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.
by George Runyan | Jul 31, 2016 | Devotional, George Runyan
Philippians 4:4 – Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice!
We can rejoice always because of all the Lord has done for His children. He has given to the children of God His divine nature (see 2 Peter 1:3). Maturing in Christ is yielding to the Holy Spirit’s help in developing the nature of God in the believer. It is not trying to become a better person. We can never attain to God’s righteousness by our own effort. Only by the power of the Holy Spirit can we grow up into Christ.
As Paul writes to the Philippians he goes on to instruct, “Let your gentle spirit be known to all men. The Lord is near” (Philippians 4:5). Father God is gentle. The Lord Jesus is gentle. The Spirit of God is gentle. The gentleness of God has been placed in the believer’s spirit in the new birth. The Holy Spirit will help us exercise that gentleness in a world that attacks and can make us reactionary. Paul says “The Lord is near.” I believe that scripture can be understood in two ways.
First, the Lord is near in His coming for His own. In the first century, the Lord did come, not in the promised Second Coming, but in the promise of judgment on that generation (see Matthew 24:34). Second, He is near to be our helper. “Therefore let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need” (Hebrews 4:16). David writes, “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble” (Psalm 46:1). We can see God is the same in the Old or New Covenant.
Paul goes on to say, “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God” (Philippians 4:6). The real proof of trust in God is the absence of anxiety. Anxiety is controlled by a life given to prayer and supplication connected to gratitude. Not just coming to the Lord when we are in trouble, but a lifestyle of communication with our heavenly Father.
The peace of God surpasses all our comprehension. The peace of God is what guards our hearts and our minds (see Philippians 4:7). That peace is rooted in Christ Jesus. Gentleness, absence of anxiety, peace of God, and a heart and mind that is protected comes to those who “rejoice in the Lord always.”
Father, I rejoice in You. Help me to learn how to rejoice always. No matter what is happening around me, I ask for the Holy Spirit to release gentleness and peace to my heart and mind in Jesus’ name.
by George Runyan | Jul 30, 2016 | Devotional, George Runyan
1 Kings 21:3 – But Naboth said to Ahab, “The Lord forbid me that I should give you the inheritance of my fathers.”
The story of Naboth and Ahab is a powerful example of how the Lord respects the inheritance of our fathers. Ahab wanted Naboth’s vineyard for selfish reasons. Ahab moved from desire to coveting the vineyard. For Naboth it was more than the money or even the offer of a better vineyard. It was about his inheritance which he had received from his fathers. It was about generations. It was about identity. It was, for Naboth, an integral issue.
Ahab did not understand “integrity.” Ahab’s evil wife certainly did not understand. She only knew the lust in her heart. She plotted to have Naboth killed so evil Ahab could have his heart’s desire. “The thief comes only to steal and to kill and destroy . . .” (John 10:10). Satan is a thief and his objective is to steel our inheritance given to us by our heavenly Father. John 10:10 concludes by saying, “I came that they might have life, and have it abundantly.”
The enemy tried to rob the vineyard of God, but failed through the power of the cross and in the resurrection of Jesus Christ (see Matthew 21:33-46). As the parable declares, “He will bring those wretches to a wretched end, and will rent out the vineyard to other vine-growers who will pay him the proceeds at the proper seasons” (Matthew 21:41).
The parable of the landowner is an illustration of Israel and Christ’s church made up of Jew and Gentile. The Lord protected His vineyard when He judged those who were in charge (the religious leaders of Jesus’ day). He has installed new vine-growers through the new birth. The Baptism of the Spirit is the all-inclusive work of the Holy Spirit in the life of the believer. The Spirit causes the believer to be a fruitful branch on the “Vine” which is Christ (see John 15). The Spirit makes us a worker in the Lord’s vineyard and calls us to give Him increased fruit.
Our inheritance is in the Lord. We must, through the power of the Holy Spirit, protect the portion of the vineyard He has assigned to us. It is our inheritance. Do not let an Ahab or a Jezebel rob you. We have authority over Satan’s kingdom as it affects our life and inheritance. Resist the devil and he will flee.
Father, I pray for an infilling of the Holy Spirit to be a successful worker in Your vineyard. I pray for increase that I might give to You, knowing it all belongs to You.
