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The world has raised us to fear the unknown, but God designed His children to be explorers and adventurers. Our spiritual Father has instilled in His children an exciting love and anticipation for what lies just around that next corner. He has equipped us, not only to be able to handle whatever comes our way, but to grow and blossom in ever-expanding fruitfulness by means of every challenging experience.
II Corinthians 9:8 And God is able to make all grace abound toward you; that you, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work:
God is able! And the character of His ability lives in each one of us, His children.
II Peter 1:3, 4a According as His divine power (dunamis – ability) has given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge (epignosis) of Him who has called us to glory and virtue (excellence): Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises; that by these you might be partakers (share fully) of the divine nature, ….
When man ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, he came into the bondage of the vanity of his own mind, and he began living by the limitations of his own ability to know and understand. Thus, he lives in darkness, fear and susceptibility to Satan’s offerings of that which he does not know or understand. But this is not how he was created by God.
Genesis 1:26a And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness….
There are two different words used here. “Image” and “likeness.” They are not the same words. “Image” means an imprint, like that made with a stamp, and indicates that the very nature of man was to be like God’s. “Likeness” means a pattern, indicating that man’s abilities were to be God’s abilities, to the end that man was to live like God lives, to know like He knows, to experience like He experiences.
Do you think that God lives in fear of what lies ahead? I don’t. I think he meets every moment with loving boldness and excited anticipation. And man is a very important part of that lifestyle! We have been destined to live in and by the glory of God.
II Thessalonians 2:14 Unto which (salvation – a whole life) He called you by our gospel to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.
And what is the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ?
Ephesians 1:19-23 And what is the exceeding greatness of His power (the hyperbolic megathos of His ability) toward us who believe according to the working of His mighty power (the strength of His overcoming ability) Which He worked in Christ when He raised him from the dead and set him at His own right hand in the heavenlies, Far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age, but also in that which is to come; and has put all under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all for the church, Which is his body, the fullness of him who fulfills all in all.
We, the church, are the fullness of him (Christ) who fulfills all in all. The glory of our Lord Jesus Christ is that he brings the design and purpose of God into reality in every person and in every situation; in every instance in every event. And we, the body of people in whom the spirit of Christ dwells, are the means by which this is carried out. Thus, the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ is the glory of us all, in whom the spirit of God is born.
Our lives have thus been promised the perfection of God’s creative glory, but exactly how that creative glory will be expressed, how it will be played out, in each individual’s life……that remains to be seen and experienced.
Romans 8:19-21 For the earnest expectation of the creation waits for the manifestation of the sons of God. For the creation was made subject to vanity (in the garden), (not willingly, but by reason of him (the devil) who has subjected the same) in hope. Because the creation itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.
When man fell, he was kicked out of the garden, so that he would not eat of the tree of life, so that he would not stay fallen. Even man’s vain mind desires and expects to be delivered from the crippling bondage such vanity imposes upon us. It is this hope, imparted by God Himself, which gives man the ability to love the unknown.
From the moment a house is built, it is in the bondage of corruption. With no outside help, a house will spring a leak here, a storm will cause a tree limb to break a window there, more and more the house will fall apart. It is in the bondage of corruption (as any homeowner will tell you!).
In contrast, the glorious liberty of the children of God is like a forest of trees. The trees will grow. Individual trees might burn, might be knocked down by winds, but the forest will grow, expand, thrive. This is the destiny of children of God. This is our hope!
Romans 8:22-24a For we know that the whole creation groans and travails in pain together until now. And not only it, but ourselves also, who have the firstfruits of the spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our body. For we are saved in hope:
This is our calling, this is our hope, this is why we love the unknown. Life will never get boring, never become old and stale, as long as we are reaching with the wonder of exploration and discovery for that which lies ahead.
Colossians 1:3, 5, 6 We give thanks to God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you, For the hope which is laid up for you in heaven (the spiritual realm), of which you heard before in the word of the truth of the gospel; Which is come unto you, as in all the world, and brings forth fruit, as also in you, since the day you heard and knew (gnosko’d) the grace of God in truth.
Well, there’s the lifestyle of those born of the nature of God. We look forward to each new challenge, each new situation, every unexplored area of life and experience. With the ability of Christ (who is the image and glory of God) within, we are bound to live out (fulfill) all the good will and destiny of God. That we will succeed is a given, but exactly how that will “play itself out” remains to be seen. Let us enter into each day, situation, and relationship with loving anticipation of seeing the hand of God show itself in ways never before seen or experienced, as we reach out for the glory of God which has been promised us in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Philippians 3:13 Brethren, I reckon (logizomai) not myself to have arrived at what I was destined for, but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
I love what lies ahead, which I have yet to see, to understand, to be able to live out fully, to see manifested in and through my life. But I know as good as it’s been, it’s going to be that much better, and that much better, and that much better………..
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What is the POWER of God?
What was The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil?
Vanity of the Mind
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