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Responding in Faith to God’s Invitation of Life and Peace by Relating with Him through the Lord’s Appointed Times of First-Fruits
RELEVANCE Jesus revealed the way, the truth and the life of God. The first way to the new life in God began with His resurrection from the dead. He became the first soul arisen in the newness of His eternal life, arising as our representative, establishing God’s order of raising up believers spiritually, and ultimately eternally.
God desires that we continuously advance forward in life, progressively growing trusting faith in God. This is accomplished as the Holy Spirit continues to strengthen our heart and renew our mind, helping us grow in the new life—our renewed nature—the nature and character of Messiah Jesus. God works this renewing in us through a process of exchange: adding and deleting. Just as John the Baptist said, “He must increase, but I must decrease” (John 3:30), God grows His nature in us by continuously adding aspects of His spiritual nature—His virtue and character; while simultaneously deleting aspects of our old carnal nature. Paul described this as “our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day” (2 Corinthians 4:16). Such a process requires the cooperation and participation of our will. As we receive God's love and grace the Holy Spirit enlightens us and convinces us of aspects of wrong tendencies—sin—and helps us see God’s truths, the grace of God flows to delete such aspects of our disposition, transforming our nature and enabling us to advance forward in His strength! One way we facilitate this process is by giving of the blessings of God—our first fruits—back to God. By resisting our carnal nature to hoard, we take authority over the power of greed and mammon, and gratefully give back to God. It frees up our conscience and gives God permission, so to say, to bless us even further! God, as Creator, is always doing new things. This perspective, therefore, blesses us by keeping our minds open to new things God may be doing. It, therefore, becomes easier to receive new insights by the Holy Spirit—even new instruction—as God opens doors of opportunity. Truly, as you continue to engage with God over time, He will nurture your faith and cultivate His nature in you from faith-to-faith and glory-to-glory! (Romans 1:17 and 2 Corinthians 3:18) REFLECTION, REALITY AND RESPONSE How is your new nature reflected in your life? In what ways may God be preparing you to advance forward in your life?
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