The Word of God Comes to Maturity
1.Read Isaiah 28:13; Hebrews 8:10; Matthew 4:4; Luke 8:15; 1 Peter 2:2; Galatians 4:19.
2.On what do we Christians feed?
The body and blood of Christ.
3.What part do we play in our complete transformation into the image of Christ?
Our part consists of cooperating with the Holy Spirit as He works with the Word of God (both in the Scriptures and also in personal Rev to us), with the body and blood of Christ, and with ministries and gifts acting together with our circumstances. All these are carefully controlled by the Lord for the purpose of creating Christ in us.
4.Read 2 Corinthians 3:18.
5.What is the meaning of the term sanctification ?
The process of transforming a justified (blood-washed) human being into a saint of God.
Contents
The Word of God.
6.What three articles were in the Holy Place of the Tabernacle of the Congregation?
The Table of Show bread, the golden Lamp-stand, and the Altar of Incense.
7.What does the Table of Show bread represent?
The Word of God, the Divine Substance, the body and blood of Christ.</div>
8.What is it that "throws light" on the Substance of Christ?
The Lamp-stand, the Holy Spirit.
9.What is being created in us?
The Word of God.
10.Read Isaiah 28:13.
The Word of God is both general and specific.
11.How does the man of God renew his mind?
By daily study and contemplation of the written Word, and also by consistent exposure to the spoken ministry of the Word as it is preached and taught.
12.Read John 14:21.
Impartation of the Divine Substance.
13.How do we become one with Christ?
By eating Him.
14.Read John 6:51.
15.What is the "bread" Christ gives us?
His flesh and His blood.
16.What do we receive when we eat the flesh of Christ?
Eternal life.
17.Read John 6:53.
18.What are some of the means the Holy Spirit employs for the imparting of the flesh and blood of Christ to us?
Preaching, teaching, prophecy, counsel, exhortation, the word of knowledge, tongues, and all the other ways by which the Holy Spirit reveals Christ.
19.Read John 6:54-55.
20.In what two ways does the Word of God affect us?
First, the Word of God builds up our mind, renewing our thinking along the lines of the mind of Christ. We understand what is preached or taught or prophesied or what we read, and our grasp on God and His grasp on us are strengthened and enlarged. We continue being transformed by the continual renewing of our mind. Second, the Holy Spirit brings the Word of God to us in the form of the body and blood of Christ. The Substance of God enters our inner being and we partake of the Divine Nature. We eat His broken body and we drink His blood, as the Holy Spirit imparts to us the Substance of the Lord Jesus Christ.
21.What does the Word of God bring to our personality?
The Divine Nature.
22.What does the Word of God bring to our mind?
Guidance, wisdom, judgement, knowledge, and understanding.
23.Read John 6:56-57.
The Communion service.
24.Read Matthew 26:26-28.
25.What takes place as we eat the flesh of Christ?
We become one with Him in His death and resurrection.
26.Read 1 Corinthians 10:16-17.
27.How long will Christ remain "imperfect"?
Until each member of His Body has been made perfect and brought into oneness with Him, and through Him into oneness with every other member.
28.Read 1 Corinthians 10:18; 1 Corinthians 11:23-24.
29.What are we announcing as we participate in the Communion service?
The fact that by His death on the cross His body and blood are given to us so that we may eat and drink, and thereby live.
30.Read 1 Corinthians 11:25-27.
31.How should the believer receive the Communion elements?
As the body and blood of the lamb of God.
32.Read 1 Corinthians 11:28-29.
33.What happens when we do not judge ourselves?
The Lord judges us so we will not be condemned along with the world.
34.Read Matthew 4:4.
35.What takes place when we have only material resources to fill our deepest needs?
We dry up in our inner being and soon our life becomes an unbearable chore.
The milk and solid food of the Word.
36.What kind of nourishment do we need when we first are converted to Christ?
The milk (first principles) of the Word of God.
37.Read 1 Peter 2:2-3.
38.By what two means can we receive the milk of the Word?
From the anointed ministries of the Body of Christ, as the Word is preached and taught, and also from our own reading and meditating in the Scriptures.
39.What do we need as soon as we grow in the Lord?
The solid food (advanced principles) of the Word of God.
40.Read Hebrews 5:12-6:1.
41.What does a healthy child possess?
A good appetite.
42.What may result if the solid food of the Word of God is not available to the growing Christian?
Spiritual immaturity, deformity, and death may follow.
The ministries and gifts of the Body of Christ.
43.Read Ephesians 4:11-12.
44.If we are to have the milk and solid food of the Word of God, what then becomes necessary?
We must have the full set of ministries God has provided.
45.In what two ways are we affected as the various ministries bring the Word of God to our mind and heart?
We grow in ability to minister to the Body of Christ and to
mankind in general; Christ is formed in our personality.
46.When are the Substance and Life of Christ added to us?
When the Holy Spirit reveals Christ through the members of the Body of Christ.
47.Read 1 Corinthians 12:11.
48.What has the Holy Spirit given to every Christian?
A spiritual ennoblement so that he or she may be adding to the building of the Body of Christ.
49.How do we become aware of our own role in building the Body of Christ?
The only trustworthy way in which we can find what our ministry is and start to perform it is to present our body a "whole burnt offering" on the altar of God (Romans 12:1,2).
Sometimes we can be helped into our ministry and role by the counsel of godly elders, or by the laying on of hands and prophecy by a gifted presbytery. It may be that we already are practising our ministry and are not aware that what we are doing actually is a gift of the Holy Spirit. To discover our role in the Body we must cast aside personal ambition, a desire for pre-eminence, the wish to imitate an admired minister, the oppression of duty or fear, and pressure from well-intentioned people who are certain they know God's will for us. There is an infinite variety of gifts and ministries waiting for people who are ready to set aside their hindrances and seek the face of the Lord. Entering into the Lord's plan for our life must remain, in spite of hardships we encounter, a joyous romance, full of peace and hope for the future. The Lord Jesus has a wonderful surprise for each one of us if we do not hinder the Holy One of Israel by our preconceived ideas. The Gospel of Christ, whatever chastisement we may be called upon to endure, is the greatest love story of all, an adventure described in the Song of Solomon.
50.Read Ephesians 4:13-16; 1 Corinthians 12:4, 1 Cor 12:7, 1 Cor 12:11-12.
51.Of whom does the Anointed Deliverer consist?
The sovereign Head—the Lord Jesus Christ, and also His Body, which is His Bride—the Church.
52.On what is the Body of Christ being created?
His broken body and shed blood.
53.Read 1 Corinthians 12:12,1 Cor 12:18, 1 Cor 12:28.
54.Read 1 Corinthians 14:26.
55.Why has the Divine Seed, Christ, been planted in us?
For the purpose of growing into a son of God, a brother of Christ.
56.Read Galatians 4:19.
57.For what is the heavenly Farmer waiting?
For Christ to come to maturity in the believers.
58.Read 1Peter 1:19.