Mephibesheth

It is difficult for me to read the word "Son" in this verse in isolation to the remainder of scripture. Because of the remainder of Scripture, I understand "Son" to mean God. The word "prophet" means "foreteller." Thus, the prophets spoke at many times and in various ways of matters to come concerning God. I also understand that prophets are servants of God and a servant in any man's house is not nearly as important to that man, nor privy to as much information, nor empowered with as much authority as the son. I think readers understand this.

Regarding my own deliverance from *********** in all forms, it never mattered to me what the scriptures said regarding **** because I was unable to understand those words until God showed me His love for the adulterous woman. When I saw His love for the woman I objectified, I was indignant with my own complicity in that which tempted the immoral woman (which of course is always praise and money). Hope that helps someone the way it helped me.

If fleshly desires are strong, they can cause a person to doubt the truth of the whole gospel which includes not only forgiveness of sins, but also deliverance from them. For instance, in Christ, our sinful desires were circumcised by the Holy Spirit so that we are not only forgiven for our sins, but our desire for sin has been taken from us; it is true that we can still be led into sin for lack of knowledge, but we no longer burn inwardly for sin. Desires for God come first when God reveals His desire for us and then, secondly, when we delight ourself in Him (Ps37:4). The word "delight" means "soft." We are soft when we let Him have his way with us by receiving and accepting Him and trusting His handling of us. After He does this, He replaces our old sinful desires with good desires. Because we tend to follow our desires, it is important that we let our desires be the desires of God. When these desires bear fruit in the form of good deeds that we and others can see, the devil who lies and says that Jesus has not saved us from our sin is publicly proven wrong and praise is publicly given to our God.

It means that I was chosen because He is glorious and good and not because I am either. Indeed, I was in the pinnacle of my sin when He called me. When I experience God's glory and goodness, I am changed in such a manner that I think and act more closely like Him. I believe this is so, because when He shares Himself with me in the heavenly realm, I remember the experience in the earhly realm with my fleshly brain. What I am trying to say is that when I am in His presence and in His mind, it seems to some degree that His mind is my mind (although I know it is His mind, it feels like mine because we are one at the time), and my mind remembers it and because it is so much more enjoyable than my sinful mind, I choose to remember His thoughts instead of my own and identify myself with Him. I think because of this, my brain gets tricked into thinking God's thoughts are its thoughts, and I encourage it to think so, because my body follows. I suppose a simpler way to say this is that God brain-washes me, which is exactly what I need!

In the physical, a son is quite literally his father and mother; all of the genes which comprise his physical person come from his parents. Thus, if anyone reject the physical character of the son, they necessarily reject the physical character of the parents, because the son came from the parents and no others. In the spiritual, Jesus came from God and no other. Thus, anyone who rejects the spiritual character of Jesus, necessarily rejects the spiritual character of the Father, because Jesus' spiritual nature came from the Father and no other.

I think what is important in Luke 17:6, is that Jesus said we can do what he said we can do in that passage. So, the proper response after reading this scripture is, "I can say to this mulberry tree jump in the sea and it will happen!" Also, if you don't believe you can do this now, don't worry - you will!

Relative to "faith has to be used to grow," the scripture "in the measure you use, it will be added unto you and even more" adequately confirms this.

This scripture said God "has" given us "everything" we need. Thus, we already have it. The word "everything" means that it has NO boundaries or limitations. There is something, however, that may appear to have boundaries - the actual reality of this fact. However, these limitations or boundaries are illusory and are already dissapearing like the passing night when dawn has arrived, as we are growing in the knowledge of this truth. Who makes us grow? The Holy Spirit. We are in Him and He is in us just as Jesus prayed for in John 17. Thus, we have intimacy (knowledge) with Him. Thus, we know Him. Our knowledge of him, however, grows. Because it grows, we have eternal (never-ending) life, which is why all who are in the kingdom of God are "spitually poor" like Jesus said in the 1st Beattitude. No matter how long we have been "in Christ" and no matter how much we have grown in our knowledge of Him, we will never be as spiritually poor as we are today. The important thing is that we have at least some knowledge of Him, because such knowledge comes from the Deposit which absolutely guarantees our inheritance until Christ returns and claims what are His possessions. Knowledge of the truth is gradually imparted from His Spirit to our spirit and from our spirit to our minds. At this point our minds perceive the actual true realities Christ spoke into existence. Finally, our bodies are forced to comply with the demands of the mind as the mind conforms to the demands of the Spirit. It is as what was foretold in Genesis 9: Ham (physical body) will be the lowest slave to Japheth (mind) and Shem (spirit), and Japheth's territory will expand as he is renewed in the tents of Shem. I see something else from this scripture in 2Pet 1:3. Jesus does not need our permission or agreement to create and He creates everytime he opens His mouth and speaks; put another way, Jesus' words are actually accomplished deeds, whether or not we are aware of them or agree with them. For instance, when He created light, He merely said "let there be light" and there was light - whether anyone believed it or not! Also, when Jesus told Philip, "from now on, you do know the Father" - from that point on Philip did know the Father - whether He believed it or not. In the same way, when Jesus tells us that we are happy when we are poor, meek, merciful, hungry, pure in heart, and etc - then we are - whether we believe it or not. Thus, for those who actually believe that God's words are true and authoritative and have thus received the Spirit, they need only to increase in knowledge of His word, by hearing it. As they do this, they will become aware of the true reality of the qualities within and around them. There is one more thing they must do - remember! Just as God at some point in our own lives said to us, "from now on, you do know the Father," if we forget what we heard, we will be like a man who looks at himself in the mirror and later forgets what he looks like. When this happens, the old realities become more real to us than the true realties and we, like Peter, begin to sink deep in sin. If anyone should panic by realizing the logical truth of this text, they should pray to Jesus, "Lord, I do believe, please help my unbelief" - and the Lord Jesus who cannot lie and has the power to do what He promises, will certainly help his unbelief.

Because our faith is a gift from God, our faith is perfect, because He who gave it is perfect. It is not the value of the perfect gift which distinguishes us from Peter, since it is impossible for one perfect thing to be more perfect than another; rather, what distinguishes one faithful Christian from another is his/her knowledge regarding that perfect gift. In other words, our faith is every bit as perfect as Peter's, we just didn't know it until (through the Spirit) he told us. Now that we have heard him say it, we believe it! I am grateful for the revelation this God-breathed scripture provides and pray that the Lord continue to cause me to grow in knowledge and depth of insight regarding not only the faith He has gifted to me, but also His gifts of hope and love. Amen