Category: God’s power

The War with Amalek! #11

Wednesday, June 12, 2019

“Then came Amalek, and fought with Israel in Rephidim” (Exodus 17:8 KJV).

What is this war with Amalek all about? Can we make application?

Dear brethren, having trusted Jesus Christ as our personal Saviour, we have passed from Adam to Christ, death to life, Hell-bound to Heaven-bound. But, why did God bother to save us? Why not let us go on to our deserved eternal damnation? Ephesians 2:10 explains: “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.” He desired to do a mighty work. We were—we are—His work. He worked to save us from Hell, to the intent that He would work in and through us to express His life in and through us. It is His words that “effectually work” in us who believe (1 Thessalonians 2:13).

Galatians chapter 5: “[16] This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh…. [24] And they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. [25] If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.” How do we “walk in the Spirit?” We read and believe Pauline doctrine. The indwelling Holy Spirit will take that doctrine and work in us, and we will thus walk in accordance with it.

The heart of grace living is thus: since we belong to Jesus Christ, our sin nature has been crucified with Him (Romans chapter 6), and now we believe the Holy Spirit’s words about our new identity in order to have victory over daily sins (Romans chapter 8). Sin does not have to dominate us: “For he that is dead is freed from sin” (Romans 6:7). We have now been resurrected with Christ “to walk in newness of life” (verse 4). Read Romans chapters 6 through 8: they are the key to successful Christian living. Read chapters 12 through 16: they are specific examples of grace living. Read Ephesians chapter 4, Colossians chapter 3, 1 and 2 Thessalonians, and Titus. Here are “the things of the Spirit” that we are to “mind,” the teachings on which we should concentrate. Like Israel, we can win the fight with “Amalek….”

Our latest Bible Q&A: “What is ‘purloining?’”

The War with Amalek! #10

Tuesday, June 11, 2019

“Then came Amalek, and fought with Israel in Rephidim” (Exodus 17:8 KJV).

What is this war with Amalek all about? Can we make application?

Prayer occurs when we talk (silently or audibly) to Almighty God about our life in light of His Word to us. Knowing where to go in the Bible to learn that information—Paul’s epistles, Romans through Philemon—is the first step to productive Christian thought and living. Due to denominational teaching and religious confusion, however, very few believers ever discover how to use the Scriptures “rightly divided” (2 Timothy 2:15). Hence, their thinking and conduct are anything and everything but Christian!

After we do approach the Bible dispensationally, we must believe those verses and apply them to life by faith. First Thessalonians 2:13: “For this cause also thank we God without ceasing, because, when ye received the word of God which ye heard of us, ye received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which effectually worketh also in you that believe.” The challenge after believing the verses is to discern how they relate to our specific situations. Unless we believe what Pauline doctrine says about employment, marriage, parenting, and managing money wisely, God’s words through Paul will not profit us. God’s Word will “effectually work” only in those who believe it!

Romans chapter 8: “[26] Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. [27] And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God.” One role of the indwelling Holy Spirit is to take His words that we read and believe, and then, as we pray, adjust our thinking so that our words to Father God better align with His words to us. We thus pray according to God’s will (but, unless we believe the verses dispensationally, we will not know how to pray the Pauline way!!).

Therefore, prayer is how we allow the Holy Spirit to reinforce in our minds the Bible concepts He taught us when we read the Scriptures earlier….

The War with Amalek! #9

Monday, June 10, 2019

“Then came Amalek, and fought with Israel in Rephidim” (Exodus 17:8 KJV).

What is this war with Amalek all about? Can we make application?

Romans chapter 8 continues: “[5] For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit. [6] For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. [7] Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. [8] So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God.”

Whether Christians acting like unsaved people they are not, or unsaved people behaving like the lost individuals they are, they are all “after the flesh.” Being “carnally minded,” they “mind the things of the flesh.” Sin governs their thoughts and conduct. Not thinking as God originally designed people to think, they are not acting like God designed people to act!

The Christian life functionally dies when the believer ceases to think as the Spirit of God has taught Christians to think! “For to be carnally minded is death.” However, “to be spiritually minded is life and peace.” If the believer in Jesus has the renewed mind, then eternal life will be experienced daily. He or she will live as God Himself lives, the very way He designed man to live before the Fall! But, where do we find what the Holy Spirit teaches?

First Corinthians chapter 2, “[13] Which things also we speak, not in the words which man’s wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual. [14] But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.” We find the inspired, preserved words of God in the Holy Bible: “All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works” (2 Timothy 3:16,17). Here—especially in Paul’s epistles, Romans through Philemon—we find the sword needed to fight “the war with Amalek.”

Now, prayer, or specifically, Pauline prayer….

The War with Amalek! #8

Sunday, June 9, 2019

“Then came Amalek, and fought with Israel in Rephidim” (Exodus 17:8 KJV).

What is this war with Amalek all about? Can we make application?

Romans chapter 6 says, “[11] Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. [12] Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof…. [14] For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace. [15] What then? shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid.” The sinful act results only after a lengthy process of bad thinking; Paul’s dilemma in chapter 7 was the consequence of forgetting this grace doctrine.

The answer to the quandary in chapter 7 is to keep reading into chapter 8: “[1] There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. [2] For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death. [3] For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: [4] That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.”

When we “walk after the Spirit,” we have victory over sin on a daily basis. However, if we “walk after the flesh,” sin will defeat us. In his own Christian life, Paul himself grew frustrated and miserable. Sin had dominion over him because he had placed himself on the religious treadmill (Romans chapter 7). Having returned to a legalistic system—assuming his performance under rules and regulations was how his Christian life operated—he overlooked God’s grace (chapter 6). He did not need religious laws to tell him how to live. The grace of God had already fully instructed him: his victory was in his identity in Christ. Yes, the sword and the lifting of hands, the Bible and prayer, will cause us to triumph over sin….

Our latest Bible Q&A: “Was Jesus justified in destroying ‘private property?’”

The War with Amalek! #7

Saturday, June 8, 2019

“Then came Amalek, and fought with Israel in Rephidim” (Exodus 17:8 KJV).

What is this war with Amalek all about? Can we make application?

East of the Red Sea, as the Jews are en route to God’s land, the Amalekites assault them. JEHOVAH God has given Israel life, and a war has broken out. Man’s sinful flesh opposes God, and God combats man’s sinful flesh. As soon as the spiritual water flows from Christ—once the believing sinner passes from death to life and receives the indwelling Holy Spirit—a bitter conflict begins.

Romans chapter 7 describes that war: “[15] For that which I do I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I. [16] If then I do that which I would not, I consent unto the law that it is good. [17] Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. [18] For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not. [19] For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do.

“[20] Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. [21] I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me. [22] For I delight in the law of God after the inward man: [23] But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. [24] O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? [25] I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin.”

The saint (here, the Apostle Paul himself) wants to do right, but sin interferes, causing him to stumble and lose the fight. If he is to be victorious, he must remember how the ancient Israelites defeated the Amalekites….

The War with Amalek! #6

Friday, June 7, 2019

“Then came Amalek, and fought with Israel in Rephidim” (Exodus 17:8 KJV).

What is this war with Amalek all about? Can we make application?

As the battle between the Israelites and the Amalekites raged, Joshua led the charge fighting with the sword (verse 13). When Moses raised his hand, Israel gained the advantage; contrariwise, when he let down his hand, Amalek began to win (verse 11). These are not trivialities but important details.

Focus on verse 12: “But Moses hands were heavy; and they took a stone, and put it under him, and he sat thereon; and Aaron and Hur stayed up his hands, the one on the one side, and the other on the other side; and his hands were steady until the going down of the sun.” Is it not interesting that the Holy Spirit added this statement? Moses would grow tired and drop his hands, but Aaron and Hur came alongside him. They had him sit on a stone and they held up his hands.

Hebrews 4:12 likens the Bible to a sword: “For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.” Here is Joshua’s sword! As demonstrated in 1 Timothy 2:8, the lifting up of hands in Scripture is indicative of prayer: “I will therefore that men pray every where, lifting up holy hands, without wrath and doubting.” Here are Moses’ hands held high!

“For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would” (Galatians 5:17). Dear friends, Amalek is a picture of the flesh, the rebel who dislikes and opposes God (remember the Amalekite patriarch Esau/Edom?). He sits in unbelief—sin! Once new life is introduced (the water flowing from the rock), the flesh fights against God the Holy Spirit. This war is a reality for Israel and us; yet, the path to victory remains the same. God’s Word paired with prayer is the key to conquering sin….

Our latest Bible Q&A: “Were the King James translators justified in adding the word ‘quarters’ in Acts 9:32?”

The War with Amalek! #5

Thursday, June 6, 2019

“Then came Amalek, and fought with Israel in Rephidim” (Exodus 17:8 KJV).

What is this war with Amalek all about? Can we make application?

Let us read to the end of Exodus chapter 17: “[8] Then came Amalek, and fought with Israel in Rephidim. [9] And Moses said unto Joshua, Choose us out men, and go out, fight with Amalek: to morrow I will stand on the top of the hill with the rod of God in mine hand. [10] So Joshua did as Moses had said to him, and fought with Amalek: and Moses, Aaron, and Hur went up to the top of the hill. [11] And it came to pass, when Moses held up his hand, that Israel prevailed: and when he let down his hand, Amalek prevailed.

“[12] But Moses hands were heavy; and they took a stone, and put it under him, and he sat thereon; and Aaron and Hur stayed up his hands, the one on the one side, and the other on the other side; and his hands were steady until the going down of the sun. [13] And Joshua discomfited Amalek and his people with the edge of the sword. [14] And the LORD said unto Moses, Write this for a memorial in a book, and rehearse it in the ears of Joshua: for I will utterly put out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven. [15] And Moses built an altar, and called the name of it Jehovahnissi: [16] For he said, Because the LORD hath sworn that the LORD will have war with Amalek from generation to generation.”

Israel is victorious over the Amalekites. Therefore, Moses most appropriately erects an altar, “Jehovahnissi” (Hebrew, “I am your banner/hero”). JEHOVAH God has caused her to triumph over her enemies! It was so critical a matter that the LORD even commanded Moses to write this account, that it be remembered forever. We have it now in the record of Exodus! Upon studying these verses, it becomes clear that two issues were critical to their success. Firstly, we saw Joshua fighting Amalek with the sword. Secondly, we saw Moses raising his hands. Herein is the key to spiritual victory, whether for ancient Israel millennia ago, or for us today, or for future Israel….

Human Eyes Versus Divine Eyes #4

Thursday, May 16, 2019

“And they that passed by reviled him, wagging their heads, And saying, Thou that destroyest the temple, and buildest it in three days, save thyself. If thou be the Son of God, come down from the cross. Likewise also the chief priests mocking him, with the scribes and elders, said, He saved others; himself he cannot save. If he be the King of Israel, let him now come down from the cross, and we will believe him. He trusted in God; let him deliver him now, if he will have him: for he said, I am the Son of God. The thieves also, which were crucified with him, cast the same in his teeth” (Matthew 27:39-44 KJV).

It is the same event, viewed from two different perspectives. Which assessment is reality and which is folly?

Dear friends, sin causes us to have a misleading sense of reality. Jeremiah 17:9 attests: “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?” Spiritual darkness and confusion corrupt our standards, to the degree that we cannot accurately evaluate our surroundings. Our heart tricks us. If left to ourselves (lacking or refusing Divine insight), we dwell in the dark as those of today’s Scripture.

Isaiah 55:8,9 declares: “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.” God (of course) is infinitesimally intellectually superior to us. With that limitless knowledge, He effortlessly lays out complicated paths to achieve His goals. We are simply too inadequate to understand His every move. Hence, if we depend on our sinful hearts, then we will ridicule Him. The equivalent is a child in his ignorance making fun of an adult’s planning. Is the child capable of appreciating mature reasoning? (Nay, and as long as we laud our incomplete astuteness, neither can we realize God’s wisdom!)

“Where is the wise? where is the scribe? where is the disputer of this world? hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world?” Yea, 1 Corinthians 1:20 is correct. God has made foolish the “wisdom” of this world….

 

 

The Comforter #2

Tuesday, March 26, 2019

“And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever” (John 14:16 KJV).

Who is this “Comforter?” What are His roles?

Today’s Scripture lies in the section (13:1–17:26) in which the Lord Jesus is in the upper room with His disciples at evening. They eat the Passover and then the Last Supper. In just a few hours, He will go out to the Garden of Gethsemane where He will be betrayed and arrested. Ultimately, the following morning, they will execute Him on Calvary’s cross. These chapters are thus His parting words to Israel’s believing remnant. He reveals to them things to come—both short-term and long-term. There is good news and bad.

The central piece of good news is the coming of “the Comforter” (first mentioned in today’s Scripture): “[16] And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever; [17] Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you. [18] I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you…. [26] But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.”

While the word “comfort” often invokes the thought of cheering up a sad person, there is a much wider meaning in this unit of Scripture. At the heart of “comfort” is “fort,” from the Latin term (fortis) meaning “strong.” “Fortitude” is the related concept. Tough times are coming for Israel’s Little Flock, heirs of God’s earthly kingdom (Luke 12:31,32), so they need power to endure. They will be endowed with Divine strength—“the Comforter!” The Greek word is “parakletos,” which simply means “called alongside, especially to help.” God’s Word defines “the Comforter” as “the Holy Ghost,” the third Member of the Godhead, who will enable Israel to work in Christ’s absence.

The strength will come about via God’s Word, the truth that “the Spirit of truth” speaks to these saints….

What is God Doing? #17

Monday, January 21, 2019

“Canst thou by searching find out God? canst thou find out the Almighty unto perfection? It is as high as heaven; what canst thou do? deeper than hell; what canst thou know? The measure thereof is longer than the earth, and broader than the sea” (Job 11:7-9 KJV).

What exactly is God doing? Can we say? Or, must we remain clueless?

Long ago, God’s chief spirit creature—a “cherub” named “Lucifer”—said in his heart, “I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High” (Isaiah 14:12-15). We also see him in Ezekiel 28:11-19, the attractive creature who “wast perfect in [his] ways from the day that he [wast] created, till iniquity was found in [him]” (verse 15). He was “full of wisdom, and perfect in beauty” (verse 12). Verse 17 says Lucifer’s heart “was lifted up because of [his] beauty.”

Lucifer decides to attempt to usurp God’s throne. Thus, he led a rebellion in Heaven, recruiting numerous angelic beings to oppose the Creator God. Lucifer became “Satan” (adversary—Luke 10:18), he and his angelic cohorts were evicted from Heaven, and we thus read of “the devil and his angels” (Matthew 25:41). In Genesis chapter 3, Satan—the “serpent,” a calculating character—entices Adam and Eve (our parents) to join him in his revolt against the Creator God. Adam, the head of humanity, was not deceived: he intentionally followed his wife, Eve, in following Satan (1 Timothy 2:14). Thus, Earth was corrupted with sin—cursed with thorns, thistles, childbirth pain, sickness, and ultimate death (Genesis 3:16-19).

Romans chapter 8 comments: “[20] For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope, [21] Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. [22] For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now….” Creation awaits the day of its deliverance from evil….

Bible Q&A #570: “Would God want me to share the Gospel?”