Study Fourteen
 
What is the Will of God?

​38 For I have come down from heaven not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me. 39 This is the will of the Father who sent me, that of all He has given Me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up at the last day. 40 And this is the will of Him who sent Me, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him may have everlasting life; and I will raise him up at the last day (John 6:38-40).
 
Jesus is the will of God. Whatever He says, all His attitudes, whatever He does, all His actions— these are the will of God our heavenly Father. In other words, Jesus is the model for our lives; if we are to do the will of God, we must mimic Jesus. He received everyone who came to Him. He healed everyone who asked of Him.
 
Remember those bracelets that said, “What Would Jesus Do?” That’s not such a bad question to ask. Be sure, of course, that you only ask that question of yourself and not using it to flog somebody else.

Study Thirteen
 
The Sin of Adam and Eve
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Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, “Has God indeed said, ‘You shall not eat of every tree of the garden.’?” (Genesis 3:1).
 
We all know He did. He pinpointed one tree, the tree of knowledge of good and evil. What would it be like not to have to live with the knowledge of evil? That’s one thing I’m waiting for in heaven—not to have to be suspicious. What a heavy weight evil puts on our shoulders!
 
And they did eat. Some students of the Bible call that action treason. In grade school when I learned of the treason of Benedict Arnold, I was appalled!  I couldn’t sleep at night, tossing and turning over someone bringing treason against my country! Yet the actions of Adam and Eve were much more deleterious. Spiritual death came into our world. Sickness came, and they lost their enviable relationship with God.

Study Twelve
 
The Trials We Face
 

God’s Word is what gives us victory over our trials. Remember, God’s Word is God Himself.
 
11 And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, 12 for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ (Ephesians 4:11, 12).
 
All of us have a calling. Many are called to support each of the offices mentioned above. It’s almost like a pyramid. God calls a man (or woman), and when the called one is well equipped, God calls people to come and support him or her; then there are those called to the ones already called. Some ministers, with hundreds of people under them, also have a staff of dozens of people. These helpers will have helpers under them as well, and it continues to grow until all of the support people will number in the thousands—each one with a specific thing to contribute, according to God’s will and planning.
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Study Eleven
 
Warfare Weapons
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​Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new (2 Corinthians 5:17).
 
Receiving Jesus causes anyone to become a new creation. Therefore, Satan can have no hold on a spiritually born-again person.
 
He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love (Colossians 1:13).
 
For the time being, according to our time spent on earth, we are still under the attack of Satan as he perpetually believes he can pull us away from God and plant us in his own kingdom that we know as hell. Many of us know the brutality of living in hell on earth. Even with such circumstances, we still live in the kingdom of God here on earth.
 

Study Ten
 
How to Meditate
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​However, when He, the Spirit of truth has come, He will guide you into all truth;; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come (John 16:13).
 
To me, this short study is one of the most important parts of the Bible. Meditation is asking us to use our imaginations. Wherever your daily reading of the Bible, and I do hope you are reading it daily, imagine yourself as part of the scene you are currently reading.
 

Study Nine
 
The Renewal of the Mind

​1 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies, a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service, 2 and do not be conformed to this world, but, be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God (Romans 12:1, 2).
 
The will of God—good, acceptable, and perfect—is known in our spirits and then proved in our minds. The Holy Spirit speaks God’s will into our hearts (spirits). We must learn to discern its meaning, its depth, and its application to our lives by reading with our minds and studying it with our intelligence. The following verses pertain to the mind and its process. Study them by meditation and quietly mulling them over in your mind.

 
Study Eight

His Words Make Us Free
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And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being (Genesis 2:7).
 
When God created Adam and Eve, He wasn’t doing it just to be creative; He wanted a family. Adam and Eve did produce many children, we’re not told how many, but we know they began the population of the earth. Back then the human body was perfect and wonderfully made, just like the Bible says in Psalm 139. Now we have poisoned ourselves to the point we cannot marry our siblings and produce children like they did in former times. Thousands of babies are now born with deficiencies.
 
2 …in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, 3 among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others (Ephesians 2:2, 3).
 

 
Study Seven

God Works with Man
 

The following story is a demonstration of how God works with man. It’s reassuring to me to know that God does not want to keep me in the dark, but is ready to reveal all, as long as I am open to receiving what He has to say. He also does not throw His pearls before the swine. So as you read, don’t trample on His words but receive them as important revelation that He wishes you to have so that you can be blessed.
 
16 Then the men rose from there and looked toward Sodom, and Abraham went with them to send them on the way. 17 And the Lord said, “Shall I hide from Abraham what I am doing, 18 since Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him? 19 For I have known him, in order that he may command his children and his household after him, that they keep the way of the Lord, to do righteousness and justice, that the Lord may bring to Abraham what He has spoken to him.” 20 And the Lord  said, “Because the outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and because their sin is very grave, 21 I will go down now and see whether they have done altogether according to the outcry against it that has come to Me; and if not, I will know.”
 

 
Study Six
 
Darkness Exists

Most people believe there is no such thing as a demon, yet Scripture mentions the darkness with regularity, and it’s not the natural mention of the lowering of the lamps. Darkness refers to hell where Lucifer is king and where the crowd of angels live who have distanced themselves from God. Lucifer is the original name for Satan. He has other names, such as Slewfoot, Slanderer, Accuser, Evil One, Prince of the Power of the Air, etc. Whereas God prepares good things to come, Satan prepares bad things to come. We, as children of God, must cancel Satan’s works and replace the evil with the good.
 
12 giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light. 13 He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the Kingdom of the Son of His Love (Colossians 1:12, 13).
 
When Jesus died on the cross about three in the afternoon, He descended into hell and defeated the devil. At that point, He delivered us from the power of darkness. Satan’s defeat is eternal. Even so, he is consistently working hard to get himself and his minions back inside human beings where he and they can work havoc on the poor victim, or victims. Every evil thing that transpires on the earth has Satan as the source.
 

As part of this study, I recommend you read chapter 61 of Isaiah in order to understand what Jesus did while on the earth, and what He passed on to us.
 
15 And He taught in their synagogues, being glorified by all. 16 So He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up. And as His custom was, He went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and stood up to read. 17 And He was handed the book of the prophet Isaiah. And when He had opened the book, He found the place where it was written:
 
18 “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He has anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed; 19 to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord” (Luke 4:15–19).
 
What the Spirit of the Lord said in these last verses also applies to us. We preach the gospel to the poor. We heal the brokenhearted. We proclaim liberty to the captives. We restore sight to the blind. We give liberty to those who are oppressed. And we proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.
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