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September 2020 Printable 170 KB .pdf

Father, thank you for giving us your Word, so we can read it and act on it to the end that we are born-again of your spirit and have everlasting life. Thank you for this walk of oneness with you and your son the Lord Jesus Christ. In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.

Summary from August 2020 teaching:

• There is no true and everlasting unity without God and His son the Lord Jesus Christ.
• To have unity with God and His son the Lord Jesus Christ, you must confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God hath raised him from the dead. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation (Romans 10:9 and 10).
• We must, as sons and daughters of God our Father, walk with lowlines, humility, modesty and demeanor. We must walk with meekness, gentleness, tenderness and enduring all things with an even temper. We must walk with longsuffering, endurance and forbearance. We must walk, upright, we must hold up, hold out, endure and bear with one another in unity. And the only way we can do this is with the love of God in the renewed mind in manifestation!
• As we stay committed individually and striving together in God's household, we shall prevail in unity in this life and be victorious! Our hearts, our minds, our intellect, our wills, our emotions, our abilities, our personalities, are to be in unity, oneness with God's Word documented in the seven Church Epistles (Romans, Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, and Thessalonians) that are addressed to the current Administration of Grace.
  

This month's teaching: Unity One Body. We will briefly discuss what the number one and number eight mean in God's Word. We will read Ephesians 4:4-6 in order to learn about the eight unities. We will review the first unity, "body," in this month's teaching.

Numbers in God's Word have meaning and purpose. The number one in God's Word denotes unity and beginning. For example, there is one body, one Spirit, one hope, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father. Sometimes in God's Word a word will only be used once.

The number Eight in the Word of God is always a new beginning. There are eight unities of the spirit listed below. The number eight is seven plus one, indicating spiritual perfection, which is unity, the oneness of God. This makes the number eight the super abounding number. There are eight graces in God's Word for every believer. Eight is always the first of a new series. The number eight also deals with resurrection and regeneration. Christ appeared in his resurrected body on the first day of the week which was the eighth day, a new beginning. Under the Law Administration, circumcision was performed on the eighth day. David was the eighth son of Jesse.

Ephesians Chapter 4 is an everyday walk for the believer. In our everyday walk of unity, we believe there is one body, one spirit, one hope, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, and one God and Father! Let's look at Ephesians 4:4-6:

There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling;

One Lord, one faith, one baptism,

One God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all.

To keep our unity with God our Father and His son, we make haste, we manifest due diligence, earnestness, and zeal to do our utmost by believing there is one body, one Spirit, one hope, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father!

I shared with you in previous teaching (January 2017) that there are three types of teaching in the Bible - 1. Textual or word-based teaching, 2. Topical teaching (e.g., a topic like a Baptism), and 3. Expository teaching which looks at every verse line-by-line and gives us a thorough understanding of the scriptures.

We will do a textual word-based study on all eight unties of the spirit. The first will focus on the unity of the spirit as the "body." The word "body" is the Greek word "soma" meaning "the body as a whole, whether of man or animals, dead or alive. The necessary constituent part and organic basis of human nature; the necessary medium for the possession and manifestation of life" (Source: Critical Lexicon and Concordance to the English and Greek New Testament (1975), Bullinger. 1 Corinthians 15:44 tell us:

It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body.

This natural body we were born with has body and soul only, and cannot receive "things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he [the man of body and soul only] know them, because they are spiritually discerned" (I Corinthians 2:14). But the natural man has five senses: seeing, hearing, tasting, smelling and touching.

As a consequence, the natural man or the man of body and soul, can only hear God's Word, believe it and act on it by receiving His gift of the holy spirit, confessing with his mouth the Lord Jesus, and believing in his heart that God has raised him from the dead. From these actions, the natural man shall (absolutely) be saved. For with the heart man believes unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation (Romans 10:9-10]) Once this occurs, God, who is Holy Spirit, can communicate with His spirit that dwells in the natural man! The Word of God is the Will of God!

Let us look at some usages of the Greek word "soma." This word is the same word in the English language for the natural body. The first use is documented in Matthew 5 where Jesus was teaching on committing adultery with the physical body. Let's look at Matthew 5:29:

And if thy right eye offends thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body [soma] should be cast into hell.

In Acts 9:40, Peter raised Dorcas dead body from the dead.

But Peter put them [the widows] all forth, and kneeled down, and prayed; and turning him to the [dead] body [soma] said, Tabitha [Dorcas], arise. And she opened her eyes: and when she saw Peter, she sat up.

Acts 19:11-12 provides additional uses of the word "soma:"

And God wrought special miracles by the hands of Paul:

So that from his body [soma] were brought unto the sick handkerchiefs or aprons, and the diseases departed from them, and the evil spirits went out of them.

In Romans 1:24, God's Word tell us:

Wherefore God also gave them [homosexuals, the ungodliness and unrighteousness men and women] up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonor their own bodies [soma] between [among] themselves [in groups, mobs, and orgies].

God said to Abraham, I have made you a father of many nations (Genesis 17:5). God put in the past tense which was still in the future for Abraham. In Romans 4:19, we are told:

Abraham being not weak in faith [believing], he considered not his own body [soma] now dead [old], when he was about a hundred years old, neither yet the deadness of Sarah's womb.

Another example of the use of "soma" in the Bible is found in Romans 8: 10-11:

And if Christ be in you, the body [soma] is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness.

But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken [make alive] your mortal bodies [soma] by his Spirit that dwelleth in you.

In 1 Corinthians 6:13, we see how the body or "soma" is used:

Meats for the belly, and the belly for meats: but God shall destroy both it and them. Now the body [soma] is not for fornication, but for the Lord; and the Lord for the body [soma].

1 Corinthians 6:18-19 provides further usages:

Flee fornication. Every sin that a man doeth is without the body [soma]; but he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body [soma].

What? know ye not that your body [soma] is the temple of the Holy Ghost [holy spirit], which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?

The body or "soma" is referenced in 2 Corinthians 5:10:

For we must all appear before the judgment seat [for rewards] of Christ; that everyone may receive the things done in his body [soma], according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad.

In this verse, the judgment seat of Christ is the "bema," where prizes and rewards are given for our physical walk on God's Word! Romans 5:9 says we shall be saved from wrath through him. Once we are born-again, our standing with God is that we are sons and daughters (1 John 3:2) of God and that never changes. However, our fellowship with our Father is based on our physical walk on God's Word (see August 2017)! Remember, Jesus in his physical body said, "I do always those things that please him [God his Father]" (John 8:29). We are told in 1 Corinthians 2:16:

For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? but we have the mind of Christ.

This is all documented in God's Word, so we can read what Jesus did in his physical body and imitate this action in our day-by-day walk. Philippians 2:5 reminds us:

Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.

There are many more scriptures where the Greek word "soma" is used in God's Word. From the examples provided, we can clearly see from God's Word that it starts with our physical body. Once we hear God's Word on salvation, receive it, and act upon it with believing action, we receive God's gift of holy spirit. Then, we have a spiritual body, and God our Father can communicate with us spiritually.

In this teaching, we have discussed what the numbers one and eight mean in God's Word. We read Ephesians 4: 4-6. We read the eight unities listed in Ephesians 4. We reviewed the first unity of the spirit, "body." We learned in this physical body we must keep our unity with God our Father and His son as we make haste, and manifest due diligence, earnestness, and zeal to do our utmost by believing there is one body, one spirit, one hope, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father! And we also reviewed some of scriptures on the Greek word "soma" which is our English word body.

Father, thank you for your Word which informs us of your Will for your children. Thank you for giving us an understanding of your Word so we can build our belief on your Word in which there is one body, one spirit, one hope, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, and one God and Father. In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.

Next month's teaching will be a word study on the second of the eight unities listed in Ephesians 4 - "Spirit."

In the Lord,

Ministry of Reconciliation
Son of God through Jesus Christ
Ambassador for Christ

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