PARTAKERS OF DIVINE NATURE - PART 3

FRIDAY 12 MAY 2023

Today, we are going to consider the great and precious promises which God has given us in Christ as the new creatures. And as we walk after the Spirit, we are being led and guided by these promises rooted in divine counsels, which in turn, regulate our outcomes and conversations according to the dictates, square and potency of God's Word. More below!

Reference: 2 Peter 1:4 New Living Translation (NLT) "And because of His glory and excellence, He has given us great and precious promises. These are the promises that enable you to share His divine nature and escape the world's corruption caused by human desires."

Because of His glory and excellence, God gave us great and precious promises. I want you to perfectly understand this truth: When God called us to Himself, He gave us His glory (which is subject to a rise in size or degree) and His excellence (which denotes virtues to cultivate). So there is already a level of power at work within us as Christians, known as "His glory and excellence" and its workings, we are aware of, because of our association with the Spirit. That is to say, in another words, that we produce the effects of this glory and excellence through the guiding experiences we have with the Holy Spirit, who is the pledge of our inheritance and completeness in Christ.

Now watch this: Because of His glory and excellence, He gave us great and precious promises. What are the great and precious promises and how important or significant are they? Firstly, great and precious promises are important because they are the prerequisites for the development of our human spirit, as well as the parameters for our profiting and flourishing (that's the importance). Secondly, you must concern or familiarise yourself with them, because they are promises that enable us to share God's divine nature and escape the world's corruption caused by human desires (that's the significance). Got it? Hallelujah!

The great and precious promises are the evidential forces that bear testimony to our identity in Christ when applied and enforced in our lives. From a developmental standpoint, we need to desire the promises and cogitate on them with ardent and conscious alacrity in order for them permeate our inner being and settle in us as the predominant part of our Christian faith. From the inheritance standpoint, we need them in order to possess all our possessions in Christ which we acquire by bequest. But to do so, we must be conscious of the fact that there is a spiritual and inextricable union between us and Christ, which we express by acknowledging that Christ is fully and actively resident in us. Hallelujah!

To that effect, Pauline epistolary intimation noted: "For His Spirit joins with our spirit to affirm that we are God's children. And since we are His children, we are His heirs. In fact, together with Christ we are heirs of God's glory..." (Romans 8:17 NLT). Beloved, we are heirs of God, and as a result of our inextricable union and nature with Christ, we are co-heirs with Him. Now how do we discover these great and precious promises from God?

Acts 20:32 is the answer: "And now I commend you to God [placing you in His protective, loving care] and [I commend you] to the word of His grace [the counsel and promises of His unmerited favor]. His grace is able to build you up and to give you the [rightful] inheritance among all those who are sanctified [that is, among those who are set apart for God’s purpose—all believers]" (AMP). Stay tuned for part 4, for the comprehensive guide to our great and precious promises in the Lord. Shalom!

Scripture Reading - Philippians 1:7; Ephesians 1:3; Hebrews 3:14; Colossians 1:12.

Exuberant Declaration: I rejoice in the Lord today for the mighty change in me that remains unaffected and perfect because of the love of God, which has activated His glory and excellence in my life. More so, I'm cheerfully thankful for His great and precious promises that empower me to partake of the divine nature in Christ Jesus. Praise God!