Tehillah Generation Chapel
Daily Manna | Friday, March 9, 2018 | Reading: Exodus 33:1-11, Exodus 4, Gen 3:1-21
Topic: The Tabernacle of God 377
Scripture: But Christ being come an high priest of good things to come by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say not of this building. (Heb 9:11)
Note: 2Cor 5:1, “For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.” The mention of spirit, soul and body by the Apostle Paul in 1Thess 5:23 in relation to sanctification of the three fold part of man as a tripartite being, is a confirmation of the dividing partition between the invisible parts of man. It took the revelation of the Apostle Paul through the inspiration of the Spirit of God and the operation of God’s word to unfold this truth to the Church and the rest of the world.
Discernment is an active operation of God’s Spirit through man, backed by the power, revelation and operation of the word of God. The background to the 5th chapter of 1Thessalonians in which Paul wrote the letter to the Church, had a grim story to tell about the negative impact that wrongful application of the prophetic gifts had wreaked on that Church. The immediate response from the leadership if the Thessalonian believers was to begin to treat prophesying with complete disdain, despising it.
Apostle Paul was aware that despising the operation of prophcies wasn’t the best solution for them, as they were in effect despising the operation of the Spirit of God among them, which was given to the Church to profit everyone. 1Cor 12:7, “But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal.” The gifts of the Spirit were given to individuals within the body of Christ. So in the local church setting, despising some of the gifts would amount to operating without the full resources that Christ has endowed the Church with, in order to operate at the capacity necessary to establish His Kingdom on earth.
The underperforming of the Church in its apostolic capacity, mandate and authority as God’s representatives of His Kingdom on earth, might be due to reasons that have been caused by past errors, necessitating a heavy man centered intervention that eventually became an albatross on the neck of the Church. In a genuine bid to solve a nagging problem a bigger, unanticipated problem was created. Paul had a 4-point solution for the Thessalonian Church in 1Thess 5:19-22 who found themselves in a similar situation.
1. Quench not the Spirit
2. Despise not prophesyings
3. Prove all things: hold fast that which is good
4. Abstain from all appearance of evil.
Food for thought: It’s the faithfulness of God that sustains us, and not our good motives and efforts to succeed.
Declaration: Faithful is He that has called you, who also will do it. 1Thess 5:24
©Author: Rev Fred Aboe
