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Abraham: Called to Wrestle
Thus far—in our study of the life of Abraham, we have watched as God called this man out of a life of affluence and comfort to a life of wandering, worship, witness, warfare, and waiting—with each calling being accompanied by a new or expanded revelation of God’s plans for Abraham, and followed by a period during which Abraham’s stewardship of that revelation was tested. In most instances, his success rate was much like those that we experience in our own walks of faith—more often than not, a case of one step forward and two steps backward. However, there have been some exceptions to this pattern—such as in Genesis 14 when Abraham…
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Spiritual Warfare: Taking the Offensive
At long last, we are nearing the end of our exercises in Spiritual Warfare. Our graduation from Boot Camp is right around the corner, as is our return to our duty stations where we will have the opportunity to put into action the things that we have learned here. As we do, we can be confident that… Because of what Christ accomplished on the Cross, we now possess the Authority we need to overtake and defeat any foe that we come up against; Everything we will be called upon to overcome is all part of God’s way of preparing us for our Destiny of ruling and reigning with Christ…
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Spiritual Warfare: Gearing Up for Battle
For some time now, we have been involved in a rather rigorous training program, a Spiritual Boot Camp of sorts, designed to prepare us—as followers of Jesus Christ—for service as soldiers in the Army of God. As part of this training for Spiritual Warfare, we have… Learned that the warfare in which we are to be engaged is essentially A Question of Authority, as well as A Preparation for Our Destiny; Learned a little about Our Enemy, Satan, and discovered that the Nature of this Conflict, at its core, is a Battle between him and God for the Will of every Man, Woman, and Child on the face of…
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Service: Continuing the Work of Christ in the World
Now that we’re about halfway through our Workout Program, let’s pause briefly to review the progress we have made thus far. We started out this regimen with four exercises in Salvation—exercises through which we learned that… Salvation is obtained through the one-time spiritual event known as the New Birth; an act taking us from sin-enslaved and hell-bound sinners to forgiven and heaven-bound sons and daughters of God; While everyone has been Predestined, or pre-designed, by God to become one of His children, only those who elect to receive His offer of Salvation will do so; and, Once that decision is made and our spiritual adoption is finalized, our Salvation is forever…
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Sanctification: Restoring the Soul through Worship
So far, through our exercises in Sanctification, we have learned that it is the work of the Holy Spirit to restore our emotions through Prayer and our minds through the study and application of the Word of God—a ministry bringing our hearts into alignment with that of the Father and transforming our minds into ones more like Christ’s. But this only encompasses the restoration of two of the components of our souls—leaving the third one, our all-important and powerful wills, for the Spirit to deal with. And deal with them, He must; because unlike our emotions which are simply expressions of how we feel, and our minds which merely reveal…