by George Runyan | Jan 11, 2019 | Devotional, George Runyan, Podcast
Faith, Hope and Love (the greatest is love), Prophetic and your Priesthood
In this first devotional I am reminded of an important change made by the Lord Jesus Christ as He established the New Covenant in His body and blood. Jesus gave to Israel a New Covenant replacing the Old that had become obsolete (see Hebrews 8:13). Every Israelite that received this New Covenant by believing that God had raised their Messiah from the dead received all that is contained in the New Covenant. Every believer in Israel became a part of the new priesthood.
As the Gentiles were added, they were grafted into the same Vine that the believing Jews had become a part. Every believer in Christ is a priest called to pray for the nations. You and I am a kingdom of priests. This is what Revelation 1:6 and Revelation 5:10-12 “And have made us kings and priests to our God; And we shall reign on the earth” (NKJV). Instead of a tribe of priests as Israel knew in the Old Covenant that represented the people before God daily through sacrifices and feast days. Now each redeemed saint has become a priest under our High Priest and King, the Lord Jesus Christ. Intercession is a responsibility of every believer!
Peter, in his first epistle develops the understanding of who we are in Christ when he writes: you also, as living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ (1 Peter2:5). Peter is bringing understanding from Isaiah 61 – But you will be called the priests of the LORD; You will be spoken of as ministers of our God You will eat the wealth of nations, And in their riches you will boast. Isaiah was prophetically picturing the results of the New Covenant which is what was promised in Isaiah 43:19 Behold, I will do a new thing; now it shall spring forth; shall ye not know it? I will even make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert. Jesus spoke of those rivers in John 7:38-39 as He pictured what Pentecost was truly about: He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.” But this He spoke concerning the Spirit, whom those believing in Him would receive; for the Holy Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.
What an opportunity we have together as members of this holy priesthood by praying and interceding for California, our local regions and the unsaved all around us.
Our next devotional will consider God’s people as prophets (Numbers 11:29)
by George Runyan | Jan 7, 2019 | Devotional, George Runyan
The message of the Kingdom of God which Jesus brought was a unifying message of God’s love, full of grace and truth, but also God’s judgment on those who would reject God’s offer of redemption through His Only Begotten Son. Jesus first came to regenerate and unite a...
by George Runyan | Jan 7, 2019 | Devotional, George Runyan
The message of the Kingdom of God which Jesus brought was a unifying message of God’s love, full of grace and truth, but also God’s judgment on those who would reject God’s offer of redemption through His Only Begotten Son.
Jesus first came to regenerate and unite a divided Israel. Then by Israel’s redemption, extend His love and grace to the Gentile nations through the word of His Apostles. The gentiles who believed the message of the apostles were grafted into the Vine and partook of the promises made to Abraham. By that grafting, the gentiles become part of the holy nation as Peter expressed it in 1 Peter 2:5-9.
The religious leaders of Jesus day or generation had divided the covenant nation through their perversion of the Law of Moses as well as not receiving what the prophets had declared about the Lord’s Day. That perversion motivated those religious leaders to plan the murder of Jesus the Christ.
Jesus brought to Israel the offer of a new covenant from His Father in heaven. He brought the promise of a new law, the Law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus which the apostles declared as recorded in Acts 2.
Jesus came to reveal the Father to Abraham’s seed and then to the entire world through the mandate given to His apostles. Jesus came to regenerate Israel and to establish His kingdom in the Spirit of the Father and the Son who is “the Spirit of truth.” A new commandment was given by Jesus “that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another.” John chapter 13 through 16 absolutely needs to be read and to be understood in order to understand the mandate those early apostles were given by Jesus for the regeneration of Israel and the discipling of the nations.
In the Twenty First Century it is now our turn to receive, to obey and to go and extend the covenant of God to the modern day nations. We are also to warn of judgment for failing to obey the command to repent, “because He has appointed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by the Man whom He has ordained. He has given assurance of this to all by raising Him from the dead” (Acts 17:30-31).
by George Runyan | Jan 6, 2019 | Devotional, George Runyan
Numbers 11:29 – I would will that all the Lord’s people were prophets, that the Lord would put His Spirit upon them!
God took of His Spirit which rested upon Moses and placed Him upon the seventy elders. When the Spirit rested upon them, they prophesied. Two of the seventy remained in the camp and were not present, but they too received the Spirit and prophesied. Joshua did not think this was right because those men were not present with the others. Moses thought that Joshua was jealous for Moses’ sake, but Moses revealed the heart of God with his response in verse 29.
God desires for His people to have such a relationship with Him that He can reveal His will to them so that they can voice God’s will to others. “God is no respecter of persons” (Acts 10:34). He reveals His desire that all of His people would “prophesy.” In 1 Corinthians 14:31 Paul wrote, “. . . for you can all prophesy one by one.” Paul went on to reveal that prophecy has purpose; that it is “. . . for learning and the exhorting of God’s people.” Prophecy is not the attempt of the natural man trying to figure out God’s will, but the Spirit making known God’s will to the spirit of a person. What one believes the Spirit of God has revealed to them is subject to others who are hearing God as well. No spirit of prophecy is “private,” but is to be confirmed by what others are hearing God say. “The spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets; for God is not a God of confusion but peace as in all the churches of the saints” (1 Corinthians 14:32-33).
Confusion and the lack of peace are produced by a person holding onto a private interpretation of God’s Word. The man or woman that possesses the true spirit of prophecy is the one who spends time with God listening carefully for what the Spirit desires to speak. They freely submit what they are hearing to others for discernment of accuracy. The Spirit never contradicts the Word of God, nor does He limit what He is saying to one individual. The Spirit of God does not bring new “revelation” that is outside of God’s revealed Word, but helps us to apply God’s Word in our present world and culture. Wisdom is necessary to work with revelation. That is why Paul prays “that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Him” (Ephesians 1:17).
Ask God every day for the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Christ. Not only read God’s Word and pray, but become a listener for what the Spirit would say to you. Be prepared to speak, so others may learn and be exhorted.
by George Runyan | Jan 5, 2019 | Devotional, George Runyan
Genesis 6:3 – Then the Lord said, “My Spirit shall not strive with man forever because he also is flesh; nevertheless, his days shall be one hundred and twenty years.”
This pronouncement of God is prior to the flood that destroyed all mankind except for Noah and his family. God saw Noah as a righteous man. God reveals in our scripture for today that His Spirit had to deal with sin at some point. The sixth chapter of Genesis reveals how God determined that man had 120 years to repent and begin to serve God’s purpose. He chose to use Noah as His instrument to call man to salvation by the construction of the ark. Men laughed at Noah, but when the ark was finished, God’s judgment came quickly.
Paul helps us understand that God is still dealing with mankind’s rebellion. “God is now declaring to all men that all people everywhere should repent because He has fixed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness through a Man whom He has appointed” (Acts 17:30-31). That man is God’s own Son who came to bear the sins of the world and take on Himself the wrath of God. Jesus’ atoning work is what caused God the Father to make this statement through Paul. There is a day which God has fixed to judge all those who refuse to repent by changing their mind and submitting to God’s Spirit who has come to transform all those who trust in Christ.
Jesus is God’s ark of safety for mankind from God’s judgment when it finally comes. That judgment will not be by water, but a rain of fire as God has declared. “By His Word the present heavens and earth are being reserved for fire, kept for the Day of Judgment and destruction of ungodly men” (2 Peter 3:7). Repentance is a lifestyle that allows the Holy Spirit to point out areas where God wants us to change our thinking and actions. Allow the Spirit to reveal Christ in your thinking and how you might live life before God and this generation.
What does the Spirit of God desire to speak with you about in regard to your thinking and the way you live as a son or daughter of God? He is always close to bring fresh insights, so our minds might be renewed after His.
by George Runyan | Jan 3, 2019 | Devotional, George Runyan
John 3:5 – Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit he cannot enter the kingdom of God.”
The key to entering the kingdom of God is the Spirit of God. It is the Holy Spirit who carries the mandate to bring forth in the earth a “new creation.” The natural man does not receive the Spirit of God because the kingdom is spiritual and not natural. Many try reasoning in their minds how to be accepted by God. This is the height of folly because God will not allow any to know Him and His ways simply through natural reasoning. All of the world religions are based upon self-effort in trying to reach God. The basis of the “faith once delivered to the saints” is rooted in God reaching out to us. He has done this through His Holy Spirit. The Spirit caused the Christ child to be formed in Mary’s womb. It was the Spirit who came upon Jesus at His baptism. It was the Holy Spirit that empowered Jesus to heal the sick and cast out demons. The Holy Spirit strengthened the Lord Jesus to endure the cross for each of us. Finally, the Father promised Jesus that the Holy Spirit would be given to all who would believe in Him.
Nicodemus, a religious leader in Israel, came to Jesus in the dark of night. He knew in his heart that Jesus had been sent by God, confirmed by the signs that followed Jesus’ life. Nicodemus only knew the Law as a way to God. Jesus began to share that the true way of entrance into the kingdom of God was through a new birth, and not by attempting to keep the Jewish Law. Jesus told Nicodemus that it is by water and the Spirit that one must be born again. Water speaks of the natural birth process. Baptism was not a new thought to the Jews, for they had many kinds of baptisms. Being born of the Spirit was a new dimension for this Pharisee to grasp.
Many try entering into a relationship with God through various kinds of religious works. But Jesus’ words help us understand that only by the Spirit of God can one be “born into the Father’s Kingdom.” Today, are you resting fully upon a relationship with the Holy Spirit for your entrance and life in the Kingdom of God? Or is it self-effort and natural reasoning which drives you toward spiritual things?
Our greatest need is to increase our dependence upon God’s Spirit. He wants us to let go of all self-effort and fully embrace a relationship of intimacy with Him. God, as promised to Jesus, has sent His Spirit to be received by all those who have chosen to put their trust in the Lord Jesus. If you have been “born of the Spirit,” then get to know Him in ever deepening ways. Always inquire of His will and direction in your life. Learn to discern His voice in your inner man.
Father, I ask for an increase in my awareness of the need for Your Holy Spirit’s presence. I ask that I might be led more by Your Spirit and less by my own natural reasoning in my day-to-day life.
