The Submission and Oneness of God’s Family
Family Series Part 3
JOHN 17:8-11 then 20-26
8 For I have given unto them the words which thou gavest me; and they have received them, and have known surely that I came out from thee, and they have believed that thou didst send me.
9 I pray for them: I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast given me; for they are thine.
10 And all mine are thine, and thine are mine; and I am glorified in them.
11 ¶ And now I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to thee. Holy Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one, as we are.
Jump to verse 20
20 ¶ Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word;
21 That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me.
22 And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one:
23 I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me.
24 ¶ Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me: for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world.
25 O righteous Father, the world hath not known thee: but I have known thee, and these have known that thou hast sent me.
26 And I have declared unto them thy name, and will declare it: that the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them.
COLOSSIANS 1:27
27 To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory:
The Submission and Oneness of God’s Family
Family Series Part 3
I PETER 5:5-6
5 ¶ Likewise, ye younger, submit yourselves unto the elder. Yea, all of you be subject one to another, and be clothed with humility: for God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble.
6 Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time: So we see that there is a season for humility and submission – that is the sowing season, and then there is the harvest time of when we will be exalted. So first submission, and the exaltation.
Christ was first subject to the will of the father – he became one with the fathers will, and then he was exalted to the right hand of God in heaven.
___________
*Since the fall of man in the Garden of Eden, it seems that one of the hardest things for a person to do is to submit themselves in obedience to another person or to a higher authority.
But yet it is impossible for a person to experience true freedom outside of true submission to authority.
Eve thought she would experience a greater freedom if she refused to be submissive to God’s word, she thought that if she became autonomous (independent and self-governing), her own boss as it were, then she would be truly and completely free, and would not have to answer to anyone. But instead of receiving more freedom of what she thought she would, she ended up going into total slavery and bondage and eventually death.
True freedom can only come from God, and can only be experienced when you are under submission to God by the channel that God has ordained for you, and you must remain in that position in order to remain in the power of your freedom.
- When Queen Vashti wouldn’t submit to King Ahasuerus, then the power and freedom she had as queen was taken from her.
- When King Saul wouldn’t submit to the voice of God through the Prophet Samuel, then the kingdom was removed from him.
- When Achan stole the Babylonian garment and the golden wedge in Jericho, because of his lack of submission to God, his whole family was put to death – he didn’t just lose his freedom, but his entire family lost their lives.
True and lasting freedom comes by submission and obedience to the full word of God.
JAMES 4:7
7 Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
*So the formula for victory over the devil always begins first with submission.
Submission to the word of God is always the first step to the restoration of peace to a family, and this also applies to a local church, and to the individual, and also to a Nation.
- When a Nation refuses to stay with the laws and the word of God, then there is trouble coming for that nation, but when that nation turns back to God, then that nation is blessed again – we see that with Israel in the book of Judges.
- When a Man submits to the will of God for his life, and puts the word of God first in his life, and does his best to follow the leadership of God for himself and his family, then that is the man that will come into blessing and victory and eventually exultation.
- When the Wife that stays in her God given position under the care and leadership of a loving and Godly husband, and if she will just maintain that position, then that is when she will come to experience her greatest freedom and fulfilment as a wife and mother.
- Children are also blessed when they are truly submissive under the protection of a Godly Mother and Father
I CORINTHIANS 11:3
3 But I would have you know, that the head of every man is Christ; and the head of the woman is the man; and the head of Christ is God.
EPHESIANS 5:22
22 Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord.
EPHESIANS 6:1-6
1 ¶ Children, obey your parents in the Lord: for this is right.
2 Honour thy father and mother; (which is the first commandment with promise;)
3 That it may be well with thee, and thou mayest live long on the earth.
4 And, ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.
5 Servants, be obedient to them that are your masters according to the flesh, with fear and trembling, in singleness of your heart, as unto Christ;
A united family is a very powerful thing, because God designed the family unit, and the family is what God is expressed in Himself.
Outside of a family God cannot be fully revealed, because God is a Family.
GOD'S.ONLY.PROVIDED.PLACE.OF.WORSHIP_ SHP.LA V-7 N-4 SUNDAY_ 65-1128M
227 "But by one Spirit we're all baptized into one Body," and that Body is a family, the family of God. And that's the house of God, and the house of God is the Name of Jesus Christ. "The Name of the Lord is a mighty tower, the righteous run into It and are safe." SIR.WE.WOULD.SEE.JESUS_ DENHAM.SP.LA WEDNESDAY_ 64-0318
211 Now here you are, a person. I'm preaching the Word, saying that, "He is not dead. He's alive." He's alive, and promised to identify Himself in our flesh, human flesh, like He did back there. See? All that God was, He poured into Christ; all Christ was, poured into the Church. That's Him, Christ in us.
THE.SUPER.SIGN_ SHREVEPORT.LA V-17 N-7 FRIDAY_ 63-1129
109 O God, if the world could only see that, that God and man are one! The super sign was that first Man that God could come into; all that God was He poured into Christ. And all Christ was He poured into the Church. Super sign, God and man, together, that was to be the super sign of the last day, when the entire Bible was to be fulfilled in the last days.
****So we see the purpose that was in God’s mind from the beginning was to reveal Himself and express Himself in and through the many membered body of His family. All the hidden attributes that were in him from the beginning were to be expressed in the full realisation and manifestation of His family – and this family of the sons and daughters of God would become the full and complete revelation of Himself, because they were just His thoughts and attributes in another form. (“She is Him”)
In other words; The final revelation, and the full appearance of God in His many facets and the aspects of His great character would be completely expressed in and though the members of His body and family on earth. This is a great mystery – “Christ in You, the hope of Glory”
So we see now how that Satan’s purpose from the beginning was to interrupt this great plan and expression of God by bringing disharmony and disagreement among the members of the family of God, and this is how the devil brought destruction to the first family in the bible, and this is still his most successful trick today, is to get the members of a family to disagree and get them out of oneness and harmony with one another and with God.
***This is why family members should never form the habit of fighting and bickering and fussing among themselves; because this is the enemy at work in his purest form, he is trying to destroy the family. That is why we should always speak respectfully to one another, then it makes it hard for the devil to get in a foothold. And this also applies to the church family.
So parents – Do not allow your children to speak disrespectfully to one another, and make sure that you set a good example of this yourselves.
GALATIANS 5:15
15 But if ye bite and devour one another, take heed that ye be not consumed one of another.
We have all heard the saying "United We Stand Divided We Fall".
This saying is supposed to have originated from two of Aesop’s fables called ‘The Four Oxen and the Lion’, and ‘The Bundle of Sticks’.
Aesop was a slave in ancient Greece and lived during the 6th Century B.C.
The first fable of The Four Oxen and the Lion reads as follows:
A lion used to prowl about a field in which Four Oxen used to dwell. Many a time he tried to attack them; but whenever he came near they turned their tails to one another, so that whichever way he approached them he was met by the horns of one of them. At last, however, they fell a-quarrelling among themselves, and each went off to pasture alone in the separate corner of the field. Then the Lion attacked them one by one and soon made an end of all four.
‘United we stand, divided we fall’.
In the second fable is called ‘The Bundle of Sticks’
This short fable tells of a man whose sons often quarrel among themselves. To show them the benefit of working together, he brings them a bundle of sticks. He asks them to break the bundle of sticks. As expected, the brothers cannot break the sticks when they are together. However, they can easily be broken individually. The moral of this story is written:
My sons, if you are of one mind, and unite to assist each other, you will be as this bundle, uninjured by all the attempts of your enemies; but if you are divided among yourselves, you will be broken as easily as these sticks.
In the Garden of Eden, God’s first little family was broken apart by just one family member that got out of her position by her disagreement and her refusal to be submissive to the word of God.
***Eve took it upon herself to be her own government - she chose a democracy and began to make up her own rules of what she thought would work better than God’s plan for her life, and instead of staying in her position of submission under the ministry of Adam who was under the protection of God, she became her own government of decision making – and that is what broke this first family apart, and this is what also will break any family apart.
MICAH 7:6
6 For the son dishonoureth the father, the daughter riseth up against her mother, the daughter in law against her mother in law; a man's enemies are the men of his own house.
Our biggest enemy is when we fail to be in submission.
Eve’s biggest enemy was when she failed to be in submission to the authority and order that God had established for her protection – She allowed the devil to trick her out of her God given position, and that is where the trouble started for the whole family.
- When a woman gets out from her rightful position in her relationship with her husband, then there is trouble for the whole family.
- When the man of the house gets out of his position with his relationship with God, then there is trouble for the whole family.
-When a child or a teenager gets out of their position in their relationship with their parents, then there is trouble for the whole family.
Many times young people think that they can have more freedom outside of their position as a son and daughter under the protection and authority of their parents, but they don’t realise that they are stepping outside of God’s ordained order and protection for them, and that is when trouble can really start for that young person, and many times the devils are loosed upon them because their hedge of protection is removed, and then they get into really big trouble because they put themselves outside of Gods ordained will for their lives.
Power and authority and freedom and blessing and protection can only come by a person remaining within the boundaries of their God given position.
So in order for a family to stay together and be blessed, each member of the family must remain in their God ordained position within the family, because there is power and protection in your position, but move outside of your position and you lose the power and protection of that position.
ONENESS_ JEFF.IN V-10 N-2 SUNDAY_ 62-0211
14 Now, the first man and first woman in the garden of Eden was in perfect harmony with God, so much that God could come down at any time He desired and talk lip-to-ear with Adam and Eve. Now, that is perfect oneness: God and His creation, God speaking lip-to-ear with Adam and Eve. And they were so perfect in harmony with God till they were one with God. God and His family was one.
Any man and his family, a correct, good, noble, obedient family is one with another: any family. And if there's something in the family that moves them apart, then it's not right; the family's broken somewhere. They should all be one: father with mother, mother with father, children with parent, parent with children, all in agreement. And when you see that, you'll see one lovely picture.
16 That's God's purpose. And His purpose as Father supreme, was to be one with His family, earthly family, Adam and Eve. And the only way that they could be one with the family, or with God, was because God's nature was in them. So that made them with God's nature in them, then with each other and God, they become all one. Isn't that a beautiful picture, God in His family, Father over all, supreme, no death, no sorrow, no heartaches, no nothing, just joy unspeakable: never to be sick, never to have a heartache, just one with God. What a picture. Because the very nature of God was in these people. And therefore, what they did, they followed just in line with God, and God with them made them one.
In the last family series we looked at God’s plan and structure of government for the family, and we found this principle also applies to a nation, and to a church, and even the individual.
****God’s idea about the government of man is not to control him by making a whole bunch of rules that he has to try to remember as with the forming of laws and punishments in which to control the people (as does the governments of mankind for the control of nations). But the true government of man is meant to be from the inside of a man’s heart and not from an outside source of laws and judgements.
God designed a man to be governed from the inside out - by the word of God that is written in his heart, and not from the outside by rules and regulations and written laws, but by God himself dwelling on the inside of a man and being the shepherd of his heart.
God as King ruling over your earth, sitting on the throne of a man’s heart that has surrendered his will in submission to the will of God – Christ in you the hope of Glory.
JEREMIAH 31:33
33 But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people.
A man under direct leadership and in perfect oneness with God, that is God’s way, and that is the way it will be throughout eternity.
Look at briefly from other week - Dictatorship verses Democracy – we learnt that both sides were wrong, and all that is in the middle is wrong.
Show slide – Worldly governments are man over man, and man was never designed to rule over other men – he has never been truly successful at it, but this is the spirit of the Nations, and this is also the spirit of the denominations.
So what is the difference between Democracy and Dictatorship?
In a dictatorship, one ruler has absolute power to rule over a country or a state. But in democracy, it is by the vote of the majority of the people.
But the big problem is with both of these systems of government is that they leave out the most important thing – the rulership and wisdom of God.
***Alexander Fraser Tyler (1748 to 1813), a writer and historian who served as Professor of Universal History, and Greek and Roman Antiquities, said in his book titled: “The Decline and Fall of the Athenian Republic” "A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves money from the Public Treasury. From that moment on the majority always vote for the candidates promising the most benefits from the Public Treasury, with a result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy and is followed by a dictatorship. The average age of the world's greatest civilizations has been 200 years. These nations have progressed through the following sequence:
From bondage to spiritual faith;
From spiritual faith to great courage;
From courage to liberty;
From liberty to abundance;
From abundance to selfishness;
From selfishness to complacency;
From complacency to apathy;
From apathy to dependency;
From dependency back into bondage.
HEARING.RECOGNIZING.ACTING.ON.THE.WORD.OF.GOD_ JEFF.IN V-13 N-7 SUNDAY_ 60-0221
207 Politics, lowdown, nation, corrupted... Well, look what they're going to put soldiers in shorts now. Oh, my. Politics, war; politics is at the end. Dictators is wrong. Politics is wrong. (Why didn't they stay with the godly king like God give them: David?) The great lord of England said, when this--when this democracy was formed, said, "It's all right now, but it'll come the time," he said, "it'll be nothing. It'll be all sails and no anchor." And he's right. Said, "Politicians stand on soap boxes on every corner with all kind of crooked things that corrupt the government." And the man was right. That's exactly what's going on.
So God’s idea of how to rule a nation is by a Godly King who is under His wisdom and leadership and protection, and Gods idea of leading a family is by a Godly Husband and Dad who is also under subjection to the wisdom and word of God.
Because the principle applies on a National level, a Family level, a Church level, and even an Individual level.
On a National level… A dictator is when the head of the nation rules in supreme and unrestrained and absolute power, and a democracy on a national level is the people ruling, and none of these systems of Government have ever proved successful.
But a Godly king under the wisdom and leadership of God is God’s ordained way. And that is what will be the form of rulership in the millennium under the son of David.
A dictatorship on a Church level is when the pastor is a tyrant that rules over the people and tries to control their lives by fear and not by the word of God. He will groom them in such a way over time so that they will put their trust in him above the word of God – he effectively becomes their absolute.
Then a democracy in a Church is when the people rule the church from the pews, and the pastor is controlled by the people and not by the word and headship of God.
But the real truth, and God’s way of it is for a Godly Minister to rule the church of God by love, and example, and by the wisdom of the word of God alone.
On the Family level… A dictatorship is when the Husband and Father of the household is a tyrant that the family fears lest they make a mistake of breaking any of his rules.
And a democracy in a family is when the wife and children rule the home over the father.
But the right way to rule a home is by a Godly man who rules by the wisdom of the word of God by love, and by living a Godly example to his family.
**So God’s idea for the rulership of a nation is for a Godly King who rules by the wisdom and laws of God, and we saw this for a short while under the reign of Kind Solomon while he maintained his position in his relationship with God.
And look how the whole world came into peace and blessings and prosperity under the wisdom that God gave King Solomon, but as soon as Solomon was distracted by the gods of the heathen, then things in the nation began to fall apart, and troubles set in, and death set in.
***And so by this same principle we can see that this would also apply to a family when a Man who is the head of his family begins to get distracted away from the word of God, then that is what would also cause things to begin to fall apart for the family.
RUTH 1:1-5
1 ¶ Now it came to pass in the days when the judges ruled, that there was a famine in the land. And a certain man of Bethlehemjudah went to sojourn in the country of Moab, he, and his wife, and his two sons.
2 And the name of the man was Elimelech, and the name of his wife Naomi, and the name of his two sons Mahlon and Chilion, Ephrathites of Bethlehemjudah. And they came into the country of Moab, and continued there.
3 And Elimelech Naomi's husband died; and she was left, and her two sons.
4 And they took them wives of the women of Moab; the name of the one was Orpah, and the name of the other Ruth: and they dwelled there about ten years.
5 And Mahlon and Chilion died also both of them; and the woman was left of her two sons and her husband.
We see here a family that came into great trouble. This family was broken apart, but it began with the father (Elimelech’s) decision to leave his God given inheritance in Bethlehem – he left the land that God had place him in because of the famine that was in his land, and the grass looked greener in the pasture down in Moab – notice, a recession had set in upon the land that God had given him, but that was still no excuse to leave the land – and sometimes things go wrong in the promised land of the word of God that God has placed us in, but that is no reason to leave our inheritance either.
***Notice the pattern of is this is also what happened at the beginning of the bible, because at the beginning of the bible we see Adam and Eve leaving the word of God and the land that God had given them to dwell in.
So the same thing of what happened with Adam and Eve repeats itself in the book of Ruth with Elimelech’s family when they leave their God given inheritance, and then we see what followed was that trouble and death set in among their family members.
*And for 6000 years we see that trouble and death has also plagued Adams family.
So Elimelech and Naomi leaving Bethlehem is also Adam and Eve leaving Eden, it’s the same story – because there in only one story in the Bible, and that is the story of Redemption.
****And so if this principle applied to these two families in the bible, then this principle must also apply to every family, because if a family leaves the land of the message of God for their day, then we also know that troubles and spiritual death will follow among the family members.
But that is not where the story ends, because we see that at the end of the book of Ruth, this family is being restored back again by a woman (Ruth) summiting herself to a man (Boaz).
*****Notice - In Eden we see a woman not being submissive, but in the end time we see a woman coming under submission to a message (the bride of Christ – a gentile woman, a type of Ruth because Ruth was a gentile woman at harvest time who came into marriage and redemption with the Lord of the Harvest). So we see this bride of Christ at the end time coming into full obedience and submission to every word, and into oneness and marriage, and being restored back into her rightful position, WHEN ? - At harvest time.
***And so the book of Ruth is showing this perfectly in type, because we see how Ruth comes into marriage with Boaz at harvest time, and then after that we see the restoration of the Elimelech’s family, and so we will also see the restoration of Adams fallen family race after 6000 years AT this HARVEST time now, after the gentile bride has been married to Christ by the message of the hour – this is the time that we are in right now when the title deed is coming back into the hands of mankind again in the manifestation of the sons of God.
So this great picture of redemption also shows us how that we can also be restored in our own families if trouble comes along - it requires each member of the family to come back into their rightful position by submission and in oneness under the headship of the word of God.
**At the beginning of the book of Ruth we see a family being broken apart because they got out of their God given position.
But at the end of the book of Ruth we see a family restored back again, they are back in their land and in their inheritance again, and they are blessed again, and they are happy again.
**This is a picture of the millennium when we will see the family of God redeemed back by our great Boaz – Christ. This is the complete story of redemption and the entire theme of the bible, when the family of God is restored back in peace upon the earth, complete and in perfect oneness and agreement with God, who will then take up his rightful position again as head of the family, and as King of the earth with all being subject under His great government that is ruled from within us, the father of us all.
Husband and wife - King and queen, ruling and reigning together upon the earth.
In Closing ****Redemption began when a man (Jesus Christ) came into full agreement with the word and will of God - he submitted Himself to that will contrary to His own human will, and he became one with that word – then after that was he exalted to the right hand of God.
That was the beginning part of the cycle of redemption, but what will complete this cycle of redemption in this end time harvest age???
Remember that the story of redemption in the book of Ruth wasn’t just about Boaz, it also required Ruth to do her part of submission in the harvest time, at the midnight hour, when gross darkness was upon the face of the earth.
So in this harvest time of this great hour of darkness when the denominational world has turned Christ down by the rejection of a prophet of God, it is showing us that it will also take a woman (the bride of Christ) to fully submit herself to the word and will of God for this season, and for this woman bride to come into complete submission and oneness in agreement with the word for this hour. And when she can do that, then the entire family of Adams race will be restored, and then she will also be exalted, and then she will go to sit with him in His throne, back in her rightful position, and then the great millennial age will begin, and peace will reign in the families of the earth again.
The Submission and Oneness of God’s Family
We see the importance of our part in this hour. Before we can be exalted in the rapture, we must first come into full submission to the message of the hour, into full agreement and oneness and marriage to the word of God for this hour by revelation – may God grant this to each of us.