August 12, 2005

• Pastor Don’s Tuesday Bible study of 7/12/05

  
  

  Spiritual Gifts.

  
  

  Ephesians 4 tells us that Spiritual Gifts are available to us under the New Covenant.

  
  

  Enoch before the first covenant walked with God, and obtained a righteousness by his life.

  
  

  Matthew 24: as it was in the days of Noah, as it is coming again. Righteousness is established by Abraham by faith. Those who walk according to faith in God are righteous.

  
  

  But that is not enough. All men do not have the heart of Abraham. They have enough faith for salvation, but not enough for daily life not to offend God. We need the blood of Christ to cover us.

  
  

  Righteousness by the Law. Moses 10 Commandments, were there to show us that we could not keep the whole law. There was blood sacrifice under God’s mercy so that people could be covered in mercy. God’s mercy gave man a means of escape when they failed to meet the Law’s demands.

  
  

  Abraham – faith
  Moses – law

  
  

  Mercy is favor beyond the kindness of God, it empowers people to obtain righteousness under Grace. Grace is the divine influence on our hearts. It affects man and empowers his life. We can obtain righteousness by grace, and work out our salvation given to us by the power provided through God’s grace. The grace is a gift, but it is up to us to use the grace to empower us to flee sin.

  
  

  Ephesians 4:8 Therefore He says: “When He ascended on high, He led captivity captive, and gave gifts to men.”

  
  

  There are various heavens, the 1st is the air around us, the second is the stratosphere, and the third is Heaven, the Paradise where God is.

  
  

  Above earth is an area of voidness, above the orbit of the Milky Way Galaxy are black holes, areas of great density.

  
  

  The Spirit transcends all the dynamics of creativity. Everything in creation is made for us in our physical form, but the Spirit transcends this.

  
  

  The speed of light is not a constant, it is decaying as well as everything else in the universe. The only constant in the whole universe is God. Everything else is variable.

  
  

  Eph.4:11 And  He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers.

  
  

  Christ Himself gave us these gifts. (even the Amplified Bible doesn’t change the words in Eph 4:11). The Holy Spirit manages and operates these gifts. To operate in the gifts you have to know who is over them: JESUS, and it is through Jesus that we receive these gifts.

  
  

  We need to use these gifts to become Armed and Dangerous.

  
  

  Jesus established the order for how the churches are to be established. He gave us gifts and told us what they needed to operate effectively.

  
  

  Satan has a vested interest in hurting the Church. He loves it when believers felt that the gifts died with the apostles.  The church was given the gifts of the spirit so that they can operate like Christ operated.

  
  

  One lie that the devil uses on us regarding salvation is that we don’t have to decide about salvation now, we have all the time in the world.

  
  

  Eph. 4:12 (the gifts of the Spirit) are used “for the equipping  of the saints, for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ.

  
  

  Without the gifts of the Spirit, we are only operating in one gift (salvation). That is the most important gift we can receive but it is an abomination to Christ if we do not use all the gifts He has so freely given us. For example, to teach without the anointing of the Spirit, you can’t impact the people as much as you can with the anointing of the Spirit to direct your words.

  
  

  If you teach without the anointing, you run the risk of imparting carnality to the words you are teaching.

  
  

  2 Tim 3:1 But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come: For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such people turn away!

  
  

  (Heather’s note, Paul did not pull any punches with the above. Boy am I sure guilty of many of those points and confess that I need the help and anointing of the Spirit to combat these traits that I see happening in my flesh.)

  
  

  We need to keep remembering that when we were born again, we received the power of the Spirit to become new creations IN CHRIST.

  
  

  If we believe Jesus for salvation, but then take His statements about the gifts of the Spirit that He is giving us, and say that they died with the apostles, then we are in effect calling Jesus a liar.

  
  

  2 Peter 3 talks about the scoffers that will come at the last days, scoffers who walk according to their own hearts and say, v. 4″Where is the promise of His coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all these things continue as they were from the beginning of creation.”  v. 9 ” The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.”

  
  

  2 Peter 2:12-13 But these, like natural brute beasts made to be caught and destroyed, speak evil of the things they do not understand, and will utterly perish in their own corruption, and will receive the wages of unrighteousness, as those who count it pleasure to carouse in the daytime. They are spots and blemishes, carousing in their own deceptions while they feast with you.

  
  

  Jesus condemned the Israelites for upholding the traditions of men, rather than the law and the prophets. That they ignored God.

  
  

  2 Peter 3:4-9 The church is meant to be a mentoring, a discipleship, not academia. In the Body of Christ every teacher has to be a practioner

  
  

  Jesus taught and Did.

  
  

  FAITH HAS TO BE FELT, IT CAN’T BE TELT.

  
  

   

  
  

  This is heavy stuff  and I took the best notes possible. Any errors are mine, not Pastor Don’s. He will be covering this subject several more times in subsequent Bible studies, so if something is unclear, I think that it may be cleared up over time.

  
  

  Have a blessed day.

  
  

  Heather

  
  

   

  • 8:51 pm
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