All our personal preferences must be submitted to God and his word. Some people adopt the preferences of the culture around them, while others pride themselves on being more individualistic. But for Christians, we need to adopt the preferences of God.

When a person decides to be a Christian, his life is supposed to radically change. We don’t belong to ourselves any more, we belong to God. We are not our own, but we are bought with a price (1 Corinthians 6:19-20). God purchased us at the price of the blood of his Son. This means that we are God’s slaves (1 Peter 2:16). God owns us. He is our master and Lord. We don’t just want to call him Lord, but we need to have the reality of his lordship over our lives.

We cannot just live however we want, but we must live according to how God wants us to live. We can’t just live according to our own desires (1 Peter 4:2), but we must live according to the Holy Spirit.

Everything is not subjective – one truth for me and another for you. God is the objective standard that defines all reality, for he is the arbiter of truth. We discover objective reality from the word of God.

The Bible reveals that our souls are comprised of two main parts: the heart and the mind. The mind has thoughts, and the heart has desires. We must measure all our thoughts and desires by the word of God.

We need to renew our mind with God’s word (Romans 12:1). God’s thoughts must fill our mind and become our thoughts. The only way that we can know God’s thoughts is through God’s word, because the word of God gives us revelation. We need divine revelation to know God’s thoughts because God’s thoughts are not our thoughts (Isaiah 55:8-9).

We also need to regulate the content of our hearts by the word of God. We are commanded to hate evil and love good (Amos 5:15). We must desire the things that God desires and hate the things that God hates.

The Holy Spirit is to saturate every part of our souls – our hearts and minds. Then we will produce the fruit of the Spirit.

If we are not willing to take up our cross, crucify our flesh, and lose our souls in this world, we cannot be Jesus’ disciples (Matthew 16:24-26). When we follow Jesus, some things will have to die within us. Our own preferences, comforts, likes and dislikes will often have to die as we are crucified with Christ. “It is no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me” (Galatians 2:20).

We must stop justifying wrong thinking or desires with ideas like:

“I know it’s wrong, but I deserve to feel this way”

“I’m entitled to these thoughts”

“I have a right to express my emotions in that way because of what people have done to me.”

There is a way that seems right to a man, but the end is death (Proverbs 14:12). Sometimes we avoid doing the hard things that God wants us to do because it seems better to do something else. Sometimes we just don’t want to obey God. We don’t think it will work, or we don’t feel like it. We want to maintain rights over our own life and do things our own way. We are hesitant to go to the cross.

It’s like eating healthy food, exercising, or taking medicine. It might seem unpleasant for a while, but afterwards obedience to God will bring healing into our lives. The only way to experience the resurrection power of God is through crucifixion. We must take up our cross in order to live a normal Christian life in the power of the Holy Spirit.

The Bible warns us against walking in the sparks we have kindled (Isaiah 50:10). Trying to walk down a dark path with little sparks is compared to trying to get through life by walking according to our own desires, thoughts, or human understanding. If we do things in our own way, then the Bible says we will lie down in torment (Isaiah 50:11).

The Hebrew word torment means a place of pain, grief, and terror. We will face more grief and pain when we try to solve our problems in our own way. We need to turn to the blazing light of Christ rather than the fleeting sparks of our own wisdom.

The Hebrew word torment also refers to being fashioned, shaped, or made. Torment can shape us. When we roll things over in our minds or hearts, reliving things and experiencing their emotions over and over again, we can etch our lives with pain.

Jesus is the only one who can set us free from evil. This is why he died and rose again. We need to turn away from our own ways and turn to him. He will save us. If we are tormented because we’ve gone in our own ways in the past, there is forgiveness and healing with Jesus. He loves us in spite of our failures, and he will strengthen us by his word and Spirit so we can be safe in the future.

Let Jesus Christ be your Lord. Let him dominate your mind and fill your heart. The Holy Spirit will enable you to crucify your flesh and lose your soul in this world that you may preserve it unto eternal life. This will be by his grace, as you yield yourself to him who bought you with the cost of his blood. This is the bright path that leads to true happiness and abundant life.

The Scriptures contain inexorable power to unleash the kingdom of God all over the earth. The Scriptures must be fulfilled, and nothing can stop their power.

The word Scripture is graphe in Greek which specifically means writings. Scripture is the writings of God. Throughout the New Testament, the word Scripture is used many times to refer to God’s written words.

Jesus often quotes Scripture, showing that it is the basis for his life. Scripture should be the basis for our lives as well.

All Scripture is breathed out by God (2 Timothy 3:16). No other books in the world besides the Bible are written by God. Many books are written by men, and a few books are written by demons. But no other book besides the Bible is written by God. Therefore the Bible contains spiritual power that no other book has.

All Scripture is written by the Holy Spirit (2 Peter 1:20). It is perfect and makes no mistakes.

Jesus surrounded his life with the power of the Scriptures. He often talked about the Scriptures. He quoted the Scriptures. He referred to them as completely authoritative.

When the devil attacked Jesus, he quoted the Scripture to defeat him (Matthew 4). The Scripture contains divine power to hurl down Satan.

Jesus told Satan, “It is written.” After hearing Scripture, Satan ran away. These written words from God contain power to chase away fallen angels.

Jesus said the Scripture cannot be broken (John 10:35). It’s impossible to break the power of God’s word. God preserves these writings in the earth, and we have them perfectly handed down to us today.

Jesus settled arguments by quoting the Scriptures (Matthew 22:29). The Scripture is an insurmountable bulwark against Satan that destroys the vain arguments of men.

Jesus said that Scripture would outlast heaven and earth (Matthew 5:18). The smallest letter will not pass away from the Scripture until everything written down happens.

The Scriptures must be fulfilled. Whatever God wrote down in the Bible has to happen. It’s impossible for it not to. There is unstoppable spiritual power operating through the Scripture to bring whatever it says to pass.

The potential power of God’s word is released when people step into it and fulfill the conditions for its operation.

When Jesus began his ministry, he stepped into a spiritual environment that had been prepared for him by the word of God. Centuries before, Isaiah wrote down Scriptures which contained potential power that was waiting to be fulfilled and released on the earth when the Christ came.

Around 30 AD Jesus stood up in his hometown synagogue and read a passage from Isaiah that described the ministry of Christ. He would heal, preach good news, and set free captives. Jesus said TODAY this Scripture is fulfilled (Luke 4:16-21).

This Scripture from Isaiah contained potential power that was accessed when Jesus, as the Christ and the spotless lamb of God, stepped into it. When Jesus stepped into these ancient prophetic words of the Scriptures, they were fulfilled. The awesome power of God began to reverberate through Jesus into the earth, and he went around proclaiming the arrival of the kingdom of God.

The power of Scripture continues to operate today when people step into the spiritual place that is created by the Scriptures.

There are many Scriptures that need to be fulfilled at the end of the age. Many of them pertain to God’s people. When God’s people step into the position prepared for them by God, the Scriptures will be fulfilled, and God’s power will operate. By obeying his word, God’s people will be carried along supernaturally to their destination, and through them the glory of the bride of Christ will be revealed to the world.

In our lives, when we submit to God, we are under his authority. This happens as we obey the Scriptures. These Scriptures must be fulfilled, and they contain power to manifest their fulfillment. This infinite spiritual power must operate. This power of the Scriptures will be released through God’s obedient saints.

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction (Proverbs 1:7).

According to the Bible, we need to fear God. This doesn’t mean we need to run away from him because he will strike us down for all our mistakes. That’s not the Biblical fear of God. Instead, we need to have great respect and awe for God, and allow him to dominate our lives.

The fear of God is not primarily about judgment. Those who do not have a relationship with God are under judgment, but they do not fear God (Romans 3:18). They are fools who don’t care about God. Only those who are in a healthy relationship with God can truly fear him in the Biblical sense.

There are two types of people in the world – those who fear God and those who don’t. The Bible says those who fear God are wise, and those who don’t fear God are fools.

If we fear God, we will obey him.

If we fear God, we will obey him. God is all-knowing. God knows more about us, the future, other people, and the world than we do. God’s plans are perfect. God loves us and wants the best for us. When we obey God his good plans come to pass, and he will keep us safe. This is wisdom.

Foolish people don’t obey God. They want to do whatever they want to do. They think their own plans are better than God’s plans. This is foolish and leads to unnecessary problems.

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths” (Proverbs 3:5-6).

If we fear God, we will value the Bible.

If we fear God, we’ll value the Bible. The Bible is the only perfect book in the world. It was written by God. Wise people will value this infinitely valuable book. They will read the Bible because they want to know what God has said. They will allow the word of God to control their thoughts. When a wise person finds out he is thinking differently than the Bible, he will change his thinking because he knows God is a lot smarter than he is.

Fools don’t care about God’s word. They don’t fear God, so they don’t care about the Bible. They put their own thoughts above the Bible. Ignoring the only perfect source of wisdom and knowledge in the world is foolish.

Problems reveal where our fear is. Wise people fear God (respect and value him) so they run to God and to his word when they face problems. Fools don’t fear God so they run elsewhere.

We don’t need self-help methods. We need Jesus. We need the life of God inside of us. Our self does not need to be reformed, it needs to be crucified with Christ. Only the genuine life of Christ inside us can bring salvation to our souls.

Jesus warned us that if a person tries to save his soul in this world he will lose it, but if he loses his soul he will keep it unto eternal life. It’s foolish to try to save our souls through self-help or other human ways. People try to patch over their problems with fig leaves, but that doesn’t work.

Everything we need to resolve life’s issues is found in God and his word.God has given us all things that pertain to life and godliness (2 Peter 1:3). 

All Scripture is breathed out by God. It’s given so the man of God may be complete, perfect, and fully mature (2 Timothy 3:16-17). If we want to be complete, we need the Bible.

In Christ Jesus are hidden all treasures of wisdom and knowledge (Colossians 2:3). The wisdom of Christ is often hidden. Sometimes we don’t know what to do. The answer is hidden in Christ. Keep praying, keep reading the Bible, keep seeking out fellowship, and keep following God. The hidden wisdom of Christ will become manifested, though it might take time.

The Holy Spirit searches the deep things of God (1 Corinthians 2:10). He will reveal the hidden wisdom of Christ, giving us the knowledge we need.

The fear of God can keep us from sin.

The fear of God can keep us from sin. There are many opportunities for sin in this wicked world, possibly more than ever before. Fear from God will protect us from these evil things and keep us on the right path. Going in the way of sin is not a good option. The result of sin is death. Sin is like a wasteland and desert. Wise people want to avoid this.

Foolish people don’t care about sin. Whether a person believes in God or not doesn’t change the fact that sin causes problems. If you put vegetable oil in your gas tank, it will cause problems for your car. If you sin, it will cause problems for your life. Fear God, repent, and turn away from sin. If you sin, God can forgive you and cleanse your life.

If we fear God we will make his kingdom number 1.

Jesus told us to seek first God’s kingdom above everything else (Matthew 6:33). The kingdom of God will last forever. If we seek the kingdom of God, we will build something that will endure through eternity.

Foolish people pursue other things first, like how to make money or how to be happy in the world. The kingdom of God is secondary to them.

It’s foolish to big a gigantic house on the sand. That house will someday be destroyed. Don’t spend your entire life building things that will be burned up. The more important something is, the more stability it requires. The more expensive and valuable a house is, the more it needs a strong foundation. A hut of leaves can be put on the sand, but a mansion made of stones needs a stable foundation. Our lives are more important than houses, and therefore we should build them on something that has eternal value.That’s Christ and his word.

If we fear God we will trust him.

God will do what he said he would do. When we fear him we know that he is trustworthy. He will keep his word and do things we are unable to do. Let’s hold onto God when trouble comes. God will not lie. When we trust in God, we will see miracles happen.

A fool doesn’t trust God. He doesn’t believe that God will come through. When trouble hits, he starts complaining. It’s foolish to complain about a perfect God. God never makes mistakes. To complain about a perfect, all-wise, all-knowing, all-powerful God makes no sense.

Foolish people not only complain about God, but they run away from God when they face problems.God told the Israelites to go to the Promised Land, but they didn’t fear him so they didn’t believe him. They doubted he would give them victory. So they wandered around the wilderness for 40 years until they all died. This was a foolish decision, and they made this choice because they did not fear God.

Fear of God casts out all other fear. It destroys doubt and unbelief. It shatters the fear of people. It gets rid of the fear of death.

Fear God. Let him be number one in your life. He must be above everything else. That is the beginning of wisdom.

Many people in the world, particularly in Asia and the Middle East, believe in the spiritual power of the evil eye. Approximately 40% of the world population has superstitious beliefs about the evil eye. Generally, they believe that if someone has an evil eye toward them, that they may be harmed, and they believe they need to protect themselves from this spiritual harm.

The Bible also warns us against the evil eye. But unlike the cultures of the world, the Bible warns us that we can be badly affected by our own evil eye, rather than by the evil eye of others. We need to make sure our eye is not evil, rather than worrying about the evil eye of others.

Jesus said that if a person has an evil eye, his body will be full of darkness (Matthew 6:22-23). The darkness produced by the evil eye is spiritual darkness, and this darkness creates problems. Jesus does not want his children to have an evil eye because he does not want them to be full of darkness.

Jesus said that the opposite of the evil eye is a good (simple) eye. Those with a simple eye will have bodies full of light. This means they will be blessed. According to Jesus, spiritual darkness and spiritual light come into us depending on the type of eye that we have. Jesus wants us to have simple or good eyes so we can be blessed.

What is the difference between an evil eye and a simple eye?

An evil eye is connected to the love of money, which the Bible says is the root of all evil (1 Timothy 6:10). Those who are eager to be rich have an evil eye (Proverbs 28:22). These people envy, covet, and lack generosity.

The opposite of an evil eye is a simple or good eye. The Greek word for simple is from a word meaning unfolded. Imagine a piece of cloth that is laid out flat – it has no folds, creases, or dark places. The cloth is open and laid bare. This is how the simple eye is: it is uncomplicated.

An evil eye on the other hand is more complex, like a folded cloth. It has folds, creases, coverings, dark places, and hidden recesses. The evil eye is full of envy, hatred, and jealousy.

There are two ways to look at the world – with an evil eye or a simple eye. The same situations and people can be viewed in two different ways. A person with an evil eye looks at people with envy and hatred. A person with a simple eye looks at people with love, generosity, and kindness.

One way the Bible describes the evil eye is by explaining a poor person coming and asking for help. A person with an evil eye will refuse to help the poor man because he thinks he is just taking advantage of people (Deuteronomy 15:7-11). The evil eye doesn’t want to help people. It is not generous. It attributes evil motives to people.

When Jesus came to this world, he didn’t have an evil eye towards the people of the world. Although he was mistreated and killed, he kept loving and giving. On the cross he cried out, “Father forgive them for they know not what they do.” Jesus did not come to take from us. He came to give. He had a simple, good eye.

The Holy Spirit in us will inspire us to have a simple, good eye toward others.

Another way the Bible describes the evil eye is when Jesus told a parable about workers who agreed to work for 12 hours a day for a denarius (the coin that was the daily wage). At the end of the day, when these workers were paid their denarius, they saw others who worked only one hour who were also paid a denarius. Everyone was paid the same! Those who worked for twelve hours had an evil eye against the ones who only worked one hour because they didn’t think it was fair that they all received the same amount. Although they agreed to be paid only a denarius, they didn’t want others getting more than they did (Matthew 20:15).

A person with an evil eye doesn’t want others to succeed. He certainly doesn’t want others to be preferred over him, and he doesn’t want to get less than what he thinks is his fair share.

When we are relying on ourselves, it is easy to develop an evil eye. We will hoard resources and turn inward. We think that everything depends on us, and then we covet what others have and become envious and wrongfully suspicious. The evil eye will hinder us from experiencing God’s miracles, and it will block us from supernatural provision. It shows lack of faith.

But when we trust in God, then we can look at things differently. We can give, hoping for nothing in return. The love of God can pour out from us to a needy and wicked world. When there is a supernatural flow out from us, there will be a supernatural flow into us.

God is raising up people at the end of the age who will look to heaven for their help, and not rely on their own strength. They will have a simple eye, and not an evil eye, because they know God is their Father and he will provide for all they need.

Jesus said it’s more blessed to give than to receive. A generous person wants to bless others and help them. He is simple. He has a bountiful or a good eye (Proverbs 22:9). This person will be blessed supernaturally by God.

The evil eye comes from a wicked heart (Mark 7:22). When a person has an evil eye, it’s because he has a heart problem. In order to be free from the evil eye, a person needs Jesus to change his heart. He needs to be full of the Holy Spirit. When a person is full of the Holy Spirit, God’s living water will flow out of him to bless others.

We need to have hearts full of the Holy Spirit and the love of God. Then we will have a simple eye. We will be full of light. When we are full of light, then that light will radiate out of us into our surroundings, circumstances and relationships. Other things will become full of light because we are full of light (Luke 11:34-36).

The Bible warns us not to eat the food of a person who has an evil eye (Proverbs 23:6-8). It says the person with an evil eye will try to hide his hatred and not let others know what is really in his heart. He pretends that he likes you, but he actually doesn’t. He pretends he is generous to you, but he is actually the opposite. The Bible warns us that desiring things from a person with an evil eye can create problems.

Jesus Christ can heal us from the evil eye. He became poor that we could become rich. He did not have an evil eye against us, even when we were dead in our sins. He didn’t want to take from us or punish us, when we deserved God’s wrath. We were like the poorest and most wretched beggars, and yet God had mercy on us. He wiped away our sins. He gave his life freely so we could be blessed. We did not deserve this gift. But Jesus looked on us with love and gave us the riches of heaven freely.

We have freely received, let us freely give. We can do this when we have a good, simple eye.

We have a rich inheritance in Christ. Jesus Christ had all the riches of the heavenly Father, and then he died on the cross. When a person dies, his last will and testament comes into effect. Jesus’ last will and testament is the New Testament which bestows the riches of the Holy Spirit upon everyone who believes in him. Through Jesus, this heavenly inheritance is ours (Hebrews 9:16-17).

In order to receive an inheritance, it is necessary to know about it. A person may have an inheritance, but if he doesn’t know about it, he won’t receive it. Most people in the world do not avail of the riches of Christ because they don’t know about the Gospel.

To receive an inheritance, one needs a measure of faith. The authorities may contact you, telling you that your uncle in the Bahamas left you a million dollars, but if you don’t believe what they say, you won’t receive it. Many people who have heard the gospel don’t believe it’s true, and therefore they don’t partake of the inheritance of Christ.

The details of our heavenly inheritance are given to us in the word of God. When we believe what God says, then we receive this inheritance.

Part of this inheritance in Christ is physical healing. Our God is a healing God. He heals our souls, and he heals our bodies.

We can be healed through the word of God. God’s word is a medicine to all our flesh (Proverbs 4:20-22).

We can be healed by fearing Godand departing from evil (Proverbs 3:7-8). Sin produces death. When we forsake sin and submit to God, we can be healed.

We can be healed by joy(Proverbs 17:22). A broken spirit can make us sick, but the joy of the Lord is our strength (Nehemiah 8:10).

We can also be healed by miracles.

Jesus healed many people while he walked the earth. He often healed entire cities and villages (Matthew 8:16-17). He healed everyone who came to him. There is no example of someone coming to Jesus asking for physical healing in the New Testament who was not healed.

The apostles healed many people (Matthew 10:1,8). Jesus sent out 70 people to heal (Luke 10:9).

Jesus’ healing ministry fulfilled a prophecy in Isaiah which says that that he took our infirmities and bore our sicknesses (Matthew 8:16-17, Isaiah 53:3-4). Jesus took these things away from all of us.

By his stripes we are healed (1 Peter 2:24; Isaiah 53:5).

Jesus Christ hasn’t changed. He’s the same yesterday, today, and forever (Hebrews 13:8).

After going up to heaven and sitting at the right hand of God, Jesus poured out his Holy Spirit on his people. We are the body of Christ in the earth. The same Spirit that empowered Jesus to work miracles and heal the sick is inside of us. Jesus said that we would do the same works he did, and we would do even greater works than what he did (John 14:12).

Jesus promised that those who believe in him would lay hands on the sick and they would recover (Mark 16:17-18).

Throughout the book of Acts many healings happened through God’s people. Healing is to be a normal part of Christianity.

Jesus gives the spiritual gift of healing to some people in the church (1 Corinthians 12:9, 28, 30).

Throughout the New Testament people are healed by prayer. Sometimes individual prayer and sometimes group prayer heals people.

People are healed by casting out demons. Sometimes sickness is the result of a demon (Luke 13:11) – but not always. When demons are cast out, people are often healed.

People are healed by the laying on of hands.

They are healed by the anointing with oil (Mark 6:13; James 5:14-16).

When God heals people, the kingdom of God grows in the earth. God wants his kingdom to expand and take over everything.

God’s people are destroyed for lack of knowledge (Hosea 4:6). We need to know about our inheritance in Christ and then we need to receive it in faith. Physical healing is available to God’s people through Jesus Christ, and it is an important part of our inheritance in Christ.

Why is there is there sickness in the world?

There is sickness in the world because of sin. Before the Fall there was no sickness, but after the Fall people started getting sick.

Sometimes sickness comes because a person commits sin (John 5:14), but this is not necessarily the case (John 9:2). All the sins in the world have compounded together to unleash viruses, bacteria, and other means of decay and corruption into the world. Because of the general corruption that is in the world because of sin, there is sickness.

Jesus went to the cross and dealt with sin, death, Satan, and every evil thing in the world that is a result of sin. He also dealt with sickness on the cross (Isaiah 53:3-5).

If Jesus dealt with sickness on the cross, then why do people still get sick?

Jesus dealt with a lot of things on the cross, especially sin. But people still sin, including Christians. Why? If Jesus dealt with sin on the cross, shouldn’t Christians not sin? Christians sin because they have not yet received the fullness of their inheritance. We’ll get that at the end of the age. Since we have not yet received the fullness of our inheritance on the earth, we still sin, get sick, face problems from Satan, and have other challenges.

Is it God’s will for people to be healed?

John said he wanted Christians to be physically healthy as well as spiritually healthy, above all things (3 John 2).

God told us to pray that his will would be done on earth as it is in heaven. In heaven there is no sickness. This is God’s will. God wants this reality to be upon the earth.

It is God’s will for people to be healed.

This shouldn’t be a controversial statement. It’s actually obvious. Most Christians know this. This is why they try to get well whenever they are sick. They take medicine, go to the doctor, rest, and eat healthy food to get get over their sickness. If a person believed it is God’s will for them to be sick, then they wouldn’t try to get better. They would happily stay sick, for that would be God’s will, and getting better would be rebellion against God. That’s silly. God wants his people to be well, just like you and I want to be well when we are sick.

If God’s will is for people to be healed, why do they still get sick, including Christians?

God’s will is often not happening in this world. That’s why God told us to pray for his will to be done. If God’s will was automatically happening, then we would not have to pray for his will to be done.

Many things happen in the world that are not God’s will. It was not God’s will for Adam to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, but he ate of it anyway. It was not God’s will for Hitler, Stalin, and Mao to kill millions of people; but they did so. It’s not God’s will for anyone to sin, but people still sin, including Christians. Sin is never God’s will. God’s will is for everyone to be saved and know the truth (1 Timothy 2:4), but most people are not saved and reject the truth.

God’s will is often not happening on earth because people have free will. God allows them to make bad choices that are contrary to his will. However, God is so powerful that he can turn all these bad things around to bring good out of them.

God’s will is for people to be healed, stop sinning, and manifest his kingdom everywhere. If everyone stopped sinning and was saved and healed, it would be the end of the age. Satan would be thrown into the lake of fire. But this is not yet happening, so we have to keep pressing forward with the kingdom of God in the earth so that God’s will is done and Satan’s works are destroyed.

At the end of the age, sin and sickness will be thrown out of the earth (Revelation 21:4)

Persistence

We should not give up too easily when we are sick. Healings may not happen immediately. We need to keep pressing forward, trusting God, and praying. Jesus said we should always pray and not give up. Don’t start complaining about God. That’s pointless.

One time Jesus prayed for a blind man. The first time he prayed for him, the man’s eyes got a little better and he saw people blurry, like trees. Then Jesus prayed a second time and he got perfect eyesight (Mark 8:22-25). If Jesus had to pray multiple times for a person to be healed, we also may have to pray multiple times before healing happens.

Increasing Diseases

As we approach the end of the age, Jesus warned us that diseases will increase (Luke 21:11). God’s people will need supernatural healing to recover from these diseases. It’s time to begin availing of this miraculous power now.

How can we be healed?

Read the word of God. It’s a healing medicine.

Be filled with the Spirit.

Be led by the Spirit – maybe God wants you to do something or eat something that will bring healing to you.

Have faith in God – believe that God wants to heal you.

Sometimes we must fast and pray for healing.

Ask others to pray for you and lay hands on you.

Be persistent and don’t give up.

Sometimes we need to be anointed with oil by the elders.

The Lord’s Supper can be healing.

We need the body of Christ. Gather together with other believers and enjoy God’s presence together. Jesus is among us, and he will heal, for he is the same yesterday, today, and forever.

Physical healing is part of our inheritance in Christ. We need to forget false teachings, bad experiences, and anything else that hinders us from partaking of this important aspect of our inheritance in Christ.

“Don’t follow a crowd to do evil” (Exodus 23:2).

Crowds can have a powerful effect on people. It’s easy to go along with the crowd, and it’s hard to go against a crowd. But Christians sometimes need to stand against a crowd to be faithful to God.

“That which is highly esteemed among men is an abomination in the sight of God” (Luke 16:15).

People often value things that God hates. Crowds often value things that are totally wrong. If we are influenced by crowds, then we can be pressured to go against God.

Modern Deceptions

In the history of the world, it’s not uncommon for almost everyone to be deceived. 

In the past 100 years, mass deception has swept through the world. Hitler ravaged Europe. Vast delusions took over China and Russia, leading to millions of deaths. Governments said that killing people was essential for progress, and people blindly believed these lies and went along with mass murder.

There is deception in the United States of America, too.

As a small example, there has been much deception regarding health and diet over the years.

A few decades ago, doctors, scientists, and the US government said that margarine is great, and butter is terrible. So people stocked up on margarine and eliminated butter from their pantries. But now “experts” say the opposite – margarine is terrible and butter is good, and so people throw out margarine and buy butter.

For years, the US government recommended that people stop eating too many eggs because of cholesterol. So people stopped eating a lot of eggs. But now, experts tell us that eating eggs has no effect on blood cholesterol levels, and the US government in 2015 scrapped their recommendation about eating fewer eggs. So now people are eating more eggs than before.

In the 1990s, there was a craze to eliminate fat completely from the diet. The government and popular media urged us to eat a lot of carbohydrates and hardly any fat. Many people desperately tried to stop eating fat. But now, experts say we should eat more fat and minimize carbs, and so people are eating less carbs and more fat.

People are often pushed around like pingpong balls by leaders.

These examples probably seem small. But they point to the fact that cultures and societies have been wrong throughout history. People who follow “experts” blindly can end up being completely wrong, and they often regret it later.

There is no benefit in believing a lie. Lies, whether big or small, come from Satan. We don’t need to be pushed around by the crowd or blindly follow “experts.”

Ancient Deceptions

In the Bible there are several examples of almost everyone in the world being completely deceived.

Before the Flood, the entire world was corrupt except Noah and his family (Genesis 6:9). Wickedness was everywhere, but Noah stood against it. He preached righteousness (2 Peter 2:5). He built a massive boat, which was very different from what everyone else was doing. Noah had strength to go against the crowd. He got this strength from the word of God. God spoke to Noah and warned him that judgment was coming (Hebrews 11:7). Most people didn’t hear this warning from God, and they probably mocked Noah when he told them about it. But Noah believed God’s word, and faith God’s word gave him strength to stand against the corrupt world.

After the Flood, everyone in the world was busy building the Tower of Babel (Genesis 11:1-8). Nimrod united the entire world in this vast building project. Nimrod was a rebel against God and he did a lot of evil things, but everyone wanted to follow him anyway.

God called Abraham to come out of Babylon (Hebrews 11:8). Abraham obeyed. Abraham had strength to go against the crowd and follow God, because he had faith in God’s word. He left Babylon and headed toward the Promised Land.

God calls his people today to come out of Babylon (Revelation 18:4). Babylon is the entire world system that is contrary to God. Leaving Babylon is not easy. This means going against the crowd, the culture, and what is popular. This takes strength. But if we want to survive at the end of the age, we will need to come out of Babylon. This is only possible by the Holy Spirit.

Exodus 32 says that the priest of God’s people, Aaron, encouraged them to make a golden cow to worship God. All Israelites except two people fell into this deception. This shows us that government leaders, religious leaders, and “experts” can lead people to do dumb things. Leaders may have good intentions, but they can be totally wrong.

We need to think for ourselves. Follow God’s word.

In Daniel, the king of Babylon set up a big statue which everyone had to worship. Everyone happily bowed down to this massive statue and worshiped it. Why? The government told them to. It was the law. Three Jews refused to bow down to this statue. They didn’t follow the crowd into deception, and they disobeyed the government. As a result, they were thrown into a fiery furnace. There are consequences for not going along with the crowd. But God brought them out of the furnace. He will be with us too if we are faithful to him.

Many Jews were afraid to tell people they believed in Jesus because they were afraid of their leaders (John 12:42-43). This is a problem, because with the mouth confession of Jesus Christ is made unto salvation (Romans 10:10).

The fear of man brings a snare (Proverbs 29:25). A snare is a trap. It causes injury and possibly death. If we are afraid of people, we will be trapped. We will become a prey to the crowd and their whims. We need divine strength to not be afraid of people so that we are not deceived by the crowd.

Job said if he was afraid of the crowd he would stay inside his house and not say anything (Job 31:34). This is the condition of some Christians who are afraid to speak truth. We need to overcome this fear if we are going to live for God.

Fickle Crowds in the New Testament

In the New Testament, crowds were very fickle.

When Jesus went to Jerusalem for Passover, the crowds said he was the Messiah. They shouted “Hosanna!” and threw their clothes in the street before him to walk over. But a few days later, stirred up by government leaders, they shouted out to crucify him. (Compare John 12:12-13 and John 19:6.) Crowds can be quick to change, quick to hate, and quick to kill.

Once Paul and Barnabas came to a town, did a miracle, and then everyone in the town said they were the Greek gods Zeus and Hermes. They wanted to sacrifice to these gods which had appeared in human form. But then, when the crowd heard some gossip about Paul and Barnabas, they suddenly turned against them, stoned them, and left them for dead outside their city (Acts 14:8-19).

Once a crowd said that Paul was a murderer. A few moments later, they changed their minds and said he was a god (Acts 28:4-6). Crowds are full of whims and dangerous ideas.

We should not be fickle like this. We should not believe one thing and then suddenly change and believe the opposite. This is double-mindedness and it leads to dangerous instability (James 1:8).

End Times

At the end of the age, everyone in the world will be deceived except a few faithful Christians. Everyone on earth will be amazed by the Antichrist, and they will all worship Satan (Revelation 13:3-4). Everyone is going to rush out and get the mark of the beast so they can buy or sell (Revelation 13:16-17). All nations drink of the wine of Babylon – glutting themselves on her entertainments, chasing after money, building up the world system that is about to be destroyed (Revelation 14:8). All the world is going to marvel at the power of the Antichrist and his political system at the end of the age (Revelation 17:8).

Christians need to be able to withstand the pressure of crowds if they are going to stand for God at the end of the age. We need to develop this strength of standing up for God now.

Overcoming Crowd Pressure

How can we be strong against the crowd?

Follow the word of God. Measure everything by the Bible.

Think for yourself. Don’t blindly follow “experts,” governmental leaders, religious leaders, scientists, or traditions. Be led by the Holy Spirit.

Overcome fear. Don’t be afraid of people, fear only God (Luke 12:4). Don’t be afraid to stand alone. God will be with you.

“Marvel not, my brethren, if the world hate you” (1 John 3:13).

The Bible says that we should not be surprised if the world hates us.

Hate is a powerful emotion. Hatred leads to slander, mocking, and misunderstandings. Hatred can lead to false accusations, being arrested, being sued, and even being killed.

The New Testament reveals that there is a sharp dividing line between God’s people and the world. There is a contrast between believers and unbelievers, righteousness and lawlessness, light and darkness, Christ and Satan (2 Corinthians 6:14-18). We are commanded to not love the world, neither the things in the world (1 John 2:15). If we love the world we don’t love God.

The world hated early Christians with diabolical rage. They did many evil things against them.

The early Christians were arrested. They were thrown in jail (Acts 4:3). They had stones thrown at them until they died (Acts 7:57-59). They were dragged out of their houses and thrown in jail (Acts 8:3). Conspiracies were hatched against them to kill them (Acts 9:23-24). They were killed by politicians and governmental leaders (Acts 12:1). They were expelled from cities and entire regions (Acts 13:50). They were attacked by violent mobs, abused, and beaten (Acts 14:19).

The world still hates Christians. Christianity is the most persecuted religion in the world. People often seem to be able to tolerate all other religions except Christianity.

In the USA and Europe, there is a lot of hatred directed against Christians. The news tells us of Christians are being arrested, sued, fined, suspended, and losing their jobs just for standing up for basic principles of their faith.

Why does the world hate Christians so much?

The world hates us because it hates Jesus (John 15:18). The world hates Jesus because he said its works were evil (John 7:7). Christians are called to expose evil works like Jesus did, and the world doesn’t like that (Ephesians 5:11). In addition, the world hates Jesus because he said he is the only way to be saved, and people prefer many ways to be saved (John 14:6).

The world hates the gospel (1 Corinthians 1:18). The gospel says we can’t save ourselves. It says that all our good works are like filthy rags and can’t save us. People often don’t want to hear that, because they think they will get to heaven through their good works. Therefore they hate the gospel.

The world hates Christians because we are not part of the world. We don’t go along with the way the world does things, but we do things differently (John 15:19). The world wants everyone to conform to its way of doing things, but Christians often refuse to conform. That causes the world to hate us.

Sometimes our former friends hate us because after becoming Christians we live in a different way than they do (1 Peter 4:4). This makes them uncomfortable and even causes them to hate us.

How can Christians avoid being hated?

Christians can avoid being hated by compromising. We can joke along with the world’s jokes. The world will like us more if we don’t speak truth and don’t expose darkness. We can sin a little bit. If we are more like the world then the world will like us.

But the Bible says that if we are friends of the world we become God’s enemies (James 4:4). This is because the world hates God and killed his son, and if we join the world then we put ourselves in opposition to God. The goal of the Christian life is not to get along with the world.

If the world doesn’t hate us, then we are not living a normal Christian life.

Jesus said that when we are hated, we are blessed (Matthew 5:10-12). We want to be blessed by God.

Therefore, we need to learn how to handle being hated.

When we are hated, we should not hate people back. We should not be bitter against people. We should forgive them. We should not take revenge against them. We should love the people who hate us (Luke 6:35). We should do good to those who hate us (Matthew 5:44).

The best way to handle hatred is by the power of the Holy Spirit. When we are filled with the Spirit and walking according to God’s word, then we can overcome hatred.

At the end of the age, Christians will be hated by everyone (Matthew 10:22). Christians will be hated by all nations, all over the world (Matthew 24:9). The haters are gonna hate, more and more. Through all this hatred, Christians will conquer. They will overcome by the love and power of God. Someday, the world will be washed clean by the judgment of God, and there will be a new heavens and a new earth, with no hatred. Peace and love will be everywhere.

God loved this hating world, and gave his Son as a sacrifice for its sins (John 3:16). We can love this world too. If we love them, we will shine the light of God, share the truth even if it’s uncomfortable, and not hide our light under a covering. The world may hate us in return for our love. But that’s ok, they hated our Master too. He’s inside us. Greater is he who is in us, than he who is in the world (1 John 4:4). By his Holy Spirit, we will overcome hatred.

Whatever Jesus did was profound and had a wide impact. If all that Jesus did was written, the world could not hold the amount of books that would be written (John 21:25). 

The main events of Jesus’ life on earth are recorded in the 4 gospels – Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. The gospels are like a highlight reel of Jesus’ life and ministry. Whenever Jesus did something particularly remarkable, it was recorded in the gospels. 

We can learn a lot of important lessons from these powerful events.

Zaccheus was one man who was particularly impacted by Jesus (Luke 19:1-10). The popular Sunday school story tells us that Zaccheus was a wee little man who climbed up into a tree to see Jesus and then invite him to his house. 

There’s more to the story, however.

Zaccheus lived in Jericho. In the Old Testament, Jericho was the city that the Israelites marched around and destroyed (Joshua 6:20-21). Since that time Jericho had been rebuilt and become wealthy. 

Jesus wasn’t coming to destroy Jericho, but he was coming to bless Jericho. He didn’t come to destroy men’s lives but to save them (Luke 9:56). 

Zaccheus was the chief tax collector in Jericho. Jericho had a lot of trade, and therefore it had a lot of taxes. Zaccheus took the money from the other tax collectors in the city and sent this money to Rome. Zaccheus was in a high position, and he was one of the richest men in Jericho.

In those days, the Jews hated tax collectors. Jesus referred to tax collectors as the lowest part of society (Matthew 18:17; Luke 18:9-14). Tax collectors were hated because they represented Rome. The Jews were under Roman control, but they hated being subjected to Rome, and they wanted to be independent. Tax collectors took money from the Jewish people and sent it to Rome to support the Roman government, the Roman army, and even the Roman religion. Jews hated this.

In addition, tax collectors were corrupt. They would extort money from people, threatening them and overcharging them. They would pocket the extra money and become wealthy.

As the chief tax collector in Jericho, Zaccheus was possibly the most recognized and hated person in the entire city.

There was a big crowd around Jesus as he walked through the streets of Jericho. People thronged him. They just wanted to see him and touch him. They wanted to be healed. They wanted to hear him talk. They wanted to see the love of God shine from his face. 

The crowd was swelled because it was almost Passover. It was about a week before the crucifixion. Jesus was passing through Jericho on his way to Jerusalem to die. This was the last and final Passover, as the Lamb of God was about to be slain for the sins of the whole world. There would be no more true Passovers after this one. 

Not only Jesus, but many other people were on this road to go celebrate Passover in Jerusalem. The road was clogged with jostling people.

Zaccheus wanted to see Jesus. But he was short and he couldn’t see through the thick crowd. So he climbed up into a tree. 

Jesus and the massive crowd around were passing by below. Suddenly Jesus stopped and saw a man in a tree. He probably knew his name by the Holy Spirit, and he shouted out, “Zaccheus!” Everyone in the crowd would have turned to look. 

There, up a tree, was the most hated man in Jericho. The crowd’s angry eyes glared at him.

Jesus didn’t condemn Zaccheus like everyone else. Instead, he said that he was going to stay at Zaccheus’ house.

The crowd became angry. They all knew what kind of man Zaccheus was. How could Jesus enter Zaccheus’ house and eat with him? How could he stay there? They were indignant.

People often judge others. They look at things according to their own reasoning. They are quick to condemn based on false evidence. They murmur about God or about his people. 

Maybe the crowd thought that Jesus was a bad judge of character and didn’t know how who Zaccheus was. Maybe they thought Jesus just wanted to hang out with rich people – to eat their food and get money from them. Maybe they wondered why Jesus was going to Zaccheus’ house but not coming to their houses. Why would he bless Zaccheus but not them?

Jesus knew the anger of the crowd. He knew that once in Jerusalem some of these same people would turn on him and kill him. 

Yet Jesus loved these murmuring, murderous people. Jesus was going to bless Jericho by rescuing Jericho’s most hated man from his sins. 

With the seething crowd looking on, Zaccheus publicly repented. He promised to change his life and restore things in front of everyone. He said he would give half of his money to the poor, and he would repay the people that he cheated with 4 times as much as he took from them.

Zaccheus would have cheated a lot of people in Jericho. But now the money was going to flow from Zaccheus back to all these people. Imagine the amazement of the crowd when they heard Zaccheus say this. The poor would be fed and have clothing. Cheated people would have their money restored 4 times. The crowd must have become ecstatic. They had probably never seen such a transformation before.

Jesus and Zaccheus, along with the eager crowd, went to Zaccheus’ house. Zaccheus probably had one of the biggest houses in Jericho. This house was going to become a place of blessing. 

That night, there was a party in Zaccheus’ house. The poor, the maimed, the lame, and the blind were invited (Luke 14:13). Jesus was there in the middle of it all. Healing, restitution, love, and life flowed from the house of Zaccheus into the city of Jericho.

The name Zaccheus means “pure.” 

The Bible says, “though your sins be as scarlet, they will be white as snow” (Isaiah 1:18).

Wickedness, cheating, envy, greed, murmuring, complaining, bitterness, strife – all these sins and more were healed when Jesus came to Jericho and showed the love of God to one outcast Jew named Zaccheus.

Jesus can do this much and more, even in our lives.

The Bible is the perfect word of God. It is alive, and it has power to help us to grow into spiritual maturity. As we read the Bible and obey it, we will be conformed into the image of Jesus. All Christians should prioritize reading and understanding the Bible for their own spiritual health.

In order to understand the Bible correctly, we need to be able to “rightly divide” it (2 Timothy 2:15). To rightly divide the Bible means to separate it out so its sections can be accurately understood.

The Bible is divided into two main sections – the Old Testament and the New Testament. Both of these sections are equally inspired by God and valuable for us today. But they are to be understood differently.

The Old Testament has been blotted out (Colossians 2:14). It’s been abolished (Ephesians 2:14-16). The Old Testament has been made old and obsolete (Hebrews 8:13).

We are not under the Old Testament (OT) any more, but we are under the New Testament (NT). We no longer need to keep all the commands of the OT, because Jesus fulfilled the Law on our behalf and gave us the free gift of righteousness. There are over 600 different commands in the OT, like not wearing a shirt with two types of thread (like cotton and wool mixed together), not planting a garden with two types of crops together (Leviticus 19:19), and handling a bird’s nest properly when encountering it on the road.

We don’t need to keep all these OT commands today.

If the OT has been abolished, then what is the value of the OT to us today?

The OT is full of symbolism to help us understand more about Jesus Christ. It contains types and shadows of NT truth. As we understand these symbols, our revelation of Jesus Christ will increase. And the more we see of Jesus, the better.

The Law has a shadow of Jesus Christ (Hebrews 10:1). The ministry performed by the OT priests was full of examples and symbols of heavenly things (Hebrews 8:5). The OT temple and its operations are all symbolic for us today, being patterns of heaven and of spiritual realities (Hebrews 9:9, 23).

So when we read the OT, we read about symbols of Christ and about spiritual reality.

For example, one of the most important OT commands was circumcision. On the eighth day a male child had to be circumcised (Leviticus 12:3). But the NT says that literal circumcision is unnecessary for us today (Galatians 6:15). Circumcision is a symbol of when we are born again, representing that our sins have been taken away by faith in the sacrifice of Christ (Romans 2:28-29).

We can learn how to interpret OT commands by seeing how the Holy Spirit interprets these commands in the NT.

Here’s another command from the OT: “Don’t muzzle an ox when it reads out grain” (Deuteronomy 25:4). This command meant that when an ox was threshing grain – separating the grain from the chaff by pulling something heavy over it – the ox should not be prevented from eating the grain.

The NT says that this instruction was written down for the sake of Christians. It is a symbol showing that Christians should support Christian workers. Those who sow the word of God should be materially supported by the church (1 Corinthians 9:9-10). In fact, the NT says that this OT command was written altogether for the sake of Christians, to teach them to support servants of God financially.

Each command of the OT has deep meaning for us. When we read the OT, we need to pray for the Holy Spirit to explain this rich symbolism. We may not understand everything about the OT, but the Holy Spirit will explain more to us as we ask him.

The OT is full of dietary regulations, like don’t eat pork, rabbit, or shellfish (Leviticus 11). Some Christians started following these dietary regulations in the NT, but Paul rebuked them, calling them hypocrites (Galatians 2:12). Christians shouldn’t get ensared in a similar deception today.

Jesus and his apostles gave us many commands in the NT, and we need to literally follow these NT commands. Some OT commands like don’t kill, don’t commit adultery, and don’t steal have been repeated in the NT, and we need to follow these commands literally because they are part of the NT. If an OT command not part of the NT, we have no authority to reintroduce what God has abolished.

Usually when Christians start reintroducing their own commands from the OT, they pick easier commands like not eating pork, but they ignore harder commands like going to Jerusalem three times a year. This is random and pointless. This is man made religion and it has no power to save. We need to stand free in the liberty with which Christ has set us free and not be entangled again with the yoke of religious bondage (Galatians 5:1).

OT holidays are all shadows of Christ, including the Sabbath day. These holidays all represent spiritual truth (Colossians 2:17). Instead of celebrating these holidays literally, let’s learn more about Christ from their rich symbolism.

All the historical events of the OT happened to the Israelites as examples for us, and they are written to teach us spiritual truth (1 Corinthians 10:1-11). We don’t literally follow the examples of the Israelites in the OT, killing nations and setting up an earthly kingdom in Jerusalem. Instead, we learn from this symbolism about our war against fallen angels (Ephesians 6:12) and the heavenly land that we dwell in spiritually.

There is a tendency among some groups of Christians today to go back to the OT and pick and choose some commands to follow. This is dangerous. It’s an old error that the apostles had to fight against in the first century. Let’s reject this deception and rightly divide the word of truth.

May God give us grace to do this so that we can see Jesus and be prepared for his coming.

The word of God is the divine standard by which we measure every aspect of our lives. All our thoughts are to be measured by the word of God. If we are not thinking according to God’s word, we need to renew our minds and think differently. Everything we do is to be measured by God’s word, and if we are doing things that are not according to God, we need to change. The Holy Spirit will help us.

God is conforming us into the image of his Son (2 Corinthians 3:18). This transformation happens as we believe and submit to God’s word.

God uses many symbols to represent his word in the Bible. These symbols show us what the word of God is like.

Bread (Matthew 4:4). Bread is a basic food that many people eat every day. Just like we need daily food in order to survive physically, so we need daily input from the word of God. The word of God will keep our spirits strong and healthy. When we don’t read the word of God, we will become spiritually weak, but when we feed regularly on God’s word we will be spiritually strong.

Milk (1 Peter 2:2). When a person is born again, he becomes a spiritual newborn. He needs the milk of God’s word in order to grow into maturity. This milk is the basic principles of Christ. These basic principles of Christ are found in Hebrews 6:1-2.

Meat (Hebrews 5:14). There are different levels of the word of God. Some doctrines are simple, and some are more complex. The deeper things of God’s word are called the meat of the word. These things can be understood by those who have become spiritually mature. It is important for each Christian to grow in their spiritual life so they can understand the deeper things of God.

Honey (Psalm 19:10). The word of God is like honey, which is very sweet. The word of God is sweet and pleasant to read. Honey has antiseptic properties, and the word of God can cleanse our lives from evil and heal our wounds.

Gold (Psalm 19:10). Gold is valuable, but it’s not as valuable as God’s word. There is nothing more valuable than God’s word. Without God’s word people are lost, but through God’s word we know him and receive eternal life.

Seed (1 Peter 1:23). We are born again by the seed of God’s word. When we believe the gospel, this seed comes into us. This is an incorruptible seed that gives us eternal life. A seed contains DNA that controls the growth of a plant. God’s word contains information that is to control the growth of our spiritual life. This divine life in us is is to produce fruit for God.

Mirror (James 1:23). God’s word is a divine mirror that shows us who we are in the light of God’s holiness. As we see ourselves in the light of God’s word, we can see what God wants to change in our lives. As we submit to the word of God, we are changed into his likeness.

Rock (Matthew 7:24). The word of God is a rock upon which we are to build our lives. All the other words in the world are like sand. If we build our lives on anything other than God, our lives will be destroyed. We need to obey the word so that our lives are strong and stable.

Rain and Snow (Isaiah 55:10-11). The word of God is like rain from heaven. It will not go back to heaven empty, but it will prosper the one to whom God sends it. God’s word will cause our lives to sprout and bud and bring forth fruit. It will change us from a barren desert to a fruitful land.

Sword (Hebrews 4:12). The word of God is the sword of the Spirit by which we defeat the devil, fallen angels, and demons. We smash their lies with the truth of God. We win spiritual battles through God’s word. When Jesus was tempted by the devil he got the victory by quoting God’s word. We will also get the victory through the powerful word of God.

Lamp (Psalm 119:105). The word of God shows the way when we are surrounded by darkness. God’s word gives us supernatural light – understanding that is beyond ourselves. When we don’t know what to do, God’s word will guide us.

Fire (Jeremiah 23:29). God’s word is like a fire that burns up things that are contrary to God. The things in our lives that are not according to God can be destroyed by the word of God. Eventually, everything in the world that is not according to God’s word will be burned up by the fiery revelation of God’s word. After this cleansing, there will be a new heavens and a new earth that is based on righteousness.

Hammer (Jeremiah 23:29). A hammer can break a rock in pieces. Sometimes our hearts are hard. God’s word can break up a hard heart. It can destroy strongholds of sin and lies. It makes our hearts soft to receive the working of the Holy Spirit.

God’s word is of inestimable value. It is eternal, and will outlast heaven and earth (Matthew 24:35). The word of God cannot be broken. All that God has written in the Bible will stand forever (John 10:35). Jesus said that the smallest letter would not pass away from the Scriptures (Matthew 5:18). This means that God supernaturally preserves his word in the earth, and it will never decay or pass away. The word of God is alive. It is powerful. It is inerrant, which means it makes no mistakes. On whatever subject the Bible talks about, it is perfect, because the Bible was not created by man, but it was breathed out by the Spirit of God who inspired people to write it (2 Timothy 3:16).

We have an amazing gift from God in the Bible. Let us value this gift and appreciate it. Why leave such a powerful tool on the shelf? That would be a waste. Read God’s word. Saturate your soul with God’s word. May God give us a supernatural hunger and thirst for his word. When we hunger for God’s word, we will want to read it. God’s will help us more than any other information, for it is the basis for our entire life – now and throughout eternity.

We need to worship God. Worship is one of the most important aspects of the Christian life.

The word worship is used many different ways today: there are worship teams, worship leaders, worship pastors, worship times, and worship songs.

There are many different ways that Christians worship all over the world, and they use many different things in their worship. Some of these things are incense, special clothes, hats, icons, holidays, candles, statues, rosaries, shrines, organs, flags, altars, and architecture.

Are all of these things ok?

Can we worship God however we want?

Or are some things acceptable in worship and some are not? If some things are acceptable in worship and some are not, how can we tell the difference?

If we’re going to do something for God, it should be something he likes. God does not like everything. We must worship God in a way that pleases God, not just in a way that pleases us.

“For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways,” says the Lord. “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts.” (Isa. 55:8-9)

God’s ways are not our ways, and his thoughts are not our thoughts. The only way we can know God’s ways is for him to reveal them to us. This is why he has given us his word. The word of God shows us what God likes and what he dislikes.

When we worship God, we must stay within the limits of his word. We must not add to nor take away from his word (Deuteronomy 4:2).

Don’t take away from God’s word. If God tells us to do something in worship, we should do it.

Equally important: don’t add to the word of God. We should not come up with our own ways of worshiping God that are not authorized in his word.

The important principle of not making up our own ways of worshiping God is revealed throughout the Bible.

Cain and Abel

The first worship service recorded in the Bible is in Genesis 4. Cain and Abel brought offerings to the Lord. Abel’s offering was accepted, but Cain’s was rejected. Why? Abel followed God’s instructions, but Cain did not.

When Adam and Eve sinned, God killed an animal. He taught humanity that the wages of sin is death, and so blood had to be shed for the remission of sins (Leviticus 17:11). This is why Jesus had to go to the cross and die for our sins to be washed away.

Abel followed God’s instructions and killed an animal, shedding its blood, sacrificing it to God. But Cain ignored God’s instructions and offered a sacrifice without death and the shedding of blood.

One person was worshiping God according to the word of God, and one person was not. The person worshiping according to God’s word was accepted, and the person worshiping according to his own ideas was rejected.

There is a difference between true and false worship. One is based on God’s word, and one is not. This is how it is with worship throughout the Bible.

Praising God with a Cow

The first worship service when the Israelites came out of Egypt is recorded in Exodus 32. Israel had been enslaved for 400 years, and God had finally brought them out of Egypt to worship him.

So they made a golden cow, called it Yahweh, and started dancing around it, praising the Lord for bringing them out of Egypt. They weren’t trying to worship Baal or Satan. They were trying to worship God!

Even though the golden cow was used in Egyptian pagan worship, God’s people didn’t think that would be a problem. They were trying to redeem this pagan practice for the worship of God. People liked this shiny cow, and it was all about God after all. What could the problem be? So they called the cow by the name of Yahweh (the true God), and said that their religious festival was a celebration of Yahweh! Their leader, the high priest Aaron, led them in this praise service, and everyone got involved.

God was not pleased. Their sincerity and enthusiasm didn’t help, and neither did the overwhelming popularity of this new worship style. God was so mad he was about to kill them all.

It’s possible for almost all of God’s people to be deceived about worship.

It’s possible for the leaders of God’s people to be deceived about worship and encourage them in false worship.

It’s possible to sincerely worship God in ways that God actually hates.

Disturbingly, God’s people thought they could take a Satanic ritual and worship God with it! This is confusion. God hates the works of the devil and has come to destroy them at the great cost of the life of his Son. To take Satanic abominations and try to serve God with them is ridiculous and disgusting.

Fun With Inense

Nadab and Abihu, the two priestly sons of Aaron, once had a worship service of their own. They took incense and began waving it before God. They must have been excited about God and were trying to worship him. But they did it in a way that God did not tell them to, and God killed them in the middle of their praise (Leviticus 10:1-3).

This incense offering was called “profane fire.” This worship service was not authorized by God. It was strange worship that was like spiritual adultery. The boys were probably sincere and enthusiastic as they waved their incense before God, but that didn’t matter. They were sincerely wrong because their worship wasn’t based on God’s word.

God said that he “must be sanctified” by those who worship him. He must be set apart. God is high above us. He is holy. He wants us to come up to his level, he doesn’t want us to try to drag him down to our level. We must worship according to his word, not our own minds.

God said that people should not worship him however they want. We should not worship him using pagan means. We must worship him according to his word (Deuteronomy 12:1-14).

Ark Trouble

Once David tried to bring up the ark to Jerusalem. He made a nice cart to carry the ark and put some oxen in front to pull the cart. The ark represents the presence of God.

But as they drove the cart forward, God killed one of the drivers. This was for the simple reason that they didn’t do it God’s way – they forsook the “due order” (1 Chronicles 15:13). The Bible said they should carry the ark on poles. It didn’t say they should use a cart. (Of course the Bible didn’t say to not use a cart, but that didn’t matter. Whatever the Bible has not authorized in worship is forbidden.)

Because they forsook God’s word their worship was wrong, and rather than bringing God’s blessing and presence, it invoked his wrath and judgement.

There is a right way to worship God, and there is a wrong way to worship God. The right way is according to his word, and the wrong way is according to our own ideas.

Whether it’s the Old Testament or the New Testament, God teaches the same thing – don’t try to worship God using to human ideas.

Jesus Rebukes Vain Worship

Once Jesus and his disciples went to eat with some Pharisees (Mark 7:1-4). The Pharisees had made up many ways of worshiping God over the years, and one of these ways was to ritually wash their hands. They washed hands not to cleanse them from dirt but to worship. Jesus’ disciples refused to follow the Pharisees’ religious tradition of hand washing.

The Pharisees got mad and confronted Jesus. Jesus answered bluntly:

“He answered and said to them, “Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written: ‘This people honors Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me. And in vain they worship Me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’ For laying aside the commandment of God, you hold the tradition of men—the washing of pitchers and cups, and many other such things you do.” He said to them, “All too well you reject the commandment of God, that you may keep your tradition” (Mark 7:6-9).

Jesus called man-made religious rituals vain worship. Vain worship is worship that people make up that is not based on the word of God. It’s what hypocrites do. 

Jesus taught us to boldly reject all man-made worship forms that are not based on the word of God.

Will Worship

Paul talks about man-made religion in Colossians. He calls it “self-imposed religion” (Colossians 2:23). This is a Greek word that means “will worship” or “arbitrary worship.” This word refers to worship that is according to the human will or mind, and not according to God.

This kind of worship actually separates people from God, has no power to save, and brings people into demonic bondage. Paul connects this type of worship to the worship of fallen angels (Colossians 2:16-23). Jesus has come to set us free from dead religion and bring us into a relationship with Almighty God. Praise him. Let’s follow Jesus and stay free from religious bondage.

True Worshipers

Jesus said that God is looking for true worshipers who will worship him in Spirit and in truth. He said that people mustworship him in Spirit and in truth (John 4:24). Spirit and truth is the only way to worship God. There is no other way.

Worship must be authored by the Holy Spirit.

Worship must be according to the word of God – “your word is truth” (John 17:17).

May we become the true worshipers God is looking for.

Measure all worship styles by the word of God. If it is authorized in the New Testament, do it. If it is not authorized in the New Testament, reject it. Don’t import things from pagan religions. Don’t even import things from the Old Testament that have passed away. Don’t add to God’s word, and don’t take away from it.

Follow Christ and his word, not the traditions of people.

The disciples received power from Jesus to work miracles, cast out demons, and receive supernatural provision. So they went out and declared the kingdom of God (Luke 9:1-6).

But when Jesus asked them to feed 5,000 people, they were unable to (Luke 9:13). They were still relying on natural rather than spiritual provision.

After this, the disciples openly said that Jesus was the Christ. Three of them saw Jesus transfigured (Luke 9:20,28).

But then they were unable to cast out a demon (Luke 9:40).

After this, Jesus told his disciples that he was going to die. But they didn’t believe him (Luke 9:44-45). They doubted one of the most basic principles of the faith.

Then the disciples began arguing over who was going to be the greatest (Luke 9:46).

Then they wanted to start killing people (Luke 9:54).

All of this happened in the same chapter, Luke 9.

The disciples were full of contradictions. On one hand the power of God flowed through them, working miracles. But then they were unable to cast out a demon. They had amazing revelations of Jesus and his glory, but then they were unable to understand the basic fact of his impending death.

Sometimes Christians can be full of contradictions. On one hand they do great exploits for God, but then they fall. They do great miracles, but then they turn around and create big messes. They have great obedience to God, but then they might have great disobedience.

All of this happens because we are imperfect people. We have not yet come into God’s fullness.

When we see contradictions in our brothers and sisters, how should we respond? Should we get mad? Should we throw up our hands in exasperation and give up?

Jesus stayed patient with his disciples, even though they had so many problems. He was patient with them and kept loving them, even when they didn’t understand the most basic truths and were arrogant.

Jesus is patient with you and me, even though we have problems. Let’s be patient, kind, gentle, and loving to others.

Toward the end of Luke 9, Jesus’ disciples met a man who was casting out demons using Jesus’ name. His disciples were upset and forbid this man from doing so, because he wasn’t traveling with Jesus and his disciples. But Jesus said they should not forbid the man.

God has his people all over the world. We don’t know many of God’s people, but they are still faithfully following God. When we meet them we can rejoice in what God is doing in their lives. God has given us his word as a measuring rod, and we discern other Christians and groups by the word of God. When we find that they are obeying the word of God, then we can rejoice at the advancement of God’s kingdom through them.

The Problem of Jerusalem

After these things, Jesus began heading toward Jerusalem. He wasn’t going to be killed in a Gentile city filled with idolaters and atheists. He was going to be murdered in Jerusalem, the city filled with God’s people.God’s people had become God’s worst enemies, seeking to murder his Son.

God’s people fight against God when they deviate from his word. When they stop following God’s word, their religious activity is based on their own ideas. This vain religion is often demonic, even though it uses God’s name. When a prophet comes to show them that their religious practices are wrong, they become irate and even murderous. This is why Jerusalem was such a dangerous place for God’s prophets (Luke 13:33-34).

“The time will come when he who kills you thinks that he is serving God” (John 16:2). Religious hypocrites have ruthlessly killed people throughout history, and they will kill again at the end of the age.

Jesus knew he would face challenges at Jerusalem, but he went there anyway. He knew his Father was calling him to go there, so he prepared to face the challenge (Luke 9:51). He didn’t back down. He didn’t turn aside. He was willing to face the diabolical rage of religious hypocrites, because he was strong and confident. He knew he would come through it all victorious.

Don’t Curse

On the way to Jerusalem, Jesus and his disciples came to a village. The villagers refused to allow Jesus to stay there, and Jesus’ tired disciples became frustrated and angry. They wanted to call down fire from heaven and kill these villagers (Luke 9:54).

Jesus’ disciples were reacting to a difficult situation with a harshness that was not according to God. They were very judgmental, and they were operating in the flesh.

God said that we should not curse people (Romans 12:14). Cursing is a spiritual operation, and when we try to curse someone, it is not according to the will of God. Attempts to engage spiritual power apart from God’s will are witchcraft. This is why Jesus told his disciples that they didn’t know they were being inspired by an evil spirit (Luke 9:55).

Jesus was merciful to the village, and so he and his disciples trudged along to another place.

We cannot rely on the flesh when we are serving God. We must rely on the Holy Spirit. He is our help and our provision. When others disobey God, they cannot prevent us from fulfilling our calling. God will make a way. We must stay in the Spirit and not revert to the flesh when we become tired or frustrated.

At the end of Luke chapter 9, Jesus warns those who want to follow him that life with him wouldn’t be easy. They may not have a house to stay in (Luke 9:58). They may have to forgo family duties and be uncomfortable. They might even die.

Jesus wants us to count the cost of following him (Luke 14:27-33). He doesn’t want us to start and then turn back when things get hard. If we set our hand to the plow, we should not turn back (Luke 9:62). Whenever we get a word from God, we should keep moving forward.

God has a plan for each of our lives. He will give us grace to fulfill that plan. As we live and walk in the Spirit, this plan will come to pass. We can overcome contradictions in our lives and in the lives of others through the grace of God. As we do, we will mature spiritually, and God’s kingdom will come through us.

God has called us to overcome. The word overcome means to conquer. God wants his people to be a conquering nation who reveal his kingdom to this world. He doesn’t want us to be overcome by problems, but he wants us to overcome problems and reveal the victory of Jesus Christ.

Jesus wrote to seven churches in the book of Revelation (Revelation 2-3). Each of these churches faced problems: one had lost their first love, others were persecuted. Some were attacked by false teachings and deceiving spirits. Other churches were spiritually dead, loved money, and were lukewarm.

Jesus is not afraid to rebuke churches that deviate from him. He doesn’t pretend everything is ok about a church when it’s not. He said, “as many as I love, I rebuke and chasten” (Revelation 3:19). Jesus measures all churches by the sharp sword of his word. When God rebukes us, it’s a sign of his love, because he is calling us back to himself.

The seven churches in Revelation represent different churches throughout history. Many of the people in these churches did not overcome. They were swamped by problems and did not fulfill God’s plan. Jesus himself said so. Jesus wanted them to know the truth about their condition. There is no point in living in deception.

A faithful remnant of people out of each of these churches overcame. They fulfilled God’s purpose and resisted the pull of the world. In the midst of great trouble they stayed faithful to God and obeyed his word. Great promises were given to these overcomers – spiritual privileges that were only for them, not for everyone else.

It’s possible for us to be overcomers. We can overcome through the power of Jesus Christ – the one who has already overcome everything. In ourselves we have no power to overcome anything, but through Christ we can overcome it all.

Jesus Christ is the great conqueror. He demolished sin on the cross, he crushed the head of the devil, he stripped the principalities and powers of all their authority. Jesus Christ has overcome the world (John 16:33).

Jesus Christ lives inside of us by his Holy Spirit. Through him we can overcome everything. We can get victory over sin. We can triumph over the devil. We can overcome the world (1 John 5:4). To overcome the world means to not be dragged down by the pull of the evil of the world, but to ride above the world in spiritual victory.

Christ in us is the hope of glory (Colossians 1:27).

Greater is he who is in you than he who is in the world (1 John 4:4).

Jesus has given us power to trample on serpents and on scorpions and over all the power of the enemy. Nothing shall by any means hurt us (Luke 10:19). This promise is ours when we live in Christ and walk in the Spirit.

God loves us. It’s a good thing to be loved. We are accepted. We can relax. Jesus loved us when we were still sinners. He loved us when we were enemies of God. How much more does he love us now that we are reconciled to God?

By the power of God’s love we can overcome.

“What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things? Who shall bring a charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies.Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written: “For Your sake we are killed all day long; We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.” Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:31-39)

We are more than conquerors through him who loved us. This is our spiritual reality. This is our identity in Christ. Let’s live in this.

Jesus promised that he would build his church, and the gates of hell would not prevail against it (Matthew 16:18).

This is a powerful promise. Whenever God promises to do something, he will do it. All authority in heaven and earth is given to Jesus Christ.

Jesus is currently in the process of building his church. He is sitting on his throne in the highest heaven, pouring out his Spirit into the earth to build his church. Someday the church will fulfill its glorious purpose – she will be filled with the fullness of Christ and radiate his glory into the world. 

The church is being built according to the pattern given through the apostles in the New Testament. Jesus builds his church through his people by the power of the Holy Spirit. As the Holy Spirit inspires people to speak the word of God and do the works of God, the church is built.

Jesus says the church is “my church.” The church belongs to Jesus Christ. He owns his church, and he takes care of it. There are many churches in the world today, and a lot of them have deviated from God. Jesus builds his own church, not the churches that belong to people. It is possible to distinguish which churches belong to God and which churches belong to people by measuring them by the word of God.

The gates of hell will not prevail against the church. 

Hell is the place of death. It is the place of the power of Satan, because Satan has the power of death.

The gates of hell are portals of demonic power. There are spiritual attacks against God’s people. Satan is like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour (1 Peter 5:8). He is tricking and deceiving people like he did with Eve (2 Corinthians 11:3). We must wrestle against the powers of darkness in order to get the victory (Ephesians 6:12). The church is the place of safety against demonic attacks.

Gates are also places of making plans. In the Old Testament, people would gather in the gates of a city to make decisions or consult with each other. People make plans, but these plans often fall apart. The devil makes plans, but these plans will often fail. God’s plans will stand forever. “There is no wisdom or understanding or counsel against the LORD” (Proverbs 21:30).

Even death cannot stop the church (1 Corinthians 15:51-58).

No matter what the devil throws at her, the church will endure.

The church is an everlasting bulwark against hell.

Everything else will be destroyed, but the church of God will last forever. The church is our place of safety. 

Just like Noah prepared a place of safety, so Jesus is building his church as a place of safety. God is preparing this ark through his people. When difficulties come on the world at the end of the age, the church will be our ark. May we all be eager participants in this glorious work.

Esther was a young woman whom God had called to deliver his people. God had brought Esther into an important position in the kingdom of Persia, and the time had come when she had to make a choice.

God’s people were facing destruction, and Esther could either obey God or not.

Mordecai was a godly man who had counseled Esther and had helped her come into the position she was now in. He warned her to obey God:

“For if you remain completely silent at this time, relief and deliverance will arise for the Jews from another place, but you and your father’s house will perish. Yet who knows whether you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this?” (Esther 4:14)

Esther had been raised up for a specific time and purpose. She was uniquely positioned to bring deliverance to God’s people, and therefore she had a calling and responsibility from God. If Esther didn’t fulfill this calling, God’s people would be delivered anyway. Someone else would be raised up and equipped by God to deliver Israel, but Esther and her family would perish.

“For everyone to whom much is given, from him much will be required; and to whom much has been committed, of him they will ask the more.” (Luke 12:48)

God will always deliver his people, because he has made a covenant with them. He has promised to build his church and said that the gates of hell would not prevail against it.

But individuals have a choice. We can either choose to follow God, or we can choose to save ourselves. Sometimes it seems risky to obey God. It doesn’t make sense in the natural, and the cost seems too great.

Jesus said, “Whoever seeks to save his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life will preserve it” (Luke 17:33).

When we seek to preserve our own lives rather than obey God, then we make selfish decisions. These decisions often appear to be safe and wise, but they are against God. Selfish decisions often end in loss and destruction.

We need to learn to walk in the Spirit and not in the flesh. When we are in the Spirit, we will obey God at the expense of our own lives. We will lean on God, and he will hold us up. We will be supernaturally sustained.

“Then Jesus said to His disciples, ‘If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.'” (Matthew 16:24)

In order to be disciples of Christ, we must be willing to take up our cross. When we take up our cross, we are willing to lose our lives. We are willing to suffer loss for the sake of the kingdom of God.

Esther responded well to Mordecai’s exhortation: “Go, gather all the Jews who are present in Shushan, and fast for me; neither eat nor drink for three days, night or day. My maids and I will fast likewise. And so I will go to the king, which is against the law; and if I perish, I perish!” (Esther 4:15-16)

Esther followed godly counsel. She called for the help and support of God’s people, and she cast herself on the mercy of God. She was willing to lay down her life for the sake of God’s word.

“If I perish, I perish.But I’m going to obey God no matter what.”

Esther was a radical woman who obeyed God. As such, she is an important example to us. Sometimes we don’t want to do what God is calling us to do because we are afraid we will suffer loss or even die. But these are usually needless fears. God is our Father, he is our support, he is always faithful, and he will bless us and bring deliverance as we follow him.

Let us fearlessly obey God, be strong, and do mighty things by the Holy Spirit for his glory.

When we believe in Jesus, we are born again. The Holy Spirit comes inside us, and our spirits are joined to the Holy Spirit.

“He who is joined to the Lord is one Spirit” (1 Cor. 6:17).

When we are born again we are sealed with the Holy Spirit.

“Having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise” (Eph. 1:13b).

Every believer has the Holy Spirit inside because he belongs to Jesus. Each Christian is a temple of the Holy Spirit.

“Do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own?”(1 Cor. 6:19).

The indwelling Holy Spirit enables us to understand the Bible, experience God’s presence, know God’s leading, and bear fruit. The Holy Spirit is a precious gift for every Christian.

It is impossible to be born again apart from the Holy Spirit, because we are born again by the Holy Spirit. All those who belong to Christ have the Holy Spirit inside them the moment they are born again.

“Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His” (Rom. 8:9)

However, being born again is not the end of our experience with the Holy Spirit. It is only the beginning.

God wants every Christian to also be baptized in the Holy Spirit.

“John answered, saying to all, “I indeed baptize you with water; but One mightier than I is coming, whose sandal strap I am not worthy to loose. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.” (Luke 3:16)

People baptize people in water. Jesus baptizes in the Holy Spirit.

Baptism in the Holy Spirit is one of the basic principles of Christianity.

According to Hebrews, there are several basic principles of Christianity, and these include more than one baptism.

“Therefore, leaving the discussion of the elementary principles of Christ, let us go on to perfection, not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God, of the doctrine of baptisms, of laying on of hands, of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment. (Heb. 6:1-2)

There is water baptism, and there is Holy Spirit baptism. Both baptisms are essential for Christians to reach maturity in Christ.

The 120 Early Disciples

“And being assembled together with them, He commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the Promise of the Father, “which,” He said, “you have heard from Me; for John truly baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.” (Acts 1:4)

The 120 disciples were already believers. They were born again. They were baptized in water. And like all born again believers, they had the Holy Spirit inside. This is emphasized when “Jesus breathed on them, saying receive the Holy Spirit” (John 20:22).

Although the disciples were born again and had the Holy Spirit inside them, they were still limited. They did not have much power for ministry, and they were unable to be effective witnesses for God. (They even rolled dice to select ministry leaders!) Jesus told them to wait in the Upper Room until they had a further experience – the baptism of the Holy Spirit.

“But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you will be My witnesses.” (Acts 1:8)

The baptism of the Holy Spirit empowers us to minister for God. It enables us to be his witnesses. Jesus called it “being clothed with power from on high” (Luke 24:49).

Jesus is our model. Although Jesus already had the Holy Spirit inside him, when he was 30 years old the Holy Spirit descended on him like a dove. After this, the Bible says that Jesus was “full of the Holy Spirit” (Luke 4:1). Then he began his public ministry.

We also need to be filled with the Holy Spirit in order to accomplish effective ministry. We need to be baptized in the Holy Spirit.

The 120 disciples waited for 10 days in the Upper Room. Finally, on the day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit was poured out on them and they were baptized in the Holy Spirit.

“And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.” (Acts 2:1-4)

When we are baptized with the Holy Spirit, the initial portion of the Holy Spirit that we receive at the point of salvation is made fuller, larger, and more real to us. We are better able to understand spiritual things, can bear more fruit of the Holy Spirit, can operate the gifts of the Holy Spirit, and are able to be better led by the Spirit.

The baptism of the Holy Spirit is the initial filling of the Holy Spirit. This is why Acts 2:4 says “they were all filled with the Holy Spirit.”

Peter’s First Sermon

As a result of being baptized with the Holy Spirit, Peter and the other disciples were empowered to be witnesses for God. They burst out of the Upper Room, Peter powerfully preached the gospel, and 3,000 people were saved. Peter told them,

“Repent, and be baptized, in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit” (Acts 2:38)

Repent, believe the gospel, be born again, and be baptized in water.

Afterwards,Peter said, you will receivethe gift of the Holy Spirit.

The order of events is clear from the tenses of the Greek verbs used here.

1. Repent (aorist) and be baptized in water (aorist). These events are to be made part of one’s past experience. When these events are done, then the next event will happen.
2. You will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit (future).

The New Living Translation captures this.Peter replied, “Each of you must repent of your sins and turn to God, and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. Then you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.”

“The gift of the Holy Spirit” does not refer to the initial portion of the the Holy Spirit which everyone receives when they are born again. These people would have received that prior to being baptized. Instead, it refers to the baptism of the Holy Spirit, something that would happen afterthey were born again.

Peter went on to say that the gift of the baptism of the Holy Spirit is for every believer in every place, for all time.

“For the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call.” (Acts 2:39)

The Samaritans

“Then Philip went down to the city of Samaria and preached Christ to them. And the multitudes with one accord heeded the things spoken by Philip, hearing and seeing the miracles which he did.” (Acts 8:5-6)

Philip went to Samaria and preached the gospel of Jesus Christ. The Samaritans believed, were born again, and were sealed with the Holy Spirit.

“But when they believed Philip as he preached the things concerning the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, both men and women were baptized.” (Acts 8:12)

After believing the gospel and being born again, the Samaritans were baptized in water.

Later, Peter and John came to them.

“who, when they had come down, prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit. For as yet He had fallen upon none of them. They had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. Then they laid hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit.” (Acts 8:15-17)

The Samaritans had already been born again and baptized in water. They already had the Holy Spirit inside them, like all born again believers.

It is the Holy Spirit that causes people to be born again (John 3:5-8). If someone does not have the Holy Spirit inside him, he is not born again, and he does not belong to God (Rom. 8:9). These Samaritans were born again and had the Spirit inside them prior to being baptized in the Holy Spirit, because Philip would not have baptized unbelievers.

Later, through the laying on of hands, they were baptized in the Holy Spirit.

Saul/Paul

On the Damascus road, Saul met the glorified Lord Jesus. He was struck blind by the power of God, and his life was transformed. Here, he called Jesus “Lord.”

Saul went to Damascus. There, Jesus had told a Christian man named Ananias to go and lay hands on Saul and pray for him that his eyes might be healed.

Prior to meeting Ananias, Saul had already been born again. We know this because Ananias called Saul “brother” when he first met him. Saul would not have been Ananias’ spiritual brother if he had not been born again.

“And Ananias went his way and entered the house; and laying his hands on him he said, “Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus, who appeared to you on the road as you came, has sent me that you may receive your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit.” (Acts 9:17)

Jesus did not send Ananias to preach the gospel to Saul. He sent him instead to lay hands on Saul so he could be healed and baptized in the Holy Spirit. Saul was already born again. Now he needed to befilled orbaptizedwith the Holy Spirit. (The baptism of the Holy Spirit is the initial filling of the Spirit – Acts 2:4).

After this, Saul was baptized in water.

The baptism of the Holy Spirit alwayshappens after salvation, and usuallyhappens after water baptism. In this instance, Saul was baptized in the Holy Spirit before he was baptized in water, but he was baptized in the Holy Spirit afterhe was born again.

Cornelius’ Household

In Acts 10, Peter preached the gospel to Cornelius, his family, friends, and neighbors. As Peter preached, many of them believed the gospel. Almost immediately afterwards, the Holy Spirit was poured out upon them.

“While Peter yet spake these words, the Holy Ghost fell on all them which heard the word. And they of the circumcision which believed were astonished, as many as came with Peter, because that on the Gentiles also was poured out the gift of the Holy Ghost. For they heard them speak with tongues, and magnify God.” (Acts 10:44-46)

It is possible to be baptized in the Holy Spirit almost immediately after being born again, and this is what happened at Cornelius’ house.

Ephesus

“And it happened, while Apollos was at Corinth, that Paul, having passed through the upper regions, came to Ephesus. And finding some disciples he said to them, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?”

So they said to him, “We have not so much as heard whether there is a Holy Spirit.”

And he said to them, “Into what then were you baptized?”

So they said, “Into John’s baptism.”

Then Paul said, “John indeed baptized with a baptism of repentance, saying to the people that they should believe on Him who would come after him, that is, on Christ Jesus.”

When they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. And when Paul had laid hands on them, the Holy Spirit came upon them, and they spoke with tongues and prophesied.” (Acts 19:1-6)

When Paul came to Ephesus, he found some disciples. Something about these disciples told Paul that they had not yet been baptized in the Holy Spirit. There was something missing in their spiritual walk. Paul asked them, “Have you received the Holy Spirit since you believed?”

He was not asking if they had been sealed in the Spirit at the moment of salvation, for that would have been a meaningless question. Everyone who believes the gospel and is born again is sealed in the Spirit. Instead, Paul was asking if they had been baptized in the Holy Spirit.

Paul was surprised to learn that they had never even heard of the Holy Spirit. Then he found out they were only disciples of John the Baptist!

Paul quickly shared the gospel of Jesus with them. They believed in Jesus and were born again. Then they were baptized in water.

Then Paul laid hands on them and they were baptized in the Holy Spirit.

Conclusion

Throughout Acts, people heard the gospel, believed it, were baptized in water, and then were baptized in the Holy Spirit. There are a couple of instances when people are baptized in the Holy Spirit before being baptized in water, but no one was baptized in the Holy Spirit before they were born again.

Many believers today are born again and baptized in water, but they have never been baptized in the Holy Spirit. Some think that they were automatically baptized in the Holy Spirit when they were born again, but this is not what the Bible teaches.

Just like being baptized in water is distinct from and subsequent to being born again, so beingbaptized in the Holy Spirit is distinct from and subsequent to being born again.

Each born again believer should ask Jesus to baptize them with the Holy Spirit.

If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him? (Luke 11:13)

Jesus was talking about the children of God. He said that God’s own children need to ask God to receive more of the Holy Spirit. They need to ask him to baptize them in the Holy Spirit.

God gave Joseph two dreams, and these divine dreams revealed God’s plan for his life. In these dreams, God told Joseph that he would rule over his family.

In his youthful enthusiasm, Joseph eagerly shared this revelation with his brothers.

Joseph’s brothers were not happy to hear about God’s plans. Although they should have rejoiced with Joseph for the wonderful plan God had for his life, they did not. Instead, they hated him.

His brothers hated him so much in fact, that they plotted to kill him. If they could kill Joseph, then they could kill the word of God inside him.

They wanted to squash God’s word and render it of no effect.

When a person is going to follow God, he will face resistance, for obeying God is not like a walk in the park. Often this resistance will come from our own family members. Jesus faced this resistance, for his brothers didn’t believe in him (John 7:5), and he warned that we would face this resistance too (Matthew 10:34-39).

It would be nice if people would encourage us to follow God and do radical things for him. They should rejoice with us and spur us onward in following Jesus, because that’s the best thing we can do for our lives. But they often don’t, and those close to us often want us to back down from doing the radical things God has called us to do. They want us to give up and turn back.

When we face opposition to following God’s will, it’s possible to make peace with everyone by giving up on God’s word. We can back down, change course, or go in a different way. That will often make people happy. When we back down or give up on God’s word, the resistance that was caused by the word of God is lessened, and people will like us again.

But Joseph didn’t compromise, and we shouldn’t either. It’s better to please God than be praised by people.

Stand firm on the word of God regardless of the cost, trusting in God. Joseph held onto God’s word in spite of the opposition of his family and didn’t bend. When his brothers fought with him he didn’t fight back. Neither should we.

Rather than murder him, Joseph’s brothers sold him into slavery.

After becoming a slave in Egypt, Joseph came into a high position.

In this high position he was tempted. He could have stolen many things and even committed adultery, but he refused. He stayed holy and held onto God’s word.

The devil tempts us to sin (1 Thessalonians 3:5), and sin can hinder the fulfillment of God’s word in our lives.

Joseph overcame temptation through the power of the Holy Spirit, and so can we! The Bible says whenever there is temptation, there will be a way of escape (1 Corinthians 10:13).

Joseph fled temptation, finding the way of escape. But right after this, he was falsely accused of committing adultery.

Out of the frying pan and into the fire….

False accusations can create a lot of problems. These lies can turn people against us, because people often believe slanderous accusations, and as a result we can end up in a heap of trouble.

Slander can open the door for us to become angry and bitter, and it can fill our hearts with thoughts of revenge.

We need to forgive. Jesus forgave everyone on the cross, and he tells us to forgive too. The Holy Spirit inside us will help us to forgive our persecutors, love our enemies, and do good to those who hate us. When we are falsely accused, it’s important to remember that God determines our identity, not other people.

After being falsely accused, Joseph remained a godly man. He forgave. He didn’t become angry and bitter.

But Joseph’s obedience didn’t seem to matter.

He was condemned by the legal system and thrown into prison. Things were going from bad to worse.

For many years, Joseph’s circumstances had been opposite the word of God. Now with him rotting away in prison, it seemed impossible for God’s word to happen. God said Joseph would rule over people and be blessed, and here he was locked up. At times like this, it’s possible to doubt God, become depressed, and give up on the word of God.

“He sent a man before them – Joseph – who was sold as a slave. They hurt his feet with fetters, he was laid in irons. Until the time that his word came to pass, the word of the Lord tested him” (Psalm 105:17-19).

The word of God tested Joseph because he held onto God’s word and therefore went through many challenges. He was a slave, and now he was a prisoner in jail. These challenges tested his faith.

But Joseph came through it all like gold because he did not give up. Finally, through through a series of miraculous events, Joseph was brought out of prison and was made the Prime Minister of Egypt. The word of God finally came to pass – as it always does when we believe it. Joseph now ruled over the most powerful country in the world.

As Prime Minister, Joseph rescued his brothers when they were starving. Even though he had been through so much trouble, at the end of it all his heart was full of mercy, forgiveness, and love, just like the heart of God.

Joseph’s life shows us that following God is often not easy, especially when we are called to do something special or unique for God’s kingdom. However, God’s word contains supernatural power to bring us through all obstacles and accomplish our destiny. It’s not up to our own power, but God’s power. Let’s stay faithful to God through all the challenges we face, holding onto God’s word. When God’s word finally happens in our lives, it will be glorious.

Jesus said, “my sheep hear my voice, and they follow me” (John 10:27).

God speaks to us. God’s sheep hear his voice. We all heard the voice of God when we were born again, and then we have probably heard God’s voice after that. We hear his voice so that we can follow him, and he will lead us to green pastures and still waters.

Abraham was a man who heard from God. Once Abraham heard God tell him to take some animals, kill them, divide them in half, and lay the pieces on the ground. God was about to make a covenant with Abraham, and these animal pieces were an important part of that covenant.

Abraham obeyed God and laid out the pieces. Then, vultures came down to try to take away these pieces. Abraham had to drive the vultures away (Genesis 15:12).

Jesus said that the word of God is like a seed that is sown in our hearts. Then Satan comes like birds to try to pluck the word of God away (Matthew 13:4, 19).

The vultures that came to attack the covenant that God was making with Abraham were about to block Abraham’s obedience to God and prevent this covenant from taking place.

The word vulture in Hebrew means “to scream, shriek, dart, swoop, and rush upon.”

Whenever God gives us a word, Satan wants to scream at us, scare us, and swoop in upon us to steal the word of God from us. He doesn’t want us to obey God. Satan hates obedience to God because whenever we obey God we unleash God’s kingdom into the world.

If Satan is successful in stealing God’s word, then he aborts the process that God wanted to accomplish through our obedience. He blocks the kingdom of God from being manifested through us.

After the vultures came in, then a horror came on Abraham. Great darkness engulfed him when he was trying to sleep.

Abraham had just obeyed God. Why wasn’t he able to rest easy after obeying God? Where was the peace and joy?

“Beloved, do not think it strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened to you” (1 Peter 4:12).

God gives a word to his children, and as they begin to walk that word out, Satan comes in like a darting vulture to eat up that word. He swoops in and attacks. This produces a fiery trial.

It’s possible to avoid the fiery trial by disobeying God. We can avoid trouble by just going along with the world and getting along with the culture. We can just go with the flow and not rock the boat. We can turn back from the path God has called us to walk.But we’re not among those that turn back. We’re going to go forward into all God has for us.

We have nothing to fear, because “greater is he who is in us than he who is in the world” (1 John 4:4)” Satan was already defeated on the cross. As we obey God, this eternal victory of Christ is revealed in our lives.

Abraham fought off the vultures, endured the horror, and passed through the great darkness. As a result, God made a covenant with him that is still releasing spiritual power into our lives today.

Overcoming Doubt and Fear

Satan is subtle and cunning. He wants us to doubt the word of God. “Did God really say that? Did God really lead you to do that?” These doubts can cause us to give up on the word of God and abandon it.

The first temptation in the Bible was to Eve. The devil said to her, “Did God really say to not eat of that tree?” He caused her to doubt God’s word. Because he was able to infect her with doubt, Eve abandoned the word of God. As a result, the entire creation fell into death and destruction. There are terrible consequences for abandoning God’s word.

“He who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind. For let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways” (James 1:6-7).

A person who doubts God is driven by winds. One moment he is doing something because God told him to, but the next moment he doubts God’s word and then stops obeying God. He is driven by winds of circumstances, challenges, and other problems. He is unstable in all his ways.

Stability comes from holding onto the word of God. We don’t let opposition shake us. We stand firm. When we hold onto God’s word, we wield the sharp sword of the Spirit. Then Satan cowers down like a defeated dog under our feet. God’s kingdom breaks out into this world by stable people who hold onto God’s word.

God doesn’t ask us to live mundane, normal lives. He asks us to do things that are different. Often God’s will is hard and difficult. He will give us supernatural grace to do supernatural things. When we face opposition, let’s not give up. Keep moving forward. God’s word will empower you to get the victory.

Another way Satan comes to try to steal God’s word is through fear. “If I do this, then what if this happens?” “What will people say?” “What about my future?”

Satan is a master intimidator. He tries to make us afraid so that we will not obey God’s words.

We need to realize that victory does not depend on us. It depends on God. We’re not doing this in our own strength, but in God’s strength. We are living a supernatural life according to the Holy Spirit, and not a normal life according to the course of this world. As we obey God, the Holy Spirit will pour into us grace that will lead us from strength to strength. Through Christ we are truly more than conquerors.

Don’t Let the Sacrifice Escape

“God is the LORD, And He has given us light; Bind the sacrifice with cords to the horns of the altar” (Psalm 118:27).

This verse is important. God has given us light through his word. “The entrance of your word gives light. It gives understanding to the simple” (Psalm 119:130). When the word of God comes to us, it gives us light. It tells us where to go and what to do. As we obey the word of God, we walk according to this spiritual light.

In order to obey the word of God, we must be willing to sacrifice. Obedience can be expensive. It can cost us money, time, energy, and other things. Sometimes the cost is great. But Jesus gave up his life for us. Should we not be willing to sacrifice for our Lord?

God tells us to tie the sacrifice with cords to the altar. Don’t let it escape. It might be expensive. It might seem like a big deal. There are Satanic forces at work to steal that sacrifice and block you from obeying God. Don’t let anyone take away your sacrifice. Fulfill the purpose that God has called you to. Don’t let that sacrifice run away. Plunge the knife into the sacrifice and give it totally to God, without reservation. As you do, he will bless you, he will bless others through you, and succeeding generations of God’s people will reap the fruits of your faithfulness to God.

This is a message from Micah:

There are many different sources which speak to us today. One source is our own heart (Jer 17:9; Prov 14:12). Another source is other people (Genesis 16:1-2). A third source is Satan/demons (Genesis 3:13;3:1). A fourth source is the Holy Spirit (Acts 8:29).

We can rejoice that God speaks to his people, for Jesus said “my sheep hear my voice.”

However, other voices can mimic God’s voice. They might claim to offer answers to our questions, but these answers are false. They might affirm the direction we want to go, even if it’s not God’s will. They might justify disobedience to God.

How can we distinguish God’s voice from other voices?

God’s voice isn’t based on natural ears, but spiritual ears. How do we train our spiritual ears to hear God’s voice?

First, we must be born again (John 5:3).

Second, we need to read God’s word.

Romans 10:17 “Faith comes by hearing, hearing comes by the Word of God.”

The Greek is the same about faith and hearing. Hearing is the precursor to faith; the Word of God is the precursor to hearing. If you want to increase you ability to hear the voice of God, read your Bible.

Third, spiritual gifts can help us distinguish God’s voice from other voices (1 Cor 12:4-8). The spiritual gift of wisdom can help discern when a false voice is mimicking the voice of the Holy Spirit. The gift of knowledge can help reveal when someone is ignoring the voice of God. The gift of prophecy directly reveals what God IS saying.

One thing to think about is that if “God” always ends up leading us to what we want, how do we know our god isn’t our desires? God will call us to crucify our flesh, so if we are actually hearing Gods voice, often it will lead us contrary to our old heart and according to our new heart in Jesus.

There are some hindrances to hearing the voice of God.

Problem #1: Sin

Sin can cut off our ability to hear God’s voice (1 Samuel 28:4-6; Psalm 66:18; Isaiah 59:2)

The solution for sin is confession (1 John 1:9; James 5:16). Another solution is reconciliation with others (Matthew 5:23-24).

Problem #2 Lack of Obedience:

God may not speak more to us if we have yet to obey prior commands (Hebrews 3:7-8; 3:17; 3:19). The Israelites could not continue on with God into the Promise Land because they did not obey His first commands. Though we have “come out of Egypt”, we must walk in continual obedience to continuously hear His voice.

We need to ask God to speak to us (James 4:3). Make sure you are letting your requests be made known to God. Ask the Holy Spirit to reveal wrong motives to your understanding (James 4:3; Psalm 139:23).

Problem #3 Spiritual Warfare:

If there is no unconfessed sin blocking God voice, and no pending commands yet to be obeyed, another potentially hindrance can be principalities and powers in the heavenly places (Ephesians 6:12;2 Corinthians 10:3-6).

One time Daniel was praying, fasting, and seeking God’s direction. In spite of his right standing before God and obedience to His commands, Daniel had no response to his prayers (Daniel 10:2-3; Daniel 10:12-13).

Because Daniel persevered in prayer and fasting he saw a breakthrough in the spiritual battle. Sometimes we also need to persevere in prayer and fasting.

The promises of God can be a great aid to our perseverance. Cling to them.

There are different ways that people view God. Some people see God as a stranger. They don’t really know him. He is distant from them, and they feel separated from him. Other people view God as a stern judge, sitting up in heaven, just waiting to strike them down for a minor infraction. Others see God as an impersonal power or force.

It’s important to have the right conception of God. In many ways, our conception of God determines our experience of God.

It’s especially important for us to view God accurately when we pray. When we understand who God really is, then we can relate to him effectively.

We see God correctly through the lens of his word. Jesus Christ is the word of God, and Jesus shows us who God is. As we read the Bible and see Jesus more clearly, we learn about the reality of God. When we see God as he really is, then we can experience him.

Satan loves to pervert our view of God and make us misunderstand him in order to try to disconnect us from him. We need God’s word to demolish these lies.

Jesus wants us to see God as our Father. He said that when we pray, we should address God as “our Father.” God is the Father of everyone because he has created every person. But that doesn’t mean that everyone is his child. To become a child of God, we must believe in Jesus Christ and be born again. God is therefore the Father more specifically of everyone who believes in Jesus. Weare born again and adopted into God’s family. We have peace with God and are in a relationship with him.

“Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children ofGod!” (1 John 3:1).

God loves his children! He takes care of them.

To approach our good Father, we should do in faith.

“But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him” (Hebrews 11:6).

We must have faith in two things about God. First, we must believe that God exists. There is no point in praying to someone who we don’t believe exists. Second, we must believe that God rewards those who seek him diligently. Praying to a god who doesn’t care, hear, or respond to our prayers is pointless. This is not our God.

Jesus taught us to pray in faith.

“So I say to you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.If a son asks for bread from any father among you, will he give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent instead of a fish? Or if he asks for an egg, will he offer him a scorpion? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him!” (Luke 11:9-13)

God is our Father. He created us. He made us his children through his Holy Spirit. He delights in giving good gifts to us. The main gift that we need from God is the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the one who will translate all the bountiful grace of God into our lives.

Let us see God as he is – our Father. As we see him accurately, we will open the door for his blessing.

One of the most important spiritual gifts in the New Testament is the gift of prophecy.

“He who prophesies speaks edification and exhortation and comfort to men” (1 Corinthians 14:3)

“Desire spiritual gifts,but especially that you may prophesy” (1 Corinthians 14:1).

“For you can all prophesy one by one, that all may learn and all may be encouraged.” (1 Corinthians 14:31)

As the church increasingly recovers God’s plan and prepares for the return of Jesus Christ, it becomes more and more important to understand the gift of prophecy.

Prophets are among the most important leaders in the church. The New Testament says that prophets, along with apostles, are foundational for the church (Ephesians 2:20).

In the New Testament, several prophets are mentioned. A group of prophets is mentioned in Acts 13:1. One of these prophets may have been Paul before he became an apostle. Agabus and other prophets are mentioned in Acts 11:27-28. Agabus prophesied in Acts 21:10. Judas and Silas were prophets (Acts 15:32).

There were often at least 2 or 3 prophets in many New Testament church meetings (1 Corinthians 14:29). With a couple of prophets in various church meetings, there were a lot of prophets in the New Testament.

Being a prophet is based on the spiritual gift of prophecy. Spiritual gifts come from the Holy Spirit. All true ministry is based on the working of the Holy Spirit.

A prophet has a particularly strong gift of prophecy. In a sense, the gift of prophecy has defined a prophet’s life.

Although Paul commands all believers to earnestly desire the gift of prophecy (1 Corinthians 14:1), he doesn’t mean that he wants them all to become prophets. Not everyone who has the gift of prophecy is automatically a prophet.

In the New Testament, to prophesy essentially means to speak out what God is saying now. It means hearing from God and communicating his words to others.

Prophecy is based on revelation (1 Corinthians 14:30). When a person gets a revelation from God, this is a first step toward prophesying. The next step is to prophesying is speaking that revelation out by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.

Prophecy can be about the future (Acts 11:28), but it is not necessarily so. Prophecy can also be about the past or the present (1 Corinthians 14:24). God knows all things, past, present, and future. When a person hears from God and speaks out his words, he prophesies.

Prophecy builds the church. It edifies. It comforts and exhorts (1 Corinthians 14:3).

Those with the gift of prophecy are able to understand mysteries and knowledge (1 Corinthians 13:2). They can understand the “deep things of God” (1 Corinthians 2:10). This is nothing for them to boast about, for they have just received this understanding as a gift from the Holy Spirit.

Those who have the gift of prophecy must combine faith with their prophetic gift. Those who have more faith will prophesy more, whereas those who have less faith will prophesy less (Romans 12:6).

When someone prophesies, others need to judge whether the prophecy is true or false (1 Corinthians 14:37). Discernment is a gift of the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 12:10). Some are better at discerning than others, but everyone has a responsibility to discern prophecies. The command to discern implies that Christians and churches will encounter both true and false prophecies.

All prophecies must bejudged by the word of God. A true prophecy will never contradict the Bible.

The gift of prophecy does not mean that anyone can add to the Bible. The Bible is complete, and no other books of the Bible will ever be written (Revelation 22:18).On the other hand, we have no authority to take away from the word of God. Many parts of the New Testament reveal that the spiritual gift of prophecy is part of the church, and we have no right to delete these parts of the Bible by making them irrelevant to church today. God is the same yesterday, today, and forever. He has not changed, and neither has his word. It is eternal.

Jesus warned us that many false prophets would arise, particularly at the end of the age, and they would deceive many people (Matthew 24:11). We need to test prophets (1 John 4:1) so that we are not deceived.

A prophet must confess Jesus Christ.

He must operate in the Holy Spirit.

He must bear good fruit. If his character has major flaws, his ministry is highly suspect.

“Beware of false prophets,who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves.You will know them by their fruits” (Matthew 7:15-16). Character and fruit are often only known within the context of a local church.

Prophecies are sometimes only discerned over time. If a prophecy about the future does not come to pass, then that prophecy is false.

If a person speaks a false prophecy to the church, he should repent and be more cautious about prophesying in the future. The church should be very cautious about receiving further ministry from such a “prophet” until he repents and matures.

In the New Testament, prophets are in control of their words. They are not beside themselves or out of control (1 Corinthians 14:32). God is not the author of confusion within the church.

Prophesying requires caution. Many people today claim to hear from God and speak prophecies, but they are false. We must not be deceived.

It can be tempting to despise prophecies because we might have heard false prophecies in the past or have had bad experiences with people who falsely claimed to be prophets. Some think that God does not speak to his people today. But Jesus said, my sheep hear my voice.

We should not despise prophecy.

“Do not despise prophecies. Test all things; hold fast what is good.”(1 Thessalonians 5:21).

Let us not throw out the baby with the bathwater. At the same time let us not accept all prophecies as if they are all from God.

As we follow the word of God, the Holy Spirit will teach us, give us discernment, and enable us to grow in our own ability to hear from God. He will keep us safe as we trust in him. And he will cause his spiritual gifts to operate within his church so that she can be built up to fulfill her purpose.

God has a pattern for his church. He has given us this pattern through his apostles in the New Testament. In order to fulfill God’s purpose for his church, we must understand and follow this plan.

Church is not a building. The apostles never built church building. Jesus never told anyone to build a church building. Church buildings were first built 3 centuries after the apostles died.

Ekklesia is the word for church in Greek. Ekklesia is an ancient Greek word thatoriginally referred to a governing body of people over a city. God used the word ekklesia throughout the New Testament to refer to his people. God’s ekklesia is comprised of everyone he has called out of the world to represent his eternal kingdom upon the earth.

In the New Testament, the word churchis used in three ways. Churchrefers to a gathering or group of believers, whether in a house, in a city, or all over the world.

In the New Testament, there was one church all over the world. All believers in Jesus were part of the worldwide church of God.

This worldwide church was separated geographically into city churches. There was one church in each city. There was one church in Rome, a church in Corinth, a church in Ephesus, etc. There may have been hundreds or thousands of believers in a city, and all of them were part of the church in that city.

There were no denominations in the New Testament. Denominations arose later because Christians followed contradictory teachings or various leaders. Jesus prayed that all his people would be one (John 17:21). Jesus doesn’t want his people divided separated into different sects by following opposing leaders or contradictory teachings (1 Corinthians 1:10-13). We need to unite by the Holy Spirit under the authority of the word of God. As we submit to God’s word, we will automatically come into unity with each other.

In the New Testament, each city church was comprised of various house churches. For example, in Jerusalem there were many house churches. The believers broke bread in houses, which means they took communion together and had church meetings in their homes (Acts 2:46). In his letter to the church in Rome Paul greets at least 3 different house churches in (Romans 16:5,14,15).

Over the centuries people have changed their understanding of church, but God has not changed. His word is eternal. His pattern and plan for church remains the same. We must strive to attain this apostolic standard.

Everyone Should Minister

Every Christian has received a spiritual gift (1 Corinthians 12:7-11, 1 Peter 4:10). These spiritual gifts are manifestations of the grace of God. They are supernatural operations of the Holy Spirit. Spiritual gifts are not based on natural abilities, but on the Holy Spirit. 

Spiritual gifts operate within a local Biblical church. A Christian will often discover his spiritual gifts within the context of fellowship in the church, for these gifts are given to build up the body of Christ.

Since each believer has at least one spiritual gift, each one is called to minister. Ministry is not just for Sunday morning, but it’s for throughout the week. In a New Testament church community, there will be many ministry opportunities.

Not Everyone is a Church Leader

Not every Christian is called to be a church leader. Even though each Christian has a spiritual gift, some have received special grace or callings from God in order to be church leaders.

There are two common misconceptions regarding church leadership.

The first error exalts leadership too high. It says that only leaders can do ministry, and everyone else should sit and watch. This belief develops a clergy/laity distinction. It renders many believers inactive. This belief is false, for the Bible says that each believer is called to minister because each one has a spiritual gift.

The second error is the opposite, and it downplays leadership too low. It says that since everyone is supposed to minister, then everyone is automatically a church leader. However, if everyone considers himself a leader, then no one is a leader. In a situation like this, it becomes like it was in Judges, in which “everyone did what was right in their own eyes.” This leads to confusion, lack of vision, weakness, and inability to move forward.

Every believer should minister, but not every believer is called to be a church leader.

“And we urge you, brethren, to recognize those who labor among you, and are over you in the Lord andadmonish you,and to esteem them very highly in love for their work’s sake” (1 Thessalonians 5:12-13).

We must recognize who our leaders are. When we know them, we can measure their lives and teachings by the word of God. Then we can confidently follow them.

There are responsibilities that we have to our church leaders.

“Remember those who rule over you, who have spoken the word of God to you, whose faith follow”(Hebrews 13:7).

“Obey those who rule over you, and be submissive” (Hebrews 13:17).

We have an obligation to submit to church leaders. But we must first recognize whether the leader is true or false. We will know this as we discern their lives and teachings by the word of God. When we discern who is a true leader, and we understand that God has placed that person in our life, then we can fulfill our obligations to that leader.

Church leaders are not qualified not by natural things. Seminary degrees, relationships with influential people, money, power, and personality do not qualify a person to be a church leader. Instead, church leaders are qualified by spiritual gifts. They must be recognized spiritually.

In Ephesians 4:11 Paul lists 5 different spiritual leaders: apostles, prophets, evangelists, shepherds, and teachers. These leaders have received spiritual gifts that enable them to fulfill their ministries.

These leadership gifts are given to “perfect the saints” (Ephesians 4:12). Leaders are to disciple believers so they can grow in God and operate in their own spiritual gifts and minister to the body.

The believers are being perfected so they can “do the work of the ministry” (Ephesians 4:12). Again, we see that each believer is called to minister.

Believers do the “work of the ministry” for the “edification of the body of Christ” (Ephesians 4:12). Edification means building. The body of Christ is currently being built up in the earth. The body is built by “that which every joint supplies” (Ephesians 4:16).

The body of Christ is being built “until we come to the unity of the faith, of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ” (Ephesians 4:13).

This is a grand goal of the church – to be built up together, all over the world, into the stature of the fullness of Christ.

Spiritual leadership is given by God to spur the church onward to attain this goal. Until this goal is reached, spiritual leadership is needed to mature the saints so that they can minister so the body of Christ can be built.

Jesus Was a Perfect Leader

These five ministry gifts are gifts of the Holy Spirit. They operate by spiritual power.

Jesus had all of these five gifts within himself.

Jesus is an apostle (Hebrews 3:1).

Jesus is a prophet (Acts 3:22).

Jesus is an evangelist, for wherever he went he preached the gospel (evangelized in Greek (Luke 4:18)).

Jesus is a shepherd (John 10:11).

Jesus is a teacher (John 13:13).

Out of all these spiritual riches that Jesus has within himself, he poured out these gifts upon people through the Holy Spirit.

There are other positions of church leadership within the New Testament like elders, and we will look at those positions later.

Conclusion

Church is to be defined by God. Church leadership also must be understood by the word of God. As we study the New Testament, we understand what the church is to look like and how church leadership is to function. We learn that every believer is called and gifted to minister. We learn that church leadership is to disciple the believers so they can minister to build the body. And we learn that the great goal of the church can only be achieved as this process happens.

May our minds be renewed to understand church and church leadership according to Bible.

Throughout his ministry, Jesus faced opposition. In spite of that, he was always able to reveal the grace and power of God, transforming people’s lives.

Once some religious leaders tried to trick Jesus. They had been plotting against him to arrest him and kill him, and now they thought they had a perfect opportunity to trap him.A woman had been caught in adultery and was dragged in front of Jesus (John 8:1-12). The religious leaders said that she should be stoned, and they asked Jesus what to do.

Jesus didn’t answer them right away. Instead he bent over and wrote on the ground.

After a while, Jesus gave them an answer. He said that the person who had no sin should be the first to throw a stone at the woman.

Then he wrote on the ground again.

Feeling convicted by the power of God, all the religious leaders went out, from the oldest to the youngest. They knew they had sinned. They had been adulterous too.

The woman was left alone, and no one was left to accuse her. Jesus was the only one there without sin. He had the right to throw stones, but he didn’t. He didn’t come to condemn the world, but to save the world (John 3:17). We should be merciful too.

When Jesus wrote on the ground, he gave a symbolic picture of the convicting power of the Holy Spirit. Our hearts are like spiritual ground. As Jesus wrote on the dirt, the Holy Spirit convicted hearts. The religious leaders had an opportunity to repent and turn to God. But instead of responding in humility and obedience to the conviction of the Holy Spirit, they rejected God and slunk away. 

They weren’t willing to abandon their sins. They wanted to throw stones at a woman for the same sins they committed. They were hypocrites.

They weren’t gone for long. After hardening their hearts against the Holy Spirit, they quickly regrouped and came back. They accused Jesus of being demonized. They implied that he was a bastard.

When we encounter the word of God, we can respond in either humility or arrogance. We can submit to God’s word or attack it.

Jesus told the woman to go and sin no more. She was forgiven that day, because she responded humbly to the voice of God.

Jesus took her condemnation on himself. He took her place. The same religious leaders who were about to stone the woman instead grabbed stones to throw at Christ (John 8:59).

Jesus escaped, but he wasn’t free for long. Soon he was arrested, condemned, beaten, went to the cross, and died. He died in her place, bearing her sins and shame. He died for all of us too.

Now we, like the adulterous woman, are set free.

Just like Jesus did when he wrote on the ground, Jesus convicts our hearts by the Holy Spirit. When we are convicted by the Holy Spirit, we hear the voice of God. He is telling us to do something or change something. When we respond humbly to this conviction, we are delivered.

If we ignore the convicting power of the Holy Spirit, we go away from Jesus. Our hearts become hard. The word of God will not find a soft place of rest inside us.

God is merciful. The Spirit of God will lead us into all truth. The truth will set us free.

“Therefore if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed” (John 8:36).

Let’s be merciful like Jesus, for the merciful will receive mercy. And let’s rejoice that just like the woman caught in adultery, we are set free from sin, shame, and condemnation by the love of Christ.

It’s important to obey God. Throughout the Bible, those who obeyed God were blessed, and those who disobeyed him faced problems.

A flood was coming to destroy the world. God told Noah to build a big boat in order to save himself, his family, and the creation. Building this massive boat was the smartest thing to to at this time, but it wasn’t easy. It took a long time. No one else was building such a boat because no one else was hearing from God. But Noah didn’t care what others were doing, he just cared about what God said.

God told Noah how to build this boat. He told him what wood to use, what size the boat should be, and where to put the window. He told him what waterproofing method to use and what day to enter the boat. Specific obedience was the key to Noah’s deliverance.

Jesus said that the condition of the world in the end times will be same as it was in the days of Noah. A flood of judgment will come on the world, and only those who hear and obey God will be safe. Everyone else will be destroyed.

God is looking for people like Noah who are willing to do radical things in order to obey his word and prepare for the future.

Obeying God is reasonable. God knows much more than we do. He has all power to accomplish whatever he wants. Why would we not obey his words?

Jesus said obedience is essential.

Luke 6:45 “Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord’ but don’t do the things that I say?”

John 14:15 “If you love me, keep my commandments.”

John 14:21 “He who loves me keeps my words”

John 15:10 “If you keep my commands you abide in my love”

John 15:14 “You are my friends if you do whatever I command you.”

The apostles emphasized obedience.

1 John 5:3 Obedience is loving God

1 John 2:3 Obedience is knowing God

1 John 3:22 Obedience leads to answered prayer.

We have a responsibility to obey all the teachings of Christ and his apostles in the New Testament. This is basic Christianity. Obedience is fundamental to our life as God’s children. We are not here to do whatever we want to do. We are here to do whatever God wants us to do.

In the Old Testament, people obeyed the word of God in order to be saved. Today, we are not saved by our acts of obedience, but we are saved by grace through faith. When we believe the gospel, we are born again, and we receive eternal life. Today we obey God not in order to be saved, but we obey God because we are saved.

In the Old Testament, the strength to obey God was the flesh. Today, we have the Holy Spirit inside us. Now the strength to obey God comes from the Holy Spirit. When we discover what God wants us to do in his word, as we begin to obey that word, then we will find the Holy Spirit empowering us to do what God said.

Obeying God is the best thing we can do, because God is the most awesome, satisfying, and glorious person in the universe. He knows everything. All true love, joy, and peace is found in him. The word of God is a key that will unlock and release the presence of God into our lives. When we obey God, we will experience more of him and fulfill our purpose.

Although obeying God is the best thing we could possibly do, there are many reasons for disobeying God.

Flesh. Our flesh is sinful. Our flesh has no power to obey God. If we are relying on ourselves and our own power, we will not be able to obey God. We need to put off the flesh, crucify the old man, and be filled with the Holy Spirit.

Satan. The devil hates obedience to God because he hates God’s presence and power. The devil tempts us to sin, do evil, and doubt God. He doesn’t want us to obey God because he doesn’t want God’s kingdom to advance. We defeat the devil’s lies by the word of God.

Peer Pressure. People around us often disobey God. Cultures normalize disobedience to God. Society puts pressure on us to think in ways that are not according to the word of God and do things that are contrary to God. “The fear of man brings a snare” (Proverbs 29:25). We need to trust in the Lord and be willing to stand alone against the tide of people and society around us.

Christian Peer Pressure. There may be things in the word of God that many Christians around us are not following. We need to follow those things anyway. Many churches may be doing things that are not based on the Bible. We need to reject those things. We need to stand on the word of God, not being moved away from it by the ‘Christian culture’ around us that may be compromised.

Money. We need to put God first over money, because the love of money is the root of all evil. We cannot serve God and money. Don’t put money first and then add God on at the end. Put God first, and then God will provide what you need.

Procrastination. Sometimes we know what God wants us to do, but we put off obeying because we think we can obey God later. But God wants us to obey today. “Today if you hear is his voice, don’t harden your heart” (Hebrews 12:10). When the Holy Spirit prompts us to obey God, we need to follow this prompting. Tomorrow may be too late.

Too Hard. Sometimes it might seem too hard to obey God because he might ask us to do something beyond our own ability. But as we obey God, we will find him supernaturally working in our lives. This will make obedience easier. Jesus said my yoke is easy and my burden is light and you will find rest for your souls (Matthew 11:30). His commandments are not burdensome or heavy (1 John 5:3). God’s word is the pathway of life. Our job is to obey and leave the results up to him.

Think We Know Better. Sometimes we think that we know a better way of doing something. We come up with clever ideas. But our own ideas often won’t work. We need God’s ideas. His way sometimes won’t make sense to our natural mind, but his way is always perfect.

Impatience. Sometimes obeying God takes a while. We want things to happen fast, so we do things in a different way thinking that our way will have quicker results. But we need to wait for God. He will come through. He will act according to his word in his time. And when God works, it will be the best.

Unbelief. Sometimes we don’t believe that God will actually bless us as we obey him. But whenever we obey God, we will be blessed.

Fear. Sometimes we are afraid that obedience to God will cause problems. But whenever we obey God, God will bear the consequences for our obedience, and he will get us through safely. Other people will be blessed as we obey God. Our own life will be blessed. The challenges of obedience may be great, but God is greater.

Ignorance. Sometimes we disobey God because we don’t know that God wants us to do something. No one has taught us some commands of the Bible. We might have read a verse, but it somehow didn’t register in our minds that we need to obey it. “My people perish for lack of knowledge” (Hosea 4:6). We need to read the word of God for ourselves and set out to obey it, whatever it is. The Holy Spirit will lead us into all truth.

Accusations of Legalism. Sometimes we hesitate to obey God because we think if we focus too much on obeying God we’ll become legalistic like the Pharisees. But the Pharisees did not obey God. They replaced the word of God with their own human traditions. Legalism expects people to obey man-made religious rituals, not the word of God. In addition, our works of obedience are not the way of our salvation, but obedience is a normal and healthy sign of our salvation.

Times Have Changed. Sometimes we don’t obey instructions in the New Testament because we think that times have changed and those instructions are not for our culture. However, the word of God is eternal. It transcends culture. Christ’s words are going to last forever. No matter what culture or time period we are living in, we are obligated to obey the word of God completely. God’s word stands over all cultures and time periods, and someday it will judge everyone.

We need to obey God regardless of the cost. The bride of Christ will be characterized by obedience to Jesus, her husband. It’s time for the bride to get ready. Let’s not add to nor take away from the word of God. Let’s keep pressing toward the goal. And if we encounter something in the word of God that we are currently not practicing, let us implement it. We have nothing to lose.

Jesus told his disciples to shake the dust off their feet when people didn’t receive God’s word. Shaking of the dust of their feet was a sign that that those people were going to be judged by God (Matthew 10:14-15).

However, shaking off the dust of their feet is more than a symbol of impending judgment.

Shaking off the dust points to something important for the health of Jesus’ own disciples.

When the disciples were rejected, it wasn’t easy. They were taunted, mocked, persecuted, and beaten.

We will face hard experiences in life. To move on from these experiences successfully, we need to learn to shake the dust off our feet.

Jesus didn’t want his disciples to be clouded over by difficulties.Rather than wallowing in misery because they were persecuted or rejected, Jesus wanted them to shake that dust off their feet and move forward.

We shouldn’t let the dust of hard experiences cling to us.

We don’t need to carry the dust of those difficulties into the future.

Dust makes us dirty. We need to shake that dust off. Forget the things that are behind and press forward into what lies before us.

When people reject us or persecute us, we need to forgive them. Don’t hold anger, bitterness, or unforgiveness in our hearts. This is like spiritual dirt that will hinder us. Shake this dust off.

God doesn’t want us standing on the ground of rejection. He doesn’t want us to define ourselves as bad people who have been condemned or judged by others. People may have rejected you, but this doesn’t define who you are. You are accepted in the beloved. You are standing on the rock that is Jesus Christ. Go forward into the bright future God has for you.

Shaking the dust off your feet means not standing on the pain of the past. Walk forward. Don’t drag the things of the past into the present. Shake off the dust of your feet. Walk forward into what God has for you, casting all your burdens on the Lord, because he cares for you.

Shaking off the dust of our feet is important for our spiritual health.

Sometimes we need to let people go. We should not keep banging against a brick wall. Try to share truth with people, but if they don’t accept the truth, shake the dust off and move on. There are other people are hungry to hear the word of God and desperate to get the deliverance and peace that can only come from Jesus.Move forward to those people.

Shaking off the dust of our feet also points to the fact that we should not compromise the truth in order to win people to God. Don’t allow their false teachings or ideologies to cling to you. Don’t sin in order to gain favor with the world. Don’t go along to get along. Shake the dust of the world off and keep walking with God.

God promises to go before us. He has an awesome plan. In order to fulfill that plan, we need to learn to shake the dust off our feet. Don’t be held back by the past. Move forward into the future. With God all things are possible.

Naomi and her family were Jews. There was a famine in Israel, so Naomi, her husband, and her two sons left Israel and moved to Moab to find food (Ruth 1:1).

Moab was a bad place. It was full of idolatry and compromise.

The Moabites were descendants of Lot. Lot once chose to dwell in the evil city Sodom so he could have material blessings. Lot represents Christians who compromise with the world in order to get material gain. The Moabites were a wicked nation.

Moab is not a good place for God’s people.

No matter how hard things are in Israel, Moab is not a solution. We need to stay in Israel because that’s where God is. Running somewhere else will not help us. There may be a famine in Israel, but that famine is only temporary. God will always come through for his people. He will speak to them and give them bread from heaven.

Naomi and her family moved to Moab because they were afraid they would starve to death in Israel.

But there was no sustenance in Moab.

In Moab, Naomi’s husband and her two sons died.

Moab is a place of destruction. We might go to Moab in hopes of finding life, but we will actually find death there.

“There is a way that seems right to a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death” (Proverbs 14:12).

When we face problems as Christians, the solution is not to compromise and run out into the world. Instead, we need to go deeper into God. As we go deeper into God, we will find help. As we stay in God’s will, we will be blessed.

Return to Bethlehem

After the death of her husband and sons, Naomi decided she had to go back to Israel.

Naomi was originally from Bethlehem. Bethlehem means a “fruitful house of bread.”

Bethlehem was not always full of bread, for there was once a famine there, and that’s why Naomi had left years ago. But God was in Bethlehem, even in the midst of the famine. “Man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that comes from the mouth of God” (Matthew 4:4).

Naomi’s hard circumstances in Moab were bringing her back into the center of God’s will. She headed back to Bethlehem under the loving hand of God.

In this process Naomi murmured against God. She said that God had sent out his hand against her (Ruth 1:13). She became bitter. She said that God had dealt bitterly with her (Ruth 1:20). She said God had caused her to be empty, and he had afflicted her (Ruth 1:21).The reason Naomi faced these problems is because she went to Moab and left the land of Israel. She shouldn’t have blamed God for these problems. They weren’t God’s fault.

Ruth

Ruth was a Moabite girl who had married one of Naomi’s sons. That son was now dead.

Ruth didn’t want to stay in Moab. She loved the God of Israel, and she wanted to be with God’s people. She wanted to leave the idolatry and evil of Moab.Whereas Naomi had once left Israel to find natural provision in Moab, Ruth wanted to leave Moab to find spiritual provision among God’s people.

So Ruth accompanied Naomi back to Bethlehem.

When Naomi and Ruth reached Bethlehem, it was harvest time.

Redemption

There will always be a harvest among God’s people. We just need patience to wait for it. Seeds don’t produce fruit overnight. It takes many months for seeds to grow up and produce fruit. Sometimes the spiritual seeds of God’s word take even longer. Just because there appears to be a famine among God’s people doesn’t mean it will always be so. The harvest is coming. We need to be faithful to tend to the seeds that God has planted among us so that we can see the harvest. Don’t give up before the harvest comes.

Ruth went out into the field to pick up some grain that was lying on the ground. This field belonged to Boaz.

Boaz was a relative of Naomi’s dead husband, Elimelech.

Unlike Elimelech, Boaz had not run to Moab during the previous famine. He was a man of faith. He stayed in Israel. Over the years of walking with God he became a blessed and strong man.

Boaz came and met Ruth in his field. He told Ruth to drink as much water as she needed. He told her to listen to him and follow his instructions. He told her not to go into any other field but to stick close to him and his workers. He said he would keep her safe. He made sure that she was given more than enough grain for herself and Naomi. He gave her bread.

Boaz is a type of Christ. Ruth is a type of the church. We need to stick close to Jesus. As we do, he will provide all that we need. We have been adopted into his family, and he now takes care of us. As we listen to him and follow his instructions, we will be blessed.Through Boaz, the life of Ruth and Naomi became more blessed than they could ever imagine. Ruth became great-grandmother of King David and an ancestor of Jesus Christ.

Through Ruth, Naomi’s life turned around.

God is merciful. He can turn bad things around in our life for good. Even when we make terrible decisions, God can bring something good out of them.God was merciful to Naomi. He was working amazing things into her life, even when she didn’t understand.

Let us learn from this:

Don’t run out into the world,even when there appears to be a lack among God’s people. Press deeper into God and find the solution. The answers are only found in God. Compromise with the world is never the answer.

Be willing to wait for the harvest. Jesus will provide for all that we need.

Don’t blame God for problems that he didn’t cause.

Recognize that God is able to cover over mistakes and turn them around for good.

Always know that as you stay faithful to God, he will work amazing things out in your life, things that are beyond what you can even ask or think.

A Message from Bobby:

After the death of Moses, God spoke to Joshua and charged him to continualy meditate day and night over the Book of the Law (i.e. the first 5 books of the Bible) and observe all that God has commanded him. And God promised that He will never leave or forsake Joshua and He will be with him wherever he goes, making his way successful and prosperous.

Joshua 1:5-9

5 No man shall be able to stand before you all the days of your life; as I was with Moses, so I will be with you. I will not leave you nor forsake you. 6 Be strong and of good courage, for to this people you shall divide as an inheritance the land which I swore to their fathers to give them. 7 Only be strong and very courageous, that you may observe to do according to all the law which Moses My servant commanded you; do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left, that you may prosper wherever you go. 8 This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success. 9 Have I not commanded you? Be strong and of good courage; do not be afraid, nor be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”

Joshua is of the tribe of Ephraim (Numbers 13:8 & 13:16). It’s curious that he’s not of the tribe of Levi, the tribe of Moses and Aaron, the priesthood tribe. He’s not a priest and he’s not anointed as a king; yet, he was personally called and assigned by God to lead God’s people (Numbers 27:18-20). Joshua was chosen to be the successor of Moses because of his faithfulness to the Lord (Numbers 32:12). Joshua’s task was to lead God’s people into the Promised Land and to be their military and spiritual leader. God’s plan for the nation of Israel (the descendants of Abraham) was to set them apart, above all people of the earth, and to make them “a kingdom of priests and a holy nation” (Deuteronomy 26:19; Exodus 19:6). However, God’s plan and God’s blessings on the Israelites were conditional on their obedience to His voice, His Law and His commandments. But God would not speak personally to every Israelite, but He would speak to them through the prophets, priests, and leaders He had anointed to be over the nation.

God spoke personally to Joshua, the leader of the nation of Israel. God’s promise to Joshua to be with him wherever he goes is a promise of a personal relationship with Joshua. And as we read through the following chapters of the Bible, Joshua follows God’s instructions and God guides him and speaks personally to Him time and time again. However, Joshua had to be careful to read, study and meditate on God’s written Word day and night, so that Joshua would be able to observe and do what God had commanded in His written Word, and as a result, God would bless him and God would speak personally to him, leading him to victory and great success.

Under the New Covenant, every believer is able to enter into a personal relationship with God by faith thanks to Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross (John 3:16). God has poured out His Holy Spirit on us (Acts 2:38; Romans 5:5), and through the Spirit He has inscribed in our hearts and minds His laws, and He promises that everyone, every single believer, will now be able to personally know Him (Hebrews 8:10-11). Thanks to the Holy Spirit, every Christian is able to hear God’s voice personally. Jesus said, “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me” (John 10:27).Every Christian is able to be led by God by the power of the Holy Spirit. Jesus promised, “when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth“ (John 16:13). The Bible also declares,“For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God” (Romans 8: 14).

The Bible says that we have been sealed with the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit is our deposit, our guarantee, our earnest, our advance payment (Ephesians 1:13-14) for the heavenly inheritance, which every believer will receive one day in the kingdom of God, our heavenly Promised Land (1 Peter 1:4).

That’s why it’s important to realize that: 

What we believe matters(“by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast” (Ephesians 2:8-9)),

What we think matters(“If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God” (Colossians 3:1); “For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. (Romans 8:5); “Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things.” (Philippians 4:8))

What we speak matters(“Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but what is good for necessary edification, that it may impart grace to the hearers.” (Ephesians 4: 29); “A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart brings forth evil. For out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.” (Luke 6:45))

What we do matters(Jesus said, “He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me.” (John 14:21); and whoever hears Jesus’s sayings and does them, he is like a person building his house on the rock (Luke 6:47-49); “The things which you learned and received and heard and saw in me, these do, and the God of peace will be with you.” (Phillipians 4:9))

We read and study the Word of God daily so that we may be able to understand it fully (Ephesians 1:18) and we may be blessed more by God with all the spiritual blessings available to us in Christ (Ephesians 1:3). We pray that we may be conformed more to the image and glory of Jesus Christ. For that purpose, we need to believe first the whole written Word (not a part of it, or only the parts that make sense to us), then interpret it correctly (i.e., one verse, when interpreted correctly, should not contradict another verse), and then seek God’s help and the power of God’s Spirit so we may be able to apply His Word more fully in our daily lives. That is why, it’s vital that we do not base our beliefs and faith purely on personal experience or emotions, but we are grounded firmly on the Word of God. Because God can only bless us as long as we align ourselves with His Word.

According to the Bible, it’s possible for believers to experience the power of God’s Holy Spirit, God’s miracles and God’s supernatural power, and yet, for those believers to turn away from the truth of God’s Word. The church in Galatia had a good foundation, being taught by the apostles of Christ, and they experienced the supernatural power and presence of God’s Spirit (Galatians 3:5). Yet, they turned away from the truth (Galatians 3:1) and apostle Paul had to rebuke them sternly and warn them that he was afraid for them that their suffering for the gospel might be in vain (Galatians 3:4) and his labor of ministry among them might be in vain too (Galatians 4:11).

Therefore, what we believe, what we think, what we speak, and what we do, especially in relation to God’s written Word holds the importance of all eternity. 

Today, we have many who claim that America as a political nation has a special relationship with God. This is not new. Since the dawn of the Roman Empire, European nations and kingdoms have claimed such a special relationship for themselves and their nations. This is the belief, mostly based on the Old Testament covenant between Israel and God, that God would bless a nation militarily, economically, and financially above other nations, if that nation obeys Him. Moreover, many believe that Israel, as a political nation today, still has a special relationship with God as it once did in the Old Testament. But if such views are true, that God can have a special relationship with a political nation today, just as He did in the Old Testament with the nation of Israel, then does God speak personally today to the political and religious leaders of these nations, just as He spoke and revealed Himself to Moses, Joshua, Gideon, Samuel, David, Solomon, etc.?

The Old Testament makes it clear that obedience to God’s Law is also connected with receiving revelation or vision from God.

“The Law is no more, and her prophets find no vision from the Lord.” (Lamentations 2:9)

“Where there is no revelation, the people cast off restraint; but happy is he who keeps the law.” (Proverbs 29:18).

After all, how can two claim to have a personal relationship, unless there’s some sort of communication going on between the two? And how can one get corrected and disciplined, unless he is able to hear God’s voice clearly? (Hebrews 12:6-8)

In fact, whenever there was no vision from the Lord, whenever the Lord did not speak personally to the leaders, according to the Old Testament, that was a sign, not of a healthy relationship with God, but rather, that something had gone terribly wrong as everyone was doing only “what was right in his own eyes” (Deuteronomy 12:8; Judges 17:6, 21:25). 

In the New Testament, we are called no longer to live for the political kingdoms of this world, but rather we are called to live as citizens of a heavenly kingdom (Philippians 3:20; Eph 2:19). Moreover, the Scripture clearly declares that our standing with the Lord is not based on our ethnicity or nationality (Rom 10:12-13), but only on our faith in Christ, because we are saved by grace through faith (Ephesians 2: 8-9) and not through the works of the flesh, or through political allegiance. And thanks to Jesus and God’s Spirit living in us, the Bible calls all believers from every tribe, tongue and nation “a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light” (1 Peter 2: 9).

Please don’t get me wrong – I pray for America and I pray for our political and religious leaders. I pray that God blesses them and gives them a heart of understanding and wisdom. I pray that they obey His written Word, seek Him daily and desire to do all His will. I pray that they clearly hear from Him and He speaks personally to them and guides them so that they may know how to govern God’s people well and be a blessing to everyone. My concern and my caution is that we must first test people’s words, as the Bible instructs us to do (1 Thessalonians 5:20-21; 1 Corinthians 14:29), before we jump to follow after anyone who claims that God is with them.

In the end, let’s mention that God does not need the help of political rulers or leaders to save and protect His people. He is able to save and fight for His people, even when they do not have a country, an army or anyone who can help them. God did it when He split the Red Sea and destroyed Pharaoh and his army. God did it when He brought down the walls of Jericho and defeated the mighty giants, who were much stronger than the Israelites. God did it when He called Gideon and his 300 men to overcome the vast army of the Midianites. So, God is able to protect and deliver His people, without the help of a political nation, boundary or country.

The words of the New Testament are spirit and life. Jesus spoke these words to set us free. When we believe Jesus’ words we experience the power of the Holy Spirit to deliver us from bondage.

The Old Testament Law was not like this, for it was weak through the flesh. We cannot keep the Law in our own strength, but we need the Holy Spirit to enable us to obey God. If we are relying on our flesh, then the teaching of the Bible might not help us. Paul said he would not have known lust unless the Law had told him not to lust. He discovered that the Law was weak through the flesh, and that it would kill a person. The more he tried to force himself to follow the Law, the more he came into bondage to sin (Romans 7:11). “By the Law is the knowledge of sin” (Romans 3:20).

Obviously, we don’t study the Bible in order to increase our knowledge of the Law and come into bondage to sin. We study the Bible in order to unlock the power of the Holy Spirit inside us so we can be set free.

The Bible tells us many things about strife because God does not want his children to strive. As we look into these things, we need to recognize that this is not a law that we have to force ourselves to obey – “DON’T STRIVE.” Rather, these teachings will cause the Holy Spirit to arise within us and empower us to get victory. We are not facing the challenge in our own power, but in the power of God.

In order to get victory over strife, it can help to recognize where strife comes from. The Book of Proverbs reveals several different sources of strife.

Strife often comes from hatred (Proverbs 10:12). When we hate someone, we are tempted to strive with them.

We often hate people because they have sinned against us.

Love covers sin. Love is the opposite of hatred. When we love others, we will not strive with them.

We cannot truly love people in our own strength. True love only comes from God. God has poured out his love in our hearts through the Holy Spirit (Romans 5:5). The supernatural love of God conquers hatred, and love will free us from strife.

Strife can come from pride (Proverbs 13:10). Proud people will not listen to correction nor take advice. This leads to conflict. When people refuse correction from the word of God, they they think they know more than God. This leads to conflict. The opposite of pride is humility. Humble people do not strive. Humility comes from the Holy Spirit who is the humble dove. We will become humble as God lives his life in and through us by the Holy Spirit.

Strife can come from being hot-tempered (Proverbs 15:18). Those who lose their temper easily often have lives full of strife. God does not want his people to be hot-tempered. God is not hot-tempered. He does not lose his temper easily and become mad or upset quickly. God is gracious and slow to anger. There are many times we have offended God. And yet God has been patient with us. He has not become angry with us but has patiently led us in the right way. We need to be patient with others and not lose our temper easily. This is possible when we allow Christ to live his life inside us.

Strife can come from foolish words (Proverbs 18:6). In the abundance of words there is no lack of sin (Proverbs 10:19). We need to be able to control our tongues so that we do not stir up trouble with our words. No one can tame their tongue. But God will help us control our tongue so that we don’t pour out a stream of evil.

Strife comes from perverse people (Provers 16:28). This word perverse can mean to send out missiles. Some people suddenly shoot out arrows of destruction. We all have been like this on occasion – unstable and unpredictable. When this happens, strife is sure to follow. God is stable, our flesh is not. We can only get the victory by the Holy Spirit.

Gossip creates strife (Provers 26:20). When someone talks about others behind their backs, it often produces strife. “Why did you say that about me?” “I can’t believe that he did that!” Gossip has the power to separate close friends. Gossip and slander are demonic. We need to avoid gossip. The opposite of gossip and slander is blessing. Let’s speak good things about others rather than evil things.

Anger stirs up strife (Proverbs 29:22). When people are angry, they are likely to fight. The Bible says when we are angry we should not sin. We should not lash out at others. That will not accomplish the work of God, because the anger of man does not accomplish the righteousness of God.

It is possible to eliminate the sources of strife from our lives: hatred, pride, hot temper, gossip, anger, and perversity. How? We can be free from these things not by the flesh but by the Holy Spirit.

Strife can often be resolved by confession and repentance. God’s people are called to unity, to love for each other, and to be a united testimony against the devil. For this to happen, they must not strive.

A house divided against itself cannot stand. Whether it is in a marriage, family, or church, strife creates weakness against the devil. In order to win spiritual battles, we need unity.

The mercies of God are new every morning. He is merciful to us, even when we did not deserve it. Let us be merciful to others. Our mercies toward others can be new every morning too.

God’s faithfulness is very great. He never gives up on us. We ought to not give up on others, even when they wrong us. We can overlook offenses and love people even when they are wrong.

Jesus said, “blessed are the peacemakers.” Let us not strive with others, but let us make peace. As we do, we will be blessed, and we will be called the children of God.

“The servant of the Lord must not strive” (2 Timothy 2:24).

The word strive means fight, debate, argue, or quarrel. God wants his people to avoid strife. This is especially true for servants of God. But this applies to all Christians. God commands each of his children to avoid stife (Titus 3:1-3).

According to James 4:1, strife comes from the flesh. When our flesh desires something but doesn’t get it, we can start fighting. For example, a child may want a toy, doesn’t get it, and then starts fighting for it. He may scream and throw a tantrum or hit others. An adult may want respect, not get it, and then start fighting to get respect. He may become angry, start shouting at others, or become bitter.

When we take matters into our own hands, we start fighting and striving. Strife is a sign of unbelief, because we are not trusting God to take care of us. When we trust in God for a situation, we won’t strive about it.

We don’t need to fight for our rights. God will fight for us. We can entrust ourselves to God, and he will take care of us. We don’t need to strive. Our flesh won’t deliver us; God will deliver us. Our job is to obey God. As we obey him, he will work on our behalf.

Strife is a work of the flesh (Galatians 5:20). It is a sin that is in the same category as sexual immorality (Romans 13:13). Just as Christians are commanded to avoid sexual immorality, so we must avoid strife.

Strife is a sign of carnality. When we strive, we show that we are spiritually immature and still in the flesh. God wants us to grow to become spiritually mature. When we become mature, we will stop striving. Spiritual growth happens as we obey God.

The New Testament has a lot to say about strife.

It says we should avoid people who cause divisions in the body of Christ contrary to the teaching of the apostles (Romans 16:17). When we encounter those who actively promote teachings contrary to the New Testament, we don’t need to fight with them. We can admonish them once or twice, and then reject them (Titus 3:10).

The New Testament tells us not to quarrel with those who are weak in faith (Romans 14:1). Someone may be weak in faith about what to eat, what to wear, or another issue. We should not fight with them about these issues. A person who is weak in faith should be encouraged to become strong in faith. When he becomes strong in faith, these other issues will get sorted out.

We are commanded to have nothing to do with foolish and ignorant disputes (2 Timothy 2:23). Often people strive about foolish and ignorant things. They strive about things they lack information about (or are ignorant of). If they had more accurate information, the strife would disappear.

Foolish disputes sometimes arise over very minor issues. Looking back, it can be amazing how big a mountain is made out of a small molehill. In the larger picture, a lot of strife appears very foolish. We need to discern these foolish disputes and avoid them.

We should not fight about the law (Titus 3:9). Some people will have differing interpretations of what the symbols of the law mean. For example, what does the color purple symbolize on the garment of the high priest? This is not something we need to fight about. We can pray and hopefully the Holy Spirit will lead us to an answer. But we don’t need to fight with our brothers and sisters about issues like this.

The Bible tells us to avoid strife. Strife is a sin. It is a work of the flesh and a sign of immaturity. It will not lead to anyone’s deliverance and will bring us into bondage.Sometimes conflict is unavoidable. We live in a world that is often dominated by Satan, and we must take up our cross. This will involve conflict. But any conflict we enter into must be by the Holy Spirit and not by the flesh.

God wants us to earnestly contend for the faith (Jude 3). This means the Holy Spirit must work through us. This involves prayer, dialogue, presenting the truth, and humility. Earnestly contending for the faith is very different from strife. One is a work of the Holy Spirit, the other is a work of the flesh. As we understand what the New Testament says about strife, and are guided by the Holy Spirit, we will be able to discern the difference.

Blessings and curses are important for Christians to understand. Blessings bring peace, health, prosperity, and happiness. Curses bring misery, sickness, strife, and death.

Blessings and curses are spiritual words that release spiritual power. These words cause spiritual power to operate in a person’s life. They have actual effects in the earth.

Blessings and cursings often operate through spoken words. This is one reason the Bible says the power of life and death is in the tongue.

God’s word is powerful. Through his word he blesses people and curses people. He blessed those who obeyed his word and cursed those who disobeyed (Deuteronomy 11:26-28).

When God blesses someone that person has a supernatural divine power operating in his life that causes things to go well for him.

Abraham was a man who God blessed. Because of this blessing, Abraham prospered. He won battles, gained territory, had many descendants, and gained much influence. When Abraham was old, he transmitted this blessing to his son, Isaac. Then Isaac prospered because of this blessing. When Isaac was old, both his sons Jacob and Esau wanted this blessing for themselves. They saw what this blessing had done for their father and grandfather, and they both wanted it. Jacob ultimately prevailed and received this blessing. Then Jacob transmitted this powerful blessing to his 12 sons. From there the blessing of Abraham passed on to all the children of Israel. Now the blessing of Abraham comes on all those who believe in Jesus Christ (Galatians 3:14). If you are a born again child of God, you are blessed with this powerful blessing of God.

In the Old Testament, the blessing of God caused people to gain territory, get money, have many children, and win wars.

The natural blessings of the Old Testament are symbols of the spiritual blessings of the New Testament. We inherit a spiritual land by the Holy Spirit, not actual land. We get spiritual riches, not material riches. We have the presence of God and the gifts of the Holy Spirit. We win people to the Lord and have spiritual children. And we defeat demons and fallen angels rather than conquer people.

We can use our tongues for blessings or cursings. Our words are not meaningless, but they carry spiritual power. Jesus said that we will give an account for every idle word that we speak (Matthew 12:36). Even idle or careless words have spiritual effects.

Sometimes we curse ourselves.

“This is driving me crazy.” We don’t want to be driven crazy by something.

“This runs in my family so I will get it too.”

“I just know this is not going to work.” This is not a good way to start a project.

“I never have enough money.”

“I’m always getting into trouble.”

“I’m always sick.”

“I’d rather die than go through life like that.”

These curses can drag us down. Sometimes we curse other people.

“You always do that.”

“You never do that.”

“You’ll never amount to anything.”

“You’re stupid.”

We need to be careful to control our tongues so that we do not curse others.

Jesus commanded us not to curse people. He said that we should bless those who curse us (Luke 6:28). Paul said that we should bless those who persecute us. We should bless them and not curse them (Romans 12:14). James said we should only allow blessings to come out of our mouths, but not curses (James 3:10).

If we curse others, we disobey God.

Curses can affect Christians today. They can hinder us and drag us down.

We can be set free from curses by Jesus Christ. On the cross, Christ became a curse for us. Every curse was put on him so that we might be set free.

Jesus bought the right for us to be free from all curses. But freedom from curses is not automatic. We need to walk in freedom. Jesus took all sins on the cross to set us free from sin, but we need to go to Jesus to deliver us from the power of specific sins. In a similar way Jesus took all curses on the cross, but we need to come to him in order to be set free from the power of specific curses.

If we feel that we may be affected by a curse, God will help us identify where the curse came from. Maybe it came from a parent, from a friend, from an ancestor, or even from ourselves. When we identify the source of the curse, we should forgive that person who cursed us. Then we can pray for and bless that person. We should speak out against that curse and cancel it and all its effects over our lives.

Our tongues are powerful. Just like we receive forgiveness by speaking out a confession to God, so we can break curses by speaking out a renunciation of those curses.

The power of life and death is in the tongue. This spiritual power is often manifested in blessing and cursing. Let us speak a blessing over ourselves, over our families, and over our friends and fellowship. Let us not curse. As we bless, the spiritual light and life of God will be increasingly revealed.

Everyone has a powerful weapon – the tongue. When the Bible refers to the tongue, it’s talking about our words.

The “power of life and death is in the tongue” (Proverbs 18:21). Words can kill and words can make alive.

Words carry spiritual power. God created the world by speaking. The entire universe was created by God’s words.

Jesus said that we can accomplish amazing things just by speaking.

“For assuredly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be removed and be cast into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that those things he says will be done, he will have whatever he says.” Mark 11:23

“So the Lord said, ‘If you have faith as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be pulled up by the roots and be planted in the sea,’ and it would obey you.'” (Luke 17:6)

It is possible to pluck up trees and throw down mountains with the power of our tongue.

Only God has the power to do these things. The miraculous power of our words operates when we hear from God and speak his words. When we speak what God wants us to say, then our words carry the power of God. Amazing miracles happen when people hear from God and speak his words. God is raising up people who will walk in this power.

The tongue can be used for positive things or negative things. Some people speak like the piercings of a sword (Proverbs 12:18). Their words are hurtful and piercing, designed to wound and hurt others. 

Wise people speak words of health (Proverbs 12:18). Their words heal others – their souls, minds, and bodies.

In the Bible, James, the brother of Jesus, gives us several symbols of the tongue in order to teach us about the power of our words.

Fire

James said the tongue is like a fire (James 3:6).

It just takes a small spark to burn down an entire forest. Trees that took centuries to grow can be destroyed by fire overnight. Houses that take a long time to build, heirlooms passed down through families over generations, and cherished valuables can all be burned down in a moment.

Our words can be like a fire. They can burn things down. Important things can be destroyed in a moment by the tongue. Slander destroys friendships and ruins reputations. Words can cause misery, depression, and suicide.

Sometimes fire in one person’s tongue can ignite another person’s tongue. One person lets his tongue loose, and then another person becomes angry and lets his tongue loose. Then the fiery words rage and destroy.

“It’s an honor for a man to cease from strife, since any fool can start a quarrel” (Proverbs 20:3).

God has not called us to fight with our tongues and burn others with our words. He doesn’t want us to use our tongues for evil and for tearing down.

World of Iniquity

James said the tongue is a world of iniquity. Our words can be a vast arena in which there is much sin. We need to learn to control our tongues so that this iniquity is not released into the world.

“In the multitude of words sin is not lacking, but he who restrains his lips is wise” (Proverbs 10:19).

Unruly Evil

James said the tongue is an unruly evil. Unruly means uncontrollable. The tongue like an untamed wild animal that is raging and trying to devour, releasing evil into the world.

Full of Deadly Poison

The tongue is full of deadly poison. Poison puts people in the hospital and can kill them. Poisonous animals like snakes and scorpions are deadly animals. When our words are out of control, then this poison is released.

As Christians, we need to control our tongues so they are used for good and not for evil.
Jesus wants us speak to others the way we would have them speak to us. This is the golden rule. We should not speak to others in the way they speak to us, repaying them evil words for their evil words. Instead, we should speak to them the way we want them to speak to us, repaying their evil with good. This is how we overcome evil.

How to Control the Tongue

No one is able to control his or her tongue by their own strength (James 3:8).

But the Bible also says we need to control our tongue. If we don’t control our words, our religion is worthless (James 1:26).

God will help us do this. He will help us control our tongues.

The key to controlling the tongue is managing our hearts. The words we speak reflect what is inside our hearts. Jesus said that out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks (Luke 6:45).

When our hearts are filled with good things, then good things will come out of our mouths. When our hearts are filled with evil things, then evil things will come out of our mouths.

In order to control our tongues, we must have spiritually healthy hearts.

To do this, we first need to be born again. When we believe the gospel and are born again, we get a new heart. God takes out our stony heart and gives us a heart of flesh. Until we are born again, it is impossible to control our tongues.

After being born again, we must maintain the health of our new hearts. Our hearts can still fill with anger, bitterness, resentment, sin, lust, or other evils.

To maintain a healthy heart, we need to forgive others. Don’t take revenge or carry a grudge against them. Don’t allow rage to build up. When we forgive, we cleanse our hearts.

Believe truth. The word of God is the truth, and it discerns the thoughts and intents of theheart (Hebrews 4:12). We need to speak truth to ourselves, combatting the lies and doubts of Satan that pollute our hearts. We need to speak truth to others. The word of God is clear water that can wash our hearts and clean them from lies.

We need to receive forgiveness from God. When we confess our sins, he will cleanse us from all unrighteousness. When we are forgiven, our hearts will be free from sin. This is wonderful feeling.

When our hearts are clean, they will be filled with the living water of the Holy Spirit. Then God’s grace and Spirit will flow out of our hearts through our tongues, and we will speak good words to others.

“Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but what is good for necessary edification, that it may impart grace to the hearers” (Ephesians 4:29).

When we speak good things, we can build up others and edify the church. This is God’s goal for us.

In order to fulfill our purpose on the earth, we must learn to control our tongues. We can only control our tongues when our hearts are clean and pure, and this is only possible with the help of God.

We may have failed in the past. We may have misused our tongues and burned things down. There may have been evil in our hearts that came out through our tongues. God is a healer. He can restore what was broken. As we turn to him, confessing our sins, he will forgive us and heal our hearts. Then we can use our tongues for good, revealing God to the world.

Goodness is one of the fruits of the Holy Spirit (Galatians 5:22). The fruits of the Holy Spirit are supernatural, and they come from God. It only possible to have the fruits of the Holy Spirit when God is working in us.

The key to bringing forth the fruit of the Holy Spirit is abiding in Christ (John 15:5). His life must flow into us. We are like branches that draw on his life in order to produce fruit. This fruit does not come from ourselves or from our own abilities, but it comes from God.

When people are asked why they will go to heaven, they often answer that they will go to heaven because they are good people. However, Jesus said that there is no one good except God (Luke 18:19). “There is no one who does good, no, not one” (Romans 3:12). If no one is good, then no one can get to heaven on the basis of their own goodness, because they don’t have any goodness.

Paul said that no good thing dwelt in him, that is in his flesh (Romans 7:18). In his flesh he did not have the ability to be good or do good. If Paul a mighty apostle lacked goodness in himself, how much more does everyone else lack it?

The only way anyone can do good is by the power of the Holy Spirit. God alone can enable us to do good things. In ourselves it is impossible, but not with God. With God all things are possible. Goodness is a fruit of the Holy Spirit, not our flesh.

God alone is good. We are commanded to taste and see that the Lord is good (Psalm 34:8). He is good all the time. He gives good gifts. God is an overflowing fountain of goodness. If we want to have genuine goodness in our lives, we need God.

If we have God, then the Holy Spirit is inside us. Then it becomes possible to be good and to do good.

He who does good is of God (3 John 11). Barnabas was called a good man (Acts 11:24). He was a good man because he had been born again by the Holy Spirit, and he allowed the Holy Spirit to produce goodness in his life.

When we were born again, our hearts were changed. We got new hearts. We now want to hear the word of God, do it, and bring forth fruit. This heart that responds to the word of God is called “good.” (Luke 8:15).

By the Holy Spirit, “a good man, out of the good treasure of his heart, brings forth that which is good” (Matthew 12:34-35). All this goodness in our lives is only possible by God, and it starts by being born again.God wants us to overflow goodness into this world. Draw on our good God and reveal his goodness to others. As Christians, we have a good treasure of good things in our hearts. We need to let this treasure out.

God wants us to speak out what is good (Ephesians 4:29). This is only possible by the Holy Spirit. In ourselves, we will not speak good things.

God’s eternal purpose is for his children to do good works (Ephesians 2:10). He has ordained us to do good works from the foundation of the world. We can do good works because of the amazing fountain of goodness in our lives that is God, who is inside us like a living fountain of water. He saturates us with goodness every day, all the time.

“God is able to make ALL grace abound toward you, that you, ALWAYS having ALL sufficiency in ALL things, may have an abundance for EVERY good work” (2 Corinthians 9:8).

This great goodness of God is his grace flowing into us by his Holy Spirit. This grace gives us ability to do good things. The more of God’s grace we appropriate through faith, the more we will experience God’s goodness, and the more we will be empowered to reveal his goodness to others.

We are commanded to do good to everyone, especially to those of the household of faith (Galatians 6:10). God does good to everyone too, causing his rain and sun to shine on the good and evil. He particularly does good to his own children, blessing us with eternal life, the Holy Spirit, his grace, and many other awesome gifts.

Follow God’s example. Do good to all people, but especially to the children of God.

God will reward us for doing good. Whatever good things we do in this life, we will receive from the Lord (Ephesians 6:8). This is an amazing promise, and it ought to motivate us to do good by the Holy Spirit. When we are in heaven, God will do good things to us throughout eternity. Let’s look forward to this stupendous reality!

Those who do good will inherit eternal life (Romans 2:6-10).

We know that we are saved by grace through faith as a gift from God, not by our own good works. However, if we are born again by the Holy Spirit, then God will enable us to do good works. We get a new heart. This heart is good. We get a new spirit, the good Holy Spirit. Then we bear the fruit of the Holy Spirit, and one of those fruits is goodness. With God inside us we can be good and do good, as God flows through us. This goodness is a sign of God in our lives. Goodness is evidence that God is working is us, and it’s an important sign that we are his children.

Everyone in the world is created in the image of God (Genesis 1:26). We are not created in the image of monkeys, nor did we come from a biological soup, evolving over millions of years. We came from God and his word, and we are created in his image.

It’s important to know where we came from. Since every person is created in God’s image, every person has dignity and is valuable. This is why we are called to do good to everyone, especially to Christians (Galatians 6:10). We are to love our neighbors as ourselves, because they are created in God’s image.

However, just because every person is created in the image of God doesn’t mean that every person is saved. To be saved and go to heaven, we need to trust in Christ and be born again.

One false teaching popular in some churches today says that we are little gods or can become gods. This is wrong. There is only one God, and although we are created in his image, we are not him.

God’s intention in creating mankind is that they have dominion over the earth (Genesis 1:26). This is so the earth can reveal the glory of God. To the extent that humans are conformed to the image of God, to that extent they can fulfill their purpose, and the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of God.

In the beginning, Adam and Eve perfectly reflected God’s glory and power. They manifested the dominion of the spiritual kingdom of God over the entire earth because they were without sin.

When Adam and Eve sinned, the image of God in them was marred. They no longer fully reflected the glory and presence of God into the world. They lost his spiritual life and power. Decay, sickness, demonization, and corruption entered the world. The creation was cursed, and it began bringing forth thorns and thistles. Animals began devouring each other. Death entered the world.Before the Fall there was no death in the world, but all death entered after Adam sinned (Romans 5:12).

Sin didn’t cause humans to completely lose the image of God (James 3:9), but it caused the image of God in them to become terribly marred. It weakened them so they were no longer able to fully accomplish God’s will.

Because humans lost the perfect image of God, they lost the ability to have dominion over the creation, and Satan took over the world. 

This is why Jesus Christ came.

Jesus Christ is the image of God (Hebrews 1:3, 2 Corinthians 4:4, Colossians 1:15). He is a perfect representation of his Father. He has no sin. This means that when he came to earth he radiated the full presence and power of the kingdom of God into the world. Wherever he went, he said “the kingdom of God has come near to you,” for he walked in full spiritual dominion and power over the earth.

Jesus came to earth and took on human flesh in order to heal us and restore us back to the full image of God.

God’s will for everyone who trusts in Christ is to be conformed to the image of Jesus.

“But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.” (2 Corinthians 3:18)

This is a process that is currently going on in all of our lives.

As we follow Jesus, we are being “transformed” or “transfigured” into his image, from one degree of glory to a higher degree of glory. This happens as we obey God’s word and walk in the Spirit in fellowship with other believers. God’s goal in redeeming us is to bring many sons to glory (Hebrews 2:10). This is possible through what Jesus Christ did on the cross. He paid for all of our sins, rose up again, and poured out the Holy Spirit.

Sometimes we don’t see much spiritual growth in our lives, and we might feel we are not making much progress. But as we continue to grow spiritually, we can be sure this transformation is happening.

As we become more conformed to the image of Jesus, and the image of God is healed in us, we become more spiritually effective for the Lord. We become more fruitful. We operate in more spiritual authority. We have greater discernment. We walk in more holiness. We receive forgiveness from Christ, and we are quicker to forgive others. We will experience more miracles and spiritual gifts.

God wants all of us to grow spiritually so that we are able fulfill our destiny.

When this process culminates, eventually God’s people will impact the entire creation.

“because the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God” (Romans 8:21)

God himself, and the entire creation, is waiting for us to fulfill our destiny.

This will be completed when Christ returns to the earth, and we reign with him in his eternal kingdom.

We are all a work in progress. God is healing us and conforming us to the image of his Son Jesus Christ. As this process goes on, we reflect more of the light and life of God into the world. Ultimately, it will result in the fulfillment of God’s eternal purpose, to reveal the fullness of his glory to the world.

The mystery of godliness is revealed in 1 Timothy 3:16. A mystery is something hidden that is revealed by the Holy Spirit.

“And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifested in the flesh, Justified in the Spirit, Seen by angels, Preached among the Gentiles, Believed on in the world, Received up in glory.” (1 Timothy 3:16)

The “mystery of godliness” sums up several of the main points of the gospel. It is important for us to be very familiar with the gospel, not only so we can be secure in our own salvation and our experience of God, but also so that we can communicate this awesome salvation of Jesus Christ clearly to others so they can believe this good news and be saved.

God was Manifested in the Flesh

The first part of the mystery of godliness is that God was manifested in the flesh.

Jesus took on human flesh for several reasons.One of the most important reasons God became a man was so that he could die (Hebrews 2:14). If he had remained only as God, he could not have died. But because he took on human flesh, he was able to die. It was necessary for him to die, so he could die in our place for our sins and save us.

Jesus also took on human flesh so that he can sympathize with us and help us. Because he lived as a human, he intimately knows what we’re going through (Hebrews 4:15). He is able to understand us and help us because he is closely acquainted with the human condition.

Jesus took on human flesh so that he could conquer sin in the flesh (Romans 8:3). Because Jesus overcame sin in human flesh, and his Spirit is inside us, we now have the power to overcome sin in our own flesh. We don’t need to live in bondage to sin anymore, but through the power of Christ we can get the victory over sin.Jesus manifested the power and glory of the kingdom of God in this human flesh. While living in a body, he brought the kingdom of God to the world. This means that can empower us, while we are living in this body, to experience the power and victory of the kingdom of God.

Justified in the Spirit

The second part of the mystery of godliness is that God was justified in the Spirit.

Wait a minute. Sinners need to be justified. Jesus was perfect and never sinned. Why then did he need to be justified?Jesus needed to be justified because he took our own sins in his own body on the cross (1 Peter 2:24). He became sin for us (2 Corinthians 5:21). With all our sins on him, he was forsaken by God on the cross. The wrath of God came upon him. Then he died under the weight of all of the sins of theworld- past, present, and future. He took our place in death.

He went to places we don’t have to go and saw depths that we don’t need to see.Then he rose up again.

In resurrection, Jesus threw off all our sins. He was justified from all of our sins. The resurrection proves that the payment Christ made for our sins was sufficient, and that we are now set free from sin. The resurrection proves that our sins are gone, thrown into the depths of the sea, and taken away as far as the east is from the west (an infinite distance). Praise God for the victory of Christ! We are now free!

Seen by Angels

Throughout his life, ministry, death, and resurrection, Jesus was watched intently by angels.He was seen by evil angels. Through his ministry he triumphed over the devil, defeated fallen angels, and cast our demons. On the cross he crushed Satan’s head (John 12:31). He stripped principalities and powers (Colossians 2:15). These evil angels did their worst, but they couldn’t defeat Christ. They watched helplessly as he rose up from the dead.

Jesus was also observed intently by good angels. They were eager to look into the things that Christ was doing, because they lacked full revelation of the gospel. As they saw what he accomplished, they rejoiced, being astounded by the work of God.

Preached Among the Gentiles

The gospel is for the entire world. Jesus died for everyone. The free gift of salvation is for everyone. They need to hear about it and believe it in order to be saved.

The Gentiles were non-Jews. They were outcasts. Now through Christ, they could be embraced by God and become a part of his family. Everyone who believes in Jesus becomes a spiritual descendant of Abraham (Galatians 3:29). They become heirs of all the promises given to Abraham. You and I become full heirs of God through Jesus Christ.

This gospel of the kingdom of God must be proclaimed throughout the entire world as a witness to all nations and then the end will come.

God was Believed on in the World

When people believe the gospel, they become born again and part of God’s family. The life and power of God comes into them through the Holy Spirit. As they walk in obedience to God, heaven comes down into the earth through them. These people become the firstfruits of God’s creation, now shining forth the praises of him who called them out of darkness into light. Faith is what unleashes the kingdom and glory of God into the world. Faith in the word of God continues the awesome ministry of Christ in the earth.

Received up into Glory

The final part of the mystery of godliness is that Christ was received up into glory. After his resurrection, he sat down on the right of the Father, having received again the glory that he had with the Father from the foundation of the world. All power and authority in heaven and earth was given to him.

Now Jesus is waiting. He’s waiting for his enemies to be made his footstool (Hebrews 10:13). He’s waiting for his people to appropriate the full riches of their inheritance and manifest his kingdom and power to the world. The glory that God gave to Jesus he gave to us (John 17:22). God desires his glory to be revealed to the world through his people. He’s waiting for his people to get ready for him to come back to the earth so he can reign as king over everything.

The mystery of godliness sums up all the main points of the gospel. It reveals how God took on flesh, paid for our sins, conquered sin, rose up again, and gave us eternal life. The more we know about the gospel and understand it, the more we will experience its awesome power. And the more we experience Jesus, the more we will want to share this glorious gospel with others. May the Holy Spirit reveal this mystery to us.

God created the world to reveal his glory. The revelation of the glory of God is the great goal of the entire universe.

Jesus said the ultimate goal of each Christian is to seek first the kingdom of God (Matthew 6:33). When the kingdom of God is revealed, the glory of God is revealed. When we seek God’s kingdom, we are really seeking the glory of God. In this way our purpose as individuals is intertwined with God’s great goal for the universe of revealing his glory.

There is one organization that God has authorized to manifest the glory of God upon the earth in fullness: his church.

Jesus promised that he would build his church (Matthew 16:18). When the church is completed, it will reveal God’s glory.

In order to fulfill our life purpose, we should dedicate ourselves to working with Jesus in building the church in order to reveal the glory of God.

In the book of Ephesians, there are three different pictures of the church.

1. House

The first picture of the church in Ephesians is a house (Ephesians 2:20-22). A house for God is called a temple.

The house of God is currently being built all over the world. Every Christian who is seeking to obey Jesus and leave behind empty religious traditions is potentially part of this building process.Christians are living stones that are to be built up into God’s house (1 Peter 2:5).

Like any house, there is a standard for the church’s construction. The church must be built according to the word of God. God has not left the construction of his house up to us, to decide how we want it to be built. He wants his house to be built according to the instructions he’s given us in the New Testament.

When a house is built according to the instructions of the owner, then the owner will move into his house. As long as a house is incomplete or not built according to the owner’s instructions, he will not move in. God currently dwells among his people, but not in fullness. He will dwell in his church in fullness when his church is built and completed according to his standard.

In the Old Testament, Moses built a tabernacle for God to dwell in. Moses obeyed God completely in order to build the tabernacle (Exodus 40:16). When the tabernacle was built according to God’s standard, God filled the tabernacle with his glory (Exodus 40:34-35).

Solomon built a temple for God that was according to the standard of God’s word. When this temple was completed, God filled the temple with his glory (1 Kings 8:10-11).

The church isbeing built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit (Ephesians 2:22). When the church is completed according to the will of God, he will fill the church with his glory.

2. Body

The second symbol of the church in the book of Ephesians is the body (Ephesians 4:15-16).

Each part of the body of Christ is connected to the head, Jesus. Each member can hear from God for themselves, and as they are rightly related to Christ, to church leadership, and to each other, they will find their position in the body and operate their spiritual gifts so the body can grow.

The body is “joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love” (Ephesians 4:16).

The body is being built up as each member functions.

The goal of the body of Christ is that we “all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ” (Ephesians 4:13).

These great goals of unity, “a perfect man,” and the “fullness of Christ” have not yet been attained. This means that the church still needs growth. When the church reaches maturity, then these goals will be reached, and God’s glory will be revealed.

3. Bride

The third picture of the church in the book of Ephesians is a bride.

The church is like a bride that is getting ready for her husband. Jesus is currently waiting for his church to get ready.When the church is ready for her husband, then the wedding supper will happen.

On the wedding night, the husband and the wife become one flesh.

“For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and thetwo shall become one flesh.This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the church.” (Ephesians 5:31-32).

The goal of the church is to become a glorious church, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but holy and without blemish (Ephesians 5:27), so she can be perfectly united to Christ. This goal has not yet been attained, which means that the bride must still prepare.The bride is currently being prepared by the washing of water by the word (Eph. 5:26). As the word of God washes over the church, she isconformed to his willand cleansed from defilements.

When the bride of Christ is ready, the Spirit of God will fill the church in fullness, and the wedding supper of the lamb will commence (Revelation 19:7). This will cause awesome glory to be revealed into the world.

Conclusion

The great goal of God is that his glory cover the earth as the waters cover the sea (Habakkuk 2:14). This goal will be achieved as the presence of God fills the church.

The church is currently being built in order to achieve this goal. This building process is currently going on in the earth, all over the world, wherever God’s people hear his voice and seek to follow his word. This process is specifically manifested in local churches that are ordered according to the word of God and filled with his Holy Spirit. The building of the church will continue until the church is full of God’s presence and radiates his presence into the world.

There is no goal that is more worthy of our time and effort, for upon this grand building project of the church hinges the end of the age.

In the Old Testament, Israel was led by a pillar of cloud and fire. This pillar of cloud and fire went before them and led them into the Promised Land. Whenever this pillar moved, they also moved, and whenever it stopped, they stopped. Following the leading of God was the key to their supernatural victories. 

“And the Lord went before them by day in a pillar of cloud to lead the way, and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light, so as to go by day and night.  He did not take away the pillar of cloud by day or the pillar of fire by night from before the people.” (Exodus 13:21-22)

This is a symbol for us today. God is with us, and his Holy Spirit is inside us. The pillar of cloud and fire represents the presence of God with us as he leads us into our spiritual inheritance.

God wants to lead all of his sheep. He is leading all of us to a glorious destination in the spiritual realm. The divine goal for every Christian is the glorious bride of Christ and individual Christian maturity. In order to get to this glorious destination, we need to be led by God.

There are many things that we can learn from the pillar of cloud and fire in the Old Testament.

God leads us by his Spirit. “As many as are led by the Spirit of God they are the sons of God” (Romans 8:14). We are not led to be led by our flesh or by our soul, but by the Holy Spirit of God. When we are led by our own minds or abilities, we will experience limited results. When we are led by God, we will experience supernatural results. 

God leads us out of bondage into a place of blessing. The Israelites were leaving slavery and oppression and going to a place of freedom and victory. In order to get to this place of blessing they had to face giants. Our enemies are sometimes huge. God will give us supernatural grace to overcome our enemies as we follow his leading, just like he overthrew the giants in the Promised Land.

God leads us according to his sovereign will. He leads us according to his own thoughts and plans. His ways are not our ways, and his thoughts are not our thoughts (Isaiah 55:8). There is a way that seems right to a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death (Proverbs 14:12). Sometimes the leading of God will not make sense to our own minds or to the minds of others.

We must be willing to move when God tells us to move (Exodus 40:36-37). If we try to go somewhere without the leading of God, it might end in loss (Numbers 14:39-45). If we try to stay somewhere when God is telling us to go, then we will stagnate. God not only tells us where to go, but he goes before us. The pillar of cloud and fire went first, and the people of God followed. God prepares the way for us, which means there is a way through all problems. God makes the rough places smooth. He lowers the hills and raises up the valleys. God does not ask us to go anywhere or do anything that he has not already done himself.

“Depart! Depart! Go out from there, touch no unclean thing; go out from the midst of her, be clean, you who bear the vessels of the Lord. For you shall not go out with haste, nor go by flight; for the Lord will go before you, and the God of Israel will be your rear guard” (Isaiah 52:11-12).

God is calling all of us to grow spiritually and come to a higher level in him. We are called to go from one degree of glory to a higher degree (2 Corinthians 3:18). To get to this new place in God, we need to leave the old things behind. Paul said that to grow to maturity, “one thing I do – forgetting the things that are behind and reaching to the things that are ahead” (Philippians 3:13). 

Sometimes the old place that holds us back is a place of bitterness or unforgiveness. We need to be willing to leave this spiritual place of bondage – forgive others and release them. We also need to receive forgiveness from God in order to move forward. If we confess our sins, God will forgive us and cleanse us. We must not allow the devil to bring us under condemnation, because this will hold us back. Let us lay aside every weight and run with patience the race set before us (Hebrews 12:1).

We must also leave behind vain religious traditions that we have inherited from others. These things might be popular, feel good, and seem wise, but they will hinder us from reaching the fullness of our inheritance. Religious activity that is not founded on the word of God is vain worship, and it will cause problems.

When we go to a new place spiritually, Isaiah says we will not go by “haste.” This Hebrew word “haste” comes from a root word meaning weasel. As we follow God, we will not have to weasel our way into the new place, using our own ingenuity. God will make a way for us. We just need to follow him.

We won’t go by “flight.” We will not be motivated by fear. We will be motivated by God’s word, as we follow him.

God is our “rearguard.” Sometimes God will ask us to do radical things. The results of our obedience will be taken care of by God. He will protect us from the enemy who might chase after us. He will also bless others who may be affected by our radical actions of obedience. God loves people much more than we do, and the best way we can bless others is by obeying God ourselves.

The pillar of cloud and fire never left the Israelites, which teaches us that God is always there. He will never leave us nor forsake us (Hebrews 13:5-6). God does not leave us as orphans. He sends the Holy Spirit as the Comforter into our hearts.

God leads us into provision. He is the good shepherd. He leads us to green pastures, still waters, and he restores our souls. As we follow God, there will be supernatural supply. The Israelites had manna and water that flowed out of a rock. God will provide for all we need as we follow him. 

When we follow God, he gives us light. Jesus is the light of the world. The word of God is a light – a lamp to our feet and a light to our path (Psalm 119:105). Other people do not have this supernatural light from God, and that means that they cannot travel by night. But God’s people are different. Even when everything is dark in the world, they can still move forward because they are led by the light of God. When other people get stuck, we can still move forward because God’s light shines on us.

The pillar of cloud and fire means that God protects us. The safest place in the world is in the center of God’s will. As we follow God, he will cover us under his wings and keep us safe (Psalm 91).

As we follow God, his glory will be seen over us. Other nations will see the glory of God as he does supernatural works among us. 

“The Lord will create above every dwelling place of Mount Zion, and above her assemblies, a cloud and smoke by day and the shining of a flaming fire by night. For over all the glory there will be a covering. And there will be a tabernacle for shade in the daytime from the heat, for a place of refuge, and for a shelter from storm and rain” (Isaiah 4:5-6).

Throughout the earth, God is raising up true churches that will be formed by the word of God and guided by the Holy Spirit. This is the ark of safety for the end times; it is the bride of Christ that is being prepared for his coming. When darkness covers the earth, the light and glory of God will be seen upon his people, and as they follow him, his kingdom and power will be revealed.

Jesus told us to wash each other’s feet in the body of Christ. He said we should follow his example when he washed the feet of his disciples at the Last Supper (John 13:12-16).

In those days, when people ate together, they lay down and ate. This is why the Bible often talks about people “reclining” when they ate. In this position of reclining, their feet were at the same level as their heads, hands, and food. 

Their feet were often quite dirty. This is because they wore sandals, the roads were dusty, and they walked a lot. So before meals, they washed their feet.Having clean feet was important to have a pleasant meal.

Usually the lowest slave would wash people’s feet. In a Jewish home, Jewish slaves would not wash the feet of the guests, but a Gentile slave would wash them.

At the Last Supper, Jesus’ disciples were all sitting around with dirty feet and had started to eat. None of the disciples were willing to wash anyone’s feet; they didn’t even wash their own feet.

They were too busy arguing about who would be the greatest (Luke 22:24-27). Their dirty feet seemed to be a reflection of their pride.

For many people, smelly and dirty feet are naturally repulsive. And in those days, being near someone’s feet was particularly difficult because being under someone’s feet was a sign of being below them.

At the Last Supper, the disciples’ dirty feet were spoiling the fellowship. Their feet were ruining the meal and making it unpleasant.

No one was willing to rectify the problem of the dirty feet except Jesus. So he got a towel and water basin and began washing everyone’s feet.

Jesus said that we need to follow his example.We need to wash each other’s feet in the body of Christ. Jesus does not command us to wash the feet of non-Christians, but to wash the feet of Christians (John 13:14).

What does this mean for us today?

Today our feet are often already clean. Our feet don’t need to be washed before meals. We wear shoes and socks, not sandals, and we walk on pavement and ride in cars. When we eat we sit on chairs with our feet tucked unobtrusively under the table.

Sometimes Christians engage in a ritual of literally washing each others’ feet. This can be a blessing. But this ritual often does not fulfilling a real need. The feet being washed are often alreadyclean, and the feet are not a hindrance to fellowship (particularly if the feet have already been prepped for the foot washing ceremony).

Foot washing points to something more.

Washing feet points to doing a humbling and necessary act of service within the body of Christ. Someone humbles himself and does something for someone else that no one else is willing to do.

These humble acts of service within the body of Christ can take many forms. The Holy Spirit must lead us to know how to minister to the body of Christ.

Such humble acts of service require many ingredients in order to happen. Some of these ingredients are:

1. Community and relationships. We must know people if we are to wash their feet. We must meet them and spend time with them. Church is where this begins.

2. Compassion. We need to sympathize with others in order to recognize their needs.

3. Creativity. We need to be creative in knowing how to best meet a need.

4. Sacrifice. It will take effort, time, energy, and money to meet needs.

Sometimes meeting the need of one person in the body can bless the entire body. When we give more honor to the parts of the body that lack, we prevent schism in the body of Christ (1 Corinthians 12:22-26).

As we submit to fellowship in the body of Christ and humble ourselves, we will be cleansed, and other people will be cleansed.

As we minister to the least of Jesus’ brothers and sisters, we minister to him.

Taking the low place solves the problem that is created by the other person’s pride. While the disciples were jostling about greatness and who would sit next to him, Jesus jumped to the lowest place. He was saying, in effect, “if you want to sit next to me, then you’ll have to take this low place too.”Washing feet can be hard and unpleasant. It is humbling. We need the Holy Spirit to help us to do this.

It becomes possible to wash the disciples’ feet when we know who we truly are.

Jesus knew he came from God and was going to God, so was able to wash feet (John 13:3-4).

When we know who God says we are, then we will be willing to humble ourselves and help others. When we know that we are God’s children, that we have the Holy Spirit inside us, that we are part of Christ’s body, and that we are called to be kings and priests, then we are truly secure because our security has come from God. When we know what God says about us, we don’t need to prove anything to anyone. We rest in the word of God. This realization will enable us to wash others’ feet.

According to Jesus, washing the feet of the disciples will lead to blessedness and happiness (John 13:17). He instructs us to do this not only so we can be blessed and happy, but also so other believers can be blessed, fellowship can be restored, and the body of Christ can be built.

As Christians, our battle is not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers (Ephesians 6:12). People are not our enemy, the devil is. There are evil spirits in the heavenly places that are trying to hinder us from walking in the Spirit and fulfiliing our purpose in God.

“God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind” (2 Timothy 1:7).

When Jesus Christ went to the cross and rose again, he triumphed over all evil spirits and won an eternal victory over them. Now it just remains for us to believe in this victory and walk in this victory that Jesus has already won.

One of the most powerful ways to defeat evil spirits is through the word of God. The word of God is a spiritual sword that cuts down the power of Satan. When Jesus was tempted by the devil in the wilderness, he defeated him through the word of God. We also defeat Satan through the word of God, which is living and powerful.

At the beginning of the world God prophesied that the Seed of the Woman would come who would crush the head of Satan (Genesis 3:15). The Seed of the Woman is Jesus Christ. Approximately 2,000 years ago, Jesus came to earth and crushed the head of the ancient serpent, Satan, on the cross.

Jesus told his disciples, “I give to you power to trample on serpents and on scorpions” (Luke 10:19). Serpents and scorpions represent evil spirits. Jesus has given to his people power over evil spirits, to cast them out.

Jesus said, “These signs will follow those who believe: In My name they will cast out demons” (Mark 16:17). 

Every child of God has the Holy Spirit inside them. The Holy Spirit is greater than every evil spirit. We have nothing to fear, because we are empowered to cast out evil spirits.

“Having disarmed principalities and powers, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it” (Colossians 2:15).

Principalities and powers are fallen angels. Jesus defeated them on the cross. He disarmed them and took away their power. He even went so far as to make a public spectacle of them, putting them to open shame. They are afraid of Jesus because he defeated them. They are afraid of the people of God, because the Holy Spirit is inside us who is greater than them.

“Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you” (James 4:7). 

When we submit to God, we are under his covering and protection. When we resist the devil, he has to run away from us.

These verses show that Jesus Christ has defeated Satan and given his children power against evil spirits.

Sometimes we must wrestle against evil spirits (Ephesians 6:12). Wrestling is the Greek word palay.

Wrestling is one of the most ancient sports. The goal of the ancient sport of wrestling was to drive an opponent off a ground, or make an opponent submit on a ground. When he submits or is driven off, he loses the match. Then he must leave the ground, and the winner stands on that ground victoriously.

This ground is the place of struggle. It is the potential place of victory. We will manifest this victory not in our own strength or ability, but in the spiritual strength and ability of Almighty God. Christ has already conquered the devil, and he calls us to be more than conquerors, as we participate in his victory.Let’s take the whole armor of God (Ephesians 6:11) so that we might stand on the ground God has given us and take new territory for the kingdom of God.

We gird ourselves with the truth of God. We put on the righteousness of Christ. We stand on the truth of the gospel, praising God that Jesus Christ has died and risen up again. Through faith, we defeat Satan’s fiery arrows. Our minds are protected from doubts by the truth of our salvation. We speak out the word of God, wielding the powerful sword of the Spirit, crushing Satan afresh. And we pray for each other, that we can be victorious together as the body of Christ.

Praise God for the victory that we have in Jesus Christ. He is for us, and no one can stand against us. He is our safety and our victory, for he is the eternal conquering Son of God.

God’s work moves forward in the earth through people who boldly obey him. They hear from God and do what he says, regardless of the cost. The actions of such people are often misunderstood by others, but their obedience unleashes remarkable deliverance.

In Judges 6, the Israelites were oppressed by Midian. Their crops were taken, their possessions were stolen, and they had no peace.

God chose Gideon to deliver his people out of this difficult situation.

Gideon was just an ordinary man. He had a low view of himself. He called himself the least. But God called him a mighty man of valor.

God does not need great and powerful people; he needs obedient people. Deliverance comes not through those who are strong in the flesh, but through ordinary people like you and me who obey God.

God commanded Gideon to take a radical step and tear down his father’s false altar.

“Now it came to pass the same night that the LORD said to him, “Take your father’s young bull, the second bull of seven years old, and tear down the altar of Baal that your father has, and cut down the wooden image that is beside it.” (Judges 6:25)

Gideon’s father had an altar of Baal and an Asherah pole. These things were popular, and people from the community worshiped there.

This altar wasn’t Gideon’s altar, it was his father’s altar. It didn’t just affect Gideon, it affected his whole family and the entire community. It was hindering everyone.

This evil altar was opening the door to Satan to ravage God’s people. Their bondage to evil spirits was mirrored by their bondage to the Midianites. Natural oppression is often a reflection of spiritual oppression.In order to deal with oppression, we must get rid of the things in our lives that open the door to spiritual oppressors. 

Sometimes we inherit wrong ways of doing things from our fathers – “the aimless behavior received by tradition from your fathers” (1 Peter 1:18).

When we reject false things, we will be set free. It’s important to realize that the truth is objective, not subjective. The altar of Baal was not wrong for Gideon, it was wrong for everyone. God wanted this false altar thrown out not just from Gideon’s life, but from everyone’s life. Truth applies to all of God’s people, not just to us. This means that sometimes it is ok to criticize what others are doing because their actions can hinder us, them, and those we love. The truth will not just set us free, it will set others free too.

The work of a prophet is to “To root out and to pull down,to destroy and to throw down,to build and to plant” (Jeremiah 1:9).

God wants to build and to plant. But first, he wants things that are contrary to his word to be destroyed. If we are unwilling to root out, pull down, destroy, and throw down, we will often will be unable to build or plant. We cannot build and plant for God on a faulty foundation.

Fear hinders people from obeying God. We don’t know how others will respond to our actions if we destroy their false altars or take other radical steps of obedience.

But when we obey God we have nothing to fear. “The Lord is on my side, I will not fear what man shall do to me” (Psalm 118:6).

God told Gideon not only what to destroy, but also what to build.

“Build an altar to the LORD your God on top of this rock in the proper arrangement, and take the second bull and offer a burnt sacrifice with the wood of the image which you shall cut down.” (Judges 6:26)

Gideon wasn’t just tearing down to create a void, but he was preparing a place for God to reveal himself. If we just tear down and leave a void, then Satan will come in later and fill that void (Matthew 12:43-45). It is always important to build after tearing down.

Gideon was to build an altar and sacrifice his father’s bullock on that altar. This would be a radical sacrifice, and it would be expensive. Sacrificing the family bullock would appear to be a problem.What if the family couldn’t plow the field any more after sacrificing the bullock? What if they couldn’t thresh their wheat?

Sacrificing sometimes seems risky.

Jesus once saw a woman throw a penny in the offering box, and it was all she had. Now what would she do? How would she survive?

The widow who gave her last meal to Elijah may have wondered how she would survive when her flour and oil were gone.

Above these fears stands the truth of Christ: “Give and it will be given to you, pressed down, shaken together, and running over will be poured into your lap” (Luke 6:38). Those who make radical sacrifices quickly discover that God will not be a debtor to any man. He will take care of all the consequences.

Sacrifice is worship. The word worship means to bow down like a dog and lick the master’s hand.

Whenever we worship God, we must worship him on his terms, not our own. We must worship according to his word.Gideon had to make an altar that was according to the proper arrangement. The altar was to be built on the rock. When we build something for God, it cannot be according to human ways, in the place of our own choosing; it must be according to Christ’s word.

God didn’t want the Asherah pole cut down and left on the side, but he wanted it to be burned in the fire and totally destroyed. The burning idol would fuel the fire that would burn up the sacrifice. Radical repentance lights the fire of the Holy Spirit and sparks revival.

Radical destruction of evil and radical sacrifice to God prepares the way for God to pour out his Spirit.

Gideon heard from God. He boldly obeyed. He tore down his father’s idol, and then he offered a radical sacrifice. His obedience began a cascade of God working among his people that ultimately delivered them from the oppression of Midian and set them free. It brought unity among God’s people and enabled them to fulfill their purpose.

When we hear from God, we have the potential to unleash his mighty work. As we obey his word, God’s presence will be revealed.

Let’s be unafraid to be radical for our God.

God says his people are destroyed for lack of knowledge (Hosea 4:6). God wants us to have spiritual knowledge. Spiritual knowledge is based on God and his word, and it is different from the knowledge of the world. Spiritual knowledge keeps us safe from destruction.

Lies bring us into bondage. The truth sets us free. The word of God is the truth.

God gave clear instructions to his people.

“According to the doings of the land of Egypt, where you dwelt, you shall not do; and according to the doings of the land of Canaan, where I am bringing you, you shall not do; nor shall you walk in their ordinances.” (Leviticus 18:3-4)

There is a difference between God and the world. The ways of God are contrary to the ways of the world. God told his people not to follow the examples of the pagan nations around them. These nations were doing many sinful things that God did not want his people doing. They were also worshiping false gods.

“You shall utterly destroy all the places where the nations which you shall dispossess served their gods, on the high mountains and on the hills and under every green tree. And you shall destroy their altars, break their sacred pillars, and burn their wooden images with fire; you shall cut down the carved images of their gods and destroy their names from that place. You shall not worship the Lord your God with such things.” (Deuteronomy 12:3-4)

God told his people to destroy the pagan religions of the nations. Everything they used to worship their gods was to be destroyed so that these things would not corrupt God’s people. God prohibited his people from using these pagan rituals in worship.

“When the Lord your God cuts off from before you the nations which you go to dispossess, and you displace them and dwell in their land, take heed to yourself that you are not ensnared to follow them, after they are destroyed from before you, and that you do not inquire after their gods, saying, ‘How did these nations serve their gods? I also will do likewise. You shall not worship the Lord your God in that way… Whatever I command you, be careful to observe it; you shall not add to it nor take away from it.” (Deuteronomy 12:29-32)

God told his people, “You shall not worship the Lord in that way.” Satanic rituals cannot be adopted, reformed, and redeemed for the worship of God. They must be rejected, because they are an abomination to God.

Everything that happened to the Israelites in the Old Testament is symbolic for us today.

“And do not become idolaters as were some of them. As it is written, ‘The people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play.’” (1 Corinthians 10:7)

The Israelites sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play when they tried to worship God using a pagan tradition – the golden cow. When the Israelites worshiped using a golden cow, they thought they were worshiping the true God (Ex 32:4-5). They called it Yahweh! But God cannot be worshiped using pagan means.

“God is a Spirit and those who worship him must worship him in Spirit and in truth” (John 4:24).

We must worship God according to the Holy Spirit. We must worship him according to the truth, which is the word of God. There is no other way to worship God. We must not add to the word of God nor take away from it.

When Jesus came, he encountered the Pharisees. These religious leaders had made up many ways to worship God that were not based on the Bible. When Jesus saw their new worship styles, he did not congratulate them for their creativity, instead he rebuked them for their rebellion. He said their worship was vain or empty because it was not based on the word of God. Jesus said that trying to worship God through man-made rituals is actually serving Satan rather than God.

The Pharisees didn’t like Jesus. He was too blunt and clear. 

The Pharisees didn’t want to give up their rituals. Their culture was based on these rituals, and their traditions were very popular. So rather than give up their religious rituals, they killed Jesus.

Easter is a popular holiday today.

The word Easter comes from Eostre, an ancient goddess of the dawn. This goddess Eostre is connected to Ishtar or Ashtoreth, an ancient fertility goddess. This fertility goddess was associated with the spring, the time of new life.

The date of Easter changes each year. That’s because the date of Easter is determined by two things – the date of the spring equinox and the date of the first full moon after the spring equinox.

The spring equinox is the day of year when the day and night are equal, and it marks the beginning of spring. The spring equinox is an important time for many religions and cultures. Many religious festivals around the world are associated with it. Ancient fertility rituals were done during the spring equinox to mark the time when the plants came back to life after winter, and to invoke the blessing of the gods on newly planted crops. Religious rituals were done with eggs, which represented fertility. Rabbits were also used, which also represent quick reproduction.

The ancient fertility goddess was represented by the moon. When the moon was full, this goddess was perceived as being in full strength. This is why this fertility goddess was especially worshiped during the full moon connected to the spring equinox.

Worldwide, there are many spring equinox festivals.

In south India, there is a spring equinox festival called Vishu. Vishu means “equal” in Sanskrit, telling us that on the equinox day and night are equal. It celebrates the victory of their god Krishna over a demon. Holi is a spring equinox festival that is popular in north India.

Japan, China, and many other cultures have spring equinox festivals.

In ancient Babylon, there was an ancient spring equinox festival that worshipped Tammuz and Ishtar, his mother. The rites of this ancient worship had corrupted ancient Israel, as seen in Ezekiel 8:14. God called this pagan worship an abomination.

We need God’s word. God’s word will increase our spiritual knowledge. Without God’s word, we will not be safe.

God’s word reveals that God cannot be worshiped using Satanic means. He can only be worshiped according to his word.

“But now after you have known God, or rather are known by God, how is it that you turn again to the weak and beggarly elements, to which you desire again to be in bondage? You observe days and months and seasons and years. I am afraid for you, lest I have labored for you in vain.” (Galatians 4:9-10)

If there is anything worth celebrating, it is the victory of Jesus Christ. His death and resurrection is the foundation of our faith.Christ crushed Satan’s head. He stripped the fallen angels of their power. He gave us authority to cast out demons. He took away our sins. He gave us eternal life. He took the wrath of God. He sent the Holy Spirit into our hearts.

How does God want us to celebrate the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ?

The Bible tells us that God wants us to remember the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ through the Lord’s Supper.

“Take, eat; this is My body which is broken for you; do this in remembrance of Me.”In the same manner He also took the cup after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood. This do, as often as you drinkit,in remembrance of Me.”For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death till He comes.” (1 Corinthians 11:24-26)

Whenever we celebrate the Lord’s Supper, we proclaim the Lord’s death. We remember his glorious victory over sin, darkness, and Satan. God wants us to do this frequently, at least every week on Sunday when we meet together as a church.

Through the Lord’s Supper, we proclaim the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Who do we proclaim this to?

First of all, we proclaim this to God. When we celebrate the Lord’s Supper we show him that there are people on the earth who are giving their lives to him. We are standing in the gap between earth and heaven, asking for God’s will to be done, declaring the gospel to the world.

We also proclaim Christ’s death to ourselves during the Lord’s Supper. We need to remember the death and resurrection of Christ regularly, for it is the foundation of our spiritual life. We remind ourselves that we are saved, that we are children of God, we have eternal life, we have the Holy Spirit inside us, and that our sins are taken away – all because of what Jesus did, and not what we did.

We proclaim Christ’s victory to other believers during the Lord’s Supper. We encourage them to be strong in their faith. Maybe they are discouraged. When we meet with them and share the word of God and the Lord’s Supper, they can be strengthened. During the Lord’s Supper we rejoice that the dividing walls between people have been broken down through the sacrifice of Christ, and we can be one with our brothers and sisters in Christ.

Finally, we declare the victory of Christ to the principalities and powers during the Lord’s Supper. We declare to all fallen angels and demons that they are defeated. Satan’s head has been crushed. We are not part of Satan’s kingdom; we are part of the kingdom of God. There is spiritual power in the Lord’s Supper.

God wants us to consistently celebrate and remember the death and resurrection of Christ through the Lord’s Supper, week after week. (The early church celebrated the Lord’s Supper every day.) As we celebrate the Lord’s Supper we tap into the divine power we need to live victorious Christian lives. There is great benefit in meeting regularly with the church and maintaining this regular spiritual habit.

Someday Jesus will return to the world and judge the world in righteousness. He’s going to establish his kingdom. He will glorify his people. The spiritual knowledge of the glory of God will cover the earth as the waters cover the sea. All Satanism will be destroyed. Until then, we will keep proclaiming the death of Jesus through the Lord’s Supper.

Let us celebrate the victory of God as he instructs us in the Bible. Let us not add to his word nor take away from it. We may have lacked knowledge in the past about some of these things, but now we have gained knowledge. God is merciful. But he expects us to act in light of his word. These truths will set us free. As we walk according to this spiritual knowledge from God, we will be blessed.

The tabernacle contains important spiritual symbolism for Christians. It reveals truths about heaven and spiritual realities. It gives us a framework to understand our spiritual life and destiny.

Within the tabernacle there are many mysteries.

Expanding on the message from last week, here are a few more details about the important spiritual meaning of the tabernacle.

Brass Altar

The Brass Altar was the first thing a person encountered when entering the tabernacle. The Brass Altar was the largest thing in the tabernacle. The Brass Altar represents the sacrifice of Christ for our sins. The size of the Brass Altar shows the prominence the gospel should have in our lives.

A fire burned constantly on the Brass Altar (Leviticus 6:13). This continual fire shows that the gospel is always powerful and effective. Jesus is always ready to receive people when they believe the gospel. We should always keep the gospel at the forefront of our spiritual lives. The gospel is the foundation for our life in God. We should always be ready to share the gospel with others.

Regular sacrifices were made at the Brass Altar in the morning and in the evening. If anyone sinned, they could sacrifice at the altar at almost any time to atone for their sins. This shows that if we ever sin, we can confess our sins and immediately receive forgiveness from God because of the sacrifice of Christ (1 John 1:9). His blood is always effective to take away our sins.

Brass Basin

The Brass Basin was the second thing a person encountered in the tabernacle. The Brass Basin was made of the lookingglasses of women, which were made out of brass (Exodus 38:8).

The Brass Basin represents water baptism, when our sins are symbolically washed away. In order for our sins to be cleansed, we must repent. We repent when we look into the mirror of God’s word and see who we are in the bright light of God’s holiness (James 1:22-25). As we see things in our lives that are not according to God, we can repent of these things.

Table of Bread

The Table of Bread was within the Holy Place of the tabernacle. On the Table of Bread fresh bread was put out every week. The Table of Bread represents Christ. He is the bread of life (John 6:33, 35, 48, 51).The fact that the bread was put out each week shows the imporance of the weekly church meeting. The early church met together every Sunday, and this is why we meet together every Sunday. Commitment to this regular church meeting is important for our spiritual growth. This Table also represents the Lord’s Supper, in which we symbolically partake of the body and blood of Christ.

The bread on the Table was unleavened. This represents that the word of God is pure, and it is to be ministered without sin. There were 12 loaves of bread on this table. 12 is the number of the apostles. We need the full apostolic word of God in order to grow into maturity.

In the Old Testament, only the priests could eat of this bread. Today, we are all priests. We all need to eat the spiritual bread of Christ so we can grow spiritually.

Frankincense was placed on top of this bread. Incense represents prayer (Psalm 141:2). We need to pray when we read the word in order to understand it. We to pray so we can obey the word of God. We need to pray so we can share the word of God effectively with others.

Golden Lampstand

The Golden Lampstand was also within the Holy Place. The Golden Lampstand represents a local church (Revelation 1:20). It was made of solid gold. Gold is a symbol of the presence of God.The Golden Lampstand was made of 1 talent of solid gold, which weighed approximately 100 pounds. This hunk of gold is worth approximately 2.5 million dollars today. This shows that the church is very valuable. Jesus gave his life for the church. He calls us his precious people.

The lampstand was all one piece. This shows unity. Jesus prayed that all his people would be one (John 17:21).

The lampstand has one center stand and 6 branches. This shows that Christ is the vine, and we are the branches.

The lampstand was beaten into its final shape. This shows that for the church to fulfill its purpose, we must be willing to go through tribulation and challenge. As we do this together, we will come into unity with each other. We will also be shaped into God’s pattern for the church.

The lampstand takes oil and converts it into light through a wick. The wick represents our humanity. The wick was trimmed daily to remove extraneous parts pieces and reduce smoking. This shows that we need to be trimmed and pruned in order to bring forth more fruit for God. We need dead things cut out of our lives so we can burn more brightly.The wick takes oil and converts it into light through the application of fire. Oil represents the Holy Spirit. The church causes people to be able to convert the oil of the Holy Spirit into light. Jesus said that “You are the light of the world” (Matthew 5:14). To be lights in this world, we need to be saturated with the Holy Spirit.

The lampstand has 7 lamps of fire. 7 is the number of God. The church is to give out a full revelation of God and his glory into the earth. Someday the church will be “glorious, without spot or wrinkle, holy and without blemish” (Ephesians 5:27). When this happens, the church will fulfill her purpose which is to reveal the glory of God to the world.

The Table of Bread and the Lampstand are at a similar point in the Tabernacle; they are opposite each other in the Holy Place. This shows there is to be unity between Christ and his church. The church will be able to fulfill her purpose to the extent that she obeys the word of God. She needs to eat of all 12 loaves of bread in order to become glorious. She needs to obey the fullness of the apostolic word, neither adding to it nor taking away from it. She must fully submit to Christ, giving up her own ideas and following God’s ideas. At the end of the age, this unity between Christ and the church will be consummated at the marriage supper of the lamb. The marriage supper will happen as the church prepares herself (Revelation 19:7) by fully submitting to Christ.

Golden Altar of Incense

At the end of the Holy Place is the Golden Altar of Incense. This is the place of prayer, as incense symbolizes prayer (Psalm 141:2). At the end of the age, as the church matures, she will be able to offer up powerful prayers to God that will change the world.

This event is revealed in Revelation.

Then another angel, having a golden censer, came and stood at the altar. He was given much incense, that he should offeritwith the prayers of all the saints upon the golden altarwhich was before the throne.And the smoke of the incense, with the prayers of the saints, ascended before God from the angel’s hand.Then the angel took the censer, filled it with fire from the altar, and threwitto the earth. And there were noises, thunderings, lightnings, and an earthquake.So the seven angels who had the seven trumpets prepared themselves to sound. (Revelation 8:3-6)

At the end of the age, as God’s people join together in prayer, God’s powerful plans for the end of the age will come to pass, and the world will be transformed.

The Ark and the Mercy Seat

Within the Holy of Holies was the Ark and the Mercy Seat. This is the place of the full presence of God.

The Mercy Seat covers over the ark. The Mercy Seat is ilasterion(Hebrews 9:5), a Greek word that means propitiation (Romans 3:25).

Jesus is our propitiation. He is the one who takes away our sins. The place of propitiation is the place of God’s presence. This is the place where God dwells and where he talks to us. God speaks to us from the Mercy Seat (Numbers 7:89).

The Mercy Seat was a solid slab of gold with solid gold cherubim coming out of its two sides. It is the heaviest thing in the tabernacle. It is the most valuable thing. Its weight is not listed in the Bible. This shows that the value of God’s sacrifice, mercy, and propitiation is without limit. This place of infinite mercy is the place where we meet with directly God.

Conclusion

There are many important truths contained in the Tabernacle. May God help us understand these things by his Spirit. We want to understand them, not just so we can increase in knowledge, but so we can understand where we are going spiritually. The tabernacle helps us understand spiritual realities so we can implement these things into our lives. It gives us a vision of moving forward, both as individuals and also as a church.

The tabernacle is one of the most important topics in the Bible. Several chapters in the Old Testament describe the tabernacle and the things inside the tabernacle (Exodus 25-40).

The tabernacle is important for Christians because itcontains symbols that represents truths aboutJesus Christ. The Old Testament is full of symbols about Christ (Hebrews 10:1). Everythingthat happened to the Israelites in the Old Testament happened them to symbolize spiritual truths for Christians (1 Corinthians 10:11).

The tabernacle contains a “copy of heavenly things” (Hebrews 8:5). 

The tabernacle contains “copies of the things in the heavens” (Hebrews 9:23).

The tabernacle itself is a copy of heaven (Hebrews 9:24).

God gave us the pattern of the tabernacle in order to reveal heaven and the spiritual realities of heaven.

When we study the symbols of the tabernacle, we can learn important things about heaven as well as about own spiritual life and growth.

The Bible reveals that there are three heavens. The third heaven is the place of God’s throne. Paul was caught up into the third heaven and saw amazing visions (2 Corinthians 12:2).To represent these three heavens, God designed three parts of the tabernacle: the Outer Court, the Holy Place, and the Holy of Holies. The Holy of Holies is the place where God dwelt. The Holy of Holies represents the third heaven which is the place of God’s throne.

The entire tabernacle itself is a copy of heaven, the true dwelling place of God.Everything in the tabernacle represents spiritual realities. In order to understand these realities, we must interpret the symbolism of the tabernacle. We can accurately interpret Bible symbols through the word of God and the Holy Spirit.
The Tabernacle was entered on the eastern side.

Brass Altar

The Brass Altar is the first thing a person encountered when he entered the Tabernacle (Exodus 27:1-8). At the Brass Altar, in the Outer Court, sacrifices for sin were made.The Brass Altar represents the sacrifice of Christ on the cross for our sins. Jesus was the true lamb of God slain to take away our sins. When we trust in Christ, we are cleansed from our sins and are made new. Through faith in his sacrifice we become born again. Becoming born again is the first step we must take if we want to know God.

Brass Basin

The Brass Basin is the second thing that a person encountered in the tabernacle (Exodus 30:18-21). This basin was full of water. People washed at the Brass Basin in the Outer Court after sacrificing at the Brass Altar.

The Brass Basin represents water baptism. After we are born again, we should be baptized in water. Water baptism represents our sins being washed away. This is the next step we need to take to grow spiritually after being born again.

Screen

After this there was a Screen (Exodus 26:36-37). This Screen separated between the Outer Court and the Holy Place.
Passing through this screen represents being baptized in the Holy Spirit. After being baptized in the Holy Spirit, we can see and move into deeper spiritual realities. After being born again, we should be both baptized in water and baptized in the Holy Spirit in order to continue our growth in God.

Table of Bread

The Table of Bread was inside the Holy Place (Exodus 25:23-30). Fresh loaves of bread were always sitting on this table. God’s servants ate this bread.

The Table of Bread represents Christ and his word. Jesus is the bread of life. He is the word of God. We don’t live by natural bread, but by the spiritual bread of God’s word (Matthew 4:4). When we partake of the word of God, then we grow spiritually. This table also represents the Lord’s Supper, which is to be a time of special intimacy with the Lord as we partake symbolically of Christ’s body and blood.

Golden Lampstand

The Golden Lampstand is within the Holy Place (Exodus 25:31-40). This Lampstand gave light inside the Tabernacle.

The Golden Lampstand represents a church (Revelation 1:20). If we want to grow in the Lord, we must be part of a Biblical church. We need fellowship with other Christians. It is impossible to fulfill our potential in God apart from a Biblical church. Jesus said if a lamp is lit, it is not to be put under a bed or under a bushel, but on a lampstand (Matthew 5:15). In order to shine effectively for God, we need the fellowship and blessing that comes from being part of a Biblical church.

Altar of Incense

The Golden Altar of Incense is within the Holy Place, right before the Holy of Holies (Exodus 30:1-10). Priests offered incense on this altar before the presence of God.Incense represents prayer (Revelation 5:8). The Altar of Incense represents the prevailing prayers of God’s people. When God’s people come together under his authority and agree together in his name, yielding their lives to him, they can ask for anything and it will be done (Matthew 18:19). At the end of the age, the prayers of God’s people will become particularly powerful. These prayers will effect cataclysmic changes upon the earth (Revelation 8:3-6). The church will pray these powerful prayers as she grows into maturity.

Veil

There was a Veil between the Holy Place and the Holy of Holies (Exodus 26:31-33). Only one priest could go through this veil once a year into the Holy of Holies and meet directly with God.

When Christ went to the cross, this veil was torn from top to bottom (Matthew 27:51). This represents that Jesus made a way for us to be completely reconciled to God. He made a way for us to enter into God’s presence directly because of his blood. Through him we have direct access to Almighty God, and the veil is gone.

Ark of Covenant

The Ark of the Covenant was a golden box within the Holy of Holies (Exodus 25:10-16). This box contained the two stone tablets of the 10 Commandments.The Ark of the Covenant represents the holiness, justice, and truth of God. Our God is holy. He is perfect. He cannot tolerate sin or uncleanness. Angels cry out that God is Holy all the time around his throne. If we want to dwell with God, we need to partake of his holiness. This is possible by the blood of Christ and the Holy Spirit.

Mercy Seat

The Mercy Seat rested on top of the Ark of the Covenant. God’s presence dwelt on top of the Mercy Seat.

The Mercy Seat represents the mercy and kindness of God shown to us through Jesus Christ. His mercy covers over his justice. His kindness is extended to us through Christ and enables us to relate to our perfect and holy God.

Within the Holy of Holies, the truth and mercy of God meet together, as the Mercy Seat sits on top of the Ark of the Covenant. There, God’s righteousness and his peace are joined. God dwells at this conjunction of perfect truth and perfect mercy.

Cherubim

Two golden Cherubim were on the sides of the Mercy Seat (Exodus 25:17-22). Between these cherubim the glory of God dwelt.

The cherubim represent the glory that surrounds God. They symbolize the powerful angels around his throne. They also symbolize maturity for the church and the individual Christian.

Conclusion

The Tabernacle is an important summation of the entire Christian life. It is a copy of heaven. It reveals spiritual realities. It also reveals the goal of the mature Christian and the entire body of Christ, which is to dwell continually in the full presence of God and be “transformed into his image” (2 Corinthians 3:18). The tabernacle is a well-spring of amazing spiritual information, which might take an eternity to fully understand.

“Stand fast in the liberty with which Christ has set us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage” (Galatians 5:1).

Paul was writing to a church. He didn’t want Christians coming under bondage.

All of us were once in bondage. We were slaves of sin and blind to God. When we trusted in Christ we were born again and set free from this bondage. 

God wants us to continue in this freedom.

In order to continue in this freedom, we must stand firm. If we don’t stand firm, we will become slaves. It is possible for Christians to become slaves.

Paul was writing to the Galatians. These Christians were going into the bondage of false teaching. They were following practices from the Old Testament like circumcision and dietary regulations. Today false teachings bring many Christians into bondage. To be free from the bondage of false teachings, we need to know the word of God. 

There are many types of bondage we can come under.

God wants us to be free from Satan. 

He wants us to be free from bondage to sin. “Sin will not have dominion over you” (Romans 6:14). 

God wants us to be free from limitations: “with God all things are possible.” 

God wants us to be free from the need to conform to the world. We don’t need to keep up with the Joneses, we need to keep up with the Spirit of God. 

God wants us to be free from Mammon. We don’t need to be slaves to money, worrying about money all the time. Jesus said he would provide what we need as we seek first his kingdom. 

The children of Israel were slaves in Egypt. They built Pharoah’s buildings and were miserable. Whips cracked over them and they were weighed down with burdens from their masters. One day God showed up and broke the power of their masters. They were free!

Moses brought them out of Egypt by the power of God. There was great potential before them and a glorious land waiting for them to enter. But they were unable to see this potential. They couldn’t trust God. They wanted to go back to Egypt and become slaves again! Then they died as they wandered around the wilderness. This is what happens when God’s people come into bondage again.

Jesus was anointed by God to set the captives free and open the prison doors (Isaiah 61:1). We were all once prisoners in Satan’s prison, but Christ crushed Satan’s head and brought us out. Satan’s whip could no longer crack over our heads, and his burdens no longer needed to bruise our backs.

“He whom the Son sets free is free indeed” (John 8:38). True liberty can only come from Jesus Christ.

We were set free by the Holy Spirit.

“Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty” (2 Corinthians 3:17). 

The Holy Spirit made us new on the inside and brought us out from the bondage to sin.

When the church comes together under the authority of Christ, Jesus is there. This powerful presence of Jesus can set people free. Sometimes the presence of the Lord is in a place to bring deliverance (Luke 5:17).

To the extent that we are filled with the Holy Spirit, to that extent we will experience liberty. We need to continue in this liberty from the Holy Spirit.

The word of God sets us free.

“You shall know the truth, and the truth will make you free” (John 8:32). 

All lies are from Satan, the father of lies. When we believe lies, they bring us into bondage. The truth is the word of God. The word of God is living and powerful, and it can set us free from lies.

We need to look into the perfect law of liberty in order to be set free (James 1:25). The perfect law of liberty is Christ and his teachings. When we follow Christ and his teachings, we are set free. We are set free by obeying God’s word, not just by hearing it.Jesus has already set us free. He doesn’t want us to go back and become “entangled in a yoke of bondage.”

When we get entangled in something, we get stuck. It’s like the thorns and thistles that choke the word of God that Jesus warned us about. It’s possible to be entangled in spiritual vines and ropes. It’s possible to be caught in a Satanic trap. God doesn’t want his people to be entangled. He wants us free.

A yoke is something heavy and firm put on the back of an ox so it can plow a field. Satan wants us to be slaves in his field. He wants us to keep sinning over and over again. The devil wants us to keep thinking about the past and getting miserable about it. He doesn’t want us going forward into the future with God. He wants us to doubt God. He wants us to desire the world and the things in the world. He lies to us so he can put a yoke on our backs and get us entangled. With a yoke on our backs, we are not free to serve God. We will not be happy.

God wants every yoke to be broken off the back of his people. He wants us completely free from all bondage. 

““Is this not the fast that I have chosen: To loose the bonds of wickedness, To undo the heavy burdens, To let the oppressed go free, And that you break every yoke?” (Isaiah 58:6).

Christ died to set us free. Our inheritance is liberty.Sometimes Christians may get yokes of the enemy put on their backs. We may not be as free as we should be. 
Jesus is the only solution. He set us free once, and he can do it again. 

“The yoke will be destroyed because of the anointing oil” (Isaiah 10:27). 

The anointing of God breaks yokes. We need to come into the presence of Christ, and the power of the Holy Spirit will shatter the yokes of the devil.

Jesus says if we are weary and heavy laden, we can come to him. His yoke is easy and his burden is light. We will find rest for our souls (Matthew 11:29-30). Christ’s yoke is the only yoke we want on our backs. This yoke is easy because Christ is in the yoke with us.

God does not want us to be in bondage. Jesus came to set us free. Jesus set us free when we first trusted in him and became born again. He wants us to continue in that freedom. To do this, we must stand firm.

If we have come into bondage, there is only one solution: Christ. We need to come to him, and ask him to break the yokes of bondage. He will do it again. He will set us free by his word and Spirit.

“You are the salt of the earth” (Matthew 5:13).

Jesus said his people are like salt.

Salt has many important uses.

1. Salt preserves food. Salt prevents decay. Salt is used to preserve meat like ham and vegetables like cucumbers.

Christians are like salt because they help preserve the world from sin and therefore from judgment. Sodom was preserved from judgment as long as there were righteous people inside the city. Noah was righteous and therefore he kept the creation alive in a big boat. Christians can slow down the sin, decay, and rot of society, thereby protecting it from the judgment of God.

2. Salt makes food taste good. Salt has a distinct flavor. Salt brings out the flavor of food by breaking down cell walls so the food’s inherent flavor can be released.Christians are like salt because they give the world a better flavor. TheyintroduceGod to the world, bringing redemption. Christians can break down barriers through the love of God. They can soften hard hearts and release good things in others by the Holy Spirit.

3. Salt is an essential nutrient. Many important body processes depend on salt in order to function.

Christians are like salt because do essential things. Christians show love – they feed the hungry, care for the sick, help the weak, and share truth about God. It is essential that people hear the gospel, and Christians are the only ones who will share the gospel with unbelievers.

4. Salt attracts water. To stay hydrated we need both salt and water. Without salt our bodies cannot retain water.

Water is a symbol of the Holy Spirit.Christians are like salt because they attract the Holy Spirit into places and among groups of people.

5. Salt can be healing. Gargling salt water can soothe a sore throat.

Christians bring healing to others. They can share the gospel so sinners can be reconciled to God. They can speak a healing word to those who are discouraged. They can lay hands on the sick so they can recover.

6. Salt was particularly valuable in ancient times. It was used as a currency in some cultures. The word salarycomes from the base word sal, which is saltin Latin.

Christians are valuable to God. God says that we are his special treasure. Christians are the valuable witnesses by which the world will come to know God.

Have Salt In Yourselves

“Everyone will be seasoned by fire, and every sacrifice will be salted with salt” (Mark 9:49).

Fire symbolizes troubles. According to Jesus, everyone in the world will go through troubles.

Christians are commanded to be living sacrifices on the altar of God (Romans 12:1).

In the Old Testament, every sacrifice to God was to be offered with salt (Leviticus 2:13). Salt ensured the sacrifice was free from decay so when it burned on the altar, it gave off a sweet smell. But without salt, the meat might rot. If a rotten piece of meat was burned on the altar, it would give off a stink.

Salt represents the presence of God. With the presence of God in our lives, when we go through the fiery problems of this world, we will give off a good smell to God. We can be joyful (James 1)in themidst of trouble. We will have patience. We will become more humble. We will be sanctified. All of these good things will result in our lives when we go through fiery problems with the presence of God.

Without the presence of God, when we go through problems we will give off a stink. Problems will stress us out, and we might murmur or complain. We might become impatient or angry. We may lash out at others. We might doubt God’s word. All of these bad results are like the stink of rotten meat being burned in fire.

We need to have salt in ourselves, so when we go through fiery trials, we will have good fruits in our lives and not evil fruits.

Salt Produces Peace Among Christians

Jesus commands us to have “salt within ourselves so we can be at peace with each other” (Mark 9:50).

When Christians are full of the presence of God, they will be at peace with each other. They will have true fellowship. Sin and decay enter into us when the presence of God is lacking, and this destroys fellowship.

In the Old Testament, salt was a sign of a sure covenant that would not pass away. Salt represents permanence. When Christians have salt in themselves, they preserve their relationships with others in the body of Christ.

Salty Talk

“Let your speech be always with grace, seasoned with salt, that you may know how you ought to answer everyone” (Colossians 4:6).

When our speech has salt in it, we will avoid sin and corruption. Our words will be palatable, because they are gracious. The Holy Spirit often makes conversations more interesting and flavorful. We must be willing to be different than the world. We must be willing to say and do different things than everyone else.

Salt brings out the flavor in food. When we talk to others, we can try to bring the good things out of them. We can focus our conversation on what God is doing in their lives, if they have a desire for God, if they are interested in the Bible, or on other things that are positive in their lives.

When we speak graciously, then we will know how to answer others. When we speak roughly, out of the flesh, then we often lose our ability to have wise answers. But when we speak in a calm way that is led by the Spirit, then we will know how to speak and how to answer questions more wisely.The way we talk to people affects our ability to know the answers to their spiritual questions.

Rejected Salt

“If the salt has lost its saltiness, with what will it be salted? It is thenceforth good for nothing but to be thrown out and trampled under foot of men” (Matthew 5:13).

In ancient times, salt was not refined as it is today. This means that it could potentially lose its flavor through contamination or exposure to moisture.

It is possible for Christians to lose their saltiness. The presence of God lessens in their lives. They lose their distinction from the world. They no longer have a positive spiritual effect on their surroundings. They become corrupted by sin.

When this happens, Christians no longer fulfill their purpose. They bring shame on the name of Christ. Unbelievers mock them. When Christian leaders sin, the world laughs at them. This is like being trampled under the feet of men.

Conclusion

God says his people are like salt. They are to bring the presence of God into the world and protect the world from decay.

God’s people are to have salt in themselves. They are to be full of the presence of God, so that when they go through trials, their lives emit good things rather than evil things.

Among unbelievers, Christians are to behave in a salty way. Their speech and behavior is to reflect the values of heaven.

Let us live as the salt of the earth and not be insipid. We can do this by the Holy Spirit. As we do, we will fulfill our divine purpose.

Walking in the Spirit is the normal Christian life. When we walk in the Spirit, we will not fulfill the lusts of the flesh (Galatians 5:16). We will experience victory over sin. And we will experience the abundant life that Jesus promised us (John 10:10).

How do we actually walk in the Spirit?

The first step to walking in the Spirit is being born again. We are born again when we believe in Jesus Christ. When we accept that he took away our sins on the cross, died in our place, and through him we have eternal life; then we will repent and give our lives over to him. We will be born again and the Holy Spirit comes inside us.

Jesus said that everyone who is born again is like the wind – you hear it’s sound but can’t tell where it’s coming from and where it’s going (John 3:8). Living in the Spirit is unpredictable. Those who live in the Spirit are guided by the wind of heaven. They are not guided by the ways of the world. Walking in the Spirit is something the world cannot understand. If we want to live like this, according to God, walking in the Spirit, then we must be born again.

The second important step to walking in the Spirit is being baptized in the Holy Spirit. The disciples were already born again before the Day of Pentecost, because they believed in Jesus. But they were not yet filled with the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:4). On the Day of Pentecost, they were baptized in the Holy Spirit, and they were transformed into powerful witnesses for God (Acts 1:5-8). God wants each of his children to be baptized in the Holy Spirit, so they can experience more of his presence and power in their lives. When we are baptized in the Holy Spirit, the gifts of the Holy Spirit operate through us more fully, and we can be led and empowered by the Holy Spirit more clearly.

After being baptized in the Holy Spirit, there are times in our lives when we need to be filled with the Holy Spirit afresh. Throughout Acts, the same disciples who were baptized in the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost were filled again with the Holy Spirit later. This filling gave them supernatural power to work miracles and press onward for God’s kingdom (Acts 4:31). Every Christian is commanded to be filled with the Holy Spirit again and again (Ephesians 5:18).

Obedience to God is the ground from which walking in the Spirit is possible. We need to obey the Bible, and we also need to obey the specific instructions God has for us. When we obey God’s word, then we abide in Christ, and his life flows into us. We are in the spiritual place where God can use us. God pours out his Holy Spirit on those who obey his words (Acts 5:32).

There are two forces in us, the flesh and the Spirit. Through the Spirit, we are to dominate the flesh and live a life for God.

Jesus said we need to take up our cross daily and follow him. This means that we need to obey his word.When we obey God, our flesh is crucified. The only solution for the flesh is crucifixion. Then we need to put off the flesh. We must put off the old man and put on the new man.

Do not make provision for the flesh to satisfy its lusts (Romans 13:14). If we are tempted by alcohol or other things, we need to cut these things out of our lives. We don’t want a provision for our lusts sitting in the corner of our lives that we can access whenever we want to. We need to throw that stuff away.

Paul said he disciplined his body and made it his slave (1 Corinthians 9:27). To discipline means to box or beat. These are strong words. This doesn’t mean Paul literally beat himself, but it means that he ruthlessly dominated his flesh by the Holy Spirit, even when his flesh was like a squealing pig that wanted to run to eat pig slop and roll around in the mud.

To walk in the Spirit, we need to pray. When we pray, we commune with God. We receive strength and instructions from heaven. Jesus sometimes prayed all night (Luke 6:12). He needed to receive guidance from his Father so he could walk in the Spirit and do what his Father wanted. If Jesus needed to pray in order to walk in the Spirit, how much more do we need to pray if we want to walk in the Spirit?

To walk in the Spirit we need to be part of a Biblical church. We need to consistently fellowship with the saints of God. Something happens in the atmosphere of fellowship, when Jesus is in our midst, that will quicken us spiritually and help us get in tune with God. If we cut ourselves off from regular fellowship with God’s people, we will not be able to live in the Spirit. We will slide into the flesh, into the ways of the world, and we will become darknened, sad, and depressed.

In the Old Testament, the Israelites could only enter the Promised Land together. They moved together through the wilderness, and defeated vast armies together. There was power in their unity. Alone, they would die in the wilderness. But together, they could accomplish awesome things.

In the New Testament, the church was strong and powerful when the believers were together with one accord in one place. That unity was the basis of their corporate walk in the Spirit together. God is raising up a people in the end times who will hear his voice and walk in his Spirit. They will not walk according to the ways of the world or according to their own minds, but according to the inspiration of heaven. These people will receive input from God and speak and act according to divine revelation. This body of Christ is going to transform the world.

“The LORD God is my strength; He will make my feet like deer’sfeet,And He will make me walk on my high hills” (Habakkuk 3:19).

God has called us to walk in the heavenly places, in the Spirit. We are called to live above the world, impacting the earth with the power and light of heaven. God will make our spiritual feet able to walk in these high places.

In order to experience the abundant life that Jesus promised us (John 10:10), we need to walk in the Spirit. When we walk in the Spirit, we will live a supernatural life full of the presence of God.

There are two forces at work within each Christian – the flesh and the Spirit. The flesh is the part of us that tends toward sin. The flesh is called the old man. The flesh is who we are in the natural state apart from God.

The Spirit is the Holy Spirit inside of us who made us new when we were born again. This is the new man. This is the part of us that longs for God, seeks to follow him, and empowers us to obey his word.

The flesh and the Spirit are contrary to each other (Galatians 5:16-18). There is an internal war going on within each of us. The flesh wants to do one thing, and the Spirit wants to do the other thing. The flesh wants to obey Satan, and the Spirit wants us to obey God.

God wants us to live and walk in the Spirit, not in the flesh. When we walk in the Spirit, we will not fulfill the lusts of the flesh.

The fleshly Christian is immature. He is a spiritual baby. He needs the milk of the word so that he can grow into maturity and become a spiritual person.

Paul speaks to fleshly Christians in 1 Corinthians 3:1-3. He rebukes them for their sinful behavior, and then he tells them that they are walking as mere men. 

God has not called us to walk as mere men. He wants us to live and walk above the ways of the world, and not in the flesh like everyone else. We are to live in the Spirit, according to God. We are to be supernatural people. 

When we live in the flesh, we live in our own strength, apart from God’s presence and power. We live as mere human beings. Living in the flesh is living according to human reasoning, natural abilities, and natural resources. This kind of life is limited.

Living in the Spirit means living an abundant life. It means following God and doing things in God’s power. When we live in the Spirit, supernatural things will happen in our lives. There will be divine appointments. God will connect us to people and situations that will work something powerful in our lives. Miracles will happen. Our lives will take on a higher meaning. 

God knows everything about everyone and everything. When we walk in the Spirit, we tap into God’s infinite wisdom. This will cause us to be led beyond our own human limitations. 

God can do anything. Nothing is impossible for him. When we walk in the Spirit, things that are impossible for us will become possible because God is working in our lives.

Walking in the flesh means living in human limitation. Walking in the Spirit means living life in the power of God.

When we walk in the Spirit, we become a heavenly nation of people living and walking on the earth.

“By faith they passed through the Red Sea as by dry land, whereas the Egyptians, attempting to do so, were drowned. By faith the walls of Jericho fell down after they were encircled for seven days… through faith subdued kingdoms, worked righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, became valiant in battle, turned to flight the armies of the aliens. Women received their dead raised to life again.” (Hebrews 11:29-35).

Amazing things happened in the Old Testament. But now we are living in the time of the New Testament. We have the Holy Spirit inside us. There are even greater possibilities for us.

Jesus shows us how to live and walk in the Spirit. Jesus lived in the Spirit. He did whatever he saw his Father do (John 5:19). He was constantly in tune with his Father. Everything Jesus said and did started in heaven, and when he spoke or moved he brought heaven into the earth. 

We are commanded to walk as Jesus walked (1 John 2:6).

“Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father.” (John 14:12)

It’s possible for Christians to do the same things Jesus did, and to do even greater things than what he did. These things will happen when we walk in the Spirit, hearing from God and following his leading.

The Bible says that if we hear God’s voice, we should not harden our hearts. We need to obey God and do what he says. When we obey God, we will enter into his rest. 

When we hear the word of God, it is as though a door is opened. When we obey God’s word, we go through this door. Then we enter into God’s rest. When we enter into God’s rest, we stop doing whatever we want to do, and we do the works that God has prepared for us to do from the foundation of the world (Hebrews 4:7-10).

To walk in the Spirit means to live a normal Christian life. May God help us to grow into spiritual maturity so that this life becomes normal for us.

The fruit of the Spirit is an important topic for Christians. 

The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, and self control (Galatians 5:22-23). 

It is important for us to know how to bear the fruit of the Spirit so that we can have a healthy life and fulfill our purpose as Christians.

We get some insights into how to bear the fruit of the Spirit from Psalm 1.

“Blessed is the man
Who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly,
Nor stands in the path of sinners,
Nor sits in the seat of the scornful;
But his delight is in the law of the Lord,
And in His law he meditates day and night.
He shall be like a tree
Planted by the rivers of water,
That brings forth its fruit in its season,
Whose leaf also shall not wither;
And whatever he does shall prosper.” (Psalm 1:1-3)

Psalm 1 talks about the blessed man. This word blessed can also mean happy. The blessed or happy man is a person who prioritizes God. When we follow God’s instructions, we will be blessed. When we don’t follow the word of God, we will be unhappy. True happiness comes from obeying God.

First, Psalms 1 tells us if we want to be blessed, we must turn away from sin. Sin leads to death. Sin does not make us happy. Psalm 1 tells us that sin can be a progression in our lives. It starts with walking in wrong ways. Then it causes a person to stand in the wrong place. It culminates with making him sit in an evil place.

Psalm 1 says sin starts with ungodliness. Then sin encourages a person to actively do evil, and finally it gets a person to scoff at good things.

God wants us to cut off sin before it takes over our lives and makes us miserable. God wants us to repent, which means to turn from sin.

Psalm 1 says if we want to be blessed, we must meditate on the word of God. This means to think about the word of God. We are instructed to think about God’s word day and night. 

This is possible when we delight in God’s word. When we like doing something we will do it. If we don’t want to, we probably won’t. If we enjoy reading the Bible, then we will read it and think about it. Delighting in the Bible is the key to spending time in the Bible. Reading the word of God should be a delight, not a religious duty. If it’s not a delight, pray that God would make it a delight for you. The Holy Spirit will answer that prayer. 

We need to meditate on the word of God because God’s word is the seed that will produce the fruit of the Holy Spirit in our lives. We cannot bear fruit apart from the word of God. The word of God contains power from God in order to bring forth fruit. Jesus said those who bring forth fruit are those who have the word of God planted inside their hearts (Matthew 13:23). The word of God is planted inside us when we believe it and obey it.

Psalm 1 says the blessed person is like a tree. Trees are stable. They are not easily knocked down or trampled. Trees are strong. 

We can become strong through God’s word. God’s word is an eternal seed that gives us eternal life. It makes us strong like a tree.

Psalm 1 says the blessed person is like a tree planted by the rivers of water. Water in the Bible represents the Holy Spirit. We have the Holy Spirit inside us when we are born again. Then we are baptized with the Spirit. Hopefully we are filled with the Spirit again and again throughout our Christian lives. For our spiritual lives to be strong, we must draw regularly from the water of the Holy Spirit.

Jesus said the Holy Spirit inside us is like an internal fountain of water (John 4:14). He said the Holy Spirit is like internal rivers of water (John 7:38). There is a way to live by the Holy Spirit that continually draws on the life of the Spirit of God inside us.This water of the Holy Spirit not only flows inside us, but it also flows inside the church. A supernatural river of the Holy Spirit flows in the city of God and makes God’s people happy (Psalm 46:4). This spiritual river is manifested when God’s people gather together in the name of Jesus, according to God’s word. When they do, Jesus is among them.

When we draw on the water of the Holy Spirit, we are abiding in Christ. When we abide in Christ, we will bear much fruit, for apart from Christ we can do nothing (John 15:5). 

The fruit of the Spirit is supernatural and can only come from God. It doesn’t come from ourselves.Psalm 1 says there is a season for bearing fruit. Each of the 9 fruits of the Spirit has its own season. Sometimes there is a season in which patience is needed. The Holy Spirit will produce patience in us at that time. Sometimes there is a season of our lives in which we need joy or love. The Holy Spirit will help us produce those fruits during those seasons. By the help of God, we will bear fruit that is appropriate to each situation we are in.
Bearing fruit is vitally important for the Christian life, and we can learn a lot about it from Psalm 1. 
Jesus has ordained us to bear fruit (John 15:16). He 

said we need to bear fruit in order to glorify God. When we bear the fruit of the Spirit we show that we are his disciples (John 15:8). The opposite of the fruit of the Spirit is the works of the flesh. This includes all sorts of sins (Galatians 5:19-21).

When we bear the fruit of the Spirit, we show that we are walking in the Spirit. 
When we do the works of the flesh, we reveal that we are walking in the flesh.

The Bible says that the flesh and Spirit are two contrary forces that are at war within each believer. Sometimes the flesh prevents us from doing what we want to do (Galatians 5:16-17).The only way for a Christian to be free from the works of the flesh is to walk in the Spirit. We need to be led by the Spirit. To be led by the Spirit means not only to be guided by the Holy Spirit, but also empowered by the Holy Spirit.

Christianity is to be a supernatural life that is lived by the power of the Holy Spirit. It is not to be lived in our own strength. When we tap into the power of the Holy Spirit and obey the word of God, we will experience God’s power to enable us to bear the fruit of the Holy Spirit. When we bear this fruit, God will be glorified, others will be blessed, and we will find true happiness.

Emotions are an important part of our lives. It is important for Christians to understand emotions through the word of God.

Emotions can be powerful. They are so powerful that they can dominate our lives. 

One of the strongest emotions is fear. Fear can influence our actions, forcing us to do things we don’t want to do. Fear can control our bodies, affecting our heart and other body systems. But we have not received a spirit of fear, but of power, love, and a sound mind (2 Timothy 1:7). 

Hatred and rage are strong emotions that can control people. 

Depression a strong emotion that can be debilitating.

Emotions are influenced by many factors. When we are tired or hungry, we might get into a bad mood. When we are sick or in pain, we might feel depressed. Emotions can be affected by the weather or by the changing seasons. Hormones influence emotions. Circumstances affect emotions. When things are going well, we feel good. When things go badly, we feel bad.

If we are controlled by our emotions, then we are ultimately controlled by these factors that influence our emotions.

Feelings and emotions can be misleading. They come from the heart, and according to the Bible the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked (Jeremiah 17:9). Emotions are often based on lies. Often fear comes from a lie from Satan. Sorrow often arises because of incomplete information. Anger can arise because of making a false assumption about someone.

In our Christian lives, there are problems with relying on feelings or emotions. Feelings go up and down. If our Christian life is based on emotions, then our Christian life will also be up and down. If our spirituality is based on emotions, then it is ultimately be based on those things that influence our emotions, like circumstances, hormones, other people, etc. God must be the foundation of our Christian life.

Emotions are not an accurate way to measure our spiritual life. Determining the validity of faith by emotions will lead to doubts. We might doubt if we’re truly born again because of our emotions, or we might doubt the promises of God because we don’t feel that they are true.

If we are relying on emotions in our Christian lives, then our obedience might be determined by feelings. We might do something because we feel like it, or not do something if we don’t feel like it. We might wait to obey God until we feel a sort of “inspiration.” Relying on feelings in our walk with God can lead to deception, when we might think that our feelings are the leading of the Holy Spirit.

The validity of our faith is proven by the word of God, not by our feelings. The word of God reveals spiritual reality, and our faith is to be based on the spiritual facts of God’s word. 

Emotions are not inherently bad. God has emotions. Throughout the Bible God shows anger, jealousy, love, kindness, compassion, and sorrow. Jesus also showed emotions when he walked the earth. He showed sympathy. He experienced sorrow, joy, and many other emotions.

Throughout the Bible God’s people often showed strong emotions. In Psalms, David showed a range of human emotions. Nehemiah once got so mad with people for disobeying God that he starting hitting them and pulling out their hair (Nehemiah 13:25). Paul said he had continual sorrow because of Jews who refused to repent and believe in Jesus (Romans 9:2). How could Paul be sad all the time, but he command us to rejoice all the time (1 Thessalonians 5)? It’s possible to be joyful and sorrowful at the same time because we can have the joy of the Lord at the core of our being, even when we are sad about something.

Emotions can be right or wrong. The morality of emotions is determined by the word of God. When our emotional response is in line with the Bible, then it is healthy. When our emotional response is not in line with the Bible, then it is unhealthy. For example, if someone is sad because their friend forsook sin and started going to church, then this is not a good emotional response. If someone is happy when a person starts drinking alcohol to excess and being immoral, then this is a wrong emotional response. Our emotions need to be regulated by the word of God.

The Bible says it is possible to control our emotions. We can control our likes and dislikes, loving good things and hating evil things (Amos 5:15). One of the most frequent commands in the Bible is “Do not fear.” Fear is an emotion, and we are commanded to control it. Jesus commanded us to not be emotionally disturbed when we hear about wars or rumors of wars (Matthew 24:6). We are commanded to not be anxious about anything (Philippians 4:6), and anxiety is an emotion. We are commanded to be slow to anger (James 1:19). We are instructed to bear the fruit of the Spirit, which is love, joy, peace, patience, and other good emotions (Galatians 5:22-23). We are instructed to show sympathy to others, weeping with those who weep and rejoicing with those who rejoice (Romans 12:15).

We are to regulate our emotions according to the word of God. 

We can learn about controlling our emotions by the word of God by using an analogy from shipping. (Thank you Arun for the analogy.) 

Big ships have a navigational system that sounds alarms when the ship is close to danger. This navigational system comes from the factory in a default setting. This alarm system must be set according to a chart that describes the ship’s surroundings. When the alarm system is set according to the chart, the alarms on the ship will ring at the appropriate times. 

Emotions are like this. Before we were born again, our emotions sounded according to the rest of the world. They were in the “default” setting. Our emotions need to be set, or “charted” by the word of God. When our emotions are set by the word of God, they will be manifested appropriately at appropriate times. 

If the ship’s alarm system is not set properly, then its alarms will sound randomly. This constant ringing of alarms can lead to alarm fatigue, when crew becomes so tired of the alarms that they ignore them. 

Sometimes when our emotions are misaligned, they manifest frequently at random times, leading to emotional exhaustion. Jesus can heal us from this. As we renew our minds with the word of God, our emotions will be healed. As we wash over our minds with the master chart of the word of God, our emotions will also be “charted” to manifest at the appropriate times.

Each person is comprised of three parts, spirit, soul, and body (1 Thessalonians 5:23). When we are born again, our dead human spirit comes alive and is joined with the Holy Spirit. We are called to live according to the Spirit and walk in the Spirit. Emotions come from the soul. As we live in the Spirit, our spirit will dominate our soul. God will dominate our emotions. Our souls, moved upon by the Holy Spirit, will then bear the fruit of the Holy Spirit. When our emotions are in line with the Spirit, we will bear an emotional response that is a blessing and is according to God.

God wants his people to be passionate about things that truly matter. God himself is an emotional being. As our emotions are regulated by the word of God and guided by the Holy Spirit, they will become an asset to our spiritual life and to God’s work.

There is powerful energy within God that flows to his people to enable them to live the Christian life. The Christian life is not meant to be lived in our own strength, but in the power of God.

Energy is the ability to do work. There are many types of energy in the world, including heat, light, motion, electrical and chemical energy. According to the US government, energy makes modern civilization possible.

The divine energy of Almighty God is the greatest form of energy in the entire universe, dwarfing the power of the sun and the largest stars. This is because God is the most powerful being in the universe.

When Jesus worked miracles, people said that powers were energizing in him (Matthew 14:2). Divine energy flowed through Jesus, working miracles.

In the Bible, the Greek word for energy is often used to describe the power of God. The verses that we will discuss this morning use this Greek word that literally means energy.

God energizes Christians to do his will (Philippians 2:13). God’s energy is the most powerful energy in the universe. This is the power to live the Christian life. Normal Christianity is about living in the supernatural energy of God. It is not about living in our own strength. It is about being connected to the most powerful Person in the universe – God himself.

All of Christianity is supernatural. It comes from God.

The Holy Spirit energizes us to do above and beyond all we can ask or think (Ephesians 3:20). This dynamite power resides within every Christian. It is unlimited power. This is why Jesus said that we could do greater works than he did (John 14:12). Jesus raised the dead, cast out demons, exposed secrets, and healed the sick. Jesus said we can do these things too because the same Holy Spirit that empowered Jesus is inside of us.

All miracles come from God. The most powerful miracle in the world is when someone becomes born again and their dead spirit is raised to life. Only God can do this. If God is able to make a spiritually dead person alive, then God can easily raise a dead body to life. Sometimes dead people come back to life in the hospital. But no one but God can raise a spiritually dead person back to life.

Just because an energy exists doesn’t mean that it’s doing work. Energy can be stored, and it can be released. There is potential energy or kinetic energy. God wants the power of the Holy Spirit inside us to be released and become active and powerful in the world.

The Holy Spirit energizes spiritual gifts within God’s people (1 Corinthians 12:6). There are many different types of spiritual gifts, including tongues, prophecy, helps, and administration. There is no distinction between natural gifts and spiritual gifts. It is not as though miracles are supernatural, done in the power of God, but helps are natural, done in our own strength. All spiritual gifts are supernatural, energized by the Holy Spirit. We need the supernatural energy of God to operate any spiritual gift.

Every Christian has at least one spiritual gift (1 Peter 4:10). Spiritual gifts are given for the building up of the body of Christ. These gifts operate as we are connected to the body of Christ and are guided by true ministers. As we participate in the life of the church community, particularly in Sunday church, the spiritual gifts inside us will be energized and start to operate.

The Holy Spirit enables us to work for God (Colossians 1:29). He enables ministry to happen (Galatians 2:8). All Christians have a ministry. All are called to minister by God. We cannot serve God in our own power, we need to serve him in the supernatural energy that he provides.

The word of God energizes us (1 Thessalonians 2:13). The word of God is supernatural, charged with divine energy and life (Hebrews 4:12). As we believe the word of God and obey it, the power of God will flow through our lives.

If we do not tap into the divine energizing power of the Holy Spirit, then we will wither spiritually. We will become like a plant that is not getting enough sun, and so it turns yellow and wilts. Christianity is about life and a relationship with God, it’s not about religion. Religion creates bondage. Religion is trying to live the Christian life in our own strength, and following the religious traditions of people rather than obeying the word of God. Jesus came to demolish dead religion and bring us face to face with God. He came to pour out God into our hearts.

There are supernatural energies operating in the world that are contrary to God. 

The energy of Satan is working inside of unbelievers (Ephesians 2:2). We need to be careful as to how unbelievers can affect us, because they can drag us down because Satan is operating inside them. We need to share the truth with them if we really care about them. If we don’t care about them, then we’ll stay quiet and allow Satan to destroy them. 

There is an energy called the mystery of lawlessness that operates within the church (2 Thessalonians 2:7). This energy encourages Christians to ignore the word of God and obey religious traditions. Satan works counterfeit miracles and spiritual gifts. This happens when Christians stop obeying the Bible and start following their own religious ideas. We need discernment. The Holy Spirit operates according to the word of God. Evil spirits operate according to man-made religious rituals. We must measure all Christianity by the word of God.

There is an energy operating within each one of us called the flesh (Romans 7:5). This energy is contrary to the energy of the Holy Spirit (Galatians 5:17). To get the victory over the flesh, we need to crucify the flesh and put it off. We do this through faith in Christ. We must put off the old man and put on the new man. We need to learn to walk in the Spirit, which means be empowered by divine energy from God, and not walk in the flesh.

It takes supernatural energy from God to counteract the evil energies operating within the world. To overcome these evil energies, we need the energy of God.

Sometimes tests come, and we face challenges. These tests can expose whether we are living in the flesh or in the Spirit. We can only overcome some tests by the divine energy of the Holy Spirit.

There are several ways we can tap into the divine energy and power of God. We need to believe the word of God and obey it. Obedience to God releases the Holy Spirit in our lives (Acts 5:32). When we take up our cross and suffer for Jesus, we experience God’s power, for when we are weak, then we are strong (2 Corinthians 12:10). We tap into divine energy when we exercise our spiritual gifts and experience the operations of spiritual gifts through others in the body of Christ. We need to pray. And we need to be filled again and again with the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 5:18).

Divine energy is based on the power of the resurrection. When Christ was raised from the dead, divine energy raised him. Now, God has released this same divine energy into us (Ephesians 1:19-20). We are members of Christ’s body. The power that raised up Christ from the dead is inside us. Let us live our lives in God’s power, so that God can be glorified.

In the Bible, Peter gives us a list of 8 vital Christian qualities.

“Giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness, to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love. For if these things are yours and abound, you will be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.” (2 Peter 1:6-8)

Faith

Virtue

Knowledge

Self-Control

Perseverance

Godliness

Brotherly Kindness

Love

These 8 qualities are all connected. They build on each other. Each of these qualities address a potential lack in the previous quality and refines it, bringing it into balance. 

As we go through this important list, you’ll see what I mean. 

Faith

The first Christian quality is faith. 

Faith is the beginning of our walk with God. Through faith in the gospel we are born again, the Holy Spirit comes inside of us, we are united with Christ, and we receive eternal life.

Our Christian lives not only begin with faith, but they continue by faith. 

“The just will live by faith” (Romans 1:17). We are called to live our Christian lives looking at the invisible things of God and his word, and not the visible things of this world. We are called to live by faith, not by sight.

Faith is vitally important. But faith by itself is not enough.

Virtue

We must add virtue to our faith. 

This word virtue has the old English meaning: “valor, manliness, courage to act, or boldness.” We need to add the courage to act to our faith. We must be able to put our faith into practice. 

James 2:17 says “faith without works is dead.” If we have faith but not the willingness to put our faith into practice, then our faith is weak and even potentially dead. We need to add the courage to act to our faith so that we can do the works that will prove that our faith is alive.

There is no point in saying you believe God is telling you to do something but then not doing it. If you refuse to act on what you say you believe, then your inaction proves you don’t really believe it. Disobedience in the word of God disproves faith. This is why we must add the courage or willingness to act to our faith, so that our faith can be implemented and become complete.

Virtue (the courageous willingness to act) is important. 

But virtue by itself is not enough.

Knowledge 

We need to add knowledge to our virtue. 

We might have strength, boldness and willingness to act (virtue), but without knowledge we won’t know what to do. Without knowledge, our actions will be meaningless or even harmful. 

Take Samson for example. He had lots of courage, but he lacked knowledge. Therefore some of his actions were harmful. When we try to do things without spiritual knowledge, then our actions will not accomplish God’s purpose.

True knowledge comes from the word of God.

Ephesians 5:17 says “Be not unwise but understand what the will of God is.” 

The Bible reveals the will of God. We need renew our minds by the word of God so that we have knowledge about what God wants us to do. When we combine knowledge with the courage to act, then our courage is able to fulfill its purpose.

But knowledge by itself is not enough.

Self-Control

We need to add self-control to our knowledge.

Self-control is the ability to walk according to the Spirit, and not according to the flesh. Without self-control, even if we know what to do, we can’t do it. 

“For what I am doing, I do not understand. For what I will to do, that I do not practice; but what I hate, that I do.” (Romans 7:15) 

The flesh and the Spirit are opposing forces within us. Without self-control, we will live in the flesh and be unable to obey God. Then all the knowledge in the world won’t help us. Self-control enables us put off the flesh and live according to our spiritual knowledge. 

Solomon was the wisest person in the world, with knowledge given to him as a gift from God. But he lacked self-control. Without self-control, much of his knowledge was ultimately useless, because he fell into sin with many women and committed idolatry with false gods. 

Without self-control, we cannot implement our knowledge. But when we have self-control, we can implement our knowledge of God’s word. 

Self control is a fruit of the Spirit, and it comes from God. It is vitally important.

But we need more than self-control.

Perseverance

We need to add perseverance to our self-control.

Perseverance is the ability to keep doing something in spite of opposition. Self-control is not something that we do just once. We don’t just get the victory once over the flesh and live happily ever after in the Spirit. We must exercise self-control regularly and learn the habit of living and walking in the Spirit every day. This is perseverance. Perseverance perfects our self-control, because perseverance makes self-control a regular feature of our lives.

Perseverance is vital. But it needs something more.

Godliness

We must add godliness to our perseverance.

Godliness means focusing on God. It means acknowledging God, worshiping God, and thanking God. When we are persevering through challenges, God is the one who will get us through. We can’t get through in our own strength. God is our source of joy and strength. Focusing on God while we persevere will keep us going forward in God’s strength.

“The joy of the Lord is your strength” (Nehemiah 8:10).

When we try to persevere without God, our perseverance can turn into drudgery. We might become depressed or discouraged. Bitterness and anger can come into our perseverance and tinge it with darkness.

Think of David. He had to persevere for a long time in order to escape Saul’s wrath and become king. He was able to persevere because he added godliness to his perseverance, and he kept focusing on God as he endured trouble. The Psalms tell us about how David added godliness to his perseverance and was thereby able to get through.

Godliness is important. But godliness needs another quality to become complete. 

Brotherly Kindness

We need to add brotherly kindness to our godliness. Brotherly kindness is Phileo love. This is the affectionate love of feelings. 

True godliness is not just concerned about God, but it is also concerned about other people. It focuses on helping others, loving them, and being kind and affectionate towards them. Phileo love particularly focuses on our brothers and sisters in Christ. 

If we just focus on God and don’t care about others, then we aren’t really focusing on God. True godliness cares about others. Brotherly kindness makes our godliness complete.

Phileo love also needs something to make it better.

Love

We need to add agape love to our brotherly kindness. 

Agape love is the highest form of love. Phileo love becomes perfected when it is controlled by agape love.

Agape love puts God first. Agape love is based on the word of God, and it seeks to follow God’s commands (1 John 5:3).

Without agape love, our feelings and affections will not be bounded by God’s word. Our feelings may be led by our mind or even by our flesh, and they won’t be according to God. But when our feelings are controlled by agape love, which means they are submitted to God’s word, then they come into divine order.

Agape love is the final quality in this list because there is nothing to add to agape love. Agape love is the first and greatest commandment. If we have agape love, then we have God. 

“The end of the commandment is love from a pure heart” (1 Timothy 1:5).

Conclusion

This is a beautiful chain of Christian qualities. It starts with faith and it ends with love. Each one of these qualities connects to the previous quality and refines it. It balances the one that went before it and completes it. 

We need to give all diligence (which means to work hard) to implement these qualities into our lives. As we do this, the Holy Spirit will help us. As we implement these qualities, we will become increasingly spiritually fruitful.