“You have the capacity to have the Holy Spirit take you
by the hand and lead you into all the assets that are yours in Christ and make them really REAL in your
experience by faith; not just in head knowledge but, 'It's MINE!' It's by that deep consciousness that’s produced in your
inner man simply by believing God’s Word.
*****
“What is faith? ‘Faith comes by hearing and hearing by
the Word of God.’ Who wrote the Word of God? See, when you trust God’s Word,
who are you really trusting? You’re trusting the Spirit of God. Jesus said,
‘The words that I speak unto you they are Spirit and they are life.’
“You find out what God’s Word says about something and you
say, ‘That’s what’s real no matter what my experience says, no matter what my
emotions say, no matter what the advice of others say, no matter what my reason
says. What God says is true.’
“Most of the time, your senses and your experience want
to go the other way, but you stick with what’s . . . it’s by faith we
have access to this grace wherein we stand. I can't say it enough: The identity you have in Him, you
access it by faith.
“The access is by faith and that faith accesses that consciousness; that confidence in your inner man that’s produced by believing God’s Word.
*****
“Listen, when you believe what God says, it has an
impact in your inner man. Ephesians 3:12 says, ‘In whom we have boldness and
access with confidence by the faith of him.’
“Notice in verse 11, God’s doing some things according
to the eternal purpose which He purposed in Christ Jesus: ‘According to the
eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord.’
“When you begin to understand what God’s doing and
this eternal plan that He has in in His Son--this cosmic reality that God the
Father has planned to be the reality for the universe in His Son, and that one
that the Father’s going to use to do all of that--in Him we have boldness and
access with confidence. Why? By the faith of Him.
“I don’t have to wonder whether God’s going to accept
me; I don’t have to think maybe, possibly He will. All of the questions
anybody’s ever going to ask me about my access to God have been answered and I
can come with confidence. Yea, I can come with boldness.
*****
“In Ephesians, all three members of the godhead in
Ephesians are seen in action, working the counsel of God. They’re all for you.
That’s why it’s not a shock Paul says in Ephesians 2:18, ‘For through him, we
both have access by one Spirit.’
“The issue is, ‘What kind of life did God give His
creation to live?’ And if you want to know what kind of life (‘He breathed into
man the breath of life and man became a living soul’), that life came from the
godhead.
“So what kind of life does God live? Notice what Paul
says about what the Father thinks in Colossians 1:18-19: 18] And he
is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from
the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence.
[19] For it pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell.
[19] For it pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell.
“Why should Jesus Christ have preeminence in all
things? ‘For it pleased the Father that in him should all fullness dwell.’ It
pleases God the Father that His Son had the preeminence in everything. You know
who the Father lives to exalt and make No. 1? His Son.
“Philippians 2:11 says, ‘And that every tongue should
confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.’
“So when you try to exalt the Son, you know who you
really exalted? The Father. When you look at the Father, He says, ‘Exalt my
Son.’ The Son says, ‘Hey, when you exalt me you’re really exalting the Father.’
*****
“John 16:13 says, ‘Howbeit when he, the Spirit of
truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of
himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew
you things to come.’
“Who’s the Holy Spirit going to glorify when He comes?
If the Spirit of God is working in you, is He going to talk about Himself? No,
He’s going to talk about who? The Lord Jesus Christ.
“Every member of the godhead lives to exalt the other
members of the godhead. Nobody in the godhead lives for themselves; they all live
spontaneously, intimately, immediately, consistently for the other members of
the godhead.
“The life that God gave His creation was a life that
was designed to live like He lives life. That’s why sin in its most basic form
is not living for the good of others, for the gratification of others, for the
exaltation of others, for the pleasure of others. It’s living for yourself.
“I’ve said for 40 years, the middle letter of the word
sin is ‘I.’ You want to know your problem? Start there, because that’s what
makes your life lived exactly the opposite of the way God designed your life to
be lived.
*****
“I can’t not help but want to massage that word access into your thinking. The idea with
access is the concept of a personal
introduction. The Holy Spirit leads you into the presence of the Father and
introduces you to the Father and informs you about the Father and makes the
Father’s will real to you.
“Do you know one of the biggest hurdles with anything
in life is to get over that hurdle of being introduced so that you can enter into
a personal relationship?
“The function of the Holy Spirit is to do that. He
says it’s ‘through Christ.’ That word ‘access’ is used three times by Paul. The
first one emphasizes the ‘through Him.’
“I want you to notice something
about Ephesians 3 and the 'boldness and access with confidence by the faith of him.' In verse 9, Paul says his goal in the ministry is to ‘make
all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery.’ That doesn’t mean just make
people see in the sense of making people understand the distinctive ministry of
Paul. He wants you to see the fellowship that the mystery produces.
“What is that? Verse 6 says, ‘That the Gentiles should
be fellowheirs, and of the same body, and partakers of his promise in Christ by
the gospel.’ There’s this wonderful cosmic plan that God has for His Son. We’ve
been studying it all through Ephesians. It’s bigger than just your redemption.
It’s bigger that just your regeneration. It’s bigger that just your life this
afternoon.
“When you get the picture that you’re a part of
something GIGANTIC, something BIG that God’s doing, all focused in His Son, all
of a sudden it’s, ‘Turn your eyes upon Jesus, look full in His wonderful face.’
And what? ‘The things of this world grow strangely dim in the light of His
glory and grace.’ "
(new article tomorrow)
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