UNEXPECTED TREASURE - DISCOVERY OF PURPOSE

Nining wanted to learn how to learn from the Bible, and she wanted to know how and why people were created. As a young single woman expecting to be happily married someday, she was excited to discover the man and woman were commanded to multiply and fill the earth:

Genesis 1: 28 And God blessed them, and God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth."

The second part of the command bewildered her - subdue the earth and have dominion over all creatures. Indonesian language actually says 'have power over.' As we studied further, she saw how Adam and Eve relinquished their right to subdue and have dominion by their choice to place themselves under the dominion of earth, by following what they saw rather that what God said. (Genesis 2:17, 3:6), She discovered that this God-given position is restored in the born-again person, who has the Spirit and Word of God living inside. This gives us the power for INSIDE OUT living.

Let's look at this story of their abdication from position of power.
First step, Eve added to God's word. The command in Genesis 2:17 is 'don't eat the fruit of that tree.' When Ever recounted to the serpent what she thought God said, she added 'don't touch' to the command Gen 3:3). Be careful not to add, as good as the ideas or words may seem.

Next step, believing experience, or what we see in the world, more that what the word of God says. God said 'when you eat it you will die.' The serpent said 'you will not die.' Essentially, "God lied to you.' (Gen 34) Then the serpent went on to say that their eyes would be open, and they would become like god, knowing good and evil. In verse 6 we learn that Eve entertained this as a possibility, and when she looked, she saw:
1. that the tree was good for food,
2. and that it was pleasant to the eyes,
3. and a tree to be desired to make one wise,

At this point she knew what God had said, and what the serpent (a creature upon earth over whom Eve had been given power or dominion) had said. Her eyes saw something that made her think the serpent was right, and God was wrong, and in deciding to follow the serpent, abdicated her commitment to her creator, stopped following him and began to follow the creation, giving the creation power over her. Adam followed suit.

Genesis 3:7 says two things happened. First, their eyes were opened, just as the serpent had said. Second, they realized they were naked and covered themselves (knew right from wrong - like God). Another point for the serpent! To top it off, we read in Genesis 5:4 that after Seth was born (long after eating the forbidden fruit) Adam lived 800 years. Score on truth manifested in the world: serpent 3, God 0. It appears that the serpent was right, they did not die when they ate the fruit. When we first realize this, we may be tempted to throw the Bible away, since it is full of lies from God anyway. It is only by inspecting the real doctrine of Christianity that we can understand that even though it appears that they did not die, actually they did die. This is why Jesus' teaching in John 3 and 4 about born again and worshiping in the spirit are so important to understand. Ephesians 2:1- 7 explains that we were dead [to God] in sin, but God in his mercy made us alive in Christ.

Christians today continue to be deceived that our experience, or what we see in the world, is more true or real than the word of God. The Unexpected Treasure that Nining and the others in the study on Monday discovered is that they are not at the mercies of circumstances and other people, but because Jesus lives in us, we have power over creation. Often our experience says we don't, but if we read the word of God carefully, we find that the promise is that we do. Yet we choose to understand the Bible through the filter of our experience, rather that understand our experience through the truth in the Bible. We choose to live at the mercy of the powers outside of us, rather than living by the power of God within us.

My own most demonstrative example of this is when I began praying for people to be healed. The Bible says that people who believe in Jesus will lay their hands on the sick, and the sick will be healed. I noticed that I qualified for this promise, since I believed. I went around laying hands on people ane praying for them to be healed. I saw no results for 4 years, at great personal expense - lost nearly all my friends. Yet I chose not to believe what I saw in the world, but what God's word said. Today, I am surprised when people are not healed. My experience came in line with the word of God when I lived as though it were true and happening in the world, though I could not yet see it. INSIDE OUT living does not rely on results seen, but on unseen results.

Instead of being controlled by the world, we have power, dominion over it. Instead of the outside forming the inside, we are able to form the outside by the power that lives within us.

Until today, it seems from our experience and from what we see, that the promises of God's word are not for today, or don't really mean what they say, and we allow creation to rule over us, rather than taking our rightful place and ruling over creation. If this seems radical to you, just stop and think about what you really believe, and why. Here I am talking to people who call themselves Christian. Are you following a Living God who gave promises in the book we call the Bible, or are you following a religion based on a book that contains some truth but a lot of lies?

Many years ago I came to the point of facing this question, and determined I would really be stupid to follow a religion based on lies. Obviously I came to the conclusion that it was not lies, and it changed my life as I began to look at the promises as real for me, and I took up my position as a child of God and began to have dominion over the earth! INSIDE OUT living.