CONDITIONS FOR REVELATION

MEMORY VERSE: for I know him, that he will command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the Lord, to do justice and judgment; that the Lord may bring upon Abraham that which he hath spoken of him, Genesis 18:19.

BIBLE IN ONE YEAR: Judg 15, Acts 19, Jer 28, Mark 14

BIBLE STUDY: Genesis 18:17-21

There are certain conditions that must be satisfied before the Lord reveals things to a fellow. Firstly the fear of the Lord must be deeply rooted in the heart of the fellow. According to Psalm 25:14, God shares His secret with people who fear Him. A fellow who fears God will not toy with sin at all. Proverbs 16:6 says by the fear of the Lord men depart from evil. The tendency to do evil is in everyone but the fear of the Lord drives people from committing evil or participating in evil. Secondly the fellow must raise his children and household in the fear of the Lord. In 1Timothy 3:1-13, Paul told Timothy before you anoint a man to the office of a Deacon or Bishop , first of all check how he runs his household. Where his children and household spend eternity, is it a concern for him? If it is a concern for him, he will rule and raise them in the fear of the Lord. If that is not his priority don’t bother anointing him because a man who does not love his family enough to do everything in his power to get them to heaven will not love the church of God.

How you raise your children and household is directly proportional to the level of revelation you will get from God. In other words whether God will reveal things to you or not is dependent on the effort you put in to training your wards. When God was contemplating whether to tell Abraham His plans or not, He concluded by saying I know Abraham, He will command his children and household after Me. God was not obliged to reveal His plans to Abraham but He did so because He knew that Abraham took raising children up in the fear of God as priority.

The question is how did God know that Abraham was going to raise His children and household in the fear of the Lord? Well God is God and He knows all things. According to Isaiah 46:10, God makes known the end from the beginning and from the ancient times things that are not yet done. Asides this, how you train the child of others is how you will train yours. After the death of Nahor (Abraham’s brother), Abraham took Lot and raised him as a son. Abraham raised Lot up in the fear of the Lord. Despite the atrocities of Sodom, Lot managed to keep himself pure. Not only that, Lot raised his two daughters has virgins in Sodom all thanks to the training Lot received from Abraham. Thirdly, the fellow must be upright. Psalm 11:7 says for the righteous Lord loveth righteousness; his countenance doth behold the upright. To be upright is being in accord with what is right or to be honest.

POINT TO NOTE: When you raise a child in the fear of the Lord, you are preparing him to be used by God to influence nations.

which israel is it?

Friday 27 July                                   Bible in one year:1 Kings 8-10

Memorize:For he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly neither is that circumcision , which is outward in the flesh;Roman 2:28

Read: Romans 2:25-29

When it’s all been said and done, good will always have victory over evil.In Revelations 3:9 , the Lord made a promise to the church Philadelphia saying:
Behold, i will make them of the synagogue of Satan, which say they are Jews, are not,but do lie;behind, i will make them to come and worship before thy feet, and to know that I loved thee.

This is a powerful promise but appears somewhat controversial. How can you tell the Jews that are not regarded as Jew by God?Earlier, God specifically choose to reveal Himself to the world through the children of Israel.This started right from the old testament. Even Jesus came, He said He was not sent to the gentiles but the lost sheep of Israel.hence he sent His disciples only to them( Matthew 10:5-6). But when they took for granted that they were Jews and the children of Abraham and thought they could do whatever they liked, John the Baptist told them that God could replace them with children from stones ( Luke 3:8). But they did not believe.At some point, when the Lord was done reaching out to them, He left them desolate ( Matthew 23:37-39).

Afterward the Lord created another entity which is His body, the church believers,comprised of believing Jews and believing Gentiles. These are the spiritual Jews or “Israel of God”. In these group ,there is no discrimination (Galatians 3:28-29;6 :15-16). All God’s dealing according to His covenant with Abram are now realized through being a spiritual Israelite.All promises of God to Abram are now also appropriated thought this body of believers.They are the bride of Jesus Christ. In Revelations 3:9 , God promised that the enemies of His church will bow down and worship before the spiritual Jews.The physical Jews expect Isaiah 49:23 to be fulfilled but they have failed to realized that a change has occurred.These promises have now been transferred to the church. Any physical Jew who fails to accept Jesus as Lord and Savior will together with other unbelievers will bow to us Christians someday. Those who are persecuting the church today will one day bow to us.Are you part of the  true Israel of God? If you are , do everything possible to keep it so.

KEY POINT: To be relevant in God’s end time plan, everyone, including natural Jews heed to become a part of the church-the spiritual Jews