Comprehending the Length

Ephesians 3:14-16

14 For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,

15 Of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named,

16 That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man;

“To be strengthened with might” means to be given the power and ability to accomplish the will of God; and that power is found in the inner man.

Ecclesiastes 1: 1 - 4

1: The words of the Preacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem.

2: Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher, vanity of vanities; all is vanity.

3: What profit hath a man of all his labour which he taketh under the sun?

4: One generation passeth away, and another generation cometh: but the earth abideth for ever. .

It is by His Spirit that we have the ability to obey God in all things at all times. For those of you who are filled with His Spirit, there will never be an occasion in which you are not able to obey God. If God instructs you to do something, He has equipped you with the ability to do it.

Ephesians 3:17-19

17 That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love,

18 May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height;

19 And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God.

Paul is describing the power of the Holy Ghost that is in place in the inner man. That power gives you the ability to display the attributes listed in the verses above. The Holy Ghost is Christ dwelling (living) in your heart, enabling you to be able to comprehend all that Christ fills; the breadth, length, depth, and height. You must understand that there is not an area in your life that is void of Christ. This is relative to His preeminence; He fills all things. In any circumstance, situation or relationship, you must comprehend the presence of Christ.

This means “letting His mind be in you”, which takes the guesswork out of knowing how He will operate. One of the fallacies in the Body of Christ is that there is a separation between Christ and the born again believer. The scripture declares that the Father has made us one with Christ; that they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me (St. John 17:21).

Christ is not separate and apart from us. He does not have one set of emotions and we have another set. His emotions have become our emotions. We are not yet unified in the faith, simply because we are not yet unified with God. Our own mentality separates us from the Mind of Christ. This operation undermines the salvation experience. When we were born into Christ, we were born into oneness with Him. This birth of oneness is not a theoretical ideology; it is indeed our very state of being: For we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones (Eph. 5:30). However, we separate ourselves from the manifestation of that oneness, by thinking and acting upon our own thoughts; those thoughts that oppose The Word of God.

The thing that keeps us from identifying with our oneness with Christ is that we want something other than to glorify God; we want things that He has not ordained. Wantonness separates us from the oneness that we have with Christ. If the Lord is going to be your shepherd, you cannot want. In comprehending the length, we will use an illustration that will show us how to get from point ‘A’ to point ‘Z’ in our spiritual walk with God. Point ‘A’ represents our spiritual conception; and point ‘Z’ represents our maturity and how God will use us. However, there are intervals of trials between each of the points of our walk before we reach point ‘Z’ (i.e. from point ‘A’ to point ‘B’).

Allow me to reiterate here, that one of the greatest hindrances in our spiritual walk is wantonness. Wantonness means I want something and/or I have aspirations that God did not authorize or permit; this is one of our gravest enemies. Another thing that will hinder us in our spiritual walk and that will cause us to fall is iniquity. Iniquity will destroy and/or cause you to forfeit what God had already determined you to be or to have in the future. Regardless of the call that is on your life; if you do not walk in the design that God has orchestrated to make you the minister He wants you to be, you will not become the minister He has ordained you to be.

1 Samuel 25:1-5

1 And Samuel died; and all the Israelites were gathered together, and lamented him, and buried him in his house at Ramah. And David arose, and went down to the wilderness of Paran.

2 And there was a man in Maon, whose possessions were in Carmel; and the man was very great, and he had three thousand sheep, and a thousand goats: and he was shearing his sheep in Carmel.

3 Now the name of the man was Nabal; and the name of his wife Abigail: and she was a woman of good understanding, and of a beautiful countenance: but the man was churlish and evil in his doings; and he was of the house of Caleb.

4 And David heard in the wilderness that Nabal did shear his sheep.

5 And David sent out ten young men, and David said unto the young men, Get you up to Carmel, and go to Nabal, and greet him in my name:

Although Saul was the king that was sitting on the throne at the time, Samuel followed God’s instructions and anointed David to be king. Because of David’s anointing, Saul wanted to kill him. However, David ran for his life, along with the men following him because of his anointing. This is a principle that we should follow in the Body of Christ. In choosing churches, people should follow after the anointing that God has placed on a man or woman to lead the sheep; and not follow after dead works. It pays to follow those whom God is working with. Otherwise, you will follow after the flesh.

1 Samuel 25:6-10

6 And thus shall ye say to him that liveth in prosperity, Peace be both to thee, and peace be to thine house, and peace be unto all that thou hast.

7 And now I have heard that thou hast shearers: now thy shepherds which were with us, we hurt them not, neither was there ought missing unto them, all the while they were in Carmel.

8 Ask thy young men, and they will shew thee. Wherefore let the young men find favour in thine eyes: for we come in a good day: give, I pray thee, whatsoever cometh to thine hand unto thy servants, and to thy son David.

9 And when David's young men came, they spake to Nabal according to all those words in the name of David, and ceased.

10 And Nabal answered David's servants, and said, Who is David? and who is the son of Jesse? there be many servants now a days that break away every man from his master.

It is dangerous when God visits you through people and you can’t even recognize it. Nabal was so evil and arrogant that he could not discern that God had sent these men to speak to him.

1 Samuel 25:11-12

11 Shall I then take my bread, and my water, and my flesh that I have killed for my shearers, and give it unto men, whom I know not whence they be?

12 So David's young men turned their way, and went again, and came and told him all those sayings.

It was God who chose David to look after the possessions of Nabal. David and his men did not allow anyone to bother his property. They protected his interest. It is God who appoints leaders to look after your interest.

1 Samuel 25:13-17

13 And David said unto his men, Gird ye on every man his sword. And they girded on every man his sword; and David also girded on his sword: and there went up after David about four hundred men; and two hundred abode by the stuff.

14 But one of the young men told Abigail, Nabal's wife, saying, Behold, David sent messengers out of the wilderness to salute our master; and he railed on them.

15 But the men were very good unto us, and we were not hurt, neither missed we any thing, as long as we were conversant with them, when we were in the fields:

16 They were a wall unto us both by night and day, all the while we were with them keeping the sheep.

17 Now therefore know and consider what thou wilt do; for evil is determined against our master, and against all his household: for he is such a son of Belial, that a man cannot speak to him.

To be referred to as the son of Belial means to be haughty, naughty, evil, ungodly, proud, lifted up. This is the title one of the servants used to refer to his master, Nabal. He described him as being too proud to even listen to someone.

1 Samuel 25:18-22

18 Then Abigail made haste, and took two hundred loaves, and two bottles of wine, and five sheep ready dressed, and five measures of parched corn, and an hundred clusters of raisins, and two hundred cakes of figs, and laid them on asses.

19 And she said unto her servants, Go on before me; behold, I come after you. But she told not her husband Nabal.

20 And it was so, as she rode on the ass, that she came down by the covert on the hill, and, behold, David and his men came down against her; and she met them.

21 Now David had said, Surely in vain have I kept all that this fellow hath in the wilderness, so that nothing was missed of all that pertained unto him: and he hath requited me evil for good.

22 So and more also do God unto the enemies of David, if I leave of all that pertain to him by the morning light any that pisseth against the wall.

Iniquity had gendered in David’s heart because of the wrong that Nabal had done against him. David felt that he had been given evil for good; and he was right in his own eyes; but he was not right in God’s eyes. He wanted to take it upon himself to answer Nabal with vengeance.

1 Samuel 25:23-24

23 And when Abigail saw David, she hasted, and lighted off the ass, and fell before David on her face, and bowed herself to the ground,

24 And fell at his feet, and said, Upon me, my lord, upon me let this iniquity be: and let thine handmaid, I pray thee, speak in thine audience, and hear the words of thine handmaid.

Abigail fell at the feet of David, admitting the guilt of her husband. She included herself because she was one with him; even though technically she had not done anything wrong. We should never shirk our responsibility of admitting when we are wrong. We will win favor with God if we admit, with our heart, our guilt.

1 Samuel 25:25

25 Let not my lord, I pray thee, regard this man of Belial, even Nabal: for as his name is, so is he; Nabal is his name, and folly is with him: but I thine handmaid saw not the young men of my lord, whom thou didst send.

The principle taught here is that we should always deal with people where they are; and not where they should be. Abigail told David where her husband was spiritually; he was a man of Belial; evil in his ways.

1 Samuel 25:26

26 Now therefore, my lord, as the LORD liveth, and as thy soul liveth, seeing the LORD hath withholden thee from coming to shed blood, and from avenging thyself with thine own hand, now let thine enemies, and they that seek evil to my lord, be as Nabal.

Abigail knows that there is an anointing of God upon David; and God has sent her to stop David from forfeiting his anointing. Just as God lifted the anointing off Saul, He could very well do the same with David. Never avenge or seek retribution for yourself. For we know him that hath said, Vengeance belongeth unto me, I will recompense, saith the Lord. And again, The Lord shall judge his people (Hebrews 10:30).

We should not render evil for evil. We must always keep righteous character when we are offended or disrespected; if we want to be used by God as He has planned. Remember, offenses are coming; and we are trying to get to point ‘Z’ in our walk with God. However, there are going to be trials in the interim; and we must pass those trials. God deals with us where we are; not where He wants us to be. Although He has paved a road for us, we can choose to forfeit our calling by not passing our tests. Don’t negate all the good you have done towards someone. If you allow iniquity to gender in your heart, because the good you have done was not appreciated; you will forfeit the reward that you were going to receive from God. The good we do is unto the Lord. Iniquity will cause you to miss out on the rewards that God has for you.

1 Samuel 25:27

27 And now this blessing which thine handmaid hath brought unto my lord, let it even be given unto the young men that follow my lord.

If people never give you anything for the good you render; trust God. But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust. For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? do not even the publicans the same? (Mat. 5:44-46).

1 Samuel 25:28-29

28 I pray thee, forgive the trespass of thine handmaid: for the LORD will certainly make my lord a sure house; because my lord fighteth the battles of the LORD, and evil hath not been found in thee all thy days.

29 Yet a man is risen to pursue thee, and to seek thy soul: but the soul of my lord shall be bound in the bundle of life with the LORD thy God; and the souls of thine enemies, them shall he sling out, as out of the middle of a sling.

Abigail reminds David that Saul is pursuing him to kill him; however, she tells him that his soul is hid in God; and that God will deal with the souls of his enemies. In other words, if David will keep a pure heart in this matter, He will continue to have favor with God. Remember, God has a plan for those who have offended you. We should not try to work a plan against them. We must deal righteously, because there are many enemies as we walk on this road of righteousness; and God will judge them, if we deal with them graciously.

1 Samuel 25:30-31

30 And it shall come to pass, when the LORD shall have done to my lord according to all the good that he hath spoken concerning thee, and shall have appointed thee ruler over Israel;

31 That this shall be no grief unto thee, nor offence of heart unto my lord, either that thou hast shed blood causeless, or that my lord hath avenged himself: but when the LORD shall have dealt well with my lord, then remember thine handmaid.

Even if you don’t say anything to your offender, but you walk with the offense in your heart, you are just as guilty. You must remove the iniquity from your heart before you forfeit what God has planned for you. By mercy and truth iniquity is purged: and by the fear of the LORD men depart from evil (Prov. 16:6). It doesn’t matter whether you do anything or not; if it’s in your heart to do something. However, to agree with God is to not even want to do anything. Man looks on the outward appearance; but God sees the heart. When you avenge yourself, it is not a cause that God acknowledges; it is causeless; and you become a murderer. You don’t have to literally kill a person to become a murderer. When you stop the flow of love towards a person, you become a murderer.

1 Samuel 25:32-35

32 And David said to Abigail, Blessed be the LORD God of Israel, which sent thee this day to meet me:

33 And blessed be thy advice, and blessed be thou, which hast kept me this day from coming to shed blood, and from avenging myself with mine own hand.

34 For in very deed, as the LORD God of Israel liveth, which hath kept me back from hurting thee, except thou hadst hasted and come to meet me, surely there had not been left unto Nabal by the morning light any that pisseth against the wall.

35 So David received of her hand that which she had brought him, and said unto her, Go up in peace to thine house; see, I have hearkened to thy voice, and have accepted thy person.

David recognized that God has spoken through Abigail. He accepts her gifts and sends her away in peace. It did not matter that she was a handmaiden and he was a king; he recognized the voice of God and accepted the person He sent. It was at God’s hand that Nabal died. It is dangerous to see people after the flesh, as well as allow iniquity to gender in your heart towards a person that has offended you. When you stop the flow of love to an individual, you stop God’s flow to you.

Isaiah 59:1-2

1 Behold, the LORD's hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither his ear heavy, that it cannot hear:

2 But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear.

1 John 1:1

1 That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life;

In this scripture, “The beginning” can refer to eternity or as John's and the others' first encounter with the Word, in the personage of Jesus Christ. However, there are theologians who will interpret 'in the beginning' to mean 'before the foundation of the world', because of the phrase, "Word of life”. It was the Word that created heaven and earth. Nevertheless, John declares in his gospel that the same Word was made flesh and dwelt among us (St. John 1:1).

The Word is the second person in the Godhead; the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost (1 John 5:7).

This makes God a triune being; three in one. With that being said, we can also say that the Word existed before time, as well as in the beginning of time. When John wrote 1John 1:1, he was referring to the time when they first met Christ.

However, when he spoke of the Word in: John 1:1 in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God,

he referred to The Word as being in eternity; before entering into time.

Colossians 1:12-15

12 Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light:

13 Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son:

14 In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins:

15 Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature:

Jesus Christ, as "the firstborn of every creature", refers to Him being the firstborn of every new creature; the sons of God. Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature (2 Corinthians 5:17).

To further prove that God calls His sons creatures, consider the following:

Romans 8:18-21

18 For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.

19 For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God.

20 For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope,

21 Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.

Colossians 1:16-17

16 For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him:

17 And he is before all things, and by him all things consist.

Without Christ, nothing would exist and nothing would be able to sustain itself, because He is the Word of God. All things are upheld by the Word; for Jesus declared that heaven and earth will pass away before one jot or tittle of His Word fails. Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high: (Heb. 1:3).

Colossians 1:18-19

18 And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence.

19 For it pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell;

This scripture verifies that what John says in 1 John 1:1 when he writes, "that which was from the beginning", makes reference to this being their first encounter with the Word as Christ. However, in this verse, we also see Christ's transition from being the eternal Word, to becoming the head of the Church. The Word descended from heaven and took on flesh; becoming the Word of life; Son of God as well as Son of man. Nevertheless, in order for Jesus to establish the Church and become the head, He must first die and be born again, which would bring us, who were dead in trespasses and sin, into His kingdom. This is what it means when the scripture says, that in all things he might have the preeminence (Colossians 1:18).

In other words, there would be no process that we go through, that Christ wouldn’t also go through. A good working definition for preeminence is something that is done first; first authority. In order for Jesus Christ to become preeminent in all things, He had to die the same way we died. It was sin that caused us to die; it had to be sin that caused Christ to die. For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him (2 Corinthians 5:21).

Sin separated Him from God, just as it separated us from God. The preeminence that Jesus Christ obtained was a mystery that was hid in God. No man could take Jesus’ life; He was the Word of life. Therefore, He had to lay down His life. To further substantiate the precept (principle) of Christ's preeminence, we will continue to use the method of precept upon precept.

Hebrews 2:14-17

14 Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil;

15 And deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.

16 For verily he took not on him the nature of angels; but he took on him the seed of Abraham.

17 Wherefore in all things it behoved him to be made like unto his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people.

In order for Christ to redeem man, He had to become a relative to man. He partially fulfilled that by being born through the womb of Mary; thus providing Him with a body. However, He was not completely related to man. He was God in the flesh; the Lord from heaven; a quickening spirit. We were sinners by nature. Satan had preeminence over our lives. In order for Christ to gain preeminence lawfully, He had to take on sin and death just as we took it on. He couldn’t be killed, but sin had to be the reason why He died. Because He did not have sins of His own, God placed our sins on Him to satisfy the law of relationship. He was not related to us in that He was life and we were dead; therefore, He had to submit to death to become kinsmen to us. Because He did not personally sin, it was lawful for God to resurrect Him. God hath fulfilled the same unto us their children, in that he hath raised up Jesus again; as it is also written in the second psalm, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee (Acts 13:33).

Jesus was born again by the Spirit of God. As sinners, we had to die in Him, that we might be born again, as He was. He now has complete preeminence over us, in that everything we have gone through, He went through first. He is the author and finisher of our faith. Satan stands before God in accusation of the brethren and God. As in the example of Job, Satan stood before God; accusing Him of having a hedge around Job that prevented him from being able to touch Job. God removed the hedge; allowing Satan to touch everything Job had, except his life. Not knowing what God knew, Satan believed he would cause Job to curse God. However, Job cursed everything but God. In this, God proved both His manifold wisdom and His testimony of Job as being a perfect and upright man. This is a type of what God is doing with the Church. Looking at this using precept upon precept, God will have the same testimony of the Church. He will again show Satan His manifold wisdom; this time, through the Church.

Ephesians 3:9-10

9 And to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ:

10 To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God,

The precept here, is the purpose of God is to make known to heavenly principalities and powers (which includes Satan and his angels), His manifold wisdom by the Church----the same thing He made known by Job. Job is an example of the Church. Behold, we count them happy which endure. Ye have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord; that the Lord is very pitiful, and of tender mercy (James 5:11).