Amos 3:3 (KJV) 3 Can two walk together, except they be agreed?
For the past several years, God has been bringing to my attention that the words we speak are very important. They are either blessing or cursing. James 1:26, there are a lot of Proverbs verses about it, when you start paying attention you will begin to see Psalms that say Blessed is the man that says (or scripture might say “acknowledges,” or “confesses”). . . God is my refuge, God is my strength, etc. So, this is just a little side lesson that will probably come with every lesson I ever teach at least in some small way. But, last week I had a lot of friends and family that had not heard about the plane crash, they were a little miffed at me, which is understandable and ok, but here’s the deal, I have stayed focused on the FACT, the TRUTH, that by God’s Grace, “we walked away,” and “In Jesus’ Name we’re fine,” ever since the plane settled and we realized that we were walking away. When I start having conversation with people about “walking away” they focus on “plane crash, and oh my gosh”. . . I’m not going to call 500 different people and fight that spiritual battle with them. “God’s angels were keeping charge over us” Psalm 91. God is my refuge, God is my strength, Isaiah 53:4-6, Jesus bore my pain so that I don’t have to. Amos 3:3 says, Can two walk together, except they be agreed? I’m trying to put into practice walking with the Lord. Faith is an action, it starts with the words we speak, and then moves into the act of stepping out of the boat when Jesus beckons us to walk on water. We come together to study the Truth in order to Know the Truth, and then the Truth will set us free. In Acts, Paul made it to the shore of an island after being in a boat that sank, he then got bit by a poisonous snake, shook it off, the people around him were expecting him to die, but Paul kept his focus on sharing Jesus and never suffered any ill effects from it. It was because he kept his focus and his words on Jesus. The WORLD is trying to tell me I should be scared out of my mind, I should be hurt, I should be injured. I’m telling you in Jesus’ Name I’m alive, I’m not afraid, I have no pain. I will tell you I went through a few hours where my physical body was telling me that I probably felt like I just walked away from a plane crash, but I got up the next morning after sleeping off and on, and talking with the Holy Spirit the other off and on and went to play golf, because He told me to do what I had gone there to do. After about the third swing of my golf clubs the devil gave up, the Truth of Calvary set me free, the pain was gone. And, I will not go back. The rest of the weekend we spent attending to the events of the Ok Elks Fall Convention, came home on Sunday and started the new season of Bible Study with the girls. We’ve been busy and we’ve been blessed!
Knowing the Truth Will Set You Free
John 8:31-32 (AMP) 31 So Jesus said to those Jews who had believed in Him, If you abide in My word [hold fast to My teachings and live in accordance with them], you are truly My disciples. 32 And you will know the Truth, and the Truth will set you free.
John 8:36 (AMP) 36 So if the Son liberates you [makes you free men], then you are really and unquestionably free.
Truth is a comprehensive term that in all of its nuances implies accuracy and honesty:
1. Truth is true whether you believe it or not.
2. Truth is true before you come to know it, agree to it, or acknowledge it.
3. Truth is much, much more true than you can ever comprehend or understand.
4. Truth is so much more and so much bigger than anything you have ever thought or imagined it could be.
5. Truth is true even though you did not vote on it.
6. Truth is not true because you make it true. Truth is true because it’s true.
7. God’s truth (gospel truth) stands to be true apart from any man.
a. Jesus is the Truth.
b. He has always been the Truth, He is the Truth, and He will always be the Truth.
c. Our job is to get to know the Truth!
d. The Truth (Jesus) will set us free!
Hosea 4:6 says, MY PEOPLE are being destroyed (are dying) by (because of) their lack of knowledge (of the Lord).
Because of not KNOWING the Truth, we as Christians, (God’s “my people”) often find ourselves worn down, feeling defeated by the cares of this world and trying to “do” and “be” in our own strength instead of by grace through Jesus. But Jesus said, in Matthew 11:28 (AMP) 28 Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy-laden and overburdened, and I will cause you to rest. [I will ease and relieve and refresh your souls.]
I want you to see that again when we put it back into the context of the chapter that it was in!
Matthew 11:26-30 (NLT2) 26 Yes, Father, it pleased you to do it this way! 27 “My Father has entrusted everything to me. No one truly knows the Son except the Father, and no one truly knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.” 28 Then Jesus said, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light.”
It PLEASED the Father to send Jesus to take away our burdens. Jesus calls us to “come to Him,” get to know Him. When we take His yoke upon ourselves, when we submit to Him, when we allow Him to lay siege upon our hearts, LIFE becomes easy, for His burden is light. He gives us REST for our souls, we are no longer full of fear, we have peace that surpasses all understanding. Peace even when your plane is going down.
2 Peter 1:3-4 (AMP) 3 For His divine power has bestowed upon us all things that [are requisite and suited] to life and godliness, through the [full, personal] knowledge of Him Who called us by and to His own glory and excellence (virtue). 4 By means of these He has bestowed on us His precious and exceedingly great promises, so that through them you may escape [by flight] from the moral decay (rottenness and corruption) that is in the world because of covetousness (lust and greed), and become sharers (partakers) of the divine nature.
Peter was saying that everything we need comes through knowledge. That’s because Jesus has already given us everything we could ever need when we are born again. We don’t need to get something new. We just need a revelation of what we already have in Christ. Faith is already present (Galatians 5:22-23). We just need to learn how to use what we have.
Prosperity is already given; we just need to learn the laws that govern God’s prosperity and cooperate with them. Healing has already been deposited on the inside of us (1 Peter 2:24). We have the same raising-from-the-dead power that raised Jesus from the dead (Ephesians 1:20). We don’t need any more power. We just have to acknowledge what we have (Philemon 6) and then learn how to use it.
The knowledge of God (2 Peter 1:3) has given us all the promises in the Word of God for the purpose of allowing us to partake of God’s divine nature. What a deal!
The Greek word “ARETE,” which was translated “virtue” here, was also translated “virtue” in Philippians 4:8 and 2 Peter 1:3. It was translated “praises” in 1 Peter 2:9.
Andrew Wommack's Living Commentary.
James 1:17 (KJV) 17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.
Jeremiah 29:11 (AMP) 11 For I know the thoughts and plans that I have for you, says the Lord, thoughts and plans for welfare (your well being) and peace and not for evil, to give you hope in your final outcome.
The definition of hope is a “confident expectation!” So this verse could end by saying “to give you a confident expectation of good in your final outcome.”
God is a Good God. God has only good gifts for us, and God has only good plans for us, but we must choose to believe and follow and have confident expectation of good from Him. And also plant the seeds (the words), allow time for growth, and receive of the harvest that follows as we begin to verbally agree with, verbally acknowledge, verbally confess God’s Own Word which is Truth (Jesus) over our lives.
Paul in Ephesians 1:17-21 (AMP) said this 17 [For I always pray to] the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, that He may grant you a spirit of wisdom and revelation [of insight into mysteries and secrets] in the [deep and intimate] knowledge of Him, 18 By having the eyes of your heart flooded with light, so that you can know and understand the hope (have a confident expectation) to which He has called you, and how rich is His glorious inheritance in the saints (His set-apart ones), 19 And [so that you can know and understand] what is the immeasurable and unlimited and surpassing greatness of His power in and for us who believe, as demonstrated in the working of His mighty strength, 20 Which He exerted in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His [own] right hand in the heavenly [places], 21 Far above all rule and authority and power and dominion and every name that is named [above every title that can be conferred], not only in this age and in this world, but also in the age and the world which are to come.
We are going to start getting to KNOW the Lord together in class. My favorite passage from my Children’s Bible was Psalm 23. Let’s start right there.
Psalm 23:1-6 (KJV) 1 The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want. 2 He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters. 3 He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake. 4 Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me. 5 Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over. 6 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the LORD for ever.
love the poetic sound of Psalm 23 in the KJV, but now we are going to break it down and look deeper at Who Jesus says He is alongside of what David said in Psalm 23:
Psalm 23:1 (NLT2) 1 The LORD is my shepherd; Jehovah-Rohi or YHWH-Rohi means The Lord is my shepherd.
John 10:11 (NLT2) Jehovah-Rohi 11 “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd sacrifices his life for the sheep.
Psalm 23:1b (NLT) “I have all that I need.” The KJV says, “I shall not want.” Jehovah-Jireh means “The Lord will provide.” I thank You Lord that You came that I might have life more abundantly (John 10:10) and that You provide all that I want and all that I need!
John 6:35 (AMP) Jehovah-Jireh 35 Jesus replied, I am the Bread of Life. He who comes to Me will never be hungry, and he who believes in and cleaves to and trusts in and relies on Me will never thirst any more (at any time).
Psalm 23:2 (NLT2) 2 He lets me rest in green meadows; he leads me beside peaceful streams. (Notice it says He leads, but that means I must follow. . .)
Psalm 23:2 Jehovah-Shalom “the Lord is Peace” also agrees with John 14:27 (NLT2) when Jesus says 27 “I am leaving you with a gift—peace of mind and heart. And the peace I give is a gift the world cannot give. So don’t be troubled or afraid.
“The peace I give is a gift the world cannot give.” There is no person, there is no place, there is no-thing in this world that can give us the peace, the security, that Jesus gave to us at Calvary. Peace is a gift of the Spirit. We receive it when we receive Jesus. But, we have to know we have it, and then we have to put off fear, put off anxiety, and put on the Peace of Jesus instead.
Psalm 23:3a (NLT2) 3 He renews my strength. Jehovah-Rapha “The Lord Who Heals”
1 Peter 2:24 (AMP) 24 He personally bore our sins in His [own] body on the tree [as on an altar and offered Himself on it], that we might die (cease to exist) to sin and live to righteousness. By His wounds you have been healed. Jehovah-Rapha
Our old nature dies, when we accept what He did for us and receive Him we get a brand new nature (His Spirit).
Psalm 23:3b He guides me along right paths, bringing honor to his name. Jehovah-Tsidkenu “The Lord is My Righteousness”
2 Corinthians 5:21 (AMP) 21 For our sake He made Christ [virtually] to be sin Who knew no sin, so that in and through Him we might become [endued with, viewed as being in, and examples of] the righteousness of God [what we ought to be, approved and acceptable and in right relationship with Him, by His goodness]. Jehovah-Tsidkenu
Twice before we have seen He leads me and He guides me, both times were good and peaceful places. . . But wait, there’s more!
Psalm 23:4 (NLT2) 4 Even when I walk through the darkest valley, I will not be afraid, for you are close beside me. Your rod and your staff protect and comfort me.
I want us to break this verse down, at the first comma, we see, that there will be times, when the opportunity is there for us to be scared out of our minds. . . “the valley of the shadow of death.” My plane is going down. . . I also want you to notice it says, “even when I walk.” It doesn’t say anything about God leading me into the shadow of the valley of death. It says even when I walk. . .
Then we see, But I will not be afraid, for You are close beside me. You uphold me in Your hand. Peace, not fear = Jehovah-Shalom “The Lord is Peace” and He will never leave us nor forsake us, even when we veer off of the path He would have us to be on.
Your rod and Your staff protect and comfort me. Jehovah-Sabaoth=the Lord of Hosts (Lord of Armies) God’s angels had charge over us as our plane was going down.
Matthew 26:53 (AMP) Jesus said 53 Do you suppose that I cannot appeal to My Father, and He will immediately provide Me with more than twelve legions [more than 80,000] of angels?
But wait, there’s more! Ephesians 1:5 says, “I have been revealed as God’s own child through Jesus.” So, do you suppose that I cannot appeal to My Father, and He will immediately provide Me with more than twelve legions of angels?
Psalm 23:5a (NLT2) 5 You prepare a feast for me in the presence of my enemies. El Shaddai = The All Sufficient One, God Almighty. God is the all-sufficient source of all of our blessings. God is all-powerful. Our problems are not too big for God to handle. El Shaddai (Lord God Almighty) Shaddai derives from the word for a woman’s breast (shad) and literally means “many breasted one.” This denotes God as provider, supplying, nourishing, and satisfying his people with their needs as a mother would her child. And, since it is “many breasted,” He does this for everyone, all at one time! He is God our Sustainer.
2 Corinthians 12:9-10 (AMP) 9 But He said to me, My grace (My favor and loving-kindness and mercy) is enough for you [sufficient against any danger and enables you to bear the trouble manfully]; for My strength and power are made perfect (fulfilled and completed) and show themselves most effective in [your] weakness. Therefore, I will all the more gladly glory in my weaknesses and infirmities, that the strength and power of Christ (the Messiah) may rest (yes, may pitch a tent over and dwell) upon me! 10 So for the sake of Christ, I am well pleased and take pleasure in infirmities, insults, hardships, persecutions, perplexities and distresses; for when I am weak [in human strength], then am I [truly] strong (able, powerful in divine strength).
Psalm 23:5b You honor me by anointing my head with oil. – When shepherds would anoint a lamb’s head with oil it was to protect them from pestilence. . . So He keeps us from pestilence. (It also says He keeps us from pestilence in Psalms 91!)
Psalm 23:5c My cup overflows with blessings. Jesus is “Living Water”
I want to paint a visual for you here, the one that I get of “a cup overflowing with blessings.” I grew up in an automotive repair shop. The front of which, where the customers came in and out, and rested while they waited on repairs to be made had a floor that had to be mopped and waxed. When it was clean it was shiny. As a young girl I was the cleaner. . . But dad would also give me assignments where I would be sitting out front at a desk doing inventory or some minor accounting tasks. We had some, a few, regular customers that I used to think to myself, that man, or that woman, oozes little puddles of Jesus everywhere that they go. And, I would go on to imagine myself running and sliding, like a slip and slide, through these little puddles of Jesus that they had just deposited on the floor of our shop. It was a lot of fun, in my mind!
John 4:10 (AMP) 10 Jesus answered her, If you had only known and had recognized God's gift and Who this is that is saying to you, Give Me a drink, you would have asked Him [instead] and He would have given you living water.
So this verse is saying, “If you had known and recognized (verbal) God’s gift you would have asked Him instead and He would have given you “living water” which meant “Himself.” All we have to do is recognize, acknowledge, and ask. . .
John 4:14 (AMP) 14 But whoever takes a drink of the water that I will give him shall never, no never, be thirsty any more. But the water that I will give him shall become a spring of water welling up (flowing, bubbling) [continually] within him unto (into, for) eternal life.
As we get to KNOW Him then the Water becomes a flowing, bubbling water well or fountain flowing out of us.
My Jesus has been important to me for a very long time, but I found as I grew into adulthood my reasoning started trying to take over, and I started trying to be righteous in my own strength, and then I pretty much just started to move up and down and all around in the branches of Tree of Knowledge. But, I still never really felt like I deserved the promises of God. I had fell back into the old devil’s trap of bondage to the law and to the traditions of man. I had gotten my eyes, my mind, off of the sheer unadulterated love of Jesus. The Love that He has for me, and therefore the Love that I had for Him.
John 4:19 (KJV) 19 We love him, because he first loved us.
God’s true nature, His very being is Love, wrapped up within His Love is provision for all the needs we have in life, because He wants to give us life abundantly!
Psalm 23:6 (AMP) 6 Surely or only goodness, mercy, and unfailing love shall follow me all the days of my life, and through the length of my days the house of the Lord [and His presence] shall be my dwelling place.
When we take the TRUTH, and let it be TRUTH again in our lives. With the faith of a little girl who would slip and slide through the Jesus puddles left by the saints that walked in and out of the door of the auto repair shop, THEN we can believe on, confess, agree with God’s Word that surely goodness, mercy, and love shall follow me all the days of my life!
TRUTH must be possessed. It must be defended. It must become the foundation of your life. To the degree that if you are weak in TRUTH, then you will be conformed to this world and you will not inherit your blessings.
Our Closing Prayer This Week:
Father We thank you for sending Jesus to be our Good Shepherd that He would give His life for us just as we were and are. Father we thank You that we have confident expectations of good for our lives, because You tell us in Your Word that You want us to have an abundant life! Father we pray that all who have heard Your Word today would have their spiritual eyes, ears, and hearts opened so that they can see clearly that You are Love, that You are our Strong Tower, that You are our Righteousness, that You are our Provision. In the mighty Name of Jesus Christ we believe, we accept, and we receive all of these gifts that You have given us. Amen
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