Abundant Life

John 10:10
The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have [it] more abundantly.

Abundant Life

When we talk about abundant life, where do your thoughts go? Do they go to your natural man, your financial success, your health and the resources of this world? Indeed God’s abundant life touches us on a natural plane, but if that is where our focus is then we’ve missed the bigger picture.
If the thief, which we know as satan, only comes to steal, to kill and destroy, then why are so many non-Christians blessed and prospering in this life. The quality of life we are talking about here is the Greek word Zoë, God life. One definition states, “life real and genuine, a life active and vigorous, devoted to God, blessed, in the portion even in this world of those who put their trust in Christ, but after the resurrection to be consummated by new accessions (among them a more perfect body), and to last for ever.” While satan is out to steal, kill and destroy, his focus is upon the “God life,” not the just the breath of life. When the Zoë of a person is robbed, killed or destroyed then what hope is left for a man? Separation from God is the ultimate darkness. While some may scorn God in this life, they have no concept of the life they have forsaken and given up.
The Apostle Paul brings this concept of abundant life into more focus in 1 Corinthians 15:9. He says, “If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable.” Paul wasn’t experiencing the abundant life as a big bank account and vacation home in Athens. In this life he experienced great tribulation and hardships. The revelation that he had was that this natural life was his investment into the abundant life he knew in Christ. It is not the seed itself that is the abundance, it is as it dies and gives place to the life within that abundance is released. It is not in the corruptible that we find the fullness of abundant life, but in the incorruptible, the resurrection life.
It is not in the abundance of this natural life that we rejoice or find the proof of abundant life. If we are blessed in our natural lives that is all well and good, but that is not the measure of God’s abundant life. Your abundant life is found in Christ. It is in your relationship with Him and the hope you have in Him. This natural life is but a corruptible seed planted in the ground. The question of abundant life is in what it brings forth through its death, not what it possesses in this life.
We want our life seed to possess the DNA of Christ in it. He is the essence of our abundant life, in this life and that, which is to come. Don’t allow satan or any one to steal that from you. The faith we have in Christ lives out of the abundance of who we are in Him.

Blessings,
#kent

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Pregnant with Child

Pregnant with Child

Revelations 12:1-6
1A great and wondrous sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet and a crown of twelve stars on her head. 2She was pregnant and cried out in pain as she was about to give birth. 3Then another sign appeared in heaven: an enormous red dragon with seven heads and ten horns and seven crowns on his heads. 4His tail swept a third of the stars out of the sky and flung them to the earth. The dragon stood in front of the woman who was about to give birth, so that he might devour her child the moment it was born. 5She gave birth to a son, a male child, who will rule all the nations with an iron scepter. And her child was snatched up to God and to his throne. 6The woman fled into the desert to a place prepared for her by God, where she might be taken care of for 1,260 days.

There are those to whom this passage may seem intimidating and too spiritual to understand, but what would the Lord speak to us through it today? We perceive this woman that is pregnant here to be the Church.
1 Peter 1:23-25 tells us, “Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever. For all flesh [is] as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away: But the word of the Lord endureth for ever. And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you.” This self-same seed of the divine Word of Life has impregnated the Church who is the Bride and the wife of the Lamb. Here she is clothed as the sun, the righteousness and glory of God, sitting in a place of divine dominion and authority, but still obviously in contention and opposition with satan represented in the great red dragon with the dominion and authority that is still his. Here we are at a climatic time in spiritual history very much in keeping with what we saw when Christ Jesus was born in the earth and how Herod, an instrument of satan, tried to destroy this man child by ordering all of the infants and young children of Bethlehem to be put to death.
The purpose of the Church is to bring up and birth a holy offspring; this corresponds with what we read in Romans 8:19-23, “For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God. For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected [the same] in hope, Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. And not only [they], but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, [to wit], the redemption of our body.” In Revelations 2 and 3 where exhortations are given to each of the Churches; at the end of each, a promise is given to him that overcomes. God is looking for a company of overcomers that will grow up into Him who is the head even Christ. Ephesians 4:11-16 tells us the mind and purpose of God concerning the Church and her children, “It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, 12to prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up 13until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.
14Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming. 15Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ. 16From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.”
The word of the Lord to us is that He wants a people of maturity, no longer little children tossed to and fro and moved by every wind of doctrine, but those who know and are established in who they are in Christ. There is a day and time when these mature ones will be revealed in authority and power. The purpose of the enemy is to destroy and devour them, but the purpose of God is that they would be the catalyst that would bring war in heaven where satan will be cast down and Christ’s enemies will be made his footstool. Our calling today is to grow up into Him in all things, to be the overcomers and those who would set creation free as His fullness and authority is revealed in this man child. Is this not what Paul saw when he said in Philippians 3:12-16, “12Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. 13Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, 14I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.
15All of us who are mature should take such a view of things. And if on some point you think differently, that too God will make clear to you. 16Only let us live up to what we have already attained.”

Blessings,
#kent

“Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.”

Romans 9:10-13
10Not only that, but Rebekah’s children had one and the same father, our father Isaac. 11Yet, before the twins were born or had done anything good or bad—in order that God’s purpose in election might stand: 12not by works but by him who calls—she was told, “The older will serve the younger. “13Just as it is written: “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.”

“Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.”

The apostle Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 15:42-50, “So will it be with the resurrection of the dead. The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable; 43it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; 44it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body.
If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body. 45So it is written: “The first man Adam became a living being”; the last Adam, a life-giving spirit. 46The spiritual did not come first, but the natural, and after that the spiritual. 47The first man was of the dust of the earth, the second man from heaven. 48As was the earthly man, so are those who are of the earth; and as is the man from heaven, so also are those who are of heaven. 49And just as we have borne the likeness of the earthly man, so shall we bear the likeness of the man from heaven. 50I declare to you, brothers, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable.
Within us we house two nations, two beings and one calling. Just as Rebekah carried twins within her womb, Esau and Jacob, the Lord spoke that “the older will serve the younger. Just as it is written: “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.” We see here that the calling and election of God was upon the younger even before they were born.
2 Corinthians 15 sheds some further insight on one dimension of this truth. Here, Paul speaks to the two aspects of our person. We, much like Rebekah’s womb are comprised of these two entities. They are flesh and spirit. We are comprised of both natural, corruptible, perishable and spiritual, imperishable and incorruptible. There are two Adams from which we have been comprised the first Adam (Esau, flesh, natural) which became a living being and the last Adam (Jacob, spirit, Christ), a life-giving spirit. The first man is of the dust of the earth and the second man from heaven. The first Adam of the flesh despised the birthright of God, but the last Adam has obtained the birthright and that birthright is to be the sons of God with all the rights and privileges that are inherent in that birthright.
The calling and election of God in us is for Jacob, for that incorruptible man of spirit, which is now indwelled and inhabited by the Spirit of Christ through faith in Christ Jesus. We who are in Christ have forsaken and died to the firstborn Adam and Esau and we have embraced the new man (Jacob, Christ) in the man of the spirit. It is in this identity with Jacob, who is later named Israel, that we growing up into Christ in all things. Genesis 32:28 says, “And he said, Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel: for as a prince hast thou power with God and with men, and hast prevailed.” This is now our legacy in Christ Jesus. In Him we have prevailed and overcome and as a prince we have power with God. We are Jacob in the process of becoming Israel. The calling and election for those who believe and receive is sure in Christ Jesus. While we have born the image of the Esau and while we have struggled and contrived to obtain the birthright in that Jacob mentality, it was always ours, not through works or efforts, but through His grace. How do we know that we are of Jacob and have received this election, calling and birthright? 1 John 2:5 says, “But whoso keepeth his word, in him verily is the love of God perfected: hereby know we that we are in him.”
It is that same principle that Christ spoke of in Luke 17:34-36, “I tell you, in that night there shall be two men in one bed; the one shall be taken, and the other shall be left. 35Two women shall be grinding together; the one shall be taken, and the other left. 36Two men shall be in the field; the one shall be taken, and the other left.” 1 Corinthians 15:49-50 says, “49And just as we have borne the likeness of the earthly man, so shall we bear the likeness of the man from heaven. 50 I declare to you, brothers, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable.” The one shall be taken and the other left. Old things have passed away, behold all things become new.
Esau is passing away and Jacob is coming forth as the Israel of God.

Blessings,
#kent

Fullness

Fullness

Ephesians 1:22-23
And hath put all [things] under his feet, and gave him [to be] the head over all [things] to the church, Which is his body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all.

Some of us are pessimist and some of us optimist. Some of us see the glass half-empty and others see it half full. Many see what they can’t do while a few see what they can do. I would probably tend to categorize myself more on the pessimist side. I believe one of the reasons for this is that we see things often through the eyes of our perceived abilities and capabilities. While we don’t wish to be pessimistic, we see ourselves as more pragmatic and practical. While that may be of some advantage in the natural world as we move into the spiritual dimension of God’s calling and purposes that ideology becomes often impractical to our call of faith. As we read the Word and understand more and more of God’s high calling for us who believe, it demands that we leave off with our natural reasoning and thinking. This takes place as we begin to put on the mind of Christ and by the Spirit comprehend and lay hold of the mind and will of God. The Lord can often lead us in some very impractical ways according to our natural reasoning. Our faith begins to lay hold of God’s thinking and His plans and promises rather than our own. This is often difficult for us to do. The Lord says in Isaiah 55: 8-9, “For my thoughts [are] not your thoughts, neither [are] your ways my ways, saith the LORD For [as] the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.” As some of us are truly grasping who we are in Christ and the high and holy calling and plans He has for us, it strains the natural mind to fully see ourselves in that place. We comprehend the concept that we are the body of Christ, but sometimes it is not as easy for us to comprehend that the body becomes the full expression of the head. We often try and see, as well as understand, this concept in terms of our immediate lifetime, but God sees it in the light of His eternity. While that may tend to put it out of the realm of our immediate grasp and concern we need to realize that the body of Christ is a culmination of Christians throughout the ages and that the body of Christ is not a function of time or space. It is an embodiment of the All Mighty, a holy temple of His divine presence, and as it says here in Ephesians 1, “the fullness of Him that fills all in all”. The divine destiny of each believer is incorporated in this truth. How we live out our individual lives in connection with the will and purpose of God is what determines what part we are in this plan. As we are yielding our hearts and lives to the life of the Spirit we are being incorporated into the fullness of Him that fills all things. “Christ in you” is your hope in glory. It is what takes you and translates you out of the perishable and corruptible into the incorruptible nature and life of God.
If we do one thing today, let’s take a moment to step outside of our natural thinking and religious reasoning and begin to grasp what it is that our God has called us too. It is that place that is so far beyond us and what we could ever hope to be in ourselves. The Lord our God has adopted us into His bloodline through Christ. The blood that flows through His body ebbs with the life of the Father of all eternity and creation. What a humble and awesome privilege to grasp that He desires to make us so much a part of Himself. Is it of little wonder, in light of these things, that He has called us to a place of separation from the world and the unclean things of this life? We have become a part of a different bloodline and lineage than that of our natural man. With the eyes of faith and confidence we must lay hold of the revelation of who we are in Christ and live our lives accordingly. Our growing and abiding relationship with Him is causing us to grasp in an ever increasing way the high calling that is ours in Christ Jesus, that even as He walked, lived, suffered and died all of those things are incorporated in our lives as we live by the Spirit. He is that hand and we are the glove in which it moves and ministers it’s divine service.
Let us open up our hearts and minds to what the Spirit wants us to comprehend right now. We need the vision of who we are and the calling that is upon us in order to pursue with our whole hearts the high and precious promises of His Word. Begin to imagine the fullness of Christ in you, for Ephesians 3:20-21 concludes with, “Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, Unto him [be] glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen.”

Blessings,
kent

Come out from among them!

Come out from among them!

2 Corinthians 6:17
Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean [thing]; and I will receive you,

When we saw the light of the truth that was in Christ Jesus we were drawn to it and started a journey to walk into that light out of the darkness of ignorance and sin that we had formerly dwelt in. For too many of us, walking into that light through our initial conversion and born again experience was enough for us. We may have seen that there is greater light on up ahead, but we have become comfortable in the measure of light we possess. Maturity always requires responsibility. We often want the benefits, but we don’t like to pay the price. Many of us dwell in that place of twilight where darkness is all around us, but we still have a measure of light. It is a place where our flesh can still be comfortable, but at the same time we have enough spirituality that we feel we have satisfied that need. Is this the place where God is content that we dwell? In 2 Corinthians 6:14-16 Paul exhorts the Corinthians who were in this place, “Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness? And what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel? 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.” The Lord is requiring of us purity. He is not a God of compromise, mixture and confusion. By His very nature of truth, He is requiring that we walk in the light of the truth that we have and by the same token continue on to know the Truth. The Spirit of Truth is constantly shining brightly before us and the Spirit within us is compelling us to keep walking toward the light. As the light increases it reveals more and more of the shadow areas of our lives that have been hidden by darkness. As they are revealed the Lord wants to deal and separate ourselves more and more unto Himself. Our God is a consuming fire. As we walk into that fire, the fire is consuming the corruptible things in our lives while at the same time it is purifying the incorruptible and eternal things. In the book of Daniel when the three Israelites were thrown into the blast furnace that was heated seven times hotter, so that even those that threw them in perished; they were seen walking in the furnace, with a fourth person, like unto the Son of Man. The only thing the fire was touching on them was the ropes that bound them. Our flesh is like the rope that binds us from experiencing the fullness of Spirit life. As we walk into God, He is burning away our bondage, compromise and uncleanness.
Moms know that if they put nice clean pretty church clothes on their little children and then let them go outside and play, what is the first thing that is going to happen? The first place they head is to the dirt. Our spiritual lives are much the same way. The Lord is saying you can’t mix with the dirty things around you if you want to stay clean. You have to come away from that and be separated. We can’t still have our fellowship in the world and constantly be around that mindset and spirit if we want our walk pure and clean.
When the Lord is telling us to “come out from among them and be ye separate,” He is exhorting us to separate ourselves unto the truth that He is bringing into our lives. The more we are growing up into Him the more and more He is separating us into a place of holiness and purity, because He wants us to be the light and manifestation of His righteousness and truth. We have already discussed the fact that the world is so turned off to Christianity, because they see so much of the spirit of compromise and hypocrisy at work in our lives. We are fountains of bitter and sweet water. We can talk Jesus out of one side of our mouth while we curse men with the other. God is imparting His truth to us in order to set us free. Our problem is we have to want that freedom, more than we want to maintain our bondage. Are we willing today to hear and heed the Word of the Lord to “come out from among them and touch not the unclean thing?” It is a time for us to no longer linger in the twilight of compromise, but to continue on in our pursuit of truth and righteousness. It is the separation that allows the Lord to receive us into His presence.

Blessings,
kent

The Flesh and Blood of Christ

The Flesh and Blood of Christ

John 6:53
Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you.

This was a hard saying back in the day when Jesus spoke it. You can imagine the hearers that were processing this through their natural minds. “What is He saying, that we have to cannibalize Him and drink His blood?” This would be an abomination to the natural mind of the Jewish person, especially in the light of the teaching of the law about the blood. Leviticus 17:10-14 taught, “And whatsoever man [there be] of the house of Israel, or of the strangers that sojourn among you, that eateth any manner of blood; I will even set my face against that soul that eateth blood, and will cut him off from among his people. For the life of the flesh [is] in the blood: and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls: for it [is] the blood [that] maketh an atonement for the soul. Therefore I said unto the children of Israel, No soul of you shall eat blood, neither shall any stranger that sojourneth among you eat blood.
And whatsoever man [there be] of the children of Israel, or of the strangers that sojourn among you, which hunteth and catcheth any beast or fowl that may be eaten; he shall even pour out the blood thereof, and cover it with dust.
For [it is] the life of all flesh; the blood of it [is] for the life thereof: therefore I said unto the children of Israel, Ye shall eat the blood of no manner of flesh: for the life of all flesh [is] the blood thereof: whosoever eateth it shall be cut off.” From this passage you can see why the many struggled with what Jesus was speaking to them and why many turned away. So why would Jesus say something so controversial and seemingly contradictory to the law? We can easily see where the blood of Jesus was the all time atonement for our sins, but why would He say we should drink His blood when it was an abomination to God to drink the blood of animals? Have you ever heard the saying, ” you are what you eat?” This has a lot of application here. The blood represented the life and nature of a creature. I believe in God’s eyes, for man to drink the blood of animals was for him to, in essence, partake of that lower beast nature. There was identification and imparting of the nature or the soul that was ingested with its blood. The blood of the animals was to be poured out and covered with dust, which was the perishable, and corruptible substance from which it came.
Jesus was the beginning of the New Covenant, not one established upon the corruptible and temporal sacrifices and atonement of the blood of goats and calves. He established the New Testament upon the perfect incorruptible and eternal sacrifice and atonement of His blood and life given once for all, for all of mankind. Jesus was communicating the spiritual truth that in order to have the incorruptible nature and life of God we had to partake of it through the body and blood of Jesus. As He said in John 14:6, “Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.”
Obviously, it wasn’t the physical ingesting of the body and blood of Jesus that He was referring to in this passage, but the partaking of His life through faith in His word. We do this symbolically through the communion. These are small physical reminders of the great truth that without a true participation in our communion and partaking of His Spirit life we are none of His. Perhaps we begin to comprehend as never before what our Lord accomplished and gave to us through His Passion. Let us meditate, seek to comprehend and appropriate all that He provided for us through the breaking of His body and the giving of His blood. As we partake of Him through faith we are partakers of His incorruptible, everlasting soul, His nature and His life. So let us eat of His flesh and drink of His blood for it is eternal life for all who partaker. He is forever the Bread of Life.

Blessings,
kent