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Posts Tagged ‘God’s Covenant’

“I Will Be Their God and They Shall Be My People”

Posted in Christian Walk, tagged , , , on September 16, 2022| Leave a Comment »

Scripture reading: Hebrews 8: 8-11

God’s desire for His people is that they would be a holy nation, a royal priesthood, a peculiar people, a kingdom of priests. How will this come about? Hebrews 8:9, “Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; because they continued not in my covenant, and I regarded them not, saith the Lord.”

Verse 10a, “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.” Notice he said, “into their mind.” Jeremiah 31:33b says, “I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts.” When Paul was translating this verse from the Hebrew into the Greek, he received the understanding and used the word “mind.” “I will put my laws into their mind.” The mind is the HEAD of the soul. God will put His laws in their souls, in their minds, and write them in their hearts – the very center of the human being. This center controls the actions, the thoughts, the emotions, the desires, the feelings, the will, everything.

The heart is like a pendulum that swings to the right and swings to the left according to how the individual thinks and behaves and desires to be. With the desires, with the mind, with the emotions, with the will, and with the influence of the spirit, a position is arrived at which is the heart of the individual. An individual locks himself into that position in his will and begins to act like he thinks in his heart. “For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he,” Proverbs 23:7a.

Hebrews 8:10b, “And write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people.” We will never come to be what God wants us to be until we receive that covenant written in our minds and in our souls and in our hearts. The CHRIST must come into our HEARTS and change our minds, our feelings, and CHANGE US.

Paul again writing to the Corinthian church in II Corinthians 6:16a says, “And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for YE are the temple of the living God.” This is one of the temples the antichrist wants to sit in. There are three temples and he wants to sit in all three. He first wants to sit in the human temple and then sit in the congregation, the church, and then to control the church and humanity.

II Corinthians 6:16b, “As God hath said, I will dwell in them.” Paul is quoting the very scripture we just quoted from Jeremiah, from Isaiah, and from Ezekiel. Verse 16c, “I will dwell in them (as I live in them), and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.” God wants a walking temple, a temple moving from place to place and speaking.

Jesus Christ was the ABSOLUTE PERFECT EXAMPLE of God’s will for you and for me. Therefore, we must be careful what we bring into our mind, what we bring into our temple, and what we bring into our desires. The enemy comes and shakes something glistening in front of us, like catching a fish with a lure. As the fish sees this glittering lure, he darts at it and sometimes it provokes him enough until he snatches it. He might have been cautious at first but he throws caution to the wind and swallows it whole, so is the lure of the world upon us. If we see the world luring us in any way we should resist it. I observe very little resistance among Christians and I am urging you, if you do not resist it now, you will not be able to resist it ever again, for things are going from bad to worse and the power of the enemy is increasing. We need to resist the will of the devil.

He will walk in us and talk in us and be our God and we shall be His people.

The Spirit of God is to come upon humanity and to perfect His work on us and in us, through us and by us. Hallelujah!

(Excerpt from The Book of Revelation, Volume 1, pg. 50-51)

Thought for today:  We will never come to be what God wants us to be until we receive that covenant written in our minds and in our souls and in our hearts.

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“And Thy House”

Posted in The Covenant, tagged , , , , , on August 16, 2022| Leave a Comment »

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Scripture reading: Acts 16:19-34

“…Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house.”  (Acts 16:31)

“AND THY HOUSE.” The jailer had only asked for salvation for himself, but Paul offered him also for his whole household. Upon what authority was this offer made and was it biblical? It was upon the authority of Exodus 28. Of all the apostles of the Lamb, Paul was more versed in the typology of the Law and its meaning in Christ than any other. In verse 33, he baptized the whole family. This was no exception—this was the rule.

The jailer was the priest of his family, just as it was in the whole Jewish society that the head of the family was considered the priest of that family and he was spiritually accountable before God for his family. Upon the authority of this word therefore, Paul and Silas baptized the jailer and his whole family.

When the jailer knelt before God, the Lord saw his whole family represented and the curse of sin was removed from the family at that moment. The spiritual principle underlying this is that we are a covenant people. God has established His covenant with us through His Son as our High Priest so that all those with whom we have covenant, He recognizes them as covenanting with Him by proxy. When the devil takes a family, he has power over the third and fourth generation of those who are disobedient. The blood covenant of Jesus Christ with us makes our families blood-covenanted to Christ by proxy. As it was in the old Levitical covenant, the priest would go into the Holy of Holies once every year with the blood of the lamb and when his sins were forgiven all of Israel’s were also forgiven.

In our experience, we see God moving among our families. When one gets saved, then there is a domino effect and God begins to move in the whole family, especially and first among those who are obedient and willing, but even the unwilling are moved by the mercies of God. In the case of my own family, God saved me first, then my brother, then my sister and their families, then another brother’s family, then another brother, then my father and my mother. In my wife’s family the same thing is occurring and also in our children and their families, and the process still continues. There are some basic reasons for this, but it must be made clear that before God a covenant is a very serious matter.

The covenant must be exercised; it cannot be assumed that it will work without exercising it. I am sure most of us have stories of how God moves in our families. This is no coincidence. For those who do not have these stories of salvation of their families, then be assured they are in the making for God will honor his word.

(Excerpt from The Omega Message, October 1990, pg. 6-8)

Thought for today: Remember that the promise of salvation is not only to you but also to your house. Do not get discouraged by what you see today with your natural eyes. Exercise this family covenant and take God at His Word. You will NOT be disappointed.

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God’s Family Covenant

Posted in The Covenant, tagged , , , , on August 15, 2022| 1 Comment »

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Scripture reading: Exodus 12:1-14

God moves in His people through the families. He ordained the family structure for His own purpose. It is the will of God that we do not go to heaven alone, but that we should take our families with us; and He makes it a responsibility of each born-again family member. In Exodus 12:3, we read:

“Speak ye unto all the congregation of Israel, saying, In the tenth day of this month they shall take to them every man a lamb, according to the house of their fathers, a lamb for an house.”

The word “a lamb for an house” tells us that God expected the head of each family to be responsible for the saving of the life of his own household, because the death angel would be passing through that night, and any household that did not have the blood on the door, their firstborn would be slain. It is important for us to understand that in a spiritual sense God holds every head of a household responsible for his family. Therefore, when we appear before the Lord we cannot say as the murderous Cain did, “Am I my brother’s keeper?” because God is saying to us, “Yes! You are your brother’s keeper!” and we had better know it and recognize it before it is too late.

In reading this chapter in Exodus, we see that the lamb is to be chosen on the tenth day and slain on the fifteenth. The type and shadow of the Word of God says that this lamb did not choose himself or volunteer for the position, but even as God chose Israel, He is now choosing a lamb for each household. We now stand in the breach for the family, then we will be called to stand in the breach for the Body of Christ (spiritual family), and then we will be called, chosen, and made worthy to stand in the breach for the world.

(Excerpt from The Omega Message, October 1990, pg. 1)

Thought for today: If you have been washed by the Blood of Jesus Christ, you have become a lamb for your family. Stand in the breach so that they, too, may find their Savior. And as you are faithful in this matter, He will surely make you worthy to stand in the breach for the world.

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Water Baptism – A Covenant

Posted in The Covenant, tagged , , , , , , , on December 28, 2021| 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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The Promise of the Fathers

Posted in The Covenant, tagged , , , , on October 29, 2021| 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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