By David J. Stewart |
February 2011
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The Bible teaches that Christians are supposed to
live upon the PROMISES of God. There are 7,000 promises from God in the
Bible. Witchcraft seeks to invoke Satan's power through all sorts of
potions, enchantments, curses, charms, spells, et cetera. However, the
Christian's power rests in the PROMISES of God, clearly taught in 2nd
Peter 1:4, “Whereby are given unto us exceeding GREAT AND PRECIOUS
PROMISES: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature,
having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.” The
Bible teaches that “BY THESE,” that is, by the great and precious promises
of God, we partake of Christ's “divine nature.”
2nd Peter 1:4 is NOT talking about salvation, evidenced by verse 9, “But he that lacketh these things is blind, and cannot see afar off, and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins.” At salvation our sins are washed away by Christ's blood, i.e., “purged from his old sins.” 2nd Peter 1:4 is talking about growing in grace as a believer. The Greek word for “divine” here is theios and means “godlike”; and the Greek word for “nature” is phusis meaning “growth.” Simply stated, the Bible teaches that we grow through the knowledge of Jesus Christ, becoming more Christlike.
As Christians we don't have to worry and wonder what God wants us to do, for we have the Word of God to guide us. We are to search the Scriptures (John 5:39) to learn the PROMISES of God. For example: God promised in Hebrews 13:5 that He would NEVER leave nor forsake us. We can rest assure in knowing that God is always with us, even in our loneliest and darkest hour.
Also, God promised in Proverb 3:5-7 that He would direct our paths if we acknowledge Him in all our ways (and lean not unto our own understanding). If we obey the revealed will of God in the Scriptures, then God promises to guide us in the secret areas of the will of God. If we don't obey God's revealed will, then we cannot claim God's promise to direct our paths, because we have failed to acknowledge Him in all our ways. Psalm 103:14 comforts us that God knows our human frame and remembers that we are dust.
1st Peter 2:2 tells us to DESIRE the sincere milk of God's Word that we may GROW in the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. 1st Peter 2:2, “As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby.” It is not by chance that the Bible refers to the “sincere milk.” That is very interesting. There are a lot of insincere health, wealth, and prosperity false teachings being propagated in churches today for the sake of greed and filthy lucre. However, the pure Word of God is freely available to all, sincere in every way, and totally truthful. I love the sincerity of the Bible.
So many churchgoers today are caught up into religious feelings and experiences, being far more interested in praise teams and worship services; than they are hearing doctrinally sound Bible preaching. Most religious people today are merely interested in entertainment, experiences, and having a good time. May we all have the Christian character to make ourselves listen to Bible preaching for the sake of edification and growing in the KNOWLEDGE of Jesus Christ.
Music will give you a feeling of euphoria—that bigger than life feeling—but it won't increase your knowledge of the Lord Jesus. The power of God rests in the PROMISES OF GOD; not in the music of Contemporary Christians Music [CCM]. Most churchgoers today attend CCM concerts and hear some vague sermonette that is wishy-washy at best; but they don't have the desire not character to listen to doctrinally sound preaching, or SEARCH THE SCRIPTURES! And those who do have an interest in the Scriptures refuse to use the King James Bible, so they end up adhering to corrupt theology spawned from all the modern corrupted Bibles. I wouldn't give you a dime for any modern Bible. They're all corrupt!!!
No amount of religious devotion, reformation, rehabilitation, nor education can give us Christ's divine nature; but rather, regeneration (being born-again) by the Spirit of God. Only those who have believed upon the name of Jesus Christ, God's only begotten Son, have God's divine nature. The Bible does NOT say that we will become divine. Men cannot become as gods, contrary to the false teachings of Mormonism. The Bible teaches that we receive the divine nature, i.e., Christ's Spirit at salvation (Romans 8:9). END
