This is that...3.24.18
Faith Class 101: Class 4
The Professor began the class on a somber note today.
Students, you will notice some empty seats around the classroom. Some of the students have dropped out. Most of them had excuses of being too busy to study The Word, some decided learning about faith was a subject they heard before, and others said receiving by faith just doesn’t work for them. This is displeasing to the Father, for if God’s Word and walking by faith are not first place in one’s life, the world will rush in to displace and rob Kingdom benefits from them or worse.
“ ‘Now the just shall live by faith;
But if anyone draws back,
My soul has no pleasure in him.’
But we are not of those who draw back to perdition, but of those who believe to the saving of the soul.” (Hebrews 10:38-39)
But for those students who have ears to hear, the deeper truths will be revealed that you may grow and prosper, partake of the divine nature, escaping the corruption that is in the world. (See 2 Peter 1:2-4)
In our last class we discussed the Requirements of Using Faith, or what faith needs to move forward and bring Father’s promises to pass in your life. That book in front of you, The Bible, has over 5,000 promises that God has given to His children so that they may prosper and be in health as they are running their race to fulfill their personal assignment.
When you are reading those promises remember they are not like anything else that has been written on earth. Those words are not just letters on a page. They were originally in God, the Creator. They were spoken so they could be written, they were written so they could be spoken by each of God’s children. When released in faith, those words will produce the life that is in them, just like when God-Elohim said, “Let there be light. And there was light.” Because God is a faith-God, He had immediate results. This is why Jesus told His disciples to “Have faith in God.” Included in that is “Have the God-kind of faith.” (Mark 11:22) Of course, a good Father would always want His children to have what He has and, certainly, that they be equipped to fulfill their Father’s call.
As promised, we are going to study about Abraham, the father of all those who believe.
Let’s begin with Romans 4:13.
“For the promise that he would be the heir of the world was not to Abraham or to his seed through the law, but through the righteousness of faith.”
When God first spoke to Abraham He promised him that He would “make him a great nation.” (Genesis 12:2-3). Years later, Abraham had another encounter with God as He reaffirmed the promise and told him his descendants would be as the stars of heaven. (Genesis 15:5) This time as Abraham viewed the stars in the heaven and heard God’s voice, faith was birthed.
“And he believed in the Lord, and He accounted it to him for righteousness.”
This is where everything changed, not only for Abraham, but for God as well.
Why? God would have His greatest desire: a family of children set apart for Him.
Out of Abraham would come Isaac, the child conceived by faith in God.
From Isaac would come twelve sons.
Seven generations later, Moses would be born.
Out of Moses would come The Law and The Prophets.
The Law came as a tutor, to reveal to man what is right and what is wrong: “...for by the law is the knowledge of sin.” (Romans 3:20)
So, God spoke and the Old Testament was written. But God’s plan was not yet complete.
Further down through the generations of Abraham, God would send His Son, Jesus Christ, to be the propitiation for man’s sin and to bring His children under the First Covenant into a new and living way: a personal relationship with God. The Apostles would be the first to experience being filled with God’s Holy Spirit. In the days that followed, the Jews were on assignment to spread the Good News to the Gentiles, the nations, so that they too could experience the new birth and become the Temple of God’s Holy Spirit. Through the Apostles God wrote The New Testament.
When we look at the big picture we can see that through Abraham all nations of the earth have been blessed. Through him came Isaac and the twelve tribes of Israel, a separated chosen people.
And most importantly, through Abraham came Jesus Christ, and by His death and resurrection came the birth of The Church, the called out ones, a holy nation, a royal priesthood of people from all the nations of the earth...God’s family!
This is that...which God planned for man before the foundation of the world.
“For He Himself [Jesus] is our peace, who has made both one [Jews and Gentiles] ... having abolished in His flesh the enmity, that is, the law of commandments ... so as to create in Himself one new man from the two, thus making peace, and that He might reconcile them both to God in one body through the cross ...” (Ephesians 2:14-16)
Faith Class 101: Class 4
The Professor began the class on a somber note today.
Students, you will notice some empty seats around the classroom. Some of the students have dropped out. Most of them had excuses of being too busy to study The Word, some decided learning about faith was a subject they heard before, and others said receiving by faith just doesn’t work for them. This is displeasing to the Father, for if God’s Word and walking by faith are not first place in one’s life, the world will rush in to displace and rob Kingdom benefits from them or worse.
“ ‘Now the just shall live by faith;
But if anyone draws back,
My soul has no pleasure in him.’
But we are not of those who draw back to perdition, but of those who believe to the saving of the soul.” (Hebrews 10:38-39)
But for those students who have ears to hear, the deeper truths will be revealed that you may grow and prosper, partake of the divine nature, escaping the corruption that is in the world. (See 2 Peter 1:2-4)
In our last class we discussed the Requirements of Using Faith, or what faith needs to move forward and bring Father’s promises to pass in your life. That book in front of you, The Bible, has over 5,000 promises that God has given to His children so that they may prosper and be in health as they are running their race to fulfill their personal assignment.
When you are reading those promises remember they are not like anything else that has been written on earth. Those words are not just letters on a page. They were originally in God, the Creator. They were spoken so they could be written, they were written so they could be spoken by each of God’s children. When released in faith, those words will produce the life that is in them, just like when God-Elohim said, “Let there be light. And there was light.” Because God is a faith-God, He had immediate results. This is why Jesus told His disciples to “Have faith in God.” Included in that is “Have the God-kind of faith.” (Mark 11:22) Of course, a good Father would always want His children to have what He has and, certainly, that they be equipped to fulfill their Father’s call.
As promised, we are going to study about Abraham, the father of all those who believe.
Let’s begin with Romans 4:13.
“For the promise that he would be the heir of the world was not to Abraham or to his seed through the law, but through the righteousness of faith.”
When God first spoke to Abraham He promised him that He would “make him a great nation.” (Genesis 12:2-3). Years later, Abraham had another encounter with God as He reaffirmed the promise and told him his descendants would be as the stars of heaven. (Genesis 15:5) This time as Abraham viewed the stars in the heaven and heard God’s voice, faith was birthed.
“And he believed in the Lord, and He accounted it to him for righteousness.”
This is where everything changed, not only for Abraham, but for God as well.
Why? God would have His greatest desire: a family of children set apart for Him.
Out of Abraham would come Isaac, the child conceived by faith in God.
From Isaac would come twelve sons.
Seven generations later, Moses would be born.
Out of Moses would come The Law and The Prophets.
The Law came as a tutor, to reveal to man what is right and what is wrong: “...for by the law is the knowledge of sin.” (Romans 3:20)
So, God spoke and the Old Testament was written. But God’s plan was not yet complete.
Further down through the generations of Abraham, God would send His Son, Jesus Christ, to be the propitiation for man’s sin and to bring His children under the First Covenant into a new and living way: a personal relationship with God. The Apostles would be the first to experience being filled with God’s Holy Spirit. In the days that followed, the Jews were on assignment to spread the Good News to the Gentiles, the nations, so that they too could experience the new birth and become the Temple of God’s Holy Spirit. Through the Apostles God wrote The New Testament.
When we look at the big picture we can see that through Abraham all nations of the earth have been blessed. Through him came Isaac and the twelve tribes of Israel, a separated chosen people.
And most importantly, through Abraham came Jesus Christ, and by His death and resurrection came the birth of The Church, the called out ones, a holy nation, a royal priesthood of people from all the nations of the earth...God’s family!
This is that...which God planned for man before the foundation of the world.
“For He Himself [Jesus] is our peace, who has made both one [Jews and Gentiles] ... having abolished in His flesh the enmity, that is, the law of commandments ... so as to create in Himself one new man from the two, thus making peace, and that He might reconcile them both to God in one body through the cross ...” (Ephesians 2:14-16)