(in short: The Mystery Doctrine of the Church Age). Part 50.
The Portfolio of Invisible Assets. Part 10.
The Indwelling of each Person of the Trinity.
PLEASE READ FIRST
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Prepare yourself for learning the Word of God!
Before we begin, if you are a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ (that is; you have believed [trusted] in Him for His promised gift of eternal life), it is important to prepare yourself to learn God's Word so take a moment to name, cite or acknowledge (confess) your sins privately to God (i.e.; with your thoughts directed only to God the Father).
1 John 1:9 says: "If we confess our sins, He (God) is faithful and just to forgive us our sins (known sins) and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness [unknown or forgotten sins]." NKJV (New King James Version) [italics added]
If you have never personally believed in the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior (that is, believed in Him for eternal life), the issue for you is not to name your sins; the issue for you is to have faith alone in Jesus Christ alone for eternal life:
John 6:47 says: "Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me (Jesus Christ) has everlasting life." NKJV
[italics added] Notice again what Jesus said in John 6:47: "…he who believes in Me (Jesus Christ) has everlasting life." It doesn't say, "will have"; it says, "has." Therefore, the very moment you believe in Jesus Christ for His promise of everlasting life, you have it (it's really just that simple; nothing more and nothing less), and it can never be taken away from you (John 10:28-29). Furthermore, the gift (Ephesians 2:8c) of everlasting life (also called eternal life in scripture) is available to every human being; there are absolutely no exceptions.
John 3:14-18 says: "14 And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, 15 that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. 16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. 17 For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. 18 He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God." NKJV
Let us now bow our hearts and take a moment to prepare for worship and learning God's Word. If there is any known sin in your life, this is the time to just cite it privately to God the Father with your thoughts directed towards Him. With your head bowed and your eyes closed, you have total privacy in your mind and soul:
Study to show yourself approved to God!
Grace Bible Church
Robert R. McLaughlin Bible Ministries
The Tree of Life is a weekly teaching summary:
God’s Word is Wednesday, Friday and Sunday mornings
God’s Word is Wednesday, Friday and Sunday mornings
STUDY TITLE:
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Terms & Abbreviations used:
PPOG = Predesigned Plan of God
Human Good = Evil + Good Deeds while not in fellowship with God
OSN = Old Sin Nature
TLJC = The Lord Jesus Christ
SSE = Spiritual Self Esteem
PVTD = Positive Volition Towards Doctrine
+H - The Happiness of God
NVTD = Negative Volition Towards Doctrine
Doctrine = Bible Truth
Human Good = Evil + Good Deeds while not in fellowship with God
OSN = Old Sin Nature
TLJC = The Lord Jesus Christ
SSE = Spiritual Self Esteem
PVTD = Positive Volition Towards Doctrine
+H - The Happiness of God
NVTD = Negative Volition Towards Doctrine
Doctrine = Bible Truth
BEGIN BIBLE STUDY
Unless otherwise noted, all scripture quotes and references
are from the NASB – New American Standard Bible
Under the category of what it means to be initiated into the secret of the mystery, we have already noted:
1) The baptism of the Spirit.
2) The indwelling of Christ as the Shekinah glory.
3) The Angelic Conflict.
4) The mystery of adoption.
5) The sealing ministry of the Holy Spirit.
6) The pre-designed plan of God.
7) The mystery of predestination.
8) The unique equality factor of the Church-age.
9) The Portfolio of Invisible Assets.
10) The Royal Commissions for every Church-age Believer: the Royal priesthood and the Royal ambassadorship.
We are now ready for the next mystery doctrine: The indwelling of each person of the Trinity. First, the indwelling of the Father (JOH 14:23; EPH 4:6; 2JO 1:9). Secondly, the indwelling of the Son (JOH 14:20; JOH 17:22-23; ROM 8:10; 2CO 13:5; Gal 2:20; COL 1:27; 1JO 3:24). Thirdly, the indwelling of the Holy Spirit (Rom 8:11; 1CO 3:16; 6:19-20; 2CO 6:16). One of the unique factors of the mystery doctrine of the Church-age is the indwelling of the Trinity. Never before in history, and never again after the Rapture, is the believer indwelt by God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. JOH 14:23 Jesus answered and said to him, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him, and make Our abode with him.”
1JO 4:15-16 Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. And we have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.
1JO 3:23-24 And this is His commandment, that we believe in the name of His Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, just as He commanded us. And the one who keeps His commandments abides in Him, and He in him. And we know by this that He abides in us, by the Spirit whom He has given us.
God the Father indwells us for four reasons: 1) As the Author of our portfolio of invisible assets. 2) As the Grantor of our escrow blessings. 3) As the Mastermind of the PPOG for the Church-age. 4) As the Designer of our very own unique and individual plan. So the indwelling of God the Father is a guarantee of His personal ministry to every Church-age believer; it is unique and without precedence, and it is a part of the mystery doctrine of the Church-age. Our Lord said in JOH 14:18-20 “I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. After a little while the world will behold Me no more; but you will behold Me; because I live, you shall live also. In that day you shall know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you.”
In JOH 17:22-23 “And the glory which Thou hast given Me I have given to them; that they may be one, just as We are one; I in them, and Thou in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, that the world may know that Thou didst send Me, and didst love them, even as Thou didst love Me.”
The indwelling of The Lord Jesus Christ (TLJC) serves as both a sign and a badge of the Royal Family of God. We are here to complement our Lord's strategic victory in His great power demonstration of the Hypostatic union. The indwelling of Jesus Christ is a guarantee of our escrow blessings, for Jesus Christ is both the depositary and the escrow officer. As the indwelling Shekinah glory, Jesus Christ is a guarantee of the irrevocability of the escrow blessings and the certainty of their distribution to winners. The indwelling of Jesus Christ motivates momentum in the PPOG, Christ in you, the hope of glory (Col 1:27), and also gives you great confidence in your advance to maturity. It is the basis for the utilization of divine power that is as available to us as it was to our Lord in the great power demonstration of the Hypostatic union. The indwelling of Jesus Christ is a guarantee that we have eternal life after death; death has lost its sting; the grave has lost its power. Then there is the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, ROM 8:11 But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you [and He does], He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who indwells you.
JOH 14:17 “that is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not behold Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you, and will be in you.”
1CO 3:16 Do you not know that you are a temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? 1CO 6:19 Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own?
2TI 1:14 “Guard, through the Holy Spirit who dwells in us, the treasure which has been entrusted to you.”
The Holy Spirit primarily indwells every believer to provide a temple for the indwelling of Jesus Christ as the Shekinah glory. The indwelling of the Holy Spirit provides a base of operations for the use of His omnipotence as the means of executing the PPOG. He provides a base whereby His power is available, attainable, and usable when we live and function inside the PPOG.
We execute the PPOG in two ways:
1) The filling of the Spirit, which is residence, function, and momentum inside the PPOG.
2) Through the teaching ministry of the Holy Spirit inside the PPOG. Without that ministry, we would not be able to comprehend doctrine. JOH 14:26 “But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you.” JOH 16:12-14 “I have many more things to say to you, but you cannot bear {them} now. But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come. He shall glorify Me; for He shall take of Mine, and shall disclose it to you.”
The indwelling of the Holy Spirit provides a guarantee of two categories of Christian life. The filling of the Spirit (EPH 6:18) is tantamount to the Holy Spirit controlling your soul when you're in the PPOG, as a result making possible P.M.A. of B.D. Walking by means of the Spirit (GAL 5:16) is tantamount to the Church-age believer living inside the PPOG. This is the omnipotence of the Holy Spirit related to the PPOG. So all three members of the Trinity indwell our bodies whether we are winners or losers. There are three important distinctions we must understand:
1) The difference between the indwelling of Jesus Christ in our bodies and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit in our bodies.
2) The distinction between the indwelling of the Holy Spirit in our bodies and the filling of the Holy Spirit in our souls, which is tantamount to residence, function, and momentum inside the PPOG. Life inside the PPOG is the only place for the utilization of the Spirit's power. The indwelling of the Holy Spirit occurs in the body of every believer. The filling of the Holy Spirit occurs in the believer's soul only inside the PPOG.
3) The distinction between the indwelling of Jesus Christ in our bodies and the glorification of Christ in our bodies. The indwelling of Jesus Christ is status quo from salvation and is never experienced. The glorification of Christ in our bodies, however, is the ultimate experience of the Christian way of life, the experience of maturity. In fact, each stage of spiritual adulthood is characterized by an experience related to Christ. The experience of spiritual self-esteem is in GAL 4:19, “My little children, I am sweating you out until Christ is formed in your bodies.” The experience of spiritual independence or autonomy is in Eph 3:17, “Christ being at home in our bodies.” The experience of spiritual maturity is in PHI 1:20 “Christ being glorified in our bodies.”
The significance of the indwelling of God the Father is related to the glorification of His pre-designed plan for the Church-age, EPH 1:3-12 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who [God the Father] has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, Just as He chose us in Him [TLJC] before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before Him. In love He [God the Father] predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace [provision of His invisible assets and the PPOG] which He [God the Father] freely bestowed on us in the beloved [TLJC]. In Him [TLJC] we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His [God the Father's] grace, Which He lavished upon us. In all wisdom and insight He made known to us the mystery of His will [PPOG], according to His [God the Father's] kind intention which He purposed in Him [TLJC] With a view to an administration suitable to the fulness of the times, that is, the summing up of all things in Christ, things in the heavens and things upon the earth. [In Him] also we have obtained an inheritance [escrow blessings], having been predestined [the PPOG] according to His purpose who works all things after the counsel of His will, To the end that we who were the first to hope in Christ should be to the praise of His glory. The Author of our invisible assets and escrow blessings, the Mastermind of the PPOG, the Designer of the PPOG - He is living inside of you!
As a part of the great demonstration of power in the Church-age we have the significance of the indwelling of Jesus Christ; He is the King of kings and the Lord of lords, and to live inside of you makes you a member of His Royal Family as well. It is a guarantee of the availability and potential utilization of divine power by every Church-age believer who resides inside the PPOG. When the deity of Christ lived inside of the humanity of Christ, He relied totally on the same divine power you have available to you today. The significance of the indwelling of Jesus Christ is a guarantee of life after death in the presence of God forever. Wherever Christ is, we will be! He is the head; we are His body. He is the last Adam; we are the new creation. He is the Great Shepherd; we are His sheep. He is the Vine; we are the branches. He is the High Priest; we are the Royal priesthood. He is the Groom; we are the bride.
The significance of the indwelling of Jesus Christ is that, as the depositary [the one who holds our escrow blessings], He is the guarantee of distribution of our blessings on the attainment of spiritual growth. EPH 1:3 “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ,” All of our blessings from God the Father have been deposited in Christ, and He is the one who distributes these blessings to us at the appropriate time. There are three spiritual skills in the Christian way of life: 1) the filling of the Holy Spirit and therefore the use of divine power. 2) Cognition of Bible doctrine and therefore the use of divine power. 3) Execution of the PPOG and therefore the use of divine power. The greatest power functioning in the world today is the power of God. We need that divine power because Satan, as the ruler of this world, has maximum power which is utilized for his evil policy of both moral and immoral degeneracy. This evil power is deceptive because it is often disguised with the facade of good works or religion. This evil power is described for us in many passages; for example, Satan is the highest of all angels, and ruler of all fallen angels, MAT 9:34, “the ruler of demons.” MAT 12:26 tells us that Satan has a kingdom. Satan is superior in genius, beauty, personality, persuasiveness, and he is invisible. Satan's power is revealed by the fact that he is an organizational genius with a great organization of demons, EPH 6:12 “For our warfare is not against blood and flesh, [people's souls or their OSN] but against the rulers [highest ranking demons in Satan's organization, such as Abaddon or Apollyon and or Beelzebub] against the powers [demon officers who have phenomenal authority] against the world forces of this darkness [Satan's demon ambassadors who control many world rulers] against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places [spiritual forces of evil in the atmosphere, the stellar universe, and even in the presence of God to represent Satan].
Since the fall of Adam, Satan has been the ruler of this world (LUK 4:5-7; JOH 12:31; 14:30; 16:11; 2CO 4:4; EPH 2:2). The devil rules all fallen angels, and sadly the majority of all unbelievers. The devil also rules certain believers through demon influence and cosmic involvement. However, because of our Lord's victory on the cross which overflows into the Church-age, we have received the delegated divine power to resist the devil. 1JO 4:4 “Greater is he who is in you [omnipotence of God the Holy Spirit in the PPOG] than he who is in the world [power of Satan as ruler of the world and cosmic system].” Satan's power is not greater than God's, and this should remind us of God's grace; He has made available to us His power.
Satan has power far greater than our human power, but God has made available to us, Church-age believers, His power; found in the omnipotence of the Father providing our invisible assets and escrow blessings, the omnipotence of God the Son who preserves the universe and controls history daily, and the omnipotence of God the Holy Spirit who provides the power to execute the PPOG. Therefore, we have greater power than Satan. Even for the unbeliever, God in his grace has provided a power to resist the power of Satan under the laws of divine establishment.
Religion is a part of Satan's strategy; it is the creation of Satan's genius to counterfeit the plan of God. It is man seeking to use his own merits, his own works to gain the approbation of God. Satan's counterfeits of the plan of God in religion include a counterfeit: 1. Gospel, 2CO 4:3-4. 2. Ministers, 2CO 11:13-15. 3. Doctrine, 2TI 4:1. 4. Communion table, 1CO 10:19-21. 5. Spirituality, GAL 3:2-3. 6. Righteousness, MAT 19:16-28. 7. Self-righteousness, MAT 23:13-36. 8. Power and dynamics (miracles, healing, tongues) 2TH 2:8-10. 9. System of gods, 2TH 2:3-4.
False teachers are also a part of his strategy (1JO 4:1-3). MAT 7:15 “Beware of the false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves.” They seek to stimulate your ego, ROM 16:18 For such men are slaves, not of our Lord Christ but of their own appetites; and by their smooth and flattering speech they deceive the hearts of the stupid. They use human public relations systems and legalistic flirtation to court believers. GAL 4:17 They eagerly seek you, not commendably, but they wish to shut you out, in order that you may seek them. They appeal to human ego and arrogance and pride to distract believers from grace (2CO 10:12), and promote legalism, (1TI 1:7-8). All apostates have been deceived by Satan to the extent they are influenced by good and evil, 2TI 3:13 But evil men [men influenced by the satanic policy of evil] and impostors [false teachers] will proceed from bad to worse, deceiving [others] and being deceived [themselves]. 2TI 2:24-26 And the Lord's bond-servant must not be quarrelsome, but be gracious to all, able [qualified and gifted] to teach, patient when wronged [maltreated and persecuted]. With gentleness [sensitivity] correcting those who are in opposition if perhaps God may grant them repentance leading to the knowledge of the truth. And they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, having been held captive by him to do his will. Those deceived by the power of Satan start to lose their spiritual senses and then common sense. The devil holds believers captive by legalism, self-righteousness, arrogance, emotionalism, guilt, fear, condemnation, and manipulation.
The Church-age is the most intensive time of the angelic conflict, so the greatest delegation of divine power in human history occurs between the resurrection of Christ and the resurrection of the Church. It is the omnipotence of God given to execute the PPOG. Divine omnipotence is related to both God's promises and God's actions on our behalf; both are a manifestation of His grace. However, you will never use this power unless you learn Bible doctrine; there is no substitute for learning doctrine. We would not be able to understand the knowledge of the glory of God if it were not for the ministry of God the Holy Spirit. Divine power is at work when we are learning Bible doctrine and metabolizing it in our hearts. 2CO 4:7 But we have this treasure [the doctrine from God] in earthen vessels, that the surpassing greatness of the power may be from God and not from ourselves.” We get doctrine into our human bodies by the omnipotence of God the Holy Spirit, the delegated power of God for our perception, metabolization, and utilization of Bible doctrine inside the PPOG. We have a treasure in earthen vessels or our human body, and that treasure is Bible doctrine. Your human Spirit is your treasury and the place where good and precious things are collected and stored up and a place filled with valuables.
The delegation of the omnipotence of God to the Church-age began with the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ at the end of the dispensation of the hypostatic union. EPH 1:15-20 “for this reason I too, having heard of the faith in the Lord Jesus which exists among you, and your impersonal unconditional love for all the saints, do not cease to give thanks for you, while making mention of you in my prayers that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a Spirit of wisdom [lifestyle of wisdom], and of the revelation in the knowledge of Him. I ask the God of our Master, Jesus Christ, the God of glory—to make you intelligent and discerning in knowing Him personally, I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, And what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who have believed in accordance with the working of the strength of His might, which [power] He brought about [or made operational] by means of Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in heavenly places.” Note that this divine power was not made available until He raised TLJC from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in heavenly places. The surpassing greatness of His power is the Christian way of life. Having your priorities straight and being accurate and precise with doctrine is how you put into action the procedures and the mechanics. God has a system for utilization of divine power, it is found in the PPOG for your life. One of the terms used to describe God's plan for you is procedure, which emphasizes the utilization of divine power inside the PPOG. Because we are Royal Family, we must function under Royal Family procedures. In the PPOG, procedure means that there is only one way of doing a thing: the right way. There is only one way to use God's power, the right way. God's policy of grace is divine power or omnipotence delegated to Church-age believers so that each believer has the power and ability to fulfill God's game plan for them. This utilization of divine power is designed for the greatest invisible impact in all of human history. Before the dispensation of the hypostatic union and the resurrection of Jesus Christ, divine power was delegated to very few Old Testament believers on a limited basis. This is why we read in PSA 51:11 “Do not cast me away from Thy presence, And do not take Thy Holy Spirit from me.” There was a contingency on the power of God given to the O.T. saints; they could lose that power, but we can't. We always have that power made available to us.
So, the divine power used to raise Jesus Christ from the dead is the same divine power which is available to every believer today. It is this experience of divine power or the application of the omnipotence of God in our life that allows to have the attitude our Lord had in JOH 18:1-11 When Jesus had spoken these words, He went forth with His disciples over the ravine of the Kidron, where there was a garden, into which He Himself entered, and His disciples. Now Judas also, who was betraying Him, knew the place; for Jesus had often met there with His disciples. Judas then, having received the {Roman} cohort, and officers from the chief priests and the Pharisees, came there with lanterns and torches and weapons. Jesus therefore, knowing all the things that were coming upon Him, went forth, and said to them, “Whom do you seek?” They answered Him, “Jesus the Nazarene.” He said to them, “I am.” And Judas also who was betraying Him, was standing with them. When therefore He said to them, “I am {He},” they drew back, and fell to the ground. Again therefore He asked them, “Whom do you seek?” And they said, “Jesus the Nazarene.” Jesus answered, “I told you that I am {He}; if therefore you seek Me, let these go their way,” that the word might be fulfilled which He spoke, “Of those whom Thou hast given Me I lost not one.” Simon Peter therefore having a sword, drew it, and struck the high priest's slave, and cut off his right ear; and the slave's name was Malchus. Jesus therefore said to Peter, “Put the sword into the sheath; the cup which the Father has given Me, shall I not drink it?”
The cup refers to what we are willing to receive as a part of the Father's plan for our life and as a part of picking up our cross and participating in our Lord's sufferings. In GAL 6:1-6, Paul says, “Brethren, even if a person is caught in any trespass, you who are spiritual restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness; each one looking to yourself, lest you too be tempted. Bear one another's burdens, and thus fulfill the law of Christ. For if anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing, he deceives himself. But let each one examine his own work, and then he will have reason for boasting in regard to himself alone, and not in regard to another. For each one shall bear his own load. Adversities and afflictions afford us the privilege of experiencing this divine power or the application of the omnipotence of God in our life. At times we will experience the ultimate blessing of being able to go through certain situations alone with the Lord Jesus Christ. The peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, and shall guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus (PHI 4:6). Between the resurrection of Christ and the Rapture is the greatest power experiment in all of human history, and you are a part of that experiment. This great power experiment is divided into two parts: 1) the incarnation and hypostatic union, 33 years terminating with the resurrection of Christ. 2) The Church-age, an indefinite period of time, terminating with the resurrection of the Church. The Church-age is the time of the most intense spiritual warfare in all of human history, because after our Lord's victory on the cross, Satan and the fallen angels raised their attack on the human race.
The following link is to a good news message describing how one can receive eternal life: Ticket to Heaven, it was written for anyone not absolutely certain about their eternal future.
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