Scripture: 1 John 5 v 5 - 8: "Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God?
6 This is he that came by water and blood, even Jesus Christ; not by water only, but by water and blood. And it is the Spirit that beareth witness, because the Spirit is truth.
7 For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one.
8 And there are three that bear witness in earth, the spirit, and the water, and the blood: and these three agree in one."
John 17 v 11: "And now I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to thee. Holy Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one, as we are."
If we believe that Jesus is the Son of God we have overcome the world. We have been translated out of darkness into light, leaving the sin of the world behind us. We are a new creation and we have been made one with the Godhead.
The Godhead consists of three persons, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. These three are in perfect agreement at all times. Jesus said to Thomas, why do you ask to see the Father - if you see Me you have seen Him.
The unity of the Godhead is unassailable. It cannot be defeated. To truly win every victory we, the Body of Jesus Christ, must be equally united. Together we stand, divided we fall. Unity means we all agree with God, no divisions, arguments, sects, denominations, because there is only one Body, and those who are in true submission to the Lord are part of it.
We have three relationships, one with each person of the Trinity, another name for the Godhead. We are a child of God to our Father in Heaven. Our prayers ascend to Him alone. We worship Him in Spirit and truth. We exalt Him above all.
We are submitted to the will of the Father. We are bathed in His love and mercy. He has forgiven our sins. He has washed us in the Blood of Jesus to cancel our transgressions. We are always welcome to approach His Throne to have fellowship with Him and His door is always open.
In Genesis God the Father said, Let us make man in our image. The Godhead was present when the first of mankind was created. And we look like them. They came from Heaven to turn the void and bare rock of this planet into something beautiful for us.
God says this Earth belongs to Me, it is Mine and everything on it belongs to Me. We are His creation and He owns us lock, stock and barrel. Everything we have earned, achieved, or won is by His grace and favour. We love and adore Him for eternity.
Through the sin of Adam this world became Satan's domain. Jesus calls him the god of this world. We are his victims and we need to conquer his control over us. This can only be broken when we reject him and declare Jesus as our Lord and Saviour. We must repent of all sin, i.e. Change our mind about loving sin, drugs, all types of fornication (sex outside of marriage between a man and a woman), alcohol, power, the occult, witchcraft, money, and be sorry we ever did.
I read a most inspiring testimony yesterday of a lesbian woman called Cassidy who gave her heart fully to Jesus. She asked Him can a Christian be gay? He responded, I called you out of darkness into holiness. Cassidy put all else aside to discover what holiness meant. It meant that she must forsake all sin that offends God or disagrees with His Word. That she must trust Him in every way. She chose to believe Him and was set free of all same sex relationships. Jesus did not condemn her He just showed her the truth. It applies to us all. Embrace holiness.
Our relationship with Jesus is knowing He is our Saviour and Lord. He laid down His life and died so that we may be brought back to the life which He calls abundant and full of grace. Jesus is the firstborn of the New Creation, us, and we must have the goal of becoming like Him. Without Jesus we are nothing, we are empty until He fills our hearts.
Through Jesus we are born again, sinless and free. We must endeavour to stay that way. He is our shining example and to follow Him home to Heaven is the desire of our hearts. He is our Advocate before God the Father when our enemy accuses us before Him. We can possess the mind of Christ to think, see and understand the mysteries of God. We love Jesus with all our hearts and send thanks and praise to Him.
The Holy Spirit has many attributes. He is the gift of the Father, and He came to empower us as Jesus was empowered while on Earth. Just before His ascension He said in Acts 1 v 8 - 9:
"But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.
9 And when he had spoken these things, while they beheld, he was taken up; and a cloud received him out of their sight."
The Holy Ghost is our Friend, our Teacher, our Comforter, the One who comes alongside us to help. He inspires us to reach out in hundreds of different ways. He inspires courage and boldness in us. He is fresh every morning. Fresh ideas, fresh insight, fresh solutions. He empowers us with one objective - to be witnesses of our Saviour, to tell the truth about Him.
He gives us Galatians 5 v 22 - 23: "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,
23 Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law." Longsuffering is patience and endurance and we all need heaps of that. Temperance is self-control, also a much needed fruit. When all these fruit grow abundantly in our lives then we are exhibiting the nature of Jesus.
I am reminded of a day when two men came into my office to make some work related enquiries. I had an old computer with a screen saver, which was just all the above fruit and they would float around on the screen. One of the men was not in the conversation but his eyes were fixed on my screensaver.
Eventually he sighed and said, none of those apply to me. It was an open door to tell him how he could be like that. A seed dropped into a seeking heart. We never know when the Lord brings someone in to get started on that long journey to find Him.
The Holy Spirit gives us wonderful gifts which are found in 1 Corinthians 12 v 7 - 11: "But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal.
8 For to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom; to another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit;
9 To another faith by the same Spirit; to another the gifts of healing by the same Spirit;
10 To another the working of miracles; to another prophecy; to another discerning of spirits; to another divers kinds of tongues; to another the interpretation of tongues:
11 But all these worketh that one and the selfsame Spirit, dividing to every man severally as he will."
A healthy church will have all those gifts in operation, in subjection to the Holy Spirit. When the anointing comes upon you don't hold back. Let the Holy Spirit do whatever He wants to do through you and others to achieve amazing miracles for the kingdom of God.
There are depths and levels to the gifts He gives us. When we know the Holy Spirit He takes us on spiritual adventures to guide us into bold and courageous uses of the gifts. We might only have one talent but don't bury it as it profits nobody. Use it so it grows in scope and purpose. Our God is unlimited and we are created in His likeness. We have a creative nature and He enjoys our ability to see how unlimited He really is. The Bible is the milk of the Word, how we grow from it is the strong meat.
Hebrews 5 v 12 - 14: "For when for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat.
13 For every one that useth milk is unskilful in the word of righteousness: for he is a babe.
14 But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil."
There was a funny story told of Archangels Gabriel and Michael discussing Christians on Earth. They were amused that we had had the power of God for 2000 years but could not yet curse a fig tree! Like verse 13 above the Lord wants us to become SKILLED! Get past the baby stage and use all the skills He has given us as humans to do what He has called us to do for the Kingdom of Heaven.
The Holy Spirit is grieved when we refuse to do what He is empowering us to do. We blaspheme against the Holy Spirit when we refer to His acts as the work of demons. There is no forgiveness on Earth or in Heaven if we do that. Not advisable. Such as saying that the gifts are not for today because we now have a Bible. We need the gifts always, God gave them without repentance.
Romans 11 v 29: "For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance."
The Holy Spirit always exalts Jesus and Jesus always exalts the Father. We should always exalt the Godhead as we are one with Them. It is a great honour and privilege to serve our God in newness of spirit, with all our hearts.
Prayer: Heavenly Father, its very uplifting to write about the Godhead and enjoy Your presence. I pray that You would today uplift the entire Body of Christ and remove every barrier to unity. Remove every hindrance to truth and bring us all into the true understanding of how to fulfil Your needs for us. In Jesus' name. Amen.