Full of Grace

Nov03
by Michael King on November 3, 2012 at 8:00 am
Posted In: garden of eden
Lamb

What is grace?

Grace is defined in the Merriam-Webster dictionary as:

“Unmerited divine assistance given humans for their regeneration or sanctification“

I believe the first instance of such grace is seen in the book of Genesis,

“Unto Adam also and to his wife did the LORD God make coats of skins, and clothed them.”

 Genesis 3:21

Why was this act of God a reflection of grace?  Previously, Adam and Eve had clothed their shame with fig leaves, but God gave them coats made of skins.  Where did the skins come from?  The skins came from some kind of animal that much is for certain.  It would make sense that God gave Adam and Eve lamb or goat skins to wear from the first sacrifice made for their sin.

God was very specific about the punishment for eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.  God said,

“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.”

Genesis 2:17

God covered our shame

So by rights God should have slain both Adam and Eve according to His own law.  However, instead of death God gave mankind skins to clothe their sin and shame.  Adam and His wife had no excuse and deserved to die yet God gave them both divine assistance for their regeneration and sanctification.  In other words, though they did not deserve it God gave them grace and provisionally forgave their sin through the first blood sacrifice.

Why did God give Adam and Eve grace?  First of all, God loved them dearly and did not want to see his son or his wife die.  Moreover, God knew that it was Satan who had tempted Eve and that had not the Devil deceived the woman all this would not have happened.  So grace has to do with love and understanding.

Sometimes people can do things that seem, on the surface, very wrong.  They can be deserving of rejection and really have no excuse to justify their behavior.  However, because of love and the understanding of their circumstances grace is given, they are forgiven, and relationship is restored.

We all need a bit of grace

We are all in need of such grace and it is an awesome thing to know that we serve a God who has been full of grace from the very beginning.  It is because of grace that mankind has even survived beyond the garden.  It is because of grace that God asked His only begotten son to die in our stead so that we might be restored to fellowship with Him.  The Bible states in the book of Romans that,

“For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;”

 Romans 3:23

 And,

“As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one:”

 Romans 3:10

We would all be condemned men and women if it were not for the grace of God through Jesus Christ. In the book of John we read,

“And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.”

 John 1:14

We all stumble in unbelief from time to time and fail God in many ways, but through His grace we find forgiveness and acceptance every time we turn from our error and ask for His forgiveness.  As it is written,

“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

 1 John 1:19

God desires that we realize how we have gone astray and ask for forgiveness.  Our repentance must be accompanied with the willingness to come back to His path by turning from our own.  Usually this involves an about face from the direction we are currently heading that displeases our Lord.  If we do this, God promises that we will be cleansed from all unrighteousness.

Everything God does has purpose

When God made the original sin sacrifice that allowed Adam and Eve to be clothed with coats of skins He did so knowing that His only begotten son would have to suffer the death of the crucifix to complete the payment. The blood of animals could not take away our sin but only delay punishment until the true Lamb of God could exchange His life for ours. Can you imagine how God must have felt as He handed the coats to Adam and Eve?  The act of giving them those coats of grace meant that His only begotten son would die in their stead.  Can we not help but love and adore such a God as that?

In conclusion, I believe that grace is what God wants from us towards those who perhaps sin against us either in reality or imagined.  One of the most fundamental attributes of our Father is grace. If we wish to be made into His image and likeness we must be willing to be, like Him, full of grace too.
 

Read “The First Law.”
 

Suggested book: “Hudson Taylor (men of Faith)” by J. Hudson Taylor

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Forerunners and God’s Timetable: Is It Time For The Bride of Christ?

Nov03
by Michael King on November 3, 2012 at 7:58 am
Posted In: revelation
forerunners

Is It Time For The Bride Of Christ To Appear?

Outpourings of God’s Spirit are what move His people forward towards a predestined place in God.  God marked out this place before the foundations of the world.  Our destiny is to be conformed to the image and likeness of Jesus Christ.  One of the main points of the virgin birth is the union of God and mankind, which in turn produced Jesus. If you can receive it, the purpose of creation is God’s children.

God is not random; His actions always have reason and purpose.  Revivals are not random either and each new move of the Holy Ghost is meant to accomplish specific goals in the general church body through achieving them first in individuals.  We should earnestly seek to understand the methods and purposes of God so that we can more easily yield to what He is trying to accomplish.

New waves of the Spirit

In every new move of God there are those that progress far beyond the main group.  These forerunners complete a greater amount of the journey back to the garden than the rest. The majority usually view these people as fanatics or heretics. These forerunners, being few in number, suffer intense persecution by the larger group. Some survive while others die. Remember, there were twelve spies, but only two survived the experience.  Joshua and Caleb epitomize this type of forerunner.  They were men of faith who suffered the fate of the unbelieving majority even though they did dwell in unbelief.  But be of good cheer, though, God is raising up a new generation that will finally posses the promise of their Father.

Go the distance

In every move of God it is theoretically possible to complete the intended journey back to the garden. Consider the nation of Israel in the wilderness. It was possible that they could have possessed the Promised Land directly, however, through unbelief, they spent forty years in the wilderness. We deduce from this example a fundamental principle of how God deals with mankind.

“God’s plan is for us to catch hold of His Spirit and to enter into the Promised Land in short order. It is only our unbelief as a people and as individuals that, at times, causes foreseen interruptions in His plan.”

I fully believe it was possible and that it was God’s will for the Protestant reformation to produce a perfected church. Yet, like Israel, because of their unbelief they stopped short of the promise and failed to enter into His rest. This is a true saying,

 “In every true move of the Holy Spirit is possible for the church to enter into God’s rest if we will believe.”

With each new wave of revival people speculate that is may be the final revival before Christ’s return. Though it is possible, if we fail through unbelief God re-calibrates His timetable again.  He will then begin again with a remnant of believers at a future date. A biblical example of this type of re-calibration of God’s plan is seen in the book of Deuteronomy.

God says,

“Furthermore the LORD spake unto me, saying, I have seen this people, and, behold, it is a stiff-necked people:  Let me alone, that I may destroy them, and blot out their name from under heaven: and I will make of thee a nation mightier and greater than they. So I turned and came down from the mount, and the mount burned with fire: and the two tables of the covenant were in my two hands. And I looked, and, behold, ye had sinned against the LORD your God, and had made you a molten calf: ye had turned aside quickly out of the way which the LORD had commanded you. 

And I took the two tables, and cast them out of my two hands, and brake them before your eyes. And I fell down before the LORD, as at the first, forty days and forty nights: I did neither eat bread, nor drink water, because of all your sins which ye sinned, in doing wickedly in the sight of the LORD, to provoke him to anger. For I was afraid of the anger and hot displeasure, wherewith the LORD was wroth against you to destroy you. But the LORD hearkened unto me at that time also.

 Deuteronomy 9:13-19

Even though God selected Israel as His chosen people, it did  not mean that He could not change His plans if Israel would not obey.  God always gets his way even though it may take a bit longer.

Is it time for the Bride of Christ?

The fulfillment and fruition of the plan of God for man is dependent not upon some unalterable timetable, but  upon the willingness of His people. The indicator of the nearness of the return of Christ is not current world events, but the condition of His church. The fact is, that without a perfected bride to draw Him, Christ will simply not return.

Given these understandings how does one prepare a church to survive and move on when revival comes? The answer to this question is deceptively simple.

 “Teach your people to know, trust, and follow the voice of God as individuals.”

Teach your people to know the voice of God as individuals.  Only through personal experience and leading can your flock navigate the swift waters of the Tabernacle Experience.

God’s order is not man’s order

God’s order as man would bring order. In fact, many times the will of the Holy Spirit seems like great disorder to the natural man. Remember the hubbub of the day of Pentecost?  People thought it pandemonium, yet each individual acted in perfect harmony with the Holy Spirit. Just as the human body is ordered by the head, so God desires to bring order to His body through the leading of His Spirit. The hand does not control the fingers but the head controls both. Likewise, a pastor does not control the congregation but the Holy Spirit controls both. The leadership and congregation must work together in unity to bring about the will of the Father.

Satan contains the church within a prison of legalism and tradition.  Lucifer does fear believers because most refuse to obey God’s voice. This is why the church in America receives so little persecution; Satan has us just where she wants us.  The fact is, the church is the Devils first line of defense against the manifestation of the sons of God.

The church, as we know, is no more

In the coming days what many perceive to be the God ordained structure of the church will dissolve as God takes control of individual lives. Like the wind, the force of the Holy Spirit moving upon individuals will seemingly come from nowhere yet His effects will be felt everywhere. This will in turn greatly upset Satan and persecution will ensue. Christ’s unified body, which is led by His Fathers Spirit, will inflict great damage to Satan’s demonic kingdom.

The fully matured body of Christ will be radically different from the church we see today.  Those who teach the word of God must make any theology elastic enough embrace further revelation. Just consider how much change was required of the Pharisees who wished to follow Jesus. Paul correctly states that we understand in part.  Teach and prepare our people to know God’s voice and to follow it at all costs.

Forerunners and God’s timetable

Adventures in God by John G. Lake

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