A Purchased Possession

By -
A minister in our church brought up an important thought last night in service:
Abraham never owned a piece of property until Sarah, his wife, passed away. 

Meaning, all those years he walked throughout the land of Canaan, a land God had promised to him, without actually owning any of it.

He was a pilgrim and a stranger in a land that belonged to him, given to him from the One that spoke that land into existence.

No wonder Abraham could look at his nephew Lot and say, whichever side you want, take it, I will be well... he knew it ALL belonged to him and the same God that gave it to him would take care of him, no matter where he resided!

He died never having seen the fulness of all God told him would be his... yet he still believed. That is faith. Not seeing, yet still firmly believing something is true.

He died owning the downpayment, or the guarantee, of the promise by a piece of land containing the grave, a place of death, of his beloved spouse, Sarah.

Her death led to his downpayment of a promise.

But what is true naturally is true spiritually:

Our spouse had to die for us to receive the downpayment of our promise—Jesus Christ the Righteous laid down his life in a place of death. Then, He sent back the Holy Spirit of promise, the downpayment, or the earnest, of our inheritance!

And today we walk in a place that has been promised to us, spiritually, yet we do not yet possess it. 

Paul said: You have put all things in subjection under his feet. For in that He put all in subjection under him, He left nothing that is not put under him. But now we do not yet see all things put under him. But we see Jesus...
Hebrews 2:9

I read years ago that Israel has never actually possessed the full promise given by God to Abraham. The closest they ever came to owning all of the lands Abraham walked was under King David. Of course :)

The same is true spiritually.

We are also on a faith walk, just like our father, Abraham. In fact, we are the continuation of his walk of faith... the seed of Abraham, by faith, walking toward the promised land.

Hebrews 11, the Hall of Faith chapter, says that these great men of faith that went on before us can NOT be made perfect without us. 

Meaning, the fulness of the promise still lies ahead of us and until we reach it, they are not complete. The full vision has not yet been fulfilled.

This is true naturally, of course. I believe the fullness of the natural promise God gave Abraham will be recognized before this heaven and earth passes away. Maybe during the Millenial Reign, I don't know... I haven't spent a lot of time studying that out recently.

But there's another side to that promise, the spiritual, that we haven't yet reached the fulfillment of. And it will look something like the first man Adam - a perfect man. But not one man... a body, a church, a complete and perfect bride of Christ... His purchased possession!

Our spouse had to die for us to receive the downpayment of our promise. Adam had to follow Eve into spiritual death in order to redeem her. 

And through His death and resurrection, Jesus, the second Adam, purchased back, redeemed, His own possession, His fallen bride, Eve. You and me!

Then, like has to be joined to like. A man and a beast cannot produce a seed... only a man and a woman can reproduce. 

Neither can Jesus be joined to a bride that is not like Him. Like Him in nature, in character, in action, in word, in heart, in Spirit. We must be LIKE Him!

And we will when we truly see Him as He is... for then we shall be as He is!
Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is. 1 John 3:2
Not just at his second coming, but today and every day, He's revealing Himself to His bride and she is becoming LIKE Him!

Every time we study His word and apply it, every time we leave His presence changed, every time we die to our flesh, we become a little bit more like Him... until one day, He'll see a reflection of Himself... yet a bride. 

Jesus Christ, the Righteous and His spotless Bride. 

The fullness of the promise. ♥

Be blessed, 

Amy

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

In The Midst

By -
I was alone, sitting in my favorite chair in the den as I usually did that time of morning, with my study Bible open on my lap and a notebook at the ready beside me.  I was trying to prepare for another Sunday morning of teaching the adult Sunday School lesson at my dad's small Pentecostal church, but once again I was distracted by a reoccurring thought,  a cry I had been crying out to God for almost a year now: "Where were  You when I needed You?!" For almost a year now, I'd be in the middle of talking to Him about something totally unrelated and bam! Out of my mouth would fly that same question, my voice tinged with hurt, my heart full of pain.  It's like my mouth had a mind of it's own and that mind was driving my quiet time these days. I had come through one of the hardest times of my entire life and was safely on the other side of what we Pentecostals refer to as "the storm" or "the battle". And truly, it was a storm that raged ar...
Read more

Jesus Still Raises The Dead!

By -
I absolutely love testimonies of the power of God. They are monuments to the power of God, builders of faith, and how we keep our eyes focused on our great big God over these little bitty giants in our land. I've sat on this post for 2 weeks, till I could verify the info myself... so here goes! Here's the story of the night two weeks ago that Jesus raised a 5-year-old little boy from the DEAD. Tuesday, September 1, 2020, Clifton Potter (my evangelist brother-in-law) drove about an hour away to preach for a little church in the country. In fact, there were initially only 6 people at church that night, including the 2 that came with Clifton. Before church started, the pastor told Clifton that one of his friends, Isaac, would not be at church that night. His 5-year-old son Zachary got into the medicine and drank most of a bottle of liquid Sudafed. The paramedics had visited the home, checked the boy out, and just warned the dad to keep his eye on him for the next 24 hour...
Read more