Monday, September 18, 2017

A Cord of Three is not Easily Broken!

By John Foll, written between 9/15/2017 and 9/18/2017.
© Copyright 2017 John Foll

“And though a man might prevail against one who is alone, two will withstand him. A threefold cord is not quickly broken.” Ecclesiastes 4:12 RSV.

This text is normally viewed as the bond between two or three people who are bound together in the ties of love or walking together in sweet accord, but we believe it has a deeper meaning.

Our prayer for you is that you will live a successful Christian life and not be lacking in any good thing. We want to help equip you for this. What does it take? How do you overcome your trials and difficulties and problems? Let’s see what else ‘a cord of three that is not easily broken’ might mean, and how it will help you to be an overcomer.

“Jesus answered and said to him, 'If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our abode with him.'” John 14:23 NASB. If you love Jesus, keep His word, He and His Father will come to you and make their abode in you. This is a most beautiful and precious thing that Jesus and His Father want to do for you! They want to come and make their abode in your heart, if you want it. Together, Jesus, His Father and you make three; this is a cord of three that is not easily broken! Unlike the friendships between two or three people on this earth, God is mighty to save and will never fail you! How does it happen, when Jesus and His Father will come and make their abode in you? Through the presence of the Holy Spirit. Symbolically, the Holy Spirit will dwell in your heart on behalf of Jesus and His Father, if you seek to keep and obey His word, like He says. But when this happens it is none other than the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit dwelling in your heart all together, a three-fold union! This three-fold union of divinity cannot fail, because God cannot fail, for there is no part of man in this union. This is the strongest cord that can ever exist, because it is built on Divinity alone, which cannot fail. You don’t have to depend on your own strength, but on God’s power which cannot fail. Jesus promised this three-fold union to all of His true disciples and those who would be, that is the Comforter, or the Holy Spirit. But who are His disciples? All that love and obey Him.

You are never truly alone if you have Jesus and His Father dwelling in you, in the presence of the Holy Spirit or the comforter! Jesus said, “These things I have spoken to you while abiding with you. But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you.” John 14:25-26 NASB. Jesus promised His disciples that He would not leave them as orphans. And He will give you the Holy Spirit forever if you would be His disciple too. He said, “I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever; that is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you and will be in you. I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.” John 14:16-18 NASB. From this we see that all who desire the Holy Spirit must get to know God. Implied in this is that all who would have the Holy Spirit must confess their sins, humble their heart before God, want to obey Him, and yield to Him fully. This can be shown by numerous Bible passages. Yes, Jesus comes to all that are His disciples, He will not leave them as orphans; He will come to them.

How do you love Jesus and keep His word? Jesus told Nicodemus that to be saved he must have a change wrought in him: “Jesus answered and said to him, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.’ Nicodemus said to Him, ‘How can a man be born when he is old? He cannot enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born, can he?" Jesus answered, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.’” John 3:3-5 NASB. The answer to this question is that God will provide this for you if you want it. You must allow God to work fully in your life to do His good pleasure. Paul reveals: “for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.” Philippians 2:13 NASB. Since it is a work from God, the only part you play is to allow Him to do it for you, so yield yourself to God totally and allow Him to do this for you and it will happen. You will have to obey Him in what He has asked you to do at every point, without stubbornness. When doing what God asks you to do is an easy decision for you to make, then you will know that you are becoming or are born again!

The answer to how you can love Jesus and keep His word, is to have this three-fold union of Divinity dwelling in your heart. God has made this provision for you, if you would have it and seek after Him with all your heart. Jeremiah 29:11-13. The way has been prepared for you at the cross by Jesus and given by God with the outpouring of His Holy Spirit, which started in Acts 2, and is to be forever. It is yours if you will claim it, and desire to love and obey God all the way. Don’t resist God, He loves you! You must prepare your heart to receive the power of God’s Holy Spirit if you would have Him dwell in your heart.

Jesus said, ‘I have given you the Holy Spirit forever.’ John 14:16. What a precious promise! Jesus will not leave His disciples alone or as ‘orphans’ as He promised, He will come to them! This is indeed the way you can live a successful Christian life, and have all the peace, love, faith, joy, and happiness that you were meant to have! Jesus doesn’t want to leave you alone, but longs to be in your heart! He and His Father greatly love you! So you don’t have to cross over Jordan alone, as the song says. Jesus stands behind His word and will not take away this promise of the Holy Spirit to His disciples, He has given the Holy Spirit to His disciples forever. Why do we keep talking about this promise as being for His disciples? Because it’s true. The messages given in John 13 to 17 were given by Jesus to His disciples, and to them that would believe through their testimony (or through the testimony of others who received it from someone who traces back to the original apostles). Jesus in His special prayer to His Father, before He was arrested and crucified said (John 17:1): “For their sakes [His disciples] I sanctify Myself, that they themselves also may be sanctified in truth. I do not ask on behalf of these alone, but for those also who believe in Me through their word; that they may all be one; even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me.” John 17:19-21 NASB. So we see from this that all who believe in Jesus through their word are to be His disciple too; it is implied. So if you have believed in Jesus through the testimony of the Bible or from another Christian, His prayer applies to you to! All who have been baptized as a Christian should be Jesus’ disciple, but sadly this is not true often enough. It is only for those who want to be His disciple and for those who truly love Him. If you love Jesus, you cannot help but be His disciple and keep His word. Jesus also gives the reason why the Holy Spirit is given when He said above: “so that the world may believe that You sent Me.When you have the Holy Spirit in full, you cannot keep your love for Him quiet, but will want to tell everyone you can about it, and help everyone you can.

Since Jesus died on the cross for our sins, and won the victory for us, all authority has been given to Him in Heaven and earth. Go and make disciples of all men, and lo, He is with you always, even to the end of the world. “And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.” Matthew 28:18-20 KJV. If you are a Christian, you should be Jesus’ disciple too, and if you are Jesus’ disciple you are to follow His command to go and preach and teach all things that He commanded you, and the promise if you do this is: Lo He will be with you always, even unto the end of the world! Amen! Is that what you want? The author of Hebrews also tells us that God will never leave or forsake us: “Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for He [God] hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.” Hebrews 13:5 KJV. This promise applies only if God is abiding in you (or you want Him to abide in you), and you are living God’s Law of love (or you want to live it).

If you belong to Jesus and are His disciple, then you will have this three-fold union of Jesus, His Father and the Holy Spirit dwelling in your heart. This cord of the Trinity in your heart is a power that cannot be broken, and will guide and protect you as long as you allow them to dwell there.

May the grace of God and the Fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all! Amen.


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