6)
As ye have therefore
received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him:
7)
Rooted and built up in
him, and stablished in the faith, as ye have been
taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving.
8)
Beware lest any man spoil
you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the
rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.
9)
For in him dwelleth all
the fulness of the Godhead bodily. And ye are complete in him, which is the
head of all principality and power:
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ords
can often prove to be "stumbling blocks" for many and therefore, we
must be conscious of our responsibility. This is a particularly important
consideration for anyone in authority. In that "heads" over things
abound, the "top man on the totem pole" has a great responsibility.
In
the life that we call "salvation," we must acknowledge that Jesus
Christ is our head. As such, He does
not allow us the luxury of running our own lives. For one thing, He is much
smarter than we are and He has access to more things. Therefore, with Him at
the "helm," we are unlimited in what we can accomplish, as is He.
Usually,
when the Lord sets before us a task, one of our first concerns is how we will
accomplish all that He has set before us. The answer is that we will be able to
accomplish all that He requires by trusting
Him. We will only show that we trust(believe) Him by doing.
It never was and definitely is not now, simply a matter of what we say. In order to have credibility, we
must do.
So,
how do we know if we are accepting
what the Lord has already done? We will know because we will find ourselves finished
with it. This means that we will not allow it to occupy our time, attention or
anything else.
As
the people of God, we have gotten into many "bad habits." One of
these is dealing with God in whatever manner we please and another is
approaching Him however we deem necessary or appropriate. The fact is that we cannot approach God with doubt simply
because this is how we live our lives.
Will
we never learn that we have no choice but to interact with God in the Spirit?
After all, this is how we received Him—in
the Spirit. This is the only way for us to believe Him and see the
manifestation of all of His promises.
Does
it really make "justifiable" sense that "the head of all
principalities and power" would have more than one standard of salvation?
He is a God of one standard for everyone, everywhere. Not only this, but He is
a God proven from the beginning to be creditable. Because He never changes, we
can safely trust in Him and need never fear being disappointed or shaken—unless
we have a personal interest in gaining something for ourselves.
What
good is it to be "fathered" by "the head of all principalities
and powers" if His principles for living do not benefit us? He teaches us
to praise Him when others talk about us, but we choose to deal with this sort
of thing. Why, when it is fruitless and we can change nothing? We have Him so
that we can live beyond what anyone
says.
We
are to abound in thanksgiving and thank Him in all because this is our victory
and responsibility to Him. This is the means He has given us by which to show
Who He is and win others to His kingdom. Acknowledging hurt, pain and failed
relationship never frees anyone. On
the contrary, realizing that one has been free all along is victory and praise.
Inarguably,
this is almost too good to be true, yet all we must remember is that everything
is done by the Head over all. There is never any reason to complain about or
find fault with anything. All we need do is give Him
all praise. Even when we can find a reason to complain, we need to yield our
mind and body immediately to praise.
It
is so important that we accept the deliverance already purchased for us because
when we do, His principality and power are noised abroad through our praise.
When we fail at this, the devil is the winner, for he rests in his assurance
that we will fight to be the head.
Instead of falling into his deception, why not focus our minds and make him
a liar?