“Faith’s Final Frontier” November 2012. Part 7.
We ended chapter 6 with David using the nature and practice of the eagle as a model for us as children of God. In fact, the Lord himself uses the eagle, the king of birds, to illustrate his power, his strength, and the longevity of his people. David lived in an outdoor environment as a shepherd. He wrestled with lions, and he studied all the different aspects of the wild life around him. This reflects on why Jesus was such an effective teacher. He tapped into normal objects that people could quickly identify with.
But before we proceed with a study of eagles, I want to revisit Abraham and Sarah back home in the plains of Mamre, as he sat in the tent door in the heat of the day. Mamre was located in or close to ancient Hebron, south of Bethlehem and Jerusalem. Let me explain why we are going to revisit these two prominent biblical figures.
As a matter of practice, we have the tendency to read one story after another and pass on to the next. We seldom spend enough time to assemble all the building blocks, and to patiently put each one upon another, so as to build something of value that makes good sense. So in this study, we are going take apart every little detail of each story from way back when, and place them as it were, on our kitchen table, and methodically—skillfully, put all the pieces together to learn exactly the mighty works of God among ordinary men and women.
As Abraham sat in the door of his tent, he looked up and saw three men standing by him [within close proximity] and he ran to meet them and bowed himself toward the ground. To condense the story, I’ll paraphrase for a while. Abraham offered to entertain the men and during this time of fellowship and hospitality, the Lord asked where Sarah was. He asked for her because in those days and even today in certain mid-eastern and far eastern countries a woman is not allowed to pull up a chair and join a conversation when visitors are being entertained by her husband.
Abraham, being wealthy had a double sized tent, and Sarah was in the “inner tent.” It was at this moment that the Lord spoke and shook their very foundation and sense of reason. He spoke of returning this time next year, and Sarah shall have a son. To a woman of 25, 27, or 30 years old, this would be good news to share with all the neighbors, and among the domestic help in the home. But the twist is simple! This woman was no spring chicken! So she could not help laughing at the words uttered by the Lord. Why did she laugh?
“Therefore Sarah laughed within herself [and later denied it] saying, After I am waxed old shall I have pleasure, my lord being old also?” Listen to the biblical narrative, and take it home to your place. Set it in front of you and try to assimilate the realities of dive truths that this story holds. “Now Abraham and Sarah were old and well stricken in age; and it ceased to be with Sarah after the manner of women.”
As we attempt to explain what is at stake here, allow me to say that we are talking about something highly prophetic or spiritual. It is about the human body and how it functions in women. So in Sarah’s case, she was passed the years of child bearing, because she had ceased to have her monthly menstrual cycles. In the first half of the monthly menstrual cycle, levels of estrogen [the female hormone] start to rise.
Estrogen also causes the lining of the uterus [womb] grow and thicken. This lining of the womb is a place that will nourish the embryo if a pregnancy occurs. At the same time, the lining of the womb is growing, and egg, [ovum] in one of the ovaries starts to mature. At about day 14 of an average 28-day cycle, the egg leaves the ovary. This is called ovulation. After the egg leaves the ovary, it travels through the fallopian tube to the uterus. A woman becomes pregnant if the egg is fertilized by a physical relationship with a man. But all of this process was now in Sarah’s past. Again! She was old and well stricken in age! But that was all! Abraham was also old and well stricken in age; so when the Lord promised to return next year and Sarah shall have a son that was enough to make her laugh. In today’s lingo would sarcastically say “RIGHT.” Genesis 18.
I know that we shared this story before, but this time around, we want to break the issues down into minute particles and in realistic terms, to see what can be done to our natural bodies, no matter what our age happens to be on the calendar. After leaving the plains of Mamre, Abraham and Sarah went toward the south country, and dwelled between Kadesh and Shur, and sojourn in Gerar. Genesis 20.
King Abimelech sent and took Sarah, intending to get physical with her, in spite of the fact that he had wives and concubines. God had to step in and tell the king: “Behold, thou art but a dead man, for the woman which thou hast taken; for she is a man’s wife.” I like how God sounded like a gangster or a bully on the street corner. “Touch her, and you are dead!” That, my friend is God pulling no punches!
Okay! So after that bit of drama, let us ask ourselves the obvious question; “Was it the same old and well stricken in age lady of the previous chapters? What about Abraham’s physical body? Wasn’t his physical body also rejuvenated to a point where as Abraham suggested, they could pass themselves off as brother and sister? Let us take these events in literal terms! God did not do some spiritual work inside the bodies so as to make them more accessible and conformable to the inner workings of the Holy Spirit. This was a physical metamorphosis, much like a caterpillar actually being changed into a butterfly.
Can you now appreciate why Sarah had to laugh when the Lord announced that this time next year he will return and she will have a son? So what was the Lord’s reply? This is what gets me excited and want to shout or break out in a dance! “Is there anything too hard for the Lord?”
Oh! Come on saints of God! Are you wrapping your arms around this event in realistic terms?
Now, we have to walk with these two old people, who were about to experience new physical bodies, that would impress a heathen king even while he was surrounded by pretty wives and concubines.
How did they do it? Or rather, how did they allow God to do it? And if we learn how they did it, can anyone of us dare ourselves to have God do it exactly as he did for these two people? What were the moving parts that moved the entire process forward for Abraham and Sarah? What did they give God to work with? You see, God must have something to work with. Just about every miracle that happened in scripture, involved some human participation. Here is a sobering point to consider and ask ourselves. Was the case of Abraham and Sarah an isolated event that was never meant to be replicated among us humans down through time?
Stepping forward from B.C. 1898 to the approaching birth of Jesus Christ, we see a repeat occurrence almost identical to the case of Sarah. “And, behold, thy cousin Elisabeth, she hath also conceived a son in her old age: and this is the sixth month with her, who was called barren. Here is that account so pay attention! “And they had no child, because that Elisabeth was barren, and they both were now well stricken in years.” But here is the conclusion that was set before Mary concerning what had transpired with her cousin. For with God NOTHING shall be impossible.” Luke 1:7, 36,37. “But Jesus beheld them, and said unto them, with men this is impossible; but with God all things are possible.” Matthew 19: 26.
So we beg the question, “Are there any physical needs in the human body that God cannot undo or heal?” Your answer is one step above in bold letters which I will repeat! “Is there anything too hard for the Lord?” This puts the onus on you, because God has removed all difficulties and liabilities from himself. He has left the door wide open and dare you to walk in and help in creating miracles. Here is how I used to apply spiritual significance to the case of these two people in some of my sermons. Abraham is our father by faith; he represents God’s promise that can only be appropriated by faith. In a sense, he also represents God who is Spirit.
On the other hand, Hagar, the bond woman represents the law, Mount Sinai in Arabia; salvation by works, thus not totally free. Therefore, Ishmael her son was only half free. He had the correct father, representing God the Father, but he had the wrong mother, and in scripture the woman usually represents the church. The total sum of this picture is that the lad belonged to the right father, but was tied to mother’s apron string [the church system] So in reality many of God’s people today live with the right father, but the wrong mother and are tied to a church system. Paul stepped forward with his arms full of information on these two old people who lived thousands of years before Paul’s day. He candidly laid out in detail how this great physical transformation occurred in the bodies of Abraham and Sarah.
In other words, he showed us what formula they applied to their personal need, and what tools they gave to God, that resulted in the miraculous metamorphosis that stands by itself even to this day. Let us begin with Abraham’s mindset against all logic as we shall see immediately. “Who against hope believed in hope, that he might become the father of many nations, according to that which was spoken, So shall thy seed be. Please get your arms around the following ingredients that became tools in God’s hands. And being not weak in faith, he considered not his own body now dead [that is ignoring what you see in the mirror or what the doctor told you] when he was about an hundred years old, neither yet the deadness of Sarah’s womb.
He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God. [Now watch this nugget of truth as you ponder these thoughts] And being fully persuaded that, what he had promised, he was able to perform. [What was the conclusion?]
And therefore it was imputed [accounted to him, or added to his account] unto him for righteousness. Here is what I have been saying since we began this month’s issue. It is now being underscored by scripture. “Now it was not written for his sake alone, that it was imputed to him; But for us also, to whom it shall be imputed, if we believe on him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead.” Romans 4:18-24
Abraham believed that God was faithful that promised; but also, that he was able to deliver on his promise, and he was unshaken and unmovable from his grasp on faith. His faith was so strong that it became his righteousness, and made him a friend of God. But consider this! The Lord had said that he’d return “this time next year” meaning that there was only a year in which both parties would undergo a complete physical metamorphosis. As we have concluded, the conception and birth of Isaac was to be “natural” fathered by Abraham.
But consider this also! Do you think that Abraham and Sarah were able to go from door to door, excitedly telling their neighbors of the forth coming birth of a son? Picture it for yourself, if two people who were well stricken in age come to your front door and announce in no uncertain term, that within a year they will give birth to a son. We can safely conclude that they kept God’s promise within and watched as their bodies began to show signs of rejuvenation. Muscles began to strengthen and wrinkles all over the body began to disappear without chemicals and manufactured body cream. The more changes they saw, the more their faith soared, and praise and thanksgiving began to swell within their hearts.
So why have we fallen short of the accomplishments of those who lived in ancient times? They did not have scores of different churches to attend, and they did not have massive amounts of bible schools to choose from. The fact of the matter is simple! They had to develop their faith out of a personal relationship with God. They did not learn God from preachers, as we do today, and as I have said in many sermons over the years, a preacher can only preach and teach what he or she knows and believe; and in many cases their limitation and scope of spiritual realities are very limited.
Sure, each ministry reaches a certain group of people, so we are not placing blame. But the people with a yen for God’s ultimate must corral around the ministry that meets those particular needs. That is where satisfying your mouth with “good things” come into play. Sorry my friends! Not everything that comes across the pulpits can be classified as “good things.” So the people of whom we speak had a single line of communication with God. There was no mixture of faith or doctrine that they had to filter through. Coming down through decades of church history, we have been taught that salvation pertained exclusively to the inner man.
I can vividly remember preachers saying from the pulpit; “Don’t try to save your body! It ain’t going anywhere, so by all means save your soul. We shared songs and statements such as: He lives within my heart! I feel like fire shut up within my bones! Save your soul for your body must die one day! People in ancient times were not bombarded with such mixture of concepts. What they acquired was from the Lord himself out of personal relationships. And the beauty is that they did not have to verify and balance what the received from the Lord with ongoing concepts to the contrary. It is by choice that I have decided to take slow and concise steps in going through these scriptures again; because we are so familiar with them since our days in Sunday school. But as a matter of practice, we failed to do an in-depth study of them, and to apply their truths on a personal basis. We never believed to make their experiences of old, ours also. Some of us received certain truths years ago, but because no other people talked or preached about them, we left them on the shelf.
Let us keep in the forefront of our minds, that Abraham’s faith earned him more than salvation for his soul; it affected his mortal body and erased the traces and effects of the aging process. Perhaps to him it was important, while to us physical redemption does not matter that much, because the emphasis in church has always been on saving the soul. But let us turn to David for the next portion of this study, as he inserts the life and nature of the eagle. He knew that at a certain point in its life, an eagle nesting high up in the crag of the rocks based upon hits body’s time-clock, determines that it is time to renew its body; much like a snake or crawfish shedding its shell or skin. The eagle plucks out the old feathers and allows the new feathers to grow. During this entire process the eagle does not leave its nest until the new feathers grow.
But here is the icing on the cake! As the new feathers grow, the whole body of the bird changes and becomes renewed, enabling it to live on what can be termed “a second life cycle.” To this end, and upon this premise, David alluded to the fact that we can also renew our youth like the eagles. The word “youth” implies that the entire body is involved and not merely a good feeling of relief and a shot of joy within. This concept is about the mortal body! But what did David refer to as being the correct formula to achieve this renewed youth? It is based upon the fact that God himself, “Satisfies our mouth with good things, so that our youth be renewed like the eagles.” Let us look at the natural world and what it offers us on a daily basis. The USDA [United States Department of Agriculture] is responsible to inspect all the products on the market that we consume.
They are also responsible to monitor the circumstances and conditions under which these products are grown or manufactured. When shopping for eggs, meat, and many other grocery items, we look for the USDA stamp on the package; indicating that the product was inspected and approved by that government agency. However, recently there have been several reports shown on television of animal abuse, meat handled under insanitary conditions, and sent to market without being inspected. When we buy and eat these products, and those grown with pesticides, herbicides, DDT, and other harmful chemicals, we can say loudly that our mouths are not being satisfied with “good things” as David alluded to. In an effort to eat healthier foods, many have turned to organic products that are produced without chemicals, [they use synthetic chemicals] but costs much more. For instance, a regular loaf of bread can be bought for $1.99 and less. But that same loaf of bread produced [or labeled] organically costs almost $5. The same holds true for milk, cheese, meat, vegetables, and other items in the food chain across the board.
As a youngster growing up on a farm, we grew all the foods we needed; from yams [three or four different kinds] to a number of vegetables, such as tomatoes, cucumbers, pumpkins, squashes, cho-chos [called coyote squash] corn, water melon, and many more. Our meat came from the chickens, pigs, goats, and cows that we raised. According to the report, as we began to eat canned goods, and processed meat, much of the stomach and digestive ailments that now plague us, slowly came to the forefront, all of this downturn in our health plays directly into the bank accounts of the pharmaceutical companies.
But David referred to “good things” for the whole man, and it must come from healthy servings of spiritual food. What we accept from teachers and preachers are primary victuals for the soul. Not only do we absorb what religious leaders teach; we also absorb contents of our religious environment. We need not go to any length to itemize the impact one acquires from the words preached to us or taught us by our leaders. Look at this beautiful bundle of truth that we have missed, or spoken little about down through the years.
“His flesh shall be fresher than a child’s: he shall return to the days of his youth.” Job 33: 25. To prove that this is not fable or wishful thinking here is a story. “Then went he down, and dipped himself seven times in Jordan, according to the saying of the man of God: and his flesh came again like unto the flesh of a little child, and he was clean.” 2nd Kings 5: 14. We are offered two things! One is the allusion made by David, and the reality of that truth as experienced by Naaman the Syrian. Can you see how the bible backs up its own theories and makes them real? I have to keep repeating the fact that we were not taught with any sort of conviction that our bodies can be changed here and now. Yes, we are told that such change will come at Rapture time, or as Paul wrote when the Lord shall appear from heaven and change our vile body, that it be fashioned like unto his glorious body. But the scripture that we just written about B.C. 1520, and showed no correlation with the appearing of Christ towards the consummation of the ages.
It would appear that Paul had a better and better understanding of the process, and offer more timely narrative on the subject. I like the choice of words used by the apostle in his letter to the Corinthians. “Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body.[Not the church as his collective Body, but individual bodies] For we which live are always delivered unto death for Christ’s sake, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest IN OUR MORTAL FLESH.” 2ND Corinthians 4: 10, 11. We really don’t need to decipher and symbolize what Paul wrote. I think it is self-explanatory; and without any controversy the apostle spoke about the human body, being consumed and saturated with the life of Jesus Christ. All of this process is relegated to the salvation experience from the moment we accept Christ as Savior, and received of the Holy Spirit.
In the field of “soul building” and maintaining our oneness with God, procedures and recommendations are already chronicled in the biblical narrative. Paul puts it this way: “That the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works.” 2nd Timothy 3: 17.
Listen to a second witness! “According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory [His glory] and virtue. Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: [like the promises made to Abraham] that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature.” 2nd Peter 1: 3, 4.
Did you actually catch that nugget of truth? Here it is again for good measure. He has given unto us all things that pertain to life and godliness! In other words, we are not short of anything that is required for us to experience life—a life that includes every fiber of our being. God has already put all the ingredients and components in place, for us to appropriate unto ourselves by faith. Thank you Jesus! I can feel a sermon coming on! Saints of the living God, we need to slow down and consider everything that we read from scripture. Back in London, about 1968, the Lord spoke to my heart as I sought him diligently. He said that when I read the bible, I should very slowly and watch every word carefully, because words have meanings. Learn to develop new faith building strategies, and the first action is to distant yourself from all that is negative and laden down with death.
Do not assimilate spiritual food from the pulpit that does not promote life in the very cells of your body. Begin to vanquish death by doing your little bit, and you will succeed by not giving it any ground in which to grow. Do not talk or even think death. Always remember that staying alive through endless years is not your own task or prerogative. God is at the controls; but we must give him something to work with. What are you willing to place in his hands?
Please be reminded that all offering and love-gifts are to be made payable to Royce Kennedy and not to the ministry. I am totally aware and thankful to those of you who are willing to share as God has laid upon your heart. Thanks for being faithful to him!
Please feel free to share these writings with others! God bless! Brother Kennedy
