Dear One,

Happy Pentecost Day!

My goodness, there is so much more in Pentecost, as we shall see, then just speaking in tongues, but tongues is so good, such a perfect way to pray, and worship, and praise, that you and Him can have your very own glory manifestation service wherever you go…even right now!

Love you! KRP

EXTRA NOTE ON ROMANS BEFORE WE GET TO EPHESIANS

– THE PROBLEM OF FREEDOM

Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. 2 Cor 3:17 NKJV

Romans deals with the new nature of Christ indwelling your regenerated spirit of man. The thing you must understand is that man will always live out what is in his nature, and he will only be comfortable when he is doing so. You have the nature of righteousness, of Christ in you, and you will only be comfortable while you are living out that nature. You can try to live like a sinner, but you will never be comfortable. You’ll take medication, turn to drugs and alcohol, or get religious because you are not living according to your new, redeemed nature. Same with the unsaved! The unsaved are slaves to their sin nature, and they are only comfortable when they are living out their slave nature. You can’t talk to them about freedom and personal responsibility. They want to be slaves and have the ‘security’ that having a slave master brings. This makes them comfortable. They’ll trade freedom for security. This is why Americans have a trillion dollars in credit card debt, and nobody is upset about it. It’s a slave system! This is why they vote for security over personal responsibility and freedom. Slaves are only comfortable in a system that matches their nature, a slave system. So, when you talk to your nitwit Marxist friend about freedom and personal responsibility, he rebels. He wants the government to tell him what to do. Slaves need slave masters, it’s a slave system, and slaves want everyone else to be slaves. As long as they have coffee, cigarettes and Instagram, they’re good. How do you deal with this problem? Romans shows us…

But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith which we preach): that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. Rom 10:8-10 NKJV

Get your nitwit friend born again and filled with the Spirit. Preach the word of faith. This is what Romans teaches! With a new nature on the inside, the nature of the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus – where the spirit of the Lord is there is liberty – he will want to live out his new nature. Now you can talk about freedom, about personal responsibility, even about political and economic freedom – no debt – and he may just listen, because his new nature hungers for those realities. Remember that the fight for American freedom in 1776 began with the Great Awakening thirty years earlier. People first became spiritually free then they became politically free. Want to help your children to have a free country to live in? Lead your neighborhood to Christ and disciple them. Go get ‘em, child of God!

ON TO THE THRONE – EPHESIANS ONE AND PENTECOST

When the Day of Pentecost had fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. Acts 2:1NKJV

The Lord is the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. At the Alpha Pentecost, fifty days after Passover He came down in fire upon Mount Sinai and gave the law, the written word, to Moses and to the children of Israel, to be a covenant people with Him and in that covenant as they obeyed His voice they would be mightily blessed. At the Omega Pentecost in Acts Two, the Holy Spirit came down again in tongues of fire and gave the apostles His Holy Spirit, and covenanted with a new covenant with His people that from both Jew and Gentile He would draw out a new EKKLESIA, the church of the living God. This was a mystery that was kept secret from the foundation of the world and is now revealed to us in Ephesians.

My absolute, number one favorite book in the Bible, Ephesians drips with the abundance and the gold of God for all of His people to receive and enjoy. Let’s hit a few of the highlights of the first three chapters. Remember that this is built upon the foundation of Romans, that we died and rose with Him. Here in Ephesians, we will see that we are seated with Him at the right hand of the Throne of God – Romans the Cross, Ephesians the Throne.

Now, as we journey from the Cross to the Throne, you must be rooted in Romans doctrine before you are ready go higher in Ephesians. Read Romans Three, Romans Five and Romans Eight until its running out of your ears and you can quote it backwards. As you read, confess to the Lord that you believe it about yourself. “Lord, I believe it and I receive it into my heart. Amen!”

Now we are going to read part of chapter one in Ephesians, with my color commentary, to use a TV sports analogy, then we will finish it through the triumphant benediction in chapter three next week!

1 Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, to the saints who are in Ephesus, and faithful in Christ Jesus: 

‘Faithful in Christ Jesus’ – How do we get qualified to be faithful in Christ Jesus? It’s not by church attendance, regardless of what some think. It’s by believing Romans doctrine, that we died and rose with Him.

2 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. 

‘Grace and peace’ – This is the beginning of the doctrine of Ephesians, not just the greeting. You’ll see as he ends the epistle in Eph. 6:23 and 24 he inverts the order – ‘Peace and Grace.’

We could stop here and preach powerfully! Grace and peace are the antidote to 99.9% of the problems in your life. Meditate on that for awhile!

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, 4 just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, 

‘Every spiritual blessing’ – How many can you name? With little effort I could name fifty or more and I’m sure that is not ‘every spiritual blessing.’ This is rich, so deep! Do you realize you were chosen in Him by name – yes, you! – before time began, that you have a ABBA Father who prepared the creation just for you, that you would walk in glory, blessing and triumph?

5 having predestined us to adoption as sons (Grk. HUIOTHESIA) by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, 6 to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved.

HUIOTHESIA – sonship. You were not conceived by another father. ABBA is your birth Father! We are sons by birth (1Peter 1:23), according to His good pleasure. ABBA rejoiced at your new birth! And, He made us ACCEPTED in the Beloved. You have thrown off all the shame and rejection of your past through believing Romans. Now believe you are accepted in the Beloved, the most exclusive association in all creation. We should have heavenly platinum metal credit cards that say ACCEPTED IN THE BELOVED with your name on it that we can flash whenever we need anything – limitless heavenly credits that have already been paid for – see Romans. Are you starting to see what it means to travel to the Throne? Oh, I’m feeling it now!

7 In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace 8 which He made to abound toward us in all wisdom and prudence, 

I’VE BEEN REDEEMED / BY THE BLOOD OF THE LAMB / I’VE BEEN REDEEMED / BY THE BLOOD OF THE…BY THE BLOOD OF THE LAMB / I’VE BEEN REDEEMED BY THE BLOOD OF THE LAMB / I’VE BEEN SET FREE BY THE SON OF MAN / ALL MY SINS ARE WASHED AWAY / I’VE BEEN REDEEMED. MY FATHER AND I / WE ARE SO CLOSE / MY FATHER AND I / WE ARE SO…WE ARE SO CLOSE / MY FATHER AND I WE ARE SO CLOSE / HE FILLS ME WITH HIS HOLY GHOST / ALL MY SINS ARE WASHED AWAY / I’VE BEEN REDEEMED! Campfire Christianity…I love it!

9 having made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure which He purposed in Himself, – THAT WILL COME UP IN CHAPTER THREE – 10 that in the dispensation of the fullness of the times He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth — in Him. 11 In Him also we have obtained an inheritance – WE ARE RICH! – being predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will, 12 that we who first trusted in Christ should be to the praise of His glory. 

Biblical inheritances weren’t given at the death of the father, like in the west, but at the time the son came to maturity. When you start to believe from your heart Romans doctrine and move on to the Throne, that is when your inheritance, the fullness of your calling, starts to manifest. Do you realize that there is more in God for you to receive right now then you ever thought possible? Why haven’t we seen it? Because we have camped on the cusp of Romans Three rather than moving on to Romans Five, Eight, and Ephesians One, Two and Three.

When you pray, why not get your heavenly ACCEPTED IN THE BELOVED credit card out and in your mind’s eye tap it over that heavenly reader that then says APPROVED?

13 In Him you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, 14 who is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, to the praise of His glory. Eph 1:1-13

You don’t have to speak in tongues to be saved, but speaking in tongues is the absolute proof that you have Christ inside of you. It is the practical manifestation of the sealing of the Holy Spirit, the guarantee of our inheritance. When your children speak in tongues, you know they have an inheritance in God. When you speak in tongues even when you have committed some great sin, like we all have at times, you know that nothing – even your own stupidity – can separate you from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Oh the mercy and the grace of God!

Dear One, it will take us another article or two to get us to the Throne. I felt the pull of the HS here just to drive our hearts back to Romans truth before we are truly ready to march into Ephesians glory. Throw your old junk in the garbage can and declare it null and void forever, and pick up who you are from Romans Three, Romans Five, Romans Eight and Ephesians One because we are moving on to the throne of God in Ephesians Two and the glory of God in Ephesians Three. Have a happy Pentecost day! Amen? Love you!

Remember dear one, we must be about our Father’s business…