Ephesians 6:13-17; Faith in the faithfulness of God.

Wednesday May 11, 2022

Title: Ephesians 6:13-17; Faith in the faithfulness of God.

I see the greatest danger to the church not being the threat of its extinction, but its failure to impact the world with truth and righteousness and the gospel.

God is a person and each believer has only begun their journey of knowing Him at the start, at their day of salvation when they have received Christ and were given the right to be sons of God. To know God as a person is to walk with Him through life, and to walk with Him we must be like Him. We either walk by the flesh or by the Spirit – and the flesh is a dead lump while the Spirit is the person of the living God.

God is a person. Faith in the faithfulness of a person is akin to knowing that person.

Full knowledge of one personality by another cannot be achieved in one encounter. It is only after long and loving mental intercourse that the full possibilities of both can be explored. Jesus prayed in Joh 17:3, “This is eternal life, that they might know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom You have sent.”

“God is a person, and in the deep of His mighty nature He thinks, wills, enjoys, feels, loves, desires and suffers as any other person may.” [AW Tozer, The Pursuit of God]

We are made in God’s image and as such, He communicates with us through the avenues of our minds, our wills, and our emotions. If we do not apply and live the truth and righteousness in our conduct (walk in a manner worthy) we shut off most of the avenues of understanding. With God we are to openly interchange love and thought through study of His word, prayer, living and application of the truth to life – i.e., walking through life with Him. When we communicate with God in love and enjoy Him on a personal level, it is not an unconscious experience, but a conscious and personal awareness of the divine as a loving Father, Brother, and Mentor.

It is not a paradox with God that we receive Him fully at salvation and still pursue Him vigorously for the rest of our lives, sometimes painfully longing to know Him more, burning in our hearts for a closer walk with Him, and at other times greatly rejoicing in new revelations of Him.

We taste Thee, O Thou Living Bread

And long to feast upon Thee still:

We drink of Thee, the Fountainhead,

And thirst our souls from Thee to fill. [St. Bernard]

Mat 5:6

“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.”

Though already knowing much about God, having actually spoken with God on several occasions, Moses daringly requested “I beg You, show me Your glory.” Paul said that he gave up all so that he would “know Him” (Phi 3:10).

Don’t let your teachers do the seeking of God for you. My job is to clarify the Scripture, but knowing the Scripture is not the end but the beginning of discovering God through living and walking with Him by girding your loins with the truth, putting on the breastplate of righteousness, having shod your feet with the readiness of the gospel of peace, taking up the shield of faith and taking the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit. When you listen to your teacher you can either be seeking or not. The same is true when and if you read the Bible or other biblical teaching. The same is true when you go in and out (OT reference to living your day-to-day life) or walk (NT reference to living your day-to-day life). The same in true when you function in the various roles you have in life (husband, wife, parent, child, worker, etc.). In all things you can be seeking God or not.

Knowledge and understanding must intertwine with the will for faith to extinguish flaming missiles.

Eph 1:8-9

In all wisdom and insight 9 He made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His kind intention which He purposed in Him.

Eph 5:1-2

Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children; 2 and walk in love, just as Christ also loved you, and gave Himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma.

Being strong in the Lord and putting on the full armor so that we are always able to stand firm – brings into focus the whole of the Book of Ephesians.

Our faith in God faithfulness is a shield unto us. God obviously wants us to trust Him or He wouldn’t have put us in this situation. He obviously wants us to seek for Him or He would have given us all knowledge and faith at the start. It is those who follow hard after God who find a deep understanding of Him. Those who have an acute longing for Him will be satisfied with Him. And our longing must be for Him, just Him, and not Him and … something else.

The person who has God as his treasure has all things in One.

1Ch 29:11

Thine, O Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the victory and the majesty

[David’s doxology continues] … “indeed everything that is in the heavens and the earth; Thine is the dominion, O Lord, and Thou dost exalt Thyself as head over all. Both riches and honor come from Thee, and Thou dost rule over all, and in Thy hand is power and might; and it lies in Thy hand to make great, and to strengthen everyone” (1Ch 29:11-12).