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What is Available?

Hosea 4:6a
   My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: . . .

    God says that HIS people are being destroyed because they lack knowledge.  In this information rich age, where knowledge of almost anything is instantly available via the internet, God's people are still being cut off from Him and destroyed because they lack knowledge.  God's people do not lack knowledge of science or technology.  God's people do not lack knowledge of business or the latest movie.  God's people are being destroyed because they lack a knowledge of God and what He has made available to them.

Psalm 12:6
   The words of the Lord are pure words: as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times.

     The Bible is the Word and Will of God.  The only way that a person can gain a knowledge of God is from His Word.  Every word in God's Word (as He originally gave it) is pure.  You do not always know if the knowledge you receive from the internet is good or garbage.  But the knowledge of God contained in His Word is pure.  God says that His words have been purified seven times. 

     I once heard that a person needs to hear something at least six times before he or she will retain it.  God says that His words have been purified seven times; we ought to give His words at least seven hearings to insure that we have heard it.  The Bible contains records of men and women who walked with God and they read and studied His words daily.  They lived on the words of God.

Jeremiah 15:16
   Thy words were found, and I did eat them; and thy word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of mine heart: for I am called by thy name, O LORD God of hosts.

 Matthew 4:4
    But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.

     God's words are the daily bread we need to live the life that God has made available.  The words we hear daily in the world do not provide a healthy diet.  We need God's pure words.

Proverbs 30:5
   Every word of God is pure: he is a shield unto them that put their trust in him.

     You trust God by trusting His word.  Each and every word of God is pure.  You can rely on them.  Instead of being destroyed for a lack of knowledge, God becomes your shield against destruction as you trust in Him.

Proverbs 2:3-5
   Yea, if thou criest after knowledge, and liftest up thy voice for understanding;
   If thou seekest her as silver, and searchest for her as for hid treasures;
   Then shalt thou understand the fear of the LORD, and find the knowledge of God.

     We need to come to the Word of God with respect.  We need to seek the knowledge of God as if we were searching for hidden treasure.  We need God's words to understand God.  When you search the Word of God, God promises that you will understand what it is to (fear) have an awe, reverence, and respect  for God.  God also promises that in seeking His Word you will absolutely find the knowledge of God.

3 John 2
   Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth.

     The first thing you must know to receive anything from God is what does His Word say is available.  You cannot know what is available from God by listening to what people say.  Some say that God causes illness in order to make a person humble and obedient.  They propose that sickness comes from God.  Yet, here in God's Word, God declares that He wills above all things that you prosper and be in good health, even as thy soul prospereth.  So the knowledge of God is that God wants health and prosperity.  The condition set is that your health and prosperity is "as thy soul prospereth."  Your soul is your life.  It is what makes you the person that you are.  We have already read that man is to have a prosperous life (soul) by living on every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.  So your life is prosperous when you live on God's Word and it follows then that physical health and material prosperity also come from living on the knowledge of God.

Philippians 4:19
   But my God shall supply all of your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.

     God shall absolutely supply each and every need that you have.  That is what God's Word says and that is what God means.  Every need of yours shall absolutely be supplied.  The condition set here is that God's supply is "according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus."  The person who has heard and believed God's Word as recorded in Romans 10:9-10 has received Christ Jesus.  The Christian then can be assured that according to the standard of God's riches in glory He will absolutely supply each and every need.  Again, many believe that God wants the Christian poor and needy.  Yet God's Word declares that prosperity, health, and every need supplied is what God has made available in Christ.

Romans 10:8-10
   But what saith
[God's Word] it? The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart: that is the word of faith [the word that we are to believe],  which we preach;
   That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.
   For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.

     God has made salvation available by confessing with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believing in your heart that God has raised him from the dead.  The word saved is the Greek word "sozo" which means to be made whole.  In the beginning God made man body, soul, and spirit.  When Adam disobeyed God he lost his spiritual connection with God (who is spirit - John 4:24) and became a man of just body and soul.  Jesus Christ came to make holy spirit available to man.  When a person of body and soul believes God's Word as recorded in Romans 10:9-10, he or she is made whole.  Once again that person is body, soul, and spirit.  That is why God's Word declares that this is the word of faith that we preach! 

   Now a lot of people will tell you things that they believe you must do to receive salvation from God.  But God's Word must be our only standard for what God has made available.  God says confess Jesus Christ as Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead and you shall absolutely be made whole.  Salvation is available.

2 Corinthians 9:7-8
  
Every man according as he purposeth in his heart, so let him give; not grudgingly, or of necessity: for God loveth a cheerful giver.
   And God is able to make all grace abound toward you; that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work:

     All sufficiency in all things is available from God.  In the context, the Corinthians were ministering to other believers by giving financially to meet their need.  God declares in these verses that He loves it when a person gives freely, cheerfully, from the heart, and without compulsion or necessity.  When you give because you love to give, it pleases God.  The Greek word for "cheerful" is "hilaros" from which we get the English word "hilarious."  God loves a willing giver.  And God promises that when you give willingly He is able to make all grace abound toward you.  In this context the word "grace" is referring to financial abundance.  Not only will you have all your needs supplied, you will always have enough to meet the needs of others.  God gives abundance so that the willing giver will have to give abundantly.  Prosperity, all your needs supplied, and all sufficiency that you may abound in giving to others.  That is what God's Word says is available.

Romans 8:37
   Nay, in all these things
[the negatives of tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, peril or sword] we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.

   "More than conquerors" is hupernikao which means "super conquerors."  In all of the negative situations that the world may have to throw at the believers, we are super conquerors through him that loved us.  The condition is that we become super conquerors through Christ.  Once again it is available to overcome every negative situation in life because of that which we have received in Christ [Romans 10:9-10].  God never meant for the Christian believer to be down-trodden and defeated.  God meant for the Christian to be a super conqueror in all of life's situations.

Ephesians 3:16-19
   That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man;
   That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye being rooted and grounded in love,
   May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height;
   And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God.

     It is available to be strengthened with might by manifesting the holy spirit which God has placed within each believer.  The standard for such strength is the riches of God's glory.  How rich in glory, power and might is God?  He is all powerful!   And He has placed His strength in us by way of that holy spirit which He has given to us.   Not only power but also LOVE.  The same love that Christ had to give his life for man.  It is available to know and comprehend the love of Christ which these verses say "passeth knowledge."  It is available to understand that which is beyond knowing: the love of Christ!  WOW!  And it is available to be filled with all the fulness of God!  Spiritual strength, love, and filled with all the fulness of God.  That is what God's Word declares is available.


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© Copyright February  2004 Michael Cortright