Stepping Stones (eBook)

Roger Dixon (Autor)

eBook Download: EPUB

2023 | 1. Auflage
382 Seiten
Bookbaby (Verlag)
979-8-9888595-1-2 (ISBN)

Infos

The kingdom of God abides in the realm of spirit. Jesus said, 'My kingdom is not of this world. If My kingdom were of this world, then My servants would be fighting so that I would not be handed over to the Jews; but as it is, My kingdom is not of this realm.' Each chapter in this book is a stepping stone to open God's world to us. The book is not a roadmap, beginning in one place and ending in another. The realm of spirit is abstract. It does not conform to human logic. It must be seen by revelation from the Holy Spirit. Each stepping stone becomes one of the myriad gates through which God's kingdom opens to us. Blessed are those who wash their robes, so that they may have the right to the tree of life, and may enter by the gates into the city (Revelation 22:14).

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The chapters of this book are not chronological. Each chapter is a random stepping stone to lead us deeper into God. Each stepping stone is an entrance. This book is meant to open our spirits in a greater way to God's world. As to His essence, God is spirit, and we must know Him in that realm. God's world is different from ours. In the earthly realm, there are natural laws, such as the law of gravity. In the spiritual realm, there are also laws. The laws of spirit that govern God's kingdom are foreign to the natural man. For example, we measure progress by going forward in our natural world. In the spiritual realm, our progress is measured by ascending upward. As Christians, we could spend a lifetime moving forward, i.e., learning about God, but never really coming to know Him in a greater way. Knowledge is attained on a horizontal timeline, but a closer relationship with the Lord is only achieved by ascending. We could call that the law of penetration. It is God penetrating deeper into us and us penetrating deeper into Him. In the earthly realm, things tend to be either this way or that way. Human understanding would say we are either one with God or not one with Him. But spiritually, many levels of oneness exist. Vertically ascending takes us further into God's heart. If this truth is hard to imagine, let's read what Jesus told Nathanael. John 147 Jesus saw Nathanael coming to Him, and *said of him, "e;Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no deceit!"e;48 Nathanael *said to Him, "e;How do You know me?"e; Jesus answered and said to him, "e;Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you."e;49 Nathanael answered Him, "e;Rabbi, You are the Son of God; You are the King of Israel."e;50 Jesus answered and said to him, "e;Because I said to you that I saw you under the fig tree, do you believe? You will see greater things than these."e;51 And He *said to him, "e;Truly, truly, I say to you, you will see the heavens opened and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man."e;In Jesus Christ, the heavens open. Open heavens signify vertical ascension. "e;After these things, I looked, and behold, a door standing open in heaven, and the first voice which I had heard, like the sound of a trumpet speaking with me, said, 'Come up here "e; Revelation 4:1Nicodemus, like many Christians, struggled to understand the spiritual realm. John 34 Nicodemus *said to Him, "e;How can a man be born when he is old? He cannot enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born, can he?"e;5 Jesus answered, "e;Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. 6 "e;That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. 7 "e;Do not be amazed that I said to you, 'You must be born again.'8 "e;The wind blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of it, but do not know where it comes from and where it is going; so is everyone who is born of the Spirit."e;9 Nicodemus said to Him, "e;How can these things be?"e;10 Jesus answered and said to him, "e;Are you the teacher of Israel and do not understand these things?10 Jesus answered and said to him, "e;Are you the teacher of Israel and do not understand these things?11 "e;Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know and testify of what we have seen, and you do not accept our testimony. 12 "e;If I told you earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things?13 "e;No one has ascended into heaven, but He who descended from heaven: the Son of Man. Nicodemus did not understand anything Jesus was telling him. "e;How can a man be born when he is old? He cannot enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born, can he?"e; Our natural minds are also incapable of understanding spiritual truths. They don't make sense. Paul put it this way:1st Corinthians 211 For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so the thoughts

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5

The Mystery

Henry DuBose

We’re going to talk about a mystery. The word “mystery” is familiar to all of us. If it is a mystery, it is hidden. All the things of the Lord are a mystery. God is a mystery; everything about Him is a mystery. It is very difficult for people to break through and understand the mystery. God is in a different world altogether. Isaiah prophesied, My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways, saith the Lord. Isaiah 55:8. Then in Malachi, He says, “I don’t change” (Malachi 3:6). So, who has to do the changing? We do! We have to do the changing. We must learn how to walk with the Lord. The truths of His world and His Kingdom must be revealed, and they are only revealed to those who have a heart to walk in them and live in them.

 

You might as well know right now that if you are open to God’s world, to know Him, to love Him, and to walk with Him, you will experience a lot of battle. Not only will the devil oppose you, but you will find your own human nature opposing you. It doesn’t want to die; it doesn’t want to give in. Human nature wants to control itself. It wants to be the lord, so when the Lord Jesus begins moving in your life, you will find yourself in the valley of decision (Joel 3:14).

 

Mark 4:11 And He said unto them, Unto you it is given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God: but unto them that are without, all these things are done in parables.

 

To those who are without, Jesus spoke in parables. In other words, for those who are not within the realm of Spirit, those who do not have ears to hear, eyes to see, to them, it is just a mystery, just a parable.

 

We will look at a few verses of Scripture that speak of the mystery of God. There are a lot of them. You may want to pull out your Strong’s Concordance, look up the word “mystery,” and study the Scriptures where the word mystery is found. You not only have the mystery of the Gospel, the mystery of the Kingdom, the mystery of God, and the things of God, but you also have the mystery of iniquity. There are many mysteries found in the Scriptures.

 

Romans 16:25 Now to Him that is of power to establish you according to my gospel, and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery, which was kept secret since the world began.

 

Your heart is the key to understanding the mysteries. Now to Him, that is of power to establish you according to my gospel…. Those brothers were quite bold. Can you imagine Paul saying, Now to Him that is of power to establish you according to my gospel? John was quite bold also. He said We are of God: he that knows God hears us; he that is not of God hears not us. Hereby know we the Spirit of truth, and the spirit of error. I John 4:6. That’s bold!

 

Now to Him, that is of power to establish you according to my gospel, and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery, which was kept secret since the world began. The accurate translation of the Greek for “since the world began” is in times eternal. The Greek word for “times” here is chronos, so it would be more accurate to say, “since time began” than “since the world began.” Remember, anything having a beginning also has an ending and is in the realm of time. There is a particular time that it begins and a particular time that it ends. That is on that horizontal line that we call the timeline, denoted by the Greek word chronos, so the Word says here, “The mystery has been kept secret from the beginning of time or from the timeline.” If your thinking is on the timeline, then the mystery of God will be hidden from you because it is not revealed in history or on the timeline. We all, being human beings, live in history. We live, time passes, we grow older, and eventually, there is an end, so we live in the realm of time, in a realm of history. That is how man thinks, and we can understand why he does – that’s how his life is. That is the realm of man. But with God, it is not so. God lives in a realm where there is no time, so we have to learn how to think in terms of God’s world.

 

All these spiritual truths concerning God and His Kingdom are written in man’s language. They are hidden in the language of man. Man’s language is in the realm of history, the realm of time, so you look beyond the information and get the life there – the hidden manna. The revelation of the mystery is hidden from the time realm – which has been kept secret since the world began. We continue to minister this because we must learn to think differently. We need the mind of Christ. Paul says, “We have the mind of Christ,” Christians will say, “We’re Christians; we have the mind of Christ.” Not completely! But that is what we want – the mind of Christ.

 

One of the biggest problems among Christians is assuming they have something they do not have or assuming something they have not yet become. When you presume to have something you don’t have, you close the door to obtaining it. We do not want to assume we have anything. Instead, say, “Lord, I’m blind. I need you to open my understanding.” Regardless of how much you can see, you still have some blindness. Paul talks about blindness in part upon Israel in Romans 11:25. So it is blindness in part upon the religious world. Song of Solomon 2:9 talks about looking through the latticework. If you look through the lattice, you have a little vision but only a little. Jesus prayed for a blind man. The blind man said, “I see men as trees walking” (Mark 8:24). He had some sight but not enough. Jesus prayed for him again, and his eyes were opened. So regardless of what we think we know, there is always some blindness, and we need to say, “Lord, give us insight into Your world. Open our hearts that we might be able to see.” Proverbs 20:12 says that God creates the hearing ear and the seeing eye, not the literal ear or the literal eye, but the ability to perceive and hear in the realm of Spirit. God creates that – it doesn’t just happen. If you can see the truths of God, if you can hear His voice, it is because God has had mercy on you and created the ability for you to see and hear.

 

Gabriel appeared unto Mary and told her about the Christ-child she would bear. She said, “Be it done unto me according to thy Word” (Luke 1:38). The Word spoken by the angel was a living, creative Word that created the seed of Christ in her womb. Then she went up to the hill country to see Elizabeth, her relative, who was already pregnant with John the Baptist (Luke 1:39-44). Mary greeted Elizabeth, and Elizabeth answered, “How is it that the mother of my Lord has come to me?” By revelation, she knew! When Mary spoke to Elizabeth, the babe in her womb leaped for joy. Years later, John, who had leaped in her womb as a baby, was on the banks of the Jordan telling the Jews to repent, for the Kingdom of heaven was at hand. They asked, “Who are you? Are you Elijah who is to come?” (John 1:19-23). “No,” he said. “Who are you then?” And John answered, “I am the voice of One.” The voice of One. That voice causes new birth within you to spring to life. You feel it when you hear a living Word. It generates something within you to leap for joy. That is when you know you are hearing. But we are just hearing in part. We don’t know two percent of what we are going to know. There is a lot more to be revealed. The mystery is hidden from the timeline. We’ll get back to that shortly. Now let’s go to I Corinthians.

 

I Corinthians 2:1-3 And I, brethren, when I came to you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God.

2 For I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and Him crucified.

3 And I was with you in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling.

 

Brother Paul had a right heart. He wasn’t claiming to know anything, to have any wisdom of his own. There was tremendous fear and respect within his heart for the Lord.

 

I Corinthians 2:4-6 And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man’s wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power:

5 That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.

6 Howbeit we speak wisdom among them that are perfect…

 

Notice one thing here - Howbeit we speak. Do you notice that Paul starts, “I, brethren, when I came to you… I determined not to know anything… I was with you in weakness and in fear… my speech,” but when you get down to verse six, “Howbeit ‘we’ speak wisdom among them that are perfect.” Now, don’t misunderstand the perfect. When the Scriptures talk about being perfect, they speak of spiritual maturity. No one will ever see you as perfect because perfection means something different to everyone. But perfection to God means that you are in the process of becoming.

 

On the first day of Genesis, God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light, and God saw the light and said, “It is good.” Then, the following day, a work takes place, and God said, “It is good.” On each one of the days of creation, God looked at it and said, “It is good.” Creation wasn’t completed on the first day – there was much...

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 10.11.2023
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Geisteswissenschaften ► Religion / Theologie ► Christentum
• ISBN-13: 979-8-9888595-1-2 / 9798988859512