I am still currently looking into the Bible term "light" and for todays journey I have chosen the Holy Spirit and His part that He plays. This is because He is so active in all areas of our growth, if not held back by religion and religions many traditions. As in most cases it is these that cause mans blasphemous ways to exist. Now for Pastor Hoekstra and his teaching on Grace in which we are grow into the perfection of Christ's character as man had before the fall. Then with the LORD gracious help I will look at His Holy Spirit as our teacher. Using the ESV translation as has become my habit of late.
"A Precious Promise of God's Perfecting Work"
"The LORD will perfect that which concerns me." (Psalm 138:8)
"Again, we look at one of GOD's "precious promises." (2Peter 1:4). This one pertains to His perfecting work in the lives of those who know Him and humbly depend upon Him. This priceless promise is the Old Testament antecedent of the one we recently considered from Philippians 1:6. "He who has begun a good work in you will complete it."
Think of the astounding implications of our present promise. "The LORD Will Perfect that which concerns me." Think of the young boy,, just passing being a lad, Jesus. When his mother read this same passage to him and the spirit within him acknowledge to him that this spoke of him directly. Our God has pledged to fully accomplish His Will and His plan and purposes in every matter that pertains to our lives. Whether it is growth in biblical insight, development in godliness, progress in marriage, or whatever, "the LORD Will perfect that which concerns [us]."
If we have given even minimal attention to GOD's word, we know that He wants us to grow in sound biblical understanding. "For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the first principles of the oracles of GOD; and you have come to need milk and not solid food" (Hebrews 5:12). If we will humbly feed on GOD's word, seeking Him for spiritual insight, He "will perfect that which concerns [us] " in this area of life. In yesterdays blog post we found that Christ is the Living Oracle.
If we care about the Will of GOD for our overall spiritual development, we know His word calls us to godliness. "For the Grace of GOD that brings salvation has appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present Age" (Titus 2:11-12). If we seek the LORD and trust in Him for ongoing growth in godliness, He "Will Perfect that which concerns [us] " in this area as well.
With respect to family life, the scriptures reveal GOD's Will to be a household of mutually submissive servants, each serving the other out of reverence for the Lord: "submitting to one another in the fear of GOD" (Ephesians 5:21). The servant wife would follow the spiritual leadership of the husband. "Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the LORD" (Ephesians 5:22). The servant husband would love His wife with sacrificial Christ-like love. "Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for it" (Ephesians 5:25). As each seeks the LORD for His transforming grace, He "Will Perfect that which concerns (us) " in this area of life also."
The Spirit as out Teacher,
Nehemiah 9:16-25 "But they and our fathers acted presumptuously and stiffened their neck and did not obey Your commandments. They refused to obey and were not mindful of the wonders that You performed among them, but they stiffened their neck and appointed a leader to return to their slavery in Egypt. But You are a GOD ready to forgive, gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and did not forsake them. Even when they had made for themselves a golden calf and said, 'This is your God who brought you up out of Egypt,' and had committed great blasphemies, You in Your great mercies did not forsake them in the wilderness. The pillar of cloud to lead them in the way did not depart from them by day, nor the pillar of fire by night to light for them the way by which they should go. You gave your good Spirit to instruct them and did not withhold your manna from their mouth and gave them water for their thirst. Forty years You sustained them in the wilderness, and they lacked nothing. Their clothes did not wear out and their feet did not swell. "And You gave them kingdoms and peoples and allotted to them every corner. So they took possession of the land of Sihon king of Heshbon and the land of Og king of Bashan. You multiplied their children as the stars of heaven, and you brought them into the land that You had told their fathers to enter and possess. So the descendants went in and possessed the land, and You subdued before them the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites, and gave them into their hand, with their kings and the peoples of the land, that they might do with them as they would. And they captured fortified cities and a rich land, and took possession of houses full of all good things, cisterns already hewn, vineyards, olive orchards and fruit trees in abundance. So they ate and were filled and became fat and delighted themselves in Your great goodness."
Luke 12:8-12 (Jesus is speaking) "I tell you, everyone who acknowledges Me before men, the Son of Man also will acknowledge before the angels of GOD, but the one who denies Me before men will be denied before the angels of GOD. And everyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but the one who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit Will not be forgiven. And when they bring you before the synagogues and the rulers and the authorities, do not be anxious about how you should defend yourself or what you should say, for the Holy Spirit will teach you in that very hour what you ought to say."
John 14:25-31 (Jesus is speaking) "These things I have spoken to you while I am still with you. But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father Will send in My name, He Will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you. Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid. You heard Me say to you, 'I am going away, and I will come to you.' If you loved Me, you would have rejoiced, because I am going to the Father, for the Father is greater than I. I have told you before it takes place, so that when it does take place you may believe. I will no longer talk much with you, for the ruler of this world is coming. He has no claim on Me, for I do as the Father has commanded Me, so that the world may know that I love the Father."
1Corinthians 2:6-13 "Yet among the mature we do impart wisdom, although it is not a wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are doomed to pass away. But we impart a secret and hidden wisdom of GOD, which GOD decreed before the Ages for our glory. Which none of the rulers of this age understood, for if they had, they would not have (continue to) crucified the LORD of glory. For, as it is written, "What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what GOD has prepared for those who love Him"— these things GOD has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of GOD. For who knows a person's thoughts except the spirit of that person, which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of GOD except the Spirit of GOD. Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit Who is GOD, that we might understand the things freely given us by GOD. We impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting Spiritual Truths to those who are spiritual."
1John 2:26-27, 28-29 "I write these things to you about those who are trying to deceive you. For the anointing that you received from Him abides in you, and you have no need that anyone should teach you. For His anointing teaches you about everything, and is true, and is no lie—just as it has taught you, abide in Him.
And now, little children, abide in Him, so that when HE appears we may have confidence and not shrink from Him in shame at His coming. If you know that He is righteous, you may be sure that everyone who practices righteousness has been born of Him."
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