by George Runyan | Aug 5, 2016 | Devotional, George Runyan
John 3:3 – Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.
This is one of the most familiar Scriptures. During his 1976 presidential campaign President Carter made it a popular saying when he declared that he was born again and served as a Baptist Sunday school teacher. The phrase originated with Jesus when he was speaking to Nicodemus, a Jewish teacher. Nicodemus understood that Jesus must be from God. Because of the signs Jesus was performing such as healing and miracles. Nicodemus was trying to figure Jesus out through his intellect. Jesus gave Nicodemus a new paradigm to consider. Even though Nicodemus saw the signs, he had not truly seen the kingdom of God.
The kingdom of God in not an intellectual experience, it is a “spiritual birth.” Many today are still trying to get to God through their intellect, but that is impossible to do. “God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship Him in spirit and truth” (John 4:24). As Jesus ministers to the woman at the well, He introduces her to this new paradigm of thinking. She thought that worship had to do with the location of worship. Jesus tells her that a new day is coming when the “true worshipers will worship in the spirit.”
The kingdom of God is in the Spirit. “The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him” (Romans 8:16-17). What powerful understanding Paul brings to the church in these passages. Salvation begins at the point of “His Spirit testifying to our spirit.” I remember in the eleventh grade at a Youth for Christ gathering, I said to God, “Tonight, when I leave this place I want eternity settled.” As I left the building, His Spirit testified to my spirit that I had eternal life. From that moment until now, I have never doubted my salvation in Christ. I have grown in the knowledge of my inheritance given to me from God. I know that I have an eternal inheritance with Christ.
I have known many blessings as a child of God, but I have also experienced sufferings with Him. Suffering begins in denying to self, submitting to the death of self and receiving His resurrected life daily as well as in the eternity to come. Nurture your spirit man with the Word of God, with prayer, and with the fellowship of like-minded people.
Father, I thank You for drawing me to Yourself and causing me to be born again. Help my spirit to grow and become strong in Christ. Teach me how to deny my fleshly appetites and hear Your Holy Spirit better.
by George Runyan | Aug 4, 2016 | Devotional, George Runyan
2 Corinthians 1:10 – God delivered us from so great a peril of death, and will deliver us, He on whom we have set our hope. And He will yet deliver us.
As Paul writes to the church in Corinth, he is describing the comfort he knows even in times of affliction. The kind of affliction he is speaking of was “beyond his strength” (2 Corinthians 1:8). Paul says, “We had the sentence of death within ourselves so that we would not trust in ourselves, but in God who raises the dead” (2 Corinthians 1:9). In verse 10, Paul reveals the threefold order of God’s salvation. First, God delivered us from “so great a death.” The great death is what the Scriptures call the “second death” (Revelation 20:6). We were dead in our “trespasses and sins” (Ephesians 2:1). Through the blood of Christ, our sins have been forgiven and washed away, according to the riches of His grace which He lavished on us (Ephesians 1:7-8). Salvation begins in our spirit and is renewed and made alive in Christ daily.
Second, “God will deliver us.” Paul is speaking of the salvation we experience through our trust in God. We need His help on a daily basis. Sin is always there looming to trip us up in our daily walk. Afflictions in this life can discourage us from going forward with the Lord and His eternal purpose. The work of salvation was finished in the cross of Christ. Daily, the Holy Spirit is our helper to apply and walk out this salvation in personal victory. Our soul is challenged daily in our intellect and our emotions. Through our will, we can choose to trust God or we can choose not to. What God has begun in our spirit: faith in God, true worship, His love, peace and joy, He intends for us to experience daily in our soul.
Finally, we will experience the final part of our salvation at the Lord’s return. “This perishable must put on the imperishable, and this mortal must put on immortality” (1 Corinthians 15:53). In the now, we can experience healing for our bodies. When God heals the physical, He is releasing eternal life in the now. There is coming a day when these bodies will be changed into the likeness of His glorious body. “Behold, I tell you a mystery; we will not all sleep, but we all will be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet; for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed” (1 Corinthians 15:51-52).
Father, I thank You for the provision of full salvation in my spirit, soul, and body. I trust You for Your life to be released daily to my being. My hope is in the promise of Your resurrected power, that one day I will be raised from the dead. Until that day, I trust You to keep me healthy and strong to serve Your eternal purpose on earth.
by George Runyan | Aug 3, 2016 | Devotional, George Runyan
Hebrews 11:40 – God had provided something better for us, so that apart from us they would not be made perfect.
What an amazing statement the writer of Hebrews makes as he sums up this chapter! This chapter is known as “The honor roll of the faithful.” None of those listed in the honor roll of the faithful experienced the full purpose of God. His full purpose could only be experienced in Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit. The faithful of the Old Testament were those waiting in upper Sheol for the Son of God to come and release them to the promise of perfection. The “better” spoken of in this verse is the Lord Jesus Christ, who we receive through the Spirit.
The Spirit of God spoke of Christ throughout the Old Testament. The Spirit created the Holy One in the womb of Mary. The Holy Spirit revealed the Father through the earthly ministry of our Lord. The Holy Spirit empowered Jesus to suffer and die for our sins. It was the Holy Spirit who raised Jesus from the grave. Along with Jesus, many Old Testament saints arose from the dead and testified to many in Jerusalem (Matthew 27:52-53).
Salvation is complete in the Lord Jesus Christ. He has provided deliverance for our spirit, soul, and body. “The Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost” (Luke 19:10). “How will we escape if we neglect so great a salvation? After it was at first spoken through the Lord, it was confirmed to us by those who heard, God also testifying with them, both by signs and wonders and by various gifts of the Holy Spirit according to His own will” (Hebrews 2:3-4).
The triune God who revealed Himself to man as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit made it possible for every person to enter into His life and become part of the divine community in perfect unity with His threefold nature. In the beginning, man was perfect. Sin destroyed the unity in our nature. The work of salvation is to heal the brokenness of our life and restore us in Christ to God’s original plan.
Father, I thank You for Your salvation, so rich and so free. I thank You for making it possible for my spirit, soul, and body to be healed and restored through Your Son and my Lord. Holy Spirit, continue the process in my life that leads me to Your perfect will.
by George Runyan | Aug 2, 2016 | Devotional, George Runyan
Psalm 16:10 – You will not abandon my soul to Sheol, nor will You allow Your Holy One to undergo decay.
The Psalmist David writes prophetically concerning Christ in Psalm 16. In Jesus’ sufferings and death we can clearly see the triune nature of man. When hanging on the cross, Jesus cried out to His Father saying, “Father into Your hands I commit My spirit” (Luke 23:46). Just as Jesus is about to draw His last breath, He commits His spirit to God. Next, David’s prophetic words come to pass as His body is removed from the cross and laid in the tomb and Jesus’ soul descends into hell. The Hebrew word for hell is Sheol. There were two parts to Sheol, upper and lower. Both parts were described in Jesus’ story of the rich man and Lazarus (Luke 16:19-31).
As Jesus’ soul descended into Sheol, He first preached the gospel to those who died during the Flood. He then took the keys of death and hell from Satan. Lastly, as Jesus arose, overcoming death and hell, He brought with Him all the dead that waited in upper Sheol, waiting for His Day. His whole spirit, soul, and body were united on the third day. When He revealed Himself to His apostles after His resurrection, they were afraid, thinking it was a spirit that had come into the room. Listen to what Jesus says to them, “See My hands and My feet, that it is I Myself; touch Me and see, for a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see I have” (Luke 24:39).
Jesus was fully raised from the dead. His disciples could see and touch Him. Notice He pointed out His flesh and bones, but did not mention the blood. His blood was in heaven witnessing to our redemption and our pardon (Revelation 5:9-10). For the natural man, “the life is in the blood and God offers it on an altar for atonement for the soul” (Leviticus 17:11). Jesus no longer needed to depend upon blood coursing through His veins for life. His life was now fully sustained by the resurrection power of the Holy Spirit. One day, we too, will know His full resurrection power as our bodies, along with all the saints, are raised from the dead. If we are alive when He comes back for His own, then we will be changed immediately (1 Corinthians 15:50-58).
Rejoice saints! You will live on with Him throughout eternity with your spirit, soul, and body. By the Holy Spirit we know His resurrected life even now, while awaiting that blessed day and His glorious return.
Father, as Jesus committed His spirit into Your hands on the cross, I too surrender and invite You to have complete control of my inner man. Because Jesus suffered in His soul and descended into hell on my behalf, I freely give You control of my soul. As Jesus’ body was raised from the dead, I am looking forward to the day of resurrection when death will have no more control over mankind.
by George Runyan | Aug 1, 2016 | Devotional, George Runyan
Genesis 1:26 – Then God said, “Let us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness.
This verse of Scripture is packed with a lot of information. It reveals the eternal purpose of the one and only true God. He purposed that mankind be created in His image. Two questions arise: “What is the image of God?” “Who is the Us to whom God is referring?” Throughout the Scriptures, the Eternal One is revealed as Triune in His being. In this passage, the Hebrew word “Elohim” is used, which is the “plural” form of God’s name.
The first question in some catechisms is, “What is the chief end of man?” “Man’s chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever.” We will experience God in such fashion—we will glorify Him and enjoy Him—only in proportion as we know Him. The knowledge of God is more essential for the Christian, and indeed for the entire world, than the knowledge of anything else. Jesus prays, “This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent” (John17:3). Paul sums up the goal of his life when he declares, “That I may know Him” (Philippians 3:10).
God’s image is triune in terms of His nature. He revealed Himself to His creation man as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. He created man triune as well: spirit, soul and body. When communicating to the church in Thessalonica, Paul said “Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you entirely; and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete, without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ” (1Thessalonians 5:23). Only the Word of God can bring adequate understanding to this great mystery. “For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, both joints and marrow, and is able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart” (Hebrews 4:12). Just as God is One, the human is one. It is the Scriptures that reveal God’s makeup to us and it is the Scriptures that reveal how we have been created in His image and likeness. Through the study of the Scriptures, we learn all that God has chosen to reveal to us concerning Him. Through the study of Scriptures, we also learn what we need to know about God’s plan for His creation man and apply that knowledge to our personal lives. The great promise of God was that forever His Spirit would dwell with those who trust Him (John 14:16-17).
Father, I thank You for creating man in Your image and Your likeness. Father thank You for “eternal life” by knowing You and Jesus Christ whom You sent. Father, I thank You for sending Your Holy Spirit to dwell in all those who put their trust in You.
