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own personal collection. I have placed
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Sermon Notes
Of
Reverend
James O. Stiner
By
Penny Papenfus
How to be an Overcomer
People have besetting sins, in some point of weakness, or even
in secret. It is hard to overcome. You perhaps are struggling with a habit that holds
you as its slave.
You are wrestling with it every day,
but somehow, never able to conquer it. Revelation 3:21 says: “To him that overcometh
will I grant to sit with Me in My Throne,
even as I also
overcome, and am set down with My Father in His Throne.” Revelation 2:26-27 also states that “And he
that overcometh, and keepeth
My works
unto the
end, to him will I give power over the nations.
And he shall rule them with a rod of iron, as the vessels of a Potter
shall they be broken to shivers, even as
received of
My Father.”
To be an Overcomer,
you first need to know what it is that you need to overcome. One thing you must do is to cease from doing
the works of the flesh, which is
ourself and our human nature. Satan uses our fleshly sinful nature and uses
these as stumbling blocks that he will put in front of you. We can not do this alone.
It takes a big effort on our part
along with God’s Spirit and the faith of Jesus Christ. We can overcome.
Not everyone is called, although
they hear the true message. They have
never received a conscious convicting knowledge of the truth. This is not the time that
God is calling them. But God is now
calling some to a life of separation. It
is different. It is a Spirit filled and
Spirit led life. They are called in
order that they may
be wholly
cleansed of sin and that they may grow in grace and knowledge, being prepared
and trained for a position of responsibility as a King or Priest in God’s
Kingdom.
Having the kind of love [which is the
law] that God wants us to have, the spiritual law of love, is given to us by
God through the Holy Spirit. Romans 8:12 tells
us “For we
know that the law is spiritual”. Romans
5:5 “And hope maketh not ashamed, because the love of
God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost,
which is
given unto us.” This is our hope and our
faith to ask God to help us in our stumbles and to help us in our failings.
Hope comes from faith and faith is a
gift from God. Some think that we have to
build up our faith ourselves. So we work
up something to suit our own fancy. But
no! It is not our fancy way of faith. We are talking about the FAITH of CHRIST!
Ephesians 2:8 states “For by grace are ye saved through faith,
and that not of
ourselves. It is the gift of God.” Verse 9 reads “Not of works, lest any man
should boast.” If we want more faith to
guide us toward Heaven, we need to ask God
through His
son and the leader of our minds and hearts, the Holy Spirit. And if our hearts are right in the Spirit,
God will give us the faith and strength to overcome
the
temptations of the devil. I Corinthians 12: 8-9 goes on to say that “For to one
is given by the Spirit the Word of Wisdom, to another the Word of Knowledge by
the same
Spirit: To another faith by the same spirit; to another, the gifts of healing
by the same Spirit. We are to resist Satan and do it in the faith of Christ.
“Humble yourselves therefore, under the mighty
hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time.
Casting all of your care upon Him for He careth
for you. Be
sober, be vigilant,
because your adversary the devil as a roaring lion, walketh
about, seeking whom he may devour: Whom
resist steadfast in the faith…” [I Peter
5:6-9] You have to be on your guard against him at all
times. We are to resist Satan and do it
in the faith of Christ. The way to it
all is be on guard. Be watchful and be prepared.
It takes constant continuous effort,
never letting down our guard. We ourselves have to put forth some effort. That is our voluntary Spiritual love of God,
and it requires our effort, our continuous and watchful effort, empowered by
God’s Spirit. James 4:8 “Draw night to God, and He will draw nigh to you.
Cleanse your hands,
ye sinners, and purify your hearts, ye
double minded.” When you draw close to
God through Jesus Christ, He will help you to be an Overcomer. He will help you purify your heart. “Submit yourselves therefore to God, resist
the devil and he will flee from you.”[James 4:7]
Unless we have the Holy Spirit and
believe in Jesus Christ, it is very hard to resist Satan. He has all the answers, and we are not close
enough to God to get the
answer to
resist and get the help and deliverance we need. We need God’s Holy Spirit and the faith of
Jesus Christ.
If we do not have the faith and
power to resist Satan’s ways and the ways of our natural earthly body, we need
to go get on our knees and say “Lord, I am in need
of
strength. Give me training to
overcome.” Our training comes from God’s
world. When we come to God in repentance and ask to be one of His children, we
enter into
a contest with Satan, to wrestle with him about our sinful habits, and if we
have not received any spiritual training, it is hard to overcome. Satan is in full
training all of the
time. It would be about like one of us
getting in the ring with the heavy weight champion of the world. But if we can look to God for the strength
that He has
told us in His Word that He has for us,
we could win.
You have to get close to God in
prayer. That is why we are commanded to
pray without ceasing. We also get
spiritual training from the church [Pastors, Brothers
and Sisters in
Christ] seeking God with all our might, weeping, staying with it, determined
until we get through. Then we must keep
in continuous prayer and cast
all our
cares on Him. If we will, there will be
many things each day to pray about. Not
for everyone to hear big words, but in private daily prayer. I think eternal life
is worth
it. II Corinthians 4:1, 3-4, 6, 11, 18 tells us “therefore seeing we have this
ministry, as we have received mercy, we faint not.” “But if our gospel be hid, it is
hid to them that are
lost. In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which
believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the
image of
God, should shine upon them.” ‘For God , who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath
shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge
of the
glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.”
“ For we which live are always delivered unto death for Jesus sake, that
the life also of Jesus might be made
manifest in
our mortal flesh.” “Pay attention while we look not at the things which are seen,
but at the things which are not seen, for the things which are seen are
temporal.
But the things which are not seen are eternal.”
II Corinthians 5:7-10 goes on to say
“For we walk by faith, not by sight. We
are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be
present
with the
Lord. Wherefore we labour,
that, whether present or absent, we may be accepted of Him. For we must all
appear before the judgement seat of Christ; that
every one may receive
the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good
or bad.” Verse 15, 17, 18 goes on “And
that He died for all,
that they
which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto Him which died
for them, and rose again.” “Therefore,
if any man be in Christ, he is a new
creature, old things
are passed away, behold, all things are become new. And all things are of God, who hath
reconciled us to Himself by Jesus Christ, and hath
given to us
the ministry of reconciliation.”
Now, if we are reconciled to God, it
means letting Christ, by means of His Spirit, live in us, to empower us to bear
spiritual fruit, and perform spiritual works.
We
must
overcome. If we have God’s Holy Spirit,
and continue to overcome and grow spiritually, building the character of God,
until death or until the moment Jesus
Christ returns,
God will, at the resurrection, instantly change our weak, mortal body into a
powerful, sinless, glorified spirit body. “For our conversation is in heaven,
from whence also we
look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ, who
shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto His glorious
body, according to
the working whereby He is able even to subdue
all things unto Himself.”[Phil 3:20] It
is then that we will be rewarded with responsibilities and opportunities to do great
good, serving
in the great
Are you preparing to rule with
Christ? Jesus Christ will soon return as
supreme ruler to establish the word ruling
rule with Him? It all begins with repentance, baptism, and
receipt of God’s Holy Spirit. Then you
are a Christian. Then you must learn to
overcome spiritually
and grow in
the character of God. “He that overcometh shall inherit all things and I will be his God,
and he shall be my son.” [Rev 21:7]
Now, just how important is overcoming to us,
being in God’s Kingdom and ruling with Christ?
“To him that overcometh will I grant to sit
with me in my throne, even
as
I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in His throne.”[Rev 3:21] This scripture verse clearly tells us that in
the world tomorrow, Spirit born Christians will receive positions of Rulership and as administrators under Jesus Christ in the
WHAT IT MEANS TO BE CONVERTED
“And Jesus called a little child
unto Him and set him in the midst of them and said, ‘Verily, I say unto you,
except ye be converted, and become as little children,
ye shall
not enter into the
If not, our hope is lost. We need to know what is meant in these
verses. He said “Unless you become as
little children” then we will have no place in the Kingdom
of God. We need to know what true conversion is.
If we become as a little child, it
means humble yourself unto God the Father as a little
child would to his father or mother and with love. They do not have evil
thoughts,
only love and obedience. The usual teachings tell us it is the simple change
when he or she embraces a new faith, as from one faith to another. A lot of
those
faiths think that they are the only ones who are right. God did not give us a lot of different
beliefs. He only gave us His belief, His
way of Life, which is the
Word, the Holy Bible.
Now, go back to St. Luke
22:31-32. “And the Lord said, ‘Simon,
Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat. But I have prayed
for thee, that thy
faith fails not, and when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren.” This tells us that in Jesus’ life time here
on earth, the Apostles were not
converted.
So what does converted mean? Every few years, we see the conversion of a
farm into a real estate subdivision.
That is an example of a complete change from
one way of
living into another completely different way of living. The conversion spoken of in St. Luke refers
to a spiritual form. We are changed from
our sinful
nature to
the spiritual nature of God, through the Holy Spirit.
We also have different types or
parts of our mind. One part is the
carnal mind, which are thoughts of the natural body and is influenced by the
world. The carnal
mind and
natural man does not receive the thing of the Spirit of God, for they are
foolishness to him. It is as a sick heart.
“ For to be carnally minded is death, but
to be
spiritually minded is life and peace, because the carnal mind is enmity against
God, for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. So then
they that
are in the flesh cannot please God.” # To this Preacher, it is like unto a
sick heart. This carnal mind controls
the heart and makes it evil in thought.
“But those things which proceed out of the
mouth come forth from the heart, and they defile the man. For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts,
murders,
adulteries,
fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies. These are the things which defile a man…”#
Really, when you think about it,
what about these people [not just young children] who go around all day [and
night] with a boom box or radio in their ears?
They
could find
about an average of two hours a week and they could hear religious
broadcasts. Over a long term of limiting
yourself to two hours a week to God’s word
and in prayer, you
would still have 166 hours for Satan to tempt you. No wonder there is so many spiritually sick
hearts!
Now the reason Christ said to be
carnally minded is death#, is the reason behind so many sick hearts. The carnal, unconverted mind cannot know the
things of
God. They do not know how to please God. Acts 2:37-38 says, “Now when they heard this”
[Jesus whom they killed was made Lord and Christ] “they were
pricked in
their heart, and said unto Peter and to the rest of the Apostles, Men and
brethren, what shall we do? Then Peter
said unto them, Repent and be
baptized
ever one of you in the name of Jesus Christ, for the remission of sins, and ye
shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.”
This tells us how to be converted,
and that is the first “pill” for the sick heart. If we will feed out spirit with God’s word
and ways and laws, that heart will be pure
and not
sick when Jesus comes back to this earth to get those with a pure heart. If first place in our heart is our Job,
earthly home, wealth, things of this world,
then we
have a spiritually diseased heart. We
can fool even ourselves if we are not careful.
“For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he,
eat and drink, saith he to
thee, but
his heart is not with thee.”#
Now we all know of David’s sins and
when David was shown his sins, he was sorry and thought of nothing but coming
back into God’s love. He repented and
was
so full of
sorrow that he rolled in the earth in sack cloth until God forgave him. In
order for him to do his work, David’s heart was then right [with God]. What
ever is
uppermost
on our minds will soon be first place in our heart. If it’s physical pursuits,
job, home, or wealth and not God’s work and our calling, we have a spiritually
sick, diseased
heart. Maybe we do often fall short, but
all is not lost! When David came to full repentance after the incident with
Bathe Sheba, he fully admitted
the horror
of his sins and begged God to purge him from them. Purge means to clean up our heart. That is what we need to do. Come to a full, heartfelt repentance
and ask God to clean
us up and create in us a clean heart.
Because God saw more good use in David, his heart was then pure.
To acquire a pure heart, we have to
go to the source of all purity and righteous-ness. God Himself. We cannot make our hearts pure by
ourselves. We need God’s
help through His Holy
Spirit. When it comes to purifying our hearts, God does not repair through
surgery. He does a spiritual heart
transplant. He wants us to
have a
brand new pure heart. This is
accomplished by the gift of the Holy Ghost. Lots of people receive this heart
transplant, and they don’t keep it or they don’t
live
long. It is because they reject that
kind of heart. To them, it does not have
enough of Satan’s pleasures.
We must want the new heart. We must want a new and Godly heart, and let
it lead us and give us new life. Matt
5:8 tells us that “Blessed are the pure in heart,
for they
shall see God.” In one sense, once we
are converted and have received our new heart - once we have God’s law written
in our hearts and minds - We can
already see
God. “I have heard of Thee by the hearing
of the ear, but now mine eye seeth Thee.”# We can understand
more about the way God thinks and
operates,
and we can begin to think and operate that way ourselves. But the ultimate sense is that we will see
God in His Coming Kingdom. “Beloved, now
are
we the sons
of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when He
shall appear, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. And
every man that hath
this hope in Him purifieth himself, even as He is
pure”#
Now as I have just now said, we need
to be converted, and we need to receive the Holy Spirit to lead us through this
world of sin. Now many people believe
that all
of the Ten
Commandments were done away with at the Cross.
Others believe that a new commandment has taken the place of the
Ten. What do you think is the
truth? Some say “Oh, we are under grace.” Yes, we are under grace, for it was the grace
of God that saved us from the pits of Hell that Adam and Eve pushed on
us. When you are converted and know the spiritual
law of grace and the Ten Commandments, you will know they are both of the same
spirit and they all apply to
you. Being converted is more that just repenting
and becoming a Christian. Converted is
living in the way of Christ.
I will tell you the truth, for what
Jesus said was “And he said unto him, why callest
thou me good? There is none good but
one, that is God, but if thou wilt enter
into life,
keep the commandments. He said unto him,
Which, Jesus said, Thou shalt do no Murder, thou shalt not commit adultery, thou shalt
not steal, thou shalt
not bear false
witness”# Jesus is talking about the Ten
Commandments that was given to Moses. If
Jesus had been going to do away with these commandments,
he would have said
so. Listen to this too. “Honor thy father and thy mother and thou shalt love thy neighbour as
thyself.”# Now
this verse, “ Love thy neighbour
as
thyself”, covers murder, adultery, stealing, lying. Obviously, when Jesus used the word
commandment, he was referring to Exodus 20 and Deuteronomy 5.
When Jesus said
love thy neighbour as thyself, that is about as tough
as any of the commandments could be.
This commandment is tough in the spirit and in
God’s grace, because the nature of man
is just not in that groove.
Ephesians 6:1-3 tells us “Children
obey your parents in the Lord for this is right. Honour thy father
and mother, which is the first commandment with a promise,
that is may
be well with thee and thou mayest live long on the
earth.” That was Paul’s writings.
Daniel
“And in the second year of the reign
of Nebuchadnezzar, Nebuchadnezzar dreamed dreams, wherewith his spirit was
troubled, and his sleep brake from him.”#
His spirit was troubled. Nebuchadnezzar was not a God fearing
man. He was one of the rulers of a
kingdom on earth. He was the first world
ruler over
the Chaldean Empire. God
wanted to tell him about the
within a territory,
with laws and administrators; an organized system of them. 2) A family, the family of God, into which
humans may be born. It is a governing or
ruling
family. It will have jurisdiction over
all nations of the earth.
Daniel was a Prophet who lived about
600 years before Jesus Christ. He knew
that God’s Kingdom was to be an actual government ruling over people on earth.,
because God
revealed this knowledge to him. Daniel was one of four extraordinarily
intelligent Jewish young men stationed in the
of the Chaldean Empire, and they were in training for special
responsibilities in the Babylonian government.
King Nebuchadnezzar, of the Chaldean Empire,
had
conquered most
of the known world, including the
The King’s dreams troubled him, so
he called on his magicians and astrologers.
The King demanded them to tell him what his dream meant. They could not tell
him. Then Daniel was called in, but he could not,
so Daniel asked for time. He went to his
companions “that they would desire mercies of the God of Heaven
concerning
this secret; That Daniel and his fellows should not perish with the rest of the
wise men of
night
vision. Then Daniel blessed the God of
Heaven.. . . . Daniel answered and said ‘blessed be
the name of God for ever and ever, for wisdom and might is
his.”#
How many people now a days pray for something and God answers their prayers, and
they forget to thank Him for granting the prayer? Now Daniel told the King
“ But as for me, this
secret is not revealed to me for any wisdom that I have more than any living,
but for their sakes, that shall make known the interpretation to
the King,
and that thou mightest know the thoughts of thy
heart.”#
What King saw was revealed in verse
31 through 35: “Thou, O King, sawest, and behold a
great image. This great image, whose
brightness was excellent, stood
before
thee; and the form thereof was terrible.
This image’s head was of fine gold, his breast and his arms of silver,
his belly and his thighs of brass, his legs of
iron, his
feet part of iron and part of clay. Thou
sawest till that a stone was cut out without hands,
which smote the image upon his feet that were of iron and clay,
and brake them to
pieces. Then was
the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver, and the gold, broken to pieces
together, and became like the chaff of the summer
threshing floor, and the wind carried
them away, that no place was found for them, and the stone that smote the image
became a great mountain, and filled the
whole earth.”
The interpretation of the dream
starts with King Nebuchadnezzar. “Thou,
O King, are a king of kings; for the God of Heaven hath given thee a kingdom,
power,
and
strength, and glory. And Wheresoever the children dwell,
the beast of the field, and fowls of the Heaven hath He given into thine hand, and hath made thee
ruler over them
all. Thou art this head of gold. And
after thee shall arise another kingdom inferior to thee, and another third
kingdom of brass, which shall bear rule
over all the
earth. And the fourth kingdom shall be
strong as iron, forasmuch as iron breaketh in pieces
and subdueth all things, and as iron that breaketh all
these,
shall it break in pieces and bruise.”#
Now in verse 33, “his legs of iron”,
his legs mean two governments, together are the strongest among men. But when the toes had power divided into more
governments, all of them thinking,
dreaming of being the Supreme Ruler over the earth, they do not pull together,
as do the toes, verse 42, “And as the toes of the
feet were
part of iron, and part clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong and partly
broken.” Verse 43 goes on to say “And
whereas thou sawest iron mixed with
miry clay,
they shall mingle themselves with the seed of men, but they shall not cleave
one to another, even as iron is not mixed with clay.”
Say, did you ever hear of a time
like this, anymore than it is now? Father against son, son
against family? It seems that
hardly any families cleave together any
more. Now in the next verse, it tells us what is
going to happen in the last days and for the King, Nebuchadnezzar, to know the
truth about God. “And in the days
of these kings shall
the God of Heaven set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed, and the
kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in
pieces and
consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand forever.”#
Now ten kings over ten kingdoms in
this world is referring to now times coming soon. Revelations says “ And
that no man might but or sell save he that had the
mark, or
the name of the Beast, or the number of his name.”# History, in the last twenty years tell
us “ the
this time,
Christ, our Lord, is going to return with His army to rule the earth. “And the
seventh angel sounded, and there were great voices in Heaven, saying,
‘the kingdom of this world are
become the kingdom of our Lord, and of His Christ, and he shall reign for ever
and ever.’”#
We have been talking about false preachings of the world, and ungodly rulers of this world,
but this verse in Revelation is the true gospel of God; that was the
gospel
Jesus preached. He came here to tell us
about the
the
cross. It also reveals that the
There are a lot of people, even
well-read people, who think it will be a church that will rule for Jesus and
make it a better place to live. Now, if
we had a God fearing
ruler which they are
talking about [like TV 44 some few times], it would help. I am sure, in Jesus day, they had rulers who
claimed to be of God’s church. What
did Jesus
tell one of those rulers, Nicodemus? He
was a ruler of the Jews. Nicodemus came
to Jesus to ask of Him about God, for no one could do the things
that Jesus
did except that God be with Him. What
did Jesus tell Nicodemus? “Verily,
Verily, I say unto thee. Except a man be
born again, he cannot
see the
And it is a little hard for us to grasp,
that we be changed from one body to another.
The most part is, we have to ask for the spiritual body, and we have to
earn it,
and learn
how to use it. Then we will understand
it. Now, God’s rule will be spiritual, not mortal. We have the mineral kingdom, the plant
kingdom, and the animal
kingdom, and the
human kingdom. These are earthly
kingdoms. The Bible reveals an angelic
kingdom, created by God and composed of spirit.
Then high above
all is the very
creating kingdom; the
Getting back to the ferocious
monster that King Nebuchadnezzar saw in his dream, we get to the feet. Ten kings and ten countries, and them all
pushing and
shoving in different directions. Now, doesn’t that sound just like the
governments that are in power now, today? What about the thighs of brass. In 1944, two of the greatest powers of this
world came together and broke up the last Roman government, Hitler and
Mussolini,
plus
Japan. Those thighs would be, to me, the
We are living in the time of the
toes. We must watch for the coming of
Christ, and not just that we must be ready to go. That is just a few of the things to watch
for. We know there are several hundred
denominations in the world, and if you listen to TV, you will find a lot of
false preachers; not only on TV, but quite a few
verses
quoted in writings are not as the Holy Bible says. So it pays to read the Bible ourselves, and
not believe every person who says ‘This is what the Bible
says’. It
is time we pray for those who are unprepared for Jesus Christ coming again, and
pray that we might be the one to shout the call, ‘Come and worship
Christ, our Lord
and King.’
Our Heaven Is The World Of
Tomorrow
Over nineteen hundred years ago,
Jesus Christ came to the earth with a message, the good news of the coming
Gospel. The
from the Bible, as a
Prince is born into royalty, he is given a special training and special
education to be a king and ruler. He is
an heir to a throne and kingdom,
just as
you, if you are a spirit-begotten child of God, are destined to be. When born of Spirit into the God family, you
will be heir to a far greater and eternal
Kingdom.
A prince in this world is heir to an
earthly kingdom, which can be taken over by others. But we are heirs of a spiritual Kingdom. The Christian life is the preparation
and training
necessary for rulership in the eternal
shall be
given to the people of the saints of the Most High, whose kingdom is an
everlasting kingdom, and all dominions shall serve and obey him.”# Now turn to
Revelation 20:6. “Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the
first resurrection, on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be
priests of God and of
Christ, and shall reign with Him a
thousand years.” Now this tells us what
we are to do when we are with Christ in His Kingdom.
Let’s read this next verse or two
slow and get all the meaning of God’s Word.
Revelation 22:2-5 says, “In the midst of the street of it, and on either
side of the river,
was there
the tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit
every month, and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the
nation. And
there shall be no
more curse, but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it, and his
servants shall serve Him.” {Now do not
get mixed up on his servants.
We will be them.} “And they shall see His
face, and His name shall be in their foreheads.
And there shall be no night there, and they need no candle, neither
light of
the sun, for the Lord God giveth them light, and they
shall reign for ever and ever.” Those
Daniel called Saints will be resurrected or changed to immortality
at Christ’s return
and given positions of rulership in God’s Kingdom
[Dan 7:18]. But the Saints of the Most
High shall take the Kingdom and possess the Kingdom
for ever,
and ever and ever.
Now take notice of Revelation
2:26-27. “And he that overcometh, and keepeth My works unto the end, to him will I give power over the
nations: And he shall rule
them with a
rod of iron; as the vessels of a potter shall they be broken to shivers; even as
I received of my Father.” This is just
some of the Bible that tells us
about the
rule in the world of tomorrow, and God’s intentions for us to learn, while we
are going through this mortal world.
Revelation 5: 10, “And hast made us
unto our
God, kings and priests, and we shall reign on the earth.” The
law, by which Christ
and the immortal Saints will rule is the law that expresses the loving nature
and character of God, the Ten Commandments.
“And the seventh angel sounded, and
there were great voices in Heaven, saying, the kingdoms of this world are
become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ
, and He shall reign for ever and
ever.”# God has
an exciting future beyond imagination for those who willingly follow His way of
life. Not only will they inherit
eternal
life as the free gift of God, and become eternal members of the God Family,
they will also be rewarded. Every
Christian’s reward will be exciting and fulfilling
for all eternity.
When we are born into God’s Family,
we will be completely yielded to God’s government, and be satisfied with the
power God will give us. Now let’s see
how one
can prepare
for exciting power in God’s ruling Family.
When Jesus came preaching about the
born of
God’s Spirit into the very God Family.
John 3:3: “Jesus answered and
said unto him, ‘Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born again, he
cannot see
the
John 3:5-8: “Jesus answered Verily, Verily, I say unto
thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit,
he cannot enter into the
which is
born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is
spirit. Marvel not that I said unto
thee, ye must be born again. The wind bloweth where it
listeth, and thou heareth
the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it come, and whither it goeth, so is every one that is born of the Spirit.”
Christ showed that the
Spirit into the very God
Family. After we get into God’s kingdom, there is a lot of reading in
the Word, or as we call it - the Bible, about the government of God.
Ephesians 5:23-25: “For the husband is the head of the wife,
even as Christ is the head of the church, and He is the Saviour
of the body. Therefore, as the church
is subject
unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in everything. Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ
also loved the Church and gave Himself
for it,
that He might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the
Word.” “Children obey your parents in
the Lord, for this is right. Honour thy father
and mother,
which is the first commandment with promise, that it may be well with thee, and
thou mayest live long on the earth.”#
These verses are telling you of the
pattern of government that God has for human families. “But in the last days, it shall come to pass,
that the mountain of the
house of
the Lord shall be established in the top of the mountains, and it shall be
exalted above the hills, and people shall flow unto it, and many nations shall
come, and say
‘Come and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, and to the house of the God
of Jacob, and He will teach us of His ways, and we will walk in
his paths‘,
for the law shall go forth of
they shall
beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation
shall not lift up a sword against nation, neither shall they learn war
anymore.”#
When the Kingdom of God takes over
the governments of this earth and Jesus Christ starts His rule of a thousand
years (commonly called the New Millennium),
His rule will bring peace and joy to
mankind. There is one thing the Word
tells me. (I am not trying to tell you the Bible singles out the message that
the Kingdom
of God will be on
earth, but it gives you a lot of different verses that does.) There will be mortal, flesh and blood human
beings, not spirit beings, during this time,
and since
Spiritual Christians will have already been made immortal Sons of God at the
resurrection, there will be both mortals and immortals living at the same
time
throughout the Millennium. There will
be a completely new civilization to be built.
The
law of
love. But who will teach the people in
the world of tomorrow? Now, we are
talking about of this world, not the educators of this world. The Bible plainly
shows that
those who will be born into God’s Family at the first resurrection will rule
this earth’s mortals under Jesus Christ.
“But Jesus called them to Him and
saith unto them, ‘Ye know that they which are accounted
to rule over the Gentiles exercise lordship over them, and their great ones
exercise authority upon them.
But so shall it not be among you, but whosoever will be great among you
shall be your minister, and whosoever of you will be the chiefest,
shall be servant of all,
for even the Son of
man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give His life a
ransom for many.’”#
Christ came also to be a teacher as
well as being a messenger of God’s Kingdom and saving the people of this world
that have a pure heart, and teach His disciples
to teach others and
them to teach more, and so forth. Matt
28:19-20 “Go ye, therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name
of Father, and of the
Son, and of the Holy Ghost, teaching
them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you, and lo, I am with
you always, even unto the end of the world.
Amen.”
True Christians today should have a
burning desire to bring God’s way of life to the entire world. I think that if they do have that desire,
they will be able to do just
that, when
Christ returns to set up the
the Church
or House of God. NO! God gives us problems for a trial to how we
may handle the problem. For the only
reason any person is called to salvation now,
is to qualify to help
in ruling and teaching in the World of Tomorrow: to help call those that are
alive then. God has not selected certain
people today for special
favors. He has called them for a special purpose- a
tremendous job to do.
I Corinthians 12:13 is something we
need to know. “ For
by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles,
whether we be bond or
free, and have been
all made to drink into one Spirit.” II
Peter 1:4-7 tells us, “ Whereby are given unto us
exceeding great and precious promises, that by these ye
might be
partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruptions that is in the
world through lust. And beside this,
giving all diligence, add to your faith,
virtue, and
to virtue, knowledge, and to knowledge, temperance, and to temperance,
patience, and to patience, godliness, and to godliness, brotherly kindness,
and to
brotherly kindness, charity.” Verse 10
and 11 says, “Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your
calling and election sure, for if ye do these
things, ye shall
never fall. For so an
entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom
of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.”
Upon our receipt of God’s free gift
of the Holy Spirit, we at that time have been given the promise to be born into
God’s Kingdom. It is free, but we are to
have
spiritual
growth, and grow from our sinful human nature into God’s divine spirit. God’s spiritual character must be in the
process of development in us throughout
our Christian lives.
The following verses will help in
you in God’s spiritual training about Jesus Christ in the “World of Tomorrow”,
God’s Kingdom on earth:
I John 4:16
“And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us, God is love,
and he that
dwelleth in love dwelleth
in God, and in him.”
Romans 5:5
“And hope maketh not ashame,
because the love of God is shed abroad in
our hearts
by the Holy Ghost, which is given unto us.”
Daniel 7:18
“But the saints of the most High shall take the Kingdom, and possess the
Kingdom for ever,
even for ever and ever.”
Rev 20:6
“Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection; on such the
second
death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and
shall reign
with Him a thousand years.”
Rev 2:26-27
“And he that overcometh, and keepeth
My works unto the end, to him will I
give power
over the nations; and he shall rule them with a rod of iron; as the
vessels of
a potter shall they be broken to shivers; even as I received of my
Father.”
Rev 5:10
“And hast made us unto our God kings and priests; and we shall reign on the earth.”
I Peter 1:
3-7 “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ, which according
to His
abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the
resurrection
of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible, and
undefiled,
and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you, who are kept by
the power
of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.
Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though
now for a season, if need be, ye are in
heaviness
through manifold temptations; that the trial of your faith, being much
more
precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be
tried with fire, might be
found unto
praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus
Christ;”
I Peter
2:1-2 “ Wherefore laying aside all malice, and all
guile, and hypocrisies, and
envies, and
all evil speaking, As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the
word, that
ye may grow thereby:”
Romans
2:21-23 “Thou therefore which teachest another, teachest thou not thyself? Thou
that preachest a man should not steal, dost thou steal? Thou that sayest a man