The Royal Steps! 2007/15 10/07/07

I think that most often many of God’s people forget who they are, Whose they are and the program that has been there for them from before the foundation, and it seems that as He spoke to me, this was His reason. Not only this but there are benefits that are ours and have been ours for the eons in eternity that we call time. That is a little of where we are going today, so we are all going at the same time, so enjoy the ride. Turn to our favorite verses for the past several weeks, even though we really haven’t read them that much; Ephesians 1:3-6.

“May blessing (praise, laudation, and eulogy) be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ (the Messiah) Who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual (given by the Holy Spirit) blessing in the heavenly realm!

Even as [in His love] He chose us [actually picked us out for Himself as His own] in Christ before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy (consecrated and set apart for Him) and blameless in His sight, even above reproach, before Him in love.

For He foreordained us (destined us, planned in love for us) to be adopted (revealed) as His own children through Jesus Christ, in accordance with the purpose of His will [because it pleased Him and was His kind intent]—

[So that we might be] to the praise and the commendation of His glorious grace (favor and mercy), which He so freely bestowed on us in the Beloved”

Now this sets the stage that we have been speaking of for the past weeks, the stage that Paul saw, and I am sure was also the fuel for his passion discussed last week. He, I am sure, got hold on that wonderful statement in 2 Cor 5:17, where he wrote under the direction of the Holy Spirit, and I know that this is redundant, but I love to hear it over again;

“ … Therefore if any person is [ingrafted] in Christ (the Messiah) he is a new creation (a new creature altogether); the old [previous moral and spiritual condition] has passed away. Behold, the fresh and new has come!”

1 Now, lets go and see the fullness of this pure gold nugget of power from the Holy Spirit and turn to 1 Peter 1:3-5;

“Praised (honored, blessed) be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ (the Messiah)! By His boundless mercy we have been born again to an ever-living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,

[Born anew] into an inheritance which is beyond the reach of change and decay [imperishable], unsullied and unfading, reserved in heaven for you,

Note: I want to insert a later verse from this same letter and it is found in this same chapter, vs. 23;

You have been regenerated (born again), not from a mortal origin (seed, sperm), but from one that is immortal by the ever living and lasting Word of God.

Who are being guarded (garrisoned) by God’s power through [your] faith [till you fully inherit that final] salvation that is ready to be revealed [for you] in the last time.”

That is a whole lot of happening, to get a strong hold on, but the Holy Spirit is in the business of working this out in our walk as we go. I titled this time together, “The Royal Steps”, because when all the above happened, we became a kingdom of priests and kings unto Him. We were created after His image and likeness and dominion has been restored to all who have come to Him by rebirth, and this dominion is reserved for royalty, for we are a kingdom, Peter says a royal priesthood, and Revelation 5:10 declares;

“And You [Jesus] have made them a kingdom (royal race) and priests to our God, and they shall reign [as kings] over the earth!”

Now, lets look at just some of what happened at our rebirth, and you will note that some of these words are appearing for the second time, the first being two weeks ago. This is necessary, because the Holy Spirit indicated that it is part of our, not just regaining our position in the spirit, but to also regain it in our knowing, so that we can start to be and use what we have been given.

Re-Conciled – This is from the 1828 Webster Dictionary, and it is

2 done from the word.

To conciliate anew; to call back into union and friendship the affections which have been alienated; to restore to friendship or favor after estrangement; as to reconcile men or parties that have been at variance. [this is bringing us back to where we were before the fall].

Re-membered- The fall cancelled our membership in the family of God, and He, being Omniscient, provided for reconciliation through the Lamb slain before the foundation of the world. Through the redeeming Blood of Christ, we were, by the love of God, given opportunity to return to the fold of His family. But there is one more word to add here and it is in Ephesians 1:5, and that is ‘adopted’ and that carries more weight than we even had before, because the adopted child in Roman law, and Paul, who wrote Ephesians 1 and Romans 8 , was a Roman, meant that the adopted child had more right to being an heir than the child of the union of the husband and wife.

Re-stored- We need go back to Ephesians 1:3, that declares that when He chose us, He also blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. That has been place for us since the time of the fall when we were estranged. At our rebirth, our re- membering also gave us access to all the blessings that we individually were blessed with. God never repents of any gift. His family is His own to keep and supply with the benefits that He daily loads us with [Psalms 68:19 and Psalms 103:5 instructs us not to forget any of them], and for a blessing, read them several times a week as part of your re-mind-ing. This is also where we began receiving redemptive revelation knowledge by the Holy Spirit. By the way these are kingdom stores.

We could add several more “re’s” to the list, such as re-freshed, re-laxed and etc., but let us move on to the next steps.

As I was starting to think or meditate on this time with you, I asked Father what He had in mind for us, and as I heard Him, He said I want them to know truly who they are, and more than that, they truly need to know WHO I AM! We will start from there and see that we need to begin by truly affirming in our spirit that we are not our own. 1 Cor 6:19-20;

“ Do you not know that your body is the temple (the very sanctuary) of the Holy Spirit Who lives within you, Whom you have received [as a Gift] from God? You are not your own,

3 You were bought with a price [purchased with a preciousness and paid for, made His own]. So then, honor God and bring glory to Him in your body.”

You have been, by new birth, moved into kingdom citizenship, and the knowledge that you will gain by your new position is that which will begin to unlock the special potential that has been dormant in you for much too long a time. It is truly time for all God’s children to remember who they are! It is time for us to be the somebody that the Father made us to be!

Each of us is one of a kind, and we are all special in every way, for God never made a mistake. We are, so to speak, a designer’s original, and we have been fearfully and wonderfully made, and that goes all the way to the hairs of our head. To our God, we are all very special, and His love has gone to vast extremes to redeem us and bring us back to His kingdom realm. As the Psalmist wrote; “Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect and in Thy book all my members were written…when as yet there were none of them: Your eyes saw my unformed body…” [turn to Eph. 2:10]

“ For we are God’s [own] handiwork (His workmanship), recreated in Christ Jesus, [born anew] that we may do those good works which God predestined (planned beforehand) for us [taking paths which He prepared ahead of time], that we should walk in them [living the good life which He prearranged and made ready for us to live.” [Ordered footsteps]

The good works spoken of here are the fruit of the love of the Father Who loved us first. When we read, just before this Eph 2:8-9, that “not by works” but by grace are we saved through faith, then the works take on a different dimension. The love that fills our hearts for the Father causes us to ‘BE’ His, and this “being” leads to the doing and this helps grow us into the mature sons that have been adopted into His family. For one last point in this portion, look at Philippians 1:6; You see, that works done from any other position are as a duty or to earn our way, neither of which carries the truth or the love of ‘good works’, spoken of here.

“And I am convinced and sure of this very thing, that He Who began a good work in you will continue until the day of Jesus Christ [right up to the time op His return], developing [that

4 good work] (of growth) and perfecting and bringing it to full completion in you.”

Is anyone here beginning to understand and hear just how special you are, to your heavenly Father? How His love is always working in your behalf? He is the One Who chose you and He is the One Who is working out His own good works designed for you to walk in, and has even provided the power, through His Holy Spirit to come through in victory. He is bringing us back to our position before the foundation, so that we can truly get to know Him [the Father], and in that knowing, our worship will begin to have an intimacy that is beyond anything we have ever experienced. [‘the exceedingly abundantly above of’ Eph 3:20].

I am beginning to see one thing for sure. All of us, who are truly born again, have an intimate knowledge and relationship with the Lord Jesus through the work of the Holy Spirit, Who points us to Him, and reminds of all He spoke to us and teaches us many things that are needed, to know Him. So, we have knowledge of Him and of the Holy Spirit, but how much do we know, experientially about the Father? We have read about Him, and prayed to Him, but His desire goes deeper than that, He wants true children around Him and those who worship Him in spirit and truth and that is what is happening to those of us who are being prodded now by His Spirit to come up higher, a place in Him before the foundation of the world when we were chosen. Look at several verses that have taken on new meaning to me recently. Psalms 91:14-16 and John 17:6 & 26;

“Because he has set his love upon Me, therefore will I deliver him; I will set him on high, because he knows and understands My name, [has a personal knowledge of My mercy, love, and kindness—trusts and relies on Me, knowing I will never forsake him, no, never].

He shall call on Me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble, I will deliver him and honor him.

With long life will I satisfy him and show him my salvation”.

Now to John 17:6 & 26, Jesus in prayer to the Father.

“I have manifested Your Name [I have revealed Your very Self, Your real Self] to the people whom You have given Me out of the world. They were Yours, and You gave them to Me, and they have obeyed and kept Your word.

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Vs.26

“ I have made Your Name known to them and revealed Your Character and Your very Self, and I will continue to make [You] known, that the love which You have bestowed upon Me may be in them [felt in their hearts] and that I [Myself] may be in them.

If you can remember in the verses that we have already read today, how many times either Paul or Peter, John and Jude begin their salutations with thanks to God the Father. In both the Psalms and the verses from John that we just read, it seems that Jesus was seeking to reveal more to His disciples than just a passing relationship with the Father, and He was in prayer, telling the Father exactly what He had endeavored to do during the three years, walking and talking with them.

When Jesus used the word name, He was saying that He had, by His life, made known the character, the nature and the very Self of God the Father. The disciples had experienced Him as their provider [Jehovah Jireh], and as their peace [Jehovah Shalom], and they would soon come to know Him as their righteousness [Jehovah Tsidkenu], and their Consecration [Jehovah McKaddesh], and of course, their Shepherd [Jehovah Rohi]. Many times they had His Strength [Jehovah Nissi] to pull them through, and had as least read in the OT, those telling of meeting the Lord of Hosts [Jehovah Tsabaoath]. These are but a miniscule portion of all the Father’s character or nature, and there is not enough eternity in eternity to go further, but He is longing for us to come into the depth that which Jesus spoke of in Mark 11: 28- 34, and I am going to read this as one verse, instead of six. To begin with, it is Jesus’ answer to one of the more upright of the scribes, and you can read his question in Mark 12:28 and I will begin in verse 29;

“ Jesus answered, The first and principle one of all commandments is; Hear, O Israel! The Lord our God is one Lord;

And you shall love the Lord your God out of and with your whole heart and out of and with your whole soul (your life) and our of and with all your mind (with your faculty of thought and your moral understanding) and out of and with all your strength. This is the first and principle commandment.

6 The second is like it and is this, You shall love you neighbor as yourself. There is no other commandment greater than these.

And the scribe said to Him, Excellently and fitly and admirably answered, Teacher! You have said truly that He is One, and there is no other but Him;

And to love Him out of and with all the heart and with all understanding [with the faculty of quick apprehension and intelligence and keenness of discernment] and with all the strength and to love one’s neighbor as oneself, is much more than all the whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.

And when Jesus saw that he answered intelligently (discreetly and having his wits about him), He said to him, You are not far from the kingdom of God. And after that no one ventured or dared to ask Him any further question.”

Do you hear the “being” more than the “doing” in this discourse? There is much more to this than any works could bring about, and it is in a deeper walk with the Father that we come into a deeper walk with all, in the Spirit. The Holy Spirit is drawing us into that place even in these, the last of days. In fact let us turn to John 6:44-45 and see something that will give us something to think about;

“No one is able to come to Me unless the Father Who sent Me attracts and draws him and give him the desire to come to Me, and [then] I will raise him up [from the dead] at the last day.

It is written in [the book of the Prophets, and they shall all be taught of God [have Him in person for their Teacher]. Every one who has listened to and learned from the Father comes to Me.”

And then to John 14:26

“Jesus said to him, I am the Way and the Truth and the Life; No one comes to the Father except through Me.”

I am coming to a close of this time in this message, because the rest is up to us and the final instruction follows from John 4:23- 24;

7 “A time will come, however, indeed it is already here, when the true (genuine) worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth (reality); for the Father is seeking just such people as these as His worshipers.

God is a Spirit (a spiritual Being) and those who worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth (reality).

Note: What matters is not where one worships but the attitude of heart and mind. True worship is not mere form and ceremony but spiritual reality, which is in harmony with the nature of God, who is Spirit. Worship must also be in truth, that is, transparent, sincere, and according to biblical mandates. The Holy Spirit is the enabler that empowers true worship to flow. Meaning and being what we say, as well as being spiritually energized in our worship, opens the way to that worship that the Father seeks.

One last note; The Holy Spirit is the key to dynamic devotion to the Father. The Holy Spirit is the spark of our devotional life. The Holy Spirit will give great increase and life to our prayer and worship time and we will begin to sense the presence of the Father as never before. He will, through the Father, cause us draw our life from His Son Jesus, Who is our Life and Light. Come to Him and draw new energy from His Life in you. He was there at the beginning and He knows the heart of the Father and His desires to, for and in us. The Father has told us

Father, we pray that You accept our early worship practice and teach us to worship truly in spirit and truth. We long for Your manifest Presence and the hearing of Your voice in the depths of our spirits. We ask this from the bottom of our hearts and it is in Jesus Name that we ask this. As we draw closer, thank you that You do draw closer to us.

Class! Be Abundantly Blessed!!

Note: The Father chose us, He adopted us, He sent His Son to die for us, He raised Him from the dead that we might have life, He sent the Holy Spirit to lead, teach and empower us to walk here in the earth and bring forth His kingdom forth here. The Father will also send His Son again to catch us up in the rapture. It is His pleasure to give us to us His kingdom. He doesn’t have to just love us, He is Love. He doesn’t have to forgive us, for it is already

8 done in Christ and in His shed blood. That is what we are being brought back to the ‘before the foundation’ arena for. We will be amazed the power that lies in store for us when we finally understand all that He has done and has planned for us.

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