Locked Up

There are “positional” or “in Him” truths that many Believers have yet to apprehend. For some Believers, The Promises of God are too far reaching to ever embrace. For others His Covenant is fantasy or an impossible dream. Without a revelation of The Love of God, His Promises will remain unattainable. 
Positional truths are not all reserved for Heaven. We do not have to wait for the time “When we all get to Heaven” to obtain them. The Savior’s Earthly Ministry in part was to secure victory for us while living on earth. It is The Father’s Heart to return us to the status mankind one experienced in the Garden of Eden. Jesus guaranteed this lofty status for us with His Eternal Blood. (Hebrews 9:11-15)
Resolve in your understanding that what JESUS endured on The Cross was sufficient for all your victories. In fact, your earthly triumphs are proof that Jesus is presently seated at The Right Hand of God. (Hebrews 7:25)
 

Locked-Up

God is a Father, and just like any respectable Parent, He desires the absolute best for His Offspring. Sadly, He has been accused of poor treatment of His Children. An overwhelming majority of Believers are convinced that it is God Who is mysteriously at work behind the adversities in their lives. Not only is He accused of mistreatment of His Children, but The Father receives the blame for all the natural disasters inflicted on humanity as well. 

The kinds of abuse that has been credited to The All Mighty should have had Him easily indicted. Actually, He should be locked-up for all of His Eternal Life. I realize that statement borders on the ridiculous, but it is no more ridiculous than ascribing such cruel behavior to our Loving Heavenly Father.

There is a time when The Father will become a Warrior. He does defend those who are in Covenant with Him. (Exodus 15:3 and Hebrews 8:6) He will come to their assistance. He does not randomly select individuals to vex to prove His Divinity. Covenant Love protects those who depend on Him. 

• “My covenant will I not break, nor alter the thing that is gone out of my lips” (Psalm 89:34).
• “Now the God of peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant” (Hebrews 13:20).

Where do we place blame? First of all – do not blame God. Even the enemy is not the blame for he is defeated. The Prophet Hosea wrote, “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: ...”(Hosea 4:6) It is clear that an impoverish mind, a mind unaware of The True Character and Nature of God, is ultimately the culprit behind mankind’s destruction. 

Before we go any further, we must be reminded of The Nature of God. God is Love. (1 John 4:7-8, 16) Our Heavenly Father is ABSOLUTE LOVE. There is no malice in Him. If He were The Instrument of Destruction, as the uninformed believe, He would have to violate Himself.  Yet, even with the understanding that God is Love; some Believers will go on to say, “Well, God uses Satan to carry out His dirty work.” The enemy does not require God’s Endorsement; he is bad without any assistance. 

Remember, “My people are destroyed for a lack of knowledge”. We could easily paraphrase that part of the verse to read, “My people are ignorant of My Covenant, which is why they are destroyed.” 
“There are no mountains anywhere. Every man’s ignorance is his mountain.” (Dr. David O. Oyedepo) It is ignorance of The Word that is at the core of hardships. On the other hand, to knowingly reject The Promises of God is to despise The Blood and Finished Work of Christ Jesus. (Hebrews 10:29) “...because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me: seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children.” (Hosea 4:6) 
 

What is Man?

We must go back to the beginning of Creation to determine God’s Original Intent for His Man. Why are we so special? What is man? 

• “What is man, that thou shouldest magnify him? and that thou shouldest set thine heart upon him? (Job 7:17)
• “LORD, what is man, that thou takest knowledge of him! or the son of man, that thou makest account of him! (Psalm 144:3)
• “But one in a certain place testified, saying, What is man, that thou art mindful of him? or the son of man, that thou visitest him? (Hebrews 2:6)

Adam was The Image of God - a spirit being. Adam looked exactly like His Creator. His spirit was not created. The spirit of Adam came out of God. (Hebrews 12:9) His mind or soul was spiritual also. His body was clothed with The Shekinah of God. Adam was so clothed with God’s Glory he was not aware of having a physical body. 

However unique our spirits may be, our renewed minds have been tasked with the responsibility of expressing the hidden man. (You can appreciate the importance of renewing your mind when you consider the previous statement.) (Romans 12:1-2). Adam’s thoughts were in harmony with His Creator, subsequently, he fellowshipped with God intellectually as well. Think about it, in Adam’s mind were the names of every living creation and God did not object to any of the names he gave them. (Genesis 2:19-20) Adam’s contact with God was not simply spirit to Spirit; it was also mind to Mind. 

The Apostle Paul wrote in Ephesians 4:23, “And be renewed in the spirit of your mind.” The Contemporary English Bible reads, “Let the Spirit change your way of thinking.” If we yield our minds to Holy Ghost we will understand spiritual matters. (1 Corinthians 12:1) We can alleviate guessing and come to the place of knowing spiritual things. A Spirit Filled mind should be the norm for every Believer. We should purpose to have intimate relationship with God. However, this fellowship will not be on our level, it is on The Divine Level. 
 

Love Surpasses Knowledge

(Ephesians 3:17-19 Amplified Bible) 

• 17). “May Christ through your faith [actually dwell (settle down, abide, make His permanent home) in your hearts! May you be rooted deep in love and founded securely on love, 
• 18). That you may have the power and be strong to apprehend and grasp with all the saints [God’s devoted people, the experience of that love] what is he breadth and length and height and depth [of it]
• 19). [That you may really come] to know [practically thought experience for yourselves] the love of Christ, which far surpasses mere knowledge [without experience]; that you may be filled [through all your being] unto all the fullness of God [may have the richest measure of the divine Presence, and become a body wholly filled and flooded with God Himself.”

We have been invited to have working knowledge of God’s Supernatural Love. Natural knowledge is based on experience; however, God’s Supernatural Knowledge is based on Love – without experience. Through God’s Love we can actually gain insight into natural and spiritual mysteries and avoid the moral corruption that is in the world. 

By faith we can know The Breadth, Length, Height, and Depth of God’s Love. Is that right? Absolutely! Why? He lives in us. Natural experience is not the best teacher – Love is. The renewed mind has the capacity to comprehend The Fullness of The Invisible God; otherwise, Paul’s prayers were heretical. “[That you may really come] to know [practically through experience for yourselves] the love of Christ, which far surpasses mere knowledge [without experience]...” 

You and I should know God spiritually. We can also have a meaningful intellectual relationship with Love Himself. Moses received knowledge from God. His retention level was supernatural. He received the Ten Commandments, plans for the tabernacle, directions for the priest’s garments, wrote the first five books of The Bible and more. This was an Old Testament Saint with The Anointing of God on his mind. (Exodus Chapters 19 through 31) 

Revelation’s impact, on our mind, is only retained and empowered by the degree of Love’s Influence upon it. Peter and Nathanael briefly comprehended, by way of revelation, Who This Special Man was that stood before them. However, neither of them was able to maintain this revelation in their minds. (Matthew 16:16 and John 1:49) They both eventually abandoned Him. 

The fullness of God’s Love can actually be understood. Through faith, our minds can be transformed. 1Corinthians 2:16 announces “...we have the mind of Christ.” You may be thinking, “How is this possible?” It is only possible when God is The Teacher. (Isaiah 54:13, John 6:45 and John 14:26) 
Love hung Love on The Cross. Love chose to remain on The Cross. Love’s Purpose was clear. He desires mankind to come into The Knowledge of LOVE. 

“But now faith, hope, and love remain--these three. The greatest of these is love” (1 Corinthians 13:13 World English Bible)