Seasons

PODCAST BLOG 2:

Seasons

 In chapter four of Second Corinthians Paul says we always carry around in our body, the death of Jesus so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body.  I  had no idea what that meant for the longest time. So what does it mean… that we’re always carrying around in our body, the death of Jesus? When Jesus died on the cross, He didn’t just die to forgive you from your past, sins He died to forgive you for the sins of your whole life. Amen. That’s good news.

It is good news. . You have to realize the death of Jesus took care of your sin debt, and you are cool with God. We’re always caring about in us to death of Christ. Remembering that death. We’re never forgetting what he did for us.

Like when Jesus said, Do this in remembrance of me. Take the bread… in God’s eyes Jesus was the sacrificial lamb that He is reminding us about. I took care of your sin debt. Do this in memory of that fact, eat the bread, in memory of the fact that I took care of your past, present and future sin debt. The slate is clean and now you are a vessel made ready to manifest the life of Christ. Because you, you cannot manifest the life of Christ with a sin conscience. Hmm, can you?

No, no, no.

That’s death.  You can’t manifest life through death.

 Paul talks about trials that come about. He talked about a lot of trials in his life… we all go through trials. And trials are these events, seasons as it’s sometimes called. Seasons in our life, where it’s impossible for us to survive that season, unless we have the life of Christ, ministering to us, through us.   Like the Psalms say, 33, or 34 is times the seasons are in God’s hands. He orchestrates them and they’re opportunities for us to depend on the life of Christ manifesting through us. So. So when these trials come in verse 16, he says, we don’t lose heart, though outwardly are we are wasting away yet, inwardly, in our spirit, we are being renewed day by day, verse 17, for our light and momentary troubles, are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. Verse 18. So we fix our eyes, not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.

In John 14  Jesus said, Have I been with you for so long, if you’ve seen me, you’ve seen the Father!  The father was invisible, but he says you can see Him because you can see His divine nature in action.   Just like  Romans 1:16  said, the divine nature was within the creation and they could clearly see it and they were without excuse. This is where we get the idea of seeing God’s divine nature even though it is invisible.

So it says we look upon what is unseen and not what is seen. And it says what is seen is temporary The word is actually Kairos, which is the Greek word for seasons, they are a season. They’re just a moment in time, a season. And they’re an opportunity to manifest His life. But we don’t look upon what is seen the trial. But what is unseen, which is the manifestation of His life, the Greek word there is scoposs, we get our word scope, we also get the word, skeptic.  Skeptic is always seen as a negative word. But a skeptic is someone that analyzes something, looks at it with a skeptics point of view, and says, Hmm, what’s behind this. So it says we, we look upon what is unseen. What is seen, is temporal, meaning, it’s a season a section of time,  they come and go. But what is unseen is outside of time, and invisible. God is unseen. So we’re scoping out, we’re being skeptical, or analyzing the life of God in the trial. That’s what gets us through the trial. And that’s what we’re looking at, His life manifesting in us. It reminds me of Psalm one, where David is saying, he starts out  Blessed is the man who does not walk into counsel of the ungodly, nor stand in the way of sinner or  sit in the seat of his scornful. But his delight is in the law of the Lord. And on that law, he meditates day and night. Now a better way to understand that phrase law of the Lord is,  actually… I’ve had a few Hebrew scholars that said, it really should be rendered teaching, the teaching of the Lord. Now the Lord there is that capital L, capital O, capital R, capital D, which means the LORD is the I Am the name of God. His delight is in the teaching of the I Am, the I Am, is not I was or I will be, it’s I am, it’s an eternal God. It’s also unseen. So when we don’t look upon what is seen the trial, we look at what is unseen, the I Am, in the trial, carrying us through the trial. And David goes on to say that, when we he delights in the teaching of the I am,  this idea that the eternal God is manifesting through us. He says, That man is blessed in all he does. And it said, He shall be like a tree planted by the water, the word of God, doesn’t it say bearing fruit in its season.  The season, he just described it as a trial. And it’s there that this trial is bearing the fruit of the Spirit.  You’re going through something just like Paul was going through something and the Spirit is bearing fruit.

But we don’t focus on the trial, we focus on the I Am. That’s what it means to say we look upon what is eternal. What is not seen, is eternal, the I Am is eternal and we wait for manifestations of the I am. When I’m weak in a trial, the I am is strong, the eternal God? Doesn’t that make more sense? We don’t scope out what is seen the trial. But what is unseen, the eternal God, for what is seen is seasonal, it’s just a season it’s a temporary thing, but what is unseen is eternal, outside of time, unchanging, so to speak.

Isn’t that exactly what it was saying? In Romans 1:19, 20 that which is known about God is evident within them since the creation of the world His invisible attributes and eternal power, and divine nature have been clearly seen. Okay… it just said it’s invisible, but it’s clearly seen. Huh! What we’re talking about is not nonsense. It’s a biblical idea. You see the manifestations of the invisible God, when you’re seeing love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, goodness, self control, you are seeing God through the person. Isn’t that the same thing 1st  John four talks about? exactly the same.

Go ahead,  let’s look at 1st John chapter four. Let’s say starting in verse 9 and going through verse 17. By this, the love of God is manifest in us that God sent His only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through him. The invisible Spirit may live through us and we live through his power, through His divine, unseen attributes, through his patience through his kindness, all unseen. That’s why it says, By this, the love of God was manifest in us. Verse 12, no one has been held God at any time, if we love one another, God, what? Abides in us and His love, abides in us, and His love is shown in us or perfected in us. By this we know that we abide in God and God abides in us because he’s given the Spirit. The invisible Spirit. You can see the actions of the invisible Spirit and you know that you’re watching the invisible Spirit. You’re seeing Him through those actions. When you are seeing Him it is the basic idea of discerning. You discern that that is the Spirit of God speaking through somebody, when you get a good, edifying word when you feel condemned, or you don’t feel good about yourself, after speaking to somebody, you know that you spoke to the nature of Adam, which is also invisible. And there’s a sense in which you can see it, that’s a good way to put it. It’s invisible. But there’s a sense in which you can say you see it. And this Bible uses that sense in which you can see it over and over and over in the epistles. The whole New Testament, the letters from the Acts to Revelation is predicated on the idea of being able to see the invisible God through the actions of a person. When we love one another is God loving each other through us. If I’m loving you, then you can say, I saw, you saw God.

 I used to apologize my wife all the time for things I said, and she would say this one statement over and over and over again. And it took me like three years before I actually got a hold of what she was saying, but I’d say, Lely, I’m sorry for what I said to you. I apologize. I want to take it back if I can, but I’m just sorry that I said that. And she’d say, It’s okay. They were just your words. It finally dawned on me that she was saying, I know I wasn’t talking to God, when I was talking to you. You’re trying to be helpful. You’re trying to be a good husband, but you’re failing. And I know that they’re just your words.  See, our words come back void. When the Spirit of God speaks through us in those words, don’t come back void. Lely didn’t want to hear from Adam absolutely didn’t want to hear from Adam. Through the Spirit I can totally be somebody that she is interested in listening to, though.

 And when we see His invisible attributes, we should give glory and credit to God. That is what the apostles did. They healed the person said, It wasn’t us who healed the person. It wasn’t our piety. It was the faithfulness of Christ in us who healed this person. Yeah. Over and over you see the apostles practicing the truth. They constantly say, like, Paul said, By the grace of God, I am what I am in this grace towards me was not in vain, for I labored harder than all the rest. Then what does he say? But it wasn’t me laboring. It was the grace of God. In Me, laboring. See, he gives credit to the Spirit. They always give credit to the Spirit for the good that is being done through them. And we need to give credit to the Spirit because that’s how you store up treasures in heaven. You remember Jesus saying, Oh, that guy truly has his reward. Now, the pat on the back was their reward. It was all the reward they were going to receive. Just an earthly pat on the back, not storing treasures in heaven. But to store up a treasure in heaven, you have to give the credit To God, which means you have to see God doing it, which means you have to understand about the doctrine of God manifesting Himself through you… were two or three together, together, I’m in their midst. What do you think that means? Learn about this concept  of every since you’ve been born again, the Spirit of Jesus has done things through you. He Will do everything that God has planned for Him to do. The Spirit of Jesus will do it all through you. Isn’t that what Paul said in Philippians? He said, I won’t be put to shame because of your prayers, and a supply of the Spirit of Jesus, a supply of the Spirit of Jesus, what in the world do you think he’s talking about? He’s talking about a supply of the Spirit of Jesus that can do for you what you can’t do for yourself, the Spirit of Jesus Christ in you the hope of glory. On and on it goes, talking about how it has to be done by the Spirit. That’s why it says Rejoice in the Lord, not in your own human effort, that that phrase in the Lord, in the Spirit IN JESUS in Christ in God, those all mean, not in your human effort, but in the power of God manifesting Himself through you to make you righteous throughout the day. Hallelujah!