Forever Home in the Eternal Family of God

Daily Encouragement for the Family of God by Kenton Cheek

4 September 2024

Reading From Ezekiel 28-31

“The word of the Lord came to me: “Son of man, say to the prince of Tyre, Thus says the Lord God:

“Because your heart is proud,
    and you have said, ‘I am a god,
I sit in the seat of the gods,
    in the heart of the seas,’
yet you are but a man, and no god,
    though you make your heart like the heart of a god”

 –Ezekiel 28:1-2

     The goal of our faith is unity with God, not competition with Him.  This clear distinction of destiny goes back to the sin which caused Satan to be cast out of Heaven like a flash of lightning along with a third of the angels who chose to rebel with him.  Apparently, he did not learn his lesson because the original lure he used on Adam and Eve was the promise of godhood. All throughout the ages, the chief sin of humanity has been the prideful worship of self as an idol.

     The sons and daughters of the Most High God are born again and adopted into His eternal family.  As we learn and grow in our faith and holiness, we become more and more like Jesus; transformed from glory to glory.  This spiritual progression does not find its zenith in our attaining the status of god or goddess in our own right; rather, we are partakers of His divine glory. 

     When we are blessed with perfect, uninhibited unity with God at the Marriage Supper of the Lamb, we will experience a oneness with Him that cannot currently be described given the limitations of human language and our finite understanding while in our present reality.  We do know that we will reign with Christ in the New Heaven and the New Earth.  Eden with be restored with even greater glory. 

     As we are called to be prophets, priests and kings or prophetesses, priestesses and queens within His kingdom, we are to function in His authority and follow His wise example.  The priesthood is for all born again followers of Jesus Christ.  As the only perfect Prophet the world will ever know, our Great High Priest, King of Kings and Lord of Lords, Jesus taught us how to speak His Word, share His compassion, judge and rule as humble servants empowered by His Spirit, rather than arrogant power-hungry despots as we find in the world today.  His loving, servant leadership is what we are to follow closely.

“Lord, thank You for providing clarity for us regarding our identity, community and destiny in You.  You bring both dignity and perspective to our position as members of Your eternal family.  In You we live and move and have our being.  Continue to teach us how we are to live and minister to others.  In the Name of Jesus Christ I pray, Amen.”

Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord, as His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue, by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.

–II Peter 1:2-4

“In the last days, God says,
    I will pour out my Spirit on all people.
Your sons and daughters will prophesy,
    your young men will see visions,
    your old men will dream dreams.”

–Joel 2:28-32, Acts 2:17

‘You will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ These are the words you are to speak to the Israelites.

–Exodus 19:6

And has made us kings and priests to His God and Father, to Him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.

 –Revelation 1:6

And you will be called priests of the Lord,
    you will be named ministers of our God.
You will feed on the wealth of nations,
    and in their riches you will boast.

–Isaiah 61:6

As you come to him, the living Stone—rejected by humans but chosen by God and precious to him— you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ…But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

–II Peter 2:4-5, 9-10

For those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.

–Matthew 23:12

For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God. The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by him we cry, “Abba, Father.” The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.

I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God.

We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what they already have? But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.

 –Romans 8:14-25