Monday, February 24, 2020

Topic: “Entitled to Sonship”


Prophetic Scripture:

Text: Romans 8:15

Romans, is the 45th book of the bible and it depicts Jesus as “Our Righteous King.”
It has 16 chapters, 433 verses, and 9,447 words.
God chose 13 words for the Body of Christ today.

…But ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father
(Romans 8:15).

When Abba is used in the Bible the word Father follows it and therefore gives emphasis to the term, because it’s an indication of the tenderest affection.
It is only as we come to know our sonship, our true relation to God that we enter into the consciousness of love and tender affiliation with Spirit that is signified by the word Abba.
Now when you think of adoption our minds go right to a lawyer and how adoption proceedings take place in court. 
During the hearing, the judge will say to the adopting parent something like: “Now, do you understand and accept freely that you are now becoming the legally responsible parent of this child and that they are now entitled to all rights, privileges, and inheritances that you would give to a natural-born child?”
Then the adopting parent says, “Yes.”
Then the judge turns to the child being adopted, if they are old enough to understand, and says, “Do you now understand that you are becoming part of this family and accepting this person as your parent and that you are entitled to all rights, privileges, and inheritances as if you were a natural-born child?”
Then the child being adopted says, “Yes.”
Through this proceeding, all the parties involved understand their role. The parent takes full responsibility to care for the child, while the child understands that he or she must accept the parental role to govern them, but also that they are entitled to the full rights of sonship. You as a “son” must know that you are entirely adopted! 
God accepts you freely today, and you are entitled to sonship with the Body of Christ!
So the word for the people today is “Entitled to Sonship.” 
Webster’s says Entitle means:
- To furnish with proper grounds for seeking or claiming something
- To give a title to as in to designate (to indicate and set apart for a specific purpose, office, or duty). Meaning to designate a group to prepare a plan.
 It also means chosen but not yet installed as in ambassador.
Definition for installed: to place in an office or dignity by seating in a stall or official seat 
- To induct into an office, rank, or order. 
- To establish in an indicated place, condition, or status.
- To set up for use or service.   
God Predestined Us unto Sonship Through Jesus Christ
Ephesian 1:3-6
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. He destined us in love to be his sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace which he freely bestowed on us in the Beloved. 
We were not made to live without a destiny. We were made to be sustained by a meaningful, purposeful future. We were made to be strengthened each day by this assurance, this confidence: that what is happening in our lives today, no matter how routine and ordinary, is a really significant step toward something great and good and beautiful tomorrow. 
We were made to be sustained by a purposeful future. We were made to live in the assurance of a significant destiny!
Talking about "Destiny" and Predestination!!!
I use the word destiny simply to connect this tremendous cry of the human heart with the word predestination in Ephesians 1:5. Look in verse 4: "God chose us in him before the foundation of the world." 
Verse 5: "God predestined us to sonship through Jesus Christ for himself according to the good pleasure of his will." 
I want to establish in your hearts this day—you who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and count Him your Master and Savior—I want to establish in your hearts an assured destiny, a great and good and beautiful future, so that you don't ever have to sob over empty days or scream over uselessness or throw yourself on the wires because there is no future worth living for. And the way I want to establish this destiny in your heart and make it firm is by showing you two things in this text: the goal of your destiny, and the ground of your destiny.  
1. The Goal of Our Destiny
(Destiny- something to which a person or thing is destine; a predetermined course of events often held to be an irresistible power or agency).
Destine- to decree beforehand: predetermine.                                                                                            It means to designate, assign, or dedicate in advance; to set apart for a specific purpose or place.
First, let's focus our attention on the goal of our destiny. What are we destined for? 
We are “predestined for Son-ship” to bear the Family Likeness.
  • Genesis 1:26: And God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness”.
Ephesians 1:5 gives part of the answer: "God predestined us for sonship." Our destiny from before the creation of the world was to become the Sons of God! 
The difference between predestination, which is mentioned in verse 5, and election (or chosen), which is mentioned in verse 4, is that election refers to God's freedom in choosing whom He will predestine. Predestination refers to the goal or destiny for which He chose them. 
You see; Election is God's choosing whom He will, and predestination is God's determination that they will become His Son and make it to the place He has ordained!
  • Ephesians 4:13: 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 fullness of Christ!  (Right here on this earth and right now)!
When God chose you, He had a purpose, and so He predestined that purpose to come about, namely, that you would become a Son of God. He planned that you would be part of His Body, His flesh, and His bones made in His “image and after His likeness, being a family member.
  • Ephesians 5:30: We are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones.
Romans 8:14-17                                                                                                                         14 For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.

That word heirs of God is from the Greek word Kleros meaning a lot given or cast (as a means of obtaining divine direction). 
  • Matthew 27:35: And they crucified him, and parted his garments, casting lots:  that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, “They parted my garments among them, and upon my vesture did they cast lots”.                           (Also Mark15:24):                                                                           
Heirs or “kleros” also means a person share in anything. 
  • Acts 1:17: For he was numbered with us, and had obtained part of this ministry.  [Speaking of Judas].
Joint-heirs with Christ mean that we are co-inheritors, partaker, and companion with Him.  The word denotes partaking jointly with.

We are partakers with what?  Everything pertaining to Christ!
And what’s that?
That we are Christ in the earth…….We are His Body in the earth!!! DO YOU KNOW HIM AND WHO YOU ARE!!!!
  • 1 John 4:17: As he is, so are we, in this world.
I’m talking about us being ENTITLED TO SONSHIP!!!

Jesus Christ educated His followers to discern the real man….the real you.

He taught that there is a power in man that gives him authority over the things of the world. This principle is the higher self, THE SPIRITUAL MAN, THE CHRIST,THE I AM!!             If we would succeed we must bring forth this principle; it gives man (male & female) dominion and mastery.
We have to look at ourselves not as flesh and blood only, but as Spirit.

Jesus Christ affirmed His true self and the Father acknowledged Him. We must reveal ourselves to ourselves or you must reveal yourself to yourself by affirming, “I am the Christ, the son of the living God.”

Christ is the divine/Godlike-idea man. Jesus is THE NAME that represents an individual expression of the Christ idea.

Jesus Christ is the form of the name that is commonly applied to the man of Galilee who demonstrated perfection. Christ Jesus is the idea that is being expressed by Christians today as the result of their faith in and understanding of Truth.

This Christ, or perfect-man idea existing eternally in Divine/Godlike Mind, is the true, spiritual, higher self of every individual.

Each of us has within him the Christ, just as Jesus had, and we must look within to recognize and realize our sonship, our divine origin and birth, even as He did.
By continually unifying ourselves with the Highest or Most High by our thoughts and words, we too shall become Sons of God, manifested in flesh form.
People of God, the problem today is the church is waiting for Jesus Christ to return, BUT GOD is waiting for the Sons of God to take their rightful place on the earth.
                                                                                                                                        
Romans 8 tells us:


(First-fruits - tongues of fire at Pentecost: Adoption - placing as sons: Wit - to know).
Our “redemption”- was bought through the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus the Christ!!! The blood was God’s only purchase price of redemption.  Money, Mohammed nor Buddha could do it, only “JESUS THE CHRIST”!
You see when the Adawm’ man sinned, something happened to his blood, for “life is in the blood.” Instead of his blood containing incorruption and immortality, which was deathless blood, Adawm’s blood was corrupted through sin and caused him (male and female) to become subject to death and brought death upon the creation at large.       To redeem this dead sinner and the creation, life must be again imparted through “innocent blood”! The only remedy for death is life. This life is in the blood, and so blood must be furnished which was sinless, which contained incorruption and immortality!  
And there was one man who gave all His sinless blood on the Cross of Calvary. It was there a blood bank was opened and into that bank went the innocent blood of the Lord Jesus. It suits every type and avails for everyone and is free to all who will submit to its transfusion by the Holy Spirit. All you need to do is apply for it by faith.
Now back to Ephesian 1:  we are still talking about the Goal of Your destiny to be God's Son that is mentioned in verse 5: "He predestined us unto sonship." And one meaning of that, “having the family likeness”, is mentioned at the end of verse 4: "He chose us in him before the foundation of the world”.  We too along with Jesus were with Him in the “beginning”!
  • St. John 1:1: In the beginning was the Word, the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
  • Vs 2: The same (that was us) was in the beginning with God.
  • (Vs 14) And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us (that was Jesus):
    [This beginning was not a calendar date:  but a “person”, the Man, Jesus the Christ]:
    (Colossians 1:18): He is the Head of the Body, the Church, who is “the beginning”!
    (Revelation 1:8): I am Alpha and Omega, the “beginning and the ending”!
    (Revelation 3:14): I am the faithful and true witness, the Beginning of the creation of God.
Back to Ephesians 1:  [Why and for what destiny?]  “That we should be holy and blameless before him in love”! 
That's the practical content of our destiny as God's Sons. We are destined to take on the character of God our Father, the character of holiness and blamelessness. That's our destiny!  1John 4:17: As he (Jesus) is, so are we, in this world.
Ephesians 1:4: Holy and Blameless "In Love" 
Now notice the phrase "in love." 
"He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him in love."  "In love" goes with holy and blameless and shows us what holiness is. 
"He predestined us in love unto sonship." Here it refers to the love of God and tells us the way He predestined us.
That the Lord may cause you to increase and abound in love for one another, and for all men . . . so that He may establish your hearts blameless in holiness before our God and Father.  His “love” is the “agape” (that which is unconditional).
  • John 13:35: By this shall all men know that you are my disciples, if you have love one to another.
The phrase "in love" ("may God cause you to abound in love"), is the combination of blamelessness and holiness ("that He may establish your hearts (not the muscle heart but the “kardi’a” [our thoughts; feelings (mind); motives; intellect; the very core of our being] blameless in holiness"). 
Another goal for……..
Our Destiny is to “Live in and Walk” in Love.
People of God love is the pathway to holiness:  
  • 1 Thessalonians 3:12: And the Lord make you to increase and abound in love one towards another, and towards all men, even as we do towards you: to the end he may stablish your hearts unblameable in holiness before God, even our Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus Chris with all his saints.
     [This “coming” is not out in the sky, but when He is “manifested, seen, or appears” in His people]!
    [In this verse Paul didn’t use the word “establish” but “stablish!  When something is“established” it’s built from without; but when something is “stablished” it is built from within!  God works with us from “the inside out”!].
Because love is the pathway to holiness, we must “live and walk” in this pathway of love:
  •  Ephesians 1:4-5: According as he has chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love.  Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children (sons) by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will.
 God predestined us to be His sons and that means He destined us to be like Him—to be holy, to be blameless, that is, to live in love for and to each other and to all men.
 John put it like this: 
  • St. John 1:11-13: He came unto his own, and his own received him not.  But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name:  which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.
  • 1 John 3:10: "In this (the new birth) the children (sons) of God . . . are manifest (made known), and the children of the devil: . . .Whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of God, neither he that loves not his brother". 
Your destiny is to be holy as your Father is holy, and that means that your very essence is to love, for God, your Father, is love (1 John 4:8).                                                                  You are predestined to be like your Father.                                                                                                                   
Then Our Highest Destiny: 
Your highest destiny is described in verse 6. Why has God predestined us to sonship and holiness and blamelessness and love? 
  • Ephesians 1:6: "To the praise of the glory of his grace."
    Our holiness and our blamelessness and our love and our sonship are not ends in themselves.                                                                                                                       They exist for something greater: the praise of the glory of God's grace. 
The ultimate goal of God in election and predestination is that God might be praised for His glory. And the highest point of that glory is grace. This is the final goal of our destiny. There is no higher hope, no greater tomorrow, no more meaningful future, no more worthy cause to live for, than to reflect and praise the glory of God's grace forever and ever. 
Remember God’s “glory” is His “dox’a”, which is His glory as being apparent (readily seen; visible; evident; real and true), in His people!  Dox’a, is also defined as God’s dignity in relation to His worthiness being seen in us through Christ; His honor; His stately appearance or mannerism (His character) revealed in His people!  And it’s all for “the praise and the glory of His grace”!!! 
2. The Ground of Our Destiny
So consider finally and briefly the ground of your destiny. We've seen the goal.                          Now let’s look at the ground or foundation. 
"Through Jesus The Christ" 
In verse 5 Paul says, "God predestined us to sonship through Jesus Christ."                                     Now to see what that means, look at Ephesians 5:25–27. 

The same two words from Ephesians 1:4! In other words, the basis of your becoming holy and blameless before God is the loving self-sacrifice of Christ on your behalf.     The ground of our destiny to be holy and blameless in love as God's sons is the death of Jesus in our place!  What a show of love!!!  
This means that when God chose you before the foundation of the world, and predestined you to be His holy, blameless, loving son, He also predestined His Begotten Son to die for you. The ground of your destiny is not only that the Son of God died for you, but that God planned it that way from the beginning. "He predestined us to sonship through Jesus Christ." The end was predestined, and the means were predestined which included our holiness and Jesus' death.  
  • Matthew 5:44: But I say unto you, “Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you”;
  • Vs 45: That you maybe the children (sons) of your Father which is in heaven: (not out beyond the blue but who dwells in the higher realms of spiritual elevation in His people): for he makes his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.
  • Vs 46: If you love them which love you, what reward have you?  Do not even the publicans the same?
  • Vs 47: If you salute your brethren only, what do you more than others?  Do not even the publicans so?
  • Vs 48: Be you therefore perfect, even as you Father which is in heaven is perfect.
Ephesian 1: 5 says, "God predestined us to sonship through Jesus Christ for himself according to the good pleasure of his will." 
The point of this text is to teach every believer that we owe our adoption into God's family to the "good pleasure of God's will."
 We were chosen before the foundation of the world; we were predestined to sonship and holiness and love not according to what we had done, or according to what we understood, or according to who our parents were, or according to our race, or according to religious background, or according to where we lived, or according to our work or our status or wealth, or according to what we willed, but we were chosen and predestined according to the good pleasure of God’s will!!!                                                                
The sum of the matter is this: the ground of our predestination is the good pleasure of God's will, the goal of our predestination is the praise of God's glory, and the predestined connecting links between the good pleasure of his will and the praise of his glory are the death of his Son and the holiness of his people. 
If you are trusting in Jesus Christ today the roots of your life were planted in the eternal counsels of God, and the branches of your life are growing into an absolutely sure and glorious future with God. 
There are no unimportant days in your life. You don't ever have to go to bed at night feeling that your life is going nowhere. You don't ever have to give in to the lie that you are not connected to an awesome purpose. 
For God chose you in Christ before the foundation of the world that you might be holy and blameless before him in love; He predestined you to sonship through Jesus Christ for Himself according to the good pleasure of His will to the praise of the glory of His grace.
Every person who is born again is entitled to live in Sonship!                                                 Because our Father has given us “Special privileges” and YOU are part of “the divine”.          So walk and talk as a Son!
  • Romans 8:11: But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.   
The same spirit that raised Christ from the dead dwells in you! This same Spirit will give life to your mortal body!!! 

Clap Your Hands and Give God The Praise!!! Hallelujah!!! 

Evangelist Jackie Burton
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