Apostles Today
Why the Church Needs Apostles Today
Government, Truth, and Spirit
Lesson 11 of 14
1. Government
2. Truth
3. Spirit
If your dependent upon a chain holding the weight of your body over a mountain pass, you don’t want any of these links being weak. The same applies to your faith. If any one of these vital links of your faith, government, truth, or Spirit are weak, you are in danger of falling away from Christ. By the links of this chain (or cord) remaining unbroken your testimony reflects Jesus Christ. We behold Him in this unity and with one mind and one mouth glorify Him.
Sometimes these 3 vital elements of our faith are taught as the three fold cords of our faith. The covenant contains the 3-fold cord beginning with His stewardship, (Government) then the knowledge that is sanctified for faith (Truth) and the empowerment for regeneration (Spirit) which includes the gifts, callings and the graces of God, prayer, preaching and prophecy. If one of these threads becomes weak, the whole cord begins to unravel.
Cords in the Bible are associated with service to God. They are associated with the tabernacle of God, the house of worship. “And the hangings of the court, and the curtain for the door of the court, which is by the tabernacle, and by the altar round about, and the cords of it for all the service thereof,” (Numbers 3:26).
God gave us this word “cords” to illustrate to us that He gives us the things that join us to Him for service. Cords join one part to another part. We cannot create our own cords in our own minds or try to function in a faith that does not have these things that join us to Him. If our faith is absent of these 3 cords: government, truth, and Spirit, then we are not joined to God.
Throughout this course we have consistently established that Jesus Christ represents Himself through His government, by His truth, and by His Spirit. The reason for this is to set the testimony of Jesus Christ in the work of His grace and to join you to Him. In the current Christian culture the word grace is used to defend a person’s freedom from church government, a freedom to do as they please. What one often hears is “me and Jesus” or “me and the Holy Ghost.” This is isolationism. What Satan did was teach the church to isolate themselves from the chain of faith, while feeling as if they are doing the will of God.
The word concision comes to mind, which is a word Apostle Paul used in his epistle to the Philippians where he said, “Beware of the concision,” (Philippians 3:2). These mutilate the faith and resist the Holy Ghosts while claiming the sanctification of God.
And there are those of the concision today who also mutilate faith. They claim to be champions of the covenant, they claim Jesus’ name, they claim to be brothers and sisters in the faith, but they are mutilators of the faith.
Grace is not your freedom to pick and choose what you want to work with. The purpose of grace is to sow the likeness of Christ in you by His knowledge. God designed grace for your reciprocation. This is what the Spirit of God will empower. Apostle John said it this way, “He that has the Son has life,” (1 John 5:12). In other words, there is no salvation apart from Jesus Christ. There are many religions that claim God, but do not accept His Son. They do not have life. And there are many who claim Jesus Christ, but deny His sanctification through government, truth, and Spirit. These also do not have life.
First Link -- Government: God uses this link to provide the sanctified stewardship to oversee faith. When the stewardship is cast aside the sheep wander from the covenant of God as seen in 1 Kings 22:17, “And he said, I saw all Israel scattered upon the hills, as sheep that have not a shepherd: and the Lord said, These have no master: let them return every man to his house in peace.”  |