Remember
lost humanity is under the clutches, chains and control of a
powerful, powerful being, never lose sight of that. In order
for God the Spirit to bring salvation through Redemption to the human race, first after taking upon
Himself all the sins of this human race, He also had to break the
powers of Satan, in the flesh of man. He literally had to break the bands of Satan that
held everything in it’s power, which He accomplished in mans flesh as the Son of man
and likeness at the Cross. And then again we repeat that for every
believer that is saved, God has to do it all over again,
breaking the power of the Satanic forces that hold us in the flesh. After His
placing us in the first estate under the tutor of the Holy Spirit.
Where Israel only had the Law with its statutes and ordinances as
their corral which failed to keep them as His chosen people for every
long because it was weak and beggarly. Because those of leadership as materialists added burdens to the righteousness of God's Law. Which could only convict them of
their sin and it reveals to us the utter sinfulness of sin as a hindrance to our spirit, the seed which belongs to God. Remember
that the blood of animals could not cleans Israel's conscientiousness of
guilt’s shame. Keep your hands in Ephesians, but for a moment let’s
come back to 2Corinthians chapter 4, and look at this for a moment
so we can see what we are talking about.
2Corinthians
4:3-4
"But
if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost*: In whom (in lost people) 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 unto them."
*now
remember every human being on the face of the earth is lost until
they are saved, redeemed. Where it becomes the Holy Spirit job to remove the blindness of mind and the covering or veil over our hearts, eyes and ears so that we can hear and see what the spirit is saying clearly. If we have not the Spirit of Christ we are none of His and the veil of covering remains. We remain deceived by the spirit of the world who intimates the Holy Spirit in mockery as a spirit of light. This is why we have to be equipped to discern between Truth and false truth, just as Jesus was for He is the Spirit of all that is True and Truth.
So
who’s the culprit? Who is keeping lost people lost? Well Satan is!
We are in a society that will almost cringe to use the term,
"Satan." People think we are some kind of a fundamentalist
kook if you use that term. But listen, the Bible explicitly tells
us that his power is tremendous, and only the resurrection power of
God can break his blinding the unbeliever and disbeliever. That is where
prayer comes in. Let me give you another one that we use. Come
back to Acts chapter 16, and Paul has been up in northern Greece, and
comes to Philippi.
Acts
16:13-14
"And
on the sabbath* we
went out of the city by a river side, where prayer was wont to be
made; and we sat down, and spake unto the women which resorted
thither. And a certain woman named Lydia a seller of
purple, of the city of Thyatira, which worshipped God**, heard
us; whose heart the Lord opened***, that
she attended unto the things which were spoken of Paul."
(Lydia believed Paul’s Gospel and became a believer.)
*remember that early on in Paul’s ministry,
he is still coming out of the law background, and this of course was
the Saturday Sabbath, and so these were Jewish women no doubt. **she
was Jewish and worshiping the God of Abraham, and this Lydia. ***now before the Lord could
open her heart to believe Paul’s Gospel, what other power did God
have to exercise? He had to break the blinding power of Satan (religion). This
Lydia was no different than anybody else. Just because she believed
in God, does not mean she was not blind to the truth of this
Gospel, for she was blinded, her heart was veiled. For all Israel has a hardness of heart,
naturally. But here we have the perfect account of how the Lord
opened her heart, and her spiritual eyes and ears were opened to receive Him, the Lord broke the bands of Satan.
This
is all part and parcel of what we are up against even in our own day.
Satan has blinded the eyes of those that believe not and only the
resurrection power of God can open their and our own understanding.
Back to Ephesians chapter 3, and let’s read verse 19 again.
Ephesians
3:19
"And
to know the love of Christ, which passes knowledge, that ye might be
filled with all the fulness of God."
We
can now begin to comprehend what Love it took to drive Him to the
Cross. And all the fulness of God is what we are to be filled with, just as the first Adam in Genesis 2 had. We believe that many are beginning to understand what that is. We believe there are few of us as humans now alive, at
least now on this side of the Apostle Paul that are beginning to
really understand the fulness of God. For God is Spirit and all things spiritual belong to Him, we were first created spirit and this is the bases of all of Jesus teachings. Especially those of us who have
passed through the many things that puzzle our families and friends.
For He has promised that we have to pass through them, after all His Grace
is our sufficiency isn't it! We can come close, because its
potentially there for us, if we are willing to accept it, His teachings.
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