| THEME: | THE HOLY GHOST AND THE THINGS OF THE SPIRIT |
| LESSON: | FOUR |
| TOPIC: | God’s Principles for Nature/Life/Character Formation In Entering Into The Kingdom/Holy Ghost |
| TEXT: | Ezekiel 28: 12-19; Ephesians 1:16-18; Isaiah 28:9-10; 2:9; Acts 14:22; Revelation 1:9; Revelation 7:14 |
MEMORY TRACK:
By God’s grace, in our last lesson, we learnt that the Holy Spirit is the spirit of creation – everything in the present (heaven and earth) were created by Him. We saw that the real reason for God sending the Holy Spirit is to come do the work of creation or nature formation in man (spirit, soul and body). Just as at the new birth, the spirit of a believer is recreated/created with Christ’s life by the Holy Spirit, He is focused on creating or forming God’s natures in our souls (Galatians 4:19). In performing His ministry of nature formation, the Holy Ghost gives precepts first, then begins the process of nature formation. It is good to note that WITHOUT KNOWLEDGE being given and learnt first, natures are not sure. The devil knows this “precept first” principle and adopts the same principle in forming his nature in mankind.
God is the Author of Natures
Natures/lives (from which lifestyles/characters springs) are embedded deep in our souls (minds and hearts). When God created Adam and his wife in the beginning, he carved/put within them natures/lives without their being aware or asking for it. When man awoke to consciousness (Genesis 2:7), he woke up with well-crafted and well-defined natures/lives in his mind and heart. God put him in the garden of Eden for him to acquire more natures/lives through the trees of the garden, and to eventually acquire and attain unto the tree of life (Genesis 2:15-17).
But the first Man and his wife failed (Genesis 3). The truth is, according to God’s wisdom, “natures/lives can be acquired/attained unto, also natures/lives can be lost” (John 10:10). The same wisdom that God demonstrated in creating man with natures/lives that he woke up with (though not all the natures that God intended him to have), that same wisdom God demonstrated in a greater proportion while he created angels in heaven (God created angels with all the natures that they needed) (Genesis 1:1; Ezekiel 28:12-13).
Lucifer’s Discovery
Lucifer, that became the devil, discovered “the ways” to break the laws of natures/lives/characters (Ezekiel 28:14-19). The word being stressed here is discovered. Like every other thing that the devil uses, he always steals them. It is good to note that God is the originator of all things good and of all working principles of life, and Satan only stole and perverted them. God is the one that made every “alive creature” be it in heaven or earth and wrote the laws of their natures/lives/character in their souls (Ezekiel 28:12-13; Genesis 1:1; Revelation 4:11).
Satan being a high angel in the heavens discovered how the laws of creatures could be altered and reordered, and eventually perverted (Ezekiel 28:14-18). He used those laws on himself, killed himself. He further used those laws on other lower angels in the heavens and killed them also (John 8:44). He brought the wisdom of those laws to the earth and introduced them through the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (Genesis 3:5-6).
The Laws of Hope/Expectation through Knowledge/Opening of the Eyes (Genesis 3:4-7; Ezekiel 28:14-18)
The devil having proven the laws of hope/expectation (that is what he used on himself first, and then on angels in heaven), lured and eventually opened the eyes of man through knowledge, through the tree of the knowledge of good and evil! This principle when yielded to always works. Adam and his wife saw “the hope of being as God” as painted by the serpent, and ate the tree of the devil. Their eyes were opened. Satan had access into their inside, and so killed their spirits, and registered his presence in their souls through knowledge, having opened their eyes of understanding.
But God stepped in, and broke the process, not allowing him to fully break the laws of Adam’s soul (and Eve, his wife).
God killed an animal, made a sacrifice, and limited the knowledge that entered them.
That same principle on the God side, is what Believers begin to enjoy when we come to age, learning the meat of the word (Ephesians 1:15-18). Nature/life/character formation begins from this point. Hallelujah! It is also safe to say, nature/life/character destruction begins at this point too! Genesis 3.
Laws of Leadings and Pressures (objective and subjective leadings) (1st Corinthians 12:2; Romans 8:14).
Again, this principle is used both by God through the Holy Ghost, and by the devil and his cohorts (they stole it, like every other thing that is in their arsenal). Seeing hope alone through knowledge is not enough to change anyone’s nature/life/character (Ezekiel 28:15,16 and 18; Ephesians 4:17-19). If all a soul knows is hope/expectation/knowledge and no efforts is put in place to make the hope come alive, it will never alter one’s nature. Satan knowing this leads the souls of all humanity, and so doing tempers with, and alters the natures of all mankind (Ephesians 2:2-3).
Satan and his cohorts, through all kind of hopes and leadings upon the souls of men (through both subjective and objective leadings), have altered and changed the nature of mankind. If this is not so, how on earth did all of mankind arrive at having sin as our nature (Romans 5:12)? The leadings of Satan, both subjective and objective is what the Bible calls disobedience (Ephesians 2:2).
In our next lesson we will look in greater details into how leadings in their diversities affect and contributes to nature formation, both on the good and bad sides, but much more, how we can take advantage of such operations for our change and growth in Christ.