Partakers of the Divine Nature
II PETER 1:1-11
1 ¶ Simon Peter, a servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ, to them that have obtained like precious faith with us through the righteousness of God and our Saviour Jesus Christ: (In this letter, Peter is addressing the believers of the message of that hour, those of like precious faith that have already been quickened and made alive by the word for that hour)
2 Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord,
3 According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue:
(Knowledge of the word for your day gives us access to all things that pertain to life and godliness)
4 Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these (promises – the word promised for your day) ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. (In other words, your genuine faith in the message that God has given for your day changes your nature from the things of the world to the things of God, because the power of transformation is in the seed of the promised word for your day)
5 ¶ And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge; (From last week we found out that this word “Add” to your faith, in the Greek = ministered unto, to minister nourishment, assisted - so the 5 fold ministry is for the perfection of the saints (Ephesians 4:11-12), to minister an entrance unto them into the eternal kingdom - we saw last week how the foolish virgins failed to enter in, and they were told to go to them that sell oil, and that it is the ministry of God sent men, because the Holy Spirit comes by the hearing of the word, and you cannot hear the word without a preacher who is sent by God (Romans 10:14).
6 And to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness;
7 And to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity.
8 For if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ (sometimes people can have a knowledge of the Lord Jesus but still be unfruitful in their character as a Christian).
9 But he that lacketh these things is blind, and cannot see afar off (a person who lacks revelation cannot see afar off), and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins.
10 Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall: (do what things? – Add to your faith, add to your revelation of the hour, this is what brings the character of Christ)
11 For so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
Read again..
II PETER 1:4 Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these (promises) ye might be partakers of the divine nature,
Partakers of the Divine Nature
Pick up from Last week – “An Entrance Shall be Ministered unto You”
In the animal kingdom every diverse animal or bird species is born with a different character or nature to the other, and you can generally tell what their nature is on the inside of an animal by the way God clothed them on the outside, because we know that the outward appearance is reflecting the spirit that is on the inside.
While taking a walk in the jungle, If you saw a lion, you would be fairly confident that he will have a lion spirit on the inside of him and not the spirit and nature of a lamb, you know by his outward appearance what spirit he has on the inside.
And that is why when you see something evil on the outside, then it is almost always reflecting an evil nature on the inside. And that is why rock and roll singers look and act like they do, because they are reflecting on the outside what they already are in their spirits and natures on the inside.
The reason you wouldn’t approach a lion out in the wild is because you know the nature that exists on the inside of him. You know that he doesn’t have the gentle spirit and nature of a Lamb, and you would be so surprised to see that nature expressed in a lion because in this world you have come to learn the character of this animal, and unless there is a nature change within that Lion, he cannot act any different.
That is why in the millennium the nature and the character of the animals is restored back to its original state of what it was before the fall of man, then you will see the animal kingdom with a completely different nature to what you see now – you will see them at peace the way God intended them to be from the beginning.
ISAIAH 11:6-7 – is speaking of the great millennial age that is to come
6 The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them.
7 And the cow and the bear shall feed; their young ones shall lie down together: and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. (This is one good reason why we know that we are not in the millennium yet)
A little kitten doesn’t know why he wants to pounce on things and chase little bits of moving string; there is just something within him that makes him want to do that, and that is because of his nature and character, he just can’t help being the way he is because that is the spirit of the nature that he was born with.
REVELATION 4:7
7 And the first beast was like a lion, and the second beast like a calf, and the third beast had a face as a man, and the fourth beast was like a flying eagle.
God uses different natures that are found in the animal kingdom to reveal aspects of his own nature, because we know that almost every nature of every specie has a specific character that is in some way is reflecting a portion of Gods great nature. God is like a lion, but he is also like a lamb and a dove.
The Lion, Ox, Man and Eagle are all different natures that God uses in the Book of Revelation to show us about the four anointing’s that God sent upon the people of God during the seven church ages, and it was the spirit of those animal like natures upon the people that combated the enemy for that specific time and age.
Show Chart 7 church ages
REVELATION 4:1
1 ¶ After this I looked, and, behold, a door was opened in heaven: and the first voice which I heard was as it were of a trumpet talking with me; which said, Come up hither, and I will shew thee things which must be hereafter.
*** John in chapter 4 of Revelation is between the revealing of the seven church ages (Chapter 2-3 of Revelations) and the opening of the seven seals (chapter 5 on), and he is now coming under that 4th anointing of the eagle nature which is a prophetic anointing; and because of this he is able to leave the earth and fly into the heavenly realm to be shown things that must be hereafter (the opening of the seven seals, and the destruction of Hollywood and America, and the destruction of the Vatican, and the pouring out of the vials of judgement upon the nations and peoples of the earth, and the future home of the heavenly bridegroom and the earthly bride etc), all these great things are revealed to John after he sees a door opened in heaven in Revelation chapter 4 and he is caught up higher into the bride age after the seven church ages have run out.
**And so we can see clearly that the fulfilment of this is you and I in this age, because all these things are happening exactly to us in our experience in this age, because we are also after Revelation chapters 2 and 3 which is at the end of the seven church ages, and we have also entered into another age called the bride age which the prophet said is the eternal church age at the end of the seven church ages after the opening of the seven seals.
THE.STATURE.OF.A.PERFECT.MAN_ JEFF.IN V-2 N-18 SUNDAY_ 62-1014M
6-4 Now, we are approaching the Seven Seals. We've just finished the seven church ages, and this is a message on teaching that ties the man in that's going to be redeemed by the Blood of the Lord Jesus, and is going to be in that church age--that eternal church age at the end of the Seals.
We read some of these quotes last week…
THE.BREACH.BETWEEN.THE.SEVEN.CHURCH.AGES.AND.THE.SEVEN.SEALS_ JEFF.IN SUNDAY_ 63-0317E
76-2 {54} Notice, and is not revealed until--this Book is not revealed until the church ages and denominational ages has run out, and there's time no more. See it? It's only revealed after church ages and denominational ages has run out.
THE.FLASHING.RED.LIGHT.OF.THE.SIGN.OF.HIS.COMING_ JEFF.IN V-5 N-4 SUNDAY_ 63-0623E
205 …And the Bible predicts it would be that way, and would run out in the last days, and the door would be open, as we just went through the church ages to see it.
Why is this new age that we are in called the eternal Church age? - Because the number seven is completion, and then you go into the eighth day which is eternity, and the eighth day is Christ himself which is the fulness of the word which continues to unfold to us throughout eternity.
The SON light has risen in this age like at that first Easter morning when the seal of the tomb was broken, so has it repeated in this age after the seven seals have been broken and the light of this message has shone into our hearts.
The prophet preached “It is the Rising of the SON” and “The Easter Seal”, Who is THIS Melchisedec”, There is a Man here NOW who can turn on the Light.
***The SON light of the eternal day has risen in this hour after the night time of the seven church ages and candle lights have ended – this is what the message has taught us, so you don’t need candle lights anymore after the SON has risen.
Read Quote again…
THE.STATURE.OF.A.PERFECT.MAN_ JEFF.IN V-2 N-18 SUNDAY_ 62-1014M
6-4 Now, we are approaching the Seven Seals. We've just finished the seven church ages, and this is a message on teaching that ties the man in that's going to be redeemed by the Blood of the Lord Jesus, and is going to be in that church age--that eternal church age at the end of the Seals.
I.HAVE.HEARD.BUT.NOW.I.SEE_ SHREVEPORT.LA V-7 N-3 SATURDAY_ 65-1127E
187 …This is not a Pentecostal age. This is the latter-day age. This is the Bride age. This is the evening Light. This is when Malachi 4 must be fulfilled, to follow God's pattern. This is Luke 17:30, to be fulfill. This is the second...
MODERN.EVENTS.ARE.MADE.CLEAR.BY.PROPHECY_ SBD.CA V-7 N-6 MONDAY_ 65-1206
56 We're not living in a Pentecostal age, we're living in another age. See, we're not living in a Methodist age, we're living in another age. We're living on up here to the Bride age, the calling out of the Church and getting It together for the Rapture. That's the age that we're now living.
Last week - An Entrance Shall be Ministered unto You
By the teaching of the message we realise that an entrance into this bride age (the eternal church age) has been ministered unto us and given us access to understand the things that we have come to know, and this connects us personally and identifies us in Revelation chapter 4:1 where John is now leaving the earthly realm of the anointing of the Lion, Ox, and man, and is coming under the anointing of a heavenly creature of an eagle. A door (or an entrance) was opened to John by a ministry and an anointing in order for him to enter that heavenly place where he could come to understand things that are to be.
***So in the message called “The Statue of a Perfect Man” (preach in 1962) we see that prophet is telling us that in order to go into that eternal kingdom there must be a nature change like the animals will receive a nature change before they can go into that millennial kingdom.
Read quote again
THE.STATURE.OF.A.PERFECT.MAN_ JEFF.IN V-2 N-18 SUNDAY_ 62-1014M
6-4 Now, we are approaching the Seven Seals. We've just finished the seven church ages, (this is Revelation chapter 4) and this is a message on teaching that ties the man in that's going to be redeemed by the Blood of the Lord Jesus, and is going to be in that church age--that eternal church age at the end of the Seals.
**So he is now about to minister an entrance to the people to prepare them to enter into that eternal church age.
Refresh from last week… An Entrance shall be Ministered unto You
“Entrance” = {Greek} means to enter into, an entrance, i.e. both the place or way leading into a place (as a gate), and the act of entering – not just the entrance door, but the way to get too the entrance door.
GENESIS 19:9b-11 (We know that the story of Lot and the two angels in Sodom was a prophecy of this hour that we are living in – the men of Sodom were so consumed with lust and violence as what we see in this day, because this generation has also been ministered to by Hollywood, and that is what has ministered an entrance unto them and has brought them into this condition of nature)
9b And they pressed sore upon the man, even Lot, and came near to break the door.
10 But the men (the two angels – notice that they were men) put forth their hand, and pulled Lot into the house to them, and shut to the door.
11 And they smote the men that were at the door of the house with blindness, both small and great: so that they wearied themselves to find the door.
The bible tells us that as it was in the days of Lot so shall it be in the coming of the son of man, and the sodomites were blinded from having access to the door by these two men, and we know that the door is symbolic for Christ who is the word for this age
***In Noah’s day they were blinded from the door of the ark, but Noah and his group entered through that door and into the new world by a message that God gave to Noah for that season, but that entrance through that door and into the new world was ministered to them by the voice of the prophet that God sent for that time.
This word “ministered” (An Entrance Shall be Ministered unto You) in the Greek is the exact same word that is used for the word “add” to your faith –
Last week we paraphrase it “Add to your faith by being ministered unto by the hearing of the word for your day, because this is how you come into these things and add these things, it is by those that minister the word” because an Entrance shall be ministered unto you.
So we as believers are not being blinded from the door in this hour, because our eyes can see the door that has been opened to us by the ministry and the revealing of the son of man.
***Christ is the door, and he is the word that has been given to us by the opening of the seven seals, so the revelation of the word is the door that has given us access into the heavenly realms to see the things which must soon be hereafter.
Opening scripture:
II PETER 1:3-4
3 According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue:
4 Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these (promises) ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.
Partakers = Greek word koinonos {koy-no-nos'} = a partner, associate, comrade, companion, sharer,
In other words – we become a partner and a sharer of his divine nature dwelling in us.
To enter into that new world of that eternal church age, God has to first deal with our nature and make us an associate of his divine nature, a partaker of his divine nature (that was the nature that we fell from when we left Eden).
**And this divine nature of God is not restored to us in this hour through the psychology of man by trying to be a good person, because people can “learn” to be nice and to act nice through psychology like the Pharisees and Sadducees and the kind old priest, and that is good and right because manors will take you a long way in life, but a conman can also be a very well manor person externally but be the most evil person in his true nature on the inside.
So just learning to be nice is not a change of nature - a change of nature can only come by a change of birth, because you can’t change the nature of a specie – so for us to have a nature change we must come into a new birth by the incorruptible seed of the word of God for our day.
THE.STATURE.OF.A.PERFECT.MAN_ JEFF.IN V-2 N-18 SUNDAY_ 62-1014M
16-4 And let me stop here a minute. The sheep doesn't manufacture wool. He has wool, because he is a sheep. A lot of people trying to say, "Well, I'll try to get good. I'll try to do this." Don't manufacture nothing. No, you can't do it. A sheep doesn't--isn't asked, isn't expected to manufacture wool; it bears wool. And it does it because it's a sheep. And when you're a Christian, you just bear the fruit of the Spirit. You don't--you don't manufacture it. You don't try to make it up. You just try--make yourself something that you're not. You just become what you're supposed to be, and then it takes care of itself.
16-5 Have you heard people say, "Well, I'll tell you; I'm--I joined the church; I--I really ought to quit this lying." You're trying to manufacture something again now; you can't do it. So there's no need of trying to no more than a--than a mule can make himself have wool. He can't do it.
Or a vulture trying to eat with a dove, a vulture trying to--a vulture trying to be a dove... Could you imagine a buzzard out there, say, "Well, you know, I'm a dove." Put a few feathers in him and say, "See, I look like..." See? He'd just be all out of shape. That's a man who professes to be something when he's not. See, you can't do it.
You can't say, "Well, now look. I'm supposed to have virtue, so I'll have virtue. I'm supposed to live godliness, so I'll just have it." Why, you're only trying to place feathers. Though they're in your reach, but you can't put the feathers in the wrong bird. It just won't work. And it only shows what a hypocrite that bird is. See?
17-2 Could you imagine an old buzzard trying to have a couple of dove feathers, say, "Looky here. See, I'm a dove." See? Why we all know he's a buzzard. See, see? That's all. We can tell that he's a buzzard.
Well, now that's the way it is trying to--to manufacture Christianity. You can't do it. The first thing you've got to do is be borned again. You've got to be changed. See? And when you're changed, you become a new creation. Now, you're getting right now. See? Now, you don't have to worry about the feathers; it'll take care of itself when--when--when you're borned again. Yes, sir.
Like I've always said: You take a--a hog, scrub him up, and put a tuxudo suit on him--or a tuxedo suit, rather, on him, and turn him out there; he'll go right to a mud hole and wallow. 'Cause, you see, it wouldn't do any good. He's a hog; that's his nature. Wallowing is his nature. You've got to change his nature, and you--the rest of it'll take care of itself.
17-5 Now, notice, you must be born again; that is changed. There's got to be a change. You say, "Well, Brother Branham, I know this certain woman over here, why, she never did do anything wrong. She's a good woman. Or this such-and-such a man; he's a good man. He never does anything; you know, he doesn't harm anybody." That doesn't mean one thing. He might make a good neighbor, but he isn't a Christian until he's borned again.
Jesus said, "Except a man be born again (St. John 3) that he can't even see the Kingdom." Now, that means... "See" means "to understand." You look at anything and say, "I just don't see it"; you mean you don't understand it.
17-7 A man can't understand why people shout. A man can't understand why a human being's language would change, and he'd speak in tongues. The natural man can't see how a glory of God would come over a man's eyes, and he'd see vision and tell men of certain things and what to do, tell them things that's fixing to happen, things to come to pass, like the Lord did for us here last night even. See, see?
The--the natural mind tries to figure out, "Well, what did he do?" or "What kind of a hoax is he using? What gimmick has he got?"
To see a man speaking in tongues, they say... And somebody interpret and tell just exactly to a certain member of the body what they've done, and what they should not do. See? See, they think it's some kind of a hoax. "There's something fixed up between them." They can't understand it. Until that man is born again, then when he's born again, then he's in line of fellowship because he is a new creation. That old suspicious, doubting character he was, is dead; now he's a new creation. So, you see, he don't have to add anything to his now, because it'll automatically be added.
18-2 Notice: you must be borned again. And when you're born again, you can't be born again without having faith. That's right. So, you see on my chart here, I got the very foundation. Faith is the foundation of all of it. For without faith it's impossible to please God: "He that cometh to God must believe that He is, and a Rewarder of those that diligently seek Him." See? He must be. And when you are a skeptic of the Bible, when you're skeptic of the Word being right, you just might as well stay back until first you believe it.
From the new birth we grow onto the full nature of Christ and the statue of a perfect man, how is that achieved? Not by psychology of trying to act like a message believer, but by the exceeding great and precious promises of the word for this hour that we have been given by the message of the hour and the opening of the entire word.
THE.RAPTURE_ YUMA.AZ V-5 N-14 SATURDAY_ 65-1204
91 When a germ comes into the womb of--of the female, it don't take on... You, you didn't become a human germ from your father, and then the next thing you become a germ from a dog, and the next thing from a cat, the next thing from a chicken. It was all human germ.
And the Body of Jesus Christ, the Bride, will be part of His Body. Which will... He was the Word, and the Bride will have to be the Word; Word added to Word, add to Word. Luther's justification, Wesley's sanctification, pentecostal's baptism of the Holy Spirit, restoration of the gifts, and all the rest of It, goes with It. See? It's got to be Word on top of Word, germ on top of germ, Life on top of Life, to bring out the full statue of the Bride of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, remember, you was an attribute.
THINGS.THAT.ARE.TO.BE_ RIALTO.CA V-4 N-6 SUNDAY_ 65-1205
83 Therefore, if you've, tonight, just come, say, "I offer Jesus Christ my life," and you've never received the Holy Ghost; come into It. You must do it. You must grow into It. Ask God to pile Word on top of Word, like that, until you become the full stature of a son of God, or a daughter of God.
REVELATION 4:1
1 ¶ After this I looked (after the church ages had run out), and, behold, a door was opened in heaven: and the first voice which I heard was as it were of a trumpet talking with me; which said, Come up hither, and I will shew thee things which must be hereafter.
The seven dispensations of the seven church ages have all run out, and as the bride of Christ we have been giving access to a prophetic knowledge of things that will soon be hereafter. This world will soon experience the judgment of God, but we have entered into a bright and new day called the bride age, and we are on a journey from this world to another world and dimension that is faster than this one, just like Noah was taken out of one world and over the judgement into the new world.
This same message that we love so much will also one day take us off the earth.
From the new birth we grow into this full statue of Christ – it is not a get rich quick scheme, it a process of time and patience and from Glory unto Glory.
We are to become Partakers of the Divine Nature of God by the promises of the word of this hour – we become the word as we receive the word, it adds to you – and that is what the 5 fold ministry is to assist us with and to minister us into so that we can come into the full stature of Christ and be partakers of His divine nature.