protect the seed of man, until The Seed could be sown into the womb of a woman and produce after kind.  The Seed that God Promised in Genesis 3:15, must be preserved and protected until the appointed time.
     Mankind must continue on until the Plan of redemption could be brought into the earth.  We were born on the earth as children into sin and death and couldn't be in God's Image and Likeness anymore.  The physical image and spiritual image of satan could produce after kind.  Man produced man, according to the seed of man and satan could only produce sin and death in man's spirit, after kind.  Genesis 6:5,8 (Amplified) tells us, "The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination and intention of all human thinking was only evil continually."
     The wickedness was so great, that God Himself was to blot out mankind.  He still needed a seed to produce mankind until Jesus.   In Verse 8, we find God's Grace and Truth in operation, as He searched for a source to man to propagate and bring forth fruit unto righteousness, for man's continuation.  Verse 8 says, "But Noah found Grace (favor), in the eyes of God."  God tells Noah in Genesis 6:13-14 (Amplified), "I intend to make an end of all flesh, for through men the land is filled with violence; and behold, I will destroy them and the land. Make yourself an Ark of gopher or cypress wood, make it in rooms, stalls, pens, coops, nests, cages, and compartments, and cover it inside and out with pitch (bitumen)."
     This Ark would preserve the seed of mankind (everything produces after kind), because God needed the seed of man to bring Jesus into the earth.  This Ark would preserve God's Promise to Adam, for future generations to come.  As the Promise of God floated above the flood, Noah's seed was producing a way for God to work in the earth again.
     God once again pronounced His Blessing upon man (like He said to Adam), in Genesis 9:1-3 (Amplified), which says, "And God pronounced a Blessing upon Noah and his sons and said to them; Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. And the fear of you and the dread and terror of you shall be upon every beast of the land, every bird of the air, all that creeps upon the ground, and upon every fish of the sea; they are delivered into your hands. Every moving that that lives shall be food for you, and as I have given you the green vegetables and plants, I give you everything."
     God's Promises to mankind, were contingent upon the preservation of the seed to produce those whom God could use.  We see the seed of man being preserved through Noah's son Shem and his seed.  Terah was from Shem's lineage and Abraham came from him, according to Genesis 12:1-2 (Amplified) which says, "Now in Haran the Lord said to Abram, God for yourself, for your own advantage away from your country, from your relatives and your father's house, to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation, And I will bless you with abundant increase of favors and make your name famous and distinguished, and you will be a Blessing dispensing good to others."
     Abram became Abraham, the father of our faith, and like the other Arks, it was through him that God preserved and protected His Word and Promises, from Adam to the Church.  We read the story of the Ark of Moses in Exodus 2:3 (Amplified), which says, "When she could no longer hid him (Moses) she took for him an Ark."  God used the first Ark of the Covenant and then He made a second one to hold the ten commandments tablets and the Law of Moses.  God placed restrictions and Laws upon His covenant, allowing men to still walk in His Grace and Truth and not being destroyed in their sin,  This, though, wasn't God's Best for them.
     God's Word and Promises were wrapped up in His covenant, in order to protect mankind until the Day of Deliverance.  The Spiritual Blessings of Grace couldn't function in liberty, to a spiritually dead people.  So, the Promise and Spiritual Blessings were withheld until the Seed, Jesus, could be birthed into the world.  Romans 3:23-24,20 (Amplified) says, "Since all have sinned and are falling short of the honor and Glory which God bestows and received. All are justified and made upright and in right standing with God, freely and gratuitously by His Grace (His unmerited favor and mercy), through the redemption which is provided in Christ Jesus."
     We can see the results of the Ark's protection of God's Promises and how God's Grace kept His covenant in Verse 20, which says, "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."
     When we understand how God used the Arks (whether it's Noah's Ark or in  our time, Jesus Who is the Total Ark of the covenant) to protect His Promises, we realize how now in Jesus Christ, the Ark is restored back to all those who enter in by the Door.  Jesus tells us in John 10:9 (Amplified), "I Am the Door, anyone who enters in through Me will be saved (will live). He will come in and he will go out freely, and will find pasture."
     We find the Ark of God's covenant, fully enveloped in God's Own Glory, standing in the sanctuary in Revelations 11:19 (Amplified) which says, "Then the sanctuary of God in Heaven was thrown open, and the Ark of His covenant was seen standing inside His sanctuary; and there was flashes of lightning, loud rumblings, blasts, mutterings, peals of thunder, an earthquake and a terrific hailstorm."
     Jesus has fully protected and delivered the Fullness of God's Word, covenant, Promises, and the restoration of His Grace and Truth.  Jesus has restored the desire God had for His children from the beginning until now.  

Lesson 82 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, 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."
     Having never really gotten a Revelation of Spiritual Blessing, we've overlooked this part of what Jesus came to redeem us from.  We've lost sight of the covenant God made with and through Adam, with its Spiritual Blessings.  Adam had Spiritual Life, as well as physical life.  He was alive in his spirit and had been given dominion and authority over all the physical creation.  Adam and the Father walked together in the spirit, as well as in the flesh.
     When Adam transgressed in the Garden, he lost the Spiritual Blessing and could only operate in the natural man.  The Blessing of Abraham, found in Galatians 3:13-14 (Amplified), didn't only include the material Blessing of his family and earthly goods, but it also brought Life back to his spirit and his Sees, which is Christ Jesus.  Thus, Verse 14 says, "To the end that through their receiving Christ Jesus, the Blessing Promised to Abraham might come upon the Gentiles, so that we through faith might all receive the realization of the Promise of the Holy Spirit."
     This Promise was realized on the Day of Pentecost, with the outpouring of God's Spirit upon all flesh.  The covenant made with Adam and the Promise made to Abraham, have both been realized in those who accept Jesus Christ.  We are Blessed in this material earth and we're Blessed in the Spiritual Kingdom too, by our being in Christ Jesus.  Genesis 6:8-9 (Amplified) says, "But Noah found Grace (favor), in the eyes of the Lord. This is the history of the generations of Noah. Noah was a just and righteous man, blameless in his evil generation. Noah walked in habitual fellowship with God."
     God says in Genesis 9:11-17 (Amplified), "I will establish My covenant (or pledge) with you; never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of a flood; neither shall there ever again be a flood to destroy the earth and make it corrupt. And God said, This is the token of the covenant (solemn pledge) which I am making between Me and you and every living creature that is with you for all future generations. I set My bow (rainbow) in the cloud, and it shall be a token or sign of a covenant (or solemn pledge) between Me and the earth. And it shall be that when I bring clouds over the earth and the bow (rainbow), is seen in the clouds I will earnestly remember My covenant (or solemn pledge) which is between Me and you and ever living creature of all flesh; and the waters will no more be a flood to destroy and make all flesh corrupt. When the bow (rainbow) is in the clouds and I look upon it, I will earnestly remember the Everlasting covenant (or pledge) between God and every living creature of all flesh that is upon the earth. And God said to Noah, This rainbow is the token or sign of the covenant (or solemn pledge) which I have established between Me and all flesh upon the earth."
     God directed Noah to build an Ark, in order to save His Righteousness and Grace from destruction.  The Ark protected God's covenant, which He made with Adam at the creation.  God needed to preserve His Promise and His Grace and the favor or His covenant, otherwise His Word to Adam would be void forever.  God looked upon Noah as being "righteous, just, and blameless in his generation."  Only Noah and his household were to be spared from the destruction of the flood.  The Ark was God's way of preserving the covenant He made with mankind.
     Through Noah God's material Blessing could be continued once again, into the earth.  Noah and his family were the only ones who could carry on the Truth of Adam's Blessing and covenant with God.  Mankind once again disobeyed God and disregarded His leading in their lives, but God preserved His pledge and covenant with Adam, unto Noah's children.  Through Noah, God's righteous and just one, God had entry back into man's lives in the earth.
     Genesis 11:24-27,29 (Amplified) continues, "When Nahor had lived 29 years he became the father of Terah. And Nahor lived after Terah was born 119 years and had other sons and daughter. After Terah had lived 70 years, he became the father of (at different times) Abram and Nahor and Haran his firstborn. Now this is the history of the descendants of Terah (Terah was the father of Abram, Nahor and Haran), and Haran was the father of Lot."  Verse 29 tells us, "Abram and Nahor took wives, the name of Abram's wife was Sara."
     We find in Genesis 12:1-3, 16-19 (Amplified), that the same blessing that had been preserved by the Ark that held Noah and his family, had produced a man who God could use to transmit this Blessing and covenant through, once again.  Thus it says, "Now in Haran, the Lord said to Abram, Go for yourself (for your own advantage), away from your country, from your relatives and your father's house, to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation, and I will Bless you with abundant increase of favors and make your name famous and distinguished, and you will be a Blessing, dispensing Good to others. And I will Bless those who bless you (who confer prosperity or happiness upon you), and curse him who curses or uses insolent language toward you. In you will all the families and kindred of the earth be Blessed, and by you will they bless themselves."
     The Blessing on Abraham was at this time, only a material Blessing, but God now had a man who would hold His covenant and His Promise. God Promised that He would Bless Abraham with all material Blessing and in Verses 16-19 we see the Promise of the Spiritual Blessing that he would produce through his union with Sara.  Thus God says, "And I will Bless her and give you a son also by her, Yes, I will Bless her, and she shall be the mother of nations, kings of peoples shall come from her. But God said, Sarah, your wife shall bear you a son indeed, and you shall call his name Isaac (Laughter), and I will establish My covenant (or solemn pledge) with him for an Everlasting covenant and with his posterity after him."
     When God asked Abraham to sacrifice his first and only son, by Promise, Abraham (for the sake of his covenant with God), was willing to give his son rather than break his covenant.  Genesis 22:16-18 (Amplified) says, "I have sworn by Myself, says the Lord, that since you have done this and have not withheld from Me your Son, your only son. In Blessing you and in multiplying I will multiply your descendants like the stars of the heavens and like the sand on the seashore. And your Seed (Heir) will possess the gate of His enemies. And your Seed (Christ) shall all the nations of the earth be Blessed, and by Him bless themselves, because you have heard and obeyed My Voice."
     Now we see the Promise of the Spiritual Blessing being pronounced upon Abraham, that was to continue as an Everlasting covenant.  We find that God's Blessing continued down for many generations and into Egypt with Joseph in Exodus 1:6-8 (Amplified) which tells us, "Then Joseph died, and all his brothers and all that generation. But all the descendants of Israel were fruitful and increased abundantly, and they multiplied and grew exceedingly strong, and the land was full of them. Now a new king arose over Egypt who did not know Joseph."
     Once again, we see the covenant of God being threatened, by man's attempts to destroy the Seed of the Promise to Abraham of his Blessing to all mankind in Exodus 1:22 (Amplified) which says, "Then Pharaoh charged all his people saying, Every son born to the Hebrews you shall cast into the river Nile, but every daughter you shall allow to live."  Satan again, tried to cut off the Seed of Promise, by destroying all male children.
     Exodus 2:1-3 (Amplified) goes on, "Now Amran, a man of the house of Levi, the priestly tribe, went and took as his wife Jochebed, a daughter of Levi. And the woman became pregnant and bore a son, and when she saw that he was exceedingly beautiful, she hid him three months. And when she could no longer hide him, she took for him an Ark (or basket made of bulrushes or papyrus), making it water right, by daubing it with bitumen and pitch, then she put the child in it and laid it among the rushes by the bank of the river Nile."
     Once again, we see God using an Ark to protect and preserve the covenant and Promise for and to His people.  The people were still dead in their spirit and could only function in the physical, so the covenant was threatened more and more.  We see how twice, God has prepared an Ark of protection for His covenant and His Promise.  He used these Arks to preserve His Truth, until Jesus was to come.
     God offered this covenant to all those of Abraham in Exodus 19:5-6 (Amplified) saying, "Now therefore, in you will obey My Voice in Truth and keep My covenant, then you shall be My Own peculiar possession and treasure from among and above all peoples, for all the earth is Mine. And you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests, a holy nation consecrated, set apart to the worship of God. These are the Words you (Moses) shall speak to the Israelites."
     The people turned away from the covenant of Promise and once again, we see the Lord make an Ark as a place of protection and a place of Promise for His Word.  In Exodus 25:10-22 (Amplified) God directs, "They shall make an Ark of acacia wood two and a half cubits long, a cubit and a half wide, and a cubit and a half high. You shall overlay the Ark with pure gold inside and out and make a golden crown, a rim or border about its top. And you shall put inside the Ark the Testimony (the ten commandments which I will give you). You shall put the Mercy Seat on the top of the Ark, and in the Ark you shall put the Testimony (the ten commandments that I will give you). There will I meet with you, from above the Mercy seat, from between the two cherubim that are upon the Ark of the Testimony, I will speak intimately with you of all which I will give you in commandment to the Israelites."
     The Lord again preserves and protects His Promise and His Own covenant, by placing it in an Ark, in Deuteronomy 10:1-5 (Amplified) which tells us, "At that time the Lord said to me (Moses), Hew two tablets of stone like the first and come up to Me on the mountain and make an Ark of wood. And I will write on the tables the Words that were on the first tables which you broke, and you shall put them in the Ark. So I, Moses, made an Ark of acacia wood and hewed two tables of stone like the first, and went up the mountain with the two tables of stone in my one hand. And the Lord wrote on the tables as at the first writing, the Ten Commandments which the Lord had spoken to you on the mountain out of the midst of the day of the assembly: and the Lord gave them to me And I turned and came down from the mountain and put the tables in the Ark which I had made, and there they are, as the Lord commanded me."
     God gave His Word to Adam and it was an Everlasting covenant for all time.  Man has repeatedly broken his part of the covenant and relationship.  God is faithful to His Word and has made an Ark to protect and preserve His Word from Adam to Jesus.  Jesus has now become the Ark of the Covenant, in Whom Grace and Truth has come to rest.  Those of us who have trusted in Him, are safely in Christ Jesus (the Ark) and are protected from all things outside the covenant.
     Many never realize the protection and preservation of our Ark, but He is the Word, the Way, the Truth and the Life!  He is the Door, by which we enter into the Ark, just as surely as the door God closed on Noah and his family that kept them safe and sound during the flood.  Now, through Jesus, we have the material Blessing that kept Abraham and we have the Spiritual Blessing that was the Promise to Abraham.  While the Door to the Ark is still open, let us enter into the Promises and the Truth of this covenant, that God has protected for us.

Lesson 81 GRACE AND TRUTH-GOD'S WILL

     John 1:16-17 (Amplified) tells us, "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."
     Religion has taught us that, "Some are special and endowed with more than others."  We've been taught that the Father has "favorites" among the Body of Christ and that's why some have it, while others don't.  The above scripture declares that, "We have all been Blessed and we have all been supplied with, all these things in Jesus.   
     When we were made new creation sons and daughter in Christ Jesus, 2Corinthians 5:17 says that, "We inherited all of these potentials from our Heavenly Father."  We now have the Spiritual DNA of God, in our new spirits.  Most haven't understood what happened when we were born-again.  We were born-again into the Life of God again.  Adam's transgression in the Garden of Eden, caused mankind to become detached or dead in spirit and separated from the Holy Spirit of God.  The only ones would could function by God's Spirit, were those who were anointed by God (like Elijah).
     Certain men were anointed as prophets, kings, priests and judges.  Only those were were "called," could be used by God.  In the new creation family of God, we are ALL anointed by the new birth of and into God's Spirit.  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."
     There are many more scriptures that teach us that we've not only been anointed, but that Anointing lives in us, by the Holy Spirit.  This isn't referring to the Gifts of the Spirit, found in 1Corinthians 12, but is in reference to the Very Spirit Who gives these Gifts.  The Holy Spirit now lives in and has anointed you, by His indwelling Presence.
     Many haven't discerned or understood how to hear the Holy Spirit in their lives, most likely because we're still much more carnal than Spiritual, in our Christian walk.  The anointing or unction from and by the Holy Spirit, is the same anointing and unction that came upon the men of the old covenant, in order to perform what God needed said and done.  The anointing doesn't come upon the new creation men and women, but it has come inside and has been infused into our new spirit.  We've actually been made one with and in Him.
     It's difficult for the Holy Spirit to move within men, who are still mostly carnal in their minds and thinking.  Paul commented on this in 1Corinthians 1:6 (Amplified), saying, "Yet when we are among the full-grown, spiritually mature Christians who are ripe in understanding, we do impart a higher Wisdom, the knowledge of the Divine Plan previously hidden; but it is indeed not a wisdom of this present age or of this world nor of the leaders and rulers of this age who are being brought to nothing and are doomed to pass away."
     Paul also writes in 1Corinthians 3:1-2 (Amplified), "However, Brethren, I could not talk to you as to spiritual men, but as to non-spiritual men of the flesh in whom the carnal nature predominates, as to mere infants in the new Life in Christ unable to talk yet. I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not yet strong enough to be ready for it, but even yet you are not strong enough to be ready for it."
     Galatians 6:7-8 (Amplified) says, "Do not be deceived and deluded and misled; God will not allow Himself to be sneered at (scorned, disdained, or mocked) by mere pretensions or professions, or by His precepts being set aside; He inevitably deludes himself who attempts to delude God; For whatever a man sows, that and that only is what he will reap. For he who sows to his own flesh (lower nature, sensuality), will from the flesh reap decay and ruin and destruction, but he who sows to the Spirit, will from the Spirit reap Eternal Life."
     Even the new creatures in Christ Jesus will only reap from whatever the lower nature is able to provide, which is decay and ruin, if we continue walking only in the carnal realm.  God is not mocked.  He can only do or produce from "good seed," and not from what the world provides.  God's Word tells us that, "Whatever we sow, is what we will reap."
     Don't be deluded or deceived, by what is produced in the lives of some Christians you might know.  God isn't mocked and He can only do what His Word (Seed) says.  If you're receiving a crop of decay, ruin or destruction, then don't be deceived.  You're sowing to the lower nature (the flesh), by carnal understanding and you're reaping decay from the lower nature.
     God will not be mocked!  When ruin comes into your life, don't say, "God is doing it."  Whatever we sow, that and only that, is what we reap.  This comes from not knowing who and what we are in Christ and what we've received from Him.  We've become new creation beings, but we continue walking in the old carnal, lower nature and are reaping destruction in our lives.  We have deceived ourselves through religious reasoning, which can only bring forth ruin and heartache.
     Everyone in the Body of Christ is anointed by and through His anointing.  No one has been left out, according to 1Corinthians 6:17 (Amplified) which says, "But the person who is united to the Lord becomes one Spirit with Him."  We cannot become one with Him in Spirit and not become one also with His Anointing.  This Anointing is His Spirit.  The Holy Spirit is the Anointing and you are one in Him and with Him, in Christ Jesus. 
    
    

Lesson 80 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 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."
     When you know God's will concerning any area of your life, you will have faith in God's Word for that thing or situation.  When faith comes or believing in God's Promise in that situation comes, then you will always have victory in that situation.  Colossi ans 1:9-13 (Amplified) says, "For this reason we also, from the day we heard of it, have not ceased to pray and make special request for you, asking that you may be filled with the full (deep, 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. That you may walk, live and conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to Him in all things, bearing fruit in every good work and steadily growing and increasing in and by the knowledge of God, with fuller, deeper, and clearer insight, acquaintance, and recognition."  Verses 11-13 go on, "We pray that you may be invigorated and strengthened with all power according to the Might of His Glory, to exercise every kind of endurance and patience, perseverance and forbearance with joy. Giving thanks to the Father Who has qualified and made us fit to share the portion which is the inheritance of the saints (God's holy people) in the Light. The Father has delivered and drawn us to Himself out of the control and the dominion of darkness and has transferred us into the Kingdom of the Son of His Love."
     This might be the first time you've read the above scriptures.  The Holy Spirit didn't give this prayer for the Church in Colossus, but He gave it to us.  2Timothy 3:16 (Amplified) tells us, "Every scripture is God-breathed (given by His Inspiration) and profitable for instruction, for reproof, and conviction of error and discipline in obedience and for training in righteousness, in holy living, in conformity to God's will in thought, purpose and action."
     It's difficult to conform to God's will, when we don't know what His will is.  Not knowing God's will concerning our walk with Him, is one of the greatest stumbling blocks for today's Church.  Some believer that hardship and sickness are His will, but Colossi ans 1:9-13 encourages us to know and understand God's will.  Paul taught us further, in 2Timothy 3:16, that "God uses His Word to teach, correct, and bring us into conformity to His will."
     We've become double-minded people, when it comes to knowing God's will.  James 1:5-8 (Amplified) says, "If any of you is deficient in Wisdom, let him ask of God Who gives to everyone liberally and ungrudgingly, without reproaching or fault finding, and it will be given him. Only it must be in faith that he asks with no wavering (no hesitating, no doubting). For the one who wavers (hesitates, doubts), is like the billowing surge out of sea that is blown hither and thither and tossed by the wind. For truly, let not such a person imagine that he will receive anything he asks for from the Lord. For being as he is a man of two minds (hesitating, dubious, irresolute), he is unstable and unreliable and uncertain about everything he thinks, feels, decides."
     The carnal mind is at enmity against the Word of Truth. The Spiritually minded believer, who wishes to know God's Truth, has God's Wisdom cancelled out by reasoning and is left without answers about God's will and mind.  We've become double-minded, because of the differing teachings and education we've received.  One can have enough education to read and understand the words, but still not have Revelation of the Truth they hold.  This leaves us in religion, instead of relation with God.  The carnal mind cannot receive the Spirit of God's Word, so we search for reasons as to why certain things aren't working like they should, in our lives.  The carnal mind then determines that "It's not God's will for us to have these things."
     Jesus said in John 6:63 (Amplified), "It is the Spirit Who gives Life (He is the Life Giver), the flesh conveys no benefit whatever (there is no profit in it). The Words (Truths) that I have been speaking to you are Spirit and Life."  We sometimes forget that God's Word is also Spirit.  It doesn't come from or for the carnal minds of men, but God's Word is from the Spirit Father.  Miracles, signs, and wonders don't make sense to the carnal mind.  The carnal mind can't understand it and assumes these things are not longer valid for today.
     God's Word is born of the Super-natural Man Jesus and is for Super-natural men.  Only the new creation people, who have the mind of Christ, can discern Truth from fiction.  The carnally minded Christian might be born-again, but hasn't renewed his/her mind with God's Word and continues reading the Word from a worldly viewpoint.  Many people get saved, but remain Spiritual babies, as far as Wisdom is concerned.  Miracles and the Move of God's Spirit in our lives, have been mostly dismissed by today's Church, because we haven't allowed the Holy Spirit to produce Life to His Truth.
     We say that, "We believe," but then say, "These things are for when we die and go to Heaven."  We really do believe, but we believe it's for the future.  Have you ever wondered what good is it, to lay hands on the sick, after we go to be with the Lord?  How many sick people live in Heaven?  We must accept Paul's writing from Colossi ans 1:9-13 as a prayer for our lives today and receive it as being God's will for His family.  Then, we can truly understand the Truth of the Spirit of God's Word.
     The Father wants us to know and understand His Heart.  He wants His family to know His will, in order to restore everything wrong on the earth, back to Kingdom righteousness.  Jesus prayed in Matthew 6:10 (Amplified), "Your Kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in Heaven."  Jesus taught us to pray in this manner and restore the things that are out-of-order on this earth, back into the order of God's will in the Kingdom.
     This takes the Super-natural power of the Holy Spirit and only He can get it done!  We must simply yield to Him, by believing that He not only can do it, but it's truly His will to do it now.  Jesus said that, "It's not Me Who does the work, but the Father in Me does the work."  The same is true for us.  It's God Who does the work.  We need to believe it is still His will and He is still Almighty God.