Otherworldliness in KJV's All Caps

(well, I failed to come through on my promise and will have to postpone conference notes, etc., until this evening now. Tiredness hit me like a brick last night. My lack of sleep from a week away from home, where I was being awakened daily by noises at the crack of dawn and then getting up soon after to ready myself for the conference's 9 a.m. meetings that required driving through rush-hour traffic for almost an hour, combined with the late nights staying up talking, etc., etc.)

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An unexplained phenomenon in a King James Bible, one with no explanation from the translators, is the use of all-caps words and phrases. 

The first occurrence of it is in Exodus 3:14: [14] And God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM: and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you.

"When you know how the translation was done, it was done by different companies of people, so the guys who translated Revelation were not the same guys who translated Exodus," explains Richard Jordan.

"There are more than two dozen places where there are whole long phrases that are in all upper case. Why did they do that? I've looked for 30 years and there's no explanation.

"Most of the instances are associated with the crucifixion of Christ but this was not something--I mean, all the translators agreed to the translation of LORD and GOD in upper case to represent Jehovah and they tell you that in their preface, but they don't mention any of this super-cap stuff.

"Like I said, the translators don't explain why they did it and there's no reason in the translation process that they would do it. They just all of a sudden came along and put in these super-cap words and phrases.

Exodus 6:3: [3] And I appeared unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, by the name of God Almighty, but by my name JEHOVAH was I not known to them.

"The translators did not always write all-caps LORD for Jehovah; sometimes they put Jehovah in the text. Here they capitalized it.

"Revelation 19 is the last time it happens. In a passage on the Second Coming, Revelation 19:16: [16] And he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS.

"The first occurrence in Exodus 3 was identifying who Jehovah is; the last occurrence is identifying who the Lord Jesus Christ is. The first time talks about the ALPHA and the last time the OMEGA. 

"They first give God's name, I AM THAT I AM; tell them I AM sent you,' and then when the Lord Jesus Christ comes, He's the KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS.

"There are seven words in that name. Seven is the number of completion. Exodus 3 has seven words in upper case. There are only three words in that phrase, I AM THAT. Two of them, I AM, are repeated three times. Three is the number of the trinity.

"A perfect revelation of the godhead, the triune God, stuck in there in caps. Nobody can explain why it's that way, it just is.

"When you study all the instances, and I commend that to you, you say, 'Nah, this is not really a mistake.' There are patterns throughout your Bible and it's fascinating when you study these super caps out.

"I see the otherworldliness of this Book and I see a reason to believe it beyond just saying, 'Well, I can prove historically . . .' and I'm willing to get way out on a limb and trust it even with my eternity, because the more I study it the more I see, 'Wow, there's things in this Book that isn't like ANY other book.'

"There's something otherworldly about the Book that the eye of faith will see. You can't even get other Believers, often, to see this. People say, 'You're just a bunch of superstitious numerologists.' I say, 'Okay, I'm not trying to build a doctrine on it; I'm just saying that it's fascinating to me.' "

Catholic Chicago, once citadel of truth

 (Upon leaving the conference today and heading north to the entrance ramp to 290 E toward Chicago, I went through the drive-thru at Portillos and ordered their large Italian beef sandwich "wet," meaning they're supposed to dunk the sandwich in a vat of "gravy" before wrapping it up. Well, when I pulled the sandwich out about an hour into my trip it was DRY! I should have known it wasn't right by the light weight of the bag that was handed to me. Big bummer but I have to say the wetless Beef was still super delightful.

The best part of the first segment of my trip home from the Elmhurst conference site was driving inbound on the Eisenhower, something I hadn't done in at least seven years! I totally went back in my head to all the million times I made that evening commute on 290 E back to Chicago's Northside from my job as a feature reporter and columnist at the Naperville Sun newspaper in the early to mid-90s. You talk about a grand finale to my Chicago trip! It was amazing how it seemed like just yesterday and yet for me to think how many years and life events have passed!

Like I said yesterday, I will have conference notes starting tomorrow. Right now as I write I;m forced to wrap my head around the reality that my vacation is officially over and I am returning to work tomorrow--yikes!. . . Oh, by the way, there were big-time wildfire smells in eastern Indiana and southwestern Ohio, including in my driveway bringing luggage in earlier this evening)

(new article tomorrow)

“Paul didn’t go into the mountains and the country; he went where the people were, the population centers. I’ve said for years, one of the greatest tragedies in fundamental evangelical Christianity in America in the 20^th Century is, in the middle of the century, the great host of evangelical Bible-preaching ministries fled the cities to the suburbs because it was easier to live in the suburbs than it was to live in the turmoil developing in the cities. ‘The flowery beds of ease,’ as the song says.

"When fundamentalist Believers fled, they left an absence of truth. For Chicago, since the latter part of the last century, it has been so tightly under the grip of Romanism," explains Richard Jordan.

“Where the people are is where the problems are. Where the problems are, people are going to solve the problems. If truth leaves, what’s the church? The pillar and ground of the truth. The problems will be solved with error, but the problems will get solved because the nature of man is he has to have that order. That’s the way God structured man and his society to function.

“If you go back to the 1920s, ‘30s, ‘40s, ‘50s, Chicago was the citadel of fundamentalism in America. The pastor of Moody Church in the ‘40s, Harry Ironside was called the Archbishop of Fundamentalism.

“Pastor O’Hair of North Shore Church, our ministry, was right there are on the north shore of Chicago and reached out around the world from there, but it had the gospel-preaching center.

“One of the first radio stations in the country preaching the gospel was built in the bell tower of North Shore Church at Wilson Avenue and Sheridan Road in 1926. Chicago was a hub for fundamental Bible-preaching Christianity. New York City’s Isaac Haldeman of First Baptist Church. Philadelphia. These they were great centers of fundamental, Bible-believing, Scofield dispensationalism; they were recovering these truths.

“Historically, missionaries would go to a foreign country and they didn’t go to the cities; they’d go to the mountains and then get a following. Take pictures and come back home and show pictures of little babies and people in need and raise money.

“The first 300 years after Paul were the greatest years of evangelism, outreach, expanding the Body of Christ in all of church history. We’re going into a culture right now—our country is falling back into the culture that the world has been in for 2,000 years.

“You’re going to live to see in the next decade a world in America that is just almost exactly like the world Paul lived in, but remember what God did in that world for the Body of Christ because all the distractions were taken away and they just had truth."

God's love: 'World itself could not contain the books'

(sorry for all the delays. my church's annual summer Bible conference that I'm attending in Chicago ends tomorrow and I will be heading home and back to work Friday. I promise to have a first installment on conference notes, tidbits, insights, etc. Friday evening)

I John 4:10: [10] Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.

The first time the word love appears in the Bible is in Genesis 22: [2] And he said, Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah; and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of.

The first time you read about someone loving someone is Abraham being told by God to take his son and offer him. The first occurrences of terms in the Bible are very important. They set the tone and definition of a word, says Richard Jordan. 

The first time it occurs it’s defined as the love a father has for his only son. Abraham did have another boy, Ishmael, but Isaac was the promised son. He was the one God had promised to him, produced by the miraculous birth when Abraham and Sarah couldn’t normally have children.

I John 4: 9: [9] In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him.

So the connection between the first time love occurs in the Bible, it’s connected right with God’s love at Calvary when He too sent His only begotten Son through a miraculous birth. To be a sacrifice.

Abraham’s given that information in Genesis 22, and one of the most wonderful pictures of the sacrifice of Christ at Calvary is found there as Abraham was told to take his son up on that mountain.

You see, the definition of love in the Bible is the love the Creator had for you and me. The love that would make Him step out of heaven, come down into our reality, into our flesh and our humanity and go to the Cross and die to pay for all of our sins. Give Himself completely for us.

John 3:16: [16] For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

Romans 5:8: [8] But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

You look at Calvary and you see what love is. I John 4:11: [11] Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another.

You can’t love one another until you have the right motivation behind it. Trying to be good and love other people to get a paycheck doesn’t do it. You get the world we live in. Trying to be good and love other people just for the fact that it makes you feel good and it’s something you ought to do won’t get it.

Notice that the required motivation for producing love for others in the verse is “if God so loved us.” If you understood how God loved you, you ought also to love one another.

The required motivation for producing love for your brothers and sisters, for your fellow man, is to acknowledge that the Creator has come down to this planet as a man and has gone to the Cross and has died for our sins. He’s put away our sin by the sacrifice of Himself.

That is information that is rejected by every hell-bound sinner on the planet. It’s rejected by the atheists, by the evolutionists, by the academics, by the humanists, by the religionists, by the whole culture out there today.

In fact, what God’s Word would say on the topic is so foreign to the world we live in that just basic definitions that are founded on the Scripture are considered hate mail and hate speech today.

If you stand in our culture today and say marriage is designed by its Creator to be one man and one woman for one lifetime, you’re guilty of hate speech. Just simply reading Matthew 19 and the words of Jesus Christ on the radio can get you charged with hate speech.

The foundation has been destroyed simply because God’s Word has been rejected and if you want to do something to help people, go out there motivated by an understanding of how much your Creator loves you and loves them and share with them the truth of His love and His grace. That’s the key.

Someone has said the Lord Jesus Christ is the one who brings God out from behind the curtain. That’s what that word “exegesis” means. It means you take it out from obscurity and put them on stage and put the light on them. And that’s what the Lord Jesus Christ does.

There’s not any religion on the face of the earth that does or ever has had anybody like the Lord Jesus Christ. There’s not a philosophy, or a religion, or a system of economics, or politics, or academia, that has anything like Him. No religion.

One of the fascinating things about these things is people talk about, “How do you know something is true?” There are a lot of evidences that are not just direct evidences but just common-sense evidences that come along.

I was reading a book where the guy made the point, “Where’s anybody that ever sang, ‘Oh, how I love Buddha, O how I love Buddha’?” Nobody sings, “Allah paid it all. All to him I owe. Sin had left a crimson stain; Allah washed it white as snow.’

You know there are thousands of songs written about one person, the Lord Jesus Christ. Love songs. You know, that’s the kind of songs people write. I mean, hillbilly songs, rock songs, contemporary songs—people write love songs. They write about what they love, they value, they esteem, what captures their heart.

John 20 says, “Many other signs did Jesus.” The last thing in the Book of John, he says, “If all the books could be written about the things that Jesus Christ did, the world couldn’t hold them":

John 21: [25] And there are also many other things which Jesus did, the which, if they should be written every one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written. Amen.

So the songwriter says, “Could we with ink the ocean fill,
And were the skies of parchment made,
Were every stalk on earth a quill,
And every man a scribe by trade;
To write the love of God above
Would drain the ocean dry;
Nor could the scroll contain the whole,
Though stretched from sky to sky.”

How in the world do you explain the fact that no religion in the world has anybody writing love songs about their religion, how much it’s done for them, and along her comes the Lord Jesus Christ?! . . . Psalm 69 says “He’s going to be the song of drunkards.” Even drunks write songs about Him!

You get out into world . . . You remember the lyrics, “Chicago, Chicago, the only town Billy Sunday could not shut down.” You know that line? Why? They’re bragging about the fact Billy Sunday went all over America preaching the gospel and getting people saved . . .

You know, in northwest Alabama there’s a little town called Reform. The Billy Sunday of the South was a man named Sam Jones. He went all over the southern part of the U.S. doing what Billy Sunday did in the Midwest and Northeast.

He went into that town, and they were a mecca of gambling and the liquor trade and Jones went into that little town and preached the gospel for about three months and people got saved left and right, and the newspaper accounts of it are that by the time he got through with that revival meeting, if you wanted to cuss, you did it under your breath.

All the liquor establishments were closed down. All the bars were closed down. All the gambling houses were closed down and the city council voted to change the name of the town to Reform!

What is that? That’s the power of a person, the Lord Jesus Christ. Who was it on the Cross shedding His blood? The Lord Jesus Christ. But whose blood was that? Who really was that on the Cross? It was God. God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself. And it was God’s blood that flowed through Emmanuel’s veins “and sinners plunged beneath the flood lose all their guilty stain.”

You just keep on and on . . . you know just about everything you can think of you can think of a gospel song or hymn that takes that experience in life and relates it to a love affair with the Lord Jesus Christ. He’s the one who brings God into every aspect and facet and experience of our life.

By the way, He does it because of the Cross. I John 4:7 is a fascinating verse of Scripture: “Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God.”

If you’re going to love people, you’re going to have to know God. And if you don’t know God, you’re not going to know how to love people.

Here’s the rest of the hymn:
“The love of God is greater far
  Than tongue or pen can ever tell.
It goes beyond the highest star
  And reaches to the lowest hell.
The guilty pair, bowed down with care,
  God gave His Son to win;
His erring child He reconciled
  And pardoned from his sin.

 O love of God, how rich and pure!
  How measureless and strong!
It shall forevermore endure—
    The saints’ and angels’ song.

When hoary time shall pass away,

  And earthly thrones and kingdoms fall;
When men who here refuse to pray,
  On rocks and hills and mountains call;
God’s love, so sure, shall still endure,
  All measureless and strong;
Redeeming grace to Adam’s race—
  The saints’ and angels’ song.”

Abiding in constant, habitual expectancy

(ran out of time and will post new article tomorrow)

Martin Luther once said, “If you’re engaged in the battle for the truth at every point except the point at which the truth is being contended for in your life, you’re not really in the battle.”

Paul calls us “debtors” to “his Spirit that dwelleth in you. Love puts claims on your life. Love reaches down and puts a claim on your life that the law never could. Love is a motivator. It’s something that reaches into your heart and motivates you internally in a way no external compulsion can do, says Richard Jordan.

*****

Psalm 37 advises, [4] Delight thyself also in the LORD; and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart.
[5] Commit thy way unto the LORD; trust also in him; and he shall bring it to pass.

How do you trust in the Lord; commit your way to the Lord? First, you’ve got to know the Lord and know His mind. How are you going to trust Him if you don’t know Him? How can you trust Him if you don’t know what to trust Him about?

To "delight thyself in the Lord" means you need to know some things about the Lord to be delighted about. People make all this stuff up; they say they talk to the Lord and He talks to them. They make a God in their own mind and delight in their own God.

James 4:3 says, "They ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts." That’s what religion does! Religion is just designed to satisfy the lust of your flesh. And it will create a God who will do that for you.

But the way you do what’s in Psalm 37, and this is a tremendous psalm, is in verse 1: "Fret not thyself because of evildoers, neither be thou envious against the workers of iniquity."

*****

If you ever wanted to see some people who had reason to worry and the antidote for it, it’s this Believing Remnant in the tribulation looking out and seeing evil prosper. What are they to do?

Proverbs 3:6 says, "In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths."

Jesus says, "If you abide in me, focus on who I am and value me more than anything else, and let your mind be controlled by my Word, you know what will happen? You’ll have the knowledge to ask the right things that ought to be accomplished."

By the way, do you remember the old adage about prayer? A-S-K. "Ask, seek, knock."  If you go back and read Matthew 7:7 ("Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you"), the people Christ’s talking to in the context are fruitful believers. That’s on the Sermon on the Mount.

John 15:8 says, "Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples." When you are bearing fruit, the way you bear fruit is you abide in Him, you draw your resources from Him and you have your thinking regulated by His Word. If you do that, you’re going to bear fruit; the outward expression of that inner life.

*****

Jesus Christ says in John 15:4, "Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me."

In verse 7, He says it a little differently: "If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you."

That helps you define verse 4. "You abide in me, you keep your heart focused on me and you be occupied with me," Christ says in preparing the apostles to go through "the time of Jacob’s trouble."

To abide in something is to stay there. Constantly. You don’t leave. This is home. You’re going to dwell there. You’re going to be there not just occasionally, not sporadically, not fitfully, but this is where your heart’s going to be OCCUPIED.

“And if my word abides in you." There’s those two issues here. "Your heart’s going to be occupied with me, keep your eyes on me, look to Jesus the Author and finisher of our faith," it says in Hebrews, "but also have your life regulated by the Scripture."

They’re to be focused on who Christ is and what He’s provided for them. They’re to take their stand and just rest in who God’s made them, and the provisions God’s going to equip them with in Christ, and then let their thinking and their actions be regulated by what His Word has to say.

*****

By constantly, habitually communing with God through His Word until it becomes the substance of their inner being—that’s exactly what Jeremiah 31 and Ezekiel 36 tell them is going to take place.

He’s going to take His law and write it in their hearts and that law that He writes in their hearts is going to cause them—there’s going to be an internal compulsion that comes from the Word written in their heart that causes them to keep His commandment; that internal empowering. He’s talking about, "That’s the provision and that’s where you want to be.”

Laboring in your soul through prayer

(Had an unexpected disappointment just before the evening meeting at the Bible conference tonight, inevitably leading me to cry when I least wanted to. It was a sudden rejection--a door closing--related to something I'd been earnestly praying about. At least I got an apparent answer. Not only was it embarrassing to have tears fill my eyes during the meeting, but the tears dried out my already dry eyes, as they've been consistently doing for years now, making it somewhat difficult to navigate the unfamiliar dark streets heading back to my friend's house 45 minutes from the hotel site.) 

Will have to try again tomorrow evening on a new article. In meantime:

Paul writes in Colossians 4: [12] Epaphras, who is one of you, a servant of Christ, saluteth you, always labouring fervently for you in prayers, that ye may stand perfect and complete in all the will of God.

“What I find fascinating about that verse is it describes prayer as a labor. It’s actual WORK. I think sometimes we get the idea prayer is passive, but when someone prays for you, they’re doing you this great spiritual service. They’re working to help you!" says Columbus, Ohio preacher David Reid.

“Isn’t it fascinating to think you can think about a brother, and though he may be far-removed from you, you can care about him, and then by communicating with God about him, you can actually do him good because you are laboring in your soul on his behalf?”

“Paul says in Romans 15:30, ‘Now I beseech you, brethren, for the Lord Jesus Christ's sake, and for the love of the Spirit, that ye strive together with me in your prayers to God for me.’

“Prayer is something that requires effort because it’s a form of warfare. II Corinthians 1:11 says, ‘Ye also helping together by prayer for us, that for the gift bestowed upon us by the means of many persons thanks may be given by many on our behalf.’

*****

“I’ll be honest and tell you that in my life as a grace believer, I’ve had a very pathetic prayer life. My observation is that many grace believers do.

“The critical Pauline passage on prayer in my opinion is Philippians 4:6: ‘Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.’

“ ‘Be careful for nothing,’ is saying, ‘Don’t be full of care, don’t be overwhelmed, don’t be overburdened.’

“ ‘But in everything’ . . .  Notice it says IN everything. In every situation, every circumstance, every detail. Do you ever find yourself in a situation where you can’t pray? Not according to what that says.

“Notice it says ‘let your requests be made known.’ Does it condition them? Does it tell you there are certain things you can’t pray? It says if it’s your request, you can make it known. In fact, what it specifically says is ‘if you have a request, make it known.’ Don’t sit on it; make it known.

*****

“Look at verse 7 because this is what crystallizes prayer in my mind: ‘And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.’

“If you put verses 6 and 7 together, it says, ‘Don’t be troubled, and with an attitude of thanksgiving let your requests be made known, and you know what happens? You get peace!’

“I find often in my life I run into problems and my first reaction is, ‘This is bigger than me and I don’t know what to do with it.’

“So what I love about prayer is I can say, ‘God, this is causing me care. Here’s my request. I’m thankful for whatever you want to do with it and, God, it is now your problem. It’s not mine. It’s bigger than me; I’m giving it to you.’

“Verse 7 says what I get from doing that is peace, and that’s even peace that’s beyond my ability to understand. I don’t understand how it works, the details of it, but I understand I’ve given it to the Creator God who loves me and now it’s not my problem. Philippians 4: 6-7 is how you unburden yourself.

*****

“Let me run some verses with you. I Kings 8:54 says, ‘And it was so, that when Solomon had made an end of praying all this prayer and supplication unto the LORD, he arose from before the altar of the LORD, from kneeling on his knees with his hands spread up to heaven.’

“Daniel 6:10 says, ‘Now when Daniel knew that the writing was signed, he went into his house; and his windows being open in his chamber toward Jerusalem, he kneeled upon his knees three times a day, and prayed, and gave thanks before his God, as he did aforetime.’

“Luke 22:41 says, ‘And he was withdrawn from them about a stone's cast, and kneeled down, and prayed.’

“Isn’t that interesting? The Lord Jesus Christ knelt in prayer. Of course, Solomon did, Daniel did.

“Part of prayer is being in humility towards the Creator. Part of prayer is acknowledging your place in the universe and there’s something appropriate and spiritually proper to kneel down in prayer.”

Consciousness of being sealed

(I arrived yesterday in Chicago and didn't have internet connection last night staying with a married couple near the lakefront. I am attending my church's annual Bible conference and will have new article tomorrow evening)

What you need to do is acknowledge that the most important person in your life is God Himself and what the Father thinks of you is you’re "accepted in the beloved." And all the rest--the circumstances, your enemies, whatever, faulty or accurate opinion . . .

I think of the thing in John 13 when the Lord is in the Upper Room with His disciples, He starts out in verse 3: [3] Jesus knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he was come from God, and went to God;

I read that and I say there’s Philippians 2: "Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus." What was it that allowed God the Son to become the servant with the towel, washing the feet of His disciples? It was verse 3. He was secure in the knowledge that He was the beloved Son of the Father, in whom the Father is well-pleased.

He had a consciousness of His acceptance in His relationship with the Father that allowed Him to humble Himself. You see, true humility . . . humble yourself to be a servant, obedient even unto death. To say, "It’s not I, it’s Christ."

That doesn’t come with pride; pride doesn’t do that. That doesn’t come from self-confidence. It comes from confidence in who God has made you in His Son. You learn to, "Let this mind be in you which was in Christ Jesus."

*****

James 1:21 says to "receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls."

That’s a great expression—"the engrafted word." You have God’s work grafted into your soul. A graft is a living kind of thing. In horticulture, you can make a graft, cut a slit into a trunk, graft in a cutting from another tree, bind it up and cause it to grow. It’s a thing about putting life into something.

Hebrews 4 begins, 1] Let us therefore fear, lest, a promise being left us of entering into his rest, any of you should seem to come short of it.
[2] For unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them: but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it.

If the Word’s going to profit you, you don’t just hear it and know it--it has to be mixed with faith. In other words, you have to BELIEVE it. And when you believe it, it gets engrafted by faith into your soul. There’s a spiritual transaction where that Word literally gets implanted into your inner man.

*****

If ever there was a passage of Scripture that succinctly reveals how eternal salvation is brought into a person's life, Ephesians 1:13-14 is it:

[13] In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise,
[14] Which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory.

The Holy Spirit comes in to seal you (He "seals the deal," we would say) when you believed, and you believed when you heard the Word of truth.

The moment you trust the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior, relying exclusively on Him to be the Savior He died and rose again for you to be, God goes into action and seals you.

Now, when He seals you WITH His Spirit, the personal residency of the Spirit of God in your life is the seal; it’s the guarantee.

He says "that seal which is the earnest of our inheritance." It’s the down payment; it’s the first installment of the eternal glory that you’ll have forever.

A seal in the Bible is a sign of a done deal--the thing's accomplished. It’s a sign of ownership.

II Timothy 2:19 says, [19] Nevertheless the foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal, The Lord knoweth them that are his. And, Let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity.

You see, the seal tells you that He knows you. You’re His so you have "the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession." It also says you should depart from iniquity. Now that’s our part. We should live in the identity God gives us.

Ephesians 4:30 says, [30] And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.

Your security isn’t in what you do; it’s in who Jesus Christ is. Your security is the fact you’re sealed WITH the resident agency of the Holy Spirit. That’s a secure seal.

The seal is an issue of security, but that security doesn’t produce carelessness; it produces appreciation. Because of who we are, we should live in line with and in cooperation with what the Spirit of God’s doing in our life. That’s the sum total of what the Christian life is all about.

H.A. Ironside writes in a commentary, "The seal speaks of something that is settled. One draws up a legal document and seals it and that settles it. And so Christ and His loved ones have entered into an eternal relationship, and He has given us the seal, the Holy Spirit. That seal is the pledge of His love."

Dragon (i.e., Satan) in the details

You don’t need to prove God’s Word by trying to help Him out with some scientific theory about whether it’s true or not. God’s Word was true before anybody ever thought about it.

If you only see the physical and you think that’s all there is, and you don’t understand there’s something behind all that, you forget about the spirit part of it.

If you’re an evolutionist, well, you don’t believe in the supernatural anyway; all you believe is what’s physical and that's a nut-job take on things, says Richard Jordan.

Psalm 74: [12] For God is my King of old, working salvation in the midst of the earth.

[13] Thou didst divide the sea by thy strength: thou brakest the heads of the dragons in the waters.

The dragon (singular) in the spirit world is Satan and then the dragons with an ‘s’ are his minions; the little devils, or demons.

You learn something about how Satan and his cohorts' function (their character, their characteristics, their methodology) by looking at these creatures, because what they demonstrate in the physical world is the reality that these creatures in the spirit world function with.

Isaiah 27: [1] In that day the LORD with his sore and great and strong sword shall punish leviathan the piercing serpent, even leviathan that crooked serpent; and he shall slay the dragon that is in the sea.

The dragon, leviathan and the serpent are all the same dude. You know who the dragon is Revelation 12?

[9] And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.

You read down Job 41 and you see, "This is one weird-looking dude!" He’s so terrifying it says, [9] Behold, the hope of him is in vain: shall not one be cast down even at the sight of him?

[10] None is so fierce that dare stir him up: who then is able to stand before me?

If he stood here this morning it’d scare you so bad you’d just pass out cold on the floor. I mean, he’s a frightening-looking guy!

I love verse 18: [18] By his neesings a light doth shine, and his eyes are like the eyelids of the morning.

Now, "neesings" is a strange word you don’t see very often. It means "sneezing." The guy breathes real hard and there’s a glow.

You know how in the afternoon and evening you kind of get a little dullish, but in the morning you’re all bright-eyed and bushy-tailed? It says his eyes light up.

Next it says, [19] Out of his mouth go burning lamps, and sparks of fire leap out.

[20] Out of his nostrils goeth smoke, as out of a seething pot or caldron.

[21] His breath kindleth coals, and a flame goeth out of his mouth.

This thing about fire-breathing . . . there are creatures today . . . you ever heard of the Bombardier beetle? It’s a beetle that has a combustion chamber in its tail-end and when it gets scared .

You know how a skunk will spray you? Well, this beetle doesn’t spray you; he’s got two chemicals his body makes that when they’re separated, they’re neutral, but when they’re put together they explode. It will put out a stream that will burn a blister onto you.

First of all, you think about how that evolved. Every experiment that didn’t work . . . you know, now you’ve got three more million years to get back to that place by accident again.

My point is, in nature right now, there are little bugs that do what this guy does in a big scale. So when you start saying, "That can’t be real," don’t be so ill-informed and myopic that you don’t know what’s going on in creation around you, okay?

*****

Numbers 23: [22] God brought them out of Egypt; he hath as it were the strength of an unicorn.

[23] Surely there is no enchantment against Jacob, neither is there any divination against Israel: according to this time it shall be said of Jacob and of Israel, What hath God wrought!

"Uni" is one. "Corn" has to do with a horn. It’s a creature with one horn. You’ve seen animals like the rhinoceros, but this is in reference to the spirit world. Horns in the Bible represent power.

Deuteronomy 33: [17] His glory is like the firstling of his bullock, and his horns are like the horns of unicorns: with them he shall push the people together to the ends of the earth: and they are the ten thousands of Ephraim, and they are the thousands of Manasseh.

Notice this dude is strong enough that he can move people around. Now, a unicorn is a real creature.

By the way, one of the great things about folks who think all these things are dinosaurs, is they go back and find these pictures that come from one of two places.

One, they’ve got bones they reconstruct and two, there are pictures in ancient literature; caves where old societies have drawn pictures —every culture on the face of the earth has pictures of these things in their history.

Now, you and I don’t think about that because our culture only goes back about 300 years as Americans. But if you go back from whence we all came, back into history, you’ll find in history these things replete.

How could people back then who didn’t have cell phones or telegrams come up with the same kind of pictures? Well, that’s because they're what’s there. There are similar origins to all those people and they saw these things.

Psalm 22: [12] Many bulls have compassed me: strong bulls of Bashan have beset me round.

[13] They gaped upon me with their mouths, as a ravening and a roaring lion.

Notice Jesus said that around the Cross there are bulls. He’s circled by them!

You remember in Exodus 32, Moses goes up on the mountain to talk to God and what happened down in the valley? They built a golden calf. They took an ox and started worshipping the thing. Those bulls are associated with worship of the devil in the Bible.

In Ezekiel you learn that the face of the cherubim is the face of an ox. An ox has got two horns. So all of a sudden, you’re drawing lines between the dots.

[16] For dogs have compassed me: the assembly of the wicked have inclosed me: they pierced my hands and my feet.
[17] I may tell all my bones: they look and stare upon me.

He’s got dogs around them. By the way, who was it around the Cross? A bunch of religious leaders, Pharisees, Sadducees, Roman soldiers, Gentiles. He’s saying, "These dudes sitting around me, trying to have me crucified, are bulls; they’re dogs."

Psalm 22: [21] Save me from the lion's mouth: for thou hast heard me from the horns of the unicorns.

Who’s the lion? Satan is "the lion going about seeking whom he might devour." Christ is in hand-to-hand combat with the lion. "For thou hast heard me from the horns of the unicorn." You see, these creatures exist in the spirit world.

Now when He says, ‘Save me from the lion’s mouth,’ what does a lion want to do? You learn about some of the characteristics. Why does He have all these different descriptions? Well, a lion wants to devour, to tear, to consume, to destroy.

Numbers 21: [6] And the LORD sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people; and much people of Israel died.

Those fiery serpents, Isaiah 14, looking into the future: [28] In the year that king Ahaz died was this burden.

[29] Rejoice not thou, whole Palestina, because the rod of him that smote thee is broken: for out of the serpent's root shall come forth a cockatrice, and his fruit shall be a fiery flying serpent.

What is that?! You can make it all kind of things. They got pictures of dinosaurs with wings and all that stuff that go back thousands of years. But this is something bigger than that.

You remember what Jesus said in John 3:14? [14] And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up:

You see, there’s a spiritual counterpart; there’s some of these creatures in the spirit world, and their desire--they’re "out of the serpent’s root." They’re a generation of Satan. That’s where they come from.

*****

The parallels made in the Bible are innumerable and no human could ever unearth them all in all their intricacies, says Jordan.

In answer to questions about Revelation 12 and the wilderness survival of the "little flock" during the Tribulation, those believing Jews will know from their Old Testament exactly where to find the hidden manna God will make available to them for their sustenance in the mountains.

Jeremiah 50: [19] And I will bring Israel again to his habitation, and he shall feed on Carmel and Bashan, and his soul shall be satisfied upon mount Ephraim and Gilead.

Micah 7: [14] Feed thy people with thy rod, the flock of thine heritage, which dwell solitarily in the wood, in the midst of Carmel: let them feed in Bashan and Gilead, as in the days of old.

[15] According to the days of thy coming out of the land of Egypt will I shew unto him marvellous things.”

Bashan is on the extreme northeast of Israel. Gilead is to the southwest. Carmel is on the northwest of Israel near the Mediterranean Sea.

Breaking the 'heads of leviathan' in pieces

Given the response to last night's post, here's the conclusion to yesterday's study on leviathan:

Psalm 104: [26] There go the ships: there is that leviathan, whom thou hast made to play therein.

He's talking about the ships going out here in the Mediterranean and that's where the idea of Leviathan being a whale comes from. If there's going to be an animal to liken him to that way, a whale would be okay, says Richard Jordan.

In Jonah 2, Jonah is swallowed by "a great fish," but Jesus says it's a whale in Matthew 12: [40] For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale's belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.

Well, that's a picture of Satan. 

Psalm 74, referencing leviathan, is a teaching of Asaph, a prophet in Israel's history. When he writes such psalms they are basically prophetic. Psalm 78 is another example: [1] Give ear, O my people, to my law: incline your ears to the words of my mouth.

[2] I will open my mouth in a parable: I will utter dark sayings of old:

In this chapter he gives you a picture of some things in Israel's history and says those things are a parable, a picture of what's going to come in the future.

[18] And they tempted God in their heart by asking meat for their lust.
[19] Yea, they spake against God; they said, Can God furnish a table in the wilderness?
[20] Behold, he smote the rock, that the waters gushed out, and the streams overflowed; can he give bread also? can he provide flesh for his people?

[21] Therefore the LORD heard this, and was wroth: so a fire was kindled against Jacob, and anger also came up against Israel;
[22] Because they believed not in God, and trusted not in his salvation:
[23] Though he had commanded the clouds from above, and opened the doors of heaven,
[24] And had rained down manna upon them to eat, and had given them of the corn of heaven.
[25] Man did eat angels' food: he sent them meat to the full.

So God literally fed them. What he's saying there is, "You see what God did back there? He's going to do that again." In Revelation 12 He feeds them in the wilderness.

Here's another prophecy of Asaph in Psalm 74: [1] O God, why hast thou cast us off for ever? why doth thine anger smoke against the sheep of thy pasture?

[2] Remember thy congregation, which thou hast purchased of old; the rod of thine inheritance, which thou hast redeemed; this mount Zion, wherein thou hast dwelt.

That's Isaiah 26: "Here's the little flock; here's His congregation. Here's the righteous nation. Remember them."

In connection with that, go to verse 9: [9] We see not our signs: there is no more any prophet: neither is there among us any that knoweth how long.

Who do the sign gifts belong to in the Bible? The nation Israel. "There's no more any prophet." During that fifth course of judgment God's withdrawn from them.

[10] O God, how long shall the adversary reproach? shall the enemy blaspheme thy name for ever?
[11] Why withdrawest thou thy hand, even thy right hand? pluck it out of thy bosom.
[12] For God is my King of old, working salvation in the midst of the earth.
[13] Thou didst divide the sea by thy strength: thou brakest the heads of the dragons in the waters.
[14] Thou brakest the heads of leviathan in pieces, and gavest him to be meat to the people inhabiting the wilderness.

There's the dragon and there's leviathan. It says, "and gavest him to be meat to the people inhabiting the wilderness."

My point is that's going to happen again in Revelation 12. You remember when Satan came to tempt Christ? Have you ever wondered why he'd ask Him, "Turn that stone into bread"?

The three temptations that he asked Christ to do were things that Jesus Christ is going to do in the future at His Second Coming.

Satan wanted Him to do it then. Jesus could do it, but He didn't come to do that then. If you don't rightly divide the Word of truth, you can't understand even the temptations of Christ, because the temptation was to do something God said He was going to do that He will do but not at that time. It wasn't the right time in the program. But my point is He's going to feed them in that day.

And in the passage, He's going to use the breaking of leviathan to do it. The destruction of leviathan, the destruction of the Antichrist, the destruction of the dragon, the destruction of the satanic policy of evil . . . In that destruction He's going to deliver his people.

I want you to see in Isaiah 27 again: [1] In that day the LORD with his sore and great and strong sword shall punish leviathan the piercing serpent, even leviathan that crooked serpent; and he shall slay the dragon that is in the sea.

He punishes the satanic policy of evil with that Book. The sword, it's effective. It works. It's incisive; it's sharp. Back in Deuteronomy 32, the first time we read about it, it's His glittering sword: 

[41] If I whet my glittering sword, and mine hand take hold on judgment; I will render vengeance to mine enemies, and will reward them that hate me.
[42] I will make mine arrows drunk with blood, and my sword shall devour flesh; and that with the blood of the slain and of the captives, from the beginning of revenges upon the enemy.

When it says "whet," it means He sharpened it and it's glistening because He's got it sharp and polished. It's a sharp, two-edged sword. It gets the work done. It overcomes ANY opposition.

Behemoth has more than one animal in him

Here's an outtake from this evening's Bible study at my church:

Job 41 is the Bible's greatest chapter on Satan. The first book in the Bible ever written. There's more specific information about creation in Job than there is in Genesis and there's more information about Satan in Job than any other book of the Bible, says Richard Jordan. This is a whole chapter; a detailed description of Satan, as God views him. As God looks at him.

[1] Canst thou draw out leviathan with an hook? or his tongue with a cord which thou lettest down?

[2] Canst thou put an hook into his nose? or bore his jaw through with a thorn?

[3] Will he make many supplications unto thee? will he speak soft words unto thee?
[4] Will he make a covenant with thee? wilt thou take him for a servant for ever?

He's saying, "Look at this guy. You think you're going to get him to do something and you're not going to do what he tells you to do? This guy is going to run you; he runs the world you live in and he runs your old nature. You aren't the boss; he is."

Again, this is the place where people say he's a crocodile, a hippopotamus, a rhinoceros, an elephant. Look at verse 15: [15] His scales are his pride, shut up together as with a close seal.

Does a hippopotamus have scales? Does a crocodile have scales? So, if you just read the text, you'd know it's not talking about anybody else that the creation scientist people tell you it is, or the liberal, non-believing evolutionists tell you it is.

A fascinating thing is the people who run the Noah's Ark museum in Kentucky have this guy on the ark as a hippopotamus. Anytime you've got to change a King James Bible to teach your doctrine, put your doctrine on the shelf. When you don't understand a verse, you know what you've got to do? Keep reading.

Job 40: [15] Behold now behemoth, which I made with thee; he eateth grass as an ox.

What the Lord's doing here is He's given Job a whole bunch of instructions and He's challenging Job about some things.

So really there are two creatures here. There's the behemoth, and then in chapter 41 he's talking about Leviathan, who we know is Satan from Isaiah 27.

If you use a Scofield Reference Bible, it's got a note that says, "The elephant, as some think." Well, some think that, but it doesn't make any sense.

The Hebrew word for behemoth is plural. In other words, here's an animal that has more than one animal in it. Today we have people with multiple personalities and that kind of thing. Well, this is an animal, but it's not a bunch of animals. It's one animal, but he's got more than one animal in him.

Where would you find someone in the Bible who's an animal who's got more than one animal in him? 

By the way, if you look at Job 38, the Lord talks about a lion and then a raven. Job 39: [1] Knowest thou the time when the wild goats of the rock bring forth? or canst thou mark when the hinds do calve?

Verse 5: [5] Who hath sent out the wild ass free? or who hath loosed the bands of the wild ass?

If you count the animals that He talks about, when you get to Job 40:15, the behemoth is the 13th animal that he lists. In your Bible, 13 is the number of rebellion. So, it's not surprising that you find in Revelation 13:

[1] And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy.
[2] And the beast which I saw was like unto a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion: and the dragon gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority.

There's a beast--he's a lion, a bear and a leopard all in one. Now, that's the Antichrist. So, dollars against donut holes, when you go to Job 40:15, you're talking about the Antichrist and the kind of beast he is, well, he's told you.

[15] Behold now behemoth, which I made with thee; he eateth grass as an ox. You remember in Ezekiel 10, the four faces around the throne? One is an ox. In chapter one he's called a calf. An ox is one of the cattle.

In Genesis 3, the serpent is cursed above all the cattle of the field. So, here's a reptile identifying as a cattle and people say, "Well, that's just not scientifically accurate." Yes, it's spiritually accurate, because this guy, he's one of the cattle; he's part of that satanic hierarchy that's sought to usurp God's authority.

So, you really have the Antichrist here and the guy who gives him his power is in Job 41.

Job 40:[19] He is the chief of the ways of God: he that made him can make his sword to approach unto him.

A chief is a position of authority. The last verse in chapter 41 says Satan is the king. There's principalities, powers, mights, dominions, thrones. There's this governmental authority system and this guy is going to sit at the head of it under Satan as Satan's man.

Nobody else can get this guy, but God's sword can get him. What did you read in Isaiah 27? Who's going to get Leviathan? God's sword. The great and strong sword of the Lord.

The only thing that can handle these guys is God's Word. That's all that actually defeats them and that's why in Isaiah 26:21 the Lord comes out of His place. He's won the authority.

[21] For, behold, the LORD cometh out of his place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity: the earth also shall disclose her blood, and shall no more cover her slain.

He comes down to the earth and when He does, He destroys Leviathan.

Job 41: [33] Upon earth there is not his like, who is made without fear. [34] He beholdeth all high things: he is a king over all the children of pride.

Martin Luther wrote "A Mighty Fortress is Our God," and you go back and read the hymn and when it says "on earth is not his equal," that's talking in the hymn about the devil, because that's what that verse says.

On the earth, he doesn't have an equal! Because he's "king over all the children of pride." He's the god of this world. He said, "I'm going to be in the position of God the Most High, possessing all the authority in the heaven and the earth."

If you go back to verse 15, his scales are his pride. quote. His pride is to say, "I'm invincible. I'm the smartest, I'm the best."

[16] One is so near to another, that no air can come between them.
[17] They are joined one to another, they stick together, that they cannot be sundered.

Job 41: [25] When he raiseth up himself, the mighty are afraid: by reason of breakings they purify themselves.

They literally worship the guy. He's so great, he's so mighty--because of what they see him doing they worship him. They join into religious rites of purification.

MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH reigns over all the kings of the earth. That religious system that reigns from the beginning. 

Job 41: [8] Lay thine hand upon him, remember the battle, do no more.
[9] Behold, the hope of him is in vain: shall not one be cast down even at the sight of him?
[10] None is so fierce that dare stir him up: who then is able to stand before me?

Leviathan's not a physical creature you can look at (you're getting God's viewpoint of him), but if you could see him, that verse says you'd just pass out. He's that frightening of an appearance.

[18] By his neesings a light doth shine, and his eyes are like the eyelids of the morning.
[19] Out of his mouth go burning lamps, and sparks of fire leap out.
[20] Out of his nostrils goeth smoke, as out of a seething pot or caldron.
[21] His breath kindleth coals, and a flame goeth out of his mouth.

Down South people used to say, "That's smoking." So, when you're smoking, you're looking like the devil. He's the dragon and the fire's coming out. This guy is a fire-breathing monster in the spirit world.

[26] The sword of him that layeth at him cannot hold: the spear, the dart, nor the habergeon.

Your sword, your spear can't knock him down. The only sword that can "fell" him is the Word of God. You ain't got a chance. Your psychology, your wisdom, your resolve, your intention, your religion doesn't work. You can put on your protective gear and it doesn't help. He's that powerful.

'Stand down, emotions, we're going anyway!'

I was a cleaning a room this afternoon, listening to an old sermon on CD and realized I had written up part of it many years ago. I thought, "This is so good I might as well rewrite the material rather than dig and try and find what I may have included in an old post." I'm actually recalling right now that I entitled the old post, "All in the Appropriation." 

Well, maybe this will seem like a big repeat for some readers, but I enjoyed (and needed) the refresher course myself. I will have another post late this evening.

*****

Sometimes your emotions go kicking and screaming; they don't want to go because you've allowed them to sit on the throne and you know what a little spoiled brat does when you start making him behave, says Richard Jordan.

You're designed to reign in life by one, Jesus Christ. He says, "Come, sit upon the throne with me and let's reign in life." Not your emotions; your will submissive to God's will. Your faith resting in an understanding of who God has made you in Jesus Christ. That's the way your life is designed to function.

Sometimes you'll go and your emotions say, "I'm not going to GO!!" You say, "Okay, we're going anyway." Sometimes they'll get in the back seat of the car and they'll go "Wahhh!" and you just say, "Okay, if you want to sit there and have a hiney fit, waste your time, but we're going," and you know what? You go.

If you have to go with your emotions kicking and screaming and not wanting to go, go anyway. And the next time you get up to go, you know what? Your emotions will say, "I don't want to go," and you say, "We're going to go anyway," and sooner or later your emotions will look at it and say, "Well, I guess he's going to go; we might as well go with him, but we don't have to have a good time."

You just keep going and eventually your emotions look at you and say, "Oh well, he's going to go. He seems to be having a good time when he goes. Maybe if we go and relax a little bit we might have a good time."

Before it's over with, nine times out of ten, your emotions will come along and support the actions of your will. And if they don't, so what! You still did what was right.

In Genesis 27 is the classic illustration of a man operating on his feelings. Jacob's thinking didn't govern him and his feelings were used to deceive him and that's why you have to be very careful. That's the classic example of a mistake based on going on your feelings alone.

When we're talking about the joy, the love, the peace, the longsuffering, we're talking about appropriating into your experience the reality of what God has given you in your position in Christ.

You have an identity in Christ; you are redeemed, you are forgiven. God has taken your sin and set you free. He's taken the guilt and sent it to Calvary.

He said, "I'll remember it no more; I'll not connect it back with your identity again. I'll do it permanently and forever. You never have to come and ask me to accept you; I already have. You never have to ask me to forgive you. I already have. I've made you complete; I've blessed you with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places. Now, what I want you to do is take what I've already given you and bring it into the experience of your life on a daily basis."

Colossians 2:10: [10] And ye are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power:

But come down to Colossians 4:12: [12] Epaphras, who is one of you, a servant of Christ, saluteth you, always labouring fervently for you in prayers, that ye may stand perfect and complete in all the will of God.

Wait a minute, I thought they were complete? Why is Epaphras praying and laboring that they would BE complete?

He says in Ephesians 1, "You're accepted in the beloved." In II Corinthians 5 he says, [9] Wherefore we labour, that, whether present or absent, we may be accepted of him.

You say, "Wait a minute, I thought I was accepted?" That's the difference between your standing and your state--your position in Christ and your practice in time. Your identity in Him and then that identity living in your experience now.

If you're complete in Him there's nothing to make you more complete. All you need to do is appropriate the completeness you already have. Bring it into your experience. Have the practical experiential possession of what already belongs to you. That is to experience the joy of, "I'm already forgiven." Let that inform your mind so that your emotions know how to relate to reality.

Now, there's two things you have to have. One you got to know about it. You've got to see what you already have in Christ. In our meetings I try to teach about that constantly. That's why we rightly divide, so we know we're not Israel; we're the Body of Christ.

The key to the Christian life is knowing your identity, and you can never know your identity if you don't study the Bible rightly divided. Dispensational Bible study is the most practical thing you can have in your life because it gives you the ability to know who you really are.

The other component is you not only have to know who you are in Christ, you have to be aware of your NEED of it because you'll never reach out and appropriate into your experience something unless you know that you really need it.

That's what happened to Paul in Romans 7. He'll say, [24] O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?

You say, "What?! How'd he get out of Romans 6 into that so fast?!"  Romans 7: [14] For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin.

You lying rascal! You just told me that you're complete in Christ, dead, buried and raised with Him. How'd you get out of Romans 6 so fast?!

Paul, in Romans 7, is not identifying himself as God does. He slipped back into identifying himself as he identifies himself.

He said it in one little phrase in Galatians 2:20: [20] I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.

You got to have those, "It's not I" moments where you become aware of you own bankruptcy so that the riches of Christ become the thing that you need the most.

Appropriating into your experience is closed to all but the needy heart. It's available to only those who will say, "It's not I; it's Christ."

Those two things. A conscious awareness of faith trust in who you are and then a realization of your absolute need in every moment for it. Then you need a lifetime of spiritual growth because, friend, it takes time for the Holy Spirit to work that process into the details of your life.