OUR COVENANT, Part 6

 

November 8, 2019

 

We are continuing today with our discussion on the kheseed aspect of Covenant.  Guess I didn’t think it would take this long to cover the various aspects of it, but it is too important to simply brush over.  Let’s pick up with the last couple of paragraphs from last week so as to connect our thought processes.

I should probably state parenthetically, that we are SUPPOSED to take on His onoma.  With that onoma comes His power over sickness, His power over death, His authority and power over Satan, his demons, and all his works.  With that onoma comes being seated in heavenly places with Christ Jesus.)

This is why we see so many powerless, weak-kneed, namby-pamby, Caesar-Milquetoast (so-called) Christians in the world today.  They have "a name" that they are Christians, but they both deny, AND LACK, the power to demonstrate and back up their claim to being a Christian.  They say their lives have been changed, but for many of them, that change is a fraud.  The reason why they lack the power and authority of the Lord Jesus Christ is because they've taken their "relationship" with Him only as far as "salvation."

Get it?  There is no covenant!  They haven't entered into the covenant with the Lord -- a covenant of blood that gives the Lord literally all that they are, all that they ever hope to be, and all that they have -- including their pocketbooks.

Ooooops!!!!  Now I'm meddling.  Hehehehehehe........

No.  Not really!  Jesus gave us all that He is, all that He WILL become, and all that He has -- INCLUDING the wealth of the Kingdom of God -- and put it at our disposal.  Perhaps I should say that He has put it all at the disposal of those who enter into that covenant relationship with Him.

When writing to the Galatians, Paul says, "For in Jesus Christ, neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision, but faith which worketh by agape (love)."

Thus, it is agape-kheseed which empowers our faith and causes us to believe the Word of the Lord, which is the embodiment of His covenant.  This isn't something he gives us a tiny bit of: He gives us the capacity to become one with Jesus Christ -- "..according to the riches of His glory.."  -- "..that ye might be filled with all the fullness of God."

Understand?

Let's go over the basis of this covenant statement one more time.

We did this yesterday, too.  Go back for a second to our review of Abraham and the Lord, and the covenant that God made with him.  Remember the "smoking furnace" and the "burning lamp" that depicted the physical presence of the Lord as He passed between the broken pieces of the animals?  Remember the analogy of the smoke and the cloud as the covering and protection of the Lord as a portion of His part of the covenant to Abraham?

Good.  Now you understand the concept of the cloak, the covering, the symbolism in that covenant of God's gift to Abraham of all that he had.  Abraham easily became the richest man on the face of the earth -- certainly the richest man in that region.  He became the most powerful man on the face of the earth in his generation.  Because of Abraham's faith in God's covenant Word, because of Abraham's trust in God's promises, he withheld absolutely NOTHING from the Lord.  All that he was, and all that he ever became belonged to the Lord -- including the son given him as a result of God's covenant with him: Isaac!  

By the same token, all that the Lord was became available and accessible to Abraham.  Abraham walked the supernatural from the world's perspective.  Though his body was long past the point of procreation, the Lord restored the strength of his youth, enabling him to have children in abundance after the age of 100 years.

In his eighties, Abraham took 318 of his servants and took on the most powerful kings and armies of the middle east, defeating them and wiping them out.  That wasn't natural power or fighting skill: that was a gift from the Lord.  The Lord defended Abraham and gave him the fighting skills of a whole army, embodied in a single person.  Not only that, all those who were servants to Abraham and lived under his authority benefited by having the same skills and power given them.

Now, let's get back to the perspective of ..that ye might be filled with all the fullness of God."

Consider Jesus' prayer in John 17.  "And now I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to thee.  Holy Father, keep through thine own onoma -- nature, very makeup, character, power and authority -- (name) those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one, as we are."

Let me pause for a second.

Do you get it?  Jesus and the Father were one!  All that the Father was, Jesus was.  All that the Father had Jesus had.  All power and authority that the Father exercised, Jesus exercised.  Why?  Because they were in covenant together.  They were one.

That is precisely what Jesus was praying as He addressed the Father, "That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us..."

Right!  If we enter into covenant with the Lord Jesus Christ, we enter into covenant with the Father.

But it gets stronger.  Watch.  "And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one: I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me."

Whewww!!!  So why don't we see more of this kind of completeness (the word translated "perfect" in our English translations is the Greek word, teleioo, which means to be complete, finished, consummated, accomplished) in Christians today?  It's quite simple, really.  Ignorance.  Unbelief.  Doubt.  Fear.

Fact is, we have a large segment of the body of Christ who are taught to be ignorant.  They are taught according to the doctrines of men instead of listening for themselves to the Holy Spirit.  They are taught that everything the early believers saw, that everything the apostles and prophets accomplished during the first and second centuries died out with them: that it's no longer available today.  They are taught to be afraid of the Devil.  They are taught to be afraid of demons.   They are taught to be afraid of speaking in tongues, healing the sick, raising the dead, cleansing the lepers, causing the lame to walk and the blind to see.

They are taught to respect and be impressed by college and university degrees, along with "theologians" whose ignorant study of God is based in academic arrogance instead of walking in personal relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ and being led by the Holy Spirit.  They make degrees and the study of books by men to supplant the Holy Spirit's leading and authority in their lives, worshiping instead the doctrines of men rather than the Lord.  It is idolatry plain and simple.  I heard one teacher a number of years ago refer to it as "bibliolatry": the worship of words and letters on paper written by men rather than the living Word of God.

Sorry, I'm getting a bit astray here.  It is vitally important that we live and walk by faith; and that faith only comes by living and walking in the agape love of the Lord; and that agape love of the Lord only comes by entering into covenant with the Lord Jesus Christ; and that covenant of the Lord Jesus Christ is absolute and inviolable to those who enter into it.

See the chain?  Father > Jesus Christ > Covenant > Agape > Faith.

It is critically important to us to understand this "chain of faith" as it relates to covenant, and as it relates to the promises that Jesus Christ made to all who entered into covenant with Him.

Something we have not yet touched on in our discussions of covenant is the fact that with every covenant comes two things: blessing and curse.

Those who walk in covenant and keep that covenant are entitled to such blessings as folks today can scarcely get a grasp on.  By the same token, those who violate that covenant bring upon themselves the curse of the covenant.

Remember our previous discussion about the consequences of violating a covenant?  How -- because a covenant was a life-and-death matter established in blood -- if one of the parties to the covenant breached that testament, their life was forfeit; how even if the abridging party managed to escape death, his descendants took upon themselves the curse and were subject to death at the hands of the aggrieved party's descendants to the fourth generation?

The Tabernacle of Moses provided a graphic representation of blessing and curse.  The sacrifices for sin came without the gates, and without those blood sacrifices the offenders were subject to the penalties and curse of the covenant.

The curse was spelled out in Deuteronomy 28:15-68:

"But it shall come to pass, if thou wilt not hearken unto the voice of the LORD thy God, to observe to do all his commandments and his statutes which I command thee this day; that all these curses shall come upon thee, and overtake thee:

“Cursed shalt thou be in the city, and cursed shalt thou be in the field.  Cursed shall be thy basket and thy store.  Cursed shall be the fruit of thy body, and the fruit of thy land, the increase of thy kine, and the flocks of thy sheep.  Cursed shalt thou be when thou comest in, and cursed shalt thou be when thou goest out. 

“The LORD shall send upon thee cursing, vexation, and rebuke, in all that thou settest thine hand unto for to do, until thou be destroyed, and until thou perish quickly; because of the wickedness of thy doings, whereby thou hast forsaken me......

“Moreover all these curses shall come upon thee, and shall pursue thee, and overtake thee, till thou be destroyed; because thou hearkenedst not unto the voice of the LORD thy God, to keep his commandments and his statutes which he commanded thee: And they shall be upon thee for a sign and for a wonder, and upon thy seed forever.  Because thou servedst not the LORD thy God with joyfulness, and with gladness of heart, for the abundance of all things...."

You can read the whole thing in Deuteronomy 28.  I've only touched on the curse of the covenant with the foregoing verses.

Notice that the Lord says to Israel, "They shall be upon thee for a sign and for a wonder, and upon thy seed forever.  Because thou servedst not the Lord thy God with joyfulness, and with gladness of heart, for the abundance of all things."

This was not just a curse for four generations: this was a curse upon their seed forever!  And the crux of the curse was that "thou servedst not the Lord thy God with joyfulness, and with gladness of heart, for the abundance of all things."

The Lord had -- with His covenant -- given them "the abundance of all things."  All that He was, and all that He had was given to Israel as His covenant people in the earth.  They were to be His personal representative.  They were to show the rest of the world the path to redemption from the curse that came upon the entire human race when Adam and Eve subjected themselves -- and their descendants -- to the bondage of Satan.

With that position as God's covenant people came immeasurable blessing -- almost incalculable blessing!  With that position came God's power and authority in the earth.

With it came agape-kheseed.

With it came the promise that "All people of the earth shall see that thou art called by the name (shem/onoma -- patria - lineage) of the LORD; and they shall be afraid of thee.....And the LORD shall make thee the head, and not the tail; and thou shalt be above only, and thou shalt not be beneath; if that thou hearken unto the commandments of the LORD thy God, which I command thee this day, to observe and to do them.."

Get it?

And there is still more to come!

Have a great weekend, everyone!

In case you are missing out on real fellowship in an environment of Ekklesia, our Sunday worship gatherings are available by conference call – usually at about 10:30AM Pacific.  That conference number is (712) 770-4160, and the access code is 308640#.  We are now making these gatherings available on video using ZOOM.  If you wish to participate by video on ZOOM, our login ID is 835-926-513.  If you miss the live voice-only call, you can dial (712) 770-4169, enter the same access code and listen in later.  The video call, of course, is not recorded – not yet, anyway.

Blessings on you!

 

           

Regner A. Capener
CAPENER MINISTRIES

RIVER WORSHIP CENTER
Temple, Texas 76504

Email Contact: CapenerMinistries@protonmail.com

 

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