Dear One,
The Lord bless you!
I’m currently in a two-year stretch where I’m taking courses in biblical Hebrew, Greek and Aramaic from the Israel Institute of the Bible from Jerusalem. My masters and PHD studies exposed both strengths and weaknesses in my understanding and to a degree in my walk with ABBA. In our ministry we’ve always stressed application over scholarship – “100% of people who come to receive the baptism of the HS must get filled,” as opposed to having a strong theological understanding of why cessationism is from the pit of hell. But I see that scholarship, at least on the soul level, is the great rudder that steers this ship we call the Church. We’ve reached a level of maturity in our ministry where we have guys WHO ARE BETTER THAN I AM in the operation of the gifts of the Spirit. As a father and a teacher, this is very satisfying, but we still need development to maturity on the scholarship side, the apologetics side, the research side of understanding who we are and who ABBA is.
I read POPULAR MECHANICS to help me stay current on what’s going on in science, even if it comes from a liberal, anti-God bias. One theme that keeps coming up is the search for understanding consciousness. Scientists will never understand consciousness until they understand the spirit of man and the spirit of life. Why do twin human beings, even separated at birth, many times dress and act similarly? What are soul ties? What makes a flock of birds turn as one? If they were keying off a lead bird, there would be a ripple effect through the flock that would be easily discernable. But no…no ripple effect. They turn as one! That’s the spirit of life, a spiritual connection between each bird that orients the flock. A family dog is lost 150 miles from the family home, and he makes his way back to the family home. How did he do that? GPS? Siri? What about migratory animals, the swallows at Capistrano, etc. etc.? What they call instinct, which has so many logical gaps in it as to make the whole theory worthless, we call spirit. The truth is this – the whole creation testifies to the greatness of our God!
Lord willing, we will some day have a place where scholars develop a comprehensive theology of the Holy Spirit, where Christian professionals are trained in the depth of the gifts of the Spirit in light of their profession, and where anointed teachers reach out with teaching and training to bless the whole body of Christ and the whole world. Recently as I was running, I thought of John 3:16, and I asked ABBA to teach me how to love the world the way He loves the world. If we get that love oriented properly, all this other stuff will come to pass!
Dear one, if you are an American citizen, VOTE for righteousness on November 3rd! And all of us, please pray for righteousness in the American elections in November. Elections have consequences!
Love you! KRP
SPIRITUAL ROYALTY
Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, Rom 5:1 NKJV
You can’t appreciate Romans truth enough! You can’t review it enough, and when you take it out into the world, you find that 98% of Christian’s problems, and 100% of the world’s problems, revolve around some misperception or rejection of Romans truth. You can’t get to the lifestyle of Ephesians – filled with all the fullness of God – until you are solidly rooted and grounded in the realities of Romans truth. Romans truth – deliverance from sin and its nature, and being born into a new nature of Christ within – is the theological and faith basis for healing, deliverance and the more abundant life, literally all the promises of God. A house is only as good as its foundation – as we discovered when cracks appeared in our walls in Palmdale – and a Christians life is only as steadfast and secure as it is in Romans truth.
Jesus answered and said to him, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” John 3:3 NKJV
…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, 5 having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will Eph 1:4-5 NKJV
Paul by revelation used both the birth analogy and the adoption analogy when describing the born again experience. The reality is that we are by birth brought into the family of God. God is our literal Father, ABBA as they say in Hebrew. But the adoption analogy was included to help the new first century believers understand their standing and inheritance. Under Roman law a son by birth could be disinherited, but an adopted son could not. So to communicate the immutability of our sonship rights he described us as both born into the family of God as well as adopted into the family. But culturally today adoption can make an adoptee seem to be less a member of a family than the birth children, so today when you speak of Christians being adopted into the family of God it seems to be a lower position. But it is not… we are sons and daughters of the King of kings!
And because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying out, “Abba, Father!” Gal 4:6-7 NKJV
I’m doing a thorough review of our Holy Spirit Seminar manual, something I wrote about thirty years ago after many years of studying and training in the HS field; this is the manual that’s been at the root of all of our classes, seminars, and trainings that has blessed thousands and thousands of people around the world, and continues to. I’m blessed to realize that on page one, the first session, we talk about Romans truth and who we are in Christ.
The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, 17 and if children, then heirs — heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together. Rom 8:16-17 NKJV
When I talk about ‘Romans truth’ I’m specifically talking about the books of Romans, First and Second Corinthians and Galatians. Corinthians corrects practical error as it relates to Romans doctrine, and Galatians corrects doctrinal error as it relates to Romans doctrine. Correction is always a fuller explanation of the doctrine, like when you explain to your child WHY they shouldn’t lie or be mean, rather than just telling them it is wrong. This is why Corinthians and Galatians covers thirty five chapters, while Romans only has sixteen. It’s the same relationship with Ephesians truth and the books of Ephesians, Philippians and Colossians.
When Galatians refers to us as sons of God, it emphasizes the dignity of the calling, while when Romans refers to us as children of God it, emphasizes the tenderness of the parent-child relationship. The dignity of family relationships has been almost lost in American culture, thanks to TV where fathers are always portrayed as idiots, and homosexuality is exalted, but it still lives in many cultures worldwide that are not yet contaminated with western cultural depravity. The dignity of manhood, and womanhood, and the dignity of fatherhood, is singularly important in the kingdom of God. Western church culture has magnified the tenderness of the relationship over the dignity of the calling producing weak and ineffective men, especially. We must have both!
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 2 The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. 3 Then God said… Gen 1:1-3 NKJV
I mentioned earlier the study of Greek and Hebrew, and what wonderful insights can be gained over just reading the English text. For instance, in Hebrew, an ancient reader of Genesis One would understand from the text that verses one and two were just background information, but the emphatic point is ‘then God SAID…’ This is brought out in the Hebrew text. This sets the theme for the whole Word of God – what has God SAID, and what is He SAYING now! In our study of Romans truth, a wonderful insight comes out when we study the Greek word EXOUSIA, from which we get the English translation of ‘authority.’
Behold, I give you the authority (Grk. EXOUSIA) to trample on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt you. Luke 10:19 NKJV
In Hebrew, verbs are made up of three letter roots with prefixes and suffixes. In Greek and in English we have root words and prefixes and suffixes. The word for authority is EXOUSIA, made up of the prefix EK, and the root word ESTI. Now this truth will slap you in the face! EK means ‘out of’ and ESTI means ‘I am.’ Try this on – authority is what comes out of you when you know who you are! Do you see why if we are to walk in Ephesians truth we must be rooted in Romans truth? You cannot build a house without a foundation. I have a friend, Joe, who has lived for years in malaria infested areas and never gotten malaria. He simply takes authority over it. Now, for me, I take malaria medicine, and have done very well, except for one memorable experience. But Joe knows his authority, and it comes out of him…
Romans doctrinal truth is summed in this great section from Romans Eight. Generally, I don’t like to quote long biblical quotes in these articles, but these words are so sweet, they are just like honey on your tongue when you read and speak them. The questions are rhetorical, meaning the answers are so well understood that they don’t need to be said. So let the honey of what God SAYS revive your soul right now!
31 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things? 33 Who shall bring a charge against God’s elect? It is (Shall) God who justifies (?)34 Who is he who condemns? It is (Shall) Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us(?) 35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? 36 As it is written: “For Your sake we are killed all day long; We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.” 37 Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. 38 For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, 39 nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Rom 8:31-39 NKJV
Who are you? In His eyes you are spiritual royalty! You are a son or daughter of the Lord God Almighty, filled with all the authority of Heaven to bring heaven to earth wherever you go. When you pray for the sick, don’t pray as a commoner, or a beggar. Pray and decree like a king! When you pray and decree over your life, your family, your community or nation, pray knowing your words are an irresistible force, a spiritual earthquake that moves heaven and earth to bring in the will of God. You are a son or daughter by birth through the blood of the Lamb into the eternal kingdom of ABBA our Father. You are spiritual royalty. That’s Romans truth! Amen? Love you!
Remember dear ones, we must be about our Father ABBA’s business…
PS. Our friend Steve is teaching Romans over the course of a year on zoom and you can access HIS youtube channel – ROMANS IN A YEAR. If you need more details regarding zoom sessions, etc. write me back at this email. 😊