Let God be your fortress: lessons from Peter

Let God be your fortress


[[1Pe 1:5]] KJV Who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.

[[Luk 9:42-43/KJV]]
42 ...Jesus rebuked the unclean spirit, and healed the child, and delivered him again to his father.
43 And they were all amazed at the mighty power of God....

In Castles their was built a keep which was meant to be almost impossible to breach; in modern times men build panic rooms and bunkers. They are built to protect from any enemy that is a threat to our lives.
For the christian we are kept by the power of God...think on that. What created thing is capable of taking something from God. before I leave this idea let me say that not only does a keep hold enemies out but it holds its inhabitants in. If they allow fear or panic to convince them to flee they will find that they are held in.
What of Gods power is tangible to us is shown in microcosm in Luke. Jesus alone can do these things; for we see his disciples are unable. He rebukes the evil spirit from us, heals us, and delivers us unto our Heavenly Father. (a note about this evil spirit...the word spirit is literally our breath...we take in the good of Gods providence and we exhale what is poisonous to us and those around us...but when God breaths his Holy Spirit into us it is to be what now comes out)
How do we enter this living protective power...faith. Faith is not a energy to be increased or a knowledge to be increased but simply a trust and reliance....when I get out of my bed I do not look to see if my floor is there...I do not poke it to see if it can hold me...I simply stand on it and walk by faith by such I experience its stability.
In this way we experience Gods power and safety only when we trust and rely on its stability, set ourselves upon it and walk.
As Jesus is to live in and through us being revealed as the Son of God to all we meet...we too are sons but we are to be hidden in him...no one should see us until God reveals us as his sons on that day.
Trust Him to live in and through you on this earth, while you live seated in heaven in and by Him.

Our inheritance in the presence of God: lessons from Peter

[[1Pe 1:4]] KJV To an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you,

[[Gen 15:1]] KJV After these things the word of the LORD came unto Abram in a vision, saying, Fear not, Abram: I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward.

[[Joh 10:10]] KJV The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.

[[Joh 17:3]] KJV And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.

God is our inheritance...at present we have the earnest of that inheritance...Gods life in us through the Holy Spirit...but when the corruption of our current flesh puts on incorruption we shall experience a complete oneness with God.
The scripture tells us no man has been in the personal presence of God...why... because our God is a consuming fire... as pictured in the burning bush this fire consumes all that is not living... when men experience the resurrection they will stand in the presence of God...for those who have his life within them this fire will burn away every shadow leaving only his pure life...for them this is bliss.... for those who only have self life... that same fire will completely consumed them...so while we still have time let us witness and share with every man the life he has given...be blessed.

God is our life: lessons from Peter

[[1Pe 1:3]] KJV Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,

Jesus said you must be born again...Peter after having said we where chosen, sanctified, and consecrated unto God says the same...for we can not experience God living in us without first being born of God.
All of us where born in the image of Adam and as such we had no life in us. Death is not an event but a condition of separation. Adam became a self at his fall and we as his generations where born as selves. The thing about a self is by nature it is separated and hence dead.
When we are born again God breaths his life into us...we take on his life shared with us and with all others who are born of his Spirit. Jesus said as he was one with the Father we would be one with him and the Father.
Jesus calls this experience born again not educated again. When we where born as a self we learned how to walk, talk, eat, and all other things as a self. When we are born again we are not adding God to our life but our life is completely new from him.
So we must learn to speak as he speaks through us, walk as he walks through us, so in all things we must abandon what we learned as a self. Our life is his life in us and we must learn how to do all things as one with him.
Peter calls this a living hope. The word hope has taken on the meaning of the word wish in modern English, but its meaning when it was used in translation of Gods word was a desired expectation. So Peter tells us that our living in Gods life is something our Father teaches us to do; we are to desire and expect this life to be perfected in us for our Father can not fail.

Chosen, Sanctified, and Consecrated: lessons from Peter

*[[1Pe 1:2 KJV]]*
2 Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ: Grace unto you, and peace, be multiplied.



Does God give me a choice?

When one speaks of election,predestination, choice, and freewill you can be sure to find Christians who have decided on one or the other ready for hours of debate.
These debates consist of those on one side giving verses that say we must choice by our free will and the others giving verses that say it is not of our will.
 It seems to escape both sides that their opponents are quoting scriptures that are as clear as their own. So how can this be?
Two factors must play into our understanding. The first is the difference between choice and will. A choice is in a moment the will is the desire of the heart. Peter denied the Lord in a moment of choice...but it was his will to live for the Lord. The second is Gods foreknowing.
Foreknowledge works in this way. Say that all men where born unable to recognize the color blue...
it would not be any ones favorite color nor would any man long to see a blue sky or a blue ocean...
In the same way no man of himself desires God.
Going further with our blindness to blue...if God made everyone to see blue some would hate it...some fear it...some would have no concern...but some few would love it and seek after it.
Rejection of God takes one further into death. As such God does not reveal himself to those he foreknows will reject him; except when necessary to bring his purpose to pass i.e. Pharaoh and Judas.
However those he foreknows will desire him and his life he draws to himself...they are elect not because they possessed anything that was good but because they would not reject the good he decided to give them.
So God would that everyman be saved...but only the elect shall be saved...next time we will look at sanctification of the Spirit.



Are we sanctified?

[[1Pe 1:2]] KJV Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ: Grace unto you, and peace, be multiplied.

We have in, the church as a whole, taken words such as righteousness, salvation, and sanctification and turned them into, as Jude says, clouds without water. We have made them into honorary titles given to us at our acceptance of Christ; or simply tokens of credit to be cashed in when Christ returns.
The grace we have been given is a living way, not a past or future event, but a now life.
These living words where planted in you and they will be harvested but they are being formed now.
The word for Spirit means breath...so when you accepted Christ and the Father sent his Spirit into your heart you have recieved his life within you.
 His life in you is like a consuming fire; unless you try to generate your own life by your own might, will, and ability. Yet if you trust and rely upon him to live his life in you and through you; he will sanctify you, tangibly revealing the righteousness of Christ as Jesus loves through you, consuming your old motives thoughts and actions ,purging you of their death as you surrender your life for his...after all he surrendered his life for yours.
So we see sanctification is not a concept of reason to be understood, but a action of Gods Spirit in you to be lived by faith.


Are you dedicated to God?

 [[Heb 9:19-21/KJV]]
 19 For when Moses had spoken every precept to all the people according to the law, he took the blood of calves and of goats, with water, and scarlet wool, and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book, and all the people,
 20 Saying, This is the blood of the testament which God hath enjoined unto you.
21 Moreover he sprinkled with blood both the tabernacle, and all the vessels of the ministry.

 [[1Pe 1:2]] KJV Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ: Grace unto you, and peace, be multiplied.

"and the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ" to the Jewish believers whom Peter was adressing such a statement would have caused a humbled reflection of the holiness of Messiah.
To we gentile believers who did not grow up constantly hearing the writings of Moses or participating in temple worship the statement becomes more mental than living.
Yet for Peter this statement was distinct to his life as a witness of our Lord in the flesh. It had been shortly before Jesus would manifest in his Crucifixion what John the baptist had spoken " behold the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world"
Peter was there when Jesus had said if you destroy this temple in three days I will raise it up and shortly after he said do not look on these buildings for a day comes when one stone will not be left on another. It would be some time later that Peter would understand the true temple of God was not the building he looked at but the man speaking to him.
The building was a shadow, a teaching of the true seat of Gods glory. In order for Christians to understand who they are they must understand who Jesus is; for God has made us one with him.
The death of the sacrifice served as a substitution for the death in the one who presented the offering before God. So it is as we trust in what Jesus has done for us and present it before God we are crucified in Christ and his death is accepted in substitution for the death in us.
Yet it is not the death that makes us his living temple....the life is in the blood...the blood(life) is cast(sprinkled)as a dedication or consecration upon the alter. As it was also by the blood (life) that the items of the temple where dedicated...table of incense(prayer) by his life...table of show bread(the word) by his life...the candlestick(illumination of Spirit)...all these are a lesson of him and as such they teach us of the Father and in sharing his life in us it teaches us what he has made us( and is revealing in us).
So we see it is not by our will or might that we are dedicated or consecrated to God; but it his his life in us. We must trust his death to be our death to have his life...but we must leave our life on the alter to be consumed and trust in his life in us if we desire the glory of God to abide in us.
We can see that Peter had learned to say much with few words; continuing to the end of his salutation he announces a blessing on those who would read his words(including us).
May the gift of Jesus life in you by the Spirit and the peace with God he has purchased you be multiplied in you.

Hiding from God

[[Gen 3:8]] KJV And they heard the voice of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God amongst the trees of the garden.

 [[Exo 3:6]] KJV Moreover he said, I am the God of thy father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. And Moses hid his face; for he was afraid to look upon God. 

[[Rev 6:15]] KJV And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every free man, hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains;
 when Adam and Eve made the decision they where sufficiant in themselves to do and decide how to produce life; the bible tells us their eyes where opened and they knew they where naked.
 When they had naturaly walked in Gods life that he breathed into them there had been no such thinking for their lives consisted of Gods life in them hence they where hidden in God. At their fateful decision to become selves,abandoning their oneness with Gods life, they found the glory that had shown from them was gone leaving behind only naked flesh.
They took from the earth and made themselves aprons to cover this dead dark flesh, but when the presance of God came near they knew a covering of the creation would not hide from the creators eyes.
So it was by shame, guilt, and fear they attempted to hide themselves. We see clearly that this is the story lived out again and again in ievery fallen man...but do we see this is also the story of the redeemed. For me it was yesterday.
The Lord has shown me that his life is my life, that my self life was crucified in him, that I am hidden in him, and that by the trust he forms in me Christ lives in and through me. Yet, yesterday early at work there is a conversation taking place about a certain individual who trys at any cost to make an impression on our suprivisor. His behavior is so over the top that it is a source of ridicule. I found myself taking part in this conversation. As I was walking away my hidding started...the conversation in my mind was....oh yes you really showed an example of Jesus love to those men...why is it so easy for you to act like that...God must be disgusted with you even though he loves you...are you realy even his; maybe your just decieving yourself.
Half hearted prayers made ineffective by self pity, and loathing. Then aggrivation and blame toward God...after all he needs to change me or show me or leave me....(didnt think of it then but sounds like Jonah). Im home now with fustration and anger boiling in me...it comes out in unkind words to my wife.
 Then it is God telling me to come out and stop hiding from him. Asking forgivness from God and men feeling his mercy and forgivness...feed my sheep...how can I....do you love me,feed my sheep...what can I...do you love me
 So I am done hiding...God knew about my nakedness before he offered his glory to me. I am done with fig leaves...I am crucified with Christ and as such I am naked and not ashamed...

 [[Gen 2:25/KJV]] And they were both naked, the man and his wife and were not ashamed

[[Heb 4:13]] KJV Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight: but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do.

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