Blessing and happiness results from applying the Word of God. John 13:17; Eph 1:9

As we continue in our study of the mystery that is for the Church-age it is important to remember that it is not only the accumulation of knowledge of this mystery that will bless the believer and therefore glorify God, it is the application of that mystery to ourselves, life, and towards our enemies.

 

John 13:17 "If you know these things, you are blessed if you do them.

 

/“If you know” is a first class condition with the perfect tense of oida[oida]. Oida means to already know so it refers to doctrine that is already in the right lobe of the soul.\

 

As a disciple the believer finds himself under the authority of the word of God we see here that knowledge is the first step. You cannot apply what you do not know.  

 

Up to whatever point in your exposure to the teaching of the word of God, you should know those things and nothing more. 

 

Now you have a chance to do them or as Paul says, practice them.

 

/“Do them” is the act of applying doctrine to yourself, to life, to your enemies, and towards God.\

 

“Do them” refers to living in them yourself. 

 

So the Lord is entreating them, His disciples and by extension to also all of us, to know mystery doctrine and to allow that mystery doctrine to change our thinking so completely that we apply these doctrines to our own lives, of which I will give you specifics, and if we do so a promise is given.

 

/You are “blessed” - the nominative masculine plural of makarioj, [makarios] happinesses (pl.). \

 

Blessing and happiness are one in the same. However, blessing will not bring happiness unless there is capacity.

 

/Capacity for blessing and resulting happinesses comes from applying doctrine in the humility of servant-hood, motivated by the love for Christ, and under the power of the F/HS.\

 

/This means that by taking in doctrine consistently you are accumulating a concentration of happiness. Divine happiness is shared with you to the extent that you take in doctrine.\

The plural indicates that you can go all the way to having a maximum happiness from God based upon your entrance into the super-grace life.

 

Since capacity through doctrine depends solely on volition there exists great inequality on earth amongst unbelievers as well as believers and that inequality will extend into eternity for believers.

 

In eternity the overcomer or winner eats from the Tree of Life, is not hurt by the second death, is given hidden manna and a new name, is given authority and the order of the morning star, is announced before the Father and the college of angels, is recorded in the record section of heaven and is emblazoned with the name of the Father, the name of the New Jerusalem and the new name of Jesus Christ, and will be seated with Christ at His throne bearing the crowns of victory.

 

These blessing will be thoroughly appreciated with the greatest depths of capacity and so blessing becomes indescribable happiness.

 

But not all in heaven are overcomers. Since all of us were given maximum blessing in eternity past, the non-winning believers have lost these blessing. We don’t ever earn them because they are a grace gift to all CA believers, but through negative volition we lose them.

 

Back in our main passage:

 

EPH 1:3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ,

 

EPH 1:4just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before Him. In love

 

EPH 1:5He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will,

 

EPH 1:6to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved.

 

EPH 1:7In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace,

 

EPH 1:8 which He lavished upon us. In all wisdom and insight

 

EPH 1:9He made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His kind intention which He purposed in Him.

 

 

Therefore all in heaven will experience happiness, but there are degrees of happiness in which the invisible hero in time will experience the greatest degree.

 

The same is true in time. Everyone wants happiness, but the arrogant seek it in their own way without God and are fooled into thinking it is always around the next corner, in the next hit, in the next relationship, in the next bank deposit, and it never comes.

 

This is because God is happiness and blessing and therefore the only source of it. He has a monopoly on happiness and so the believer can only experience true happiness through Him.

 

God’s method is simple enough. Get His mind in you. Fill your soul with doctrine and honor and protect that doctrine so that it transforms you to the extent that it changes your thinking, your words, and your actions into conformity with Christ.

 

/Outside of the Church-age no believer has been given this unique opportunity to achieve so much individual happiness.\

 

All doctrines lead to the person of Christ, and since He is the representative of the Father, subsequently they lead to the Father also.

 

/The invisible hero begins to take hundreds of doctrines and weave them into a seamless whole that amasses the person of Christ in his heart, and he beholds Him continually.\

 

/1 John 3:2

Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we shall be. We know that, when He appears, we shall be like Him, because we shall see Him just as He is.\

 

You cannot understand a doctrine to the point where it becomes much more than knowledge and becomes a skilled weapon, the sword of the Spirit, unless you apply it, or rather attempt to apply it and fail, repeating that pattern until practice becomes skill.

 

To this mature believer the lines of communication with Christ and the Father through Christ are almost always open. This is a supernatural process that makes this believer seem so always know instinctively what to do in almost ever situation.

 

At that point the invisible hero, the believer in resurrection life in time, lives far above the plane of normal merit systems, competing, comparing, evaluation, judging, and pettiness that exists amongst humans who stumble with the knowledge of good and evil.

 

Far above this plane of endless searching is Jesus Christ seated at the right hand of God and your life is hid with Him. Know Him, find Him, and understand the wisdom of Him and that life of blessing and happinesses will no longer remain hidden.

 

This is why we are spending as much time as we are on the mystery. It is the greatest doctrine to come from God and to forgo its transformation of your heart as a believer while you fumble around in the cosmic system is perhaps the greatest tragedy of all history.

 

If you are functioning in your spiritual life you are fulfilling your personal sense of destiny in the plan of God. With your earthly life laid aside and your spiritual life running on all cylinders you are sharing the happiness of God. There is no better place to be in the whole universe.

 

This all sets us up for the 7^th point in the doctrine of the mystery, which is:

 

/7. Mystery doctrine reveals the ten unique factors of the Church-age. \

 

/1. The Baptism of the Holy Spirit.\

     

/The baptism of the HS is the method by which God transitioned the great power experiment of the Hypostatic Union to the great power experiment of the plan of God for the Church-age.\

 

This is the ministry of God the Holy Spirit at salvation whereby He takes every person who believes in Jesus Christ during the Church Age and enters him into union with the person of Jesus Christ. By this we become royal family of God.

 

This is not water baptism. Water baptism was a teaching aid in the pre-canon period.

 

Baptism is a transliteration of the Greek word baptizmos and it means immersion but also identification. Going into the water was a picture of identification with Christ in His death and burial, while coming out of the water was a picture of identification with Christ in His resurrection.

 

Once the canon of scripture was complete there was no longer any need for ritual teachings.

 

Like all the things in the portfolio of invisible assets the baptism of the Spirit is unseen, unfelt, and is not experienced through emotion. It occurs at the moment of salvation.

 

/The baptism of the HS enters us into union with Christ, making us members of the RFOG and entitles us to the same benefits as Jesus Christ. \

 

It is the mechanical basis of election, predestination, and adoption as well as the eternal security of every believer.

 

This is completely unique to the Church-age and it should give you confidence in who you are. Faith in this doctrine will propel an adolescent believer into SSE.

 

/2. This is the dispensation of the unique predesigned plan of God.\

     

Because the Church Age believer is royalty, he functions under protocol. You must learn the mechanics of how to live as royalty rather than the old life of the commoner who is at the beck and call of the flesh.

 

Protocol is how to live and not to live, how to think and what not to think, what to say and what not to say, and what your proper motivation should be.

 

/God has predestined a path for the CA believer that supersedes the ritual plan of God for Israel and is an extension of the prototype plan of God for Christ in hypostatic union. \

 

God has predestined a path so that we may walk in a manner worthy of our election in Christ; therefore it is unique to the RFOG in the Church-age.

 

God’s plan isn’t a chore, but rather the only place of complete happiness for the new creature in Christ and it has been specifically designed for the new creature.

 

No plan from the hand of God has or will be as dynamic, powerful, or fantastic as this plan. It is a perfect plan designed for imperfect creatures.

 

This plan must necessarily exclude any human power, human dynamics, or human personality.

 

/This plan is absolute and so it transcends the pettiness of man’s fallen concept of good and evil.\

 

It is not a system of competing or comparing, but rather a system that enables the positive believer to do the will of God. The PPOG is designed to manufacture invisible heroes.

 

/3. Unique Equality in the Predesigned Plan of God.\

     

/Unique to the Church is equal privilege and equal opportunity under election and predestination. \

 

In a world saturated with false concepts of good and evil that have manufactured so many comparisons and competitions out of which everyone seems to be the loser, this part of the mystery is a sigh of relief.

 

The bags that we’ve carried are filled with bricks. Each brick contains the weight of an expectation that someone has put upon you that you never seemed to live up to. Sometimes you yourself have manufactured the brick and put it into the bag.

 

God has put no such burden on you. The Lord said that His yoke was easy and His burden light as a feather.

 

You no longer have to look for the approval of someone. God stamps you approved in the best possible way; election in Christ.

 

With the mystery of EP/EO those bags are thrown to the ground and if you pick them up again you’re a fool who has been duped by the trickery and deceitful scheming of the devil.

 

God’s election and predestination are each by means of grace and are executed and fulfilled by means of grace.

 

Election is God’s desire for your life while predestination is God’s provision for His desire to become a reality.

 

/Election: EP = royal priest; EO = logistical grace

Predestination: EP = baptism HS; EO = PPOG\

 

This equality means that all handicaps are erased at salvation, but with free will comes great inequality between those who persevere and those who quit.