7)
For there are three that bear record in
heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one.
8)
And there are three that bear witness in
earth, the Spirit, and the water, and the blood: and these three agree in one.
9)
If we receive the witness of men, the witness
of God is greater: for this is the witness of God which he hath testified of
his Son.
10) He
that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself: he that believeth
not God hath made him a liar; because he believeth not the record that God gave
of his Son.
11) And
this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal
life, and this life is in his Son.
12) He
that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life.
13) These
things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that
ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of
the Son of God.
14) And
this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according
to his will, he heareth us:
15) And
if we know that he hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the
petitions that we desired of him.
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mong the last seven words Jesus spoke
during his crucifixion was "It is finished." This meant that everything
everybody needs, or will ever need, in this life and the life to come was
completed—all we need to do is accept it.
So it's unnecessary to hang onto
familiar thoughts or words such as—I know Jesus will do it for others but not
me; I know He can; I know He's able, I know He has the power. It's unproductive
to operate in the mind set that we may lose the fight but not the battle, or
the possibility to be able to operate in the Spirit most but not all of
the time. If we find ourselves comforted by such familiar sayings then we have
missed the meaning and significance to our gift of eternal life in Jesus.
Eternal life in Jesus affords all who
will accept it the benefit of rest and confidence that God took care of
everything before His ascension to glory. When we accept the change the Lord
has made in us from death to life, whatever it is for you has already been finished. Whatever comes our way while we
remain in union with Jesus is the will of God. So don't be fooled by repeating
phrases like, "I was living better or doing better before I got
saved." This is not according to Jesus as He reminds us that before we
knew Him, we were dead in trespasses and sins. So we could not, and cannot,
gauge our use by Him, or benefit to Him, by what we had or have, nor by what
pleases or displeases us. It took the preaching of the Word by the Spirit to
save us, and takes our acceptance of and obedience to the Word to keep us.
Thus God's Word remains the same. As in
the day of Noah, God, by His Spirit, preached to the spirits and men in Noah's
time the need to prepare themselves. Each individual,
each relative, each parent, neighbor, etc, had to accept the words of Noah by
the Spirit. We know the number who accepted it, and large number who rejected
it, by account of only eight souls being spared. Small number out of a
whole world, but God established and establishes everything by His Word.
God spoke and said it was going to rain
and do so long enough that an ark needed to be built because rain would cover
the earth. Because they had no reference point for an ark, nor
rain, did not make the words of the Spirit invalid or false. It just made those
who refused to accept and obey needless casualties. God, via his delivery of
the Word, is compelling men to accept eternal life by simple obedience. And not
one person who has the desire to be and stay saved will ever be lost. One
determines his desire by his actions. Therefore, all mankind, like God, must
let the operation of the Spirit take priority over the operation of the flesh.
So, real men (mankind) will allow the
spiritual to take priority over the natural as did Jesus. Throughout His time
on earth, He always put what was natural under subjection to what was
spiritual.
Therefore blessed is the man who is not
offended in Him. Blessed is the man who understands the manifestations of God:
that there are not three persons in the Godhead as some assert, but simply
three manifestations of the same God. Therefore, you cannot slight Jesus if God
is mentioned. Because Jesus, God, and the Holy Ghost all reveal the same
message and operate by one power, one authority, and one mind.
We who have been given eternal life operate
the same—by one power, one authority and one mind. This makes us dynamite—explosive.
Can we do it? It's never been a problem of can we, but will we? Will we let
the gift of eternal life take priority over eternal damnation?