Ephesians– overview of 2:19-22; God’s Temple in Humanity, part 6 (saving the captives).Thursday July 18, 2019
Eph 2:19-22 God’s Temple in Humanity.
The stones in the house have been born again to be like the Cornerstone. Change in our thinking and behavior is not outside of our will.
From the moment of salvation, many things in our heart must change. First and foremost is our ignorance of the revealed scripture, and with that, our priorities, our loves, what we honor, what we perceive, what we desire, what our will is energetic towards, all of it must change.
When we pray for things to be right between us and God that we know are in some way currently wrong, we cannot expect God to wave His magic wand and change us that very instant. He will work towards that goal, and the fact that you prayed for it is an indication that you are ready for it, for if our will does not desire good things like truth, love, power, integrity, self-control, fruit, etc. then we will not have it in our lives. We must change.
1Pe 2:1 Therefore, putting aside all malice and all guile and hypocrisy and envy and all slander,
1Pe 2:2 like newborn babes, long for the pure milk of the word, that by it you may grow in respect to salvation,
“Long for” – epipotheo = to long for or desire greatly.
1Pe 2:3 if you have tasted the kindness of the Lord.
1Pe 2:4 And coming to Him as to a living stone, rejected by men, but choice and precious in the sight of God,
1Pe 2:5 you also, as living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
1Pe 2:6 For this is contained in Scripture: "Behold I lay in Zion a choice stone, a precious corner stone, And he who believes in Him shall not be disappointed."
1Pe 2:7 This precious value, then, is for you who believe. But for those who disbelieve, "The stone which the builders rejected, This became the very corner stone,"
1Pe 2:8 and, "A stone of stumbling and a rock of offense"; for they stumble because they are disobedient to the word, and to this doom they were also appointed.
1Pe 2:9 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God's own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light;
1Pe 2:10 for you once were not a people, but now you are the people of God; you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.
People have asked for a long time if a person can change. Many have said no. They conclude that your personality is finished and set sometime around 6 years old or so. Some cults have made a fortune promising that they can go back to these formed patterns in your brain, in essence mining in your brain to the time when you were young and changing these patterns through various techniques.
Rom 12:2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.
After his sin Bathsheba, David wrote:
Psa 51:1 Create in me a clean heart, O God, And renew a steadfast spirit within me.
All of the worldly ideas about identity and change of it are only partial truths. It is true that much of what you are is set after childhood, but that is not the whole truth. It is the most dangerous thing in the world to take a partial truth or oversimplified truth and run with it no matter what. Life is never, ever that simple. It is also true that those patterns can be changed by an outward force, but certainly not in the methods promised by Scientology or other groups.
2Th 1:11 To this end also we pray for you always that our God may count you worthy of your calling, and fulfill every desire for goodness and the work of faith with power;
2Th 1:12 in order that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in Him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.
If my desire for goodness and the work of faith with power is fulfilled, then I’m a changed man.
First and foremost, all believers are born of the Spirit at the moment of salvation. Jesus said just this to Nicodemus in Joh 3. We are born again. We are the new humanity, the only new humanity. We are now in possession of Christ and His New Covenant. Then, the truth and the Spirit of God within us can and will change our selves, meaning our personalities. Personality is made up of intellect, will, and conscience. All of these will change, but not overnight.
I have prayed for various desires to be taken away and all the while I continued to pursue them. God then was working on my pursuit and not the desire at all. That, however, is the longest path to take.
God never stops working on your behalf, but what part of you do you want Him to work on? The answer to that depends on your own obedience.
When we pray for certain things to change, God will do it. And we have to understand that change is not outside of our will. If it were, it would not be us who changed, meaning that we would not be the same persons. If I asked God to change some bad habit or vice in me, and for all the right reasons, in that it was hindering me from experiencing sanctification, being clothed with Christ, embracing Him, and in the morning I woke up and the vice was gone, essentially I would no longer be me but another version of me.
Eph 1:18 I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints,
Eph 1:19 and what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe.
When I agree to the change, willingly do, and at times fight to do, the aspects of God’s will that will enact the change, and for no other reason than my personal desire to be Christ-like, then as I change, I am still the same person, yet changed.
Absolutely, change is possible. It is often denied because of how rare it is, and it is rare because most people will not do what change asks of them – to fight, to be uncomfortable, to struggle, to go without, to endure and all the while relying on God the Holy Spirit to pull you through.
Jer 31:22 "How long will you go here and there, O faithless daughter? For the Lord has created a new thing in the earth- A woman will encompass a man."
1Jo 5:2 By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and observe His commandments.
1Jo 5:3 For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments; and His commandments are not burdensome.
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