Thursday – June 23, 2016
It is Thursday and generally I start the Thursday teaching talking about praying for one or more of the Seven Pillars of society. The Lord, at least in the short run is leading a different direction for the Thursday teaching. That does not mean at all that He does not want us praying for the Seven Pillars of society, He most certainly does want us being mindful of these pillars especially the ones to which we are assigned, however He wants to remind us of other Truths as well.
Hebrews 2:1 (KJV)
1 Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, lest at any time we should let them slip.
I am not abandoning the study of Colossians, this is a now Word. The Lords’ topic, and therefore our topic is ‘faith, love, and hope’.
1 Corinthians 13:13 (HCSB)
13 Now these three remain: faith, hope, and love. But the greatest of these is love.
First Corinthians thirteen is called the love chapter in the Bible just as Hebrews eleven is referred to as the faith chapter which brings us to the question, is there a hope chapter? As I leave this for today and return to our regular study consider the following verse concerning hope.
1 Timothy 1:1 (KJV)
1 Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the commandment of God our Saviour, and Lord Jesus Christ, which is our hope;
Colossians 3:9-11 (KJV)
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 have talked about not lying to one another, it is one of the big Ten Commandments, and it is an anathema (abhorrence, abomination, loathsome, a curse) to our Lord and should be the same for us.
Proverbs 12:22 (KJV)
22 Lying lips are abomination to the LORD: but they that deal truly are his delight.
I went on to talk about the fact that we are now a new man in Christ Jesus, we are in the image of Him who created us, and our function and rank increase as we increase in our knowledge of Him. We do not become more and more or function more and more like Him based on knowledge alone but the exercise of that knowledge as led of the Spirit in love, faith, and hope in Him. I do not want to endlessly perseverate on this idea of being in His image but this has been lost in the Church. Jesus is our example and He said that not only could we be like Him with regards to His ministry in the earth as recorded in the four gospels but we were to do greater things. The only thing separating us from being just like Him today (excepting the powers reserved to the Godhead) is our corruptible, mortal physical bodies. We will never be God as He is, but we are gods, we are of like kind and can do anything He can do which is limitless as led of the Spirit of God as we mature in Him. We are not to be poor little creatures hanging on for dear life dreaming of Heaven. We are on assignment from Heaven and what we do here has everything to do with our future life in Heaven, in the Kingdom of God.
Genesis 1:26 (KJV)
26 And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. (Emphasis added)
We were created to look and act like God with full authority (dominion) in the earth. Now in Christ Jesus that authority extends into Heaven. All contingent on the will of God, and the leadership of the Spirit not a willy nilly self-conceived program.
By Dr. David Wood, Author, Bible Teacher, and Prophetic Voice
