BY FAITH A HEAVENLY CITY
Thursday – April 26, 2018, Iyar 11, 5778
Glory to God, Jerusalem below, and Jerusalem above, the Heavenly City! I believe that we will find that Heaven is much more than a city but will have in perfection all that we see in the earth and more. Let’s review our primary text for this Bible Study from the Book of Hebrews and get about the building of our faith. We must be slack no more!
Hebrews 11:15-19 (KJV)
15 And truly, if they had been mindful of that country from whence they came out, they might have had opportunity to have returned.
16 But now they desire a better country, that is, an heavenly: wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God: for he hath prepared for them a city.
17 By faith Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac: and he that had received the promises offered up his only begotten son,
18 Of whom it was said, That in Isaac shall thy seed be called:
19 Accounting that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead; from whence also he received him in a figure.
Nowhere in Scripture do we see Abraham or any of his descendants being mindful and thinking back to life in Ur of the Chaldees or Haran and lamenting coming to the Land of Promise. In fact, Abraham was insistent that Isaac not return to the home country and that place was to have no role in his or others thought life.
Genesis 24:6-8 (MSG)
6 Abraham said, “Oh no. Never. By no means are you to take my son back there.
7 GOD, the God of Heaven, took me from the home of my father and from the country of my birth and spoke to me in solemn promise, ‘I’m giving this land to your descendants.’ This God will send his angel ahead of you to get a wife for my son.
8 And if the woman won’t come, you are free from this oath you’ve sworn to me. But under no circumstances are you to take my son back there.”
Are we that insistent on not returning to our old life or do we sit around, reminisce, and laugh about the things that had us on the road of certain destruction and brought great sadness to the heart of God. We were in the midst of great deception, God had already purchased a far superior life both for here and life eternal hereafter. Unfortunately, the organized Church has dumbed down the body of Christ and does not preach the gospel Jesus preached. Verse sixteen (love – obedience) of our text tells us that because of their faith, their obedience (love) to Him, He was not ashamed (proud) to be called their God, and He prepared a city for them (and us) millennia before the sacrifice of Christ. God’s preparation of a City for them was His love in action, God performing or being obedient to His own Word. Their faith guaranteed the coming of the Christ. As we will see in chapter twelve, we (the Church) have at salvation already come to the Heavenly Jerusalem!
Hebrews 12:22-24 (KJV)
22 But ye are come unto mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels,
23 To the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect,
24 And to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than that of Abel.
Ephesians 2:6 (KJV)
6 And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus:
Our spirit man is already in two places at once, here in us, and there in Christ Jesus at the right hand of our Father. People have scoffed at my saying this, but it is Scripture, read it again! I have said that we are on assignment from Heaven and the scoffers say we have never been to Heaven therefore we cannot be from Heaven. Again, I say, read it and rejoice. We are not scratching and toiling to get to Heaven we are from Heaven and our home there is as real and certain as going to our natural home after Church on Sunday. The saints of old were looking forward to this Heavenly city and now they are there. Jesus led captivity captive at His Resurrection to that Heavenly City when He took His Blood to the Mercy Seat sealing the New Covenant forever.
Now let’s take a peek at verse seventeen the verse of victory. If verse seventeen were not true, if Abraham did not have faith in God and enter into Blood Covenant we would be lost and undone. The faith of Abraham guaranteed the Messiah would come, that is why he is referred to as being the father of us all. He is the father of the Jewish (Hebrew) people and the Church. Until our next publication, I speak this Scriptural prayer for your life right now, receive it in the name of Jesus, confess it, and walk it out with thanksgiving.
2 Peter 1:2-4 (KJV)
2 Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord,
3 According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue:
4 Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.
By: Dr. David Wood, Author, Bible Teacher, and Prophetic Voice
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