A Vow

"Salvation changed things forever."

THE VENGEANCE of the psalms may apply to devils, but it no longer applies to people. We do not pray for God to destroy people. This thought must also be known of Old Covenant and New Covenant prophets. The prophets of the Old Testament spoke the Word of the Lord in times of adversity like we cannot imagine. But the New Testament prophet is of a different makeup. New Testament prophets are filled with God. Salvation changed things forever. God is WITH us (Emmanuel) and IN us (John 14:27) and asks to be invited to also come UPON us (Acts 1:8), to give us His fullness. The Old Testament prophet did not have that, and so we honor them all the more. Much of their words were political, whereas those of New Covenant believers are for edification, exhortation, and comfort (1 Corinthians 14:3). I say all this to lift the incorrect thought which my words will create for some.

The psalms were written by unsaved men. Though they worshipped Jehovah and cried out to Him pf His goodness and longsuffering and mercy, they did not have Jesus living in their heart. The difference this makes is night and day. Salvation is not just a confession of belief. A vow. When we ask Christ – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit – to live in our “heart” that is speaking specifically of the spirit man. Every human is a spirit being. This is part of what God meant when He said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness (Genesis 1:26).” The other part of man’s creation being our physical nature, our hands and feet. Jesus’ physical body was “foreordained before the foundation of the world (1 Peter 1;20)”, though His spirit is eternal. He has always been (Revelation 1:8) Who He would be as the Son of God was set out far in advance. In essence, we were made to be like Him so that He could be born one of us. Jesus stated, in His time here on earth, that “God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth (John 4:24).” He needed men to know there is a spiritual reality, that what is seen is made from what is unseen (Hebrews 11:3).

Circling back around to our main thought, we cannot adopt the mindset of an Old Covenant man or woman. We cannot take up their cries for vengeance, desiring humans to be destroyed, neither in nor out of the church. There are New Covenant truths in the Old Testament. In Isaiah 32:17, it says, “And the work of righteousness shall be peace; and the effect of righteousness quietness and assurance for ever.” This is truth. Jesus is the Prince of Peace (Isaiah 9:6). However, earlier in the chapter, it again speaks of vengeance, and that is in the past.

God’s vengeance today is always mercy. Jesus died for WHOSOEVER, and that is every human who has ever lived. Now, here people also trip. But those declared righteous under Old Covenant Law died physically but were not punished spiritually simply because they lived before Jesus. That would make the Father cruel, and John 3:16 tells us He is not. He is love. 1 John 4:16 also tells us He is love. Those that died physically who were declared righteous, as Hebrews 11 says of Noah and Abraham, Enoch and Abel, were held in a place of Paradise until salvation was a thing, as we’d say in modern lingo. Jesus spoke of this on the cross when He told the thief, “To day shalt thou be with me in paradise (Luke 23:43).”

“Men can’t get saved after death,” many say. And I will only touch on this where Old Covenant righteous people are concerned. Because it is in the Word that the poor man was in a good, righteous place called “Abraham’s bosom”, and it sat apart from Hades because a great gulf was fixed between them (Luke 16:26). Our loving God punishes no one unjustly. He is true justice for all men. Those who died before Jesus had provided salvation for all men are now in heaven because they received it while in Paradise.

Salvation is the complete infilling of the spirit man with the Spirit of God. He, in Truth, possesses it. Many unsaved men are shown in the Word of God as being “possessed” with evil spirits. The LIFE OF GOD, which is the Holy Spirit living in us, is not lesser than those, but far, far greater. When God said we are forever forgiven, He meant that. Now, do men sin still after being saved? Yes, but not in the spirit man. If they are saved, if they have confessed Jesus as Lord and believe He died and rose again, then they are children of God, and the Spirit of God lives in, and fills completely, their heart or spirit. This is the NEW BIRTH. When the LIFE OF GOD, the SPIRIT OF GOD, moves in, when we ask Jesus to live in us, then all is made new.

“Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.” (2 Corinthians 5:17)

New man, new creature, new birth, new being, filled and forever one with God, and from this place of unity, we speak Truth, born in righteousness, which is holiness, and always, in everything, the peace of God, living in us.

Activity:
READ THE PSALMS with a New Covenant mindset. Speak blessings over people, pray for them to have the wisdom and revelation of God, and where it says “the Law” substitute “the Word” and know that this is where we stand today IN CHRIST.


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Suzanne D. Williams, Author
www.suzannedwilliams.com
www.feelgoodromance.com