CHILDREN OF LIGHT
Monday – February 13, 2017
Greetings from The Three Minute Word publications in the name of Jesus. God is so good to all peoples and especially His children. I will be continuing today with our Bible Study from the Book of Ephesians. The richness of God’s Word is so amazing and wonderful. I am quite sure that if I were to restart this word by word, verse by verse study of Ephesians we would uncover more nuggets of Truth showing the goodness of our God and how He loves us. We are designed and equipped for supernatural success far beyond what the world has even imagined. The main obstacle is the poverty mentality and corrupt teaching coupled with the God is in control philosophy that is pervasive in the Church.
For those of you who have an interest in Eastern Gate Ministries International and have been following The Three Minute Word for a while as well as those of you who have recently joined us I want to remind us all of and review the God ordained mission of this ministry. The following is the Mission Statement for Eastern Gate Ministries International and The Three Minute Word publication.
- This ministry is to provide Anointed teaching whereby revelation knowledge of the Word of God is imparted. (Isaiah 50:4, Ephesians 4:11-12)
- This ministry is Anointed and appointed of God to provide a Prophetic vision of what is and what is to come for the body of Christ. (Jeremiah 1:4-12, Ephesians 4:11-12)
- This ministry is to provide a Biblical prospective of the spiritual condition of the American Christian Church and the American nation. (Psalm 127:1, Proverbs 14:34, Isaiah 5:20-23, Matthew 5:13-16, 1 Timothy 2:1-3)
- This ministry is to educate the Church concerning Israel and to bless Israel. (Genesis 12:1-3, Psalm 122:6-9, Isaiah 62:1)
Coupled with this, several years ago the Lord gave me a phrase and at the time I wrote two books with the same name. That phrase is: Awake, Arise, and Triumph. Over time the insights God gave me at that time concerning the phrase have been eclipsed by His revelation in more recent years. As you watch this ministry, The Three Minute Word, and other writings, you will notice that much of the writings have to do with particularly the Church awakening, arising, and walking in triumph and of course this applies first to each of us individually. We must always have a level of self-examination to determine that we are not just going through some routine without really any thought and just living a natural life.
The awake person is actively, diligently probing, thinking about, and making the Word of God, Gods’ principles, our thoughts, our words, our ways, and our principles. This will lead us to repentance. Repentance will allow us to choose to arise and in that arising we must choose to tear down the high places in our lives. The high places in our lives are those wrong ideas that have been guiding our lives and keeping us out of victory. Then and only then can we truly walk in triumph. As I am sure you have figured out already, this study of the Word and the reevaluation of our alignment with the Word is a continuous process. The road of improvement to become more and more like Him in our thoughts, our words, and our actions will continue until the Heavenly Chariot of fire takes us into His manifest presence. Now back to Ephesians.
Ephesians 5:6-10 (KJV)
6 Let no man deceive you with vain words: for because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience.
7 Be not ye therefore partakers with them.
8 For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord: walk as children of light:
9 (For the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth;)
10 Proving what is acceptable unto the Lord.
Last week I ended with Ephesians 5:7. I have included the King James Version of our text as well as the Holman Christian Standard Bible (see below) which in this case may add some clarity. Notice in this verse we have the word ‘partakers’ in the KJV and ‘partners’ in the HCSB. The word ‘partner’ conveys a closer relationship than being a partaker. Remember we are talking about persons in the Church who are practicing (their lifestyle) fornication, uncleanness, covetousness, filthiness, foolish talk, jesting, and whoremongering, all of which is idolatry. Remember God told Adam and Eve to absolutely avoid the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Persons in the Church who persist in practicing wickedness have mixed good and evil and if we have an ongoing close relationship with them, their corruption will become our corruption, we will become calloused to their wickedness and subsequently our own.
Ephesians 5:6-10 (HCSB)
6 Let no one deceive you with empty arguments, for God’s wrath is coming on the disobedient because of these things.
7 Therefore, do not become their partners.
8 For you were once darkness, but now ⌊you are⌋ light in the Lord. Walk as children of light—
9 for the fruit of the light ⌊results⌋ in all goodness, righteousness, and truth—
10 discerning what is pleasing to the Lord.
Now the Apostle Paul hits us right between the eyes. He says we all were once darkness, we were just like them. Ouch, most of us really don’t like that idea but when we practice introspection honesty we know it is true. And, the reality is that on some level we are in darkness even now. That is to say there are things upon which we don’t yet have light, understanding, concerning but perhaps tomorrow, next year, or in ten years that darkness will be gone and we will walk in light about that particular thing. The Word of God was uttered by an infinite being therefore we will be seeing new things, getting new light forever (infinitely). When we were born again we came out of the kingdom of darkness into the Kingdom of light.
Colossians 1:12-13 (KJV)
12 Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light:
13 Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son:
The fact that we do not have light on a certain Truth does not mean we are not in the Kingdom of light or in the light or that we ourselves are not light. My point is that this light is a continuous unfolding of Truth for each of us forever. Think of it like being in school. We are not more in school if we are in the first or the sixth grade, but we have more light, understanding, in the sixth grade. Our Father God is light and we are light. We are in His image and His likeness, we are of like kind (light) therefore we are to walk as He walks. That is our goal, today, tomorrow, and forever and ever.
By: Dr. David Wood, Author, Bible Teacher, and Prophetic Voice
