Divine Assignment!!
2007/12
09/02/07
Listen and heed before we start the lesson, for this is just a small
preliminary. We see the words, Let they who have ears to hear,
hear what the Spirit speaks. Let me give you the most accurate
translation that we can find;
“He who has the Anointing, let him now understand with the
wisdom found in that Anointing”.
The Amplified has it this way: “He who has ears to hear, let him
be listening and let him consider and perceive and comprehend by
hearing.”
There is a lot to hear in what follows, and God has an assignment
for each one of us and it is, in this case the same assignment, and
that is what our time is about today. I will share with you exactly
what has been in my heart starting with the lesson we had on
‘unity’, and followed by ‘intercession’. The lesson that we have
today is along the same line but is the one where we are under
construction, and what we are being built into. I want to start with
an OT verse that is a “step” in the right direction. Turn to Psalm
37:23;
“The steps of a [good] man are directed and established by the
Lord when He delights in his way [and He busies Himself with
his every step].”
This is a great verse, but when you look at it, and meditate on it,
and have walked with the Lord even a short while, you must be
aware, that not only are the steps directed or ordered by the Lord,
but be sure that He will also direct, or order our stops as well. As
it declares, the doors that God opens, no man can shut and the
ones that He shuts, no man can open.
I think the reason why the Lord chose this verse to begin with, is
that the focal point is in the ‘steps’. We are heading today in the
direction of our walk with the Lord and a walk is a progression of
steps, and maybe some stops as well. There are several verses that
I want to add as we begin on this journey, and we start with one
that we have had many times, but now with another theme.
2 Pet. 1:2-3
“May grace (God’s favor) and peace (which is perfect wellbeing, all necessary good, all spiritual prosperity and freedom
from fears and agitating passions and moral conflicts) be
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multiplied to you in [the full, personal, precise, and correct]
knowledge of God and Jesus our Lord.
For His divine power has bestowed upon us all things that [are
requisite and suited] to life and godliness, through the [full,
personal] knowledge of Him Who called us by and to His own
glory and excellence (virtue).”
Put these two verses in your memory bank and keep them there,
for they are the foundation for the rest of this lesson, because life
and godliness are part of this call and He has told us that His
power has bestowed (pt) all needed to move into this dimension.
Now let me direct you to John 1:12 and put before you something
to think about for a moment.
“But as many as received Him, to them He gave the power to
become the sons* of God, to those who believe on His name.”
*sons is the word used in the original translation
This is where our walk begins and I want to take you over to
Ephesians 4:1, where Paul has just finished, in Chapter 3,
speaking of the power of love that is working in us and then goes
right into vs. 1 saying; “I Therefore, the prisoner for the Lord,
appeal to and beg you to walk (lead a life) worthy of the [divine]
calling to which you have been called [with behavior that is a
credit to the summons to God’s service.”
Look at the word ‘walk’ first and understand that in the scriptures
the word means the activities and processes involved in your daily
life. It is an ongoing process, but does not have the physical action
normally given to its meaning. We’ll come back to this in a while,
but lets go on and look at the word ‘calling’. It here is speaking of
God’s divine assignment on your life and His path for you to
function in. He has a particular position for you to inhabit in this
call, which we are all in life headed for. Remember, you have all
the things pertaining to life and godliness, NOW!!
Just a moment ago we looked at John 1:12 and we used the word
‘power’ there, which is from the greek word ‘exousia’ meaning
authority. If you were to go through many footnotes as I did, you
would note something interesting. You would find some verses
that are footnoted to the one used, use the word power from the
greek word ‘dunamis’ and another would be ‘kratos’. Let me give
you the three as they fit together so that you will come to
understand that God left nothing out needed for you journey,
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Exousia – Authority or right to accomplish an assignment [sons]
Dunamis – The power to enforce the authority given above
Kratos – The power of endurance to last through the former two.
I want to let you in on something now, and that is that we are
dealing with a full house, and not the kind used in a poker game,
this one is God’s full house and it is found in Col. 2:9-10,
remembering all things pertaining to life and godliness. Sound
redundant? Well it is and it will be again, so lets go to our verses.
“For in Him the whole fullness of Deity (the Godhead)
continues to dwell in bodily form [giving complete expression of
the divine nature].
And you are, in Him, made full and having come to fullness of
life [in Christ you too are filled with the Godhead – Father, Son
and Holy Spirit – to reach full spiritual stature]. And He is the
Head of all rule and authority [of every angelic principality and
power]”.
I have taken long enough to get around to where we are headed
for today, so let me tell you in a nutshell what the divine calling
that God has placed upon each of us is. Mature, Adult Sonship!
Nothing less and nothing more. That is the beginning point and
maybe even the ending point, because it is a big step or walk but
He provided all we need to move into that dimension, including
lessons given by the Teacher [Holy Spirit] Who continually
abides in each of us and is our Teacher as 1 John 2:27 assures us
and He is always leading us into the Truth. Lets go one step
further and look at Ephesians 4:12-13;
“His intention was the perfecting and the full equipping of the
saints (His consecrated people), [that they should do] the work
of ministering toward building up Christ’s body (the church),
[That it might develop] until we all attain oneness in the faith
and in the comprehension of the [full and accurate] knowledge
of the Son of God, that [we might arrive] at really mature
manhood (the completeness of personality which is nothing less
than the standard height of Christ’s own perfection), the
measure of the stature of the fullness of the Christ and the
completeness found in Him.”
There may be just a hint why we had the lessons on unity and
intercession in the sequence given and this one ties to them. The
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things that He gave us that pertain to life and godliness were
given to bring us into the perfection of Jesus Christ. I believe that
we should take just a swing by the words “full equipping” for a
moment. The greek word used for equipping is one that pertains
to surgery, to setting a broken limb, to put it back in place, or it
was also used in the political realm for bringing opposing parties
back together, to function for the good of the people and not to be
broken apart.
He, in these portions, beckons to us, to reach the full height of
Christ’s perfection, the measure of the stature of the fullness of
the Christ (anointing) and the completeness found in Him. That
may sound like an overwhelming order, but He never gave us any
direction that we could not, in Him, achieve. Go to Eph. 1:17b18;
“…that He may grant you a spirit of wisdom and revelation [of
insight into mysteries and secrets] in the [deep and intimate]
knowledge of Him.
By having the eyes of your heart flooded with light, so that you
can know and understand the hope to which He has called you,
and how rich is His glorious inheritance in the saints (His set
apart ones),
And I add several other verses [vss 19&20]
And [so that you can know and understand] what is the
immeasurable and unlimited and surpassing greatness of His
power in and for us who believe, as demonstrated in the working
of His mighty strength,
Which He exerted in Christ when He raised Him from the dead
and seated Him at His [own] right hand in the heavenly
[places].”
I added the other two verses because we need to understand that
when we are called to sonship, then we must have the
completeness found in Him to achieve that position. We already
are sons of God, but we are in training to function in that place, to
become what we already are. We have all His power working in
us because we already have the fullness of Him abiding in us, and
we are told by Paul in Romans 8:11, that if the Spirit of Him,
Who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in us, then He will also
quicken our mortal bodies to life as well. Lets go on reading from
Rom. 8:12-14:
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“So then, brethren, we are debtors, but not to the flesh [we are
not obligated to our carnal nature], to live [a life ruled by the
standards set up by the dictates] of the flesh.
For if you live according to [the dictates of] the flesh, you will
surely die. But if through the power of the Holy Spirit you are
[habitually] putting to death (making extinct, deadening) the
[evil] deeds prompted by the body, you shall [really and
genuinely] live forever.
For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.
I believe that we should stop here for a second and take stock of
what we have in Christ. We have all of what He has and are joint
heirs with Him as well. We have power, mercy, compassion, and
we have His mind, with wisdom and consecration, We have, by
His blood redemption and santification, and in Him we are made
the righteousness of God. He sent the Holy Spirit, Whom we also
have who is the Spirit of Truth, the One Who teaches us all things
and points us to Jesus. We have the peace of God that Jesus gave
us all the gifts of the Spirit, Love, Joy, Peace and Patience, with
Gentleness, Kindness, Self-Control and Faithfulness. That is a full
house and that is what we have in Him. Now let us think on this;
Speaking of the walk that we read in Ephesians, look at
Colossians 1:9-13:
“For this reason we also, from the day we heard of it, have not
ceased to pray and make [special request for you, [asking] that
you may be filled with the full (deep and clear) knowledge of His
will in all spiritual wisdom [in comprehensive insight into the
ways and purposes of God] and in understanding and
discernment of spiritual things—
That you may walk (live and conduct yourselves) in a manner
worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to Him, and desiring to please
Him in all things, bearing fruit in every good work and steadily
growing and increasing in and by the knowledge of God [with
fuller, deeper, and clearer insight, acquaintance and
recognition].
We [pray] that you may be invigorated and strengthened with all
power according to the might of His glory, [to exercise] very
kind of endurance and patience (perseverance and forbearance)
with joy.
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Giving thanks to the Father Who has qualified (pt) and made us
fit to share the portion which is the inheritance of the saints
(God’s holy people) in the Light.
[The Father] has delivered and drawn us to Himself out of the
control and the dominion of darkness and has transferred us
into the kingdom of the Son of His love.”
The prayer that Paul prayed for the Ephesians is very similar in
content, and they both align with Peter’s statement that we read at
the beginning, and which I now read again:
“My grace (God’s favor) and peace (which is perfect well-being,
all necessary good, all spiritual prosperity, and freedom from
fears and agitating passions and moral conflicts) be multiplied
to you in [the full, personal, precise, and correct] knowledge of
God and of Jesus our Lord.”
Now, I think I need to tell you that none of this is going to come
by way of our intellect, or our talent. It is only going to come
through quiet meditation on God’s word and allowing God’s Holy
Spirit to work this Most Redemptive Revelation into you. God is
now in the process, in these the last of days, raising up a family of
sons that will be the front line of His will and His ways, and His
heart is already hearing the whole of creation as Rom. 8:16-19;
“The Spirit Himself [thus] testifies together with our own spirit,
[assuring us] that we are the children of God.
And if we are [His] children, then we are [His] heirs also; heirs
of God and fellow heirs with Christ [sharing His inheritance
with Him]; only we must share His suffering if we are to share
His glory. [share the trials and tests that He endured]
[But what of that?] For I consider that the sufferings of this
present time (this present life) are not worth being compared
with the glory that is about to be revealed to us and in us and for
us and conferred on us!
For [even the whole] creation (all nature) waits expectantly and
longs earnestly for God’s sons to be made known [waits for the
revealing, the disclosing of their * sonship].”
Look at verse 22
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“We know that the whole creation [of irrational creatures] has
been moaning together in the pains of labor until now.”
Note: The disclosing of their maturity and their adulthood, their
conformation to the character of God and of Christ Jesus.
As I was well into this lesson in thought and deed (meditation and
writing) I had something come from a prophetic source and let me
read you a portion of that which fits exactly into what we are
doing;
Quotation: What is the fullness of our calling? It is adult sonship
in Christ. It is the completeness of the personality of Christ, which
is love, joy, peace, patience, gentleness, goodness, kindness and
includes the full stature in which He walks. As perfect Man, the
stature of which He walked here on earth, was that of a man fully
developed in God. The life of the Godhead, the life of the Son, the
life of the Father, the life of the Holy Spirit, fully saturated His
inner most being.
I think we must agree that it is not nearly enough to merely hear
this lesson taught, but we sorely need to experience this saturation
in our hearts by the illumination of revelation of the light of God.
It is God’s ultimate will that there be an explosion of His light,
that He spoke in Genesis, to open our hearts to understand deep
within our spirits, the call to come up into our sonship and
become what we already are. We are His children and as John
wrote in his first letter, it is incredible that we should be called the
children of the Most High God [1 John 3:1-2].
Lets go to another scripture, and if I get intense here, which I
sometimes do, just hang on and get in on what God is calling you
to hear and be; Colossians 2:2-3; [catch Paul’s heart]
“[For my concern is] that their hearts may be braced
(comforted, cheered, and encouraged) as they are knit together
in love, that they may come to have all the abounding wealth
and blessings of assured conviction of understanding, and that
they may become progressively more intimately acquainted with
and may know definitely and accurately and thoroughly that
mystic secret of God, [which is] Christ, (the Anointed One).
In Him all the treasures of [divine] wisdom (comprehensive
insight into the ways and purposes of God) and [all the riches of
spiritual) knowledge and enlightenment are stored up and lie
hidden.”
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We see here that the word declares Jesus has all the treasures of
divine wisdom. This can only be transmitted to the church (us) by
way of the Spirit of Truth, The Holy Spirit.
God’s desire is that we use His wisdom and understanding to gain
an insight into the purpose to which He calls us. It has to far
surpass our carnal intellect, for He desires that all these nuggets
fill our hearts to the degree that we truly begin to walk in the light
that is hidden in earthen vessels [2 Cor. 4:6-7], even as Christ is in
the light. We have already been delivered out of the dominion of
darkness and as we read before, transferred into the kingdom of
the Son of His love.
Paul, in Philippians 2, speaks of working out our salvation, but
then in the next verse he gives us to understand that it is God
with us all the time to assist us in this process, and he then again
in 1 Thess. 5, prays that God sanctify us completely, spirit, soul,
and body, being preserved blameless at His coming, but again he
says that He (God) Who calls us, is faithful to do it. This is all
part of our maturity, as we are also learning to cooperate with
God’s ultimate plan for our lives.
It was not too long ago, in many national meetings, and even in
this class that we had the testimony of roaring, and even
experienced it once, and now once again God is bringing His
committed ones to the place where we are going to be part of an
event where the Lion of Judah will roar at His coming and He will
not be bringing a bunch of cubs with Him, but sons, the sons of
God that we have become in our adult sonship, to come with Him
to rule and reign here in the earth and that is the place for a huge
Alleluia and Praise the Lord!! (Go to 1 Cor 1:30)
“But it is from Him that you have your life in Christ Jesus,
Whom God made our Wisdom from God, [revealed to us a
knowledge of the divine plan of salvation previously hidden,
manifesting itself as] our Righteousness [thus making us
upright and putting us in right standing with God], and our
Consecration [making us pure and holy], and our Redemption
[providing our ransom from eternal penalty for sin].”
The wisdom is in place for us to come to the knowledge of all the
rest. We are to know the fullness of the Righteousness that we
have been made. We are to know the fullness of the Consecration
that we have been elected to and we are to know the fullness of
the Redemption that His blood paid for in full. All this happened
for the here and now and is in place for our walk here and our
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bringing to pass His kingdom and His will in the earth as it is in
heaven. Alleluia and Praise the Lord!!! A great big thanksgiving
to our God Who has put all this in place in us.
Listen to this one last thing. In Isaiah 9:7, we read the following
words; (It may be a good idea to read vs. 6 first if you are not
familiar with it.)
“Of the increase of His government and of peace there shall be
no end, upon the throne of David and over his kingdom, to
establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness
from the [latter] time forth, even forever-more. The zeal of the
Lord of hosts will perform this.”
Note: We are the increase of His government. God is going to do
this as we grow into Him and He will even cause that to all who
cooperate (obey) with Him.
Bring the Anointing with you to hear and understand next week,
for a video tape by Brother Bill Cloud, that is a good follow up to
this lesson; [The restoration of all things]
Class! Be Abundantly Blessed!!
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