October 26, 2008

Motivated Spirituality

Last Sunday we started on the topic of Motivated Spirituality. We discussed the different motivators that effect a believer in our decision making process; why we do the things that we do.

We discussed that there were two different types of motivators; vertical and horizontal motivators.

We discussed that the vertical motivators were worldly or temporary concerns… such motivators like:

- Fear of loss can motivate you

- Guilt can motivate you

- Pride can motivate you

- Hope of personal gain can motivate you

- Reputation can motivate you

- Prestige can motivate you

- Pleasure can motivate you

All of these temporary motivators can cause you to make a decision that is outside of the will of God. All of us have issues with one or all of these vertical motivators.

John 3:30
He must increase, but I must decrease.

If you find yourself struggling with any of these issues then the problem is you are having trouble decreasing and allowing Him to take full control of your life.

You see when we are motivated by these motivator we somehow believe that we can resolve our issues or that we can do something that will make us look good.

Galatians 2:20
(20) I have been crucified with Christ, and I live; yet no longer I, but Christ lives in me. And that life I now live in the flesh, I live by faith toward the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself on my behalf.

I gave you a list of the Horizontal Motivators. These motivators are of a biblical response to situations and/or how we handle different issues and circumstances. The horizontal motivators are:

- No other options

- Fear

- Love and gratitude

- Rewards

- Our identity in Christ

- Purpose and hope

- Longing for God

I covered No other options and Fear last Sunday.

In a nutshell we talked about No Other Options as a motivator as when we realize that He is our provider… He is all we need. We don’t have any other options, we are inadequate to understand what is best for our lives therefore we rely on Him.

We talked about how Fear can be both a positive and a negative motivator. Fear of consequences is the negative… fear of God is the positive.

This morning briefly I would like to discuss the third motivator which is Love and Gratitude.

Let’s talk about love as a spiritual motivator first.

John 3:16 – For God so loved the world!!

Romans 5:8 “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us”.

Sin separated us from God but God loved us so much He made a way for us to be redeemed back to Him through His Son Jesus Christ. That is real love!

But how is this supposed to motivate us. Again… we get our answers from scripture.

1 John 4:19 says “we love, because He first loved us”.

We can have the ability to love because He first loved us!

Now that we have the ability to love let me go to these verse.

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

Jesus said, “If you love me then keep my commandments”. That is a sign of loving Jesus when you keep His commandments. That is a sign, your fruits (your attitude and actions) show that you are abiding in Christ and He in you.

When we dwell in His unmerited love, we begin to see that his commandments are not burdensome but liberating.

As we grow in our spiritual journey… and if you are a Christian you need to be growing… the love of Christ will begin to control your life more and more. 1 Corinthians 5:14

You will find that because you love Christ so much that you will not make decision without consulting Him first.

The more you love Christ the more you will obey Him… why because you love Him. In Him you have everything you need. When He is the center of your life then you are on your way to being motivated by His love.

You say Dwayne… how can I know if I’m headed in the right direction in my walk with Christ? You can ask yourself a few questions.

1. Do you love God more for Himself than for His gifts and benefits?

2. Are you motivated to seek His glory and honor more than you are to seek your own?

These are questions that need to be asked often by every one of us. If you can not say yes to these questions please don’t feel defeated because you can ask yourself a third question.

3. Do you want your answer to be yes?

Now… you may not be able to honestly say yes to the first two but do you want to be at that level spiritually where you can say that you love God more than His gifts or benefits… you seek His glory more than your own.

But there is a fourth question that must be asked as well.

4. Are you willing to pay the price?

“If you love me you will keep my commandments… he who has my commandments and keeps them is the one who love me; and he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and will disclose myself to him”.

“If anyone loves me, he will keep my word; and my Father will love him”.

These are words that Jesus spoke about love and commitment.

Kenneth Boa said:
“The cost of obedience will take many forms, but if we commit ourselves to loving Jesus he will give us the needed grace”.

I also want to talk to you about another study series we can do after this one.
Our Awesome Lord – it has a teacher’s book and student’s book. It is more of a study and it will be something for you to study and learn from as well. You can look through your work books and do the exercises and we can have a lesson and discussion the following Sunday.

That is how you grow… by reading and studying the Word!

Temptation

We are having revival services at Pikes Crossroads PH Church with Evangelist Brian Rogers.

Theme for our revival services is "A New Beginning of Obedience to the Lord".

Here are my notes from his sermon for October 13, 2008 service.

Preaching text is from:
Luke 4:4-11
(4)And Jesus answered him, saying, It is written, That man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God.
(5)And the devil, taking him up into an high mountain, shewed unto him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time.
(6)And the devil said unto him, All this power will I give thee, and the glory of them: for that is delivered unto me; and to whomsoever I will I give it.
(7)If thou therefore wilt worship me, all shall be thine.
(8)And Jesus answered and said unto him, Get thee behind me, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.
(9)And he brought him to Jerusalem, and set him on a pinnacle of the temple, and said unto him, If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down from hence:
(10)For it is written, He shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee:
(11)And in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone.

Points:
1. The anointing that you expect is the anointing that will increase and flow in your life.
- We have to be obedient to the Holy Spirit.
- Partial obedience is still disobedience.
- Jesus Christ is the anointed one.

2. The anointed power of God can conquer any obstacle that arises in your life.

- Isaiah 10:27
(27) And it shall come to pass in that day, that his burden shall be taken away from off thy shoulder, and his yoke from off thy neck, and the yoke shall be destroyed because of the anointing.

3. You always posses something in your life God wants to anoint.
- What is God anointing in my/your life?

4. The anointing will bring forth Divine revelation.
- He will put you in the place you need to be.

Exchanged Life Spirituality Part 2

God’s Plan to Meet Our Needs

We are going to continued to talk about the Exchanged Life Spirituality this morning. I just could not get a way from it. And the title of this lesson is God’s Plan to Meet our Needs.

Now… once we are in Christ, we automatically become members of a spiritual family, a spiritual body, and a spiritual temple.

It is through this new identity of whose we are in Christ that God can satisfy our deepest needs.

What I hope and pray that we take away here today from this lesson are two things.
1. An appreciation of God’s plan to meet our deepest needs through our participation in a spiritual family, a spiritual body, and a spiritual temple.
2. Encouragement to respond to God’s gracious plan by knowing, reckoning, and yielding.

An appreciation of God’s plan to meet our deepest needs through our participation in a spiritual family, a spiritual body, and a spiritual temple is our first item we want to look at this morning.

Without Christ, we have not fellowship with God. We have no communion with God because God does not have fellowship with sin. It is only through Christ that we can have fellowship with God.

Without Christ life is all about self, and we are driven to use people, things, and circumstances to meet our needs. In Christ, we have fellowship with God. For us believers, life should be all about the One who has already fully met our needs.

A Spiritual Family
If you are a born again believer then you are apart of a big spiritual family. Guess who is the firstborn of that family?

Colossians 1:18
(18) And He is the Head of the body, the church, who is the Beginning, the First-born from the dead, that He may be pre-eminent in all things.

Christ had to be the first born in order that we may be born again into the family of God. We are the brother and sister of Christ. He paved the way for us to be in this spiritual family.

As members of God’s family, our need for unconditional love and acceptance if fully met. We are secure in god’s limitless love. God’s love has NO LIMITS.

In Romans 5:8 tells us that “even while we were still sinners, Christ died for us”.

One of my favorite verses in the bible that talks about the unconditional love and acceptance is Romans 8:38-39.

Romans 8:38-39
(38) For I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come,
(39) nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

What great love God has for us! It’s unconditional and it’s freely given.

A Spiritual Body
Now let’s go onto a how we are apart of a spiritual body.

In Ephesians 1:22-23 it tells us that “we are the body and Christ is the head”.

As individual parts of Christ’s body, our need for true significance and identity is fully met. We have meaning and purpose because of who we are in Christ… because we are meaningful and because we have purpose we belong to Christ. It’s not because of anything we did, can do, or will ever be able to do that can gain us acceptance into the family of God.

2 Timothy 1:9
(9) who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was given us in Christ Jesus before the eternal times.

1 Corinthians 2:9
(9) But as it is written, "Eye has not seen, nor ear heard," nor has it entered into the heart of man, "the things which God has prepared for those who love Him."

We can’t image what it is going to be like to be in the presence of all mighty God. We can not comprehend it. All I know is that it will be worth it all… I don’t care what you go through on this earth it is going to be worth it all when you get to heaven. God has some big things planned for us. He wants to love on us for eternity… it is going to take forever and ever to show our thanks and his love for us!

A Spiritual Temple
And to finish up my first objective let’s talk about how God wants to create a community of spiritual beings who will receive and reflect the likeness of God and glorify him forever… let’s talks about how we are a Spiritual Temple.

As living Stones in God’s temple, our need for lasting competence and fulfillment is fully met.

All of us have gifts that the Holy Spirit has given to us for the specific purpose of blessing others and glorifying God. And if we use those gifts for those purposes, then the things we do in his power will last forever!

Colossians 1:29
(29) For which I also labor, striving according to the working of Him who works in me in power.

Ephesians 3:16
(16) that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner man;

As children of the most high, almighty God we must train ourselves to look beyond people, beyond things, and beyond circumstances to meet our needs.

Job is a great example of depending on God. Even though everything he had was taken away from him he dared to believe that all though he had nothing in the natural that God was enough for him.

Folks, I am going to be honest with you. I don’t know if I am there in my walk with Christ right now. But I am more and more lead to this walk now more that ever. I am more determined to lean on him now more than ever. I am more determined to be totally sold out to him now more than ever. Why? Because the more I study his Word it tells me that in him I have everything I need.

Why is it that so many of us Christians continue to act as nonbelievers when it comes to the quest for security, meaning, and fulfillment in life?

Ephesians 2:2-3 has the answer. By looking at these verses we can determine that three powerful forces works against our walking in the Spirit: the flesh, the world, and the devil.

The Flesh
Now… when we were saved we received a new spirit when we came to Christ. But our new spirit is encased in this same body and its same physical needs and cravings. Nor were your mind, emotions, and will instantly transform when you became a believer.

The flesh is the power or “law of sin” that is still in our members. Remember in Romans 7:14-25 when the apostle Paul goes through and talks about the things he did not want to do are the things he did and the things he wanted to do he did them not. Then he goes on to talk about the flesh was warring against his spirit.

We become changed from the inside out not the outside in. We begin to gradually conform to the image of Christ by the renewing of our minds… and that comes by reading his Word and praying.

The World
The second of these three forces is the world. We live in a culture and society that promotes values and perspectives so the opposite of how the Bible says we should live. We talked about this earlier but the Bible tells us that we are pilgrims in this world, the Bible tells us that our citizenship is in heaven. But yet some Christians live in this world as if this is all there is therefore seeking happiness in materialism. The only way to get around this is to be informed; to have knowledge, to gain wisdom from God’s Word and with the help of his Holy Spirit.

The Devil
The third force that works against our spiritual life is the devil. Satan and his demons use the world (debt, social status, materialism) and the flesh (lust, pride, anger) in an attempt to defeat us and make us useless for the kingdom of God. Now the devil can oppress us but only while we are controlled by the flesh… he has not effect over us if we are controlled by the spirit because he can not defeat the life of Christ that is present within us!

All three, the flesh, the world, and the devil war against our spirit health daily. This is a spiritual battle. Every aspect about our spiritual life hinges on how we respond to God’s plan to satisfy our needs for personal worth. In other words… do we look to God to satisfy our needs for the flesh, for things of the world? If you do then you are walking in the spirit and you will find joy, peace, and contentment. But if you are not then you will struggle during your Christian journey.

Our Response to God’s Plan
In Romans chapter 6 describes a three fold process to help a believer move from the inside (inner man) to the outer person (outer man).

These three things start with:
1. Knowing – knowing who you are in Christ (Romans 6:3-10)
2. Reckoning – considering these truths to be so (Romans 6:11)
3. Yielding – presenting yourself to God (Romans 6:12-14)

Knowing
I’m sure you can recall the story in Luke 9:18-20 when Jesus was praying and his disciples joined him… Jesus asked his disciples those two questions.
1. Who do the crowds say that I am?
2. But who do you say that I am?

We can ask ourselves three fundamental questions as well:
1. Who do you say that you are?
2. Who do people say that you are?
3. Who does God say that you are?

Many people and sad to say Christians as well have their own sense of identity based on the first two questions. We discussed earlier about how we must base our opinion of ourselves on what God says about us and about who we are and not what we think or other people thing about us.

We have to know and understand that as believers Romans 5:8 that God loves us unconditional and he accepts us no matter how we feel or perform.

Believers must know and understand that not only did Christ die for us but we also died with and in him. The Bible tells us in Romans 6:6-7 that “our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, that we would no longer be slaves to sin; for he who has died is freed from sin”.

Quote from the book. “Through our co-crucifixion with Christ, we have died to the bondage of sin, and God has already accomplished this. We may not feel this is true, be we must never reason from our performance to our position; our security and significance in Christ are not threatened by earthy failure or rejection, we must base our behavior on our belief.

In other words who we are should determine what we do, and not what we do should determine who we are! Why; because KNOWING our identity is based on our new birth in Christ.

Be determined to know who you are in Christ Jesus and Know what God says about you!

Reckoning
Ruth Paxon wrote “Sin need have no more power over the believer than he grants it through unbelief. If he is alive unto sin it will be due largely to the fact that he had failed to recon himself dead unto sin.”

Reckoning is a process… it’s not easy nor is it natural for us. For most Christians, sadly, they have to come to the end of their rope, the end of their own resources before they have a realization of their co-crucifixion with Christ.

Most of the time it takes believers to be broken and then and only then will they surrender and turn from a self reliant life to a life that total relies on God.

Faith is a total dependence on God… and this God-dependence can only begin when our self-dependence ends.

When we surrender full control of our life and plans to Christ, we discover his peace. When we lose our lives for his sake, we find his life instead.

Giving us you life, decisions, everything there is about your own will and identity is a hard thing to do. It’s not natural! But loosing our life is the only way we will find his life.

I want to be honest with you… there was a time in my life that I was afraid to pray a prayer like… oh Lord, what ever it takes to draw closer to you Lord, that’s what I’ll be willing to do. Connie and Marty used to sing a song called whatever it takes to draw closer to you Lord.

That is a BIG STATEMENT. Fear would grip me… would he require or take my home, my cars, my business, my family so I would rely on him and him alone?

We must “fight the good fight of faith” (1 Timothy 6:12) by reckoning what God has said about our position in Christ to be true! You have to pray for a spirit of wisdom and a revelation of knowledge of Him like Paul prayed in Ephesians 1:17.

This brings me to the last of the three.

Yielding
As we come to realize who we are in Christ, and come to terms with reckoning it to be true (or getting it into our spirit), then we need to act on it by yielding ourselves to God as new creatures in Christ.

Romans 6:12-13
(12) Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof.
(13) Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God.

If we want our spiritual lives to grow and prosper, this threefold process of knowing, reckoning, and yielding should become a daily habit for us.

Luke 9:23
(23) And he said to them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me.

By practicing these principles it will free us from being grabbers/takers and allow us to become givers who expect and need nothing in return.

If we try to gratify our needs, we will experience frustration and failure. But if we pursue God and hunger and thirst for him and his righteousness, we will be satisfied and our needs will be fulfilled.

Matthew 5:6
(6) Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.

All of this that we have talked about this morning boils down to one thing. Trust… can we trust God as a person and believe that truth is what God says it is, regardless of how we see it or feel.

This all leads back to where we began this teaching… the character of God.

We must know and study the character of God. As we renew our mind concerning the love of God we begin to realize that he is not carrying out his program at our expense but for our highest good. He loves us so much!

I encourage you to look over that sheet I gave you concerning what God says about you because that is the character of God. God is not a man that he should lie!

This is why is so important to renew your mind with the truths of Scripture on a regular basis and respond to them by putting them into action.

Sunday School Lessons

Hey Guys... most of my blogs are actually my Sunday school lesson I prepare each week to teach. I am teaching from Kenneth Boa's book, Conformed to His Image. I have enjoyed reading and studying his writings and learning to apply his sound biblical principles. I just wanted to give you an explanation as to why my blogs are so long. I plan to start blogging about my life and my family as I have more time to write. I would appreciate your feed back.

God Bless,
Dwayne

Exchanged Life Spirituality

Let’s talk about living a “spiritual life” for a minute. We need to understand certain things about this spiritual life we are attempting to live. We also need to understand what NOT the spiritual life is. Let’s talk about that for a little bit.

The book gives an interesting list of contrast of what the spiritual life is not compared to what it really is… here is that list.
The spiritual life is not:
A crisis but a continual process
Based on knowledge but on obedience
External but internal
Automatic but cultivated
The product of energy but of divine enablement
A dream but a discipline
An unusual experience but a normal experience
A list of rules but a life relationship
To be endured but enjoyed
Theoretical but intensely practical

Howard Hendricks says that a spiritual life is “the life of Christ reproduced in the believer by the power of the Holy Spirit in obedient response to the Word of God.” I think that is an awesome definition.

What does Exchanged Life Spiritually mean?
Exchanged life spirituality concentrates on the reality of a new identity through the in-Christ relationship that can and will dramatically transform us as we progressively grasp it.

Living an exchanged life spiritually stresses that the spiritual life is not a matter of trying to do things for Jesus but of claiming and resting in what he has already done for us!
What we are going to be learning about this morning is GRASPING OUR TRUE IDENTITY IN CHRIST.

You can not grasp your true identity in Christ overnight! That would be impossible. Understanding your relationship with Christ and what he has done for you will take your life time to understand. As a matter of fact if you think you have totally figured it out then I am scared of you. I don’t think we will ever understand what Jesus did while we are here on this earth when by taking your sin and my sin upon him self, dying and 3 days later defeating death, hell and the grave. That’s too big for us to comprehend and we’ll spend our life time contemplating the height, and the depth and the width of the love that God has for us.

After those 20 or so teen received Christ as their Lord and Savior during our teen rally, we took them in a room and I tried explained what had happened to them. I tried to explain that they had crossed over from death unto life. I tried to explain through scripture that they had been given a new life and they were a new creature in Christ Jesus. I tried to explain that they were now no longer under the bondage of sin and had the freedom and liberty in Jesus. But as hard as it was for me to explain I could since that it was harder for these teens, many of them un-churched, to understand. All they could do was cry because they felt a change had taken place in their being that they just couldn’t describe. At the very end after praying with them I encouraged them to talk to God everyday like they would talk to their best friend, and read their Bible everyday. That night I believed they started their journey into trying to understand what had taken place in their life… the journey into Exchanged Spirituality.

We will take a lifetime learning what an exchanged spiritual life is… but it’s a journey worth taking.

Before we can truly understand and practice the principles of exchanged life spirituality we need to understand a few things. The first thing we need to understand is God’s Character and Plan.

God’s Character and Plan

You know… people who don’t have a relationship with God, their creator, are hungering for something… for love, for happiness, for meaning, for fulfillment, but nothing on this planet offers what can fully satisfy these longings they have.

You know, in theory, most Christians acknowledge that Christ alone can meet these needs… but very few Christians can show them by example. This is because some Christians have missed one of the most important principles of Scripture. You see the fruits of the spirit such as love, joy, peace, long suffering, cannot be obtained by pursuing them in an of themselves. The only way to be successful at obtaining real joy, real love, real peace is by pursuing God! By pursuing God; this is just and overflow… a bi-product of what comes out of pursuing God!

In Exodus 33:13-14 Moses prayed this prayer to God…
Exodus 33:13-14
(13) Now therefore, I pray thee, if I have found grace in thy sight, shew me now thy way, that I may know thee, that I may find grace in thy sight: and consider that this nation is thy people.
(14) And he said, My presence shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest.
Like Moses we should pray to know God’s ways… by putting God first in everything, everything else falls into place!

God’s character is fundamental to everything we do and everything we are as Christians. Do you know the character of God?

The Bible tells us that God is:
Self-existent
Infinite
Eternal
Unchanging Creator of all things
In his powers, he alone is omnipresent, omnipotent, and omniscient.

In his perfections, his attributes include holiness, justice, truthfulness, love and goodness.

God’s love for us is proof that God is a giver… after all he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him shall have eternal life. God is a giver. God has given in spite of the fact that people reject his gift. But that is the essence of God’s love toward humanity… he doesn’t want anyone to perish but all to have eternal life.

Now… if we want to understand God’s love for us we need first believe ALL of God’s actions were born out of love.

1 John 4:8 says
1John 4:8
He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.

God is LOVE! That is part of his character.

And because God is love, his desire for you and for me (humanity) is to show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.

Scripture portrays the relationship God wants to have with us in terms of a shepherd and his sheep, father and his children, and a husband and his wife.

But… sheep can go astray, they can wonder away from the flock and the shepherd; children can rebel, and a wife can be unfaithful.

It was rebellion and the rejection of God’s love and provision that got us in this shape to begin with.

All of us live in a world of pain, injustice, disease, and death, and in the midst of this it is easy to blame God for our problems.

But our environment has been distorted by sin, and sin is contrary to the nature of God.

Sin is why Christ came into this world… to redeem us back to God. This was part of God’s plan. Christ did not come into the world to judge the world, but that the world through him might be saved (John 3:17).

I love this quote by Kenneth Boa –
“The better we grasp the love and goodness of God’s character, the less we will be tempted to think that he is carrying out his plans at our expense.”

Think about this… it is always better for us to conform to his will. Why? Because conforming to his will always leads to our highest good.

Obedience to God produces joy and fulfillment.
Disobedience produces sorrow and frustration.

Everything God ask of us is for our good.
Everything God ask us to avoid is harmful… therefore we should stay away for it.

Life would be so much easier if we would just learn to listen to and understand what God has for us to do in our lives.

God can be trusted!!

But love always involves a choice. Adam and Eve decided they wanted more than what God had given them and instead of listening to God and staying away from that particular tree… they disobeyed and ate of it. And disobedience produces sorrow and frustration. We have been cursed by their decision.

You see beauty was replaced with ugliness, holiness with evil, kindness with cruelty, generosity with greed, love with hate, peace with violence, security with fear, and joy with anger. All because this happened because of disobedience and being self centered instead of God centered.

Think about that for a moment… most sin occurs because of our selfishness. Most sin occurs when we only focus on ourselves and not God.

Our Old and New Natures

Prior to the fall, Adam and Eve were in harmony with God and their environment. Everything was hitting on all cylinders. They were alive in their spirit and they enjoyed constant communion with God. They grew and developed spiritually and mentally because God gave them task and things to do. Their bodies were flawless and they were perfect in every way.

But as I stated earlier… love always involves a choice. Adam and Eve became selfish in their thoughts and desires and this rebellion radically changed this world.

At the moment they sinned they suffered spiritual death because they were cut off from God. When their spirits died, their sin nature was born, and their minds, emotions and wills came under the dominion of sin with all its distorting effects. Their bodies began to deteriorate… pain and evil spread, and creation itself was corrupted. And the most tragic thing of all… there was not a way back to God yet.

When we are born into this world we are born in our own sin nature. You don’t have to teach a child how to sin… they do it naturally. It not that they are sinners because they commit certain sins… they are born into sin… it’s in our nature. Without the redemptive work of Christ, we would be cut off from God without hope of restoration. Why are we cut off from God? The answer is simple, because “those who are in the flesh cannot please God” (Romans 8:8).

Now… unlike those who are fallen, those who are redeemed are able not to sin. As they walk in the Spirit, they please God and exhibit Christ like qualities.

But don’t get me wrong… there is a war going on. The inner self joyfully agrees with the law of God (Romans 7:22) but there is still a law or power of sin in the outer self (Romans 7:23).

Our spirit… our inner most deep being inside of ourselves has been change… made into a new creature. But our redemption is not fully complete yet. Our spirits have been redeemed but our bodies are still weak. We still have to deal with this earthly body that has been contaminated with sin and it wars against our spirit.

One day we shall be like him when we see him as he is!
1Jn 3:2
Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.

On that day the inner man and the outer man are going to agree. We will be free from the power of sin, and our minds, emotions, and wills will be continually under the dominion of the Spirit of God.

Until that day… we constantly battle between the new creature we have become in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17) and the mortal sinful nature we were born into thanks to Adam (Romans 5: 12-21).

You know… everyone human being has basic physical needs that must be met. There are physical needs like food, clothing, shelter, rest, and protection from danger.

In addition to the physical needs there is also a set of psychological needs that every human being needs to have met in order to have some sense of personal worth.

Things such as:
Love and Acceptance – everyone needs the security that comes from feeling unconditionally loved and accepted by at least one other individual. Without this it can cause one to have all sorts of issues, behavior issues.

Significance and Identity – people need a since of identifying with someone or something greater than themselves. The need to feel that their life is worthwhile and that life is meaningful is set in each of us in our inner being. God put it there. People who do not relate to God for their significance and identity tend to either over compensate and work to make them appear greater than they are or they simply have an inferiority complex that only God can truly heal.

Finally… Competence and Fulfillment – this is another universal need that all humans have to feel that one’s life has made a difference and that he or she has accomplished something that will last. One can see how a non-believer would try to over compensate for this lack in their spiritual life by their job performance, or academic standards.

For centuries humans have tried to turn to other people, things, and circumstances to meet these needs, but none of these can truly satisfy them. Even Christians fall into the same trap… trying to feel the void by not totally depending on God and their exchanged life.

God has set eternity in our heart (Ecclesiastes 3:11) and he alone can fill the void.

Now I need to make something clear here… this is not to say that it is wrong for Christians to be concerned about our appearance, our possessions, or our accomplishments. Whatever we do as “ambassadors for Christ” (2 Corinthians 5:20) should be characterized by excellence. Why should we care about these things… because it is done for the glory of God (1 Corinthians 10:31; Colossians 3:23).

But… and this is a big but… if our joy and peace depend upon how we look, what we own, or how well we perform, we are looking not to the Creator but rather to the creation to meet our God-given needs.

Standing Room Only

Standing Room Only was a great event. Both Matt and Carl were awesome. They played their hearts out and each gave the glory to God. We had an estimated 20 souls won to the kingdom of God.

God Bless,
Dwayne

Standing Room Only

This Saturday night, September 27, 2008 at the Pikes Crossroads PH Church Family Life Center building at 7:00 PM; we are hosting a youth rally for the community. Pike's Crossroads Pentecostal Holiness Church is located on 2494 Pikeville-Princeton Rd • Pikeville, NC 27863. The website address is www.pikescrossroads.com.

A very popular local musician Matt Bartlett and his band will open for Carl Cartee. Carl is recognized nationally and has written songs for artist such as Bill Gaither and his group. Carl will not only minister in song but will also preach from the Word of God.

We are excited and anticipate a mighty move of God. Our hearts cry is to see a REAL conversion of teens to the saving grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ. Please be in prayer for this event.

God Bless you,
Dwayne Nichols

10 Reasons Why We Should Pray

Why Should We Pray?

1. Prayer enhances our fellowship and intimacy with God (Psalm 116:1-2; Jeremiah 33:2-3)

2. The Scriptures command us to pray (Luke 18:1; Ephesians 6:18; 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18; 1 Timothy 2:1)

3. When we pray, we follow the example of Christ and other great people in Scripture like Moses and Elijah (Mark 1:34; Numbers 11:2; 1 Kings 18:36637)

4. Prayer appropriates God’s power for our lives (john 15:5; Acts 4:31; Ephesians 3:16; Colossians 4:2-4)

5. We receive special help from God when we pray (Hebrews 4:16)

6. Prayer makes a genuine difference (Luke 11:9-10; James 5:16-18)

7. Prayer develops our understanding and knowledge of God (Psalm 37:3-6; 63:1-8: Ephesians 1:16-19)

8. Our prayers and God’s answers give us joy and peace in our hearts (John 16:23-24; Philippians 4:6-7) Our problems may not disappear, but in prayer we gain a new perspective on our problems along with the peace and patience to stand firm.

9. Prayer helps us understand and accomplish God’s purposes for our lives (Colossians 1:9-11)

10. Prayer changes our attitudes and desires (2 Corinthians 12:7-9)

Disciplined Spirituality

Disciplined Spirituality


Two Extremes

It is easy to slip into one of two extremes in our Christian walk.

One extreme put way too much emphasizes on our role in our spiritual walk and it minimizes God’s role. This type of behavior emphasizes knowledge, rules, human efforts and human activities and virtually ignores the ministry of the Holy Spirit.

The other extreme overemphasizes God’s role and minimizes our role. It type of behavior is characterized by forgetting our responsibilities totally. It stresses the supernatural, let go and let God mentality, and totally down plays our human efforts.

What we need to strive for is a balanced spiritual life between being totally dependent on God and having the discipline to do our part in God’s service.

You see faith without works is dead… we are responsible to work out our salvation but not work for our salvation. There is a big difference.

Paul talks about this balance in Philippians 2:12-13

Php 2:12-13
(12) Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, cultivate your own salvation with fear and trembling.
(13) For it is God who works in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure.

Dependence

Now let’s talk about dependence a little bit. You can not live a life of Christ (be a Christian) in the flesh. In other words it takes a supernatural happening, the power of the Holy Spirit, for us to be able to reproduce the life of Christ in our life. Now, we can fool some of the people some of the time but you can’t fool all of the people all of the time. Apart from Christ and the power of his Spirit, we can accomplish nothing in the sight of God.

Gal 5:16
(16) I say, then, Walk in the Spirit and you shall not fulfill the lusts of the flesh.

Gal 5:24
(24) But those belonging to Christ have crucified the flesh with its passions and lusts.



The word for “walk” in the second verse is specific and refers to the step-by-step process of daily life.

Discipline

Dependence is a critical element in our spiritual walk with Christ but there is no growth in the Christian life apart from discipline and self-control.

1 Timothy 4:7 tells us to discipline yourself for the purpose of godliness.

You must develop and grow in spiritual discipline… it does not happen instantaneous over night. Spiritual discipline is grown and developed… we grow in godliness as we hear and obey the Word. The discipline comes from us doing our part to read His word and pray, developing our spirit and our strength through the Holy Spirit.

The Benefits of the Disciplines

For many people, the word discipline just reeks with negative connotations. When most Christians think about spiritual disciplines they associate it with tyranny, legalism, or bondage. But a closer look at Scripture and the lives of the great saints reveals quite the opposite.

The book of Proverbs for instance… Proverbs argues that personal disciplines such as the pursuit of wisdom, discernment, understanding and the knowledge of God enhance our lives and gives u\s options we could never have had otherwise. Listen to these first 12 verses in Proverbs chapter 2.

Pro 2:1-12
(1) My son, if you will receive my words and hide my commandments with you,
(2) so that you attend to wisdom, you shall extend your heart to understanding;
(3) yea, if you cry after knowledge and lift up your voice for understanding;
(4) if you seek her as silver, and search for her as for hidden treasures,
(5) then you shall understand the fear of Jehovah and find the knowledge of God.
(6) For Jehovah gives wisdom; out of His mouth come knowledge and understanding.
(7) He lays up sound wisdom for the righteous; He is a shield to those who walk uprightly.
(8) He keeps the paths of judgment, and guards the way of His saints.
(9) Then you shall understand righteousness and judgment and honesty, every good path.
(10) When wisdom enters into your heart, and knowledge is pleasing to your soul;
(11) judgment shall keep you, understanding shall keep you,
(12) to deliver you from the way of the evil man, from the man who speaks wicked things;

Spiritual discipline does not require and appetite but a willingness to pay the necessary price by studying His Word and praying. The appetite will come because the Holy Spirit will see to that!


I love this quote by Kenneth Boa concerning how to obtain wisdom through spiritual discipline. He said…

“Wisdom is a skill that is developed through instruction and discipline, and this skill in the art of living under the Lord’s dominion frees us to become the people God intended us to be”.

Here is a good example of discipline. For years I have had a desire to be able to sit down before a piano or keyboard and make beautiful music. I can play a little by ear and chord some songs… but nothing that can be called beautiful music in my opinion. But my desire to do so has never matched by the willingness to invest the time, energy, and discipline to make it happen. Only those who pay the price through practice and study will have the freedom to make that instrument make beautiful music.

Jesus practiced spiritual disciplines all through the New Testament. Classic disciplines such a solitude, silence, simplicity, study, prayer, sacrificial service and fasting. These are classic disciplines that you rarely hear taught today.

But we have an illusion that we can be like Christ without imitating his spirituality. If we truly wished to be like Jesus then we would imitate the things he did while here on earth.

This statement by Kenneth Boa in his book really hit me hard personally. He said…

“If believers expended the same time and energy in cultivating their spiritual lives as they are skilling to invest in becoming reasonable skillful at any sport or hobby, the world would look with wonder at the power of the body of Christ”.

I really believe that most of us have a desire to know Christ more deeply, but even though we have that desire we shun the lifestyle that would make it happen. By neglecting spiritual disciplines we are in no way prepared to face the temptations and challenges that we face from day to day in our Christian walk… it’s no wonder we struggle at times.

We have to be willing (disciplined) to persevere in our spiritual disciplines of study and praying. Only those who are willing to persevere ever reach a point where they begin to get the hang of it… but we never arrive. Scripture encourages us to continually press on toward the goal and reach forward to what lies ahead so that we may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus laid hold of us Philippians 3:12-13.

The spiritual disciplines such as service to others, fasting, praying, and studying takes practice. By practicing them and it is then and only then do we become more like Christ and conformed to His image.

Next I want to talk about the spiritual disciplines… I will name each of them and have a comment or two about each one of them.

Now there is no standardized list of spiritual disciplines… this is just the 18 or so disciplines that Kenneth Boa chose to teach about in this chapter.

The first of these classic disciplines that we will talk about is…

Solitude and Silence

The practice of being solitude moves us away, for a time, from the hectic and troublesome schedule of this world into the presence of the Father. When we remove ourselves in solitude away from everyone we are more able to communicate with the Father verses being influenced by our peers and the world. We can discover a place of strength, reflection and renewal as we practice solitude.

Silence is related to solitude. Being silent can enable us to listen to the still quiet voice of the Spirit… this discipline is not only for when you are alone practicing solitude but the silence discipline can be practiced in the presence of others. How many time have you wished you would nave keep your mouth shut???

Prayer

Prayer is having a personal dialogue with the Most High God. Prayer is a privilege… it’s an opportunity… it should not be a burden or duty. We draw closer to God and we can release our burdens and fears to Him as we are honest with Him in our conversations with God. We should have structured times for prayer but we can also practice the discipline all through our daily activities.

Journaling

Journaling is a great way to see your development as a Christian. Recording your insights, feelings, and experiences you can see your progress as you develop spiritually more clearly.

Study and Meditation

The study of God’s Word is a key process to renewing your mind so we can operate in the light of God’s Word. Not only studying God’s Word but memorizing scriptures and hiding them in your heart is a key to developing spiritually.

To meditate on the Word is to take time to ponder a verse or a passage from Scripture so that its truth can sink deeply into our mind and spirit.

Fasting

Fasting can simply be to deny yourself nourishment (food) for the purpose of gaining spiritual nourishment. This can be a very difficult practice for some people because of medical reasons. It’s a self denial of something that you require to live. You can also fast from television or the internet or something else that you have allowed to get in the way of your relationship with the Father.

Secrecy

The practice of secrecy is a spiritual discipline. This can be practiced in ways such as giving money to someone in need and no one knows who gave it or where it came from. You are more content and happy with seeing someone’s needs met than getting attention and the thank you of men. The Bible says that God sees what you do in private and will reward you one day openly.

Confession

Having an accountability partner is a very tough spiritual discipline. Having someone you can confess your burden of sin makes you vulnerable and it must be done with someone you trust absolutely. What is sad is that we are generally more concerned with what our friends, who we can see, will think than the disapproval of God, who we can not see. Confession and repentance before others can be very difficult but it is a spiritual discipline worth practicing.

Fellowship

The discipline of fellowship can be very easy for some people because they are social and most are type “A” personalities. But for some people, who are not that inclined to being social, this may be a real area of struggle. Remember…
Pro 27:17
(17) Iron sharpens iron, so a man sharpens the face of his friend.

If you are someone who sometimes struggles with fellowshipping with other Christians… this may be something that you may need to practice. We will discuss this in more detail when we get to Corporate Spirituality.

Submission

The practice of submission is to voluntary submitting yourself to some other authority. It is based upon the biblical mandate for us to seek the good of others rather than our rights. We all know of people who like to be in charge of everything… these are the people who have the most trouble with this spiritual discipline.

Simplicity, Stewardship, and Sacrifice

These three disciplines reinforce each other since they have a direct relation to our attitudes and resources we have personally that God has blessed us with.

The simplicity discipline refers to our willingness to abstain from using some of our own resources for our own gratification. It encourages us to trust the Lord for our needs and depend upon him. This discipline will free us from getting high minded or thinking that you have made yourself without help from anyone.

Question… do you know someone who you know that are VERY wealthy… may even be millionaires… but to look at them and their lifestyle you would never know it. They are practicing simplicity or their make up lends them to simplicity. People who like to keep score by owning the most toys need to practice the simplicity discipline.

The discipline of stewardship encourages us to be good managers of what God has blessed us with. It includes our money, talents, and time.

Sacrifice discipline is a more radical discipline than simplicity. This involves the discipline of giving up something that would meet our needs rather than just our wants. This is kind of like seed giving out of your need. Let’s say you need a financial… to practice the sacrifice discipline would be to give money to meet someone else’s need and entrust God to take care of our need.

Worship and Celebration

True worship is to be totally and fully occupied with the majesty, beauty, goodness, powers, and perfection of God. Worship is a decision and it’s just like any other discipline… you have to decide to worship God. You worship God regardless of how your feel and regardless of your circumstances.

Celebration is a form of worship but it emphasizes all the God has done on our behalf. When you practice the discipline of celebration you choose to focus on gratitude for what you have instead of grumbling for what you do not have.

Service

True service is a discipline that concentrates on the needs of others and how to meet those needs. This is all done without the need or desire for recognition but rather it is done out of a true love and desire to please Jesus and do the works he called us to do.

Witness

This is a discipline that is not followed nearly enough in this day and time. You may say that it is not your calling… but we are all called to evangelism. This type of discipline calls us to go outside our comfort zone and circle of friends to bear witness of Jesus. This can be hard and will call for complete and total trust in Jesus. Think about it… there used to be a lot of door to door witnessing going on… but now this type of discipline is rarely practiced.

This has wrapped up our 18 Spiritual Disciplines but I would like to end this lesson with some great suggestions for enhancing your practice of prayer.

1. Choose the best time – Select a particular time of the day, and dedicate it only it personal prayer.
2. Choose the best place – Select a place where there will be a minimum of interruptions and distractions. During walking or exercising.
3. Set a minimum time for daily prayer – but be realistic… don’t pressure yourself by biting off more than you can choose. Start comfortable and work your way up as needed.
4. Be consistent – regard your prayer time as a daily appointment you have made with God and keep your appointments.
5. Focus on the person of God – Prepare your heart and mind for prayer by releasing all stresses and concerns and giving them to the Lord. Casting all your anxiety on Him, because He cares for you (1 peter 5:7)
6. Come before him in humility – You are talking with the creator of the universe… a Holy God.
7. Come expectantly to the throne – Expect the supernatural – ask him for something only he can do (is anything too difficult for the Lord? (Genesis 18:14)
8. Pray at all times in the Spirit – Our prayers should be initiated and energized by the Holy Spirit who intercedes for the saints according to the will of God (Romans 8:27)
9. Strive for a balanced diet – our prayers should include a balanced menu of praise, confession, adoration, supplication (intercession and petition) and thanksgiving.
10. Pray Scripture back to God -
11. Do not do all the talking – Practice times of being still and know that He is Lord… listen for that still small voice.
12. Make prayer a part of your relationships with people – how many of us has prayer partners… who actually pray together at times when you run up with each other.
13. Plan special times of prayer during the year -
14. Practice the presence of God – We should practice what we pray for… because we are always in the presence of God Almighty.

Paradigm Spirituality

Paradigm Spirituality

Paradigm means – how you see something – your perspective on something – your view or opinion on an issue or a topic.

So what we want to do when we study Paradigm Spirituality is we want to take a look at how we can change or perspective (paradigm) from thinking about the earthly things to thinking about heavenly things.

One Year to Live

Suppose your doctor tells you that you only had one year to live because you have a terminal illness… you get a second, third, and fourth opinion and they all agree that you have one year to live. The good thing is there will not be any negative effects of the disease until it has reached its course.

Now… how that scenario would change the way you view life… the way you view temporal things of this earth.

How would you live and invest the rest of your time here on earth?

Our life is so short compared to eternity… we need to understand that this time we spend here on earth so short… it’s nothing compared to eternity.

Think about your life span as being a small grain of sand… now think about eternity being a vast dessert. That does not even compare… that’s not a good enough example.

Put it this way… you will live forever somewhere. Your life here on earth is just a dress rehearsal for eternity.

James tells us in chapter 4 vs 14 that our life is like a vapor… only here for a little while and then vanishes away. That is how short our life is here on earth compared to eternity.

We can chose to live our lives as if this is all there is, or we can view our earthly existence as a brief pilgrimage designed to prepare us for eternity.

An earthly paradigm is one who adopts the temporal way of thinking… they treat the temporal (their earthly existence) as though it is going to last forever and the eternal as though it is temporary.

But an eternal paradigm knows that our stay here on earth is brief and that this is only a journey that we are pilgrims heading to another home.

Now let me ask this question… do you find yourself struggling back and forth between being earthly minded and eternal minded. If you are honest you can not help but be drawn into this world… that is what this world does is it pulls you down. But as Christians we are to rise above it and renew our minds with biblical truth and reinforce this truth through relationships with other children of the kingdom.

Experiencing our Mortality

I teach the teens on Wednesday nights… and this is a tough thing to try to get across to some of them. When I was 18 I was bullet proof as well.

But after you get older, get married, have children, have friends that you went to school with have heart attacks and cancer and pass away… then you start to think about your own mortality.

Our value systems become confused when we invest more of our thought and concern in things that are doomed to disappear than in that which will endure forever.

Agustine wrote, we must care for our bodies as though we were going to live forever, but we must care for our souls as if we were going to die tomorrow.

Does this mean that we should be so heavenly minded that we are of no earthly good? In fact, it is the opposite – when people become heavenly minded, they treasure the passing opportunities of this life and become more alive to the present moment.

Romans 8:18
Rom 8:18
(18) For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the coming glory to be revealed in us.

So now… we understand there is two view, perspectives, paradigm of thinking… one is a temporal (earthly view) and the other is an eternal view.

What could keep someone from changing there perspective, having a paradigm shift? Could it be that they don’t trust God?

Can We Trust God?

As we’ve been discussing… we have two rival value systems.

The temporal value system demands no trust and dependence upon God because it is based upon what is seen.

The eternal value system is unseen and therefore requires a walk of faith.

2Co 5:7
(7) for we walk by faith, not by sight;

Can we trust God?

We can some up these two rival value systems in this table:

People who think temporal want pleasure, recognition, popularity, status, and power… but the pursuit of these things only leads to emptiness, delusion, and foolishness.

The opposite of that we have the eternal thinking people. Those are the ones who really think about the things they do and how they do them will give glory and honor to God. They make it a priority to know God, get His approval, being a servant, having integrity and character, with humility… these people have fulfillment, reality and wisdom.

1Pe 1:8-9
(8) whom having not seen, you love; in whom not yet seeing, but believing in Him you exult with unspeakable joy, and having been glorified,
(9) obtaining the end of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

Our Earthly existence if not about us!

The most important thing for us to realize about our earthly life is that our life is about God and not about us; all things are created by him and for him, and we exist to serve God and not to persuade God to serve us.

Even in our jobs... we need to glorify and honor God. Colossians 3:22-24 states that in our careers, for example, we should execute our tash with quality and care as servant of Christ rather than pleasers of men. In other words we are working for God... to please God not to please man. Our ambition must be different from that of others; instead of pursuing position, power, prestige, or wealth, we should seek the approval of our God!

Bottom line is this... paradigm spirituality is about the way you see your spirituality. Do you see it as temporal or do you see your time here on earth breif and you must do what you can for the glory of God now.

Jesus said that we must work the works of Him who sent Me as long as it is day: night is coming when no one can work... So then, while we have opportunity, let us do good to all people... Conduct yourselvs with wisdom toward outsiders, making the mose of each opportunity.... Therefore be careful how you walk, not as unwise men bus as wise, making the most of your time, becasue the days are evil... and time is short

Conformed to His Image - Relational Spirituality

Conformed To His Image

What we are going to study and review for the next 13 weeks is the book written by Kennith Boa – Conformed to His Image.

His book really reads like a text book in that it is so jammed packed full of principles and sound biblical doctrine.

Please pray for me as I prepare for these lessons. It takes a great deal of preparation time and study for me to get my thoughts down and get an idea of how the Holy Spirit wants me to teach each lesson. So again… please pray for me that I will be Christ centered and not self centered… that I will be obedient to His Word and my study time will be productive and time sensitive.

What Mr. Boa does in this book is he looks at the body of Christ and the revelation given to the body of Christ in Romans 8:29

Rom 8:29
(29) For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, for Him to be the First-born among many brothers.

Conforming to the image of Christ is a process but none the less it is His purpose that we as believers become conformed to the image of His Son. It is a journey that you will never obtain or reach while you are present on the earth. But you will obtain it one day…

Jud 1:24
Now to Him being able to keep you without stumbling, and to set you before His glory without blemish, with unspeakable joy;
What I hope we will accomplish by studying the Bible with the help of this book is that:
Develop a greater appreciation for the unique way God has made you
Become aware of a wider array of options for your spiritual journey
Get out of a possible spiritual rut
Desire to experiment with other facts of the faith
Appreciate the great examples faith by great saints who have gone on before us
Expand your horizons and be encouraged to move out of your comfort zone
Have instilled in you a greater passion for Christ and greater desire to participate in his loving purposes for you life

I would like to start out talking to you a little bit about this postmodern world that we live in. We now live in a world where our children are being taught tolerance and how important it is to be tolerant of all belief systems and conduct. Our children are being taught relativism in that what is one person’s truth is truth to them and they are not wrong for believing that… in other words that is no absolute truth and now absolute right and wrong. It is a personal truth or awakening.
This is absolutely wrong and it flies in the face of sound biblical doctrine. The sad thing is that our children are being affected by this. In the way they think and act. I heard about a preacher who asked his children what is the worst thing anyone could say about you that would hurt you the most… the kids answer was that they would be considered intolerant. They don’t want their friends to believe they are intolerant. This belief system is being ingrained into our children's minds and without Godly instruction, this sort of teaching will take root. The next thing you know these kids will be lawyers, judges, and work in politics and government. Then it will effect us even more... and it already has.

This is such a shallow belief!

No wonder there is a spiritual hunger in this world today. People are looking for something that will satisfy that emptiness they long for. Many in this world long for something and they have no idea what it is they are looking for.

Many believers are searching for something as well… we are on a quest for meaning, purpose and many would like to know their place among fellow believers in Christ. You will never be fulfilled until you completely surrender to Christ and begin the process of becoming conformed to His image.
We will be looking at concepts that describe a journey into spirituality… a Christ-centered biblical spirituality.

We will be looking at 12 facets of Spirituality.
I want to describe these facets like this… consider your spirituality like a fine gem or a real nice expensive diamond. They tell me if you look at a diamond from different angles it gives a different appearance because of the way the light shines on it. Looking at it from another angle offers another beautiful view of its stunning clarity. We want to look at our study of spirituality like looking at a beautiful and expensive diamond. We will look at it from many different angles and many different settings.
The first one we will study is Relational Spirituality. In this study we will learn what it means to:
Loving God completely
Loving ourselves correctly
And loving others compassionately

Relational Spirituality - Loving God Completely

What is man, that you take thought of him? That is a question for God... What is man, that you take thought of him?

God is infinite, God is personal, and God is triune. Why did God bother to create us... humans for? One of his purposes in creating us is to display his glory through us. He created us as intelligent moral creatures who are capable of responding to him and his call to has a personal relationship with us.

We all understand what happened in the garden when sin separated us from having a relationship with God... there became a barrier between man and God... that barrier was SIN. Because God so loved us he sent his only begotten son... God desired a relationship with us so dealer he allowed his son to suffer GREATLY for our sins to bring us back into a relationship with him.

Not only that but God wants us to grow our relationship with God. The purpose of us being created is to know, love, enjoy, and honor the triune Lord of all creation!

The better you know and understand God, the better you will know and understand yourself.

The Glory of God
There is a lot in the Bible concerning the glory of God. One of the best examples of this I in Psalm 8:3-4
Psa 8:3-4
(3) When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, The moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained;
(4) What is man, that thou art mindful of him? And the son of man, that thou visitest him?

What is humanity in deed... Isaiah 40:26 tells us that he created these stars and he calls them by name! God's wisdom, beauty, power and dominion are beyond human comprehension... but yet we are designed by God to seek intimacy with him. God thinks so much of us that he knew you from your mothers womb and knows the very number of hairs on your head right now.

God's Love for us

God's has a supernatural love for us.

God's loves is causeless - Romans 5:6 - You can not cause God to love you... He loves you because he created you and desires a relationship with you
God's love is measureless - Romans 5:7-8 - You can not define the limits of God's love because it knows no limits or boundaries
God's love is ceaseless - Romans 5:9-11 - God will never stop loving us... nothing can be done to make him love us more and nothing can be done to make him love us less
God's love is inseparable - Romans 8:35-39 - nothing can separate us from the love of God.

Loving God Completely

Loving God Completely involves our whole personality - our intellect, emotion and will.
Mark 12:30 says "And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength".
The better we come to know God, the more we will love him. An the more we love him, the greater our willingness to trust and obey him in the things he calls us to do.

In our quite times of meditation and prayer with the Lord - time we spend developing our relationship with him... I would encourage you to consider these three phrases that we are going to discuss. Ask God ... that you may know thee more clearly, love thee more dearly, and follow thee more nearly!

How can we know God more clearly?

The apostle Paul wrote some great prayers in Ephesians 1 and 3, Philippians 1, and Colossi ans 1... all about his deep desire to grow in the knowledge of Jesus Christ. In Ephesians 1:17-18; 3:19 he prayed that the Lord would give them a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him... he prayed that the eyes of their hearts be enlightened and that they would know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge.

Christianity is not a religion but a relationship with God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit!

What does it take to know God more clearly? Two essential ingredients... time and obedience. It takes time to cultivate a relationship... Our Lord invites us to the highest calling of all - intimacy with him - and day after day, we decline the offer, preferring instead to fill our lives with short-lived pleasures.

We need to set time aside each day for prayer, communion with God and reading scripture. By doing this we will develop an intimate relationship with the Lord.

How can we love God more dearly?

To know God is to love him! When we realize that the author of time, space, matter, and energy... for some reasons that are incomprehensible, chose to love us unconditionally. God did not love us because we were lovable, beautiful, or clever... because of our sins - we were unlovable. But God chose to love us... 1 john 4:19 says "we love, because He first loved us".

By God's grace we need to grow in love with him in our thoughts, in our emotions, and in our actions. We will talk more about love God more dearly later in our studies in the Devotional Spirituality section.


How do we follow God more nearly?

As we grow to know and love God, we learn that we can trust his character, promises, and precepts. Whenever he asks us to avoid something, it is because he knows that it is not in our best interests. Whenever he asks us to do something, it is always because it will lead to a great good.

John 14:15 tells us that if we love Jesus, we will keep his commands. In other words... by being obedient to his commands is the way we test and express our love and relationship with the Lord.


Loving Ourselves Correctly

In order to love ourselves correctly we need to gain a perspective on who defines us? Who defines you? It is so easy to let the world define us instead of God define us.

Many of us have shaped our self image by what we believe others think of us. It's only natural to shape our self-image by the attitudes and opinions of our parents, our peers, and our friendships.

But seeing yourself only through this approach is a distorted view of who you are. How do you think God sees you? Only when we define ourselves by the truth of the Word rather than the thinking and experiences of the world can we discover the truth about who we are in Christ, with is our deepest identity.

You know... we've all heard the psychology of looking inside yourself to for the answers to your problems. That song by Whitney Huston... learning to love yourself. That is a beautiful song and Whitney can really sing it well but it has the wrong answers. The scriptures tell us to look to Christ, not to self, for the solutions we need.

The biblical view of self-love is this: loving ourselves correctly mans seeing ourselves as God sees us.

How do we see ourselves as God see us? - See September 4th post.

Seeing ourselves as God sees us takes a knowledge and understanding of God's grace and his Word. The unique thing about grace is that it can humble us without degrading us... God's grace elevates us without inflating us.

God's graces tells us that apart from Christ, we have nothing and can do nothing of eternal value.
Php 3:3
(3)
For we are the circumcision who worship God in the spirit and rejoice in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh;

Grace teaches us that we have been transformed from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light, life and love. Our past has been changed... our sins are washed away as far as the East is from the West.

The most important think graces teaches us is that its not about us but its about whose we are!

Who does God say I am?

We get our understand of who we are by understand what God says about us through his Word. Please take a moment and look through your handout of these biblical affirmations about our identity in Jesus Christ. See September 4th post.

Loving Others Compassionately

Now we need to take our understanding of who we are in Christ and take it to the world. We need to go from the vertical to the horizontal.

How do we express God's love to a lost and dying world? How do we manifest God's love? The great commandment in Matthew 27:37 is that,"you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind".

The next great commandment comes two verses later in verse 39... "you shall love your neighbor as yourself".

Here are additional verses pertaining to loving people.
John 13:34
(34)
I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. As I have loved you, you should also love one another.

John 15:12
(12)
This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.

1John 3:23
(23)
And this is His commandment, that we should believe on the name of His Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, as He gave us commandment.

The more we love God, the more we will express his love to others by our actions and deeds... by the fruit we bare. It's impossible to love God and not love your brother and sisters in Christ. It's impossible to love God and not have a heart to see people come to know Jesus Christ as their Lord and personal savior.

The quest for greatness in the sight of others.

Near the end of Jesus ministry here on earth, the disciples were arguing about who would sit on the right hand of Jesus and who would sit on the left hand, in Glory. Do you remember what Jesus told them... he told them that whoever wished to be great among them will be their servant and whoever wished to be first among them will be a slave to all. In that same chapter in Mark he goes on to tell them " For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many".

The Essence of True Greatness

Another lesson Jesus taught them about love, service and humility is he washed their feet. The lesson here is that if their teach and Lord became their servant, they should also serve on another.

Jesus had a awesome security about who he was... I like what Kenneth Boa had to say about this... let me read it to you.
He knew his dignity and power ("the father had given all things into His hands"), he knew his significance and identity ("and that He had come forth from God"), and he know his security and destiny ("and was going back to God")

Jesus got his identity from his relationship with his Father... he certainly did not get it from who the world thought that he was.
In John 1:46 - "can any good thing come out of Nazareth?"
Mark 2:16 "why is He eating and drinking with tax collectors and sinners?"

And there are many, many other verses where the world tries to define Jesus by bringing him down to their level... but Jesus knew who he was and he knew from where he came and he knew where he was going.

Do we not have the same inheritance as Christ? Do we not have the same destination as Christ? Then we should not allow what our friends, or the world say about us to hinder our service to others.

When we find that security of whose we are and who we are in Christ then it will free us up to serve others as Christ served others. Then we will make a difference with our service.

Now... let's look at it from another angle. Do you believe that the people you call your friend defines who you are?

Gordon MacDonald observes that we encounter 5 kinds of people.
VRPs - the very resourceful people. They add to our life and usually tend to be mentors or older men and women who offer their wisdom and experiences to us.
VIP's - the very important people. They share our passion. These people love us enough to share our burdens and/or task. They love us enough to tell us the truth about their opinions without fear of loosing the friendship.
VTP's - the very trainable people. These people or generally new to the faith... they are still learning and you know and understand that they are looking and learning from you. They often come to you for advice and spiritual guidance.
VNP's - next we have the very nice people. These are what make up the large majority of the congregations in the United States. These people enjoy seeing the works of others but offer no help with the work. They sit in the pews and receive blessing but do not help with the work.
VDP's - the very draining people. These poeple will sap our passion by causing conflicts and constantly looking for comfort and recognition.

If we are not careful the VNP's and the VDP's will absorb the majority of our time. I'm not saying we should completely avoid these people... we are to minister to their needs and feed them the milk of His word... but the majority of our time should be spent with the VRP's, the VIP's and the VTP's.

Now I want you to do something for me this week. I want you to think about your friends and the people you spend the most of your time with... who fits into what category and how does that impact you and your service to others. Pray and ask God how to spend more time with the first three and ask God to help you to be more productive and helpful to the last two groups.

The last thing we are going to discuss today that will hinder how you love others compassionately is forgiveness.

It's a fact that there is no sin so great that God will not forgive, but there is no sin so small that does not need to be forgiven. God forgiveness erases the sin from existence. There is a song by Casting Crowns call "As far as the East is from the West". It is taken from Psalms 103:12 when the Psalmist proclaims that God removes our sins as far as the East is from the West... that is a long ways brother.

Still... many people find it difficult to understand or accept that God has unconditionally forgiven their sins. They believe that they must somehow work off the debt of sin to earn their forgiveness. These people need to have a better understanding of grace and the height and depth of God's love toward His children.

Next we have the hindrance of forgiving others.

William Blake has a quote - I was angry with my foe: I told it not, my wrath did grow.

When we acknowledge those who have hurt us, we acknowledge that we too have needed forgiveness and that we are not as different from the offender as we might like to think.

In Christ we are to offer grace to the offender rather than justice.
Lewis B. Smedes states: "When you release the wrongdoer from the wrong, you cut a malignant tumor out of your inner life. You set a prisoner free, but you discover the real prisoner was yourself."

Sometimes long after you forgive the wound can linger in your memory... forgiving is not the same as forgetting or excusing, or smoothing things over. True forgiveness is costly... especially when there is no repentance on the part of the wrongdoer. But true forgiveness is a way that will release us from the guilt and bondage and to break that cycle of blame.

Here is an exercise I would encourage you to do... it only should be done alone between you and God.
Take a piece of paper and write down the names of those who have hurt you over the years through disloyalty and betrayal. Offer this list to God along with all the pain it rekindles, and make a choice through faith in Christ to forgive each person on the list. The crumple the paper and burn it before the Lord who forgave you from the cross. This can be liberating.

You need to be free from the bondage of unforgiving in your life to truly experience a greater and complete love of God, a deeper understanding of how to love yourself, and a love for the service of others.

Who does God say that I am?

Who does God say I am?

Biblical affirmations concerning our identity in Jesus Christ:

I am a child of God.
Joh 1:12
(12) But as many as received Him, He gave to them authority to become the children of God, to those who believe on His name,

I am a branch of the true vine, and a conduit of Christ’s life.
Joh 15:1
(1) I am the True Vine, and My Father is the Vinedresser.

I am a friend of Jesus.
Joh 15:5
(5) I am the Vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, the same brings forth much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.
Joh 15:15
(15) No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master does. But I have called you friends, for all things that I have heard from My Father I have made known to you.

I have been justified and redeemed.
Rom 3:24
(24) being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus;

My old self was crucified with Christ, and I am no longer a slave to sin.
Rom 6:6
(6) knowing this, that our old man is crucified with Him in order that the body of sin might be destroyed, that from now on we should not serve sin.

I will not be condemned by God.
Rom 8:1
(1) There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.

I have been set free from the law of sin and death.
Rom 8:2
(2) But the Law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death.

As a child of God, I am a fellow heir with Christ.
Rom 8:17
(17) And if we are children, then we are heirs; heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ; so that if we suffer with Him, we may also be glorified together.

I have been accepted by Christ.
Rom 15:7
(7) Therefore receive one another as Christ also received us, to the glory of God.

I have been called to be a saint.
1Co 1:2
(2) to the church of God which is in Corinth, to those who are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called out with all those in every place who call on the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours.

In Christ Jesus, I have wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption.
1Co 1:30
(30) But of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who of God is made to us wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption;

My body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who dwells in me.
1Co 3:16
(16) Do you not know that you are a temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?
1Co 6:19
(19) Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit in you, whom you have of God? And you are not your own,




I am joined to the Lord and am one spirit with him.
1Co 6:17
(17) But he being joined to the Lord is one spirit.

God leads me in the triumph and knowledge of Christ.
2Co 2:14
(14) Now thanks be to God, who always causes us to triumph in Christ, and He revealing through us the odor of the knowledge of Him in every place.

The hardening of my mind has been removed in Christ.
2Co 3:14
(14) (But their thoughts were blinded; for until the present the same veil remains on the reading of the old covenant, not taken away.) But this veil has been done away in Christ.

I am a new creature in Christ.
2Co 5:17
(17) So that if any one is in Christ, that one is a new creature; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.

I have become the righteousness of God in Christ.
2Co 5:21
(21) For He has made Him who knew no sin, to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

I have been made one with all who are in Christ Jesus.
Gal 3:28
(28) There cannot be Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is no male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

I am no longer a slave but a child and an heir.
Gal 4:7
(7) So that you are no longer a slave, but a son; and if a son, also an heir of God through Christ.

I have been set free in Christ.
Gal 5:1
(1) Stand fast therefore in the liberty with which Christ has made us free, and do not again be held with the yoke of bondage.

I have been blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.
Eph 1:3
(3) Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies in Christ;

I am chosen, holy, and blameless before God.
Eph 1:4
(4) according as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love,

I am redeemed and forgiven by the grace of Christ.
Eph 1:7
(7) In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace,

I have been predestined by God to obtain an inheritance.
Eph 1:10-11
(10) for an administration of the fullness of times, to head up all things in Christ, both the things in Heaven, and the things on earth, even in Him,
(11) in whom also we have been chosen to an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His own will,

I have been sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise.
Eph 1:13
(13) in whom also you, hearing the Word of Truth, the gospel of our salvation, in whom also believing, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise,

Because of God’s mercy and love, I have been made alive with Christ.
Eph 2:4-5
(4) But God, who is rich in mercy, for His great love with which He loved us
(5) (even when we were dead in sins) has made us alive together with Christ (by grace you are saved),

I am seated in the heavenly places with Christ.
Eph 2:6
(6) and has raised us up together and made us sit together in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus,

I am God’s workmanship created to produce good works.
Eph 2:10
(10) For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to good works, which God has before ordained that we should walk in them.

I have been brought near to God by the blood of Christ.
Eph 2:13
(13) But now in Christ Jesus you who were once afar off are made near by the blood of Christ.

I am a member of Christ’s body and a partaker of his promise.
Eph 3:6
(6) that the nations should be fellow heirs, and of the same body, and partaker of His promise in Christ through the gospel.

I have a boldness and confident access to God through faith in Christ.
Eph 3:12
(12) in whom we have boldness and access with confidence through His faith.

My new self is righteous and holy.
Eph 4:24
(24) And you should put on the new man, who according to God was created in righteousness and true holiness.

I was formerly darkness, but now I am light in the Lord.
Eph 5:8
(8) For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord; walk as children of light

I am a citizen of heaven.
Php 3:20
(20) For our citizenship is in Heaven, from which also we are looking for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ,

The peace of God guards my heart and mind.
Php 4:7
(7) And the peace of God which passes all understanding shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.

God supplies all my needs.
Php 4:19
(19) But my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.

I have been made complete in Christ.
Col 2:10
(10) And you are complete in Him, who is the Head of all principality and power,

I have been raised up with Christ.
Col 3:1
(1) If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is sitting at the right hand of God.

My life is hidden with Christ in God.
Col 3:3
(3) For you died, and your life has been hidden with Christ in God.

Christ is my life, and I will be revealed with him in glory.
Col 3:4
(4) When Christ our Life is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory.

I have been chosen of God, and I am holy and beloved.
Col 3:12
(12) Therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, put on tender feelings of mercy, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, long-suffering,

God loves me and has chosen me.
1Th 1:4
(4) knowing, beloved brothers, your election of God.

I recommend reviewing frequently this powerful inventory, since it reminds us of truths we quickly forget amid the worries and cares of this world. The more we embrace these affirmations from Scripture, the more stable, grateful, and fully assured we will be in the course of our lives.

Kenneth Boa – Conformed to His Image – page 41

Abiding In Christ

Abiding in Christ

Abiding in something means when it's used as a noun means to conform to. The Bible tells us in Romans 8:29 that God created us to be conformed to His image. When Abide is used in the verb tense it means to bear patiently, to accept without rejection, to remain stable or in a fixed state.

Think about this for a moment... let's go back to Genesis chapter one... have you ever noticed while reading this passage that... God created something out of whatever he spoke to.
- When God wanted plants he spoke to the dirt.
- When God wanted fish He spoke to the waters.
- When God wanted animals He spoke to the ground.

Not only are all things composed of the materials they were made from, they must also remain attached to the source in order to live.
- Plants have to remain in the dirt in order to live
- Fish have to remain in the waters in order to live
- Animals have to eat plants from the ground and other animals from the ground in order to live.

Now think back to who God spoke to when He wanted to make man. Genesis 1 v 26 says then God said, Let Us make man in Our image. Who did He speak to... he spoke to Himself. He spoke to the triune God head.

So now let's recap for a moment...
- When God wanted plants He spoke to the dirt - plants have to remain attached to their source in order to live.
- When God wanted fish He spoke to the waters - fish have to remain in the water in order to live.
- When God wanted animals He spoke to the ground - animals have to eat plants from the ground or other animals made from the ground in order to live.
All of creation has to remain attached to it's source to survive. That is a physical law that God ordained in nature.

Now you probably are already ahead of me... we have to remain attached to our source in order to live. Our bodies are made out of dirt and they will go back to the ground but our inner man(our spirit) is came from God when God breathed the breath of life into the nostrils of Adam and man became a living being. And we must abide in Him in order to have Life and have it more abundantly. How do you abide in God and how do you stay attached to your source... you read and study His word. You stay attached to the vine by praying... talking to God. That is how you remain in your source... by His Word and by prayer. His Word is the bread of Life.

As we as Christians abide in Christ... have a personal relationship with Christ... we begin to bear the fruit of Christlike qualities. We begin to be conformed to His image that Romans 8:29 speaks about.

The believers heart begins to beat in perfect rhythm with the Father's heart. When this kind of abiding occurs I believe it will produce a least 4 other results.

1. Prayers are answered. This does not mean that God will become our personal Santa Clause. Our prayers will be more intune with the Holy Spirit and the will of God. We will be dying to our self and as Christ we will be more concerned with the needs of others. We would be praying like and for the kinds of things Christ would pray for. And Christ always yielded to the will of His Father... even unto death.

2. God is Glorified. God delights in seeing us reflect His character. And by praying unselfishly and praying the will of God - He will be glorified.

3. Love is stimulated. When you are attached to the vine you can not help but have love in your hearts for you brothers and sisters in Christ. You also can't help but want to reach out to those who are not attached to the vine. You will have a heart to want to see people grafted into the one true vine.

4. Joy and peace will overflow. I'm not talking about the superficial happiness that is fleeting. I'm talking about a genuine deep contentment that transcends difficulties. I'm talking about a peace that God gives that passeth all understanding no matter how low the valley is you are going through. Some of you know what I'm talking about... you've gone through some very tough trials in your life time but through it all you have had a peace that the world cannot understand.

Who said you can't judge a book by its cover... that is not in the Bible. If you are a Christian you need to bear fruit... in order to bear fruit you need to stay attached to the vine. The more you are committed to staying attached to the vine the more fruit you will bear. I hope this brief message has spoken to your heart and will encourage you as your mediate on the Word of God this week.

God Bless you,
Dwayne

Revelation chapters 4 & 5

Let me start this lesson with a brief historical background. The apostle John wrote the book of Revelation while he was exiled on the Isle of Patmos in the Aegean Sea. John was a disciple of Christ during Christ earthly ministry. John was exiled to the Isle of Patmos because Rome was becoming less and less tolerant of the gospel. Paul was executed and so was Peter during this particular time period. Many of the churches in that time period were facing tremendous suffering, spiritual warfare, heresy, sinful practices among their members. John was an old man at this time… he was preaching in Ephesus, ministering to the churches there and in the surrounding cities.

We can understand that the church was in a state of need for encouragement and hope. They needed to be reminded that God was still in charge and that it was He who was on the throne. That message is still relevant today. The church needs to know that regardless of the circumstances of this world, regardless of who gets elected President of the United States, regardless if Iran is allowed to get Nuclear weapon… God is in control and His sovereignty is not in doubt.

I want to make sure we have a basic understanding of these verses and thought it best to break them down verse by verse and give a commentary on them.

Rev 4:1-2
(1) After these things I looked, and behold, a door was opened in Heaven. And the first voice which I heard was as it were of a trumpet talking with me, saying, Come up here, and I will show you what must occur after these things.
(2) And immediately I became in spirit. And behold, a throne was set in Heaven, and One sat upon the throne.

1st thing I want to discuss is the phrase “come up hither”. John heard a booming voice saying to him “come up hither”. This was an invitation that took no effort on John’s part. When you and the Holy Spirit are in tune together it takes no effort on your part.

The next part of the text I want to look at is the phrase “here after”. This simply implies that the prophecies he is about to see are thing that will happen in the future.

Then we have “I was in the spirit”. Now John was immediately transported to the third heaven. John is in the presence of Almighty God. John is not somewhere in the upper atmosphere nor is he in the starry heavens… John is in the third heaven… a place that no telescope will ever reveal.
When John says “I was in the spirit” he was refereeing to the Holy Spirit. This is important because we need to understand that all true prophecy has to come by the Holy Spirit. Peter said this in 2nd Peter 1:20-21.
2Pe 1:20-21
(20) Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation.
(21) For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.


Rev 4:3-4
(3) And He who sat there looked like a jasper stone and a sardius. And a rainbow was around the throne, looking like an emerald.
(4) And around the throne I saw twenty-four thrones. And on the thrones I saw twenty-four elders sitting, clothed in white clothing. And they had crowns of gold on their heads.

“He that sat” is referring to God the Father. John was transported into the third heaven into the throne room of God.

The reference to there being a “rainbow round about the throne” is an interesting thing. Let me read to you what the New Bible Commentary has to say about the rainbow. The rainbow is primarily to conceal the form of God; yet it is significant that a rainbow and not an ordinary cloud performs this service, for the bow is a perpetual reminder of God’s covenant to restrain His wrath from man on earth; the memorial of the covenant in heaven is thus nothing less than the glory of God which hides Him from angelic view.

Next in verse 4 we see the 24 elders sitting, clothed in white robes with crowns of gold on their heads. There is a lot of different discussions about what this could represent. Some commentaries I read said that this could represent the 24 orders of priests during he days of David and Solomon. When they come together in meetings they represented the priesthood as well as the entire nation of Israel.

Some commentaries note that it could represent the 12 tribes of Israel and the 12 disciples, thus the total 24. I’m not sure if one of these thoughts are right or not but I do believe that John saw 24 elders in white robes with golden crowns… that much I am sure of.


Rev 4:5-6
(5) And out of the throne came lightnings and thunderings and voices. And seven lamps of fire were burning in front of the throne, which are the seven spirits of God.
(6) And a sea of glass was in front of the throne, like crystal. And in the midst of the throne, and around the throne, were four living creatures, full of eyes in front and behind.

Now in verse 5 thunder and lightning are coming from the throne of God. Thunder and lightning signify that something important is about to happen. If you remember… on Mount Sinai this also happened just before God gave the Law to Moses. This thunder and lightning is happening to let us know that God’s judgment is coming. There are also many verses in the Bible that talks about a trumpet being sounded just before something important was going to happen… this happened in the Old Testament as well as the New. In Matthew 24 verse 31 Jesus talked about a sound of a trumpet that will signify something great is about to happen.

Mat 24:31 And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.

That is one trumpet I want to hear!!


Rev 4:7-11
(7) And the first living creature was like a lion, and the second living creature like a calf, and the third living creature had the face of a man, and the fourth living creature like a flying eagle.
(8) And each one of the four living creatures had six wings about him, and within being full of eyes. And they had no rest day and night, saying, Holy, holy, holy, Lord God, the Almighty, who was and is and is to come.
(9) And whenever the living creatures gave glory and honor and thanks to Him who sat on the throne, who lives forever and ever,
(10) the twenty-four elders fell down before the One sitting on the throne. And they worshiped Him who lives for ever and ever, and threw their crowns before the throne, saying,
(11) O Lord, You are worthy to receive glory and honor and power, because You created all things, and for Your will they are and were created.


John seems to be drawn to the four living creatures that are in the midst of God’s throne. They are strange beings full of eyes and wings. Their sole purpose for being seems to be only to give praise and honor to a Holy God.

Some commentaries and concordances seem to draw an interesting correlation about the faces of these creatures and the four Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.

Matthew spoke often about Christ being the Lion of Judah. Mark portrayed Christ as the perfect servant… much like an ox in Biblical days was the perfect servant. Luke portrayed the Lord as the perfect man. And John wrote often about the deity of Christ, showing Him soaring like an eagle.

The four creatures never rest day or night from praising God and worshipping Him. The creatures are shouting Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, Who was and is and is to come!”

The 24 elders get into the act periodically and join in themselves in worshipping God. They fall prostate before God and cast their crowns before the throne and say “you are worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power; for You created all things, and by Your will they exist and were created.”



Let’s think about a few things here before we go on to part two of our lesson.

Let’s reflect on the classic hymn Holy, holy, holy Lord God Almighty, God in three persons, Blessed trinity. That is a song with worship and adoration for the Almighty God that just pores out of that song. It is a worship song that will never grow old, that is never out dated, and will never lose it’s anointing because it is straight out of God’s Word.

The Holiness of God… that is something that I believe we can not truly comprehend it while on this earth. You know, when we get to heaven and we realize the love, mercy, grace and holiness of our God. But we will also understand the God requires justice. And we will understand how great the price that had to be paid for our salvation. I believe the realization of this will simply overwhelm us into praise and adoration. We will not be able to help ourselves… it will just well up within us. I believe you can have glimmers of this here on earth but it does not even compare to what we will experience when we approach the throne of God. We deserved justice but instead He gave us mercy and grace. That is something to get excited about.

Another thing to ponder is the casting of crowns that the elders did. My friends, when we get to heaven and receive our rewards we can not do anything else but cast them at the feet of Jesus. We will finally realize just how worthy of honor and praise He is and just how unworthy we are. We will truly realize that it is not about us but about God who gave us the abilities to receive our crowns and rewards.

One commentary I read stated that casting their crowns acknowledges that they understand that God is the only worthy to take preeminence in creation. By His sovereign will He willed the existence of all things and He has the right to deal with them as He pleases.


Part two of our lessons deals with chapter 5 verses 1-10. Worthy to Open the Book

Rev 5:1-4
(1) And I saw a book on the right of Him sitting on the throne, written inside and on the back, sealed with seven seals.
(2) And I saw a mighty angel proclaiming with a loud voice, Who is worthy to open the book and to loosen its seals?
(3) And no one in Heaven, nor on the earth, nor under the earth, was able to open the book or to look at it.
(4) And I wept very much, because no one was found worthy to open and to read the book, nor to look at it.

John saw a scroll in the right hand of God. The fact that the book (scroll) is in the right hand of God signifies how important it is. The seven seals signify the importance of the document and for the readers. Roman law required a will to be sealed by seven witnesses seven times and when opened it must be opened in the presence of the seven witnesses who sealed it and read out loud. This could also mean that this scroll with seven seals is a symbol of the promise of a future kingdom.

In verse 2 a “strong angel” proclaims with a loud voice – who is worthy to open the scroll and to loose it seals? The strong angel represents something like a bailiff in a courtroom. That type of authority figure. He steps up and with a strong loud voice makes his proclamation in the form of a question… “who is worthy to open the scroll and to loose it seals’?

Verse 3 states that no one in heaven nor on the earth, or under the earth was able to open the scroll and look at it.

This made John weep… because no one was found worthy. This emphasizes the importance of that book and the contents and revelations it contains.

This scroll contains the mystery of God that was foretold by Old Testament prophets according to Revelations 1o:7. It unveils the puzzle of the universe and how history will unfold for all the earth and its inhabitants. John weep because he thought no one was worthy to open this book and reveal its secrets.


Rev 5:5-8
(5) And one of the elders said to me, Do not weep. Behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has prevailed to open the book and to loose the seven seals of it.
(6) And I looked, and lo, in the midst of the throne and of the four living creatures, amidst the elders, a Lamb stood, as if it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God sent forth into all the earth.
(7) And He came and took the book out of the right hand of Him sitting on the throne.
(8) And when He had taken the book, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each one having harps and golden vials full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints.


Suddenly, in the midst of John crying; and elder speaks to John and tells him not to weep because the Lion of the tribe of Judah is able to open the book.

The Lion of the tribe of Judah is able to open the book. Back in Genesis 49 it is prophesied that the Messiah would come from Judah and the phrase Root of David also comes from prophesy in Isaiah 11:1 that indicated that the Messiah would be from the David’s lineage.

John must have rejoiced… he turns and he is likely expecting to see a power Lion or at least Jesus as he had known him in His earthly ministry. But instead, John sees a Lamb slain with the marks of death still written on His body.
These marks will be on Christ’s body for all eternity. You know it’s interesting and has been said that throughout all eternity to come with a less than perfect body will be the eternally perfect One Himself.

The slain lamb is described as having seven horns and seven eyes. The number seven in the Bible represents completion. The horn represents strength; therefore the seven horns represent the complete and omnipotent power. They eye represents knowing and understanding therefore the seven eyes represent Christ’s complete omniscience.

The beast and the elders all fall down and worship and adore the Lamb. They cannot contain themselves. They break out in spontaneous worship and praise.

In verse 8 the elders and the beast have a harp and golden bowls full of incense. The incense is the prayers of the saints. What strikes me is that our prayers are not ever lost. We may feel as if they are lost but God has them and they are precious to Him. They are so important to God that He has them in a golden bowl before His throne held by His beast and elders. They are so precious to Him that He keeps our prayers as treasures.


Rev 5:9-10
(9) And they sang a new song, saying, You are worthy to take the book and to open its seals, for You were slain and have redeemed us to God by Your blood out of every kindred and tongue and people and nation.
(10) And You made us kings and priests to our God, and we will reign over the earth.


“They sang a new song” – they have a reason to rejoice. The Lamb that was slain was found worthy - He alone was worthy to open the scrolls. The new song acknowledges all the works that Christ did on the cross by the shedding of His blood. He purchased our redemption… we are redeemed by the blood of the Lamb.

The song is about how Christ made us to be Kings and priest to God and that we will reign over all the earth.

Without the holiness of God then there would be no provision for justice. Without the cross there would be no blood shed for the remission of sins to redeem us back to God. We would be lost and God’s justice would come down on us and we would be without hope. But thank God… the Lamb willingly was slain and we can be redeemed by the blood of the Lamb. Our sins can be washed away by His blood!



Part 3 of our lesson is entitled “Worthy Is the Lamb”


Rev 5:11
(11) And I looked, and I heard the voice of many angels around the throne, and the living creatures and the elders. And the number of them was myriads and myriads, and thousands of thousands,

You know… there is something about corporate worship isn’t there. I mean, when you are in a crowd of believers and you are lifting up the name of Jesus and worshiping Him in spirit and in truth. There is something electric about that. When I went to the teen rally in Wake Forest I was totally blown away by the cooperate worship of 10,000 people worshiping and praising the Lord. It was AWESOME.

Angels are created beings by God to help carry out God’s work in all His creation. The number is staggering… 100 million and multiples of 1 million all encircling the Lamb and with worship and praise. Notice that this is not an unorganized event… it is not routine either but it is in order. When you are worshiping God in spirit and in truth your worship will be in order… there will be an agreement.

I can image John… here he had been with Jesus during Jesus earthly ministry. John had witnessed Jesus being beaten and crucified… and now he was seeing Him worship and praise. This must have thrilled John.


Rev 5:12-14
(12) saying with a great voice, Worthy is the Lamb who was slain, to receive power and riches and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and blessing.
(13) And I heard every creature which is in the Heaven and on the earth, and under the earth, and those that are in the sea, and all who are in them, saying, Blessing and honor and glory and power be to Him sitting on the throne, and to the Lamb forever and ever.
(14) And the four living creatures said, Amen. And the twenty-four elders fell down and worshiped the One living forever and ever.

Everyone around the Lamb… the Lamb is in the middle… and the words spoken are about the seven attributes of the Lamb – power, riches, wisdom, strength, honor, glory, and blessing.

Gill’s commentary states this:
Every Creature - Animate or inanimate, angels, and the spirits of just men made perfect, sun, moon, and stars, and the fowls of the air:

and on the earth; men and beasts, and every creeping thing, mountains, hills, fruitful trees, and all cedars: and under the earth: in the bowels of it, metals, minerals, and everything of that kind:

and such as are in the sea; that sail in ships upon the mighty waters, and fishes great and small that are therein:

and all that are in them; in heaven, earth, and sea:

All were giving blessing and honor and power to Him sitting on the Throne (God the Father) and to the Lamb (God the Son).

Why? Because everyone, everything will understand that HE IS WORTHY TO BE PRAISED!

Another thing that I want to mention about this event that John was seeing… remember now he was seeing he was seeing things that will take place in the future. So… this scene that he is describing is one that all born again saints that either passed away or were caught up with Jesus in the Rapture. Now I was there… if you are a born again you were there. Isn’t that awesome? John could have possible saw and heard me giving glory and honor to God! The thought of that just thrills me!!

Then in verse 14 they 4 living creatures that were round about the throne said amen… they agreed with the worship going on. And the 24 elders fell down again and started to worship all over again.

Oh that we would understand this scripture…. Oh that we would apply it’s truths to our hearts and begin to worship God in truth and in spirit. True worship!