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The Garment… Rodna Epley

Posted in #PaulthePoke, Rodna Epley with tags , , , , , , , , , on January 24, 2023 by paulthepoke

In the garden of Eden, God made male and female and clothed them in a garment of glory which is God Himself. They lost that glory garment when they sinned. Everyone born after the first couple was born without a glory garment.

Everything Jesus did was to put that glory garment back on us. We are to wear that garment now as we live. We were never meant to live apart from God and His glory.

When we try to, things don’t work. But when we live with Him in covenant relationship, and we activate His glory to shine on us, we walk every day carrying His presence into every realm where we place our feet. Darkness is driven away as easy as turning on a light switch in a dark room. Everything is effortless in the Father’s glory that Jesus died to give us.

Key indicators that the glory in us has been activated and is now abiding on us is perfect peace (no ripples on the pond), joy unspeakable because we’re full of His glory, and perfect love that drives out all fear.

Bloch

Colossians 1:27 “To them God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles: which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.”

Ephesians 5:14 “Therefore He says, ‘Wake up O sleeper, arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.”

Matthew 17:2 “And He was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and His clothes became as white as the light.”

2 Corinthians 4:4 The god of this age has blinded the minds of the unbelieving, to prevent “the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God,” from shining “on them.”

2 Corinthians 4:6 “For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.”

2 Corinthians 4:7 “But we have this treasure in earthen vessels…”

John 17:5 “And now, O Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was.”

John 17:22 “And the glory which You gave Me I have given them, that they may be one just as We are one:”

John 17:24 “Father, I desire that they also whom You gave Me may be with Me where I am, that they may behold My glory which You have given Me…”

2 Corinthians 3:18 “But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.”

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Reconciled in Christ to the Father… Rodna Epley

Posted in #PaulthePoke, Rodna Epley with tags , , , , , , , on May 26, 2022 by paulthepoke

To be a Christian means being reconciled ‘in Christ’ to the Father–the only way at all to be reconciled. It means to lay down our lives, how we want to live, and to allow Christ to live through us instead.

We do not transform Christ into our image, hence 36,000 different denominations. We transform into Christ’s image, which is glory, from one level of glory to another (2 Corinthians 3:18) as we surrender our will (of the old sinful nature) for His will (the new nature of His glory) in love. His glory makes the church one.

To truly belong to Christ, we must be willing to give up everything. We can’t perfect the old nature. We must die to it and receive a new nature: the nature of God’s glory. In dying, we find His life.

Thank you, Jesus, for your sacrifice so that You could give us your garment of glory to wear, that we may not be found naked and ashamed when You come for us. Thank You for the blood You shed for us for forgiveness of sins, and for your body broken for us so we can have healing. Thank You for taking our sins and shame upon Yourself and killing the old nature of sin, and for reconciling us to the Father in You (in Christ).

“God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation.” (2 Corinthians 5:19)

“For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul? For the Son of Man will come in the glory of His Father with His angels, and then He will reward each according to his works.” (Matthew 16:25-27)

Blessings to everyone!

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Who is Christ Jesus and What Does That Mean For Us Today? Part 1… Rodna Epley

Posted in #PaulthePoke, Rodna Epley with tags , , , , , on February 2, 2022 by paulthepoke

Think of God, the Father, as the glory, and think of Christ as another layer of His glory manifested in the Man Jesus. Christ is the express image of the Father’s person, and the brightness of His glory (Hebrews 1:3). This divine nature of Christ is the exact image of the Father. To speak of Christ is to speak of glory. These are interchangeable terms according to the apostle Paul, and author, Carey Newman, in his book Paul’s Glory-Christology. He quotes C.A.A. Scott in, “it is difficult to resist the conclusion that for St Paul… the Glory was an equivalent for Christ.”

We can better understand who and what ‘the Christ’ is by looking at Exodus 33:22 and Colossians 1:27. Also John 2:11; 11:40. When Moses said, “Please, show me Your glory.” God answered, “So it shall be, while My glory passes by, that I will put you in the cleft of the rock and will cover you with My hand while I pass by.” The Father used ‘My glory’ and ‘I’ interchangeably. The Father is His glory.

Christ is also the glory, interchangeable terms, “Christ in you, the hope of glory.” (Colossians 1:27)

Jesus existed in heaven with the Father as the Word (Logos) of God before the foundation of the world and God created everything through Him. On earth He had two natures, human (the Man) and divine (the Christ).

Veli-Matti Kärkkäinen affirms this by referencing Luke 22:42, “Not My will, but Yours, be done.” Jesus was born without sin because God was His Father. He had no sin nature, and His mind did not need transforming. He had a human nature (like Adam before sin), yet He heard the Father’s voice clearly and obeyed Him perfectly. He never broke fellowship and daily surrendered His will out of love for the Father. If Jesus had only one nature on earth, there would be nothing to surrender to another, nothing to sacrifice for the sake of love.

God is about intimate fellowship: one makes a request and the other willfully surrenders. Jesus, the Man, did not want to die. The pain, shame, loneliness, and sense of abandonment from His Father was excruciating. The Father was all He had ever known. With a perfect human nature Jesus never gave into His own will, because His mind did not need renewing.

Ours does. Every speck of it.

Jesus surrendered His will even to death, and continually aligned Himself to the Father while He lived. Separated from His Father on the cross, He truly experienced how we feel. Without a human nature, He could not have identified with our suffering. Without a divine one, He could not have reconciled us to the Father. Considering all this, 2 Corinthians 5:19 makes much more sense, “God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing” our “trespasses to” us, “and has committed to us the word of reconciliation.”

Carey C. Newman, Paul’s Glory-Christology: Tradition and Rhetoric (Waco, TX: Baylor University Press, 2017), 3.

Kärkkäinen Veli-Matti, Christology: A Global Introduction (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, a division of Baker Publishing Group, 2016), 68.

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Accept God’s Grace… Rodna Epley

Posted in #PaulthePoke, Gospel, Rodna Epley with tags , , , , , , , , , , , on December 14, 2021 by paulthepoke

There is someone out there today whom God, our Father in heaven, wants to know that He can forgive you and He wants to more than anything. He already sees and knows every detail about your life all the way back to when He created you until now, even to the end of your life if you have an end.

He still loves you, immensely, intensely, more than you may ever realize in this life. Please do not give up. He can fix anything literally, no matter how bad, no matter how hurtful, no matter how impossible it seems. What seems unbearable and unforgiveable in this moment can change in an instant. No matter how many sins you have committed, especially the ones you think passed the threshold of God being able to forgive. All can be forgiven. Nothing is too hard for Him.

If you have written yourself off, God has written you back in. He is a good Father who will do anything to bring His son or daughter back home. Your sins which are many and too hurtful to even think about. Or perhaps you have lost feeling over them and that worries you, can be forgiven, all of them instantly. The entire weight of it all, no matter how heavy or ugly, is lifted off you. You will feel it go too. The weight of it gone, just like that.

Your Father loves you more than you can imagine. He is not condemning you. He wants to heal you completely, and He is the Healer. That is why He sent Jesus. That is why the Father walked this earth through His Son Jesus and took man to his worst end so that he can bring man to his best end, forever reconciled to Him.

Though it is a mystery, Jesus gave up His life so that the old nature of sin and the propensity toward sin can be put to death in you. He rose from the dead by the glory of the Father so that His life. The new nature of His own glory can be imparted to you. This is Christ in you, the hope of glory.

But He does not leave you in a state of only hope that can be disappointed. His glory wakes up within you as He fills you with His Spirit and the new nature of His own glory begins to operate in you.

Jesus went to be with the Father, and He showed you the way to the Father, and He sat down at the Father’s right hand on the very throne of glory, so that you can be seated there with Him right now and forever.

Allow yourself to be forgiven. Dare to see just how far God’s grace and glory can reach and transform. What have you got to lose? The very moment I decided to give God a 100% chance show me who He is, is the very moment He showed up. He was always there, but He showed me that He was there. He did not wait to interact with me. He only briefly waited for me to show a genuine attempt to know Him.

If this is for you, know that you are not alone, and that I am praying for you. Your Father in heaven does love you and can fix literally anything. All suffering is meant for His glory. The greater the suffering the more His glory is about to be released. It is at the point of being released. Please give Him that chance. In fact, the more you have sinned, the more you will be able to love God, because the depth of our ability to love corresponds to the depth of His forgiveness toward us.

Luke 7:45-47 Jesus said, “You gave Me no kiss, but this woman has not ceased to kiss My feet since the time I came in. You did not anoint My head with oil, but this woman has anointed My feet with fragrant oil. Therefore, I say to you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven, for she loved much. But to whom little is forgiven, the same loves little.”

If this is for you, pray this with me,

“Father in heaven, thank you for giving me this chance to be forgiven. My sins, which are many, I give to you. Thank you for giving your Son Jesus to die for me on the cross and take my place. Thank you for raising Him from the dead by your own glory and raising me from the dead with Him. Thank you for seating Jesus at your right hand on the throne of glory and seating me there with Him. I know I do not deserve that and there is no way I can earn that position in Christ, but I receive it by faith. Your word says that I have access into your presence through the door of Christ and through your promises to me. Thank you that you loved me so much that you died for me even while I was still a sinner. You believed this day would happen when I would come to you and finally surrender my life to you. Without Christ I know that I can do nothing, but with Christ nothing is impossible, and all things are possible. I am trusting that your word is true and that you can make something wonderful of my life. I promise that if you give me all of you then I will give you all of me to the best that I know how. Baptize me in your Spirit and fill me with your glory Father. I believe that Jesus died for my sins and that Christ in me put to death the old nature in me. I believe that Jesus rose from the dead by the glory of the Father and raised me up with Him. I believe that Jesus went to be with the Father and brought me there with Him. I choose You Papa because You first chose me. I love You Father because You first loved me. Thank you for your wisdom. Thank you for your favor. Thank you for giving me your Spirit and making me perfect on the inside in the inner man. Thank you for the daily transformation of my mind that is to come as I make your word my home and you teach me how to be your child and to operate in your glory, which is Christ in me that I am learning to wear on me on the outside. Thank you for eternal life and for all that you will do in me from here on out. Thank you that you are strength in my weakness, that you are filling me with joy and taking away my sorrow, that you are imparting to me your vision for me so that I can know my life has meaning. I give you all of me because you gave me all of you. In Jesus’ mighty name I pray, Amen.”

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Perfect Peace… Rodna Epley

Posted in #PaulthePoke, Rodna Epley with tags , , , , , on February 2, 2021 by paulthepoke

Isaiah 26:3 You will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on You, because he trusts in You.

John 14:27 Peace I leave you, My peace I give you; not as the world gives, do I give to you. Do not let your hearts be troubled, nor fearful.

Perfect peace is probably the strongest indicator given to us by the Father that we are operating in His glory at any given moment, but another sure indicator are the words that we consistently speak. There can be many evidences of His glory manifesting in our lives, but our words are a huge one! They are either a dead give-away of walking in the old nature, or a living give-away of walking in the new nature. On a very simple level is optimism verses pessimism, positivity verses negativity. A person speaking positively doesn’t mean that he is in Christ, but it is an indicator on a very low level. What words are said are even more important and more of indicator.

A Christian who speaks negatively at length is still operating out of the old nature. What he says may be true, but they aren’t words to restore. Reconciling someone to the Father (and I’m not just talking about salvation) must bring that person all the way up to where Christ is at the Father’s right hand.

It can’t stop and cry forever at the cross, and it can’t condemn others with words that continually remind them they messed up or got it wrong. While the cross is one of the steps or way-points, and a very important one, even a daily one, it must be coupled with the rising from the dead to new life, and then ascending to the right hand of the Father where we overcome. That happens now as we live. Not knowing this causes people to live defeated lives and in condemnation when we don’t have to. We must go full circle to the Father to overcome anything. Jesus said,

“Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father.” (John 14:12)

“Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” (John 14:6)

“I came forth from the Father and have come into the world. Again, I leave the world and go to the Father.” (John 16:28)

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Honest Scales, Part 2… Rodna Epley

Posted in #PaulthePoke, Rodna Epley with tags , , , , , , , , on November 19, 2020 by paulthepoke

Jesus used “honest scales” to weigh the truth that He was given authority on earth to forgive sins, so that people could receive forgiveness from the Father through Him. If Jesus could perform the impossible that had to be proven to the natural eye (which means the Father is healing though Him), then He could also perform the impossible that can only be proven to the spiritual eye (which means the Father is forgiving through Him).

When we use these “honest scales” in every form of suffering that we encounter by balancing the side we don’t understand with the side we do understand (because we were able to weigh it which created an image in our mind), then revelation of what we don’t understand enters in and the suffering ends as the manifestation of the impossible takes place before our eyes. Because the scales simply balance without us forcing it, and the glory of God effortlessly manifests. Revelation transfers as light into our minds. That transfer of light comes from the Father’s throne of glory, where Jesus sits and reigns as Lord and King of glory.

Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

Jesus is the access Door into the Father’s Presence. He and the Father are ONE. We are ONE with the Father too when we are “in Christ”. We walk through that Door into the Presence of the Father where all suffering ends and His glory manifests in both the supernatural and the natural realms.

There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ. If our suffering has not yet ended, it’s okay. It’s not anyone’s fault. The mind just needs to be renewed.

We need that transfer of light, that balancing of scales. The Holy Spirit (aka the Spirit of Glory, the Spirit of the Father) was given to us to teach us and reveal to us how to balance the scales and rightly divide the Word of truth. So we can receive everything that we need and so the glory of God is released in the earth through us in the same way the glory was released through Jesus, but with even “greater works” because Jesus went to be with the Father, where we too are seated in Christ, therefore in the Father, where the greater works come from. Until we receive from our Father in heaven we have no ability to change things that seem to be unchangeable.

Without Christ we can do nothing, but with Christ nothing is impossible. As soon as light (revelation of truth) transfers from the throne of glory into our minds, the thing we need manifests effortlessly. As soon as the scales are balanced, healing comes, answers come, God’s glory shows up.

I am the door. If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture (John 10:9).

There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit (Romans 8:1).

The Lord hates dishonest scales, but he is pleased with honest weights (Proverbs 11:1).

But immediately, when Jesus perceived in His spirit that they reasoned thus within themselves, He said to them, “Why do you reason about these things in your hearts? Which is easier, to say to the paralytic, ‘Your sins are forgiven you,’ or to say, ‘Arise, take up your bed and walk’? But that you may know that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins”—He said to the paralytic, “I say to you, arise, take up your bed, and go to your house.” Immediately he arose, took up the bed, and went out in the presence of them all, so that all were amazed and glorified God, saying, “We never saw anything like this!” (Mark 2:8-10)

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The Primary Purpose of the Gospel – And an Accurate Perspective… Rodna Epley

Posted in #PaulthePoke, Gospel, Rodna Epley with tags , , , , on February 4, 2020 by paulthepoke

Jesus came down from the Father and went back up to the Father. He restored us to the Father. That’s the reason Jesus came and did all that He did—to restore, to reconcile us to the Father.

We are seated in heavenly places in Christ now, already restored to the Father. Knowing this changes our entire lives and the way that we see everything. It changes the way we see ourselves. It changes the way we see the world. It changes the way we see God.

It shifts our perspective from standing on the earth looking up and victimized, to the position of being seated in Christ where He is on the throne of glory with the earth as our footstool, and where all principalities, powers and rulers of the darkness are beneath us.

Knowing we are restored to the Father (restored to glory) causes the Word of God (Bible) to come alive immediately and make perfect sense, because it removes the veil that is over our eyes—the veil of a broken perspective.

Everything Jesus did was to restore us to the Father: the Father of glory…and love. He is the WAY to the Father. This is the primary message of the Gospel and everything Jesus taught. And He did it all for love, so that we would know the kind of love that holds no record of wrong, the kind of love that makes us able to love even our enemies.

I came forth from the Father and have come into the world. Again, I leave the world and go to the Father” (John 16:28).

And where I go you know, and the way you know…Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me” (John 14:4,6).

But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, (Ephesians 2:4-6).

And now, O Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was…And the glory which You gave Me I have given them, that they may be one just as We are one: I in them, and You in Me; that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that You have sent Me, and have loved them as You have loved Me. (John 17:5,22-23).

Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God (1 John 4:7).

Love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven…therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect (Matthew 5:44,45,48).

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Straight Talk, More Good News… Rodna Epley

Posted in Gospel, Rodna Epley with tags , , , , , , on September 2, 2019 by paulthepoke

Acts 1:10 And while they were gazing into heaven as he went, behold, two men stood by them in white robes…

I don’t recall ever thinking of the tomb of Christ as being anything like the mercy seat before, but it’s true. There was an angel on either end and they witnessed His death and resurrection. Notice how there were also two angels (probably the same ones for witness purposes) at Jesus’ ascension on the mount of ascension!

The Holy Spirit just made that connection for me wow. Because the full Good News is that Jesus restored us to glory–to the Father–by first going there Himself. The Good News doesn’t stop at the cross or in the tomb or at the resurrection where He stood outside the tomb and then preached the kingdom of heaven for 40 days on earth. The full Gospel is after Jesus ascended to be with the Father where the “greater works” come from in which the church is commanded by Jesus to operate. 

Colossians 3:1 If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.

We are seated in heavenly places in Christ Jesus now, as proof that we are restored now… not someday way in the future after we all physically die. However, there is a transformation of our lowly bodies into His glorious one still to come. It’s appointed to man to die once. We die already when we place our faith in Christ. We pass from death to life. Just as we have already been made new, so too have we already first died. So as we die in Him we also live in Him and are seated with Him now where He is.

2 Thessalonians 2:14 It was for this He called you through our gospel, that you may gain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.

We are called by the Gospel, and the purpose of the Gospel is for obtaining the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. So the full Good News is all the way up to the Father of glory.

Romans 8:1 There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

This is the place where we are “in Christ”. Christ means “anointed One”, and “in Christ” means we are permanently in the anointing or in the activated state of the Father’s glory. 

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Straight Talk, Light and Truth… Rodna Epley

Posted in #PaulthePoke, Rodna Epley with tags , , , , , , , , on May 22, 2019 by paulthepoke

John 11:16 So Thomas, called the (Didymus) Twin, said to his fellow disciples, “Let us also go, that we may die with him.”

The disciples didn’t want to go back to Judea because they didn’t want to die along with Lazarus (hence Thomas’ sarcastic comment in John 11:16). The Jews had just recently tried to stone Jesus there. But Jesus wasn’t worried because He could see perfectly all the way to the end of God’s glory being revealed when Lazarus would rise from the dead. He was called to go to Lazarus by the Father and nothing could stop that from taking place. Jesus didn’t need to know everything He would encounter along the way, although He probably did know beforehand. He only needed to see God’s glory being revealed at the end of it all. Jesus could see by the light of the glory, which is the Father who was always with Him.

The Father is what made Jesus the light of the world as long as He was in the world. Jesus gave us this same light to walk in as long as we are in the world, because He gave us the Father’s glory, the same glory Jesus had before the world was. Jesus restored us to our Father by making us One in Him (in Christ).

John 8:12 “I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life.”

The “light of life” is the Father of glory. It’s that “in Christ” position. It means His glory is awakened in us and we are the light of the world. This opens our eyes upon receiving, which even His glory causes us to receive so we don’t have to work at it. It’s already ours. We simply open our eyes by receiving this knowledge of His glory that makes us One with our Father and gives us His sight.

John 8:32 “And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”

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Straight Talk, Access Spiritual Light… Rodna Epley

Posted in #PaulthePoke, Rodna Epley with tags , , , , , , on May 15, 2019 by paulthepoke

This transforming “light” is the glory of the Father which resides within each of us upon putting our faith in Christ but it lies dormant (we are blind to it even as believers) until we know that it is in us. When we know…our eyes begin to open and we can see from within in a way the world can’t see. We know things we aren’t supposed to know from the world’s perspective. Yet we are supposed to know them from the Father’s perspective.

In John 11:1-7, after Jesus learned Lazarus was sick, He waited 2 days to make sure he died so that the glory of God would be revealed in Him (in Christ) by raising Lazarus from the dead.

Sometimes God waits until we think the worst has happened and there’s no turning back before He sends His answer by telling us He can turn it back, so that His full glory will be revealed in any given situation. Don’t ever think death (or sleep) is the end of anything. God will wake that person up if you trust in Him to do so and cause all who witness to believe in Him. Nothing is impossible for our God and for those who are in Christ.

Jesus said to the disciples, “Let us go to Judea again.” The disciples said to Him, “Rabbi, lately the Jews sought to stone You, and are You going there again?” Jesus answered, “Are there not twelve hours in the day? If anyone walks in the day, he does not stumble, because he sees the light of this world. “But if one walks in the night, he stumbles, because the light is not in him.” (John 11:8-10)

Because the light is not in him – that’s why he stumbles. Not because it’s dark outside. But because he’s spiritually blind. There’s no light in him. When Christians stumble too it’s because no light is in him – same as the world. Sight isn’t automatic even upon putting our trust in Christ. God’s glory must be awakened from lying dormant within us. The potential for sight is always there. But our eyes still must be opened. So the Holy Spirit is teaching us all things.

“Awake, O sleeper, arise from the dead, And Christ will shine on you.” (Ephesians 5:14, ESV)

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