“Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.” (2 Timothy 2:15 NKJV)
“Satan, who is the god of this world, has blinded the minds of those who don’t believe. They are unable to see the glorious light of the Good News. They don’t understand this message about the glory of Christ, who is the exact likeness of God.” (2 Corinthians 4:4 NLT)
“When I see and consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, the moon and the stars, which You have established, what is man that You are mindful of him, and the son of [earthborn] man that You care for him? Yet You have made him a little lower than God, and You have crowned him with glory and honor. You made him to have dominion over the works of Your hands; You have put all things under his feet.” (Psalm 8:3-6 AMP)
“The heavens are the heavens of the LORD, but the earth He has given to the children of men.” (Psalm 115:16 AMP)
This morning as I was reading in the Book of 1st Samuel I began to seriously struggle with what I was reading. I began to get really burdened, I had to stop and ask the Lord, “Please show me how to read this.” The thing that just popped into my spirit through the Holy Spirit was that I have to read the Old Testament through Old Covenant understanding.
The Old Testament was written during an age in which Adam had given full authority to Satan. God in the Garden of Eden delegated full authority for this earth to Adam. He commissioned Adam to rule and subdue. And on this earth was Satan who had been cast out of the heavens. Adam was to rule over nature and subdue the enemy (satan and his followers). He was to take dominion of the creation that his Father had chosen to give to him.
The first opportunity that Adam had to rule and subdue, he actually bent his knee to Satan, turned his back on his Father, and gave that delegated authority to Satan. So the whole Old Testament is recorded history of a time in which Satan is the god of this earth. He held complete authority. Knowing that, tough passages like what I was reading earlier, start to make so much sense. God did not do the evil. He did not allow the evil. He had no choice or he would violate his contract with Adam. However, he limited the evil that was being done by Satan and mankind.
Good is Love. God is Good. His nature and character never change. That is why he sent his Son Jesus as a man to take back the authority and return it to Adam’s descendants (you and me). We once again have the authority to stop the Evil One and partner with our Father to manifest the Kingdom of Heaven on Earth (here and now) bringing the benefits of the Kingdom back to humanity.
“Let all that I am praise the LORD; with my whole heart, I will praise his holy name.
Let all that I am praise the LORD; may I never forget the good things he does for me. He forgives all my sins and heals all my diseases. He redeems me from death and crowns me with love and tender mercies. He fills my life with good things. My youth is renewed like the eagle’s.” (Psalm 103:1-5 NLT)
Praise the Lord for what I have learned from…
…Eric’s Life Lesson # 385: Rightly Dividing the Word of Truth