A Study in Adoption Pt.2
EPHESIANS 1:3-5
3 ¶ Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ: (Sometimes you walk around in all the bustle of life and you don’t feel in your emotions like that you are blessed and in heavenly places – but that is the word that cannot lie, so that is your true condition before God, and that is why your feelings must never be placed above the word as an absolute)
4 According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love:
5 Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will,
We are His children by birth, but he has predestinated us unto the adoption, that is what we are all going unto. So the purpose of God for us as his dear children is that we grow in our understanding and mature into adults with roles and positions to serve in the body of Christ and in His kingdom; we are on a journey from babes in Christ to a position in the body and in the kingdom just like we are in our natural earthly journey.
A Study in Adoption Pt.2
**The purpose of God is to lead his children into the position of what he has ordained for them to be in order for each of his children to be of service in his great economy and kingdom and household that is to come.
***This is also reflected in a local church environment – just like the 12 tribes of Israel in the promised land were given their inheritances by Joshua (A type of the Holy Spirit) and placed in their position in the land, it came down to each family being given a portion, and then each person in that family in their had their placed position within the family to contribute as a member of that family, and so it is in the local message churches, each placed church contributes to benefit the entire message world, and each placed member in that church contributes their gift for the benefit of the whole church body, and then the local church body contributes for the benefit of the rest of the body of Christ worldwide.
*Just like your natural body has each member placed in its position to function in the body for the benefit of the entire body.
I CORINTHIANS 12:12-23
12 ¶ For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also is Christ.
13 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.
14 For the body is not one member, but many.
15 If the foot shall say, Because I am not the hand, I am not of the body; is it therefore not of the body?
16 And if the ear shall say, Because I am not the eye, I am not of the body; is it therefore not of the body?
17 If the whole body were an eye, where were the hearing? If the whole were hearing, where were the smelling?
18 But now hath God set the members every one of them in the body, as it hath pleased him.
19 And if they were all one member, where were the body?
20 But now are they many members, yet but one body.
21 And the eye cannot say unto the hand, I have no need of thee: nor again the head to the feet, I have no need of you.
22 Nay, much more those members of the body, which seem to be more feeble, are necessary:
23 And those members of the body, which we think to be less honourable, upon these we bestow more abundant honour; and our uncomely parts have more abundant comeliness. (Comeliness is external beauty)
**Each star in the heavens was placed in their celestial positions by God, and if they were to fall from their position, then destruction would follow just like when Lucifer and a third of the angels fell from the position that God placed them in and will come to destruction.
**That is why it is very important to stay where God placed you – if the devil can somehow get you to move out from your God placed position in the body, then his work is done.
***How do I know if I am placed in the body? – Because you will be a blessing and a benefit to the rest of the body in that position, and you will supply a need in the body of Christ.
There are many positions that are not comely or flashy, these roles are all very important. We need Godly mothers to raise children, we need Godly fathers to be an example and to provide for their families. We need Godly teenagers that have a revelation of Christ burning in their hearts. We need dedicated men in the church to labour and be helps in the body. We need deacons and trustees and faithful people who are on fire for the Lord and enthused about the work of the father.
All these positions are a part of the one body.
ROMANS 8:14-16
14 For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. (How do you know you are led by the spirit of God, because you will be continually led into a greater revelation of truth, that is the job of the Holy Spirit, He will teach you the word, because true leadership can only come by the word, and that is how you grow as a believer, by your knowledge and adherence to the word – and that is why if the father of the house is not in the word then the whole house will suffer under his leadership because he will be making decisions based on human reasoning apart from the word, and that conduct is not the conduct of a placed son. If it is not a word based decision, then you can be certain that it is a wrong decision and you will pay for that mistake – oh what needless pain we bear, all because we do not carry, everything to God in prayer)
15 For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. (You begin to realize who your father is, and you begin to cry out to Him – Oh Papa God, how I love you)
16 The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God:
GALATIANS 4:1-5 opening scripture from last week
1 ¶ Now I say, That the heir, as long as he is a child, differeth nothing from a servant, though he be lord of all; Why is he no different than a servant? Because of his attitude toward obedience to the Father’s will. Your attitude towards obedience to the word is what the Holy Spirit measures you by – it’s not so much your conduct in the natural sense of being able to handle yourself in crowns and being popular by knowing how to win friends and influence people, that can be a learnt skill – but you are measured by your attitude toward your obedience to the Father’s will and your interest in His work.
2 But is under tutors and governors until the time appointed of the father. (That is why we are under the Holy Spirit by the revelation of this hour who is the tutor – the teacher, “Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth” John 16:13 – the inner teacher)
3 Even so we, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world:
4 But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law,
5 To redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons. (In other words that we might come into an adult position of being place in a responsible role in the family of God – that is God’s intent for his children just as we desire for our children)
Pulpit Commentary …Our obedience is not the forced obedience of servants, but the loving obedience of sons.
PROVERBS 29:21
21 ¶ He that delicately bringeth up his servant from a child shall have him become his son at the length.
We know that a servant that is born a servant in a household can never become a son, but if he is treated in a loving and delicate way by his master, then he can so come to love his master and his masters family that he begins to serve them out of love (as would a son that has come to a proper maturity in relationship to his father) and not just out of duty because he has to, so it is an attitude shift, because love is the more excellent way.
**There are two ways to motivate a person, that is by laws and punishments, or by a love for what that believe.
Notice that Abraham had trained servants, raised in his own house at the time when he rescued Lot – these servants had such a love for Abraham that they were willing to lay down their lives for the purpose of saving Abraham’s nephew (Lot) because it was important to Abraham.
GENESIS 14:14-16
14 And when Abram heard that his brother was taken captive, he armed his trained servants, born in his own house, three hundred and eighteen, and pursued them unto Dan.
15 And he divided himself against them, he and his servants, by night, and smote them, and pursued them unto Hobah, which is on the left hand of Damascus.
16 And he brought back all the goods, and also brought again his brother Lot, and his goods, and the women also, and the people.
A.HIDDEN.LIFE_ CHICAGO.IL THURSDAY_ 55-1006A
E-20 I noticed in the Bible one time, speaking just for a few moments now. In the Old Testament when a son was borned into a home, he was a son when he was borned. He become a son when he was borned into a home. And the ordinary, typical, oriental home in those days, the son was giving a place and a tutor that raised the child. Paul beautifully speaks of it in the New Testament, that how the tutor was to raise the child, and we were... The law was a tutor to bring us to Christ.
But then, that child when he was borned was in type of the church today, the borned again by the Holy Spirit. And I believe that God has been tutoring His church, bringing it up, raising it up, to it's time now for something else to happen. The church ought to be grown by this time. But many of us, who ought to be teaching others, are yet desiring the sincere milk of the Bible. See? We need someone to teach us, when we should be teachers. And to that I bow my head in shame, that I should know more about God than I do.
E-21 Now, here is one thing that I do believe, that when a child... The Bible speaks back there, that when the child had been raised, the tutor kept the Father posted on the conduct of the child. Now, the Tutor in this manner has been the Holy Spirit to the Pentecostal and the church. The Holy Ghost that give...
And remember, the child, no matter what would ever take place, it was borned a child; it will always be a child. And when a man is borned of the Holy Ghost, he becomes a child of God, for it is actually a second birth, a regeneration, that creates something in the man that wasn't there to begin with. When every man is borned into the household of faith, he becomes a child. Then the Holy Spirit follows this man and brings word to God how he is progressing.
E-22 Now, after this child become of age... Now, he's still a child. But if the child was reckless, and never paid any attention, and wasn't so interested in the Father's work, that child never become adopted to that family. But if he was a correct child, a good child, and loved the work of his father, and was interested, and tried to do all he could to progress his father's work, then the tutor brought that word to the father, and there was what's called the placing of the son or as Paul gives it in--over in Galatians, "the adoption." That we was predestinated into the adoption of children by Jesus Christ, the adoption.
Now, the same son that was born into a family could be adopted into the same family, or placed in the same family, or give a position in the family that he was borned into. And I do believe that that is the work of the Holy Spirit today among the church, is trying to place in the church positionally apostles, teachers, prophets, and so forth, as... And we've seen many false alarms and so forth moving amongst the people, which only indicated that the real genuine adoption was at hand. I believe it. God has to place into the church. That's the business of God, not of man.
E-23 Now, when this boy became of age, and when he was ready then for his adoption, and he had proved by--the tutor had told the Father that this boy was eligible for adoption, he was taken out into a public place, and there he was robed with a--a robe (a honor robe, perhaps purple, or some color of royalty), and was set up, and the whole city, all the people around about, seen the Father adopt his own son into the family. And then when he was adopted into the family, already a son, already a child, already a heir of grace, but placed in the family... You get it. Now, when he was placed in the family and given his position, then that boy's name on a check was just as good as his father's name on the check.
Now, I believe that that is the time that the church has arrived at today, that the next great move in the church is for God, after we've seen the false alarms... But now, God will place in His church correctly, apostles, prophets, teachers, evangelists, not man-made seminary boughten, but God will place into the church. Not theology run-overs and overnights, but God will place in the church, as God has chosen, as the Holy Ghost has tutored this church and raised it up. And in there God will adopt into His--into the position His sons. They're already His sons, but whether they are worthy of the position that He has for them.
***Notice that their worthiness of the position is dependent on their conduct.