The Unity of the Spirit

Nov17
by Michael King on November 17, 2012 at 5:30 pm
Posted In: fundamental truths
unity

Paul says,

“I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called, with all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love; endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.”

Ephesians 4:1-3

Unity is something most people agree is a good thing.  When we are unified we are strong.  God says that a three-fold cord is not easily broken.

Many believe that unity will come about through doctrinal agreement.  They say that if everyone will simply let the Bible speak for itself then we will all begin to believe the same and we will have unity.  However, this notion has proved itself to be false, for even though there has been an explosion of Bible knowledge and freedom to teach it in the last few centuries, we are more divided or dis-unified than ever before.

If teaching does not bring unity what does?

Luke says,

“And when they had prayed, the place was shaken where they were assembled together; and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and they spake the word of God with boldness. And the multitude of them that believed were of one heart and of one soul: neither said any of them that ought of the things which he possessed was his own; but they had all things common.”

 Acts 4:31,32

I submit unity comes from a shared spiritual experience of God.  In other words, where the Spirit of the Lord is there is not only liberty but also unity.

We must experience God

An experience cannot be taught.  What happened at the beginning of the New Testament Church was an outpouring of the Spirit of God.  People simply opened their minds and hearts to receive it.  Since everyone shared a common experience they were all of one heart.  Notice it is “one heart” and not “one mind” because everything of real importance in God issues from our hearts.  It is our hearts that must become one through experiencing YHWH, only then will our minds and actions follow.

The Holy Spirit brought unity in the first century church.  The words that God issued forth from that unity became the New Testament.  I believe that God is about to do something even greater through the spiritual fulfillment of the Feast of Tabernacles.  The shared experience of Divine Love is going to unify His church to an even greater degree than the first Christians experienced.

God is love

God’s love will become our love.  When we become love, as He is love, this shared spiritual experience will cause us to be of one heart, naturally leading to being of one mind.  This, my brethren, is when true unity will come to the body of Christ.

We Will Stand By Russ Taft

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Out of Eden: The Reason Why We Die

Nov12
by Michael King on November 12, 2012 at 11:51 pm
Posted In: garden of eden
immortality

Without The Tree of Life, We Are Not Immortal

The nature of progressive revelation is that it progresses.  Sometimes our understanding of a doctrine in the Bible grows deeper or the breadth of our grasp of a subject is widened through the Holy Spirit revealing more truth.  At other times the Holy Spirit simply corrects our misunderstanding of a certain part of His word and we need to change our minds on what we believe to line up with Him.

This happened to me a couple of days ago as to how I understood the relationship between mankind and the two trees in the Garden of Eden.  For the longest time I have assumed, wrongly it seems, that eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil is what brought death upon Adam and thus all mankind.  However, the Holy Spirit spoke to me and showed me that this is not so.

God says,

“But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.”

Gen 2:17

I had always assumed that this meant that it was the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil that caused Adam and all that followed after him to taste death. 

However we read later in the book of Genesis,

“And the LORD God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever:”

Gen 3:22

It wasn’t the forbidden fruit that caused Adam to die but the lack of access to the tree of life.  God did not create mankind with inherent immortality as I had previously assumed.  God created Adam to never taste death as long he ate the fruit of the tree of life.  Eating the tree of the knowledge of good and evil was not poisonbut an an outward manifestation of inward disobedience.  Disobedience brought about the action which caused them to loose eternal life through being barred from the Garden. 

God says,

“So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.”

Gen 3:24

For me, at least, this is a clarification of what really went on in the Garden.  This makes sense because if God created the Garden perfect He would not have put something deadly in it.

A consequence of returning to the Spirit led obedience of the Garden is the restoration of the tree of life.  One question I still have not figured out is simply,

“The tree of life is restored to us in New Jerusalem and we will partake of it there.  Thus, it’s still necessary to eat of it to have immortality.”

 
God gives us revelation as it suits Him.  We are all dependent upon Him to understand what He wrote.  When it comes to truly knowing God’s word and we must open ourselves to receive His instruction. We must be teachable even if it goes against what we have previously believed.  Progressive revelation is that acceptance of further revelation or even correction. God does violate His word, though He may be different than our understanding of it.

Revelation Song by Kari Jobe

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