December 2011 – Sozo Class

December 18, 2011 Christmas Made satan Your Footstool

Christmas Made satan Your Footstool

Wow! A gift from God for you at Christmas! What a gift! A footstool to rest your feet upon here on Earth! This is another result of Jesus’ birth, about which you may never have thought.

See your end from His beginning

Psalm 110.1-2 is a picture of Father God welcoming His Son home to Heaven. Listen to His words in verse 1.
Where are you in this picture? Apostle Paul identifies followers of Jesus in Ephesians 1.22-23. So, even if you are the skin on the sole of Jesus’ foot, you will be seated with Him at God’s right hand! What a thought!

Jesus did the hard part and made it easy for you to finish.

How would He make Jesus enemies – satan’s agents of darkness – a footstool? The word ‘rod’ in verse two is the same image as in Revelation 19.15. Note the same purpose. Apostle Paul adds light through Ephesians 6.17. Jesus explained this ‘sword’ in John 12.48-50.
Psalm 110.2 says that God ‘shall send the rod of Your [Jesus’] strength’ into the Earth. It is for you to use against Jesus’ enemies, which are your enemies, too, as Jesus said in Matthew 10.22.
Apostle John pictured you as overcoming satan in Revelation 12.11. (Apostle Paul gives another picture of this in Ephesians 3.10.)
What is the ‘word of [your] testimony’: Jesus! He is the One Who took ‘captivity captive’ (Psalm 68.18b; Colossians 2.15)!
He is the One Who was God dwelling among us (Psalm 68.18e; Isaiah 7.14)!
He is the ‘Word that became flesh and dwelt among us’ to bring ‘grace and truth’ to us (John 1.14, 17)!

The name that satan fears: Jesus!

Why? It is God’s name!

In the Lord’s Prayer (not the Model Prayer), Jesus reveals that His name is the name of God! See John 17.6, 11, & 12 (New American Standard Bible); ‘Your name which You gave me’ (as Gabriel had told Joseph and Mary; Luke 1.31; Matthew 1.21). Jesus said He had ‘revealed’ God’s name to the disciples and had ‘kept’ them ‘through’ the power of that name – ‘Jesus’.
Apostle Paul discussed ‘Jesus’ in Philippians 2.9-11 and declared why satan is afraid.
Further, Paul discussed your understanding of this in Romans 10.8-10.
So, using the word ‘Immanuel’, God announced that He would live among His people. And, using the word ‘Lord’ from Exodus 6.3, God assured man that He would use His great power to deliver man from satan’s deceptions.
Jesus, Himself, assured you of this in John 16.24.

Every time you speak the name ‘Jesus’ against satan, you make him a footstool for your and Jesus’ feet! Don’t be shy or intimidated to use the word of your salvation!

Praise God!!!

December 11, 2011 What Is Love?

What is love?

You know that love for your parents differs from your love for your significant other differs from your love for your children differs from your love for your grandchildren differs from you love for your close friends,…, differs from your love for your enemies. There is a common foundation for each of these loves; love only varies by degree of closeness. Jesus chose to emphasize ‘love’ to His disciples, as He prepared them for His departure for Home. Consider what He emphasized.

John 15.9: ‘As the Father loved Me, I also have loved you; abide in My love.’ (NKJV)

‘(Just) As the Father…, I also have…’ shows a dynamic relationship between Father and Son; a reflection of the Father through the Son. So, the disciples knew God from walking each day with Jesus (John 14.7-11). They had eaten the same loaves and fishes (Matthew 14.13-21); they had received and demonstrated the ‘power’ behind His acts of deliverance and healing (Luke 10.17-19); they had even heard His voice (Mark9.7). Jesus’ words and deeds revealed the Father of ‘lovingkindness, justice, and righteousness’ (Jeremiah 9.23-24). What do your words and deeds say about your Father? (Contrast against John 8.44 in the personal detail of Galatians 5.16-26 and Romans 8.6-8.)
The love of the Father flowed through the Son onto the disciples. How can you ‘abide’ in Jesus’ love, like He encouraged them?
Jesus answered this question, as He explained in John 14.21-24. Jesus’ words are paraphrased by John in 1 John 5.1-3 and 2 John 6. Consider what God said in Isaiah 66.2. Are these the same instruction? What is your understanding?

John 15.12: ‘This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.’

You might read Jesus’ command as ‘love one another just as I have loved you.’ What examples of this in Jesus’ life describe Him in Jeremiah 23.4? Is this what Jesus meant for Peter in John 21.15-17? Does Jesus ask the same question of you? What is your answer?
In what ways do you think Moses’ instruction in Deuteronomy 6.1-9 fulfills this command of Jesus? Is this what a good shepherd does? Which of your daily contexts are included in Moses’ instruction?
How does the story of Elisha and the blinded Syrians, in 2 Kings 6.8-23, teach you about loving even your enemies? Apostle Paul includes this in his instruction to you in Romans 12.9-21. This is love for everyone!

From this study, what do you think the Apostle Paul meant in 1 Corinthians 13.13 when he wrote that ‘the greatest of these is love’? Relate this chapter to Exodus 20.1-17.

Do you now better understand the Q and A in Matthew 22.36-40?

Now, apply your learning!