Friday – June 17, 2016
Sunday the 19th of June will be Fathers’ Day. A time to remember and honor our fathers and to honor our Heavenly Father. To the left is my father and me about 1961, and to the right is Patti’s father and mother in about the same time period.
Deuteronomy 5:16 (KJV)
16 Honour thy father and thy mother, as the LORD thy God hath commanded thee; that thy days may be prolonged, and that it may go well with thee, in the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee.
This commandment is one of the big ten. I think God uses the word ‘father’ here on purpose. Technically a father is simply our immediately preceding male progenitor but a dad is a loving example. We honor our fathers because of them we have access to all of the Kingdom of God for eternity.
Not everyone who is reading this has had good earthly fathers. And you are probably saying; “I will honor that man when pigs fly” “or hell freezes over”. If that is the case, I urgently ask you to repent of unforgiveness so that you yourself can walk in forgiveness. Unforgiveness is an open door for the enemy to steal, kill, and destroy in our lives. Forgiving our father is not to say that what he did was okay. It is saying I am not holding that against you, I do not judge you, I cast the care of that into God’s hand, and I judge myself guilty of unforgiveness and I forgive my father right now in Jesus name. I will not talk of this again and when thoughts of unforgiveness come I will take them captive and cast them down in Jesus name. I have forgiven him of abusing me and I am forgiven of holding unforgiveness. I trust God in Jesus name.
Now let’s pick-up our study from Colossians 3:8.
Colossians 3:8-11 (KJV)
8 But now ye also put off all these; anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication out of your mouth. 9 Lie not one to another, seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds; 10 And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him: 11 Where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, Barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free: but Christ is all, and in all.
We are to be new top to bottom and everything in between. We were dead and without hope. But Jesus paid the price that we might live, that we can be prosperous in all spheres of life not just finances, and healthy in all spheres of life not just the physical body. We can now reign in life and we have the hope of an incorruptible physical body like unto that of Christ. We are the head and not the tail and if we are not the head we need to ask ourselves why not, judge ourselves, repent, and move forward in righteousness. The new man that the Apostle Paul speaks of in Colossians 3:10 he calls a new creature or creation in the following passage. As we have studied previously we are not like any that have preceded us, neither shall any that follow us be like us. Don’t get myopic thinking this is or has been God’s only rodeo.
2 Corinthians 5:17-18 (KJV)
17 Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.
18 And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation;
One of the things I learned about studying Scripture some time ago is to carefully examine the words in any given passage very carefully, diligently. One example I have found that is interesting and helpful is that the work ‘thing’ and the word ‘word’ are frequently interchangeable and illuminating. In the preceding passage the word ‘thing’ appears twice in verse seventeen and once in verse eighteen. Let’s go ahead and substitute the word ‘word’ in place of thing(s) and we see that old words or the old way of talking is gone. Now you know as well as I do that you and I had to do that on purpose but the Holy Spirit helped us. In fact God went ahead and gave us new words to use to make it easier. And all of these words and the making us a new creation with none like us before or to follow was of God. He did it all! God told Joshua to meditate His Word day and night.
Joshua 1:8 (KJV)
8 This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success.
God told Joshua that if he would follow this instruction he would have good success. When we think the Words of God, we will speak the Words of God more commonly. We will start to act like God, more like Jesus as led of the Holy Spirit. Notice in the preceding passage that meditating the Word leads to doing the Word which is what the phrase “observe to do” means. Also notice who is making Joshua’s way prosperous, it is Joshua. When we speak the Word of God, Jesus (The Word) is watching over His Word to see that it comes to pass.
Jeremiah 1:9 (KJV)
9 Then the LORD put forth his hand, and touched my mouth. And the LORD said unto me, Behold, I have put my words in thy mouth.
Jeremiah 1:12 (KJV)
12 Then said the LORD unto me, Thou hast well seen: for I will hasten my word to perform it.
By Dr. David Wood, Author, Bible Teacher, and Prophetic Voice
