September 18, 2022
For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. Gal 3:26
There have been many important topics discussed on this website, but the topic today is one of the most important. The Spirit of the Lord has put it on my heart to review some things about the family and how it connects with our spiritual life. If you cannot comprehend the concept of family, you may never understand God. The family is what God designed when He framed the world and set mankind in it for fellowship. There is an intimacy that God wants to have with humankind and it is modeled in the family structure. That is why it was so important that churches take on the image of family and function properly, not in dysfunction. The first man and woman were made to be one and enjoy union and fellowship with God as the family of God. Their assignment was reproduction of the human family to replenish earth with children to dwell in a love fellowship with the Heavenly Father.
So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth. Gen 1:27-28
Every living thing God made had a purpose and seed in itself to reproduce in kind and flourish in the earth. Mankind was supposed to stay in God and reproduce obedient children. If the family or church reproduces a population that does not know God, we have failed in our primary mission. We are all part of this story and the story has been a long and turbulent one because an enemy entered the family relationship and sowed distortion in God’s model for both family and church. Many leaders who were supposed to be guardians over the house have surrendered or compromised to let down the gates for evil workers to enter in. We are seeing fruit reproduced from a union with the evil one and corruption is trying to eat up all the good sown in the earth while the righteous appear to walk in a daze.
God’s Domain is Everywhere
The Genesis story started out with Father God (Yahweh, Jehovah, YHWH [I AM THAT I AM]) designing a family in His own image to replenish earth. Everything God made on earth was necessary, fits His plan and falls within His domain. He did not make any extra or unnecessary parts. We see His attention to the smallest detail in the snowflake, flower, animal, person or star; all formed in uniqueness by the Father. It is amazing that each intricate particle is made from God as He spoke the Word and that which He purposed came into existence. Genesis teaches that everything originates with God. The earth was formed from the Words God spoke (”Let there be…” Gen. 1) and every soul and everything were formed at His command.
The first family in disobedience ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and now there is a competing knowledge to what was taught by the Maker. The educational system is now in competition with bible instruction to teach our youth foundational information on which to live their lives in obedience to Father God. Scientific men have undertaken to build microscopes designed to break down the minutest particle, but at its core is found a light and energy that comes from the God who spoke earth into existence. When we examine closely, we find that there is a circle to life and at its center is God. If man explores the beginning of life, he will find God. Man can go all the way to the end of life and he will still find God. One writer put it like this: “If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there” (Ps139:8).
God Made Family in His Image
When we look at the family model, we have to realize that God made it. He exists at its center, and He has purpose for everything He made. Just as the trees grow tall and points back to the Father, birds sing melodies to the Creator, the illumination of the celestial body gives Him glory; and mankind is made to give God glory. We individually are made in the image of God and the family reproduces that image. Every part of the body is necessary and so is every person of the family. Everything God made was intentional and with purpose.
We are a part of a community that is the worldwide family with various physical attributes that sometimes create difficulties because of personal preferences and prejudice. Beneath these varied coverings of flesh, we are similar spirit beings that Father God made to live in harmony with Him; and we will answer for doing otherwise. Immediate family members usually look and act similar creating a commonality that promotes harmony, unlike the world at large. Regardless of appearance, speech or culture; we all come from the Creator and have a mutual purpose on earth. How foolish for the creature to say to the creator: “I don’t like the way you made me or I do not believe you exist”. When we live God-centered lives, knowing who we are and whose we are; we are brought into fellowship, harmony and purpose with each other. Our physical attributes only show us a relational compatibility that brings us into like groups that helps in problem solving to clear the way to knowing God. God has appointed leaders in both family and church groups to usher individuals into a unity of purpose for His glory. Our godly union glorifies God. History records that a group of men came into a union of mind and purpose to build a tower extending into the heavens where God came down to see their work, declared it of evil purpose; and acknowledged that if He did not stop them nothing would hinder what they imagined to do. Because their goal was perverted and not from Him, God disrupted their work, confused their communication and scattered those evil men across the face of the earth. God has proven time and time again that He will not be usurped by the evil one’s effort to unite a community against Him to destroy His plan. That truth should bring comfort to believers in the midst of whatever plot the evil one is presently working against God’s people.
Purpose and Destiny
Let’s talk purpose and destiny. After we, humans, understand that we have a maker who is God, our next inquiry should be about purpose. The first family was made and then given instructions and purpose. Everything God made must operate within its purpose, even a tree. Some trees seem to be doing a great job because they have grown tall and are pretty to look at. Jesus walked by a fig tree with His disciples and the fig tree looked good, but Jesus cursed that tree, causing it to immediately wither up and die. It had always seemed strange to me that Jesus cursed the fig tree, but over time I came to understand that the tree failed to serve its purpose. If our lives do not serve the purpose for which God created us, why clutter we the ground God ordained for purpose?
Every member of our physical body was ordained with purpose. Our head is most important part and we could not live without it. That is why we cover our head with hats, helmets, umbrellas and shelter. We need our hands to cover our head, yet hands are not the most important part of the body. Our feet, you might think, have the worst job; and they are seldom considered. Our feet walk through some of the worst places and they smell funny. Yet the Holy Spirit wrote through Paul: “… How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things (Rom 10:15)!” We could go on and name the purposes of each part of the body, even the tiny tonsils whose purpose seems to be to police its area of foreign particles or bacteria that would do harm. So we can see everything was specifically designed with purpose and is necessary. That which we would least esteem, God often gives greater purpose. God is not bound to the way man thinks; His thinking is much higher than that of man. God gives special care to the things man often devalues.
For our comely parts have no need: but God hath tempered the body together, having given more abundant honour to that part which lacked: That there should be no schism in the body; but that the members should have the same care one for another. 1Co 12:24-25
Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves. Php 2:3
God made the whole world but His most valuable creation, man, was made last and given authority of rule over the earth. With all that power you might wonder why God left us the ability to obey or disobey. Even the angels wondered about God’s love of mankind.
“…What is man, that thou art mindful of him? or the son of man, that thou visitest him? Thou madest him a little lower than the angels; thou crownedst him with glory and honour, and didst set him over the works of thy hands: Heb 2:6-7
We might ask as well why God cares so much about humankind or why He made us in His own image. First of all God made us to be in a relationship with Him as instruments that could receive and give love and then He preordained us for a purpose. We, as people, devalue each other because we do not see in others what God sees. We offend God when we destroy a life He designed to fulfill a purpose. Imagine if someone had killed Albert Einstein before his brilliance was imparted to our world. His work was a gift that brought glory to God but also was a gift to us. We each have similar potential because a creative power from God lives in each of us. We may never know if Einstein fulfilled his whole destiny, but his work and life impacted all of us. When his work was finished, he had to lay down his life and answer to God for his accomplishments, as do we.
What we see in the example of Einstein is that each person has a destiny that impacts the family on earth and that work is assigned by God. That truth reveals a waste of time it is to go to church only for show. Our assignment is wrapped up in our development of a relationship with God to learn and carry out our responsibility in the overall plan of God for the earth. The contentment many seek is wrapped up in carrying out that assignment. Therefore, none of us have a right to judge another man’s work or talent (Joh 21:20-21)? God will be the final judge of the way we spent a lifetime.
Unlike the trees or animals, humans have a choice and can make decisions about their direction and life. Our preference might have been for different lips, skin color, body size, income, family or circumstances; but God has given each of us grace and ability to make our life beautiful in its season. God gives us gifts needed for our purpose and when perfected it has the ability to be elevated before kings. Every soul is endowed with some gifting that has the ability to elevate his life, fulfill his destiny, and bring glory to God. It is our responsibility to discover and use that gift(s) wisely.
Fulfilling destiny is really what this life is about. Jesus said His Father works and so He worked. Nothing we do on this earth will give us anything worthy of standing before the King except completion of our assignment. Jesus finished His work and replied, “It is finished.” Our spiritual works will follow us into eternity (Rev 14:13). All our earthly pleasures will be over, our valuables will be given to another, our friendships will no longer matter, and we will stand alone before God to answer for our life.
What we have while on earth is the joy of living life with the blessings given, lessons learned and benefits provided that make our journey more pleasant. We are assigned to natural and spiritual families by God for company, instruction, comfort and assistance until we reach maturity to accomplish our mission while on earth (Eph 4:11-14).
And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ: Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ… Eph 4:11-13
Notice that Joseph and Mary were appointed to be the parents of Jesus; but when matured, Jesus became Savior of Mary. They would love, protect, provide for and train Jesus until matured to take on His mission of saving the world. Our natural and spiritual families on this side of heaven may continue rejoicing with us on the other side (like Mary, James and Jude, the family of Jesus) if we walk pleasing to God.
Perverted Purpose
The adversary’s plan is to cause us to miss our purpose, waste our life on foolishness or work his evil plan set for destruction of self or others. The failure of too many churches is to teach people to live for God in purpose. Christian life is more than working for stuff, going to church as a formality or carnal task, paying tithes or singing songs. God made us to fulfill a purpose in our personal family, community, nation or world. We have to grow up in order to accomplish life’s purpose and the local church should help each believer to seek out his purpose in Christ. We do not see in scripture that there was a backup for John the Baptist. Imagine if he had reneged on his role. Whether our short earthly life in the flesh is enjoyable or not, it will end in an eternal destiny in heaven for righteousness or hell for disobedience. All that God has planned for us is for good, so we should endeavor to accept His plan. One of Jesus’ apostles posted the question:
From whence come wars and fightings among you? come they not hence, even of your lusts that war in your members? Ye lust, and have not: ye kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain: ye fight and war, yet ye have not, because ye ask not. Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts. Jas 4:1-3
People are dying and destroying lives over stuff. We see national and world leaders who seemed to have failed at learning the basic working of family life. Jesus, as a perfect leader, displayed and taught the truth needed to live triumphantly in the earth. He displayed love and compassion for family, peers, children and strangers; and yet he warned us of the enemy’s plan to do us evil. Human kind was given power to prevail over the enemy. We cannot afford to believe that everyone we meet wishes us well. Jesus taught us discernment for survival. He described the enemy, showed us examples of what he looked like and the way to conduct ourselves around the adversary. Jesus called out the evil one’s actions among His spiritual group and in the religious leaders so we would not be ignorant of the disguises of the enemy as he hides among our personal or distant contacts. The devil is a spirit and he tries to influence those that have close influence with us like His disciple Peter (Mt 16:23); but Jesus taught His disciples the skill of discerning the adversary. Fruit trees can all look alike; but when the tree matures, the fruit must reveal itself.
Ye do the deeds of your father. Then said they to him, We be not born of fornication; we have one Father, even God. Jesus said unto them, If God were your Father, ye would love me: for I proceeded forth and came from God; neither came I of myself, but he sent me. Why do ye not understand my speech? even because ye cannot hear my word. Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it. Joh 8:41-44
Life is sort of like football game where everyone wants to hold the ball of victory but there are plays and players on the field determined to block, stop and throw us down in defeat. Much of our time is spent trying to recover from the work that the enemy does to God’s plan for a wholesome family and community. Jesus at the center of our relationship is what makes it worthwhile and we should learn this lesson in our churches.
He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. And he that taketh not his cross, and followeth after me, is not worthy of me. Mat 10:37-38
Family Restoration
Parents in the family are charged to bring up children in a loving environment that leads them to have a healthy relationship with family, God and others; but many families are broken. Discussing what a family is today would likely cause a fight, because we are just that far from the true model of a family. Broken families pass on the image of brokenness and we are experiencing the repercussions in our society. African slaves were intentionally broken as a family unit and they continue to suffer from that brokenness as white Americans continue to foster division in black unity for fear of reaping what they sowed in slavery. God wants to heal both people and it can only come through the ministry of Christ. Brokenness in leaders can be devastating and usually produces the same hurt the leader experienced. We saw it on steroids through the administration of our last president. A person from a dysfunctional home life with hate of blacks reproduced that broken image in his children, business, government, and ushered in its devastating effects on our nation and world. This kind of broken individual should never be promoted to leadership over people, but we have a slate of them running for political office. Christ came to restore our inner brokenness as an individual so we could qualify for promotion to wholesome leadership positions. Christians are taught in scripture to only promote to leadership positions those proven to be mature, having integrity, being spirit-filled and devoted to God. Christians are never to promote heathens for leader because Christians are to be the head, not the tail.
Wherefore, brethren, look ye out among you seven men of honest report, full of the Holy Ghost and wisdom, whom we may appoint over this business. Act 6:3
One man would not have been effective in doing so much damage if it had not been for endorsement and promotion by a false church misrepresenting him falsely as a born again Christian. The greater sin was probably failure to repent or rescind the endorsement after proven to be a mistake. The threat of Christian apostasy and anti-Christ posturing still looms high over the body of people in America. We should all pray God establish righteous leaders, full of honesty and integrity to help heal the nation.
Apostle Paul had been a terrorist to the Jewish community but he had an encounter with the Lord that changed his perspective. He went from being a religious enemy to a builder of the church into a body of believers. Inner healing for mankind does not come by medicine, money, psychiatry, or social programs. Dysfunction is in the heart of man because of sin, where he was led astray by a deceiver. Only the Lord knows how to uncross the intricate wiring of the mind and give back a restored and healthy mind, body and spirit. God does this for each of His appointed ministers before He sends them out to reproduce themselves in the congregation. Professional ministry training cannot provide this inner healing and that is why so many broken ministers are producing broken churches. Some people going into broken churches looking for healing are coming out worse than they went in. This is particularly a problem in the black community where whites perverted the family image in blacks and gave us broken-spirited men for fathers, husbands and leaders. White people continue the damage of black families through oppressive actions such as mass incarceration, low wage jobs, mis-education, poor housing, discrimination, spiritual oppression and voter suppression, etc. Oppression always comes from the evil one, not God. True Christians cannot oppress any people and rightfully claim Christ; it is confusion. Christ came to set the oppressed free and those that love Christ are part of His plan for deliverance, not bondage. The body of Christ in the earth consists of many nations and ethnicities so there has to come a healing in the body of Christ at large before the church is ready for Christ to come back for His bride. Evidence of loving Christ is loving all people, even our enemies. The family of God at large is a multi-faceted body of many different colors, speech, cultures, and nations.
The functioning of the true church should reveal to us what a healthy family looks like. The true church serving at the center of the community should look like Jesus: restoring the brokenness of individual lives, families, and ultimately the community at large. The job of bringing wholeness into families and communities is a job given to the Christian Church and it is done through the spirit of love, not by law or forced obedience. Christian love starts locally but it should be expressed worldwide. Jesus passed this teaching to His apostles so that they could go out and spread healing to the whole world. If the devil manages to infiltrate the church leadership then he plants a perverted vision for the life of the individual, family, church, and nation. False leaders operate for the enemy in places of authority to lead potential believers astray with a false vision that destroys the plan of God for the earth, just like he did in Eden. We can recognize counterfeit leaders by knowing the truth through studying God’s word. Our job is to say no to the devil and get on with the work of the Lord. Any spirit filled believer can resist the devil and put him to flight (Lk 10:19 ), but the whole church is empowered to stand united together to protect and grow our Christian community. When the family at large is infected with evil, it takes the whole body of believers to come together in unified effort to strengthen the body against the deceiver and restore peace. We have to be reminded of our victory in Christ. We release the power of God to fight for us against the enemy; and we are assured the battle is already won by Jesus who defeated Satan at the cross. The Christian body of Christ has been given authority to stop Satan’s work in the earth and we must not look for God to come down and fix it when He has already given us hands, feet and a mouth to turn it around. If the Christian body does not do its job, it is at risk of being contaminated and taking part in the wrath to fall on all the disobedient.
Before healing comes one must realize that the devil has given them sickness. The man at the pool of Bethesda was asked by Jesus if he wanted to be made whole (Joh 5:2). He had to realize that he was sick and then accept healing. There are people today that will not admit that they are sick because the devil has deceived them with a lie and they believe they are well. Some people must be pulled from the fire by those that are strong.
And others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire; hating even the garment spotted by the flesh. Jud 1:23
The job of the preacher is to help people see the difference between a healthy life in Christ and the sickness the devil has put on them so they can make the choice between the two. We suffer today from an abundance of pastors who teach a gospel of a palatable Jesus who only wants to love and bestow gifts upon them. Many of these preachers do not want to discuss how the enemy is working to deceive people. The biblical Jesus showed Himself as a multi-dimensional Savior with various emotions and actions that surprised even His own disciples. Jesus revealed that Judas would betray him and He confronted Peter with the fact that the devil was using him to dissuade Christ from the cross. Actually, if we keep our mind on the Word of God, the body can often heal itself of many infirmities. When Jesus comes in and takes possession of the house, everything ungodly must go; and that includes evil spirits with their physical and mental symptoms of sickness. The world’s physicians can provide partial healings or medicate the pain, but only God through Christ makes us whole.
People must realize the counterfeit to God’s plan is sent by the devil. The enemy seeks to destroy the plan of God by first attacking the natural family, but ultimately he wants to destroy God’s spiritual family. The fatal blow is the damage done to the head: the father. If the image of the father is damaged, the whole family is damaged. For example: A drunken husband, who beats his wife, will destroy his marriage, break the spirit of the children and curse his children for the next three or four generations. His sickness will unleash generations of emotional dysfunctional on his lineage and be a burden to the community. If one such man continually being influenced by Satan gained political power, he would have the potential to become an Adolf Hitler of Germany, Mao Zedong of China, Joseph Stalin of Russia, Pol Pot of Cambodia, Leopold II of the Congo, Kim II-Sung of North Korea, Saddam Hussein of Iraq, Idi Amin of Uganda, Mengistu Haile Mariam of Ethiopia, or Josef Mengele of Auschwitz. The enemy only needs a foothold to start a decline into evil. Scriptures taught us that those who have not proven themselves to be good family leaders should not be allowed to become community leaders because their flawed family vision will extend to their leadership offices. Men that tend to mistreat their wives will most likely mistreat their employees, particularly women. We are seeing leaders with horrible dispositions leading our churches, communities and higher political offices. Citizens were taught by society to be politically correct and stay silent, but that practice has led to moral decline. The bible taught us in the Old and New Testaments to only select just and honorable men for leaders. Our failure to heed that warning has put us in jeopardy of our nation because proper checks were not in place to prohibit the rise of tyrants.
Every man or woman has an opportunity to lead the family in line with God’s purpose when the head of the family aligns with God. The leader of every home has the responsibility to look into the bible and find out how God treats His children or how Jesus treats His bride and then do likewise. Even now with all the deception in the land, the image of a perfect man is still available for the most perverted leaders to seek an example in scripture of Jesus and imitate His behavior toward peers, women, men children and leaders. A damaged leader’s best choice though is to step down before he reproduces himself in the multitude of constituents that will use his life as a role model. Damaged leaders who will not step down, should be set down or recalled by the public because the power of America is in the hands of the people, not the leader. Proper leadership requires a people who are just and righteous enough to be able to discern evil and defeat it in God’s stead because believers represent God. God is not going to come down and fix what He has given His people power to correct. If true believers do not bring correction in our homes, churches, community and nation; God’s correction will ultimately correct the complicit Christian along with the evil ones (1Co 11:32). This is where the healing of our nation and world begins. If our leaders come from healthy homes, they then have the ability to be tempered and lead the family at large that is our community, city, state and nation. Without the right vision of the nucleus of a family balanced with love and discipline, you cannot duplicate it. Our society has produced and legalized many broken families, but our encounter with Jesus Christ can still correct our vision to heal families and produce wholeness.
Everyone has the ability to find a healthy existence through reading the Word of God and learning God’s ways. He is the Creator and He can fix what is broken through disobedience in us. Every American and every Christian has been empowered by their authority from the nation or Creator to take responsibility as an individual to stand up for what is right and resist evil. Evil leaders want people to be fearful of them while they bully people into silence. Jesus came to empower the individual believer to stand up within his rights, even against false leaders when necessary. Daniel and the Hebrew boys stood up for God even against the ungodly king. They would have rather died than deny their God. When the test has come to many of our leaders, too many have caved in. That should not be. We should learn discipline and stamina before taking the leadership reins. Accepting Jesus Christ as Lord and being born again puts us in the training camp of the Holy Spirit’s preparation for battle. Promotion comes from the Lord when properly prepared to withstand the enemy in battle. Jesus also stands with us against the enemy.
And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God. Rom 12:2
We have to choose whose family we will be a part of: God or Satan. God warns us that every crooked thing will be pulled down so it is a waste of our time to build up that which is false because it will not last.
Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low: and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain: Isa 40:4
We are presently dealing with male leaders who are unskilled for positions of authority and yet want to insist on leading while bullying others. Our failure to uphold the standards in homes and churches has spilled over into problems in government and threats against our democracy. Charity starts at home but so does godly training. Even some women have begun to seek out an alternative to the ungodly abuse of men, but breaking the cycle of family with homosexuality is a destroyer of family and defies God’s primary command to be fruitful and multiply. The family model is being perverted through the coupling of same sex mates. Homosexuality has been around for millenniums but only our society has seen fit to make it legal and holy. We should agree with the patterns God gave us, not the ones Satan produced through perversion. Pastors and legislative leaders were afraid to stand up for the marital union that God ordained in scripture for fear of losing church income. Unfortunately, in some cases, the leader’s own sin or sexual preference hindered support of bible scripture. Sexual perversion has become legal and normal in families and churches because churches refused to stand up for biblical truth to protect the biblical family. Where God ordained the family to look like God, the evil one has gained an advantage and followers who look more like his perverted family. God’s mandate for life and fruitfulness is being denied by those choosing the enemy’s mandate for perversion and destruction.
There are two strong pulls on the life of mankind that determines moral judgment. The characteristics of the choice help us to know which force is leading a person: good or evil. Pastors are charged to guide mankind to his best choice, but some pastors are choosing to be silent at a very divisive time, while some are taking the wrong side on an important issue. God called out these kinds of pastors in Jeremiah: Jer 2:8 “The priests said not, Where is the LORD? and they that handle the law knew me not: the pastors also transgressed against me…” We are seeing major division between family members on issues of race, gender, sexuality, politics and religion. These are problems that Jesus addressed and warned us about the effect on the family.
For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter in law against her mother in law. And a man’s foes shall be they of his own household. He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. And he that taketh not his cross, and followeth after me, is not worthy of me. Mt 10:35-38
Men who advocated their leadership position in the family and allowed the family to be led astray by false religious leaders, activists, or politicians, have failed their first responsibility to God which is to care for the family. The man of the home owes his devotion to God first and then he should lead his family to the Lord. A family’s prejudice and view of life are usually derived from the leader of the home. So if a man does not treat his family right, it is very likely that he will not treat other people right either. A fair example is what we see in the Republican Party. Though they claim to love God, they demean women, and show hate for ethnicities and migrants. They have proven their devotion is to Donald Trump, their “orange god”. Their downward spiral is shown in recent headlines where a Michigan QAnon follower of Trump killed his wife and dog, wounded his daughter and was shot dead by the police. We can get on the wrong track and follow the wrong leader but God has given us enough information about Himself for us to learn right from wrong. Though the enemy uses some trigger prejudices of race, gender, class, appearance or religions; we will have to answer to God for following error instead of truth.
The long suffering and patience of God will eventually give way to His wrath and final judgment. God wants us to conform to the image of Christ and enter into fellowship and communion with Him, but it is our choice. Once we understand the truth, there is no more excuse for behaving contrary. God has given us His command, Jesus has shown us the way and the Holy Spirit is willing to live in and help us walk in the right path. We have more advantages than the first family because we have available the Holy Spirit to live in us and guide us. We can no longer solely blame pastors because God has provided His word and power for us individually, even without the pastor’s guidance. Jesus has come and taken away every excuse for not being obedient to the Father. We can be the family God is calling for. If our parents did not get it right, it can start fresh in us. God has ordained for us peace and joy in the Holy Ghost. The children of God get to live in God’s kingdom now in the earth and later as family in heaven. We do not have to wait to enjoy heaven; we can enjoy it now through the Holy Spirit in the earth. The Holy Spirit works within to mold the believer into destiny as we follow His guidance. We are brought into a united fellowship as the family of God without outward prejudice of appearances while we live in the earth because we have been born again from above into a new family whose leader is God, the Father. It is Father God’s pleasure to bless His children with all good things and then come into the midst for fellowship with all His children in the earth. We who are in Christ are the family of God.
By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God, and keep his commandments. 1Jn 5:2
Truth and Life Ministries of Christ with Apostle Joyce Reba Payne 