Hi Guys, Glad to be back.  Hope you were able to catch Part 1 of the Teaching.  I will be taken most of my scriptures from the Amplified Version of the Bible. 
Paul in writing to the Ephesians was writing to the saints, -the consecrated set-apart ones, who were faithful and loyal and steadfast in Christ Jesus.  In other words, the people in whom God truly birthed his Holy Spirit in their hearts were the ones that had been truly born again.  These set-apart ones were not half consecrated Christian, they were not playing games with God, they knew this deposit they had received from God meant that they were to pursue Him with their whole heart and come to understand all of the secrets that were hidden that were to be revealed and apprehended by the Spirit. 
Now Paul reminds us that we have been chosen (actually picked us out for Himself as His own) –In Christ before the foundation of the world that we should be holy and blameless in His sight (even above reproach before Him in love.)  Now that means that when he drew up his blue prints for the creation and the order of all things that were to be put under his feet, he knew you.  He knew at what point in History that you would come forth.   He planned all of your life including your trials and temptations, (your testing for the purpose of proving you and revealing to you what is in your heart). 
Now Paul assures them in Eph. 1:2-4 that to these people God had supplied sufficient grace, (unmerited favor- power to overcome) and spiritual peace (harmony, unity and undisturbed ness) for the journey that they had been preordained for them. (The steps of a good man are ordered of the Lord).  Not only that, but he tells them that they have been blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realm. (that is the legal realm we were talking about in Part 1).  Now what Paul is saying is that all that you will ever need to the very end of your journey and God purpose ( that is to be like him -conformed to his image) has already been provided before the foundation of the earth.  In other words, that if one may say, is God’s part. Now our part is to appropriate that grace and peace by bringing what is in the Legal realm (that which was spoken by God before the foundations of the earth) into our realm -the experiential realm.) using our faith to do so  There are different graces, for instant the grace for healing, the grace to overcome sin, the grace to run the race set before us without becoming disqualified, the grace to die, etc.  Actually, whatever our need is there is grace sufficient for us.  “My God shall supply all of your needs according to his riches in glory.”  I will be showing and telling you how to appropriate this grace later on.
Now Paul tells us in Verse 5 why we were chosen.   He says we were foreordained to be adopted (or revealed to the whole earth in the day of Jesus Christ) as full mature Sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance to his will because it pleased Him and was His kind intent.  In other words there is coming a day, called the “Day of the Lord” in which everything that is hidden will be exposed as to what it really is.  God is saying that these earthborn children created out of dust, He will show to the heavens (angels looking on as well as to those people who did not accept the invitation to be conformed or either were called but decided the race was too hard and did not run the race with patience to the end) what the prize of the high calling of Jesus was and what they missed by not responding in faith to the call.   (God will NEVER give up on us if we don’t give up on him.) He is going to reveal to the whole world that He is a faithful God to perfect that work which he had begun in us.  He is going to unveil to the rest of his creation what fully mature Sonship looks like when his work is complete in those who were chosen and set apart for Sonship- what the prize of the high calling truly is and what it actually looks like in his Sons.
 I am not talking about the call to be “saved” and be forgiven of your sins.  Jesus gives a universal call to everyone who has ever lived on earth to receive His Son’s sacrifice for the sins of the world – that is Jesus death on the cross- that WHOSOEVER believes in Him shall be saved and forgiven of their sins.  But what we are talking about is the adoption of sons–those who not only accepted the call to be saved, but also accepted the call to make Jesus Christ Lord of their lives and to be sanctified into his image - knowing that there would be a recompense of reward for their faithfulness to this call upon their sainthood.   
Perhaps I should inject some understanding here with regard to the term “Salvation”.  It is made up of three areas where God’s redemption- that is his plan to change us into his image in order that we might qualify for the adoption of Sons.  Now Rom 8:23 plainly tells us that the adoption is not being just born again saints.  Rather it has to do with the 3rd part of our redemption – receiving our glorified bodies and the first resurrection from the dead - the manifestation of the mature Sons of God.  These are the saints who ran the race set before them successfully by disciplining themselves so as not to fail appropriating the grace of God and finished the race to become sanctified into his image. 
The three areas of salvation are:
1) “justification”-accepting the call and His gift of salvation by faith and being water baptized.
  2) “Sanctification” -realizing that you have been “chosen”, making Jesus, not only Savior, but Lord of your life.  We might say that this is the realm that separates those who have a head knowledge of what God did to make salvation possible from those who not only accepted with the head, but with the heart this gift. The gift was Jesus and his plan to fully redeem us spirit, soul and body- by whom we have access to God’s grace (his power to become) that we might be changed into his image, that we might be glorified.
 3) “glorification”-These who enter fully into this covenant with God will be literally change into mature Sons and adopted – given a resurrected body like Jesus for the age to come.   
(To be continued) 
We will be back next week to further study in Ephesians and to see what God has predestined for his overcoming saints. PTL. 
Jeanene Stein 
(Please visit her websites and see her creative hand at work.  www.gicleeprintsbyjeanene.com. (She has just lowered her prices for her clearance sale.)
 http://jeanene-stein.fineartamerica.com  where you can see her original work as well as order prints on canvas.  They make great gifts.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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