What does this 1 Corinthians 13:12 scripture have to do the first chapter of 1 Corinthians 1;5-8?  Here are the verses: that you were enriched in every thing by Him, in speech and knowledge, even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed in you, so that you come short in no gift, eagerly waiting for the revelation of  our Lord Jesus Christ, who will also confirm you to the end, that you may be blameless in the day of the our Lord Jesus Christ.

Paul doesn’t want us lacking any reward that we can reap from the Holy Spirit.  The word gift is also interchangeable with the word reward… The same meaning is for the gifts of the Holy Spirit referenced in 1 Corinthians 12.  That word reward makes us meditate a little bit….

In school, we get a reward of our works….our work gets graded.  The teacher’s prerogative is to give us a passing or failing grade. They usually measure  the depth of our understanding of the subject. So does the Teacher that was sent to us, the Holy Spirit.

What do you think the understanding of our Subject is that the Holy Spirit is measuring? How is the fruit of our testing? That is the trying out  of our knowledge and all speech of our Subject?   Selah…..

In our culture, we think gifts come to us in a different way. In America, we get gifts at Christmas, usually even if we have been bad! We get gifts for our birthday, when God has really numbered our days. We making it through another year is not really of our hard work! The Almighty God is the only giver of our breath and days on this earth.

The reward of the measure or grade of our faith in walking  the ways of  the King’s kingdom is the Holy Spirit’s job.

My question is what do you think the Holy Spirit uses as a “answer sheet” to our testing? Do you think our diligence or lack there of is important to the Holy Spirit as it would be to a good teacher in our school system? If so, what will catch a pleasing eye of the Holy Spirit towards a student?

Selah……

When someone comes to you with a great report of a good meal at a restaurant…. Do we go away satisfied? Do we get filled because they did on their meal?  Or do we go try out the restaurant that the good report came from?   We go to the restaurant and check out the food ourselves and get satisfied…. Our friends meals won’t do us any good, we have to eat our food ourselves…..

Why did the crowds gather around Jesus doing many good things? Because they had to check out for themselves the news of Messiah…. My question is now, are we checking out Jesus for ourselves or do we just take people’s word for what He has said about  us and the kingdom of God.

In Paul’s greeting in 1 Corinthians 1;4-6, I thank God always concerning you for the grace of God which was given to you by Christ Jesus, that you were enriched in every thing by Him, in all speech and knowledge even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed in you…. 

Paul was commending that there was a vital living relationship with Jesus Christ by the Holy Spirit abiding in the  Corinthians…. Yes, there were problems there, but where is there not problems now in churches? Selah….

The point is they were hungry for Jesus Christ and His Spirit. The Holy Spirit also known as the Illuminator was enriching these saints. He was enriching them with all speech and knowledge as to confirm the living testimony of Christ in them…. As He is still doing today.

Now why is this so important?  We cannot eat today’s meal or dinner for our neighbor. I have to eat for myself and you have to eat for yourself…. It is no different with our God…. Some of us are dying of spiritual starvation of His word and  fellowship in His abiding Spirit.

I am eternally grateful that Columbus did not take every one’s word that the world was flat, but had to check it out for himself… Aren’t you?

We have a Magnificent Leader, Jesus Christ, who left us path to follow… Now I know some of the grass has covered the little stone path that He left for us, but His Spirit in us will illuminate that way that He called us to follow….. The map is His word and the Light is His Spirit.  Come on and get your endurance shoes on and check it out for yourself….

Can you hear His calling your name? Be still and listen to His sweet gentle voice saying to you, I am here. In Matthew 11:28-30… Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.

The Holy Spirit exhorts today in Hebrews 4:7, Today, if you will hear His voice, Do not harden your hearts.   Selah!!!!

The dinner bell is still sounding loud and clear to all who are hungry and not satisfied with the world…..John 6;57, As the Living Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father, so he who feeds on Me will live because of Me.

Don’t take my word for it, I double dog dare you to check Him out…. He promises to fill you up in Matthew 5:6.  Get enriched with every thing by Him in all speech and knowledge as the testimony of Christ is confirmed in you!    Why? Because you won’t be short!……  What!

I’ll explain next time…..

This scripture  is a greeting from a letter of Paul to Corinthians. We know as 1 Corinthians 1:3-9, Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. I thank my God always concerning you for the grace of God which was given to you by Christ Jesus, that you are enriched in everything by Him in all speech and all knowledge, even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed in you, so that you come short in no gift, eagerly waiting for the revelation of Jesus Christ, who will also confirm you to the end, that you may be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. 

I can sit here and meditate on that greeting forever…. There is so much in those words that are  stepping stairs of our calling or our purpose in Christ Jesus.

Paul first sends the peace and grace of our God to us…..Those words  alone are enough. I want to walk in the fullness of His grace and peace.  When my eyes open in the morning and even sleep in His peace and grace every night. Don’t you?

To keep the distractions of the world from my focus of the Lord is my quest.  It is written in Isaiah 26: 3, You will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on You, because  he trusts in You. Trust in the Lord forever. 

It is also written in John 1:14, And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.

I guess it is not only what we eat we become but also what we behold or watch. What gets our attention…. our focus…. Paul also said in 2 Corinthians 3:18, But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.

Selah……

I would conclude here, this might be the key of keeping the grace and the peace of our God and Father and the Lord Jesus Christ in our hearts and therefore around our lives even in the midst of complete chaos  and a corrupted culture.

I will finish Paul’s letter to the Ephesians 6:10, Finally, my brethern, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might.

Selah- my friends in Christ!

A big clue is given to us in the very first verse of chapter 13 of Revelation: Then I stood on the sand of the sea….. We have been told by the very words of Jesus in Matthew chapter 7:26-27, But everyone who hears these sayings of Mine, and does not do them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand: and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, and it fell. And great was its fall.

So we can conclude the works of the adversary that John will further elaborate  in this chapter will not stand before our Lord. Now my question for you- will the works of the adversary stand now or has his works stood before and will they in the future….? If not, who stops them and how?  Look up in the scriptures your answer—-Search out our Lord and His ways…. His works and plans are all magnificent in wisdom and knowledge…..

Now I have another question to ask you? Is it true that we become what we eat?  Hmmm….  Selah!

We have two tables to choose from…. Our Lord’s and Satan’s….. One table gives life and is the Light of men, the other table is death and eternal death of men…..

Now, both give signs and wonders…. So how do we know we are eating the table of the Lord’s and not being deceived…..   How do we know the Truth from deception?

Both tables make us feel good, so how can we tell? How do we not become the frog in the slow boiling pot of water lulled into a slow death?

What do you think is the best way to protect from the deception of Satan that is flooding our culture today?  How do we make sure that we only eat from the table of our Lord’s supper?

I elaborate more in my book , Jesus Christ, The King Of Kings And Lord Of Lords, The  Judge Of His Creation, on the each table set before us…. and what the result of partaking of the wrong table. Come and get my book and join us in this study!

I will let you search out the answers in the Word of God because all the answers are found there. The Word of God made flesh is Jesus Christ.

Let us make sure we are partaking from ONLY our Lord’s table…..His supper is the best. Selah!!! Praise Him and all His ways are perfect!

I know you must be thinking… what is she talking about…. There is no “part c” in the Book of Revelation….. Well, I am thinking about this verse in chapter 12:11, And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives unto death.

I have heard songs and preaching on the first two stances of an overcomer, but not of third stance….. and they did not love their lives unto death.

Do you know why?  I guess it is a hard saying from the Word of God…. Another one that is silent in today’s Christian slang is Galatian’s 2:20, I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.

Chapter 14:13 of Revelation states, then I heard a voice from heaven saying to me, write: Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on.- Yes, says the Spirit, that they may rest from their labors, and their works follow them.

What does this all mean? We aren’t to work anymore? Didn’t Jesus say in John 15: 5, I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.

There is a theme throughout the Word of God; it is written in Genesis 17:1, When Abram was ninety- nine years old, the Lord appeared to Abram and said to him, I am Almighty God; walk before Me and be blameless.

This theme also is throughout the New Testament….. Find for yourself all the times the word blameless is found in the New Testament…..Then how are we to accomplish such an impossible task?  Did our God provide a way or not?

Is there more that He is searching out in us than just believing in Jesus Christ that we won’t go to hell?  Are we dead in the Lord? Are we still living in OUR ways and just need a Savior so we can go to heaven and not hell?

Do we mean business with God? What if your fame or what if your name or what if your bank account is counted dead to the world and to the christian world also?  Will you still take this Lord to be your Heavenly Husband even beyond death to yourself, through rich and poor, through sickness and health…. beyond this death, because we will never part….

Do we want to take the third stance of Revelation 12:11  as our declaration of dependence on the ALL Sufficient One?   Is this our allegiance to our Great Heavenly Husband? Is it?

Oh Lord, reveal our hearts as You, Mighty God, reveal Yourself to us…. May we see our hearts as You see them….. Give us the grace and courage to walk out on the waters in bodacious faith in a Awesome Radical King…. The Finisher of our Faith…. Our Jehovah Jireh… Our Great Provider in the Mount of the Lord.

Jesus Christ is the Finisher of our faith.  The Salvation of God is complete. He left nothing undone from the affects of sin….. so if we have something in our lives that does not come from heaven…. What do we do? Accept it? Is it God’s will? Are we accepting less than His best?  Or do we wrestle like Jacob did with the Angel of Lord until Jacob got the blessing.

Study Galatians 2:20…. Meditate on His Word today! Rise up sons and daughters of God!