Kingdom's Keys Fellowship
Where God's Kingdom Meets Man's Heart.
Pentecost 11 Putting Flesh and Skin on Revived Dry Bones
Pentecost 11 Putting Flesh and Skin on Revived Dry Bones.
It is one thing to have an identity. That is the skeleton. It is another to add what the bones were designed to carry, a growing body. Three things we do to build on our identity as images and children of God. We work at building our heart identity, we work at growing our spiritual family identity and we work at projecting our Lord’s identity.
First, building our heart identity.
We recognize Jesus as God the Son. This means by personally accepting Him in our minds and hearts we have been adopted as His younger brothers and sisters. The essence of this relationship is spiritual intimacy since He lives in our hearts. As such we are constantly learning what a true relationship is all about. He raises us far beyond the fleeting moments of worldly relational closeness we stumbled across in our past. This is entirely different in that the more we get into His Word, the more the Spirit enables us to relate to God thus discovering who and what we are in His context. He penetrates the deepest caverns of our soul but does it in such a way that we are awakened to someone who really knows, cares and desires the best for us. Thus our identity is being shaped as we go. We are always disciples of Jesus being discipled by Him in the Spirit.
Hear Paul in Eph.3:16-19, 16I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, 17so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, 18may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, 19and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.
Second, growing our family identity.
Part of the shaping process is to recognize we are members of an interdependent spiritual family God has organized to grow and mature us. It is the Body of Christ, the spiritual Body in which each believer is a vital to the growth of every other believer. It is in this spiritual family where we learn how to live spiritually in the horizontal dimension of other believing brothers and sisters. It is in the Body we learn how to share spiritually, have our minds and hearts renewed by the Word, delivered from strongholds and keeping our daily experience outside the Body in step with the Spirit.
In order for the disciple to grow and the Body to mature God has provided three essentials, the Holy Spirit, the gifts of the Spirit and the fruit of the Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the personal Counselor and Body maintainer. He distributes spiritual gifts to each believer, as their identity in the Body, to share with brothers and sisters to mature the Body. The fruit of the Spirit is given to keep the Body balanced in the exercise of the gifts and a witness to the non-believing world what God’s grace and love can accomplish. Paul in 1Cor.12 “4There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit. 5There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. 6There are different kinds of working, but the same God works all of them in all men. 7Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good. 8To one there is given through the Spirit the message of wisdom, to another the message of knowledge by means of the same Spirit, 9to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by that one Spirit, 10to another miraculous powers, to another prophecy, to another distinguishing between spirits, to another speaking in different kinds of tongues,[a] and to still another the interpretation of tongues.[b] 11All these are the work of one and the same Spirit, and he gives them to each one, just as he determines.”
Third, projecting our Lord’s identity.
Jesus calls us to be His witnesses in the world. Our identity is extended beyond the Body to the unbelieving world. The Body of Christ is the beachhead He uses to establish His Kingdom in the world. The Body presents, proclaims and projects the person of Jesus. Therefore believers are identified as witnesses who present, proclaim and project Jesus as the Savior and Lord of the heart. While they grow in the Body they share Jesus in the world. This is not only an identity, it is an identity on the move, alive with meaning, significance and purpose. Acts 2:8 “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth."
More about the gifts and fruit later……stay tuned.
It is one thing to have an identity. That is the skeleton. It is another to add what the bones were designed to carry, a growing body. Three things we do to build on our identity as images and children of God. We work at building our heart identity, we work at growing our spiritual family identity and we work at projecting our Lord’s identity.
First, building our heart identity.
We recognize Jesus as God the Son. This means by personally accepting Him in our minds and hearts we have been adopted as His younger brothers and sisters. The essence of this relationship is spiritual intimacy since He lives in our hearts. As such we are constantly learning what a true relationship is all about. He raises us far beyond the fleeting moments of worldly relational closeness we stumbled across in our past. This is entirely different in that the more we get into His Word, the more the Spirit enables us to relate to God thus discovering who and what we are in His context. He penetrates the deepest caverns of our soul but does it in such a way that we are awakened to someone who really knows, cares and desires the best for us. Thus our identity is being shaped as we go. We are always disciples of Jesus being discipled by Him in the Spirit.
Hear Paul in Eph.3:16-19, 16I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, 17so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, 18may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, 19and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.
Second, growing our family identity.
Part of the shaping process is to recognize we are members of an interdependent spiritual family God has organized to grow and mature us. It is the Body of Christ, the spiritual Body in which each believer is a vital to the growth of every other believer. It is in this spiritual family where we learn how to live spiritually in the horizontal dimension of other believing brothers and sisters. It is in the Body we learn how to share spiritually, have our minds and hearts renewed by the Word, delivered from strongholds and keeping our daily experience outside the Body in step with the Spirit.
In order for the disciple to grow and the Body to mature God has provided three essentials, the Holy Spirit, the gifts of the Spirit and the fruit of the Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the personal Counselor and Body maintainer. He distributes spiritual gifts to each believer, as their identity in the Body, to share with brothers and sisters to mature the Body. The fruit of the Spirit is given to keep the Body balanced in the exercise of the gifts and a witness to the non-believing world what God’s grace and love can accomplish. Paul in 1Cor.12 “4There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit. 5There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. 6There are different kinds of working, but the same God works all of them in all men. 7Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good. 8To one there is given through the Spirit the message of wisdom, to another the message of knowledge by means of the same Spirit, 9to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by that one Spirit, 10to another miraculous powers, to another prophecy, to another distinguishing between spirits, to another speaking in different kinds of tongues,[a] and to still another the interpretation of tongues.[b] 11All these are the work of one and the same Spirit, and he gives them to each one, just as he determines.”
Third, projecting our Lord’s identity.
Jesus calls us to be His witnesses in the world. Our identity is extended beyond the Body to the unbelieving world. The Body of Christ is the beachhead He uses to establish His Kingdom in the world. The Body presents, proclaims and projects the person of Jesus. Therefore believers are identified as witnesses who present, proclaim and project Jesus as the Savior and Lord of the heart. While they grow in the Body they share Jesus in the world. This is not only an identity, it is an identity on the move, alive with meaning, significance and purpose. Acts 2:8 “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth."
More about the gifts and fruit later……stay tuned.
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