Daniel Kolenda live on how special God's House is (Ephesians)

 Daniel Kolenda live excerpt from Nations Church

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Bait and Switch 3: God's Switch

The great PUN of History

 is Bait and Switch

His Name is as ointment poured forth

If the devil is a thief ,liar and a murderer from the beginning
then all that he offered us of freedom came out of his own self for self drive  to make gain at our expense
The earth had been given to the sons of men ONLY, not to angels.
He wanted to steal that birthright from us, He is a thief.
To do so he lied. He is a liar. He lied about God, He lied about us being able to live independently and be as God, which is his own lie he believes about himself. See Isaiah 14.
And he lied about death. He is a murderer. Surely you will not die, By infecting our spirits we were immediately on a death course. Death spiritually, death in our souls, and the inevitable after effect , death in the body.
The devil promised several things. All were lies. Through our submission to him, he stole our rulership over the earth.....or tells us continually he did, and he infected us with death. His own death.
The wrath spirit that is within his person infected us.

God likewise doesn't tell us straight away about all aspects of His switch.
But His switch comes out of  His continuous"Love for others " drive. Unconditional agape.
“Things which eye has not seen and ear has not heard,
And which have not entered the heart of man,
All that God has prepared for those who love Him.”1 Corinthians 2:9

One of the reasons God gets us talking in other languages that we don't understand is that our minds would just not be able to take the nature of the information. So great are His promises.

John1 But as many as received Him,
to them He gave the right to become children of God,
even to those who believe in His name,
13 who were born, not of blood
 nor of the will of the flesh
 nor of the will of man,
but of God.

Right there you could end this post describing God's surprise switch.
To receive Christ, who is from the I AM, the eternal Now
we are receiving a man, but recognising He comes from God.

Now we could, like the disciples, be receiving a man in front of us, an ex-carpenter....but actually that doesn't help too much. Because outwardly He looks normal or like us. Only in the Spirit would we know He is come direct of God.  And that realm is outside of time anyway.
So actually receiving Him through preaching all this time later doesn't actually make any difference,
we are still taking the testimony of other people who have seen into the Spirit, and we are believing their Word, which also made the SWITCH from Darkness to Light in them
And now we receive this Word and also receive inward confirmation.....HEY, THESE THINGS ARE SO.....and we too become co-knowers, co-receivers of new birth.

When the Prodigal Son returned home and His Father saw  him afar off, He rushed to greet him.
He embraced and kissed him. Before anything.

The sons response is contrition. He had been to the bottom. It was a bottomline response from" the end of the universe of his own choice".

The Father on the other hand calls for
THE BEST ROBE
A RING for his finger
Sandals for his feet

Covering
Authority
THE Divine ability to walk things out

Rev.12They overcame by
the Blood of the Lamb.....the first layer in Christ
The Word of their testimony....the young men of 1 John 2 expressing/confessing their authoity
and loving their lives not even unto the death ...the father level....walking things out in Divine enabling.   Having our feet shod in the preparation of the gospel of peace.

Meditate on those scriptures and how they all interrelate.

The Switch: Our High Position

• But First How could this occur?
  In an outward way to an outer court people before the Holy Spirit was given, you can see God scratching His head trying to work out how on earth do you convey the two aspects of Christ's work on the Cross, which was ONE ESSENTIAL WORK in the Spirit in an outward way.
  The Two Goats is how He did it. And this is covered in more depth here.
  and then spills out into a second post here
  Our old man, old spiritual man, died. He had to die. As we enter the very Temple or tabernacle area in the outer courts, there is no discussion or prevarication, we look upon a brazen altar upon the death of a creature, looking in the Spirit at the Lamb of God who takes away the SIN of all the world. The sin spirit of all the world.
  But that death this side of our reality does not show Jesus taking that sin into death, andwhat happened there. So God wheels out the second image to show what happens beyond the veil of flesh.  The second goat is chased into the wilderness never to be seen again. The scape goat.
  We are not left dead, but the Holy Spirit leaves our old man judged in Sheol, and raises our spirit in Jesus as His Body is raised and given life.
  
  Romans 8 is a complete breakdown of how this works
  Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. 2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death. 3 For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, 4 so that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. 5 For those who are according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who are according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. 6 For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace, 7 because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so, 8 and those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
  
  9 However, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him. 10 If Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, yet the spirit is alive because of righteousness. 11 But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.
  
  12 So then, brethren, we are under obligation, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh— 13 for if you are living according to the flesh, you must die; but if by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live. 14 For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. 15 For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, “Abba! Father!” 16 The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God, 17 and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him.
  
  18 For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us. 19 For the anxious longing of the creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God. 20 For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it, in hope 21 that the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God. 22 For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now. 23 And not only this, but also we ourselves, having the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our body. 24 For in hope we have been saved, but hope that is seen is not hope; for who hopes for what he already sees? 25 But if we hope for what we do not see, with perseverance we wait eagerly for it.
  
  Our Victory in Christ
  26 In the same way the Spirit also helps our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words; 27 and He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.
  
  28 And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. 29 For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren; 30 and these whom He predestined, He also called; and these whom He called, He also justified; and these whom He justified, He also glorified.
  
  31 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us? 32 He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things? 33 Who will bring a charge against God’s elect? God is the one who justifies; 34 who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is He who died, yes, rather who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us. 35 Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? 36 Just as it is written,
  
  “For Your sake we are being put to death all day long;
  We were considered as sheep to be slaughtered.”
  37 But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us. 38 For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
  
• He condemned sin in the flesh, 4 so that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit
  However, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you.
  What is "walking in the flesh"?   We all have flesh This phrase describes our former default before knowing Jesus. Our Romans 7 discovery that God leads us into is that my problem was sin , or the sin spirit manifesting in the the flesh or my body. It's not "Oh the devil made me do it." A kind of get out clause. No that isn't the point of Romans 7. It's getting us down a dark lone alleyway where there is no other thing or person to blame....just me....and I finally learn .....hey....being independent isn't independence.
  There is no such position of being a self run soul. An alone- I  .  Just to live and move I have to be empowered by a deity spirit. Either God....or a "derived god"......Satan who positions himself falsely as a god....
  
  but really He is NOT SEPARATE either, but has twisted God's empowering in on itself.....and he has become a self for others creature.....and the devil seeks to persuade man to join him in this apparent independence....but really he usurps us and then becomes our controller.
  Being a god in our own right is a lie.
  
  But that is not now our reality. Well it is if we choose it. If we set our minds on the flesh....as if there was an existence called self spiritual godhood....then sin abides in us still and reigns over our mortal bodies....
  
  but if we set our minds on the Spirit and confess that we have died in Christ and it is nolonger us that live, but Christ ....then this Becomes our new default. This is what maturity in Chriat is.

So unashamedly then our high position that the Switch, God's answering Bait and Switch, has brought us into is

Psalm 8


O Lord, our Lord,
How majestic is Your name in all the earth,
Who have displayed Your splendor above the heavens!
2 From the mouth of infants and nursing babes You have established ]strength
Because of Your adversaries,
To make the enemy and the revengeful cease.
3 When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers,
The moon and the stars, which You have ordained;
4 What is man that You take thought of him,
And the son of man that You care for him?
5 Yet You have made him a little lower than God,
And You crown him with glory and majesty!
6 You make him to rule over the works of Your hands;
You have put all things under his feet,
7 All sheep and oxen,
And also the beasts of the field,
8 The birds of the heavens and the fish of the sea,
Whatever passes through the paths of the seas.
9 O Lord, our Lord,
How majestic is Your name in all the earth!


Isaiah 53


Surely our griefs He Himself bore,
And our sorrows He carried;
Yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken,
Smitten of God, and afflicted.
5 But He was pierced through for our transgressions,
He was crushed for our iniquities;
The chastening for our well-being fell upon Him,
And by His scourging we are healed.
6 All of us like sheep have gone astray,
Each of us has turned to his own way;
But the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all
To fall on Him.
7 He was oppressed and He was afflicted,
Yet He did not open His mouth;
Like a lamb that is led to slaughter,
And like a sheep that is silent before its shearers,
So He did not open His mouth.
8 By oppression and judgment He was taken away;
And as for His generation, who considered
That He was cut off out of the land of the living
For the transgression of my people, to whom the stroke was due?
9 His grave was assigned with wicked men,
Yet He was with a rich man in His death,
Because He had done no violence,
Nor was there any deceit in His mouth.
10 But the Lord was pleased
To crush Him, putting Him to grief;
If He would render Himself as a guilt offering,
He will see His offspring,
He will prolong His days,
And the good pleasure of the Lord will prosper in His hand.
11 As a result of the anguish of His soul,
He will see it and be satisfied;
By His knowledge the Righteous One,
My Servant, will justify the many,
As He will bear their iniquities.
12 Therefore, I will allot Him a portion with the great,
And He will divide the booty with the strong;
Because He poured out Himself to death,
And was numbered with the transgressors;
Yet He Himself bore the sin of many,
And interceded for the transgressors.

Isaiah 7.14

The SWITCH means God is NOW NEAR US....Emmanuel
Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign. Behold a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and his name shall be called Emmanuel.

Song of Solomon 2:3 
Like an apple tree among the trees of the forest,
So is my beloved among the young men.
In his shade I took great delight and sat down,
And his fruit was sweet to my taste.
4 “He has brought me to his banquet hall,
And his banner over me is love.
5 “Sustain me with raisin cakes,
Refresh me with apples,
Because I am lovesick.
6 “Let his left hand be under my head
And his right hand embrace me.”

Colossians 1:9




9 For this reason also, since the day we heard of it, we have not ceased to pray for you and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, 10 so that you will walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, to please Him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; 11 strengthened with all power, according to His glorious might, for the attaining of all steadfastness and patience; joyously 12 giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in Light.

The Incomparable Christ
13 For He rescued us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son, 14 in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. 16 For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things have been created through Him and for Him. 17 He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together. 18 He is also head of the body, the church; and He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that He Himself will come to have first place in everything. 19 For it was the Father’s good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in Him, 20 and through Him to reconcile all things to Himself, having made peace through the blood of His cross; through Him, I say, whether things on earth or things in heaven.

21 And although you were formerly alienated and hostile in mind, engaged in evil deeds, 22 yet He has now reconciled you in His fleshly body through death, in order to present you before Him holy and blameless and beyond reproach— 23 if indeed you continue in the faith firmly established and steadfast, and not moved away from the hope of the gospel that you have heard, which was proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and of which I, Paul, was made a minister.

Ephesians 1 then 2


Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, 4 just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him. In love 5 He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will, 6 to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved. 7 In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace 8 which He lavished on us. In all wisdom and insight 9 He made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His kind intention which He purposed in Him 10 with a view to an administration suitable to the fullness of the times, that is, the summing up of all things in Christ, things in the heavens and things on the earth. In Him 11 also we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to His purpose who works all things after the counsel of His will, 12 to the end that we who were the first to hope in Christ would be to the praise of His glory. 13 In Him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation—having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise, 14 who is given as a pledge of our inheritance, with a view to the redemption of God’s own possession, to the praise of His glory.

15 For this reason I too, having heard of the faith in the Lord Jesus which exists among you and your love for all the saints, 16 do not cease giving thanks for you, while making mention of you in my prayers; 17 that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Him. 18 I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you will know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, 19 and what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe. These are in accordance with the working of the strength of His might 20 which He brought about in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, 21 far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. 22 And He put all things in subjection under His feet, and gave Him as head over all things to the church, 23 which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.

And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, 2 in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. 3 Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest. 4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), 6 and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7 so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; 9 not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. 10 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.

And finally concerning the Holy Spirit who is given to REVEAL all the things that are now ours in this DIVINE SWITCH

1 Corinthians 2


And when I came to you, brethren, I did not come with superiority of speech or of wisdom, proclaiming to you the testimony of God. 2 For I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified. 3 I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling, 4 and my message and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, 5 so that your faith would not rest on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God.

6 Yet we do speak wisdom among those who are mature; a wisdom, however, not of this age nor of the rulers of this age, who are passing away; 7 but we speak God’s wisdom in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God predestined before the ages to our glory; 8 the wisdom which none of the rulers of this age has understood; for if they had understood it they would not have crucified the Lord of glory; 9 but just as it is written,

“Things which eye has not seen and ear has not heard,
And which have not entered the heart of man,
All that God has prepared for those who love Him.”
10 For to us God revealed them through the Spirit; for the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God. 11 For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so the thoughts of God no one knows except the Spirit of God. 12 Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may know the things freely given to us by God, 13 which things we also speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, combining spiritual thoughts with spiritual words.

14 But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised. 15 But he who is spiritual appraises all things, yet he himself is appraised by no one. 16 For who has known the mind of the Lord, that he will instruct Him? But we have the mind of Christ.

A wonderful gift to your life would be to spend days, hours and weeks committing all the passages in this post to memory.They are all so wonderful revealing all the things Jesus is and has done.Glory be to His Name. His Name is as ointment poured forth.

Roel Is Wrong, so is America

Roel Velema :So true. The world starts big and ends small. God begins small and ends big. When our Lord said: "Shall I find THE faith at my coming?", the Greek text demands a negative answer. So, the big reformation we wait for is millennial. In the meantime God's main work is inner. However, when the millennial revelation of the sons of God is a fact, the world will be amazed and also shocked of the blindness of not seeing God's prepared work thoughout the centuries. (2 weeks ago)

My answer is an even more emphatic
NO NO NO NO NO NO
NO NO NO NO NO NO

NO NO NO NO NO NO
NO NO NO NO NO NONO NO NO NO NO

‘The Lord said to my Lord,
“Sit at My right hand,
35 Until I make Your enemies a footstool for Your feet.”’

SIT

UNTIL

SIT


UNTIL


Sit means don't move from your throne

Until is a time word that joins two times by the necessary state that finally triggers movement.

I am not including England in any of this status. England died some 1500 years ago when they received the gospel and let Catholics take charge.
No Englishman even knows a word of prophecy.
They only know Darwinism
If they know God they only know the Catholic Tyrant God
They don't know Jesus is coming back
All English people are for the sake of this status compleyely completely dead. Useless for God's purposes.

NO IT' S AMERICA I ADDRESS IN THE SPIRIT OF THE LORD.

YOU KNOW PROPHECY
YOU KNOW THE LORD
BUT YOU ARE TWISTERS OF HOLY SCRIPTURE
YOU ARE TELLING THE LORD OF THE UNIVERSE TO HIS FACE THAT HE HAS TO DO EVERYTHING, AND UNTIL HE MAKES THE FIRST MOVE YOU ARE NOT DOING MUCH AT ALL.

YOU, AMERICA ARE WRONG.
JESUS IS LORD OF HOW THE UNIVERSE WORKS, YOU ARE NOT
YOU DON'T TELL JESUS WHAT HE CAN DO OR CAN'T DO
OR HOW HE IS GOING TO DO ANYTHING.
YOU SIMPLY DON'T HAVE THE AUTHORITY

IF GOD THE FATHER SAYS TO HIS SON
SIT AT MY RIGHT HAND UNTIL YOUR ENEMIES ARE MADE YOUR FOOTSTOOL, THEN NOT EVEN JESUS HAS THE RIGHT TO DECIDE....

GOD THE FATHER HAS DESIGNATED HOW,WHEN AND WHO AND HERE IT IS YOU TWISTERS OF SCRIPTURE.

READ CALMLY WITH ME IN LOWERCASE

But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, 5 even when we were dead [f]in our transgressions, made us alive together [g]with Christ (by grace you have been saved), 6 and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7 so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. .......EPH2

To me, the very least of all saints, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the unfathomable riches of Christ, 9 and to bring to light what is the administration of the mystery which for ages has been hidden in God who created all things; 10 so that the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known through the church to the rulers and the authorities in the heavenly places. 11 This was in accordance with the eternal purpose which He carried out in Christ Jesus our Lord, 12 in whom we have boldness and [h]confident access through faith in Him. ....EPH3

I pray that the eyes of your heart [x]may be enlightened, so that you will know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the [y]saints, 19 and what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe. These are in accordance with the working of the strength of His might 20 which He brought about in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, 21 far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. 22 And He put all things in subjection under His feet, and gave Him as head over all things to the church, 23 which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.EPH1

Positioned in Christ, ruling and reigning with Him
Task: that the CHURCH NOW ADDRESSES ALL LEGAL ISSUES and OBSTACLES now raised by principalities and powers in the heavenly places keeping earth in bondage, using all manifold wisdom which WE HAVE NOW and must believe for
HOW? God the Father has put all things in subjection to Jesus Christ, much as He did after the 40 days in the wilderness, giving Him authority over Israel, but now Christ's Headship includes everything...only this time He is being given to an international Body...HIS actual BODY , but as the HEAD.

There is nothing future in any of these passages other than being an extension of what is NOW.

God's .EXE FILE 4.0 The Church's Purpose

This is a reissue of an earlier but highly relevant post

Here's a revelation. It has the power of becoming a leftbrain doctrine like Rene Girard's Mimetic violence. It isn't all the truth, and needs balancing with other scriptures....but nevertheless let this idea pin you to the wall!!!

JOB 1   IS RELEVANT
WHY?
WITHOUT ACTUALLY TELLING US EXPLICITLY.....but with several pages of Bible winks....
FROM ETERNITY PAST GOD HAS ORDAINED EARTH AS SATAN'S COURTROOM.
Just think about that for a long while. Like Job, there was us thinking that this was all about little us.
But Ephesians says it isn't.
Job was never told about Job 1.
We haven't been told either.
But I think that is why Job is there for us to read....
AND INFER FROM.....WITH ONE OF GOD'S WINKS!!!!!
Angels peering down , both good and bad see first ONE SON is NOTHING BUT a muddy looking container OF GOD....called flesh and blood....JESUS CHRIST the HEAD......then Blow me down they see a whole BODY LIKE HIM!!!!!
For He did not subject to angels [g]the world to come, concerning which we are speaking. 6 But one has testified somewhere, saying,
HEBREWS 2
“What is man, that You remember him?
Or the son of man, that You are concerned about him?
7 “You have made him [h]for a little while lower than the angels;
You have crowned him with glory and honor,
[i]And have appointed him over the works of Your hands;
8 You have put all things in subjection under his feet.”
For in subjecting all things to him, He left nothing that is not subject to him. But now we do not yet see all things subjected to him.
EPHESIANS 2
And He came and preached peace to you who were far away, and peace to those who were near; 18 for through Him we both have our access in one Spirit to the Father. 19 So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the [p]saints, and are of God’s household, 20 having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the corner stone, 21 in whom the whole building, being fitted together, is growing into a holy [q]temple in the Lord, 22 in whom you also are being built together into a dwelling of God in the Spirit.
EPHESIANS 1
These are in accordance with the working of the strength of His might 20 which He brought about in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, 21 far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. 22 And He put all things in subjection under His feet, and gave Him as head over all things to the church, 23 which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.
EPHESIANS 3
To me, the very least of all [d]saints, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the unfathomable riches of Christ, 9 and to [e]bring to light what is the administration of the mystery which for ages has been hidden in God who created all things; 10 so that the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known through the church to the rulers and the authorities in the heavenly places.
EPHESIANS 3 BEING THE PUNCHLINE OF THIS STATUS.
IT WAS NEVER ABOUT US, THE COURTROOM.
THE COURTROOM WAS SET UP SO THE DEVIL MIGHT KNOW, THROUGH WEAK VESSELS OF CLAY AND NO PERSONAL POWER AT ALL....
THE GLORY INSIDE THESE CONTAINERS WAS GOING TO BE THE INSTRUMENT OF JUDGMENT AGAINST ANGELS IN HEAVEN WHO HAVE RISEN UP AND PROCLAIMED ANOTHER GOSPEL......
the false gospel of self existence, of independence and separation
of dualism, of "the moon" which in Revelation 12 is NOW under the Bride's feet as an existence,
in short a gospel other than THE SINGLE EYE LIVING OF PSALM 123
HOW ABOUT THAT?

God's .EXE File

When Jesus came into ministry the Spirit led Him to several areas of ministry simultaneously.
One was to announce and proclaim the Kingdom of God.
Humanly this looks nuts. Human kingdoms maybe announced by a pinnacle leader or king but they are surrounded by troops.
Here was Jesus , one man, speaking it into being.
It was after all, after the pattern of the first creation where God addressed Darkness with
Let there be Light.
Adam and Eve, two single individuals, LOST the first Kingdom, by believing a lie and DOING ONE THING...JUST ONE SIMPLE THING that they were told not to.
Jesus is reinstuting the Kingdom by announcing it and seeking those who would believe the Word of the Kingdom.
On the face of it, it would seem a funny way to institute an alternative Kingdom that was destined to fill all in all, and eat the old Kingdom for lunch.
One aspect of the METHOD is to be compared with downloading a new computer programme. This involves downloading a triggering file that downloads, unpacks and self instals the whole new programme. This is called the .EXE file. The file that executes the installation.
The Exe. file of the Kingdom is the CHURCH.
but not using that word as most people use it.
Using the idea of maturation of believers in the sequence that John uses in 1 John 2. The STAMP across everything is FATHER....father level believing...father level living and behaving, and spiritualy speaking, father level abilities in exercising the faith of Christ.
This is why the phrase in Ephesians 4.16 is used
according to the proper working of each individual part
In the Spirit you cannot work properly until you know who you are......a Christ Branch in the Christ Vine
Jesus Christ in your shape /form /personality
Christ in you the hope of glory
Galatians 2.20
When SUCH a Church with the FATHER STAMP across it is operating, then the EXE file of the Kingdom can really begin its God ordained task of self-installing the Kingdom properly.
Catholics and Jesuits know many things as facts.
If you go deeply into witchcraft and the occult such as Aleister Crowley and his OTO esoteric group
or the Order of the Golden Dawn or Solar Cult
or High Tibetan White Order Buddhism
or highest levels of Freemasonry
or Kabbalism (Jewish Luciferianism)
you will be shocked.
because what you will find is a perfect mirror of the Bible.
Teachings on the Tree of Life and the Tree of the knowledge of Good and evil
But it is all LEFTBRAIN, with devilish inspiration and power from a Luciferian spirituality.
What we preach does not originate from the mind....not even High Jesuit teachings from the Bible itself....
It may express through the mind...
but the Kingdom is one of power not mere words.
When the Father stamp is across a Church or ministry, it is accompanied by signs and power.
This Shekinah OverShadowing is not something humans can produce, it is God Himself authorising and legitimising the very Word that He is speaking through His servants.
But once the Church has installed and unpacked itself as a Kingdom Exe File....
then the Kingdom itself starts operating to remove the devil off the face of the earth, to bring judgment to all the old order, and to bring in the Reign of God in the form of humans living all day long under an open heaven in Christ Himself.
Paul writes on this subject :Eph3:8-10
To me, the very least of all [d]saints, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the unfathomable riches of Christ, 9 and to [e]bring to light what is the administration of the mystery which for ages has been hidden in God who created all things; 10 so that the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known through the church to the rulers and the authorities in the heavenly places.

The EARTH is the Courtroom where the devil is being tried.

Here's a revelation. It has the power of becoming a leftbrain doctrine like Rene Girard's Mimetic violence. It isn't all the truth, and needs balancing with other scriptures....but nevertheless let this idea pin you to the wall!!!

JOB 1 is RELEVANT
WHY?
WITHOUT ACTUALLY TELLING US EXPLICITLY.....but with several pages of Bible winks....
FROM ETERNITY PAST GOD HAS ORDAINED EARTH AS SATAN'S COURTROOM.
Just think about that for a long while. Like Job, there was us thinking that this was all about little us.
But Ephesians says it isn't.
Job was never told about Job 1.
We haven't been told either.
But I think that is why Job is there for us to read....
AND INFER FROM.....WITH ONE OF GOD'S WINKS!!!!!
Angels peering down , both good and bad see first ONE SON is NOTHING BUT a muddy looking container OF GOD....called flesh and blood....JESUS CHRIST the HEAD......then Blow me down they see a whole BODY LIKE HIM!!!!!
For He did not subject to angels [g]the world to come, concerning which we are speaking. 6 But one has testified somewhere, saying,
HEBREWS 2
“What is man, that You remember him?
Or the son of man, that You are concerned about him?
7 “You have made him [h]for a little while lower than the angels;
You have crowned him with glory and honor,
[i]And have appointed him over the works of Your hands;
8 You have put all things in subjection under his feet.”
For in subjecting all things to him, He left nothing that is not subject to him. But now we do not yet see all things subjected to him.
EPHESIANS 2
And He came and preached peace to you who were far away, and peace to those who were near; 18 for through Him we both have our access in one Spirit to the Father. 19 So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the [p]saints, and are of God’s household, 20 having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the corner stone, 21 in whom the whole building, being fitted together, is growing into a holy [q]temple in the Lord, 22 in whom you also are being built together into a dwelling of God in the Spirit.
EPHESIANS 1
These are in accordance with the working of the strength of His might 20 which He brought about in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, 21 far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. 22 And He put all things in subjection under His feet, and gave Him as head over all things to the church, 23 which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.
EPHESIANS 3
To me, the very least of all [d]saints, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the unfathomable riches of Christ, 9 and to [e]bring to light what is the administration of the mystery which for ages has been hidden in God who created all things; 10 so that the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known through the church to the rulers and the authorities in the heavenly places.
EPHESIANS 3 BEING THE PUNCHLINE OF THIS STATUS.
IT WAS NEVER ABOUT US, THE COURTROOM.
THE COURTROOM WAS SET UP SO THE DEVIL MIGHT KNOW, THROUGH WEAK VESSELS OF CLAY AND NO PERSONAL POWER AT ALL....
THE GLORY INSIDE THESE CONTAINERS WAS GOING TO BE THE INSTRUMENT OF JUDGMENT AGAINST ANGELS IN HEAVEN WHO HAVE RISEN UP AND PROCLAIMED ANOTHER GOSPEL......
the false gospel of self existence, of independence and separation
of dualism, of "the moon" which in Revelation 12 is NOW under the Bride's feet as an existence,
in short a gospel other than THE SINGLE EYE LIVING OF PSALM 123
HOW ABOUT THAT?

The last Connections are being put in place.....

The last connections are being put in place in the world Body of Christ.
Everyone connected to the Head primarily and the rollout of the actual New Covenant in Jeremiah 31.
Everybody knowing that the Presence and Protocols of heaven are gathering in the One Name, and entering into His Courts through praise and thanksgiving and then following the Holy Spirit direct in the Melchizedek Order until He is done. To facilitate, elders who are forerunners teach how to be sensitive to this heavenly order and help pickup the flow if it gets lost....but soon through training our senses according to righteousness everybody learns this.
Everybody is baptised into the Body Death and resurrection of Jesus the Son and experiences through total water immersion the actual experience of this death.
Everybody is instructed in the baptism of the Holy Spirit and His anointing.
Everybody is instructed in Grace and Presence, and learns it is not through works, but works are now fruit of internal process.
Everybody is instructed in the complete Blood covering of every past present and future sin but they are also instructed
In how they are a brand new creation....there is no old and new man. At our spirit -centre the old man was kicked out and never truly existed anyway....
It was Satan -I. It was me thinking I could be independent, but no man is ever independent....we are either powered by one spirit or another....God or the devil.
Everyone enters into the tussle of faith from Romans 6 and 7, until they have trained their senses in operating fully as Christ in their forms....Galatians 2.20
Everyone learns en route not to live in the futility of their minds as the Gentiles do
- to nolonger base their lives on their insight....but as proverbs 3 says to trust in the Lord with all their heart and acknowledge HIM in all their ways...
Everybody develops Christ consciousness internally which couples with Holy Spirit anointing outwardly
(the image of this is the MERCY SEAT....packed out with the three forms of WORD inwardly and having the Shekinah glory overhead.....
Everybody is equally at home knowing they are seated with Christ in heavenly places as they are cleaning sewers and helping with foul smelling wounds on people's bodies.
Everybody has now passed through the Revelation stages of Ephesians 1 and 2 and carried it through work, church and family life as in chapters 3 to 5, and now has the necessary inner and outer authority to move into corporate commissioning
in Ephesians 6. They are not so much putting on armour as actually BEING THE ARMOUR as Christ in them the hope of glory.
People everywhere are STANDING...in their homes....in their business....in their localities....in their nations....
Having walked through and experienced Psalm 24 and the Psalms of Ascents 130-133.......they are at last ready for what Ern Baxter ran through as a prototype in a cattle shed in Harrogate in 1976
ADDRESSING Ancient DOORS in the Spirit....and speaking THE GLOBAL BLESSING as in Psalm 134.....that the KING OF GLORY MAY COME IN
We have come to the point where most people think Revelation is the Spirit and the Bride say Come ....to their Bridegroom....but that's not what it says...READ IT
The Mature Bride in the Earth says with the Spirit to all the nations of the Earth in terms of MIGHTY INGATHERING.....Revelation 22.17
17 The Spirit and the bride say, “Come.” And let the one who hears say, “Come.” And let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who wishes take the water of life without cost. What is that like? What Isaiah saw in ch 55
“Ho! Every one who thirsts, come to the waters;
And you who have no [a]money come, buy and eat.
Come, buy wine and milk
Without money and without cost.
2 “Why do you [b]spend money for what is not bread,
And your wages for what does not satisfy?
Listen carefully to Me, and eat what is good,
And delight yourself in abundance.
3 “Incline your ear and come to Me.
Listen, that [c]you may live;
And I will make an everlasting covenant with you,
According to the faithful mercies [d]shown to David.
4 “Behold, I have made him a witness to the peoples,
A leader and commander for the peoples.
5 “Behold, you will call a nation you do not know,
And a nation which knows you not will run to you,
Because of the Lord your God, even the Holy One of Israel;
For He has glorified you.”
This is the thirdlevel church God is raising in every nation under heaven, and with martyrs blood, and intense sufferings. She herself is labouring together with the groans of the Earth for sons....
Sing barren woman sing.....for she who has not born shall give birth to many sons.
WE PREACH....and we LABOUR.....and we also say COME AND SEE
Why? Because we are living Galatians 2:20
CHRIST IN OUR FORMS AS US.
This is the story of God in the Earth.

Selah


HOW DOES THE CHURCH OPERATE IN THE MELCHIZEDEK ORDER AS KINGS AND PRIESTS?

More on Peniel . Psalm 118:27 and Ephesians

Yesterday's post was on Jacob and the Angel at Peniel in Genesis 32.

Jacob's name which was given to him when his parents saw his character manifest from birth, meant twister,deceiver,usurper, manipulator.

Forced by his own actions to flee the wrath of his brother Jacob ends up residing with somebody who either was a worse twister than Jacob, or was responding to the information given when Jacob introduced himself.
His uncle thought...."Hmm...twister is come to stay."

However it was...God's treatment, his prescription to Jacob through his uncle was to be treated in the same way....even with a smile!!!!

With that kind of urgency you would certainly drop every other church behaviour like the Ebola virus it is.

Jacob eventually tired of all this and arranged for him and his family to sneak out, kind of circumnavigating his full spiritual circumcision!!!!  It is interesting that Daniel Yordy sneaked out of his environment in the Move. Only for God to send a Christ Chris across his path, that Daniel instead is viewing very much as Adam Chris. (We can never know the paths for each...we can't even guess). But I mention all this not to come to any conclusions but because I want to link the Peniel incident
with 1.this verse
The LORD is God—he will be our light! Bind the festival sacrifice with ropes to the horn at the altar. Psalm 118:27

and

life in the Body of Christ ....the same body that St Paul describes in 1 Corinthians 12 where one says because you are not a hand I don't have need of you and another says because you are not an eye I have no need of you.

This , in all our immature state is the Body we are expected to live in and live among.

The Tree of Life is ONE.

Catholics rightly chide Protestants for endlessly splitting off.
But on the other hand what is equally true is JESUS had to operate largely OUTSIDE the synagogues because  Jews weren't about to receive Him properly.

Catholics do not receive anyone apart from themselves and  their own teaching contains hundreds and hundreds of years of Satanically inspired confusion. (about salvation. About the Holy Spirit. About priests.About confession. About what a church is and how it operates. About what ministry is. About what baptism is. About pedophilia. About the use of money and buildings....it just goes on and on....).

Luckily the answer isn't in a book. It isn't even in the Bible in that sense.
The answer to all these things is by each individual getting themselves connected in a Living way with the Melchizedek Order.

God's ordained Peniel  for each of us is within local church, our own family and our jobs and service.

This doesn't work very well at the moment because nobody really knows who they are.(So like in the rest of the Bible God has to work individually using completely different means.)
Who are we all then?
In short,  we are GOD  COMING IN THE FLESH. Should we choose it.

Catholics pay lipservice to God's Life, but as soon as God's Life shows up they burn them. Madame Guyon for example.

But Paul's sentences are so dynamic relating to Peniel that I really believe hardly anyone on earth sees it yet.
Sure they read this sentence weekly in one church or another all over the globe but no one "hears these words"...not really. Not in the sense that Jesus meant when He said He who has ears to hear let him hear.

I urge you once more to read these familiar words as if you were the last Christians on earth. As if it depended on you and you alone to build a church that would reproduce itself all over the globe. With that kind of urgency you would certainly drop every other church behaviour like the Ebola virus it is.

Ephesians 2.19 Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God’s people and also members of his household, 20 built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. what foundation?...a Catholic heirarchical pyramidal one through centuries regardless of wrongdoing? No....a personal relationship with Jesus coupled with a mature consciousness of Jesus Christ IN the apostle who had trained his senses according to righteousness initially with the physical person of Jesus for 3 and half years nonstop.


21 In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. 22 And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.

3:17    you, being rooted and established in love, 18 may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, 19 and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

4:15 speaking the truth in love,
what truth?  The truth of Galations 2:20. The truth that we are now Christ in our form as us. Christ in us the hope of glory.

we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ. 16 From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.NIVso how do we grow? By growing individually then after decades by getting together with other Christians?
No we grow now as each shares the Christ that is already formed in them. We speak this truth in love. Straightforwardly. As fact. By faith that we are sharing the very SEED of GOD Himself forming Himself in the other believers as they hear and respond in faith.
Youngs Literal Translation of the Greek is a bit more graphic and firm, and diametrically opposed to the present versions of church on earth....

the whole body, being fitly joined together and united, through the supply of every joint, according to the working in the measure of each single part, the increase of the body doth make for the building up of itself in love.Present church KILLS the supply of each single part.
If they involve people at all they ask too much or too little. Only the Holy Spirit inspires people and enables people with empowering and gifts of utterance to share properly and clearly "WORKING IN THE MEASURE OF EACH SINGLE PART."This is a third level phrase. Christians just don't work properly, don't function properly until Christ is formed in them. We all form in different ways and we all have something already that is in Christ...and it is this authenticity...this REAL US...this REAL GIFT OF GOD we share.
 We don't just share learned facts. Learned skills. Abilities that are still coming out of a false delusional identity of a self powered us. That isn't Christ and it doesn't build Christ.

Yes I Am 31 - On,Now,To The Third Level

Yes I Am by Norman Grubb

Chapter 31

ON, NOW, TO THE THIRD LEVEL

We have seen with unmistakable clarity that there are stages in our becoming settled about who we are by grace, and stages through which we must pass; or we can call them grades from which we must be graduated. We have already looked into two of these… (whatever name we decide to call them): justification and unification - Christ for us and Christ in us.

But the Bible makes it plain that there are three grades, not two - and each equally necessary. We have spent much time on the first two, but it is less recognized that there is a third to be consciously entered into.

In calling them "grades" or "levels of being" there is always a danger that we may slip back into the old snare of self-effort and self-development and think of them as something we have to attain to. "Growth," also, is a common concept we use to denote what we think of as spiritual progress. How often I hear it said, "Well, it has taken you time and will take me time to get there." So we need a constant reminder that spiritual growth, or the attaining of a new "grade," is not some form of painfully acquired self-enlargement; rather it is the same old story, nothing but a growth in recognition of what Christ, our last Adam, has attained for us… which is already ours. That is why growth is spoken by Peter in his Second Epistle with these words: "Grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ." Growth, therefore, is merely the next stage of recognition of who we already are in Him; and that recognition, as we now know, is always and only by the nonworks method of faith, and the Spirit is the one who establishes us.


So with this safeguard, we move on to this third level. The simplest description of the three levels (because he uses a down-to-earth analogy) is John’s, when he writes to his readers as "little children," "young men," and "fathers" (1 John 2:12-14). He makes brief comments about what he means, spiritually speaking, by these three stages. A little child is totally dependent externally on his parents and knows nothing but what they outwardly are to him. So a little child in grace knows simply that he was a sinner, that he is forgiven through Christ, and thus, now, God is his heavenly Father. A young man has moved from outer dependence on his parents to finding his own inner resources for life - progress from outer to inner. "I write unto you, young men, because ye have overcome the wicked one… because ye are strong, and the word of God abideth in you." This is a plain-spoken description of our being established in the "on top" life which we have spent so long in examining in every detail, and into which we have now moved by the second crisis. We now know we are strong - and we know why. Therefore we are no longer tossed about in those old struggles with devil and flesh. We know inwardly, not just outwardly, what first came to us as outer, written word... but which now abides in us, fused into our inner consciousness by the Spirit. What a total description of an established, achieved life... not of trying, hoping, kind of slipping in and out of it, but being!

In calling them "grades" or "levels of being" there is always a danger that we may slip back into the old snare of self-effort and self-development and think of them as something we have to attain to.

"I have written unto you, fathers," John states cryptically, "because ye have known Him that is from the beginning." That brings us back to the realization that "knowing" in Scripture usually refers not to mere mental understanding, but implies being mixed with the thing we know. That is why the Bible uses the word for sexual intercourse: "Adam knew Eve his wife." Spiritually, it is inner know-how; and what you know, that you are. "This is eternal life," said Jesus in His great prayer to His Father, "that they might know Thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent." And we who are born of His Spirit know that knowing is the inner union. So when John says that we "fathers" know Him that is from the beginning, he means that, as fathers, we are in inner union with that Eternal One - not in His beginning, but as the One who now, as from the beginning, is in the process of completing what He has begun; and we are involved with Him in that completing process. Amazing grace! The point, then, is that we now are no longer dependent children, but cooperating sons: Father and Sons, Inc.!

What John has given us on its three levels in such understandable terms is seen all through Scripture in those same three forms. We are united with Christ in His crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension - and Paul wrote letters which concentrate on each of these: Galatians on our identification with Him in His death; Colossians on our being risen with Him; Ephesians on our ascended life, seated with Him in the heavenlies, and its outcome.

Paul’s Roman letter we all recognize as his fully developed, detailed, and authoritative statement of what he calls "my gospel." In this letter the three states are plain enough: chapters 3 to 5 - justification (little children); 6 to 8 - unification (young men); 9 to 15 - cooperation, co-saviorhood (fathers).

being mixed with the thing we know

In Hebrews there are the three again. The writer plainly likens Jesus to Moses because, by the new birth, He saves us out of our Egypt, the world; and to Joshua, because He takes us into the land of milk and honey, the promised rest, after we have emerged from the childhood wilderness. Then he stops short very significantly, and says there is a third likeness: to Melchisedec, king of Salem, priest of the most high God. In this parallel Jesus is our great High Priest. 

Now whenever there is a high priest, there must be other priests serving along with him. But when speaking here of the order of Melchisedec, the writer does not name anyone as co-priests, because those Hebrew believers had a spiritual blockage en route (5:12-6:2), showed negative reactions to their sufferings (10:32-39), and were tied in knots of self-pity (12:5-13). He does, however, describe the co-priesthood of the third level in his famous list in Hebrews chapter 11 of the giants of faith, who were the intercessor priests of their respective generations. And we are to be such for our God today, "a royal priesthood" (1 Pet. 2:9).

 inner know-how

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Ephesians - Francois Du Toit Mirror excerpt

The second thing we encounter in the tabernacle, the temple of God, after the Lamb slain,
or the bullock slain,or the goats slain.....whatever, the second feature is the Laver.
The Mirror of God's Word to us. Authentic Being. Ps 42 "Deep calls to deep..."
Packed into the one burnished mirror shiny object is all the baptisms combined....even the concept of being baptised out from our lone state in the world into God's Covenant people....even the concept of ceremonial washing for what God always had in mind, a people of priests. A royal priesthood. A holy nation. Moses said when someone reported back that some "lone ranger prophets were prophesying unbidden among the people"..."Would that all God's people were prophets. The Mirror translation from the original Greek is all this.






Click below and above to learn more about the Mirror Word by Francois DuToit  (pronounced DuToy in South African)

LETTER TO THE EPHESIANS
CHAPTER 1
1:1 Paul, employed by the delightful resolve of God and commissioned to represent Jesus
Christ to the saints in Ephesus; also to every believer in Christ Jesus.
1:2 I greet you with the grace and peace that proceed from God the Father and the Lord
Jesus Christ.
1:3 Let’s celebrate God! He has lavished every blessing heaven has upon us in Christ!
1:4 He associated us in Christ before the fall of the world! Jesus is God's mind made up
about us! He always knew in his love that he would present us again face to face before him
in blameless innocence. (The implications of the fall are completely cancelled out, katabalo -
“to fall away, to put in a lower place,” instead of themelios - “foundation” see 2:20 - Thus
translated “the fall of the world” instead of “the foundation of the world.” God found us in
Christ before he lost us in Adam!)
1:5 He is the architect of our design; his heart dream realized our coming of age in Christ.
(Adoption here is not what it means in our Western society, it is a coming of age, like the
typical Jewish Barmitsva. See Gal.4:1-6 “…and to seal our sonship the spirit of his son echoes
Abba Father in our hearts.”. Greek, huiothesia).
1:6 His grace-plan is to be celebrated: he greatly endeared us and highly favored us in
Christ; his love for his Son is his love for us.
1:7 Since we are (fully represented) in him, his blood is the ransom that secures our
redemption. His forgiving us our sins measures the wealth of his grace.
1:8 This grace shown towards us communicates a wisdom and discernment of our worth
that completely surpasses any definition.
1:9 The secret is out! His cherished love-dream now unfolds in front of our very eyes.
1:10 In the economy (oikonomia) of the fullness of time, everything culminates in Christ; all
that is in heaven and all that is on earth is reconciled in him. (Phillips, “All human history
shall be consummated in Christ, everything that exists in heaven or earth shall find its
perfection and fulfillment in him.” Knox, “All that is in heaven, all that is on earth, summed
up in him!”)
- 114 -
1:11 This is how we fit into God's picture, Christ is the measure of our portion, we are in
him; invented and defined in him. God's blueprint intention is on exhibition in us, everything
he accomplishes is inspired by the energy and intent of his affection. (See Romans 8:29 “He
engineered us from the start to fit the mould of sonship and likeness according to the exact
blueprint of his design. We see the original and intended shape of our lives preserved in his
Son; he is the firstborn from the same womb that reveals our genesis. He confirms that we
are the invention of God.”)
1:12 It was our initial privilege (as Jews) to cherish the Messianic hope; our lives in Christ
were destined to promote the celebration of his glorious plan with man (doxa, intention,
opinion.).
1:13 Now you (Gentiles) also have discovered yourselves to be equally included in him
having witnessed the unveiled logic of God. (The Word of truth, alethea, from a + lanthano,
not hidden) What exciting news! Your salvation is publicly announced. Consistent with the
promise of God, the Holy Spirit gives guarantee to the fact of your faith, like the stamp of a
signet ring that certifies a document. You are in him!
1:14 The Holy Spirit is our tangible link (title deed) to the inheritance that was ransomed
and preserved for us. God's glorious plan for man is the theme of our celebration.
(Guarantee, or earnest, arabon a Hebrew word, to braid, two parties intertwine by giving
something as surety and pledge. The pledge represents the full transaction. The legal
document or title deed represents the complete value of the transaction. Like a wedding ring
represents the marriage.)
1:15 I am sure you can appreciate how the news of your faith and love greatly inspires me.
1:16 I am so happy for you; my thoughts and prayers are full of you.
1:17 I desire that you will draw directly from the source; that the God of our Lord Jesus
Christ, the Father of glory ignites the spirit of wisdom and of revelation in you in the
unveiling of his Master Plan (his intent, doxa glory.) I desire that you know by revelation
what he has known about you all along!
1:18 I pray that your thoughts will be flooded with light and inspired insight; that you will
clearly picture his intent in identifying you in him so that you may know how precious you
are to him. The saints are his treasure and the glorious trophy of his portion! (We are God's
assets and the measure of his wealth!)
1:19 I pray that you will understand beyond all comparison the magnitude of his mighty
power towards us who believe. Faith reveals how enormously advantaged we are in Christ.
- 115 -
1:20 It is the same dynamic energy that he unleashed in Christ when he raised him from
the dead and forever established him in the power of his own right hand in the realm of the
heavens.
1:21 Infinitely above all the combined forces of rule, authority, dominion or governments;
he is ranked superior to any name that could ever be given to anyone of this age or any age
still to come in the eternal future.
1:22 I want you to see this: he subjected all these powers under his feet. He towers head
and shoulders above everything. He is the head,
1:23 the church (his redeemed image and likeness in man) is his body. The completeness of
his being that fills all in all resides in us! God cannot make himself more visible or exhibit
himself more accurately.
CHAPTER 2
2:1 Picture where God found us, we were in a death trap of an inferior lifestyle, constantly
living below the blueprint measure of our lives. (Sin, hamartia, ha + meros, without our
allotted portion)
2:2 We were all part of a common pattern, swept along under a powerful invisible
influence; a spirit- energy that adopted us as sons to its dictate through unbelief.
2:3 Throughout that time everyone of us were warped and corrupted in our conduct
snared in a jumble of forbidden lusts; driven by the desires of the senses, totally engaged in
an expression of life ruled by mind games; it was as if a twisted passion parented a universal
breed of people.
2:4 None of this could distract from the extravagant love of God; he continued to love us
with the exact same intensity.
2:5 This is how grace rescued us: sin left us dead towards God, like spiritual corpses; then
comes the resurrection of Christ; in that moment, he simultaneously co-quickened us
together with Christ. (Exactly as Hosea prophesied it 800 BC) While sin proved how dead we
then were, grace reveals how alive we now are. Even when we were dead in our trespasses,
he made us alive together with him, and raised us up together with him. (God saw us in
Christ in his death and resurrection before we saw ourselves there! Hosea 6:2 declares our
co-resurrection with Christ before anyone but God believed it!)
2:6 (As much as we were co-included in his death,) we are co-included in his resurrection.
- 116 -
We are also elevated in his ascension to be equally welcome in the throne room of the
heavenly realm where we are seated together with him in his executive authority. We are
fully represented in Christ Jesus.
2:7 (In a single triumphant act of righteousness God saved us from the guttermost to the
uttermost. Here we are now, revealed in Christ in the highest possible position of bliss! If
man's sad history could not distract from the extravagant love of God,) imagine how God is
now able for timeless perpetuity (the eternal future) to exhibit the trophy of the wealth of
his grace demonstrated in his kindness towards us in Christ Jesus. Grace exhibits excessive
evidence of the success of the cross.
2:8 Your salvation is not a reward for good behaviour! It was a grace thing from start to
finish; you had no hand in it. Even the gift to believe simply reflects his faith! (You did not
invent faith; it was God's faith to begin with! It is from faith to faith, Rom 1:17 He is both the
source and conclusion of faith, Heb 12:2)
2:9 If this could be accomplished through any action of yours then there would be ground
for boasting.
2:10 We are engineered by his design; he moulded and manufactured us in Christ. We are
his workmanship, his poetry. (God finds inspired expression of Christ in us. Greek, poeima,)
We are fully fit to do good, equipped to give attractive evidence of his likeness in us in
everything we do. (God has done everything possible to find spontaneous and effortless
expression of his character in us in our everyday lifestyle. Greek, proetoimatso, God has
prepared a highway for us to lead us out like kings, just like it was in Oriental custom, where
people would go before a king to level the roads to make it possible for the king to journey
with ease and comfort. Isa 40:3-5)
2:11 Remember where you came from; (not only were you spiritually dead but) it wasn't
long ago when you were still classified as non-Jewish, judging on the surface you had
nothing that linked you to them. They sneered at you because you didn’t share their
distinguishing mark of circumcision, which was their claim to fame!
2:12 During that time you were distanced from the Messianic hope; you had nothing in
common with Israel; you felt foreign to the covenants of prophetic promise, living a life with
nothing to look forward to in a world where God seemed absent.
2:13 But now, wow! Everything has changed; you have discovered yourselves to be located
in Christ. What once seemed so distant is now so near; his blood reveals your redeemed
innocence and authentic value.
2:14 It is in him that we are one and at peace with everyone; he dissolved every definition
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of division.
2:15 In his incarnation, he rendered the entire Jewish system of ceremonial laws and
regulations useless as a measure to justify human life and conduct. In that he died
humanity’s death all ground for tension and hostility was entirely removed. The peace he
proclaims reveals one new human race, created and defined in Christ, instead of two groups
of people separated by their ethnic identity and differences.
2:16 Both parties are fully represented and reconciled to God in one human body through
the cross. He reinstated the former harmony; all opposing elements were thus utterly
defeated.
2:17 On that basis he made his public appearance, proclaiming the good news of peace to
universal mankind; both those who felt left out in the cold, (as far as the promises and
covenants were concerned,) as well as to those who were near all along, (because of their
Jewish identity.)
2:18 Because of Christ both Jew and Gentile now enjoy equal access to the Father in one
Spirit.
2:19 The conclusion is clear, you are no longer frowned upon as a foreigner; you are where
you belong and part of an intimate family where no-one is suspicious or inferior.
2:20 Your lives now give visible definition to the spiritual structure, having been built into it
by God upon the foundation that the prophets and apostles proclaimed. The first evidence
of this building was Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone. (He is the first visible
testimony to the restored image and likeness of God in human form.)
2:21 In him everyone of us are like living Lego blocks fitted together of the same fabric
(conversation), giving ever increasing articulation to a mobile sanctuary intertwined in the
Lord.
2:22 In him you are co-constructed together as God's permanent spiritual residence. You
are God’s address!
CHAPTER 3
3:1 My ministry is not measured by the size of my cell, I am confined by his grace; Christ
Jesus is the prison keeper; you are why I am here. (Grace measures my ministry; this cell
cannot hide my message from you!)
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3:2 (I may be hidden away in a prison, but my ministry is not.) It is common knowledge that
I have been entrusted with a message that reveals how included you Gentiles are in the
grace gift of God.
3:3 You must have heard how this mystery was revealed to me, in a dramatic disclosure
that broke the silence of a long kept secret. I have previously written briefly about this.
3:4 In reading these words you will perceive my insight into the mystery of Christ. (Insight,
understanding, sunesis, a joining together like two streams)
3:5 In no previous generation has there been a more comprehensive and detailed
understanding (of the full consequence of grace) as it has now been uncovered in the Spirit
to his ambassadors who brought the prophetic promise into full view! Mankind (the sons of
men) may now realise that the prophetic word is fulfilled in them! Everything the prophets
saw is now declared! Both the prophets (who saw this in advance) and the apostles (who
now proclaim this) are sanctioned in Christ.
3:6 The essence of what I see reveals the fact that the multitude of humanity are joint
participants in the same inheritance (together with Israel), we are all part of one and the
same body in Christ. The Good news is that God's promise is equally relevant and applicable
to all.
3:7 This Gospel defines my ministry; I am supercharged by the gift of his grace!
3:8 I am the lowest ranked saint by far. (My claim to fame emphasizes the fact that grace is
a gift and certainly not a reward for good behavior.) His grace alone qualifies me to declare
this unexplored treasure of Christ in the nations.
3:9 The mandate of my message is to make all men see. The unveiling of this eternal secret
is to bring into public view an association that has always been hidden in God; Jesus Christ is
the blueprint of creation.
3:10 Every invisible authority and government in the arena of the heavenlies is now
confronted with the display of the wisdom of God. The church acts like a prism that
disperses the varied magnitude of God in human form.
3:11 Jesus Christ our Boss and Owner gives definition to God’s timeless pre-determined
thought ( pro-thesis ).
3:12 His faith in us gives our lives integrity. We echo and articulate the original
conversation publicly. (In him we express ourselves freely and openly) He is our platform to a
global audience.
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3:13 You have no reason to feel embarrassed or responsible because of what I am
suffering; rather feel honoured!
3:14 Overwhelmed by what grace communicates, I bow my knees in awe before the Father.
3:15 Every family in heaven and on earth originate in him; he remains the authentic and
original identity of every nation.
3:16 I desire for you to realise what the Father has given you from his own limitless
resources, so that you may be dynamically reinforced in your inner being by the Spirit of
God.
3:17 This will impact your faith with capacity to fully grasp the reality of the indwelling
Christ. You are rooted and founded in Love. Love is your invisible inner source just like the
root system of a tree and the foundation of a building. (The dimension of your inner person
exceeds any other measure that could possibly define you. “The Holy Spirit becomes to me
what he was to Jesus, the very life of my personality” - Andrew Murray).
3:18 This is your reservoir of super human strength which causes you as saints to
collectively grasp (come to terms with, make one’s own, empowered to comprehend) the
limitless extent of his love in breadth, in length, in height (rank), and the extremities of its
depths. (See John 1:12)
3:19 I desire for you to become intimately acquainted with the love of Christ on the
deepest possible level; far beyond the reach of a mere academic, intellectual grasp. Within
the scope of this equation God finds the ultimate expression of himself in you (so that you
may be filled with all the fullness of God).
3:20 We celebrate him who super charges us powerfully from within. Our biggest request
or most amazing dream cannot match the extravagant proportion of his thoughts towards
us.
3:21 He owns the applause displayed in the church (his redeemed image and likeness),
confirmed in Christ Jesus. The encore continues throughout every generation, not only of
this age but also of the countless ages to come. Amen!
CHAPTER 4
4:1 So here I am in prison; but much more than that do I realize that I am in Christ! My
complete existence is defined and confined in him. (We are indeed seated together with him
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in heavenly places! 2:6 no distraction can) With this in mind I would urge you to conduct the
detail of your day to day life conscious of your true identity and worth as defined in him. (To
walk worthy, axios, having the weight of another thing of like value, worth as much. Your
calling or vocation, from kaleo, to surname, to identify by name)
4:2 Be mindful of the fact that meekness and tenderness are the fabric of your make-up
which enables you to show compassion even in seemingly impossible situations, eagerly
bearing with one another in an environment where love rules.
4:3 Being vigilant to guard your oneness of spirit. We are prisoners of peace. We confirm
the fact that there is only one body; also that there is only one Spirit.
4:4 We are identified in one expectation (hope), there is no plan B. We bear the same
surname.
4:5 We are employed by the same Boss; we share the same faith, and our baptism says the
same thing (we are equally included in his death and resurrection.)
4:6 There is only one God. He remains the ultimate Father of the universe. We are because
he is. He is present in all; he is above all, through all and in all. (He is not far from each one of
us; in him we live and move and have our being; we are indeed his offspring. Acts17:24-28).
4:7 The gift of Christ gives dimension to grace and defines our individual value. (Grace was
given to each one of us according to the measure of the gift of Christ)
4:8 Scripture confirms that he led us as trophies in his triumphant procession on high; he
repossessed his gift (likeness) in man. (2:6 We are also elevated in his ascension to be equally
welcome in the throne room of the heavenly realm where we are now seated together with
him in his authority. Quote from the Hebrew text, Ps. 68:18, lakachta mattanoth baadam,
thou hast taken gifts in man, in Adam. The gifts which Jesus Christ distributes to man he has
received in man, in and by virtue of his incarnation. Commentary by Adam Clarke.)
4:9 The fact that he ascended confirms his victorious descent into the deepest pits of
human despair. (See John 3:13, "No one has ascended into heaven but he who descended
from heaven, even the son of man." All mankind originate from above; we are anouthen,
from above, see James 1:17,18.)
4:10 He now occupies the ultimate rank of authority from the lowest regions, where he
stooped down to rescue us from, to the highest authority in the heavens, having executed
his mission to the full. (Fallen man is fully restored to the authority of the life of his design.)
4:11 What God now has in us is gift wrapped to the world; some are commissioned to
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pioneer; others are gifted prophetically; some as announcers of good news; some as
shepherds with a real gift to care and nurture, and others have a gift to ignite instruction
through revelation knowledge. (Couriers, communicators, counsellors and coaches. Rob
Lacey)
4:12 Each expression of his gift is to fully equip and enable the saints for the work of the
ministry so that they may mutually contribute in their specific function to give definition to
the visible body of Christ.
4:13 The purpose of these ministry gifts is to present everyone on par and in oneness of
faith; believing exactly what the Son of God believes and knowing accurately what he knows
concerning us. Standing face to face in equal stature to the measure of the completeness of
Christ. (A life filled to the brim with Christ, like a freight ship carrying its cargo.)
4:14 The most dangerous life you can live is an ignorant one. You're left like an infant on a
ship out of control in the waves and winds of the storms of life. The fall of the dice dictates
while the deceptive teachings of men and their distracting tricks entertain.
4:15 Love (the revealed value that God sees in every man) gives truth its voice. The
conversation that truth inspires (as it is mirrored in Christ, v 21) creates the atmosphere
wherein growth is both spontaneous and inevitable. The whole person is addressed in Christ
who is the head of the body; he is the conclusion of God's communication with man.
4:16 From him flows the original composition and detail of our design like words
intertwined in poetry, (like a conductor of music, epichoregeo) they connect layer upon layer
to complete the harmony, following the rhythm of his thoughts like footprints. Meanwhile
the body thrives and pulsates with the energy of love. Each individual part (portion) finds its
full measure there. (Verses 8-16: “Couriers, communicators, counselors and coaches. All with
the same brief: to get the crew to work together and to do others good. The church is not
dismembered, dysfunctional body, but a fully functional, well balanced, coordinated lover of
people.” - Rob Lacey)
4:17 My most urgent appeal to you in the Lord is this: you have nothing in common with
the folly of the empty minded masses; the days of conducting your life and affairs in a
meaningless way are over! (Masses of people are walking in the vanity of their minds.)
4:18 Their understanding is veiled by an interception of light (an image cast by an object,
representing the form of that object) Therefore the life of God remains obscure and foreign
to them because ignorance blindfolds their hearts. (They are darkened in their
understanding of the truth of their redeemed identity; therefore they appear to be alienated
from the life of God.)
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4:19 Having become conditioned to a life distanced from God; they are calloused in spirit,
and are lust and greed driven; they have totally abandoned themselves to outrageous
shameless living.
4:20 Of what total contrast is Christ!
4:21 It is not possible to study Christ in any other context; he is the incarnation, hear him
resonate in you! The truth about you has its ultimate reference in Jesus. ("The truth as it is in
Christ." He did not come to introduce a new compromised set of rules; he is not an example
for us but of us!)
4:22 Now you are free to strip off that old identity like a filthy worn-out garment. Lust
corrupted you and cheated you into wearing it. (Just like an actor who wore a cloak for a
specific role he had to interpret; the fake identity is no longer appropriate!)
4:23 (Pondering the truth about you as it is displayed in Christ) will cause you to be
completely reprogrammed in the way you think about yourself! (This happens in the spirit of
your mind, on a much deeper level than a mere intellectual and academic consent.)
4:24 Immerse yourself fully into this God-shaped new man from above! You are created in
the image and likeness of God. This is what righteousness and true holiness are all about.
4:25 Faking it and lying to one another was part of the old life; now speak always only that
which truth inspires to your fellowman. (Truth as it is in Christ, v 21) We are related to one
another like different parts in the same body, (cheating him would be cheating yourself!)
4:26 Even if you think you have a valid excuse, do not let anger dominate your day! If you
don't deal with it immediately (in the light of the likeness of Christ in you) the sun sets for
you and your day becomes one of lost opportunity where darkness employs anger to snare
you into sin.
4:27 Any sin that you tolerate is an open invitation to the devil. Do not give him a platform
to operate from.
4:28 If you were a thief before, you are one no more. Find an honest job where the fruit of
your labor can be a blessing to others!
4:29 Instead of cheap talk, your mouth is now a fountain of grace, giving encouragement
and inspiration to everyone within earshot.
4:30 The Holy Spirit is your signet ring from God to confirm that you are redeemed to live
your life in the light of day, any conduct that belongs to the night grieves him.
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4:31 Take up the strongest possible position against every form of distorted behaviour in
your own life, do not allow yourself to be spiteful; outbursts of violent emotion and rage do
not become you. You don't have to shout in order to make your point. People must feel safe
in your conversation, therefore slander and hurtful words (blasphemy) are out!
4:32 Be inspired by kindness and compassion; your forgiving one another when you might
feel irritated and frustrated, demonstrates the way God graciously treated us in Christ.
CHAPTER 5
5:1 Mimic God; you are his offspring.
5:2 This is how: let the love of Christ be your life; remember how he abandoned himself to
us. His love is contagious, not reluctant but extravagant. Sacrificial love pleases God like the
sweet aroma of worship. (Resembling the holy anointing oil and the pure fragrant incense of
spices, the work of a perfumer, to be burnt on the golden altar of incense in the inner court of
the tent of meeting. Ex.37:25-29.)
5:3 Love has nothing in common with lust, immoral acts or greed. The absence of these
motives even in the way you talk sets a standard of excellence.
5:4 Any distorted language (disfigured, exaggeration), sarcasm or below the belt jokes are
uncalled for; much rather let gratitude grace your conversation.
5:5 The Christ-life gives distinct definition to the kingdom of God. You cannot live a doublestandard
life. Abusing people through adultery, lust and greed is like worshipping a distorted
image of yourself, which is what idolatry is all about.
5:6 Avoid any association with those who employ hollow words to entice you; unbelief only
produces a breed of people that distorts the pattern of the harmony of the life of our design
as image bearers of God. (orge, from oregomai, to stretch one’s self out in order to touch or
to grasp something, to reach after or desire something; thus to distort.)
5:7 Do not allow their unbelief to include you in their company.
5:8 You were there once, trapped in the same darkness, but now you are light; your life
confirms that light rules.
5:9 The spiritual harvest of light is evident in all that is excellent, innocent (righteous) and
of impeccable integrity.
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5:10 This gives certain evidence to the life of God's delight.
5:11 Do not tolerate anything in your life that associates you with darkness; there is no
profit in it for you. Rather expose it for what it really is.
5:12 By gossiping about shameful acts that people do in secret you are giving those things
undue mileage.
5:13 Darkness loses its grip upon that which light manifests. Light displaces darkness.
5:14 This is the message of light, Christ awakens you from your intoxicated slumber and
resurrects you out of a death trap (of thought patterns.)
5:15 Take accurate stock of your life, cut out foolishness, walk in wisdom.
5:16 Wisdom converts time into opportunity, and frees your day from slog.
5:17 Make his master plan your meditation.
5:18 While wine offers no lasting escape from the evil of the day, the spirit certainly does!
Immerse yourselves in fullness of spirit.
5:19 Speak psalms to one another; burst out in spontaneous celebration songs and spirit
inspired resonance. In your heart don't let the music stop; continue to touch the Lord with
whispers of worship.
5:20 Because you are identified in the Name of Jesus Christ, you can afford to always
overflow in gratitude to the Father, (not for everything that happens to you but) in spite of
everything that happens to you; you are not under circumstances but above circumstances
because you are in him!
5:21 Inspired by the selfless consideration you witnessed in Christ, (the way he abandoned
himself to the will of God and to us, verse 2) show perfect courtesy to one another.
5:22 (Marriage is a portrait of this mutual yielding to one another) wives give yourselves
fully unto your husbands as you would to the Lord. (Remember, v2 love is contagious, not
reluctant but extravagant. Sacrificial love pleases God like the sweet aroma of worship.)
5:23 In the same way that Christ gives salvation, security and completeness to the church
as the head does to the body, the husband is all of that to his wife.
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5:24 The church enjoys the full advantage of the complete package of salvation, by yielding
themselves fully to Christ; even so the wife enjoys every benefit her husband represents in
her abandonment to him.
5:25 The husband loving his wife pictures the parallel of Christ loving the church
completely, and his unreserved giving of himself to us. (This is what marriage is all about; it
celebrates love's initiative, whether coming from the husband or the wife; this awakens a
different level of commitment beyond the sense of duty or guilt.)
5:26 Christ gives God's Word a voice; immersed in this language, his love words bathe us
and remove from us every stain of sin.
5:27 This intimate language presents the church (his restored image and likeness) to
himself, to his delightful approval without any distraction or reminder of a blemished past,
no wrinkle or scar of sin's abuse remains; she stands before him in immaculate innocence.
(1Kings 6:7)
5:28 (A man could go though many disciplines in life to make himself look good financially
or even go to great expense to win the applause of others; he could diligently workout in the
gym and trim his body to perfection) but the most valuable thing he can ever do to add value
to his own life, is to love his wife; loving your wife equals loving your own body.
5:29 Consider how abnormal it would be for a man to abhor and detest his own body; the
opposite is true! You would much rather pamper and fuss over your bodies. (It's all you've
got, you can't trade it in for a new one, so take good care of it, watch what you feed it and
how you exercise it, and gently nurse it when it is in pain.) Get the message, you are the
body of Christ; he does not merely tolerate you politely, he delights himself in you!
5:30 We are his flesh and bone body; bearing his image and likeness we give tangible
expression of him.
5:31 Marriage reflects this union; a man would separate himself from his own parents to be
glued to his wife; thus two separate people are now merged into one new identity. (In the
same way he elevated us from our natural birth as our only identity to an understanding of
our origin in him confirmed again in our new birth, his resurrection, and our subsequent
restored joint position together with him in heavenly places; thus he brought about a new
union of intimate oneness; God and man revealed again in one Person.)
5:32 The secret of a successful marriage is reflected in this inseparable union between
Christ and the church as God’s redeemed image and likeness in man. (This union ultimately
defines both marriage and church, any other definition is a distorted man-made deception.)
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5:33 In conclusion then, no one has any excuse to love his wife less than what he loves
himself; at the same time every wife is now free and fully empowered to honor her husband
in the same context and devotion as the church would respond to the initiative of Christ.
CHAPTER 6
6:1 (This mutual yielding to one another continues in every social relationship we engage
in; and extends the attractive display of the Christ life: beginning at home, cradled in the
warm embrace of loving parents,) the way children respond to their parents give evidence to
their righteousness in the Lord. (In essence the term righteousness speaks of two parties
honoring likeness in one another.)
6:2 The first commandment that includes an immediate and long term incentive is in
reference to children honoring their father and mother.
6:3 Both quality and duration of life on earth is impacted by the way children relate to their
parents.
6:4 Fathers your role is not to exasperate your children (by giving them burdens and tasks
too heavy to bear,) you are rather to awaken their minds in an environment conducive to
draw on every virtue that is in them in the Lord.
6:5 The next level of relationship equally implicated includes the heart attitude of a slave
towards his owner, because of your devotion to Christ, you are now able to give your boss
the same undivided, sincere respect and devotion. (Remember we are talking practical
church/Christ-life, celebrating love's initiative in transforming society!)
6:6 This is not a matter of merely trying to put up a front in order to impress your boss, you
are in essence slaves of Christ; addicted to the desire of God to find expression in you; now
slave life becomes the Christ life. (The so called 'low life' becomes a window of the highest
life.)
6:7 However menial the task, put your heart and mind into it as you would unto the Lord,
he's your real Boss, not man.
6:8 It is a well known fact that it is impossible for good deeds to go unnoticed; it makes no
difference whether a man be free or a slave; every single good deed equally attract the
favorable attention of the Lord.
6:9 If you're the Boss, love's initiative applies to you on exactly the same terms; the way
you treat your slaves with respect rather than threats, even when they do stupid things
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clears the air immediately. Take it from your heavenly Master; he does not judge people or
circumstances on face value.
6:10 In conclusion, and with reference to the theme and context of this writing, I
encourage you to realize your strength in the Master; your union with him is your limitless
resource. (Remember my prayer for you at the offset of this letter, 1:19 I pray that you will
understand beyond all comparison the magnitude of his mighty power towards us who
believe. Faith reveals how enormously advantaged we are in Christ. 1:20 It is the same
dynamic energy that he unleashed in Christ when he raised him from the dead and forever
established him in the power of his own right hand in the realm of the heavens. 1:21
Infinitely above all the combined forces of rule, authority, dominion or governments; he is
ranked superior to any name that could ever be given to anyone of this age or any age still to
come in the eternal future. 1:22 I want you to see this: he subjected all these powers under
his feet. He towers head and shoulders above everything. He is the head, 1:23 the church (his
redeemed image and likeness in man) is his body. The completeness of his being that fills all
in all resides in us! God cannot make himself more visible or exhibit himself more accurately.)
6:11 Fully immerse yourself in the detail and significance of every individual part of the
armor of God (acquaint yourself with all that God's victory in Christ represents.) Just like
every aspect in a soldier’s armor significantly completes his battle uniform to best equip him
to effectively face every method and strategy that the enemy could possibly employ against
him.
6:12 People are not the enemy, (whether they be husbands, wives, children, or parents,
slaves or bosses. They might host the enemy in their attitudes and actions through their
unbelief or ignorance but) to target one another is to engage in the wrong combat. We
represent the authority of the victory of Christ in the spiritual realm. We are positioned
there (in Christ) we target the structures of darkness; governing and conditioning human
behavior through their evil invisible influence. ( pros, towards, in this context, to advance,
forward march, no retreat.)
6:13 It is most important therefore to acquaint and associate yourself with every aspect of
God's armor; now you are fully fit to powerfully defeat any onslaught of evil on the day of
confrontation, triumphantly standing your ground.
6:14 Take your position: you have the truth (of who you are in Christ) wrapped around
your hips like a soldier’s belt, holding the complete body armor together. (Now your loins
are protected so that the enemy can no longer defeat you with lust and sexual sins.)
Righteousness covers your heart like a bullet proof breastplate.
6:15 You wear your eagerness and passion to communicate the good news, like soldier’s
shoes (practice your footwork.) Announce peace, the battle has already been fought and
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won!
6:16 It is most important to engage your faith as a man-size shield that covers your whole
person and empowers you to extinguish the flame in every arrow the enemy shoots at you.
The only visible part of you is your faith!
6:17 Pondering redemption realities is your head gear that protects your mind; then give
voice to the Word of God, this is your spiritual sword.
6:18 Prevail in persistent prayer; praying in the spirit includes every form of prayer,
whether it be a prayer of request or a prayer of thanksgiving and worship or interceding for
the saints, don't do all the talking, always be attentive to the voice of the spirit. (Prayer is so
much more than a one way conversation.)
6:19 My most urgent request is for clarity of utterance every time I open my mouth to
speak; that my words will be gifted with inspiration, boldly articulating the mystery of the
gospel.
6:20 I am an ambassador in bonds; chained to this task of confidently communicating the
revelation of the Gospel with the accuracy it deserves.
6:21 I know this is not much of a newsletter; my urgency is not to talk about myself; but my
dear friend and faithful helper, Tychicus will fill you in on the detail. (He is also the scribe of
this letter.)
6:22 That is really why I sent him to you, that you may be well informed about our affairs
and see yourselves fully identified with us.
6:23 My prayer for you is a brotherhood of happy harmony, and love-entwined faith
flowing from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
6:24 Grace greetings to all of you who share our undivided passion for our Master, Jesus
Christ. He is echoed in your amen.