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8 Steps Upward to Divine Life / Abundant Life
8 STEPS UP TO DIVINE LIFE
The Beatitudes of Christ are like Spiritual Mountain Climbing; 8 upward steps in the Divine Life, according to the Thompson Chain Reference Bible. Each step take you up higher in Christ until you reach the Summit, which is the top step of the Spiritual Temple.
Remember, we are built up a spiritual house. 1 Peter 2:5 says, ‘Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.
The Beatitudes starts off by saying “Blessed”, which could mean according to Strong’s system 833 - to be honest, prosper, 835 - how happy. Even still 2127 - to invoke a benediction, 3106 - to pronounce fortunate, and 1757 - to confer a benefit, to bless. How happy, blessed and honest are they… Christ is invoking (to pronounce) a blessing on the ones who meet these standards of Divine Living.
Matthew 5:3 First Step up to Divine Life is Humility (Conscious Need)
Many have a need to be recognized. They always want to be in the limelight, so to speak, never in the background. They have to be first in everything. This verse calls for you to condescend (to take off together) come down off of your high horse and forsake your arrogant ways. It also calls for modesty which is to be orderly, decent and well arranged. We have to realize that we are not self-sufficient spiritually. We need the Holy Spirit’s life, power, and sustaining grace in order to inherit the kingdom of God.
Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
The kingdom of heaven is given to the one who walks in humility. That is the blessing.
Step 2: Penitence - (mourning for sin)
David shows this spirit of penitence in Psalms 51. When you are truly sorrow for what you have done to the point that we grieve over our weakness in relation to God’s standard of righteousness and kingdom power. We go to the Lord with a broken spirit; a broken and a contrite heart, God will not turn you away. Be sincere when you ask Him to create in you a clean heart and to renew a right spirit within you and He will. We should also be afflicted in our spirits over things that we see manifested in the world that grieves the Lord. Immorality and sin will afflict your very soul if you truly love the Lord. It will bring tears to your eyes knowing that the Lord hates those things.
Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted.
The Lord will console you. What a blessing! He will have compassion on you are restore His joy back in you. The Lord loves those who love him even the more.
Step 3: Meekness - Marking the birth of a New Spirit.
Meek is to be gentle and humble. The meek are those who are humble and submissive before God. They find their refuge in Him and commit their way entirely to Him. They are more concerned about God’s work and God’s people than about what happen to them personally. They humble themselves before a Mighty God knowing that in due time he will exalt them if they faint not.
Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.
The meek shall ultimately inherit the earth. They shall be the ones that occupy the earth.
Step 4: Spiritual Appetite - Signifying Growth
When you hunger and thirst for righteousness, you will seek first the kingdom of God and all of his righteousness. You will study the word to know how to live holy before a holy God. You will always desire to be in the presence of the Lord. In His presence - there is fullness of joy forever more. You can not get enough of his presence. You just want to know Him better. You are thirsting for the things of God, not of this world. It is important that you, throughout your life, have a hunger and thirst for:
1) the presence of God
2) the Word of God
3) the communion of Christ
4) the fellowship of the Spirit
5) righteousness
6) kingdom power
7) and the return of the Lord
Our hunger can be destroyed by worldly anxiety, deceitfulness of riches, desire things and worldly pleasures and failure to abide in Christ. If we allow this to happen, we will die spiritually. We must stay sensitive to the convicting of the Holy Spirit’s work in our lives.
Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled. Those who consistently hunger and thirst after righteousness “shall be filled”. That is a promise and a blessing to those who seek his face continuously.
Step 5: Mercifulness - An Attribute of God; indicating further Advance.
Merciful means (as a verb) to feel sympathy with the misery of another, and especially manifested in acts; to have pity or mercy on. Then you obtain mercy in your time of need. The merciful are full of compassion and pity toward those who are suffering either from sin or sorrow. The merciful sincerely desire to make such suffering less by bringing those people to the grace and help of God through Jesus Christ. In showing mercy to others we shall obtain mercy.
Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy.
When you can do this, you know that you have climbed yet another step up to Divine Living.
Step 6: Heart Purity - marking the attainment of Higher Attitudes, where comes the vision of God.
The pure in heart are those who have been delivered from the power of sin by the grace of God and now strive without deceit to please and glorify God and to be like Him. They seek to have a heart like God’s heart of love for righteousness and a hatred for evil. Their heart (which includes mind, will, and emotions) is in tune with the heart of God.
Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.
Only the pure in heart shall see God. To see God means to be His child and to dwell in His presence, both now and in the future kingdom.
Step 7: Peacemaking - A Christ like influence, calming the Storm of Life.
The peacemakers are those who have been reconciled to God. They have peace with Him through the cross. They now strive by their witness and life to bring others, including their enemies, to peace with God.
Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God.
God is not the author of confusion. So those who keep confusion going are not of God. You have to be a peacemaker to be called the children of God.
That again is a blessing.
Step 8: The Summit, Suffering for Christ - Standing beside the Prophets and Martyrs.
The highest point is suffering for Christ. That what the summit is - the top step to Divine Life. 2 Timothy 3:12 Yes, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. What is persecution? It is to keep on treating one in a cruel or harsh way especially for holding certain beliefs or ideas, to harass. Persecution in one form or another is inevitable for those who desire to live a godly life in Christ. Persecution will be the lot of all those who seek to live in harmony with God’s Word for the sake of righteousness.
1) Those who uphold God’s standards of truth, justice, and purity, and who at the same time refuse to compromise with their present evil society or the lifestyle of lukewarm believers, will undergo unpopularity, rejection, and criticism. Persecution and opposition will come from the world and at times from those within the professing church. When they experience this suffering, Christians are to rejoice, for to those who suffer most God imparts the highest blessings.
2) Christians must beware of the temptation to compromise God’s will in order to avoid shame, ridicule, embarrassment, or loss. The principles of God’s kingdom never change:.. ‘All that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution‘. There is no way around it.
Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness’ sake: (not for being a busy body in other men’s affairs.) for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are ye when men shall revile you, (revile means to insult - to say or do something on purpose that hurts a person’s feelings and pride. Insult can be done by an act or remark made against you.) and persecute you, and say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my (Jesus) sake. Not for no other reason other than for His sake.
This to me is the icing on the cake.
REJOICE, and be EXCEEDING GLAD: for GREAT IS YOUR REWARD in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you. You are not along. They did it to the Prophets before you. They did it to JESUS. We are not greater than He.
Are you being persecuted at every turn? Then you are suffering for Jesus sake and great is your reward. That gives me much comfort. Hallelujah!!!
Glory!!!! Praise Jesus. Get your dance on right here. You are at the top (Summit) of the steps.
Love and blessings to you in the Name of Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior.
AN ANOINTED EVENT
My Abundant Life to You
The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they (you) might have life, and that they (you) might have it (life) more abundantly. John 10:10
He that committeth sin is of the devil; for the devil sinneth from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he (Jesus) might destroy the works of the devil. 1 John 3:8
Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God. 1 John 3:9
We hear Jesus saying that the only purpose of the thief, who is the devil himself, is to steal from you, to kill you and utterly destroy everything that is dear to you. He comes to trample your precious life down to the ground and then bury you whereas you can not get up again. He does not care anything about you. He has many tactics or strategies that he may use, but every one of them leads back to what Jesus has said his (the devil) main purpose is for your life.
In stealing from you, he deceives you into believing his lies instead of the truth. He will steal the truth of the word of God from you through the cares of this world. And if that is not enough, he precedes on to kill you. He will slaughter you to death. He will pierce you to death. He likes to butcher you until he has choked all the life out of you. He will even take that to the next level which is to destroy you. He is in a rage to devour you. He knows that the Lord has a destiny for you to do you good and not evil. But he knows that he must impoverish you, consume you until you are no more and bring about every devastation he can before you discover your destiny in God.
The devil does not have any love for you. He hates your heavenly Father and he also hates all of his children. You know how it is, when someone does not like you, they do not like your children either. The devil wants to see you fail. He leads you into all types of sin. As a matter of fact, he plots, schemes and shoots all types of fiery darts at you which will bring about his evil desires for you.
He makes things appear to be good when it is all a set up to destroy your life. He is a liar. Jesus says he is the father of lies. He has been a liar from the beginning and he plants his lying seeds in all who will except them. Every thing that the devil can offer you is only temporary. It will only serve to further his evil plan to usher you on into the very gates of hell and into the final place of the wicked ones who chose to follow him there, the lake of fire that burns with fire and brimstone.
But, beloved of God, here is the good news. Jesus came to destroy all of his (the devil) works. God's plan is to make known the workings of the evil one by opening up your eyes to the truth. The truth is that God so loved the world (you) that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever (if you will believe) believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. John 3:16 [You will not be eternally separated from God forever throughout eternity. The wages of sin is death. That is the second death where there is no hope of ever being with the Lord.]
You can have that everlasting life now. It is available to you once you have excepted Jesus as your personal Lord and Saviour. Jesus said, I have come that they (you) might have life. Until you have accepted Jesus as your personal Lord and Saviour, you are born of a fallen nature received from the fall of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden and cannot partake of the abundant life that only He (Jesus) can offer you. Unlike what the devil has to offer you, it is forever - not temporary. Jesus is the only one who can give you that life because He is that life everlasting. In John 14:6 Jesus says unto you, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.
He wants you to be able to receive His life. He took all our infirmities, and bare our sicknesses. He nailed all of this to His cross and done away with them for you and you stand forgiven and free to start anew in Him. So when you accept Him, He comes into your life and makes His abode there in you thereby giving you life. But His desire is that you be able to have that life in abundance. Not just that you have life but have it more abundantly. I am come that they might have life, AND that they might have IT more abundantly.
Jesus requires that you live in a certain way in order to have that kind of life which will add and cause you to increase to the point where you have a surplus. That is what the abundant life’s all about. It involves your health and prosperity. In 3 John 2 He says to you, beloved, I wish above all things that thou (you) mayest prosper and be in health, EVEN as thy (your) soul prospereth. When you live that abundant life, it causes an overflow therefore giving you enough to help others to obtain that same abundant life you have obtained as you abide in Him. It is through Him that that life supply flows.
His life flowing through you causes you to bear what is known as fruit and that fruit is attractive to others who look upon you and becomes desiring of that fruit. What is that fruit? It is found in Galatians 5:22,23. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance,: against such there is no law.
In John 15 the Lord compares us to the branches and himself as the vine. His Father is the husbandman. He says, every branch that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit. Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me., I am the vine, ye are the branches: he that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing. If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned.
His life flowing through you is the secret to the abundant life that only He can give and He wants you to have it more abundantly. You can not get too much of Jesus. For He loves you and will cause His love to overflow in you to others. You will have life more abundantly and will be a giver of life to others. It will be His love through you. It will be His healing touch through you. It will be His wisdom through you. It will be His joy through you giving hope to a lost and dying world. Your life glorifying the Father is abundant life. All those other things that the Gentiles seek will be added unto you. So you have life and life more abundantly.
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