Section 4 - Lesson 27
The Father And Jesus
Part 3. The True Gospel of the Covenant:
• Our Father’s Stipulations For
Ratifying And Consummating The Covenant
1. Your Salvation Pilgrimage both Begins and Continues
with Your Repentance
2. Your Salvation Pilgrimage both Begins and Continues with
Your agape (ahav) Love
3. Your Salvation Pilgrimage both Begins and Continues
with Your Obedient Trust
4. Your Salvation Pilgrimage both Begins and Continues
with Your Forceful Conviction
and Steadfast
Determination
5. Your Salvation Pilgrimage both Begins and Continues
with You Forgiving Others
• Summary Of The Covenant Issues
Introduction
How important for your life in the Spirit
that you understand the stipulations for embracing our
Father’s Cove-nant that’s made possible in
Jesus!
As we mentioned in Lesson 25: Your pure motive is crucial in order for this Covenant to be
ratified and consummated. It’s
this heart condition which differentiates covenants from contracts.
Most contracts are entered into with self-interest in mind. The motive is to get the best deal
for yourself!
In contrast, the very nature of a covenant takes into
account the benefit the other person will derive from the relationship as
well. In the intimate union of His Covenant with us, our Father is seeking
children who lovingly want a relationship with Him and purpose
to live a life that pleases Him (see Ephesians 5:10).
Keep in mind that embracing the Covenant
our Father offers you calls for a life journey in which you die to your own self-interests and desires. Only through self-death can your spirit respond
to His Spirit so that you may diligently grow in the character
and servant nature of Jesus. Remember this key point when we
discuss the relational
responsibilities of the marriage
covenant in Lesson 30.
We noted in the previous Lesson that the
sanctification process is a life of
dying by placing the idols of your
heart on God’s altar. Remember that for over two hundred
years before the coming of Jesus, a number of the “Hebraic stream” rabbis taught that a person must experience a
spiritual rebirth. These rabbis understood the trust-filled altar experiences that
Abraham underwent with his God.
Conversion meant rebirth. If there is a
rebirth, then there must also be a death. Death to what? Our
discussion of Abraham in the last Lesson emphasized a key point:
His trusting obedience required a life of dying to the things
of this world—altar
experiences. Being born again is not
only the demise of relying on religious practice and ritual,
but entering into a life of dying to your self.
Death and resurrection are embodied in your
need for the immersion of water baptism. You are identifying in
your spirit with the Son of God to die so that your sins will
be covered over. Through this death to the power of your sin
nature you can rise in union with Him victorious, never having
to die again in the “second death” (see Revelation
2:11).
Through immersion
into his death we were buried with
him; so that just as, through the glory of the Father, the
Messiah was raised from the dead, likewise we too might live a
new life (Romans 6:4).
Don’t lose sight of this! Your purity
of motive and willingness to die are essential if you accept
the Covenant our Father is offering you.
The Father And Jesus
Part 3. The True Gospel of the Covenant:
Our Father’s Stipulations For
Ratifying And Consummating The Covenant
• Repentance
• Love
• Obedient Trust
• Forceful Conviction and
Determination
• Forgiving Others
Let’s review the stipulations of the
Hebrew Bible to which Jesus referred: “Whoever puts his trust in Me as the Scripture says,
rivers of living water will flow from his inmost being!” (John 7:38,39).
1. Your Salvation Pilgrimage both Begins and Continues with
Your Repentance
“For this is what the high and lofty
One says—He who lives forever, whose name is holy:
‘I live in a high and holy place, but also with him who
is contrite and lowly in spirit, to revive the spirit of the
lowly and to revive the heart of the contrite’” (Isaiah 57:15).
John the Baptist, Jesus, and Peter at
Pentecost all affirmed repentance as the
first step toward salvation.
Biblical repentance always demands a turning from sin and a turning to God.
Do you see these two distinctives?
• Turning from sin
• and turning to God.
That’s the vital message in this
verse: “declaring with utmost
seriousness the same message to Jews and Greeks alike: turn from sin to God;
and put your trust in our Lord, Jesus the Messiah” (Acts 20:21,CJB).
A life that has been changed from sinning
to living God’s way is the sign that your repentance is
in fact genuine. If all you’ve
done is feel bad that you sinned or that your sin cost you
something when it was found out, that’s nothing more than
regret or remorse. Turning from sin to God and living His way is
the only biblically acceptable response to the Spirit’s
call to you.
Keep this distinction in mind:
After his denial
Peter showed repentance.
After his betrayal
Judas showed remorse.
Repentance does grieve you that you have
grieved God. You hunger for the forgiveness, cleansing and
restoration that only He can give. That
grief is the “godly sorrow [that] brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret” (2
Corinthians 7:10). Godly sorrow leads to you to repent, and
your repentant heart leads to salvation in the changed life it
produces.
Intimately connected with repentance is confession. When you
confess a sin, whether attitude or action, you’re
acknowledging from your heart that you have violated
God’s righteous commands. Your confession agrees with
God’s perspective that you know you’ve sinned.
Repentance and confession flow throughout
the Bible as a continuing stream of reconciling truth. David,
the man after God’s own heart, certainly was far from
perfect in his life choices. Yet he responded to God’s
call to repent, realizing the painful consequences when he
resisted.
Blessed is he whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man whose sin
the Lord does not count against him and in whose spirit is no deceit. When I kept
silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long.
For day and night your hand was heavy upon me; my strength was sapped as in the heat of summer. Selah. Then I acknowledged my sin to you
and did not cover up my iniquity. I said, ‘I will confess my transgressions to the Lord’—and you forgave the guilt of my
sin. Selah (Psalm 32:1-5).
Perhaps that’s why we’re warned
not to become hardened by sin’s
deceit (see Hebrews 3:13), but to
have a contrite heart when convicted of sin. Notice too that
trying to ignore the sin that is separating us from loving
fellowship with our Father becomes a spiritual cancer gnawing
away at body, soul and spirit.
Each person who would enter our
Father’s Covenant must come to the same realization that
David did: Only by the grace of our merciful Lord can we find
the sure cleansing that follows humble repentance.
God, in your
grace, have mercy on me; in your
great compassion, blot out my
crimes. Wash me completely from my guilt, and cleanse
me from my sin. Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil from your perspective, so that you are right in accusing me and
justified in passing sentence (Psalm
51:1-4, JNT).
Then David adds, “My sacrifice to God is a broken spirit; God, you
won’t spurn a broken,
chastened heart” (Psalm 51:17).
“I confess my iniquity; I am troubled by my sin” (Psalm
38:18). Our Father uses your guilt’s badgering and your
troubled spirit to humble you to turn away from the iniquity
that’s brought you such distress! Through confession and
repentance you begin the process of embracing the
Father’s Covenant and receiving His cleansing and
forgiveness.
What if you don’t repent?
[God speaking] “When you spread out
your hands in prayer, I will hide
my eyes from you; even if you offer
many prayers, I will not listen. Your hands are full of blood; wash and make yourselves clean.
Take your evil deeds out of my sight! Stop doing wrong” (Isaiah 1:15,16).
Unless each praying heart has humbly
washed in the river of repentance and forsaken sin, the eyes
and ears of our Father will not respond.
Many who embrace false gospels believe that
God hears and responds to every prayer uttered by every person.
But what does His Word say about those who choose to abide in
sin? “The LORD is far from the wicked
[unrepentant] but he hears the prayer
of the righteous” (Proverbs 15:29; apperceived in 1 Peter 3:12).
The “gospels” that don’t require
repentance have revealed themselves as spawn of the Evil One.
Satan knows that when you don’t repent, the Father
won’t hear your prayers. He has made that clear in His
Word as a warning.
Stop to consider the tragic foolishness of
all those prayers going unheard by our Father because people
refuse to humbly repent and confess their sin. It’s like
trying to have a conversation on a phone that’s
disconnected. No sane person would do that! If you found no one
on the other end, you’d hang up.
Yet our Father uses His refusal to answer
the prayers of the unrepentant to warn them. He waits until we come to the point of
seeing sin from His perspective—as utterly sinful! Then He
faithfully shows us how to restore our line of prayer
communication with Him through repentance and confession:
If we claim to be
without sin, we deceive ourselves
and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our
sins and purify us from all unrighteousness (1 John 1:8,9).
See the power of answered prayer when you have been cleansed of
all unrighteousness:
The prayer of a righteous man is powerful
and effective. Elijah was a man just
like us. He prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on
the land for three and a half years. Again he prayed, and the
heavens gave rain, and the earth produced its crops (James 5:16,18).
Our Father’s parameters for those who
want to be counted among His own are precise. His holy nature cannot
abide tolerated sin based on the presumption that He’ll
excuse or ignore it.
Nevertheless, God's solid foundation stands firm, sealed
with this inscription: ‘The Lord knows those who are his,’
and, ‘Everyone who confesses
the name of the Lord must turn away from wickedness’ (2 Timothy 2:19,
apperceived from Numbers 16:5,26).
The apostle John here sums up his pivotal
passage on forsaking a sinful lifestyle in order to remain
united with Jesus: “Here is
how one can distinguish clearly between God’s children and those of the
Adversary: everyone who does not
continue doing what is right is not from God” (1 John 3:10,CJB; see 3:1-9 also).
Our Father hasn’t changed between the
two Testaments! He won’t set aside His holiness for
anyone. The penalty for the sins of all mankind has been paid
by the shed blood of Jesus. But His atonement is useless to us
until we turn from our sins to Him in repentance so that we can
receive that forgiveness.
To help you understand the sweeping
importance of repentance, let’s again use an analogy from
marriage. On the morning of his wedding a groom approaches his
betrothed and says, “Honey, I love you deeply, but I also
have two lovers I’m having difficulty giving up. Let me
keep them for a while and maybe I can get rid of them
later.”
How would she respond? Would she marry him?
So many people who embrace counterfeit gospels continue to
pursue the same besetting sins they had before some person ratified them as
“saved”. In fact, many have no intention of giving up
their sins. By their intent they are committing spiritual adultery against
our Father.
Scripture very graphically depicts Israel
as “adulterous”, “unfaithful”, even as
a donkey in heat chasing after many lovers. Anyone wanting to
live in Covenant union with our Father must consider this
warning and examine themselves and confess their sins.
Lack of repentance says to our Father,
“I want what you have to offer, but I don’t intend to change or to give up
anything.” Will He enter
into or remain in a Covenant with a person who refuses to give
up other spiritual lovers? No!
During the past few decades the Gospel has
become “watered-down.” Many have agreed to
“come to Christ” with the intent of “getting
saved” because that was all that was asked of them by the
person making the gospel offer!
But, salvation is the culmination of a life
in which “Jesus is Lord.” Paul assured the followers of Jesus in Rome:
That if you
acknowledge publicly with your mouth that Yeshua is Lord and
trust in your heart that God raised him
from the dead, you will be delivered
(Romans 10:9, JNT).
Early one Sunday morning, hours before
Mike was to speak at a morning worship service, the Lord woke
him up. There in his mind’s eye was a vision of a funnel.
As Mike stared at the funnel he could hear in his spirit an
explanation of its meaning. Sketching the funnel on his
computer, he then made an overhead transparency of it.
When he finished his message that morning,
he put the funnel transparency on the overhead projector and
explained it to the congregation. To his surprise, people left
their seats and came forward to repent of their sins, convicted
of having believed a gospel that did not include the Lordship of Christ
in their lives.
The following week Mike was asked to
address a different congregation. The Holy Spirit prompted him,
“Just tell them about the funnel.” He again put the
funnel transparency on the overhead projector. After he had
finished explaining its meaning, people again left their seats
and came forward to repent. When the funnel image was presented
on retreats, the explanation elicited the same response:
conviction and repentance.
This illustration represents the funnel:
The Lordship of Christ is your entry point into the funnel.
Lordship implies a rejection or yielding of all that you are in
your sin nature—all of your will, your rights, your
possessions, your plans. You become His “disciple”.
It’s a conversion that demands that you weigh the cost.
Jesus makes very clear the extent of the
relationship He calls for and the cost of that commitment. He
starkly precludes lightweight verbal agreement through a few
isolated verses or religious concepts:
If anyone comes to me and does not hate his
father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and
sisters—yes, even his own
life—he cannot be my
disciple. And anyone who does not carry
his own cross and follow me cannot
be my disciple (Luke 14:26,27).
Whatever relationship you have with your
own family must pale in comparison to your devotion to Jesus as
your Lord. Your own ambitions and goals must be set aside as
dross. Discipleship entails total
loving trust and obedience to your
Master.
Let’s return to the funnel. Like the
pull of gravity, your humility to submit to the Lordship of
Jesus draws you downward into the funnel as an invisible but
constant force. The tug of His faithfulness doesn’t let
go of you. When you sin, His Spirit seeks you out and brings
you to repentance through His loving kindness (see Romans 2:4).
God pursues you to the point of your yielding so that your
broken heart and spirit can once again enjoy the fullness of
His presence as Lord.
In your pilgrimage to salvation,
you’re drawn into the stem of the funnel. The love of
Jesus is so compelling that you don’t even want to think
about yourself but only to do His
will. Your personal discretion to
choose what you want to do withers as you continue to yield yourself
as a bondservant to His will. Our Father’s goal for you
as His child is to be changed by His Spirit into
Christ-likeness in such a way that there truly is evidence of a “new creation.”
Those who understood the funnel
explanation recognized that the “being saved”
gospel they’d received in the past had consigned them to
the sides of the funnel to wallow in their sin nature or excuse
it.
Through the influx of analytical reasoning
and psychological excuse making into Christendom during
the past few decades, sins that require repentance are now considered
“problems.” No longer are Christians held
accountable to take personal responsibility for their own sins.
Much of pastoral counseling now convinces
people that they must understand their problems and find out who is at fault for their
current condition. Through the process of psychological
“problem exploration”, individuals may expand
their awareness about their difficulties. However, also they develop
an increasing unhappiness with God.
Though they might not put it into words,
in their hearts they neither trust Him to do what He promises
in the Bible nor do they entrust themselves to Him as Lord of
their lives. Thus many Christians live as if they’ve been
“victimized” by both God and by others.
They’ve refused a loving trust in a sovereign Lord. In
effect this enables them to just keep circling around the side
of the funnel.
Through repentance, however, personal accountability rather than
blaming others would detach them from the sides of the funnel
and slide them into the center. Only repentance can bring them
to the center where they can journey downward through the
Spirit into greater Christ-likeness.
In the gospel you received, were you told
that you needed to repent? If not, what consequences have
occurred in your life as a result of a powerless counterfeit
gospel?
Is the concept of spiritual adultery new
to you? What sinful “lovers” might be competing
with an intimate and powerful relationship with Jesus in your
life?
As you review the passages that call for
turning away from sin in order to walk in forgiveness and
purity, are any of your theological premises being challenged?
Is the Holy Spirit pinpointing specific areas of tolerated sin
in your own life?
2. Your Salvation Pilgrimage both Begins and Continues with
Your agape (ahav) Love
If you want to enter into Covenant with
our Father and continue on your pilgrimage with Him, He
establishes the same relational requirement in both the Older
and Newer Testaments: that is, to love
Him.
The Older Testament repeatedly describes a
Father Who longs for a love relationship with His people. The
foundation of this love requirement is found in Deuteronomy 6:
4,5:
Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD
is one. Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all
your soul and
with all your strength.
The Hebrew word for love, ahav (ah-hahv’), means that you are filled with desire and
delight and passion for the One you love. You long to be with
our Father and to live in ways that please His heart.
The meaning of the Hebrew letters of ahav is “a window into
the Father’s heart.” The second of the ten commandments declares
that our Father promises to show His
love to a thousand generations of
those who love Him and keep His commandments. These are the same
interconnected requirements that permeate the Apostle
John’s writings!
Apperceiving that same Deutero-nomy
passage cited earlier, Jesus delivers the most vital
commandment, expanding sacrificial
expression and loving motivation to
encompass both His Father and those whom He puts in our life
path:
‘Love the LORD your
God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all
your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And
the second [which is from Leviticus] is like it, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and
the Prophets hang on these two
commandments (Matthew 22:
37-40).
The Greek word for love here is agape (ah-gah’-pay), and its meaning is similar to the Hebrew ahav. To summarize
the priority of loving God:
Everything about living in union with your
Father—everything about knowing and experiencing Him,
everything about knowing and doing His will—depends on
the quality of your love relationship with our Father and His
Son, Jesus. If your love relationship is not right, nothing in
your life will be right. And, His
love compels you to keep His
commands.
You may be wondering how anyone can love
God at the beginning when they’re just entering into
Covenant with the Father—especially since none of the
false gospels call for this important stipulation.
Wholehearted love is manifested by those
who esteem the wonderful value of the Older Testament in
understanding their own sinful
depravity. If you fully understand
just how utterly sinful you are, you’ll readily perceive
God’s grace in the atonement and lovingly appreciate the
sacrifice of Jesus on your behalf: “The Holy God loves a
sinner like me?!!”
Trevor McIlwain of New Tribes Missions has
gotten phenomenal response by teaching native peoples the Bible
in chronological order, from Genesis to Revelation. When they complete
the Older Testament, they fully grasp the depth of their own
sin and their inability to pay the penalty for those sins.
Then, when they hear about the atonement
of Jesus on their behalf, they are overwhelmed and grateful to
respond in love for His sacrifice on the cross. Out of love for God they’ll cling to Jesus through any trials they might
face.
Those who recognize without doubt their
own innate sin nature from the Older Testament won’t need
to be propped up in their faith as so many who embrace false
gospels do. People who are forever leaning on others for
assurance that they’re “Christians” have
never come to grips with their own depravity, nor have they
fully grasped with loving hearts what Jesus did for them.
Without a loving gratefulness for the
forgiveness and reconciliation our Lord offers according to His
Word, they follow a gospel of their own making, a god who is no
god. After a while they return once more to the vomit of their
old sinful lifestyle.
On your own pilgrimage to salvation, if
you try to keep God’s commands without loving Him and
depending on the direction of His Spirit, you’ll grow
proud. You’ll get caught up in what you do for Him to define
your expression of Who He is to you.
Paul admonishes in 1 Corinthians, chapter
13 that “without (agape) love, we are nothing.” Living out God’s commands because of your love for Him keeps you humbly dependent on Him, and contrite when
you fail. You’re eager to repent because you hunger for
restoration of fellowship with Him. The source of this agape love
which weaves your spirit with your Lord’s is the
indwelling Holy Spirit, Whom those who embrace the true Gospel
receive.
The early Church expressed an intensity of
love for God that’s not seen in the false gospel messages
perpetrated today. Persecution from outsiders who despised
followers of Jesus dispelled any easy-believism or intellectual
assent to the Gospel! Yet today, well-meaning yet misguided
“Christians” who rush to get people
“saved” often fail to help them understand the
depth of loving intimacy our Father desires.
Nor do they help people come to grips with
the reality of their own sinful
depravity. As a result, many see
themselves as almost “doing God a favor” when they
acknowledge Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross. As a result,
they’re never grateful to our Father. They always feel that
“He owes me whatever I ask for.” They’re like
“Christian” spoiled brats, pouting that He
can’t be trusted when they don’t get what they
wanted.
An ungrateful person
is an unloving person.
Ungratefulness smacks of pride. Our Father
resists the proud and won’t consummate the Covenant with
them. According to biblical pattern, it’s the humble who
recognize their own undeserving nature who gratefully receive
His grace. Examine your heart, then answer the following.
Are you humbly
grateful for the privilege of
becoming our Father’s child because of Jesus’
sacrifice? Do you honestly see yourself as a former slave to
sin who deserved no mercy from your Creator? Explain.
Are you inwardly angry that your false
expectations or self-centered desires are not being catered to?
How strong is your love for the Father and
His Son, Jesus?
weak
dutiful intense
0----10----20----30----40----50----60----70----80---90----100
[Put an X on the number that best
describes you.]
Write in your own words why you answered
as you did.
3. Your Salvation Pilgrimage both Begins and Continues with
Your Obedient Trust
The Hebrew word for “faith”
means much more than just belief; it is a profound trust in God. Trust
is an emotional response from the heart. It’s far more
than mere belief which is no more than mental assent that God is
real.
Trust-based reliance on the Lord penetrates the very core of your being,
propelling you to an obedience that starts in your heart and
manifests itself in action.
Just look at the life of Abraham and the
trust-filled obedience by which he was declared
“righteous”. Is it any wonder why he is declared
the father of all who live by like trust in our Father?
The reason the promise is based on trusting is
so that it may come as God’s free gift, a promise that
can be relied on by all the seed, not only those who live within the framework of
the Torah, but also those with the kind
of trust Avraham had—Avraham our father for all of us (Romans 4:16,CJB).
Your trust demonstrates that you understand
our Almighty, Sovereign Father’s love for you. At the
same time, your willing dependence on Him ultimately puts to
death your own ambitions and plans as you yield to His.
As your ongoing trust deepens and you
recognize His unfailing faithfulness, an element of childlikeness takes
root in you. You live in Covenant union as the Father’s
child, agreeing in spirit that He is our intimate
“Abba” Who is leading us as His lambs on our
pilgrim way to eternity.
You received the Spirit of sonship. And by
him we cry, ‘Abba, Father.’ The Spirit himself testifies with our
spirit that we are God’s children (Romans 8:15,16).
You enter into Covenant with our Father by
trusting in the shed blood of Jesus for the forgiveness you so
desperately need. Nothing you can do can ever pay the penalty
for your sins. All our Lord requires is that you confess these
before Him and repent.
You continue on in your faith pilgrimage to
salvation by trusting in the loving care of our Father. Where
trust exists, peace does as well. Any worry, anxiety, or
concern about the future indicates you lack trust. That’s why
Peter exhorts us to cast all our cares on our Lord because He cares for us! (1
Peter 5:7)
Many who embrace false gospels call themselves
“believers” but they have no idea how far they are
from the trust our Father requires to enter into and live in
Covenant union. Belief, or cognitive agreement with a reality,
puts you on par with the demons—definitely not a trust
that leads to salvation: “You believe that there is
one God. Good! Even the demons
believe that—and
shudder” (James 2:19).
Habitual failure to trust in our Father can
lure you to break your part of the covenant. Distrust is a direct attack on His divine character. If you fail to trust the ALMIGHTY, your Creator
and Redeemer, you’re placing yourself above Him as He has
revealed Himself to be.
Like Lucifer, a habitually
mistrusting person desires to usurp
the position of our Father by wanting Him to do his or her will. They choose not to
trust that His plans and purposes are the only suitable ones
for His beloved child. The Covenant is ruptured because our
Father will remain true to His Word, “You shall have no
other gods before me” (Exodus 20:3)—yourself included.
The unwavering trust that God requires of
His children is the fabric woven throughout the Hebrew Bible
and the Newer Testament because HE is the Source of all trust!
As you choose to cooperate with the indwelling Holy Spirit, He
empowers you to walk in reliance on our Father, not fearing
your troubling circumstances or trials.
Rejoice in some of God’s promises to
those who trust Him to orchestrate their pathway:
“Many are the woes of the wicked
[unrepentant], but the LORD’s unfailing love surrounds the
man who trusts in him” (Psalm
32:10). Notice that this doesn’t say you won’t face
trials! But with your Lord as a shield, you can stand and keep
standing in the midst of them.
“Trust in the LORD with all your
heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths
straight” (Proverbs 3:5,6). It’s much easier to walk along
a path our Father has leveled than to stumble about in
confusion and unbelief! A person
who trusts our Father first seeks His will and then does it
without concern about the cost of obedience. The child who trusts forgoes looking to circumstances
as confirmation of His will; rather, he presses on despite
them.
“Here is what the Sovereign LORD says:
‘Look, I am laying in Zion a tested stone, a costly
cornerstone, a firm foundation stone; he who trusts will not rush here and there’ (Isaiah 28:16, CJB).
If you are certain of His Sovereignty, your heart can rest in
peace. Or would you rather rush here and there, soliciting
human rationalization and worldly opinion of what course to
take next?
Never lose sight of the fact that your
salvation is based on an ongoing
loving trust in God, a relationship
of trust in His faithfulness: “Abraham
trusted God, and it was credited to him as righteousness” (Genesis 15:6). Our trust produces the same
results.
Respected teacher Dwight Pryor concurs:
“Faith is more than belief in something. It is faithfulness to Someone.” Because of Abraham’s trust, a promise
was given to him that through his seed blessing would flow to
the Gentiles. And that Seed’s blessing has!!!
Under which circumstances have you found
it hardest to really trust your Father in heaven? What were the
consequences of your doubt?
How would you differentiate between a season of worry and
a habitual distrust of God? How might you find yourself trying to get
around His plans and will for you? Have you? When?
4. Your Salvation Pilgrimage both Begins and Continues with
Your Forceful Conviction and Steadfast Determination
Do you recall the intensity with which David
and Jonathan entered into covenant with each other? And, how
Jonathan even risked his life to go to David so they could
renew their covenant?
When you embrace the stipulations of our
Father’s Covenant, you’re entering into the most
important relationship of your life!
If you were the Father, what determination
of heart would you be looking
for in your potential Covenant child of the Spirit?
Answering the call of our Father to
repent, to love and to trust calls for a vigorous response from
which no earthly power can hold you back! As Jesus proclaimed,
following Him is an intense heart issue that in no way
nullifies the love and obedience requirements of the Hebrew
Scriptures:
Up to the time of John there were the Torah and the Prophets. Since then the Good News of the Kingdom of God has
been proclaimed, and everyone is forcing
his way into it (Luke 16:16).
This passage can best be understood by
considering the walls that surround Jerusalem:
Around a military fortification such as
the walls of Jerusalem, “killing
zones” are established to
concentrate weapon fire for maximum killing effectiveness.
Those who attack the fort must first courageously battle their
way through the killing zone. Because of the strong likelihood
that they’ll be killed in the attack, these soldiers have
to “be dead” to everything beforehand so they can
fully focus on their objective.
That kind of forceful determination was
the standard in the earliest Church for those who embraced our
Father’s Covenant. This essence of pursuit that
can’t be stopped is captured in Matthew 13:44-46:
The kingdom of heaven is like treasure
hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and
then in his joy went and sold all
he had and bought that field.
Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for
fine pearls. When he found one of great value, he went away and sold everything he had and
bought it.
It takes tremendous certainty to give up
everything about yourself and your way of life in order to lay
hold of that which our Father is offering you. Genuine repentance, agape love and your complete
trust produce the type of
conviction and determination our Lord requires to be in
Covenant union with you.
Do you believe forceful conviction and
steadfast determination are required to enter the Covenant our
Father offers? Why or why not?
If you consider yourself to be a Christian
already, how strong is your conviction and determination to
follow our Father and His Son, Jesus?
weak half-hearted
intense
0----10----20----30----40----50----60----70----80---90----100
[Put an X on the number that best
describes you.]
Explain why you answered as you did.
5. Your Salvation Pilgrimage Both Begins and Continues with
You Forgiving Others
The Hebraic stream of Judaism had
inherited a vital example about the importance of forgiving
others—their ancestor, Joseph. His brothers despised him,
sold him into slavery, and lied to his beloved father that he
was dead. He was falsely accused by Potiphar’s wife and
thrown into prison.
But, Joseph was able through all of this
to live with a forgiving heart because he saw the sovereign hand of his
God, even in His sufferings. You can recognize that he was
willing to not demand a pound of flesh from either God or his
adversaries through the names he gave his two sons. This was a
forgiving man!
Joseph named his firstborn Manasseh and
said, ‘It is because God has
made me forget all my trouble and all my father’s
household.’ The second son he
named Ephraim and said, ‘It
is because God has made me fruitful in the land of my suffering’ (Genesis
41:51,52).
When Joseph revealed himself to his
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