RESOLVED – Living Biblically in Our Generation (Steve Camp)

RESOLVED
…the struggle and desire to live biblically in our generation

In a previous post, I had highlighted part of the journey that Jonathan Edwards had taken when he wrote his 70 resolutions. In the process of that research, I learned that they had became a burden to him rather than something that was freeing and encouraging to his soul. IMHO, part of that reason, was that many of his resolutions were personal whims rather than resolutions that were grounded firmly in the Scriptures.

So with that as a backdrop, I offer the following as biblical resolutions. I do this only by way of brief illustration (the list is not exhaustive); for it to be so you would have to literally reprint most of the Bible. But these cover general areas of the essentials of the faith. Signposts, if you please, that can act as a good remembrance of what the main things are we are to pursue daily in our journey to the Son. My motive in assembling this list is not for it to be read daily as some sort of legalistic exercise; but to be used devotionally, in part or in whole, as a guide in prayer that we can entreat the Holy Spirit to equip us to live to that end and to strengthen us in our life in Christ. Some verses will convict certain days where others will bring comfort; some will exhort us and others will encourage us. But as we come to His Word, it is wonderful to not pray aimlessly, but to pray specifically. You undoubtedly will have several other verses come to mind that represent the overarching key essentials of the faith as well. Please share them with me here and I will add them to this list.

I hope these verses will be an encouragement in your walk with the Lord today. Let us be resolved, to know for certain, what the Lord is asking of us in our generation as we, by His grace, desire to honor Him with an undivided, faithful heart as we daily serve Him.

By His grace and for His glory,
Steve

RESOLVED: “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” -Gen. 1:1


RESOLVED: “So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.” -1 Cor. 10:31

RESOLVED: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”” -Matt. 22:37-40

RESOLVED: “But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.” -John 4:23-24

RESOLVED: “Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.” -Eph. 6:4

RESOLVED: “I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.” -Rom. 12:1-2

RESOLVED: “Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit, addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with all your heart, giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ.” -Eph. 5:17-21

RESOLVED: “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his life? Or what shall a man give in return for his life?” -Matt. 15:24-26

RESOLVED: “Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in His name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem.” -Luke 24:46-47

RESOLVED: “He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by Him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities-all things were created through Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together. And He is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything He might be preeminent. For in Him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through Him to reconcile to Himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of His cross.” -Col. 1:15-20

RESOLVED: “Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation. Be subject for the Lord’s sake to every human institution, whether it be to the emperor as supreme, or to governors as sent by him to punish those who do evil and to praise those who do good. For this is the will of God, that by doing good you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish people. Live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but living as servants of God. Honor everyone. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the emperor.” -1 Peter 2:12-17

RESOLVED: “Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it. Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. So I do not run aimlessly; I do not box as one beating the air. But I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified.” -1 Cor. 9:24-27

RESOLVED: “I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.” -1 Cor. 2:2

RESOLVED: “But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For His sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith- that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and may share His sufferings, becoming like Him in His death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.” -Phil. 3:7-11

RESOLVED: “And so, from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God. May you be strengthened with all power, according to His glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy, giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light.” -Col. 1:9-12

RESOLVED: “Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness? What accord has Christ with Belial?* Or what portion does a believer share with an unbeliever? ” -2 Cor. 6:14-15

RESOLVED: “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work. I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by His appearing and His kingdom: preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and lexhort, with complete patience and teaching.” -2 Tim. 3:16-17; 4:1-2

RESOLVED: “Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for hit is God who works in you, both to will and to work for ihis good pleasure. Do all things without grumbling or questioning, that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God mwithout blemish nin the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine pas lights in the world, holding fast to* qthe word of life, so that in the day of Christ I may be proud that I did not run in vain or labor in vain. ” -Phil. 2:12b-16

RESOLVED: “But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;” -Matt. 5:44

RESOLVED: “With my whole heart I seek you; let me not wander from your commandments! I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you.” -Psalm 119:10-11

RESOLVED: “But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. -Phil. 3:13-14

RESOLVED: “But in your hearts regard Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect, having a good conscience, so that, when you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ may be put to shame.” -1 Peter 3:15-16

RESOLVED: “But I do not account my life of any value nor as precious to myself, if only I may finish my course and the ministry bthat I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God.” -Acts 20:24

RESOLVED: “Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.” -2 Tim. 2:15

RESOLVED: “Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.” -Heb. 12:1-2

RESOLVED: “For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake.” -2 Cor. 4:5

RESOLVED: “Not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.” -Heb. 10:25

RESOLVED: “Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit sthe kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.” -Matt. 25:34-36

RESOLVED: “Therefore, yconfess your sins to one another and pray for one another, zthat you may be healed. aThe prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.” -James 5:16

RESOLVED: “So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus,” -Phil. 2:1-5

RESOLVED: “Remind them to be submissive to rulers and authorities, to be obedient, to be ready for every good work, to speak evil of no one, to avoid quarreling, to be gentle, and to show perfect courtesy toward all people. For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another. But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, He saved us, enot because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that jbeing justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life. The saying is trustworthy, and I want you to insist on these things, so that those who have believed in God may be careful to devote themselves to good works. These things are excellent and profitable for people.” -Titus 3:1-8

RESOLVED: “Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you-unless you believed in vain. For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures,” -1 Cor. 15:1-4

RESOLVED: “For me to live is Christ and die is gain.” -Phil. 1:21

Have You Checked Your Spiritual “Facebook” Today? (Paul Tautges)

Have You Checked Your Spiritual “Facebook” Today?

Meditation on 2 Corinthians 3:18

 

Paul Tautges

 

 

Facebook is the fastest growing social networking website, boasting over 250 million active users, with more than 120 million of them logging in at least once per day. Think of it! Over 120 million people checking up on their friends and family, sharing significant things (wedding pictures, prayer needs) and insignificant things (what they ate for lunch, comments about the weather), and remaining “connected” to an average of 120 friends each. That’s an amazing amount of “connecting” going on. But then I got to thinking. What would happen in our world, and in our churches, if 120 million believers in Christ made sure to check our spiritual “facebook” every day?

 

As fun as it is to peek into each other’s photo albums there is an infinitely more important “facebook” that we must discipline ourselves to spend time in. That, of course, is God’s “facebook,” the Scriptures. The Apostle Paul makes it clear that sanctification, becoming like Christ, is a cooperative effort involving both the Spirit of God and the believer: But we all, with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit (2 Corinthians 3:18).

 

Sanctification is a process: we are being transformed. The specific transformation taking place in the heart of the believer is into the same image from glory to glory. What image is that? It is the image of the glory of the Lord. Unquestionably, this is God’s goal for every Christian: “For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son” (Romans 8:29). But how does this actually happen? It is the Lord, the Spirit who ultimately performs the work of our transformation; on the other hand, the change only takes place as we with unveiled face [behold] as in a mirror the glory of the Lord. What is the mirror that reflects the glory of the Lord? It is the Word of God. It is the gospel. James writes, “For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks at his natural face in a mirror; for once he has looked at himself and gone away, he has immediately forgotten what kind of person he was” (James 1:23-24). As we examine our hearts and lives in the mirror of the Word of God we, with the Spirit’s guidance, see the spiritual pimples that need to be removed and, by the Spirit’s power, are able to correct the sinful character patterns that hinder the image of Christ from being increasingly glorified in us. However, if we approach the Bible merely to gain information, without a desire to experience Spirit-empowered change, we become mere “hearers who delude themselves” (James 1:22).

 

With no desire to throw a wet blanket on anyone’s online fire, let me gently exhort all of us to be sure that we keep the fun tools of technology in their proper place. There is no technology that even comes close to the infinite value of checking our spiritual “facebook” every day. Man’s technology doesn’t hold a candle to the supernatural power of the Word of God.

 

So, have you checked your “facebook” today?

 

I mean, how is your personal time of prayer and Bible reading going? The psalmist woke up in the morning with a desire for deep communion with God: “In the morning, O Lord, Thou wilt hear my voice; in the morning I will order my prayer to Thee and eagerly watch” (Psalm 5:3). Which “facebook” do you wake up with a desire to open? If your desire to check your online Facebook is more urgent than your desire to behold the face of Jesus Christ in the gospel, then it is time to repent of misplaced priorities and renew your commitment to daily read, meditate on, and apply a portion of Scripture to life. Decide right now that from now on you will refrain from booting up your computer until you have first spent time in communion with God through prayer and His living Word (Hebrews 4:12). As we behold the glory of the Lord in the truth of the gospel, the Spirit of God will continually transform us into the holy and gracious image of the Son of God.

Did God Murder His Son – Ray Comfort

Did God “Murder” His Son? –Ray Comfort

“Sorry Ray, I do not take my morals from a God who drowns opposing armies in the ocean, killed every living thing on Earth in a global flood, punished humanity for all time for eating a piece of fruit, rained fire and brimstone on entire cities because he didn’t like their behavior, killed the first born of an entire nation, and murdered his own son. Thank God he does not exist.” askegg

It seems that you don’t know your Bible. God didn’t “kill every living thing on earth in a global flood.” He allowed all the fish, and a family of eight people to be saved. He didn’t punish humanity “for all time for eating a piece of fruit.” Adam was punished for his “disobedience” (see Romans 5:19). If you refuse God’s mercy, you too will be punished for your disobedience, not for Adam’s.

You are also wrong when you said that “God murdered His own Son.” The Bible says that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself. Jesus of Nazareth was the Creator in human form (see John 1:1, 1 Timothy 3:16). The reason God became a Man was to suffer for the sin of the world (taking the punishment that is due to us). We violated God’s Law (the Ten Commandments), and Jesus paid our fine. That means you can have your case dismissed. It means you can escape Hell, and receive everlasting life as a gift from God (see Romans 6:23).

God warned the Pharaoh ten times that He would judge Egypt, and you pin-pointed the reason for God drowning his army. It was because it was an “opposing” army. That’s a good lesson for us: oppose and you lose. Like Pharaoh, you have been warned (through the Ten Commandments) that God will judge the world because it is at war with Him (see James 4:4). If you refuse to surrender and carry on with your rebellion, God will give you over to what the Bible calls a “reprobate mind.” I would hate that to happen to you.

You are right though about the fire and brimstone. The same Justice of God that fell on Sodom and Gomorrah abides on you (see John 3:36), believe it or not. Please, think about your eternal salvation. There’s nothing more important.

The Dilemma, Again

“Wow Ray, I have personally answered your versions of infinite regression, and ‘nothing creating everything’ and corrected your pathetic misunderstanding of the second law of thermodynamics… Not that I am claiming you are lying in this regard, I don’t think so. You are simply expressing your ignorant opinions. However if you had any intellectual honesty you would acknowledge that there are answers given to your supposed stumpers that you are unable to refute.” Ryk

I am happy to acknowledge that answers have been given to explain the “nothing created everything” dilemma, and I choose to believe that those answers are wrong. There’s nothing to refute.

I have seen numbers of those who called themselves “atheists” change their minds and admit that they weren’t atheists, the moment they realized that they did believe that “something” created everything. That was because the alternative was ridiculous. That realization is the pin that pops the bubble of atheism. That’s why I am staying with this, much to the annoyance of the faithful posters.

However, my consolation is that if they don’t like me saying this, they are free to go elsewhere. Think about it. If every professing atheist leaves, this would no longer be “Atheist Central.” The Blog would dry up. I would be out of their lives forever. Or could it be that they get bored talking to those others who profess to be atheists?

So, what do you believe: creator or no creator? You could say that there is no such thing as “creation,” which many atheists say, which is absurd. You could say “I don’t know.” But if you do, you are not an atheist. You are agnostic. You could try to define “nothing” as being something, which is also ridiculous. One of your atheist friends said, “An atheist is someone who believes ‘the something’ is NOT INTELLIGENT, because cosmology, abiogenesis and evolution show you don’t need an intelligent designer to end up with a planet filled with life.” Crazy-talk. So you do have a dilemma.

Here’s another atheist’s attempt to distance himself from the essence of atheism: “Let’s say I believe that something caused the universe to form. SOMETHING not NOTHING. However I think that something was natural and not God. See, I am still an atheist because I don’t believe in God, and yet at the same time I believe that something caused the universe.” So he believes in a creator as the cause of the universe. He’s not an atheist.

Let me add to all this that I am honored that you post here. Best wishes to you and yours.

“The Sky is Definitely Blue.”

“There probably isn’t a God. I’d never be stupid enough to commit myself 100% to the statement that ‘THERE DEFIANTLY IS NO GOD!’ because I don’t know it for a fact. It’s summer here in the UK, so I can look out my window and say, for a fact “the sky definitely is blue.” You could say that to a color blind person that the sky isn’t blue, but you’d be wrong because the color blind person has a vision deficiency causing them to see incorrectly.” Andy Duchemin

I appreciate the fact that you have illustrated my point. As an atheist, you can’t be sure of anything in this life. You can’t be sure if God doesn’t exist. You can’t be sure of evolution. You can’t be sure of what is right and what is wrong. But you are sure that the sky is blue. However, it’s not. It has no color at all. It’s an illusion. The only thing you can be sure of is your death.

On the other hand, those who know God (as apposed to those who simply “believe” in His existence) can be sure of many things. This is because God is never wrong. Ever. He is absolutely trustworthy in that which He says. We can therefore know absolutely about our origins, and we can know absolutely what is right and what is wrong. There is no “probably” when it comes to His immutable promises. Rather than let this fact upset you, see it instead as unspeakably good news for those who are tossed back and forth on the sea of speculation. It means that you can have a solid foundation for this life, and absolute hope (know that you have everlasting life) in the next.

Is Postmodernism a Myth? (Sean McDowell)

Is Postmodernism A Myth?

Sean McDowell

 

In the early 1990s interest in postmodernism exploded in the church. Books widely appeared as bestsellers and conferences featured seminars about doing ministry in a postmodern world. While people disagreed about exactly what was meant by “postmodernism”-and they still do!-there was considerable agreement that the world was leaving the modern era behind and wading into the unknown waters of the postmodern matrix.

 

In Postmodern Youth Ministry, for example, Tony Jones argues that postmodernity is the most important culture shift of the past 500 years, upending our theology, philosophy, epistemology (how we know things), and church practice. It is an “earthquake that has changed the landscape of academia and is currently rocking Western culture.” (p. 11). Thus, to be relevant in ministry today, according to Jones and other postmodernists, we must shed our modern tendencies and embrace the postmodern shift.

 

For the longest time I simply accepted that we inhabit a postmodern world and that we must completely transform our approach to ministry to be effective today. But that all changed when I had the opportunity of hearing philosopher William Lane Craig speak at an apologetics conference not too long ago. “This sort of [postmodern] thinking,” says Craig, “is guilty of a disastrous misdiagnosis of contemporary culture.” (“God is Not Dead Yet,” Christianity Today, July 2008, p. 26). He argues that the idea that we live in a postmodern world is a myth. This may strike you as awfully bold. How can he make such a claim?

 

For one thing, says Craig, postmodernism is unlivable and contradictory: “Nobody is a postmodernist when it comes to reading the labels on a medicine bottle versus a box of rat poison. If you’ve got a headache, you’d better believe that texts have objective meaning!” (Reasonable Faith, 2008, p. 18) Craig speaks to tens of thousands of (mostly non-Christian) college students around the world every year and his conclusion is that we live in a cultural milieu that is deeply modernist. Reason, logic, and evidence are as important today as ever (although he’s careful not to overstate their importance, too).

 

Postmodernism and Apologetics

 

But this is not all Craig has to say! In the introduction to Reasonable Faith, Craig provocatively claims, “Indeed, I think that getting people to believe that we live in a postmodern culture is one of the craftiest deceptions that Satan has yet devised” (p. 18). Accordingly, we ought to stop emphasizing argumentation and apologetics and just share our narrative. Craig develops this idea further:

 

And so Satan deceives us into voluntarily laying aside our best weapons of logic and evidence, thereby ensuring unawares modernism’s triumph over us. If we adopt this suicidal course of action, the consequences for the church in the next generation will be catastrophic. Christianity will be reduced to but another voice in a cacophony of competing voices, each sharing its own narrative and none commending itself as the objective truth about reality, while scientific naturalism shapes our culture’s view of how the world really is (p. 18-19). 

 

In a personal email, Craig relayed to me that he believes postmodernism is largely being propagated in our church by misguided youth pastors. While he meant the comment more to elicit a smile than to be taken as a stab in the back, I can’t help but wonder if he is right.

 

If our culture were so profoundly postmodernist, why have the “New Atheists,” as Wired magazine dubbed them, been so influential? Popular writers such as Christopher Hitchens, Sam Harris, and Richard Dawkins have recently written bestselling books attacking the scientific, historic, and philosophical credibility of religion in general and Christianity in particular. Their writings have wreaked havoc on many unprepared Christians. If our culture were postmodern their challenges should have fallen on deaf ears.

 

Postmodern Youth

 

While studies show that youth are significantly relativistic when it comes to ethics, values, and religion (e.g., Soul Searching, by Christian Smith, Oxford Press, 2005), they are not relativistic about science, mathematics, and technology. When discussing morality and religion, I have heard many young people say things such as say, “That’s just your truth. I have a different truth.” But I have never heard a young person say this about a claim in the realm of science or math. Modernists believe that science is the sole purveyor of truth while religion and ethics belong in the private, subjective sphere. It seems to me that the thinking of young people is more influenced by modernism (and specifically naturalism) than postmodernism.

 

Nevertheless, there does seem to be some postmodern influences in our culture. There is a latent cynicism about knowing truth, a deep suspicion of authority, and an awareness that bias affects people more profoundly than we would like to admit. But ultimately I think Craig is right-the claim that we live in a postmodern culture has been greatly exaggerated and oversold to (and by) the church.

Notes on Shaping History by Prayer and Fasting (Derek Prince book)

CHAPTER 6: Fasting Intensifies Prayer

I. Christ’s Teaching and Example

a. Emphasizes motive and warns against religious ostentation for the sake of

impressing people. (Matt. 6:1-18)

b. Fasting is endorsed by Christ’s own example – Luke 4:1-2.

i. When Jesus went into the wilderness, He was already

ii. After fasting, He returned in the

iii. Fasting was the final phase of preparation through which He had to pass,

before entering into His public ministry.

II. The Practice of the Early Church

a. Fasting was a vital part in Paul’s ministry – Acts 9:9; 2 Cor. 6:3-10; 2 Cor.

11:23-27;

b. Early Church fasted individually and COLLECTIVELY – Acts 13:1-3; Acts

14:21-23

i. As a result, they received direction and power from the H.S. for

decisions or tasks of special importance.

III. How Fasting Works

a. Fasting helps a Christian to receive direction and power from the H.S.

b. It’s a form of mourning, in one sense.

i. Mourning is not self-centered remorse or hopeless grief.

ii. It’s a response to H.S.’s prompting to share in God’s grief over sin and

folly of humanity – 2 Cor. 7:10.

c. It’s a means to humble and chasten oneself.

i. Rightly practiced, fasting brings both soul and body into subjection to the

H.S. – 1 Cor. 9:27

ii. Fasting deals with barriers to the H.S. – self-will and insistent, selfgratifying

appetites of the body. (Gal. 5:17).

1. Fasting changes people, not God.

2. Breaks down barriers in man’s carnal nature that stand in way of

H.S.’s omnipotence.

3. With barriers removed, H.S. can work unhindered in His fullness

through our prayers.

d. Four Requirements in 2 Chron. 7:14:

humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear

from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.

full of the H.S.power of the H.S.if my people, who are called by my name, will

i. Humble themselves.

ii. Pray.

iii. Seek His face.

iv. Turn from their wicked ways.

8

e. Fasting will never change the righteous standard of God. If something is outside

the will of God, fasting will never put it inside the will of God – e.g.) David’s

fasting to save his son after he committed adultery (2 Sam 12).

f. Fasting is neither a gimmick nor a cure-all.

Fasting is not a substitute for any other part of God’s provision. Conversely, no other part of God’s provision is a

substitute for fasting (117).

Kenyon and the Holy Spirit

E. W. Kenyon and the Holy Spirit
Pastor Joe McIntyre

Those of you who have read my book will be familiar with the fact that some were in disagreement regarding Kenyon’s view of receiving the Holy Spirit. Since he received the Holy Spirit in 1897, many years before the Pentecostal movement began, speaking in tongues was not the issue of controversy it later became. But for Kenyon, there were three issues (at least) surrounding the receiving of the Holy Spirit that were more important than whether one spoke in tongues or not.
Kenyon wanted people to receive the Person of the Godhead known as the Holy Spirit rather than focus on an experience or a gift. When Kenyon invited the Holy Spirit to fill him in 1897, he was at a crisis in his life and in his health. He was struggling with submitting to the complete lordship of Christ. When he yielded, the Holy Spirit came in and for Kenyon this meant lordship. (He was also instantly healed.) Jesus’ lordship was to be worked out and walked out practically by learning to submit to the indwelling Holy Spirit. His congregation immediately noted the difference in their pastor.
Kenyon thoroughly investigated the Pentecostal movement when it emerged and was delighted with what he recognized as a fresh outpouring of the Spirit. Eventually, however, he observed that many of the Pentecostal movement’s participants glowingly testified of receiving the Holy Spirit and speaking in tongues, but had no testimony of consistent victory in their lives.
He observed that they majored on His coming n but forgot that He was still there! He saw this as dishonoring the Holy Spirit, Who had graciously come to indwell them.
When the Pentecostal movement first broke forth, Kenyon noted, the meetings and the movement were dominated by a glorious sense of the love of God. Love prevailed in a fresh way in the initial days of the movement…the Jesus kind of love. But when love waned, all that was left was tongues to distinguish what had previously been an awe-inspiring outpouring of God’s presence and love. Kenyon was convinced that it was the love that caused the miracles of healing and other profound manifestations that were evidenced in the early days of the Pentecostal revival.
He eventually became somewhat disillusioned with the emphasis on experience and the lack of sound Bible teaching, and he therefore majored on recognizing the continuing ministry of the Indwelling One, relying on the Word more than experience and walking in love. The constant flow of healings and miracles that accompanied Kenyon’s ministry would seem to validate the importance of this emphasis on recognizing Who is in us, majoring on faith in God’s Word and walking in love.
In these glorious days of fresh outpourings of the Spirit, I think we can readily see the application. Let us seek to honor the Indwelling One and yield our lives totally to Him.

Some Mighty Facts (E W Kenyon)

Some Mighty Facts

by E.W. Kenyon

There are some things Eternal Life has given us. If we realized what we were in Christ and knew that we had the ability to be what God says we are, our lives would be transformed in a week.
    We do not understand what Redemption and the New Creation have made us.
    We do not realize what we are to the Father’s heart and what He is to us.
    Most of us are theological Christians instead of Bible Christians.
    We have theological experiences and are ever attempting to square the Word with those experiences.

  
         We have been taught there is no truth beyond our creed. We lock our people in a creed, making them prisoners of the theories of men born a hundred years ago. The Creed Christian is not a Bible Christian.
    Each creed must have the Bible translated to fit it.
    We have discovered a Christ who is greater than the creeds, a Redemption that is greater than the creeds, a New Birth that bursts the bonds of creedal Christianity and sets the prisoners free.
    We are discovering a type of Christianity that is better than the creeds, better than anything to which the creeds have given birth.
    The creeds, beautiful though they may be, are largely born of Sense Knowledge.

You Are Redeemed

    Romans 3:24: Through the Redemption that is in Christ Jesus whom God set forth to be a propitiation, through faith in his blood, to show His righteousness.
    Our Redemption, our Redeemer, is Christ. No one can rob you of your Redemption.
    If you take Christ as your Savior, He becomes your Redemption. You become independent of man.
    Your Redemption was God’s own work, and He Himself is satisfied with what He did in Christ.
    Eph. 2:10: For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God afore prepared that we should walk in them.
    Eph. 1:7: In whom we have our redemption through his blood, the redemption of our trespasses.
    If you have your Redemption, you are Redeemed.
    Your Redemption was through the blood of Jesus Christ
    You have the remission of your trespasses.
    Notice first, you have your Redemption in Christ. It is through the blood of the Son of God.
    You have remission from all that you ever did before you became a Christian.
    This Redemption is according to the riches of His grace.
    It is a perfect, a complete Redemption. It is not a beggarly Redemption, but a vast God-sized Redemption that glorifies God and glorifies Christ and honors every man who embraces it.
    Col. 1:13 14: “Who delivered us out of the authority of darkness.” That is Satan’s authority. If we are delivered out of his authority, he can no longer reign over us.
    Yet the great body of the Church is living under the dominion of the adversary as though it had never been Born Again. What is the matter?
    The creed to which we have subscribed has no actual Redemption in it. It has robbed the Church of its own Redemption by setting stakes of limitation.
    Col. 1:13: “Who delivered us out of the authority of darkness, and translated us into the kingdom of the son of his love!” He delivered us out of the authority of Satan, and He translated us into the kingdom of the Son of His Love.
    Put it in the first person. You are the one who has been delivered. You are the one who has been translated into God’s kingdom and family. In Christ you have your Redemption, the remission of everything that you ever did.
    It gives you the Nature of God and takes out of you the nature of the adversary.
    The New Birth settles the problem of your sin nature. All you ever did is wiped out. All you ever were has been destroyed.
    You are now an actual child of God just as Jesus was in His earth walk. You have the same standing that Jesus had, because Jesus is your standing. He has become your righteousness. God Himself becomes your standing.
    Romans 3:26: “That he might himself be righteous, and the righteousness of him that hath faith in Jesus!” (Lit. trans.)
    You have faith in Jesus as your Substitute. So God has become your righteousness.
    When you believe this, you will come out of bondage and weakness and failure into the fulness of this new Life in Christ.
    You are the sons of God. You are heirs of God and joint-heirs with Jesus Christ. You are redeemed.
    I Cor. 6:20: “For ye were bought with a price.” Why do we become the slaves of wrong teaching, the slaves of Sense Knowledge? That price was the blood of Christ.
    There is no joint ownership between Christ and the world. You either belong to the devil or you belong to Christ. Christ purchased you with His own blood. I Pet. 1:18, 19: “Knowing that ye were redeemed, not with corruptible things, with silver or gold, from your vain manner of life handed down from your fathers; but with precious blood as of a lamb without blemish and without spot, even the blood of Christ.”
    It is the blood of the lamb without spot. You stand before the Father now a redeemed one, without condemnation. The blood of Jesus Christ, God’s Son, redeemed you.
    Every claim of justice has been paid. Jesus met the demands of justice and satisfied them. You are free.
    I Cor. 7:23: “Become not the bondservants of men!” That means that we are not to become the bondservants of the theories of men or the creeds of men. “Men” here means the man who walks in the senses. You crown Jesus as the Lord of your life. There is no other bondage but the bondage of love.
    John 8:36: “If therefore the son shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.” You are free from Satan’s dominion. You are a New Creation, a child of God. You have been redeemed from the hand of your enemy. You are to take this fact seriously. You are to order your life accordingly.
    Romans 6:14: “Sin shall not have dominion over you.” Satan was defeated by your Master. That defeat stripped him of his ability to take you captive without your cooperation.
    The two phases of Christ’s ministry in Redemption are: Jesus paying the price of your Redemption, and defeating your enemy and setting you free.
    Col. 2:15: “Having despoiled the principalities and the powers, he made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in it!” He triumphed over the adversary. He defeated the enemy. His triumph was your triumph. That battle was your battle. He was not fighting for Himself.
    Hebrews 2:14: “Since then the children are sharers in flesh and blood, he also himself in like manner partook of the same; that through death he might bring to nought him that had the power of death, that is the devil.” He set you free. You are free. You are redeemed by God Himself.

You Are A New Creation

Next I want you to notice that you are a New Creation. This truth has never been given its place.
    All we have been taught was that God forgave us our sins and that by a second work of grace, sin was eradicated from us. But if we did wrong ignorantly or knowingly we had to be justified again. That justification permitted us to be justified with the devil’s nature in us.
    Another view is that God was unable to take out Satan’s nature when He gave us His Nature; so that when we were Born Again we had God’s Nature and the devil’s nature in us. We warred against the old nature in us. They said that we would be free when we died. Satan is the author of death. That would make Satan your savior. Far be the thought!
    All this teaching belongs to Sense Knowledge’s interpretation of the Word.
    Spiritual things are spiritually understood. I Cor. 2:12: “That we might know the things that are freely given to us of God.”
    The first thing that is given to you after Redemption is a New Nature. II Cor. 5:17 must ever stand as the key to this wonderful truth: “Wherefore, if any man is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. And all these things are of God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ, and gave unto us the ministry of reconciliation; to wit, that God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself.”
    You are a New Creation. The devil’s nature has been taken out of you. God’s Nature has taken its place.
    You are reconciled to the Father. You are brought into fellowship with the Father. Everything you were before, stopped being. All you were in Satan stopped being.
    The old things of weakness and failure are passed. This New Creation has no memory of the past creation. You are newly born. You are a new species. You are a New Creation in Christ Jesus.
    The Jew was blood-covered because his nature was antagonistic toward God. We are not blood-covered. We are made New Creations. We are cleansed by the blood. We need not be covered. We can stand free of sin-consciousness in His presence. just as Jesus did in His earth walk.
    The Holy Spirit has given birth to us. We are born of God. James 1:18: “Of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.” I John 4:4: “Ye are of God, my little children.” Eph.2:10: “We are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus.”
    All this drives us to this conclusion: that this New Creation is something that God Himself has wrought, and that we are just what He says we are-the very sons of God.
    Romans 6:6 tells us that the man of sin is done away in the New Creation: “Knowing this, that our old man was crucified with him. that the body of sin might be done away that so we should no longer be in bondage to sin.” The sin nature is gone. So many of us have tried to get rid of this old nature. We did not know that it was put away.
    The thing called the Adamic nature is spiritual death which has possession of our spirits. When we are made alive, made New Creations, that nature is done away.
    We are tempted, and in our babyhood state do foolish things. That is because our bodies have never yet been brought into subjection to our spirits. Desire may dwell in your physical body, but it is not sin until you have consented to an act that is forbidden in the Word. There is nothing wrong in your body. Sin lived in your spirit and in your mind. It does not abide in your body.
    When it says “sin in the flesh” it means sin in the senses. It is when your senses have gained the dominion over your spirit and mind.
    Romans 12:1, 2: “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God which is your spiritual service. And be not fashioned according to this age; but be ye transfigured by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God.”
    He desires that these senses shall be dedicated to Him after we are Born Again. It is an unseemly thing for your senses to rule your mind and your spirit. You know that if you have a sore foot that that foot rules all the rest of your body. That disease has gained the mastery so that your spirit and your mind become absolute slaves to the pain in the foot. The same thing is true if you have an unclean appetite, a habit. That habit gains the mastery over your whole being, if you do not hold it in subjection.
    The thing you should say to that foot is, “By His stripes, you are healed. In the Name of Jesus become well!” (from Isaiah 53). You say to the habit that has gained the mastery over your body and mind, “You have no right to hold dominion over me any longer. In the Name of Jesus Christ, depart!”
    You will be free.
    There is only one place for sin to actually reside, and that is in our spirits. Our spirits have been recreated. The sin nature has been taken out. I John 3:14: “We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brethren!” Satan’s nature is gone. God’s Nature is in us. This New Creation is of God. We know that we are His own.
    Nothing will cripple one so quickly as to deny this truth. Nothing will establish you and build your faith as quickly as to confess it. Confess it in your heart first. Confess it out loud in your room. Say it over and over again: “I am a child of God. I have God’s Nature. I am the righteousness of God in Christ!” Say it until the words become familiar to your spirit. Say it until your spirit and your words agree, until your whole being swings into harmony and into line with the Word of God.
    That miraculous passage in Hebrews 5:13 says, “For everyone that partaketh of milk is without experience of the word of righteousness; for he is a babe!” They have never sounded the depths of righteousness. They do not know what it means to have God justify them and to have a standing with the Father just like Jesus’ standing. They do not seem to grasp the significance of the reality of the New Creation.
    That New Creation is a part of God. It has partaken of God’s Nature. It has been made out of righteousness and holiness of truth. The New Creation is not a man-made thing. It is not a mental thing. It is a thing of God. Just as the angel said in Luke 1:35: “That holy thing that shall be born shall be the Son of God.” The Holy Spirit has given birth to you and you are one of the holy ones of God.
    You are that separated thing that belongs absolutely to the Father. You are now His very child. You can say, “My Father!” He whispers, “My child!”
    Romans 8:15: “For ye received not the spirit of bondage again unto fear; but ye received the spirit of adoption whereby we cry, Abba, Father.” This is your continual confession of your relationship to Him and His to you. That will build faith into you.
    Romans 8:1: “There is therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus!” God is your Father, your Protector, your Caretaker, and your Lord. You are in His family. Take your place. Play the part of a son.
    Let the world hear your confession. Every time you confess your sonship rights and your sonship place, you defeat the adversary. Sickness has no dominion over you. Disease has no dominion over you. Want and hunger and need have no dominion over you. You are now in the family of plenty.
    You are in the family where you lie down in green pastures and you are led by streams of sweet water. Your soul is restored from calamity, fear, and doubt; and fellowship and communion with Him is quiet and beautiful. You are walking, now in the paths of righteousness, taking advantage of your righteousness. You are doing the works of a righteous man. You are praying the prayers of a righteous man. James 5:16: “The supplication of a righteous man availeth much in its working.”
    You are praying for the sick. You are casting out demons. Mark 16:17,18.
    You are living a life of victory because you are the righteousness of God in Christ.
    This in part is what Eternal Life gives us in Christ.

This page Copyright © 2001 Peter Wade. The Bible text in this publication, except where otherwise indicated, is from the King James Version. This article appears on the site: http://www.peterwade.com/.