Revelation, Insperation, Illumination

REVELATION, INSPIRATION, and ILLUMINATION.

 

We have often heard any one of these words used to discuss portions of the Bible, which is the written Word of God. But a closer look at the actual meaning of these three words will show you that they cannot be used interchangeably because they all have a different meaning. I recently read in a book by Chuck Swindoll entitled "The Church Awakening" a proper definition of these three words. So I would like to pass on the information to those who might read this article. We will take each word separately, and list his different meaning of each word which is often used to describe scripture. 1/ Revelation---This word should be used only to describe the Bible, which is the one and only "revelation" our Creator ever gave to mankind to follow in order to obey Him, and walk in His ways. I have heard some people tell about some "new revelation" they have received from God, but as I understand the truth there is no such thing as a new revelation from God. He revealed everything He wants us to know in the Bible, the Written Word of God. 2/ Inspiration--- This word is used in (2 Tim 3:16-17) Where we read about how God used certain chosen people to write the scriptures for Him by the Holy Spirit inspiring them. "All scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives. It corrects us when we are wrong and teaches us to do what is right. God uses it to prepare and equip His people to do every good work". The third word is 3/ Illumination---Since Revelation and Inspiration have both been completed by our Creator, the only one of these three words to consider is "Illumination". This can only come from the Holy Spirit that was given to us by the Father the moment we receive Jesus as our Lord and Savior and Father "adopts" us into His family, and gives us the gift of the Holy Spirit as a seal to that transaction. Since the Holy Spirit we receive is the same Spirit that inspired the authors of scripture; all we need to do is to ask Him to show us what any portion of scripture really means. This is how we receive the correct understanding of any passage of scripture. My experience since I started asking the Holy Spirit for Illumination on certain passages of Scripture has been that my understanding of what I had previously been taught, had changed quite drastically from what I used to believe!!

 

Sincerely submitted.

Dave Jamer                                                                                          

Motivation

MOTIVATION

 

Most everyone knows the meaning of this word and live their life by being motivated by someone or something. And because we are all unique individuals, with our own DNA, we can all be motivated from different sources. I recently read a quote from Albert Einstein, about his famous "Theory of Relativity", "The supreme goal of all theory is to make the irreducible basic elements as simple and as few as possible with out having to surrender the adequate representation of a single datum of experience". Bob Mumford says that Agape is that "irreducible" basic element in the life of a believer in God, and it is used some 320 times in the NT, and every time it is used it is referring to a "believer's behavior"! That is a very interesting Observation, But most of us have been taught that our behavior depends on us keeping certain rules and regulations that have been established by the particular church denomination our church has been connected with! Has that not been your experience in any church you have been part of? You see, as I now understand it if we Agape God as Jesus commands us in (Mark 12:29-31) where every use of the word love is Agape, then our behavior will be "pleasing to the Father". And this Agape will determine our behavior, and not the keeping of rules. This is basically the difference between "Religion", which relies on rules, and "Relationship" which is what Jesus taught.

 

So if our "motivation" in life is based on Agape can you see what a difference it would make in our behavior? Because we are sinners and affected by the "fall" of Adam we are by nature "rebellious" and want our own way, our behavior is naturally affected by this. When Jesus told a very religious man named Nicodemus in (John 3:1-8) that he must be born again in order to see and enter into His Kingdom, we know that command applies to all those who have a desire to follow Jesus. Many people fail to understand this fact and try by following certain religious traditions of their church to bypass this necessary commandment of Jesus. If these people would only expose themselves to Bob's teaching on the Agape Road, and follow it up with reading his two books "The Mysterious Seed", and "Nourishing the Seed" I'm sure they would understand the truth about the salvation of their souls. There is only "one way" to come to God and that way is through Jesus (John 14:6). Various Religious systems teach there are other ways to reach God, but His Word makes it very clear they are wrong!!

Sincerely submitted.

Dave Jamer                                                                                    20/03/13

 

Nature Abours a Vaacum

NATURE ABHORS A VACUUM

 

Apparently this statement is credited to the ancient philosopher Aristotle, who stated that based on his observation that "nature requires every space be filled with something, even if it is colorless, odorless air". As far as I know the study of science over the years has agreed with this conclusion. I think the same truth can be applied to the spiritual world, as well as the natural. This is based on my understanding of scripture that I have gained from studying God's Word since becoming a follower of Jesus nearly 50 years ago. The Bible teaches clearly that we are born into this world with a sinful nature inherited from Adam, our first human ancestor. (Rom5:12)  All humans since him are hopeless sinners (Rom 3:10-23), and doomed for death (Rom6:23)

Because of the foreknowledge of our Creator God, who knew this would happen, He already had a plan to correct this human dilemma. This plan included His only begotten Son Jesus to be incarnated into human flesh by way of the womb of a virgin Jewish maiden. As a perfect human without a trace of Adam's sinful nature, He would then die to pay the price to redeem mankind. After 3 days the Father would resurrect Him in a glorified body, and call Him back to heaven to sit at Father's side. (Ps 110:1). Then they would send the Holy Spirit to earth to take the place of Jesus, until the time appointed for Him to return to earth to receive the Church that He said He would build. (Matt 16:18) The Holy Spirit convicts humans of their sinful condition, and the truth that Jesus came to be their Savior. Then when they repent and accept Jesus as Savior they are "born again". At that moment the Holy Spirit moves into their human spirit, and they become a "new creation". (2 Cor 5:17) Or we might say they are then part of a completely "New Species" of beings, as members of "God's Forever Family"! The Holy Spirit is meant to fill the space in mankind that was originally filled by our sinful nature, however if we don't continue to remain filled as Paul admonishes in (Eph 5:18) then the fleshly nature will creep back into occupy the space that we don't let the Holy Spirit occupy. We are then classed as "carnal Christians", (1 Cor 3:1-4), and not spiritual, because we are not completely filled and controlled by the Holy Spirit of God!

Sincerely submitted.

Dave Jamer

 

Boundaries

BOUNDARIES

 

Our Creator God has established certain boundaries that He expects His people to live within. In the OT I can think of 2 righteous men who walked close to God, Enoch walked so close with God that we are told God "took"  him to heaven without him dieing, see  (Gen 5:24). The other man whose life pleased God was Noah who built an ark of safety for him and his family to protect them through the world wide "flood" that destroyed every living creature on earth except Noah and his family see chapters 6-8 of Genesis for details. Then Moses came on the scene to lead God's people out of bondage in Egypt into the promised land of Canaan.

. Then God used Moses to give them a system of worship that included an elaborate set of sacrifices including the shedding of the blood of innocent animals. And also a very clear set of laws governing the way these laws were to be carried out, see the book of Leviticus for details. All of this was to outline part of the boundaries that God set up to protect His people from contamination from the wicked Nations surrounding them. All this is part of a "Covenant" He made with His people that became known as the "Law of Moses". Each party to a covenant were expected to keep their part of the agreement to make it valid, and of course God always kept His part, but His people were never able to keep their part.

 Finally God gave His people the promise of a completely New Covenant through His prophet Jeremiah (Jer 31:31-34), which was eventually fulfilled by the miracle of the incarnation of Jesus to become the only "God/Man" who was qualified to be our Lord and Savior. See (Heb 1:1-4) for details, plus the 4 gospel accounts and the book of Acts in the NT. Jesus fulfilled all of the Old Covenant including the Law of Moses, and has now become the "New Covenant" in His blood He declared in (Mark 14:22-24), so now as followers of Jesus we have fulfilled all the requirements of the boundaries set in place by God when we become part of His family by "adoption" when we accept Jesus as Lord and Savior. No more being concerned about keeping the OT laws, Jesus has kept them for us, and Father has given us the gift of His Holy Spirit to abide with us "forever" the moment He adopted us. We still have a sinful "flesh nature" which constantly wars against the Holy Spirit, but consider (Rom 8:1-2), and (Gal 5:16-23) to see how God has prepared us as followers of His Son to stay within the boundaries He has established for His children, Praise His Name!!

Sincerely submitted.

Dave Jamer