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Archive for the ‘The Covenant’ Category

Yeshua

Posted in The Covenant, tagged , , , , , on October 10, 2023| Leave a Comment »

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Scripture reading: Psalm 23:1-5

God is a provider. There is provision in Him to cover all our weaknesses and to heal all our diseases.

Some who read these lines may be in grave physical danger as war and revolution sweep the earth; but remember, David faced danger every day of his life, and the Holy Spirit spoke through him more than any recorded writer, of the deliverance of God from the enemy.

Psalm 23:1-5, “The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want: He maketh me to lie down in green pastures; He leadeth me beside the still waters. He restoreth my soul; He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for His name’s sake. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me; Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of my enemies: Thou anointest my head with oil; My cup runneth over.”

This and more represents the response of overshadowing which God gives to the church, as she moves in the Spirit. The embroidery covering in the structure of the Tabernacle of Moses is symbolic of all this.

(Excerpt from The Pattern, pg. 87)

Thought for today: We have provision in God to cover all our weaknesses and to heal all our diseases.

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Water Baptism – A Covenant

Posted in The Covenant, tagged , , , , , , , on September 29, 2023| Leave a Comment »

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Scripture reading: Matthew 3:11 & 1 Corinthians 12:13

Water Baptism is an act of Covenant, just as a Marriage Ceremony. When we accepted Jesus Christ as our Saviour, there was no cost accrual to us. Our salvation was bought and paid for by The Blood of Jesus Christ. Now that we are Christians, God is asking us to reciprocate. If we want to be a part of the Body of Christ, our first act would be to make a covenant with the Body of Christ, or in other words, declare our loyalty and love by some act of our will. We, therefore, must renounce the former things, and declare our stand for Christ, thus becoming dead to sin and alive unto God.

  1. Natural – Matthew 3:11
    Baptism in water
    Baptizer is man
  2. Spirit – Matthew 3:11
    Baptism in Holy Ghost
    Baptizer is Jesus
  3. Fullness – 1st Corinthians 12:13
    Baptism into Christ
    Baptizer is Holy Ghost

As the chart shows, let us look at the three dimensions which God has ordained for us to operate.

(1) NATURAL – The First dimension is always the natural. Every principle of God is first given to us in the natural. If we allow our understanding to remain in the natural, then it has no real meaning, since the natural will pass away, and at best is temporary. THE NATURAL BAPTISM, THEN, IS IN WATER, AND PERFORMED BY A HUMAN PERSON.

(2) SPIRITUAL – The Second dimension is always spiritual. The spiritual, therefore, is the real purpose for the natural, and it is upon a higher plane. The spiritual baptism is called the Baptism of the Holy Ghost. This is the entering in of the Holy Spirit into the spirit of the individual. In this baptism, instead of being covered over with water, one is covered over with the Holy Spirit, inside and outside. The pattern, however, was laid by the water baptism. Just as the water covered the believer, so also the Holy Spirit covers him, and the Baptizer is Christ Himself.

(3) FULLNESS – The Third dimension is the absolute fulfillment of both natural and spiritual. If we then understand the water baptism, then we will easily understand what the fullness of baptism will be. In this baptism, we are immersed into Christ by the Holy Spirit. Hebrews 6:2 speaks of “baptisms,“ while Ephesians 4:5 tells us that there is only “one baptism.“ These are reconciled when we understand that in the one there are three. Matthew 3:11 tells us that John the Baptist baptized with water, but Jesus would baptize with the Holy Ghost and fire. That gives us the scripture for the first two. The third is found in 1st Corinthians 12:13, where it states that the Holy Spirit baptizes us into Christ.

An example would be in order at this point. There was a natural man named Israel, and he produced a people named Israel. If this was the end of the story, then it would be a sad one indeed, but the natural Israel produced a man named Jesus Christ, who became the Saviour and Lord of a spiritual nation, and then some of the promises which it was impossible for natural Israel to walk in, the spiritual Israel are walking in. However, this spiritual Israel is just as unsatisfactory before God as the natural Israel. God, therefore, must bring another Israel to be made out of both, which He calls Zion (The Body of Christ), which will be the perfection of Beauty.

(Excerpt from The Pattern, pg. 56-57)

Thought for today: We, therefore, must renounce the former things, and declare our stand for Christ, thus becoming dead to sin and alive unto God.

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God’s Treasure

Posted in The Covenant, tagged , , on September 7, 2023| Leave a Comment »

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Scripture reading: Exodus 19:3-6

Today we are going to read in the Old Testament some of the promises that God gave to Israel, which promises Paul gave to the Church. Let’s turn to Exodus 19.

Exodus 19:3, “And Moses went up unto God, and the LORD called unto him out of the mountain, saying, Thus shalt thou say to the house of Jacob, and tell the children of Israel.” Why would God say “Jacob” and “Israel”? Isn’t Jacob Israel? But Israel is not Jacob. Jacob means the carnal Jew, and in scripture, for us, we translate it as the carnal Christian. Israel is then the whole Church. So, He wants to speak to the carnal Jew, the carnal Christian, and to the whole church.

Verse 4, “Ye have seen what I did unto the Egyptians, and how I bare you on eagles’ wings, and brought you unto myself.” We can see from this verse that our destination is Christ. He is bringing us unto Himself. It sounds very selfish, but I love when God is selfish, because He is bringing me unto Himself. That means that I am going to melt into Him and am going to become a part of God. Can you imagine that? God is promising a people that He will redeem them from their naturalness, from their carnality, and bring them unto Himself.

Verse 5-6, “Now therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure… and an holy nation. 6…These are the words which thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel.”

We love treasure. I think if a treasure came here now and they put it down outside and said that anybody who could get out there first would get as much as they could take, this place would be emptied in a short space of time. Everybody would run out to get some treasure. Have you ever thought about what God counts to be valuable? We count money. We count gold as the epitome of money. So we count gold, and God counts you as His treasure! In other words, YOU make God rich. That is the value of humanity before God. He says, “You are My treasure.” He says, “I will take you as a peculiar,” not just an ordinary little stone, but as a peculiar “treasure unto me above all people: for all the earth is mine.”

(Excerpt from Keeping in Touch, February 2007, pg. 36)

Thought for today: Remember if you obey God’s voice and keep His covenant, you will be a peculiar treasure unto Him above all people.

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The Promise of the Fathers

Posted in The Covenant, tagged , , , , on August 2, 2023| Leave a Comment »

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Scripture reading: Jeremiah 31:33

The promise of the fathers is the great promise that God has made. The most beautiful thing is that God made this promise to Israel, and when the church came, He made the same promise to the church. The church is Israel and Israel will be the church in time to come when God will show them His special favor.

Jeremiah 24:7, “And I will give them an heart to know me, that I am the LORD: and they shall be my people, and I will be their God: for they shall return unto me with their whole heart.”

Jeremiah 31:33, “But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people.”

Jeremiah 32:38, “And they shall be my people, and I will be their God.”

Ezekiel 11:20, “That they may walk in my statutes, and keep mine ordinances, and do them: and they shall be my people, and I will be their God.”

Ezekiel 37:27, “My tabernacle also shall be with them: yea, I will be their God, and they shall be my people.”

Zechariah 8:8, “And I will bring them, and they shall dwell in the midst of Jerusalem: and they shall be my people, and I will be their God, in truth and in righteousness.”

2 Corinthians 6:16, “And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.”

This indeed is the promise of the fathers, and it is abundant throughout all Scripture. God gave these promises to Israel at first, and then the Israel of God came to fulfill and inherit these promises. Many of the promises that were given to the people in the Old Testament were not understood. They did not understand how all these things would be brought to pass, and they desired and longed to understand it, but God told them it was not for them but for a people that should come.

We see the Lord giving this promise over and over and over again. Hebrews 8:10, “For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people.” The Spirit of God through Paul was quoting this to the Hebrew brethren. Now this was part of the church; this was not part of ancient Israel. We are talking about a promise being brought from the Old Testament to the church. If we could get this one thought in our hearts, then it would be a step forward to understanding the Word of God; because all that God promised, all that God did, all that God said in the Old Testament is pointing to the New Testament, to Jesus Christ Himself, and to Jesus Christ IN the church. We find then two manifestations here: Jesus Himself and Jesus in the church. This is the promise that God gave to His people.

(Excerpt from The Book of Revelation, Volume 3, pages 120-121)

Thought for today: “And they shall be my people, and I will be their God.”

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The Covenant of Baptism

Posted in The Covenant, tagged , , , , , on March 27, 2023| Leave a Comment »

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Scripture reading: John 3:3-8, Matthew 3:11

Have you ever thought of what baptism really is? Baptism is a covenant that the believer makes with God. It is permanent. It is a death, a burial, and a resurrection. The thing that dies is not the thing that rises. The thing that rises is a Christ thing. The man’s heart, his mind, his soul, and his behavior must change radically. It is not “Oh, I got changed yesterday.” No sir, it is a continuous change, a gradual change. The ugly caterpillar goes into a chrysalis and changes, changes, changes, until he undergoes his metamorphosis and becomes a beautiful butterfly. Until that day, the change is yet continuing, or should continue.

However, this change is arrested, retarded, or stopped by some of the church doctrines that we have. The believer is no longer functioning under God, for he has not made CHRIST HIS LORD. Jesus is my Saviour, oh yes. I did not have to do anything. All I needed to be saved by Jesus was to be a sinner which I did not do; I was born that way. Born a sinner, Jesus saves you, and now you must turn around and make a covenant with Him that you will follow Him all the way. That is baptism. Outside of this, there is no baptism. You could be wet with water until you continuously drip. You will not be baptized unless that consciousness has come to you.

Some of you have been baptized and feel if you go down in the name of Jesus (someone said “Jesus” over you) and come up again, you are made perfect. You are mistaken. Those of you who believe that you are baptized to become a member of a church and get the right hand of fellowship when you are baptized, YOU ARE NOT BAPTIZED. You must make the covenant with God and then go down in the water. That is baptism and you must know what you are doing. Baptism has the following three steps: Water, Holy Spirit, and Christ. Man baptizes you in water, Jesus baptizes you in the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit baptizes you into Christ. That brings you into the holy place.

There is the outer court, the holy place, and then you are still going on further. You are going into the holy of holies where the overshadowing of God will deliver you from all harm. Psalm 91:1 says, “He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.” You will go into the ark of the covenant, where you become a permanent part of God.

(Excerpt from The Book of Revelation, Volume 2, pg. 4-5)

Thought for today: Baptism is a covenant that requires continual change until our metamorphosis is complete and we are fully changed into the image and likeness of God.

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