Scripture quotations taken from the New American Standard Bible ® (NASB), Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation Used by permission.
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EPHESIANS CHAPTER 2
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1-3 And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, 2 in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. 3 Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest.
Eph 2,1-22
(29j) Gift of God
>>
God is on our side >> God identifies with us >>
He is our advocate
Eph 2,1-10
(193g) Die to self (Process of substitution)
>>
Turn from sin to God >> Repent >>
God grants repentance
(207j) Salvation
>>
The salvation of God >> Salvation verses >>
The generosity of God’s salvation >> Salvation
is the gift of God
Eph 2,1-7
(38f) Judgment
>>
Jesus defeated death >> God judged the world,
the flesh and the devil
Eph 2,1-5
(26a)
Sin >>
Consequences of sin
>>
Death >> Dead to God through sin
– Sinners are spiritually dead to God;
they cannot hear the Holy Spirit speaking to them but are separated from His grace and mercy and from His promise of eternal
life. Hollywood is popping out horror movies by the score, because people
are dead in sin, and they walk in unbelief like zombies, for the darkness
has blinded their eyes, and like vampires, any amount of light makes them react
hysterically. In contrast, those who are alive in Christ love God and hate sin.
KJV
NAS
Eph 2,1-3
(16b) Sin >> Man’s
nature is instinctively evil >> Man is an enemy of God -- These verses go with verse
12. The true condition of humanity as seen through
the eyes of Scripture is that the world is by nature at enmity with God.
Paul depicts people as dead in their sin, plotting on course with the rest
of society, following the general consensus in a way that seems right to the
natural mind. This is civilized humanity throughout the eons. The world is
dead, implying that it is insensitive to the voice and truth of the Holy
Spirit, and consequently separate from the life of God. The body may be
alive, but those who don't have this gift of the Holy Spirit are spiritually
dead. The world does not know God, who is first and foremost a Spirit, hence
it cannot be spiritually alive.
(22g)
Sin
>>
Lust (craving pleasure) >> Fleshly mind
(57d) Paradox
>>
Opposites >> Friend of the world is an enemy
of God – Everyone who believes in the general consensus of
the world does not believe in God, for the two are opposites by nature.
There is a spirit that is contrary to God working in the world to guarantee
man’s rejection of God.
(160e) Works of the devil
>>
Essential characteristics >> Satan’s
attitude determines our direction >> Led by
the devil into sin – The deception that is in the world though lust
(2Pet 1-4) has such a hold on mankind that it makes believing in the
Scriptures very difficult for some people if not impossible. Only the Holy
Spirit can cut through the darkness of man’s heart to shine the truth on
his soul, which becomes his new core belief that he finds more convincing
than anything he has known prior to his divine enlightenment. God starts by
revealing the core motives and spirits behind the great deception,
delivering us from false reasonings and our own human tendencies to believe
a lie. Man is content in his own world, though there is suffering caused by
sin, men murdering men, women and children, discord, unhappiness and
unfulfilled desire. In all these things man is still content to retain his
fleshly worldview, even after the sacrifice of the Son of God. We are locked into this worldview, and without God we cannot think or
feel our way out of it. There is no thinking our way out of this box. God is the only one who can
deliver us from our humanistic belief system that is reinforced by demonic
powers of wickedness in high places.
(164f) Works of the devil
>>
Manifestations of the devil >> The world
system >> Satan’s system of authority >>
He is the prince of the power of the air – There
are forces in the world today on TV, broadcasting the same message to
millions of people at the same time. They appear to mean no harm, yet do we
think for one minute that Satan has not harnessed this method of
communication? He is the Prince of the Power of the Air, the master of mass
communication. The television set has fallen right into his lap, and he has
been using if from day one. We turn on the TV and see all the people
smiling, telling us how we should behave, and it all sounds like they have
our best interest at heart, but don’t count on it. God placed His Holy Spirit in us, who is leading
us away from the worldly perspectives toward the thoughts of God, which are
diametrically opposed in concept, in thought, and in values and actions. In
every conceivable way God is the opposite of the world, why? Satan rules the
world. The antichrist may not have appeared yet, so He may not rule the
world in a physical way, but he rules the world spiritually, in a subtle
way, in the mind of humanity, in how they think and what they believe, which
determines how they live and what they do, and how they treat their fellow
man. Most people don’t have the foggiest idea what the Bible means when
it talks about the "world." There are many kings and presidents,
but according to the Bible, Satan is the ruler of the world. This verse
suggests that Satan’s ability to govern the world is dependent on the
disobedience (unbelief) of the vast majority of humanity. So, basically man’s unbelief acts like a dark cloud that
continually hangs over the world to create the mood (atmosphere) of evil,
while Satan orchestrates the entire process. None of this could be possible
if the core of man’s nature were not instinctively evil, giving man an
affinity for satanic control. It is programmed into man’s flesh from the
fall of Adam to be more attracted to evil than to God. Man’s unregenerate nature has nothing to do with God, but
matches the devil. Man’s nature is demonic. So it would seem that we
have an unfixable situation, and by ourselves it is just that, but God has
solved our problem in Christ.
(166j) Works of the devil
>>
Manifestations of the devil >> >>
The carnal mind cannot discern between good and evil >>
The carnal mind agrees with the devil – Jm 3-15 echoes these sentiments about the world
and its wisdom, saying that it is “earthly, natural, demonic.” Like
James, Paul also associated the world with the devil in the first verses of
this chapter. That which is earthly and secular is according to the law of
the jungle. However, man’s nature is different from the nature of animals.
When he tries to follow these same rules of nature, he finds that nature has
rejected him, since God kicked Adam from the Garden, and now we are stuck
building civilizations that are distinct from nature, and with that God
prophesied our kingdoms would destroy us. So it seems that man has nowhere
to go, except to God. By ourselves we naturally think the thoughts of
demons. This too corresponds with secularism, because Satan wants us to
believe there is nothing else to life than what our five senses can detect.
Satan wants mankind to believe there is no such thing as a spirit in the
world; he doesn’t want them believing in God; he doesn’t even want them
believing in his own existence, since he too is a spirit. Secularism denies
any and all forms of spiritualism. Although there are all kinds of evidence
to support God’s existence, the creation itself is proof of that, still
secularism persists and interprets all things through the lens of nature.
When whole societies accept these things as a viable worldview, it makes the
lie of secularism that much more convincing.
(180i) Works of the devil
>>
Practicing witchcraft >> Rebelling against God’s narrow way >>
Rebelling against the will of God –
Rebellion began in the Garden of Eden with Adam and Eve when Satan fooled
them into eating from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil;
they entered into the same transgression as Lucifer, which was simple
rebellion. The circumstances and details of Satan’s rebellion and man’s
rebellion are different, but they are both rebellion. Even if we try to be
good, we were born into the family of Satan by default and were by nature
children of Satan. There is no way out of it except through faith in the
shed blood of Christ that God used to purchase the Church from Satan, which
is the only acceptable covenant that God is willing to make with mankind.
Our acceptance of this blood covenant proves that we want peace with God,
and we want to be His children and do His will, and we want to be pleasing
to Him. Conversely, if we reject his blood sacrifice, it just proves that we
are still in rebellion. We don’t want to be at enmity with God. He saved
us from our sins as we dedicated our lives to the process of sanctification,
setting us apart from our sins and from the world that we inherited.
(183g) Works of the devil
>>
The origin of lawlessness >> Spirit of Error (Anti-Christ / Anti-Semitism) >>
Spirit of the broad road >> Spirit of the
world – Those who are dead in their transgressions are
following what Jesus called the broad road that leads to destruction.
Through his jealous rage this malevolent spirit is leading mankind off a
cliff. His many cohorts are working with him to make sure that in their
futile groping mankind will never find God. People who are walking on this
broad road to destruction do not need to do anything to be candidates of
God’s wrath, except to walk on this path, for the broad road itself
represents the very essence of unbelief.
(184b) Works of the devil
>>
The origin of lawlessness >> Darkness >>
Hiding behind your own imagination >> Hiding
behind a false authority
(185e) Works of the devil
>>
The origin of lawlessness >> Mystery of
lawlessness >> The mystery of sin
(202b) Denying Christ
>>
Man chooses his own destiny apart from God >>
Running from God >> Running to your sinful
nature >> Run from God by running to the world
(240h) Kingdom of God
>>
Opposition toward the Kingdom of God >>
Hindering the kingdom >> Natural disadvantage >>
Natural disadvantage of the world -- These verses go with verses
11&12
Eph 2-1
(25j) Dead In
Sin (Key verse)
Eph 2-3
(19h) Sin
>>
Having the mental disease of the world >>
Worldly influence on the mind
(230g) Kingdom of God
>>
God’s kingdom is a living organism >> Partaking of God’s judgment
KJV
NAS
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4&5 But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved),
Eph 2,4-10
(33l) Gift of God
>>
Believers are special to God >> He has given us
all things
(116i) Thy kingdom come
>> Faith >>
Working the grace of God >> Working God’s
kindness –
There is a difference between grace and mercy, though they are often
interchanged. Mercy speaks of God’s unmerited favor, whereas grace refers to
his unmerited power. God was rich in mercy to send His Son in the first place,
and then His grace saved us by the power of God who raised Him from the dead.
When we believe in Jesus, the indwelling Holy Spirit deposited God’s mercy
in us, and through that Spirit He empowers us by His grace to do his will. We
never see grace and mercy working apart, in that grace is always for the
purpose of mercy, and mercy is always for the purpose of grace. The only
reason God had mercy on us in the first place was that we were born in sin
through no fault of our own, making us victims of sin. We didn’t ask for
this, but now we have a choice; we can live by a different set of rules apart from
those of our sinful nature, and by a new source of power by the grace of God.
(238a) Kingdom of God
>>
Pursuing the kingdom >> The kingdom is transferred to
the Church >>
Born again >> Born of the Spirit by the will of
God
>> Born again by the will of the Father
Eph 2,4-9
(31e) Gift of God
>>
Grace >> Salvation >>
God’s mercy overrules man’s sin
– Paul is talking about the work of the cross,
and our faith in Him when he speaks of the unfathomable love that God has for
mankind, by evidence of sending His Son to be hanged on a cross while we were
yet sinners. He did it knowing many of us would betray our sinful nature and
cleave to the purpose and calling of God after such a demonstration of love
came for our benefit.
Eph 2,4-7
(34b) Gift of God
>>
God’s generosity >> Believer owns everything >> Trinity belongs to us >>
Father belongs to us
(124a) Thy kingdom come
>>
Manifestations of faith >> Acts of love >> Love takes from the rich and
gives to the poor >> Love takes sacrifice –
There is something intrinsically wrong with claiming to know why God loves us,
as though we could give Him a reason to love us; but the fact is, God loved us
while we were yet sinners (Rom 5-8). We did not give God a reason to love us
before He sent His Son; He sent Him through love, and He loves us based on
a vision, and His vision in this life is that we should fulfill His purpose
and calling by walking on the trail that He has prepared for our feet. In the
life to come He also has a vision of us accomplishing great and wonderful
things. He plans to endow us with grace for the purpose of showing mercy to
His creation, just as He has shown mercy to us. So God loves us through a
vision; He doesn’t love us because of us, but because of Himself;
nevertheless, people think God loves them because of some quality they
possess. There are few things lovable about us in relation to each other, let
alone in relation to God. Some might say it is not very loving for a god to
love us only if we change, yet consider all the changes we have already
undergone: first as a fetus, then as an infant, then a toddler, an adolescent,
and finally an adult. Consider also the many changes we have undergone as an
adult; every decade we become a different person, so we have changed many
times, and God is asking us to change once more this time for Him, so we can
fit the shoes of the person that He has envisioned of us. It is one thing to
mix His Spirit with our spirit to make a new person in Christ, but it is
another thing to personally change into the image that God has of us, so the
inward resembles the outward, like the parable of the woman who put leaven in
the center of a lump of dough and discovered it the next day leavened from the
inside-out.
(224b) Kingdom of God
>>
Illustrating the kingdom >> Description of
heaven >> Describing the kingdom after he makes
all things new >> Description of the ascension
(226e) Kingdom of God
>>
Illustrating the kingdom >> Rewards of the Kingdom of Heaven >> Reserved in heaven >>
Our life is reserved for us in heaven – The blessings will never end in the
demonstration of His love for those who exercise their faith in Him for His
cause and for our benefit. A life of faith is a life fulfilled. Man was made
for God. If a man does not have God dwelling in him, he is incapable of being
satisfied, because his heart is empty. If they don’t have God, then they
don’t have hope of eternal life, and without hope beyond our own mortality,
their life will end someday, and that is a nagging fear in the back of every
person’s mind who does not know God. For those who belong to God, that
question has been answered. Their happiness and fulfilled satisfaction of life
will never end. That alone brings joy.
(249h) Priorities
>>
God’ s preeminence >> Wealth >>
True perception of wealth >> The infinite and
eternal wealth of God >> Being rich in Jesus – This is our hope of eternal life, to
enjoy it with our creator who loves us and gave His life for us in order that
He might redeem a people for His own possession who are zealous for good
works. It will take all eternity before we finally come to the full
realization of God’s love for us. It will take that long just for God to
reveal it to us. There is so much of God and so much of His love. What He
offers us is abundant life that will last for all eternity.
(254b) Trinity
>>
Holy Spirit’s relationship between Father and Son >>
Jesus is the life of the Spirit >> We live
because He is life >> We live because we are in
Jesus
Eph 2-4,5
(38g) Judgment
>>
Jesus defeated death >> Resurrection of freedom
KJV
NAS
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6-9 and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,
7 so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace
in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 8 For by grace you have been saved
through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; 9 not as a
result of works, so that no one may boast.
Eph 2-6,7
(67e) Authority
>>
Jesus at the right hand of the father >> We are
with Him –
God has selected from the world to be His worshippers.
He will raise us up and seat us in heavenly places on His throne, and give us
all power and authority over heaven and earth with Christ. In that sense, we
will seem like little gods to those whom God creates after us. The reason we
are here in this life is to learn that we are not gods. There was a day when
we were not saved and on our way to hell. We will always remember our lives in
the flesh squirming in our own filth, how weak and foolish we were,
“disobedient, deceived, enslaved to various lusts and pleasures, spending
our life in malice and envy, hateful, hating one another” (Tit 3-3). Then
God saved us. Now we are in Christ as Christ is in the Father, and we are one
with Him. The level of authority that He will give us will be something that
will take an eternity to fully grasp.
(70ja) Authority >>
Believer’s authority >> We have been given
authority over all creation >> We are the children of God >> We
have a place on His throne
(104i) Thy kingdom come
>>
Pure in heart shall see God >> Shall see Jesus >>
Being in the presence of Jesus
(127d) Thy kingdom come
>>
Manifestations of faith >> Kindness >>
God is kind
(214f) Sovereignty
>>
God controls time >> God’s timing >>
Dispensation of God’s revelations >>
Dispensation of Christ –
The joys of heaven are inexpressible the things we will come to know and enjoy
throughout the ages. There will be ages in heaven. An age implies the end of
something and the beginning of another; there will be ends and beginnings
throughout eternity. This has happened since the beginning of time and it will
continue throughout eternity. God creates ages, regardless of what man has
does; these ages occur, and they have all lasted 2000 years apiece. There was
an age between Adam and Noah’s flood, an age between Abraham and Christ, and
of course the age of grace in which we are now living. If they occurred among
sinners and godless heathen who try to thwart everything God does, how much
more will the ages of God continue among the saints throughout eternity?
(224l) Kingdom of God
>>
Illustrating the kingdom >> Description of
heaven >> The holy of holies >>
The throne room of heaven –
God will not withhold anything from us, giving place to us even on His throne;
there is no greater honor than that. This is beyond imagination, yet in the beginning He said, “Let us make man in our image”
(Genesis 1-26), so it is only fitting that He would raise us up and seat us
with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus (Eph 2-6), because that is
what it means to be made in His likeness. God’s throne represents
righteousness and judgment, which are two of His main attributes, and
therefore we must receive them to truly be in His image. When we think
of the beginning in Genesis chapters 1-3, the account of creation, how it
speaks of God creating man, by the end of chapter three it seems
that God had finished, but not even close. God came to Adam in the garden in
the cool of the day and talked with Him, and at that point in the creation of
man, God had not offered His throne to him. God knew about sin, but Adam
didn’t, so again this was Adam not yet fully made in His image. He was made
in the image of God in some ways, but when Adam took that fruit, he came a
little closer to His image, because now he understood sin, which was something
God understood without experiencing it. When Jesus died for us, He became a
little more like man, experiencing our sin without personally committing it,
feeling its effect and suffering under its power to separate man from God. So
God and man have converged, man becoming a little more like God, and God becoming a little more like man.
(237i) Kingdom of God
>>
Pursuing the kingdom >> Transferring the kingdom >> The Church is transferred to the kingdom
>>
The ascension >> Believers’ spiritual ascension – It says that God was willing to
deliver us from our sins and give us the life of God as a gift of His grace
and also to raise us up with Him and seat us with Him in
heavenly places in Christ Jesus. We are currently seated with Christ in the
Spirit. Just as
the sons of the devil serve him in his presence, so the sons and daughters of
God serve Christ in His presence, and since Christ dwells in heaven, so we
serve Him there with Him in the spirit. Although our bodies remain
in the flesh on earth, God is in heaven and on earth at the same time.
Just as we are with Him spiritually, so one day God will raise us bodily
and seat us in His heavenly kingdom and we will worship Him there in the most literal sense.
The
Holy Spirit has come from heaven to us, and He lives in our hearts. Since the
Holy Spirit is the very essence of heaven, it hardly matters that we are in
this world, still dressed in sinful flesh, full of weakness, toil and
suffering. We are just as much interwoven into Christ as we will be in heaven;
there will be a much greater realization of it in heaven standing in His
presence, but for now we know in part. The veil of our flesh is keeping us
from a greater understanding of Him, and so the calling of every Christian is
to push away the veil to see better into the spiritual realm, and we do that
by dying to self. He is in us and we are in Him, interwoven into each other;
this concept describes the spiritual ascension. Although we may not have literally
ascended to heaven, heaven has descended to us, and the net result is the same––we
are in His presence. The Spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge
of Him that Paul prayed in chapter one depicts this ascension, and he gives us
the details of it continuing to the end of that chapter and into this one
through verse ten, the crescendo being Eph 2-6, “[He] raised us up with Him,
and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.” Paul speaks
in past tense as it has already happened; we are already there! That is our
position with Christ, and the realization of it is the spiritual ascension.
(244a) Kingdom of God
>>
The eternal kingdom >> There shall be no end to
his increase >> The Church shall reign with
Christ forever
Eph 2-7
(4g) Responsibility
>> Advocate God’s cause >>
He who is faithful in little is also faithful in much –
This verse
goes with verse 10.
Eph 2,8-10
(77k) Thy kingdom come
>>
Being Humble Before God >> Having an attitude of
humility
(84g) Thy kingdom come
>>
Words of your mouth >> Boasting in men is not
needed
(92a) Thy kingdom come
>>
The narrow way >> Trail of good works >>
The good works that God has prepared for us – Who am I? Only God can answer this. If
we think we know who we are without God, we’re wrong. We cannot think
ourselves out of our own humanistic worldview; nor can we do anything to
justify ourselves before God. There is no way to climb a tree and get a better
perspective. We are like tiny ants on a giant globe, and without God we will
never know where we are, who we are or what we are.
Only the Holy Spirit can deliver us from such a foe of the mind, body and
soul, and give us something of Himself that is divine, which can help us rise
above our own humanity and become something even more than what Adam was
promised. This gift of His grace is His workmanship that God prepared
beforehand in Christ Jesus for good works, that we should walk in them. This
grace that He is offering us in the form of wisdom of the Spirit leads to an understanding that can only come from God, which gives us
direction that leads to our personalized trail of good works. Only God can
reveal our trail to us. This trail puts meaning in our lives and answers the
question what we were meant to do.
(205kb) Salvation
>>
Salvation is based on God’s promises >> Faith
versus works >> The faith of God versus the
faith of men >> Faith is the work of God – When
we ask what we must do to be saved, there is a conspicuous blank spot in the
gospel, since there is nothing we can do to be saved but is purely by faith,
though we commit our lives to Him and make ourselves available for whatever God would
have us do. Each person has a unique calling, indicating
that there is no one law anymore, and this becomes the out-showing of our
faith, and it is all very nebulous to the fleshly mind. The secular man wants
concrete and practical things to do in order to earn his salvation; this is
why all the religions of the world have tangible activities to measure their
faith, but Christianity has none of this. There is nothing we can do to be
saved except to believe in Jesus. It is an offense to many for God to demand
faith only from us, for the world cannot generate a saving faith in Jesus
without His help. There are many people in the Church today who want to believe
in Jesus apart from Him, but this kind of faith cannot save us, for it cannot
rise above a mere affirmation of certain doctrines. Genuine Christian faith
comes from God as a gift, and He calls us to keep the faith throughout our
lives, and He will receive us into His heaven at the advent of our death. This
really grinds against unbelievers, because it requires them to ask God for
help to believe in Jesus, and it requires them to fashion their lives around
Him, which is the opposite of their real aspirations -- to be
self-serving. Death is waiting for each of us at the end of
our lives in this physical body. Those who consider this life to be the only
one that has any meaning will soon enough discover that it is a dead-end, but for those who believe in Jesus,
that dead-end called death is a door that opens for them to continue with their
lives on the other side, where life really begins. This is why it is
important to begin doing what God has called us to do, which will direct us to
our true identity as sons and daughters of God.
Eph 2-8,9
(41f)
Judgment >> Satan destroyed >> Be like Jesus >>
Righteousness of faith >> Saved by grace through faith
KJV
NAS
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10 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.
Eph 2-10
(4g) Responsibility
>> Advocate God’s cause >>
He who is faithful in little is also faithful in much --
This verse
goes along with verse 7. There
is a general calling and a specific calling from God. Our general calling is
to produce the fruit of the Spirit, which is the same for everyone (Gal
5-22,23), and our specific calling is to develop the hearing ear, to listen
for the Holy Spirit and let Him lead us down the path of His choosing. We
don’t see too many people doing this; we don’t see too many faces
beaming with the glory of God (see 2Cor 3,1-18). If the word of God is being
fulfilled in people today, it is manufactured by the flesh instead of by the
Spirit, because they don’t want to die to self, which is what it takes to
fulfill our calling from God. They want to live this life in the flesh and
they want to be just as worldly as the world. That is not the gospel of
Christ; we are called to forsake this world and live godly in the present
age (Tit 2-11,12). God has prearranged an agenda of good works for us
to complete along life’s narrow way. One completed good work will
lead to the next, like a flashlight progressively
illumines a dark path just far enough ahead to see the next step. To the
degree that we fulfill God’s trail of good works is the degree to which we
will understand the surpassing riches of His grace, and therefore the more
He will entrust to us His treasures both here and in eternity.
(42j) Judgment
>>
Satan destroyed >> Transformed >>
Conform to the walk of Christ –
Discovering our purpose in life is like an airplane pilot who finds the
runway and pushes full steam ahead. The airplane is the new man that God has
created in us, and when the runway ends, we will fly to our new life in
heaven. The good works that we performed according to the plan and purpose
of God will become analogous to the new works that God has prepared for us
in heaven. The works in heaven that He has prepared for us are designed so
that the importance of what we do will continually increase throughout all
eternity. There will be no point in which our heavenly works will suddenly
meet a threshold, such as our earthly salary. We work someplace and get a
raise every year until one day we don’t get any more raises. That will not
be the case in heaven, and the job He gives us will be based on what we do
for Him here. It is not the greatness of the works that we do for Him in
this life; it is the fact that we are doing what the Holy Spirit planted in
our hearts. What we need to do is what God wants us to do. Our pastor
doesn’t know what we should be doing; our best friend and fellow Christian
doesn’t know; our mother doesn’t know. More often than not we ourselves
don’t even know, but it is our job to discover it. The day we get saved we
don’t know our purpose from God; all we know is that we are going to
heaven, and our purpose is slowly revealed to us as we continually seek God,
sometimes over a course of many years.
(44i) Judgment
>>
Transformed >> Fulfill your ministry >>
Calling from God >> Complete it –
This verse obviously pertains to our walk with God, alluding to the fact
that it is not something we do randomly based on our own volition or
authority, but something we do as a matter of fulfilling God’s intended
purpose that He had prepared from all eternity. These are works that God
wants us to do, not works that we want to do for God. The difference between
these two is astronomical. There are those who avail themselves to God but
don’t know His purpose, and what does the Church have them doing but
folding chairs, cleaning toilets, vacuuming the rug, contributing to
pot-blesses, etc., but what does God want them doing? We’re called to be
servants, and so we should be doing these things, but at the same time we
should also be doing the good works that God has prepared for us from all
eternity. From the foundation of the world, God has called some to wash
dishes, but the point is we should be getting on our knees and figuring out
God’s plan before we take another step; instead, this is what they do in
place of God’s purpose, which cannot produce fruit like the good works
that God has prepared for them.
(88d) Thy kingdom come
>>
Faith produces works >> The function of works
in faith >> Faith doesn’t move God until it
is manifested in the natural realm – the Church
today believes very strongly in the grace of God, and we would
think we could never possibly go wrong with that. The word of God, though it
is not complicated, per se, it does get complicated when trying to avoid the
truth, which apparently is happening in Christendom today pertaining to the
subject of the anointing. People either over-think it or they don’t think
about it at all. They are trying to save their lives against the advice of
Christ (Jn 12-25); they want to live in this natural world, but we can’t
do that and carry an anointing at the same time. They want to live in the
world that Jesus said belongs to the devil; they don’t want to die to this
life; they want to live by the Spirit but they don’t want to walk by the
Spirit. They proclaim with all confidence that salvation is by grace alone,
quoting Eph 2-8,9, “For by grace you have been saved through faith; and
that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so
that no one may boast.” Does this mean we can live any way we want? What
do we do with works then? Paul has delivered to us his gospel of
anti-legalism, and the interpretation of it today is to believe in a set of
doctrines that teach the blood of Jesus cleansing us from all
unrighteousness, and to completely trust in His sacrifice for our salvation.
This is all biblical and true, but it is only one half of the truth. The
other half is that God wants us to walk in divine works, not works of the
law and not works of the flesh, but works that God has prepared for us from
all eternity. God wants us walking in the fruit of the Spirit, not legalism.
The only true path that is divine involves doing the works that God has
prepared for us by listening to the Holy Spirit and doing whatever He says,
but we cannot hear Him when we allow our flesh to reign. Therefore God has
called us to die to self and discover the path of divine works that God will
perform through us that will manifest as an anointing. This is the work of
God (Jn 6-29).
(91m)
Trail Of Good Works (Key Verse)
(115l) Thy kingdom come
>> Faith >>
Working the grace of God >> Through Good Works >> Works that God prepared for you
–
If any verse served as a focal point of the Bible, Eph 2,8-10 would
certainly be in the running, along with Mat 6-10 that also converges on the
entirety of Scripture, “Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, on earth as it
is in heaven.” To reject this truth brings about the irony of satanic
deception and his apostasy in the Church that centers around the false
doctrines of God’s grace. Much of what the Church believes about
the grace of God is false, and the vast majority of their grace doctrines
came from the writings of Paul. Peter said about Paul’s writings,
“Regard the patience of our Lord as salvation; just as also our beloved
brother Paul, according to the wisdom given him, wrote to you, as also in
all his letters, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things
hard to understand, which the untaught and unstable distort, as they do also
the rest of the Scriptures, to their own destruction” (2Pet 3-15,16). The
word “grace”, if we say
anything negative about their doctrines concerning it, can be
excommunication from some churches. Most Bible believing
Christians believe it is impossible to corrupt the doctrine of grace,
yet when we try to implement the grace of God, our emotions bear its claws
before we can have a lucid thought about it. Actually, to say that our doctrines are
screwed-up is not really accurate. Instead, it is more accurate to say they are
missing altogether. Everything is fine when God imparts His grace into us; we receive
the indwelling Holy Spirit and are born-again, which is the seal of our
salvation, so far so good, but
this is where Church doctrine abruptly ends. When we attempt to implement
the grace of God, the Church has no doctrines for that, and so it doesn’t
know how to understand it. God is calling us to do something with the grace
He has given us. Eph 2-8,9 is the Church’s all time favorite passage, but
they stop short of understanding that God has given us responsibility to
work with Him to effect this grace in our daily walk in the world around us.
Here are two incredible verses relating to that fact: 2Cor 6-1, “And
working together with Him, we also urge you not to receive the grace of God
in vain,” and 2Tim 2-1, “You therefore, my son, be strong in the grace
that is in Christ Jesus.” God has given us His grace not just to save us
for eternal life, but also to walk on the trail of good works that He has
prepared for us. This trail is ordained by God and is therefore divine. God has
certain good works that He has for us to do through the grace of God, a
ministry for each person, and He wants us to fulfill that ministry (2Tim
4-5). He wants us to Work the Grace of God into our lives. We use His
strength to do this, and the first step is knowing His will. These things
should be happening in every Christian; however, almost no one believes
these teachings are even biblical. People get saved and then sit down, and
the rest of their Christianity is mere maintenance. Most Christians are just
waiting for their natural lives to end so they can go to heaven. They help
in their local church and try to be good Christians, but they never seek God
for their mission in life, located on this trail of good works, better known
as the narrow way.
(127n) Thy kingdom come
>>
Manifestations of faith >> Goodness >>
Devote your life to doing good
(128j) Thy kingdom come
>>
Manifestations of faith >> Bearing fruit >>
Living a fruitful life >> Living a continuous
life of fruitfulness
(155kb) Witness >>
Validity of the believer >> Evidence of
salvation >> You will know them by their fruits >>
You will know them by their good deeds >> Good works prepared before the
foundation of the world
(219j) Sovereignty
>>
God overrides the will of man >>
Predestination >> God’s calling is our
destiny
(236e) Kingdom of God
>>
Pursuing the kingdom >> Invest in the kingdom >>
Invest your strength into the kingdom >>
Invest your labors
KJV
NAS
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11 Therefore remember that formerly you, the Gentiles in the flesh, who are called " Uncircumcision" by the so-called "Circumcision," which is performed in the flesh by human hands -
Eph 2,11-22
(36l) Gift of God
>>
Adopted >> We are adopted by the Spirit – The gentile nations have inherited God’s
promise to Abraham, who left his heritage behind at the call of God to search
for a city, whose architect and builder is God. The gentiles have also
inherited the law that He later instituted through Moses. It turns out that
even Israel’s Messiah was not their own, though He belonged to them first
and foremost, yet Christ was also the world’s Messiah. Even though this
barrier has been abolished, it doesn’t mean that God draws no distinction
between Jew and gentile. Israel's identity is retained in the flesh, though
spiritually they are no different from gentiles in that they both need Jesus
to become children of God and to receive the Holy Spirit for eternal life. The
fact is, God called Israel to be his evangelist to the world, but they were
disobedient to the point that God never even got a chance to voice His vision
to them. Israel considered what God had given them to belong only to them,
considering other nations as less than dogs. God’s hope was that Israel
would be more faithful and testify about the great things that God had done
for them, so that the nations would seek God through Israel. That did happened
to a point, but by no means according to god's expectations.
(211a) Salvation
>>
Jews and gentiles are being saved >> Gentiles
included >> Fellow heirs with Israel (Spiritual Jew) >>
We are one in Christ – These were man’s circumstances before
Christ; they had no hope and were without God in the world. He talked about
two groups, the nation of Israel and all the other nations of the world (the
gentiles). It says that God has brought the two groups together, and broke
down the barrier of the dividing wall between them, so that no longer are
there Jew and Gentile, but they are now one in Christ. That, however, does not
mean the Jew is no longer Jewish or no longer a special race to God; rather,
God will continue honoring His covenant with Israel that He made to Abraham.
He has not forgotten them, for the Jew still has some unfinished business to
do. God intends to call Israel back into service to lead a revival that will
bring in billions of souls to the kingdom of god in the last days. It says,
"He
has abolished this dividing wall between Jew and gentile nations by abolishing
in His flesh the enmity, which is the law of commandments contained in
ordinances, so that in Himself He might make the two into one new man, thus
establishing peace." Therefore, to the degree that the gentile nations are at
peace with Israel is a sign that the nations are obeying God and believing the gospel, but to the degree that
hostility among the gentile nations still exists is a sign of disobedience and have rejected God’s
purpose for themselves to be saved through the sacrifice of
God’s Son, and for that they will pay the ultimate price of their
souls.
Eph 2,11-16
(32a) Gift of God
>>
God is our Father >> Grace >>
God’s grace seeks man –
The Old Testament gentile believer could become a member of Israel, but he
could not become a true Jew in that he would never be a descendent of Abraham,
but Paul was saying that this has now changed. Since Christ has shed His
blood, and has invited the gentiles to the promises of Israel by faith in
Jesus Christ, we who formerly were distant have not been brought near, meaning
that there is something literal that has transpired in the gentiles to give
them Jewish origin. What we have in common with the believing Jew is the
indwelling Holy Spirit. That is, as the believing Jew possesses the Holy
Spirit in their hearts, so does the believing gentile, and in that sense we
are essentially the same. Paul says that being a believing spiritual Jew is
infinitely more important than being an unbelieving physical Jew. In Romans he
said that if Jews don’t believe in Jesus for the remission of their sin,
they are unbelievers and have broken covenant with Abraham the believer, but
the believing gentile has faith in common with Abraham, and in that sense he
is more a member of God’s chosen race than the unbelieving Jew.
Eph 2-11,12
(217j) Sovereignty
>>
God overrides the will of man >> God’s will
over man >> I never knew you >>
Because you are not of His sheep
(240h) Kingdom of God
>>
Opposition toward the Kingdom of God >>
Hindering the kingdom >> Natural disadvantage >>
Natural disadvantage of the world -- These verses go with verses 1-3
Eph 2-11
(190h) Die to self (Process of substitution)
>>
Separation from the old man >> Circumcision >>
Circumcision is a sign of obedience >>
Circumcision is a sign of believing –
Gentiles had no inheritance with Israel before Christ. In Old Testament times
any gentile could join Israel and become a Jew in practice only; he could be
circumcised and live like a Jew and obey Israel’s laws, but he would never
be a descendent of Abraham. Circumcision represented the covenant that God
made with Abraham when it said, “And he [Abraham] believed in the LORD; and
he counted it to him for righteousness” (Genesis 15-6). The gentile can join
Israel if he believes in their God and receives circumcision as a sign of
faith, and honors the Law of Moses and despise his pagan religion. When the
annual sacrifice was offered through the Levitical priesthood, the application
was extended to the gentile believer, but he could not obtain rights to the
temple or personally ask for mercy through the priest, who offered sacrifice
of a dove and performed the ceremony of sin’s remission.
12-17 remember that you were at that time separate from Christ, excluded from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. 13 But now in Christ Jesus you who formerly were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. 14 For He Himself is our peace, who made both groups into one and broke down the barrier of the dividing wall, 15 by abolishing in His flesh the enmity, which is the Law of commandments contained in ordinances, so that in Himself He might make the two into one new man, thus establishing peace, 16 and might reconcile them both in one body to God through the cross, by it having put to death the enmity. 17 AND HE CAME AND PREACHED PEACE TO YOU WHO WERE FAR AWAY, AND PEACE TO THOSE WHO WERE NEAR;
Eph 2,12-16
(38a) Judgment
>>
Blood of Jesus >> God judged the devil through
the blood of His son
(119l) Thy kingdom come
>>
Manifestations of faith >> Curse of God is
broken >> Curse of the law is broken
Eph 2-12
(16b) Sin >>
Man’s
nature is instinctively evil >> Man is an enemy of God -- This verse goes with
verses 1-3
(165d) Works of the devil
>>
Manifestations of the devil >> The world is at
enmity with God >> The world has no hope
KJV
NAS
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Eph 2,13-16
(136e) Temple
>>
Your spirit is the temple of God >> The body of
Christ >> Jesus’ fleshly body >>
The flesh of Jesus’ sacrifice
Eph 2-13
(81k) Thy kingdom come
>>
Pray without ceasing >> For the Church >>
Giving thanks
Eph 2,14-22
(131jc) Thy kingdom come
>>
Manifestations of faith >> Unity >>
Many members but one body >> Many bricks but one temple
Eph 2,14-19
(126f) Thy kingdom come
>>
Manifestations of faith >> Peace >>
Terms of peace
(135m) Temple
>>
Your spirit is the temple of God >> The body of
Christ >> Similarity in the body >>
The things we have in common >> Common salvation
Eph 2,14-16
(26d)
Sin >> Consequences of sin
>>
Death is separation from God’s life –
These two groups to whom Paul is referring, Jews and gentiles, God has become
our peace, who made both one in Christ. He broke down the barrier of the
dividing wall, suggesting there was a division between them. God literally
created the Jew through Abraham merely by speaking to him, and he left his
homeland and went to a place that he did not know, and his descendents became
the Jews. His purpose for the Jew was to become a shining example to the world
how to behave before Almighty God. Their first purpose was to be God’s
hammer and destroy the wicked people in the land of promise, and then to
inhabit their land and show the world how one should live and serve God. Of
course they refused to follow God’s purpose and calling. They were commanded
to keep their generations pure, no mixing of the races. He wanted the Jews to
remain His chosen people in the world. However, since Christ has shed His
blood for mankind there has been a mixing of Jew and gentile, not genetically
but spiritually. God has given us of His Spirit to be born again, offering
this gift to the Jew first, and then to the gentiles after the Jews rejected
it. However, this was not God’s plan; He intended to raise up His Jewish
nation to proclaim the gospel to the gentile nations as leaders in things
pertaining to God, thus breaking down the barrier of the dividing wall between
Jew and gentile. The Jew is yet to realize these things.
(46aa) Judgment >>
Spiritual warfare >> Subjecting your flesh >>
Violent take it by force >> Taking the sinful nature by force
(52b)
Judgment >> Judging Church with world
>>
Law judges sin >> Law is hostile against us
(59a)
Paradox >> Two implied meanings >> Enmity between Jew and gentile (anti-Semitism)
/ Enmity between man and God (the law) –
Paul speaks about Christ abolishing in His flesh the enmity between God and
man and between Jew and gentile. If God has rectified these things, then why
does anti-Semitism still exist in the world? There is yet another meaning to
the word enmity, referring also to the law of commandments, which addresses
sin. Using the nails of Jesus’ cross, God has forever pinned His promise of
forgiveness on the one hanging from those nails for everyone who would believe
in Him for eternal life, nailing sin also to the cross by association with the
law. All these things died with Him. The power of sin died with the law, as He
brought forth a new way of serving God through the Spirit, who speaks in our
hearts, giving us a new desire to serve Him that we never had following the
commandments. The Holy Spirit speaks the words of the law, affording us the
will to obey Him. There was enmity between Jew and gentile and enmity between
man and God, but now there is no longer excuse for our anti-Semitism and no
longer excuse for our rebellion against God, because we have become His
children.
Eph 2-15
(238e) Kingdom of God
>>
Pursuing the kingdom >> Transferring the kingdom >> The kingdom is transferred to
the Church >>
New creation >> The new creation is our
spiritual identity
Eph 2-17
(71a) Authority
>>
Believer’s authority >> We have authority from God to
evangelize the world >> We have
an anointing to preach the gospel –
The New Testament is just as much a book of prophecy as the Old Testament.
Whatever the Old Testament said when Paul went preaching Jesus to the people he
fulfilled, and now everything Paul said is prophetic to us, so when we
incorporate his words into our lives, we too become a fulfillment of prophecy,
in that every word originates from a spirit of prophecy, which then makes us
all prophets who obey God. We all have an anointing as Christians; we
are called the “anointed ones”; so if we want to fulfill prophecy, all we
have to do is incorporate the word of God into our lives. For example, we can
go and tell people about Jesus, and to them we are prophets. That doesn’t
mean they will listen to us anymore than they listened to the prophets of the
Old Testament, but persecuted them and most were martyred. So if any
persecution comes to us, they should understand that they are doing it to a
prophet. Some might say we are not prophets because we don’t have the word of
the Lord; however, Scripture is a perpetual statement from God; He is always
speaking His word, particularly in the New Testament.
(142c) Witness
>>
Validity of Jesus Christ >> Old Testament bears
witness to the new >> Prophesy about evangelism –
This verse is in reference to (Isaiah 57-19), similar to the verse in Rom
10-15, “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news of good
things” (taken from Isaiah 52-7). Paul was applying this to the gentiles of
the Ephesians, and the context is that they have been included in the
commonwealth of Israel, and he is reminding them of the days that he came to
Ephesus and preached the gospel to them, and they listened and were saved. He
was telling them that the ministry of an evangelist was a fulfillment of
prophecy. Did the Old Testament writer of this passage know he was writing
prophecy? Probably, he was a prophet and knew God was speaking to Him as he
wrote. All prophecy has its fulfillment, but what do we know about the
fulfillment of prophecy in our own time? We usually think about endtime
prophecy, but there are prophecies other than endtime prophecy that are
fulfilled in our own time whenever we obey Scripture.
KJV
NAS
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18 for through Him we both have our access in one Spirit to the Father.
Eph 2,18-22
(136g) Temple
>>
Your spirit is the temple of God >> The body of
Christ >> Jesus’ spiritual body –
The building that is growing into a holy temple in the Lord is the Lord’s
temple, meaning that He is the one who will occupy it. Note also that it is
growing, because nothing that belongs to Him is stagnant. He inhabits the
individual being built, even as He
dwells in the temple, so God is “through all and in all” (Eph 4-6). For God
to dwell in the temple is to dwell in our unity. Mat 18-20 says, “For where
two or three have gathered together in My name, I am there in their midst.”
Part of the unity of the body of Christ is that they all agree; in fact, we
could say that being in agreement is like the mortar between the blocks.
(137a) Building The Temple
(Key verse)
(140b) Temple
>>
Temple made without hands >> Hiding place >>
Worshipping God in His temple
(140g) Temple
>>
Temple made without hands >> Christ builds the
temple from the bricks of the Church –
There is a lot of construction work mentioned in this passage; there is the
construction work of the apostles and prophets, and there is the building of the
Church. There is also the building of the individual as both a noun and a
verb. To the degree that the word of God is building this temple in the Spirit
is the degree to which God is building human souls individually and
collectively, held together by the mortar of anointing. There is no lie among
the people of God in this temple, though today there may be plenty of false
doctrine and false teaching and heresy. There may be many false prophets and sin
associated with apostasy thriving among people who call themselves Christians,
but in heaven these things are not happening. In heaven their souls and their
bodies are one with the truth. Therefore, "Your kingdom come. Your will be
done, On earth as it is in heaven" (Mat 6-10).
Eph 2-18,19
(208h) Salvation
>>
The salvation of God >> Personal relationship >>
Being the friend of God >> Relationship with God
by the Spirit
Eph 2-18
(114k) Thy kingdom come
>> Faith >>
Working
the grace of God >> Working God’s
grace through Christ >> Jesus is the way to the
Father –
The fact that Jesus provided access for us to the Father was an example of Him
working the grace of God in His own life, and for us to seek his eternal life
is our example of working the grace of God. Jesus is the way to the Father,
but knowing that doesn’t end our search for God. We
don’t have eternal life just because Jesus went to the cross. Jesus can
point down the road that leads to the Father, but until we walk down that road
and obtain the blessing, we still don’t have it. If we don’t seek God for
His blessing of eternal life, then having access to the Father through Christ
is useless. Some say that the Old Testament law is no longer in effect,’ yet
God expects us to seek Him with all our heart, soul, mind and strength, just
like the law says. This suggests that the grace of God was give to us that we
might fulfill the law, and while we are at it to do the specific with that God
has planned for us.
(132c) Temple
>>
Your body is the temple of God >> Holy Spirit is
in God’s people >> Spirit of God in the spirit
of man >> Spirit gives access to the Father
through Christ – When
it says both, it means Jews and gentiles, and when it says access,
it means we both have the opportunity to find the Father if we seek Him with
all our hearts. There
are too many people in the Church today who think that all they need to do is
believe a set of doctrines and it automatically guarantees them a spot in
heaven, but this word “access” doesn’t say that. If we’ve been granted
access to a certain country, for instance, if we don’t go there, it does us
no good. We have been given access, but that access does not guarantee we
possess eternal life until we personally enter His Kingdom, which is like
another country with buildings and walls that are invisible to the naked eye
and yet exist all around us, as Jesus said, “The Kingdom of God is in your
midst” (Lk 17-21).
(255f) Trinity
>>
Father, Son and Holy Spirit >> The process of
imparting the substance of God >> Father
discloses the word by the Spirit – Paul uses the word “both” here. Who are
both, but the Jew and the gentile? The amazing thing about this verse is that
it's the most precise single verse in the Bible that describes the trinity. It
is a very short verse that alludes to the Father, Son and Holy Spirit in only
a handful of words. In Christ we have access in one Spirit to the Father.
KJV
NAS
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19-22 So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints, and are of God's household, 20 having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the corner stone, 21 in whom the whole building, being fitted together, is growing into a holy temple in the Lord, 22 in whom you also are being built together into a dwelling of God in the Spirit.
Eph 2,19-22
(72h) Authority >> Hierarchy of authority
>>
More Authority the More Responsibility >> Closer
we get to Jesus the more authority we have
(129f)
Thy kingdom come >> Manifestations of faith >>
Unity >> love perfects unity >>
Love is the mortar between the bricks
(137c) Temple
>>
Building the temple (with hands) >> Jesus is the
foundation of the Church >> Jesus is the
cornerstone
– Although Jesus never wrote a word that survived, yet He is the
embodiment of God’s word. Our salvation is based squarely on the Scriptures.
This is how we know the truth about God. However, the Bible can only tell us
the facts; the truth resides in our spirit. When we believe God’s word, God
is able to convert the facts of the Scriptures into spiritual truth, which is
an attribute of God. He is the sole owner of the truth, and He shares His
truth with us. As a result, Christ
is the cornerstone of the Church, who is the temple. Jesus causes it to stand
upright without the bricks falling into a heap. The cornerstone is like the
Achilles’ heel of a building, but if it is constructed right becomes the
strength of the building. The building will not fall because the cornerstone
was placed correctly, but if the cornerstone is laid improperly, the building
will collapse. All the weight is on that cornerstone, suggesting that the
building would naturally fall in the direction of that cornerstone if it were
removed. If any brick were taken from the building, it would weaken the
structure though it would probably remain standing indefinitely, but if the
cornerstone were removed, eventually the building would fall. Based on the way
buildings are constructed, there would be a settling, and it would have
settled on the cornerstone, but with the cornerstone removed, the settle would
unsettle the entire building, stress cracks would form, and once the building
began to lean, the structure could no longer support its weight; its days
would be numbered.
(137m)
Temple >> Building the temple (with hands) >>
Maturity >> Maturing with our brothers >>
Employing your gifts to mature the body (Spiritual
fellowship) –
Without unity the Church can accomplish nothing. Unity is more than being
friendly, more than being willing to talk to others and more than being
impartial. These things may be aspects of unity but they all lack its essence,
which is a spiritual substance best described as love, and love is produced by
faith, and faith is something so ethereal we cannot manufacture it or really
even define it. We either have it or we don’t; it comes from God, and we are
commanded to protect it above all else, because it has many enemies. There are
forces that want to kill our faith; the better we protect it, the better it
shines in our hearts and the better it produces love, and the more potential
for unity in the body of Christ. This is the ministry of the people, and the
pastor needs to give the ministry back to the people to whom it belongs, and
if he doesn’t the Church will never reach beyond its borders to save souls;
without unity the Church will never fulfill the great commission. The Church
today is like the American government, they say that government belongs to the
people, but since this edict was pronounced in the US constitution people in
government have effectively taken the power from the people and made the
people subservient to them. The same has happened in our churches; the
ministry has been taken from the people, and now the pastor is the only person
with a ministry.
(140c) Temple
>>
Temple made without hands >> Hiding place >>
House where you live with Jesus – The Scriptures have been very meticulously
written for our benefit. Paul depicts them as a building being fitted together
and growing into a holy temple in the Lord. This is what God wants to happen
in our minds, structuring a form of a temple as it were, fitting together the
pieces of God’s word like the pieces of a building. This knowledge is a
living, breathing person, who is not us or Him, but a new creation consisting
of both us and Him. Jesus Christ is manifesting in us from the seed that He
planted on the day of our salvation. As God stitches together His word in our
hearts, so He stitches together His people. That is, just as this structure of
the truth is growing in our spirit, so He proportionately structures His
people in unity, “being built together into a dwelling of God in the
Spirit.” Once this building project is complete God enters the Church, the
one made entirely of people in unity. The physical structure of the Church,
the one made of wood, bricks and mortar, these parts may be united, but they
have no effect on the growth of the body of Christ. Just as the Church was
meticulously built from hard work by the construction workers, so God wants us
to work hard in fitting our lives together with one another, not just
socializing, but on a spiritual level to the degree that we know the truth, to
the degree that these same things are happening in our hearts.
(229d) Kingdom of God
>>
God’s kingdom is a living organism >> Kingdom
grows by itself >> God causes the growth >>
Kingdom grows according to the will of God –
There
is more to unity than just being in agreement, for there are religious
denominations and political factions that are in agreement, but have no power
to change the world the way the Church does when it is unified around the
truth. Imagine how the Church could change the world if the entire body of
Christ on a global scale were united. The real power of unity is in the
Spirit. We should also remember that the temple can only be built through the
advent of unity, since the analogy is of many bricks organized into a temple.
The substance of the structure is unity, the temple being the face of unity, a
body of believers organized to produce a single outcome, and that outcome is
the temple itself. God dwells in our unity among a people who are fitted
together as a single entity in the Church. When the people of God are finally
fitted together in the last days as a single temple in the Lord, Jesus will
inhabit our unity. In that day God will be able to accomplish anything among
us and overcome the greatest forces this world could muster against us. Satan
will be ravaging the earth at the time of the end, establishing his one world
economy and government and martyring the saints on a global scale. Meanwhile,
God will have His Two Witnesses defending Jerusalem and the 144,000 conducting
a Great Endtime Revival that will bring about unity in the saints that will
topple Satan’s empire. The power of Satan will be destroyed through the
agency of human flesh once again. Jesus did it in His own flesh on the cross
2,000 years ago, and in the last days He will do it again through the flesh of
the Church.
(230k)
Kingdom of God >> God’s kingdom is a living
organism >> Mystery of godliness >>
Solving the mystery of godliness >> The love of
Christ is the mystery of godliness – We have gone from being estranged from
God, while living in a world that has forsaken Him, that cannot know God on
its own, no matter how hard it tries. We’ve come from a hopeless existence
as strangers and aliens of promise, to becoming fellow citizens with the
saints and are of God’s household. God hasn’t saved us just a little, but
has saved us entirely. The kind and the level of love that God has for us is
immeasurable. He doesn’t just love us a lot; that sounds like there is an
end to it. God’s love is infinite; it is His primary attribute, so much that
it defines him (1Jn 4-16). Some look for God’s love and can’t find it,
while others look for the end of His love and can’t find it. It’s all in
how and where you look. If you look for His love in other Christians, the best
you will find is their righteousness, whereas God’s righteousness is locked
in a vault in their hearts, where no one but God and that person has access to
it. However, if you look directly to God for His righteousness, you will find
Him if you search for Him with all your heart (Deut 4-29). God has kept
nothing from us; He has even given us authority to partake of His own divinity
as He imparts His Spirit in us. When Jesus sent the Holy Spirit into every
believer, He fused Himself into our souls, so that we have become one with
Him.
KJV
NAS
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Eph 2-19,20
(141g) Witness
>>
Validity of Jesus Christ >> Old Testament bears
witness to the new >> It bears witness to Jesus >>
Prophesy about Jesus’ resurrection
Eph 2-19
(237j) Kingdom of God
>>
Pursuing the kingdom >> Transferring the kingdom >> The Church is transferred to the kingdom
>>
Citizens of heaven –
Paul is ignoring the fact that there are unbelieving Jews, pointing out only
those who believe in Jesus as a standard to communicate the principle of
faith, that it is more important to believe in Jesus than it is to be German,
Norwegian, Iranian or African. It is more important to believe in Jesus than
it is to bear our own last name. It is more important to be a member of God's
family than to be a member of our earthly family, children of our parents and
sibling of our brothers and sisters. Earthly families will one day be
abolished, but the family of God will continue throughout eternity. Faith in
Jesus gives us eternal life, and everything we do in His name becomes eternal.
Some of the experiences we have in this life that we have endured will remain
forever, along with some of the achievements we have accomplished in His name.
In heaven we will not forget the service we rendered to the Lord in this life.
Eph 2,20-22
(91h) Thy kingdom come
>>
The called >> Walking along the narrow way >>
Those who walk in their calling are united
(136hb) Temple
>>
Your spirit is the temple of God >> The body of
Christ >> Body of Christ consists of individual
members >> We are being fitted together
See
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