22/08/12

Hold on to your confidence to receive the promises

Hebrew 10: 35,36 - Cast not away therefore your confidence [boldness], which hath great recompence of reward. For ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise.


In today's message the Lord is telling us to hold on to our boldness in Christ for it has the ability to get us a great reward. This boldness as Paul says comes after we have done the will of God and to hold this boldness we require patience. The reward is the promise.

What is the promise we receive in Jesus Christ?

The promise is not just one promise is a collection of promises which has been given through many before Jesus, including those of Jesus. They are the ones given to Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, David and Jesus.

We need to understand in Genesis 5:2 when God created man He did not just name Adam as Adam but all his generation as Adam, which means what is of Adam was for the all his generations, this included the good and the bad. But in the mercy of God He did not let the bad pass down to more than 4 generations from father to son (that is why Jesus was not born of a human father or He would have not been free of sin), but allowed the good to pass down thousands of generations. That is why sins and curses go down only 4 generations (if the next 3 generations do not follow in the ways of their predecessor).

God in His mercy allowed an unfilled blessing in the life of a person to be received by his or her ancestor for His Word does not return without being fulfilled.

All the promises given to Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses and David are fulfilled in Jesus Christ including those given unto Jesus Christ. That means when we are in Christ we too are recipients of those promises of Christ like we received from Adam as descendants of Adam. The more we overcome the nature of Adman the further we get from the tree of Adam thus the less we receive of Adam and more we connect to the nature of Christ the more we receive of Jesus Christ. In Christ we are all brethren (just one level) therefore the curse from generation to generation does not affect us and we receive what we sow (Jer 31:29-34).

Coming back to today's message which talks of boldness; boldness is not being fearless for ignorance also causes a person to not have fear. The boldness written here is which comes after fulfilling scriptures and requires faith, temperance, joy and peace at the minimum which is what patience is.

People think patience is a fruit but that is not the case. People confuse it with temperance which means self-control. Patience is not a Fruit but a Fruit salad and includes many Fruits. A person with just one Fruit will never be able to have patience.

Today the Lord is telling us if we need to receive of the promises in Christ we need to hold on to the Nature of Christ and that means to hold on to the Fruits of the Holy Spirit and grow in them. I do not want to go through the long list of promises from Noah to Jesus. But they include the Lord being our God and dwelling among us, not letting His anger consume us, receiving His Holy Spirit, opening again of Heaven (which was shut for Adam - his generations), cancelling the curse of Hell, making us Princes of God who have authority, becoming His Sons and eternal life.


[ Prayer Starter ]
Lord, help us have boldness in You, to grow in our faith by increase of knowledge and understanding of your Word and by our abiding in it. Lord, help us grow the Fruits of the Holy Spirit that we may have more and more of Christ in us and thus receive more and more of His promises...

This prayer we make in Jesus' Name, Amen.


[ Reference Scriptures ]
Genesis 5:2 - Male and female created he them; and blessed them, and called their name Adam, in the day when they were created.

Exodus 34:6,7
6 And the LORD passed by before him, and proclaimed, The LORD, The LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth,
7 Keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children's children, unto the third and to the fourth generation.

Galatians 3:14-18
14 That the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ; that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.
15 Brethren, I speak after the manner of men; Though it be but a man's covenant, yet if it be confirmed, no man disannulleth, or addeth thereto.
16 Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ.
17 And this I say, that the covenant, that was confirmed before of God in Christ, the law, which was four hundred and thirty years after [times of Moses], cannot disannul, that it should make the promise of none effect.
18 For if the inheritance be of the law, it is no more of promise: but God gave it to Abraham by promise.

Jeremiah 31:29-34
29 In those days they shall say no more, The fathers have eaten a sour grape, and the children's teeth are set on edge.
30 But every one shall die for his own iniquity: every man that eateth the sour grape, his teeth shall be set on edge.
31 Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah:
32 Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith the LORD:
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.
34 And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the LORD: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the LORD: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.

The Word of God was given free to us, therefore we should also share it freely with others. (All rights are with God)