The Faith of Jesus

By Robert P. Thompson

This book, The Faith of Jesus, is intended to hopefully enlighten us of what it means to follow and be as Jesus; Yes, to be as Jesus: to experience His life as a man, living in a Heavenly realm, in communion and fellowship with His Heavenly Father. And by His Father's Spirit, to lead and empower Him, to reveal to mankind the reality of our Heavenly Father's love to us: not only to and in us, but through us, as His children, as His ambassadors, to lead others to our Heavenly Father through our Savior and Lord Jesus Christ.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Covenant Books, Inc.
• Release date: Apr 27, 2023
• ISBN: 9798888511930

Book preview

Table of Contents

Title

Copyright

Foreword

Special Acknowledgments

1: Lydia/Faith/Tangible Life

2: Hebrews 11:1/Meaning of Faith

3: Faith—Process/Nature Mirror

4: Faith of Jesus/F-a-i-t-h

5: Meaning of Perfect/Love

6: Perfect/Love (P-A-D)

7: Zeal for God/Temple of God

8: Purify Ourselves

9: Ephesians 3:16–21 Glory/Love

10: Ephesians 3:16–21 Glory/Love

11: Galatians 2:20/Crucified with Christ/Romans 6:1–8

12: Galatians 2:20/Crucified with Christ/Romans 6:6:9–23

13: Galatians 2:20/Faith of Jesus

14: Galatians 2:20/Faith of Jesus

15: Galatians 2:20/Faith of Jesus/Nine Gifts of the Spirit

16: Galatians 2:20/Who Loved Me

17: 1 Corinthians 11:23–32/Communion

18: 1 Corinthians 11:23–32/Communion

19: Communion/Stripes of Jesus

20: Hebrews 11

About the Author

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The Faith of Jesus

Robert P. Thompson

ISBN 979-8-88851-192-3 (Paperback)

ISBN 979-8-88851-193-0 (Digital)

Copyright © 2023 Robert P. Thompson

All rights reserved

First Edition

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods without the prior written permission of the publisher. For permission requests, solicit the publisher via the address below.

Covenant Books

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Murrells Inlet, SC 29576

www.covenantbooks.com

Foreword

Ifirst met Robert Thompson in 2014. I was suicidal, drug addicted, and had given up on any hope of finding peace. By divine intervention, God used Robert Thompson to set me free, and then he took the time to teach me how to stay free .

Robert Thompson has dedicated his life to studying God's Word for the purpose of being like Christ, and I have seen firsthand his love, dedication, and passion in seeing others come into a tangible relationship with God.

All his years of studying the Word and everything he has taught me over the years has changed my life dramatically, where I actually feel supernatural joy and peace in the midst of every trial, and everything he taught me is summed up perfectly in this book. It will teach you not only the foundation of what it means to be a Christian but will give you the proper tools you will need to live a victorious life regardless of the circumstances.

If you have a desire for truth and are wanting a tangible relationship with God, where you feel His peace, His joy, walking in the heavenly realm where you tangibly feel like you're in heaven, despite whatever circumstances you're facing, it requires us walking in the footsteps of Jesus, and this book will show you how.

Special Acknowledgments

Iwant to give a special thanks to my wife Marilyn who has been such an inspiration and support; for without her encouragement, this book would have never been written.

I also want to give a special thanks to our son David, for all the work he has put into the editing and all the support; for without him, this book wouldn't have been written.

1

Lydia/Faith/Tangible Life

In Acts 16, when Paul and Silas came to Philippi, they went down by the river. The Bible says that's where women would gather to have prayer, and Paul preached the word to them. And there was a woman there by the name of Lydia. The Bible says she was a seller of purple, and the Lord opened her heart, and she attended to the Words that Paul was preaching to her. In other words, the Lord opened her understanding. She received revelation of what Paul was preaching, and therefore her and her whole household was baptized. Serving and living for the Lord is the tangible revelation of the Lord, the revelation of the Faith of Jesus. And this is what we are going to be talking about: the Faith of Jesus. What does the Faith of Jesus mean?

So the Faith of Jesus is the Walk of faith. The faith of Jesus, this walk of faith, is as a light that manifests to the world the reality and the tangibility of God.

And that word, tangibility, means something that becomes tangible. And a perfect example of this is found in 1 John 1:1–4. Listen to what the word of God is saying. That which was from the beginning—speaking of Jesus—"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. Notice the word of Life, Jesus, was made tangible: They could hear. They could see. They could touch the word of Life, for the Life was made manifest, Yes, Tangible! And we show unto you that eternal life," which was what? With the Father! And was manifest to us." Notice that: That eternal life, the word of Life, which was with the Father, in the unseen heavenly realm, was made manifest in this seen realm, to where the invisible word of life, the invisible God, was actually made flesh, was made flesh in this earthly realm to where the disciples said we could actually see Him, and hear Him, and touch Him. That invisible word of Life was made tangible by Jesus!

And what is so exciting is that Jesus went from the invisible to the visible, to show the disciples the reality of the invisible. Jesus in the flesh was manifesting the reality and the tangibility of the invisible God and His Kingdom. That which we have seen and heard, in other words, we have seen and heard the tangible word of Life! And that which we have seen and heard, declare we unto you. For what purpose? That we might have fellowship with the Father, with the Son, and with the Holy Spirit, and with one another. It is all about fellowship. We declare unto you the reality of God so that we may have the fullness of fellowship in Heaven and in earth in the now! And notice in verse 4 the word says, For what purpose? That your joy may be full. See, this is what God is all about. He is all about bestowing Life. He is the invisible God, and He must work through a visible means, thus His children, to show the world the reality of Him.

We just talked about 1 John 1:1–4. And we were talking about the word of Life being made manifest. Now let us also go to The Gospel of John 1:1–4. Now remember, we just talked about the word of Life, and this is so important. The word of God is the word of Life, not the word of death. In John 1:1–4, The Bible says, In the beginning was the Word. There it is: Word. Remember in 1 John 1, word of Life! In John 1, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, in the heavenly unseen realm, and the Word was God. Then it says, The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by Him. And without Him was not anything made that was made. Now, listen to this. In John it says, In him was—what?—life. We see here in John 1, word, life. And in 1 John, Word of Life. And the Life was made manifest. And what? And it was as a light that shines in the world. In him was Life, and the Life was the light of man. And the Light shines in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not."

What this is saying in John 1, the word of Life was made manifest, and it is as a light for man to see. So basically, what we are saying here is the word of God—and this is really important to remember—the word of God is the Power of God to create life. And this Life of God shines forth from us as a light to show mankind the reality of the Life of God. And this life of God, once we grasp and hold onto it and live it, darkness cannot stop it. Nothing can stop it. The word of God is the power of God to create life. And this life is as a light that shines into the world to show mankind the what? Reality of God! For what purpose? So we can have fellowship with God. And to go one step further in that, not just fellowship with God, but it is God's will that we have fellowship one with another to be as a family. For what purpose? For the fullness of joy.

Imagine for us to be one with God, to truly be one with God is manifested as a whole how the children of God are one with each other. This is God's desire, to have such family to where the fullness of life, the fullness of fellowship, and the fullness of Joy. Praise God.

You remember when Paul and Barnabas, speaking of light, when they went to Antioch, and they preached in the synagogue. And it says that after they finished preaching, the Gentiles asked them if they would preach again the next Sabbath. Well, here comes the next Sabbath, and almost the whole town turns out to hear them. And when the unbelieving Jews saw this, the word says they were moved with envy. And because of envy, they spoke against Paul, contradicting him and even blaspheming.

And here is a little side note: envy. There is no room for envy or jealousy in our lives because where envy is, there is strife and confusion and every evil work. Envy will destroy relationships, whether it is between a husband and a wife, or family, or to destroy our relationships with one another. Envy. Why be envious? Everything is of God. All good things come from God, and God chooses to use one person in one way and another person in another way. We should rejoice in how God uses one another because we are a body. We are supposed to be a fellowship. The finger is never envious against the toe, or the eye against the ear. We are all one body, and we need to rejoice in one another's giftings and how God is using us, and to intercede and pray for each other because we are a body ministry: we are the Body of Christ. Jesus as the head wants to be pleased with His body. And the fulfilling of the Love and Unity of the Body of Jesus is our, being members, responsibility! Paul said to the unbelieving Jews, It was necessary that the word of God should first be preached to you. But seeing that you judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life, in other words, because of what you are doing, you are judging yourselves unworthy of salvation; you are judging yourselves. You are condemning yourselves. You are not condemning me. But since you judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life, behold we turn to the Gentiles. Now, listen to this. Paul says, For God commanded us to be a light. Remember, we are talking about Light: the light of the Gentiles that we should be for what? Salvation unto the ends of the world.

Now, salvation is not just accepting Jesus as Savior so we can go to Heaven someday. But salvation involves the whole man. And it is not only making Jesus our Savior, but it is making Jesus Lord of our life. That is the key. Is He Lord of our life? And if He's Lord of our life, then the salvation is not just spiritual, but it is for the whole man: our spirit, our soul, our body, our strength, our health, our minds; yes, for the whole man, in all that we are, all that we have, and all that we do. It is the salvation of God to bring the fullness of the Life of God into us, and into our families, into our ministries. Salvation encompasses the whole man. God is concerned about our health, and our bodies, and our finances, our ministry, our families—everything we set our hands to do. It is the whole man. And it is all based on our fellowship, communing with our God. Praise God. He is a God of life. In John 10:10, Jesus said, I have come that you might have—what?—life. That you might have it what? More abundantly. Abundant life. Praise God.

We need to understand, contained in the Bible, we will find history and future events, and that is wonderful. But the key of the word of God is to show us the divine nature and character of God. For us to learn who we are in Him, that we might have His nature and His character. And nature just simply means what we do naturally, automatically in our thoughts, imaginations, memories, desires, emotions, attitude, and will. And this is what we will learn what the foundation of the Faith of Jesus is; we want the fullness of the Nature and Kingdom of God to reign in our lives. This is our whole desire, so that we can manifest to the world the reality of God. We, as a light, to be for salvation to the world, wherever God sends us. And when we open the Word to study the Word, we ask the Lord, above all, give us revelation of who you are so we can learn who we are in you, so we can be as you are. So that we can also be the manifestation of the word of life. That we could be a tangible presence of the invisible God, so the world can say, Now, that is a Christian. That is a son and daughter of God. What they have is what I want. That is what our whole desire is. And when I say, Kingdom of God, Kingdom of God simply means God has dominion. He rules and He reigns, whether in the seen realm or the unseen realm. The Kingdom of God is who God is: yes, the abundant and eternal life and light that exists only in and by God.

Now, when Jesus, after His wilderness experience, came into Galilee, preached the gospel of the Kingdom of God. When we say gospel, what we mean is the infallible and unadulterated truth. That is what gospel is. Infallible means without error. There is nothing wrong and no mistakes in it. And unadulterated means that it is the complete, absolute pure word of God. So the Gospel of God is the word of God in truth and purity. It is absolute, without mistake. It is the truth! It is the Gospel of God! And that is exciting to know that we can base our life on the word of God. Praise God. And Jesus said, The time is fulfilled, and the Kingdom of God is at hand. Now notice that The time is fulfilled. In other words, Jesus is saying, now's the time for Me to go forth. He was thirty years old. He was not twenty-nine. He was not thirty-one.

And it is so important for us, as far as ministry, I am talking about ministry now, not to get ahead of the Lord or to lag behind. But as we serve God with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength, He has His foremost purpose fulfilled in our life, which is to have communion and fellowship with Him: to be like Him. That is number one, to enjoy his presence, but then next to that is ministry. Now concerning our ministry, we need to know what God has called us to do, where He has called us to be, and when. So many times people get out of the will of God, and they find themselves in discouraging positions and unable to fulfill the ministry, because they either got ahead of God or lagged behind Him. But Jesus said the time is fulfilled. Knowing His timing, where, when, and what to do is so important. Do not be in a hurry and get ahead of God.

I hear from different preachers on TV how they say that a large number of ministers are leaving the ministry, either burnout, or discouraged, or whatever. But you know what? When God calls us, first of all, like I said, it is a relationship with Him. But when He calls us into ministry, His desire is never to see us defeated. So if people go out and they give up and get burned out, it is not God's will, and it was not God that caused it. They got ahead of God, or they lagged behind God. They were not walking in the will of God. They were not in the leading, and the presence, and the power of the Holy Spirit. They got out of His will, because when you are in the will of God, just like the disciples, after Jesus ascended into Heaven in Mark 16, He sat on the right hand of God, and the disciples went everywhere preaching the gospel. The Bible says that Jesus went with them, confirming the word with signs following. When we go by the leading and the timing of the Holy Spirit, then He will go with us, and empower us, and prosper us, and protect us. So many people get out of Bible College, for instance, and they think, Well, it's time to get out there and start a church, or do this or that. Well, no. It is good to go to Bible College. That is fine. But the idea here is that you want the leading of the Lord, just like John the Baptist. The Bible says concerning John, And the time is fulfilled. Remember Luke 3? The Word of the Lord came unto John, and he went forth. The word of God said to John, Go. Jesus, when He went, the Spirit said, Time to go. So it is so important to have God's leading. When God leads, we follow!

Do not let ministry be your main focus. The main focus, like we are talking here, is the Divine Nature of God. Come into fellowship and communion with Him. Be a light to those around you, whether in your family, your marriage, your friends, people on the job, or at the store. Be a light. As far as going out and doing something that you might have to leave your career or takes a big step of faith, just make sure the Holy Spirit is saying, Go. Because if you go, and He does not say go, you just might run into a lot of problems. But anyway, I feel sorry for those that have given up in the ministry, because that was never God's will; for some reason, they were not submitted to the Spirit of God and His leading. And sad to say, many of those give up on the Lord too. They are discouraged; they need prayer. But that is why we need to know God's timing and direction.

And that is what Jesus said in Mark 1:15: The time is fulfilled, and the Kingdom of God is at hand. But notice this, that Jesus said, The Kingdom of God is at hand. At hand means present tense. He is saying, The Kingdom of God, the power of God is right here, right now. And the hand of God, the hand of power, the Kingdom of God is at hand. The hand of power is here right now. Jesus is saying is here right now. For what purpose? Is to outstretch His hand of power in life to lift us up out of the pit of sin, and death, and separation from God and to bring us into the life of God, the life of righteousness, the life where we get to know God as our Father and Jesus, not only as our Savior and Lord but our elder brother. Listen to that: the Spirit of God, the Spirit of life. He wants to bring us into family. That is what God desires! God's abundant and eternal blessings, by us being a member and partaker of His family. Just think, God Almighty, the omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent God, our Father, and Jesus, our Elder Brother, and the Spirit of God, the Spirit of life, and the Body of Christ: family!

But now we need to realize, yes, the Hand of God, but we, as God's children, His sons, and daughters, by the Spirit of God, become His hand, working through us to reach mankind, to lift people out of the pit of despair and death. Praise God. Yes, we are the Hand of God nowadays. The Hand of the life of God. The Hand of the power of God. Listen to this: connected and flowing freely through a son and daughter of God, who, as the temple of God, are what? Are those that have the Divine Nature of God. Praise God. Listen to that. The power and the life of God flowing freely through a son and daughter of His, who, as the temple of God, have the Divine Nature of God.

Now, remember, in Luke 14, there was the chief of the Pharisees that invited Jesus to his home to eat bread, and Jesus accepted. And the word says that, As Jesus was in the house, He was being watched. Now, there again, a little side note. We are being watched. When we are at the store, on the job, around people, we would be surprised how many people are watching us. I just want to ask you: Are we magnifying the Lord in our nature, how we behave ourselves around people? Do they see Jesus in us, or do they see hypocrisy? Do they see carnality? What do they see? Sometimes we deal with people in a negative way, but do they see the peace of God in us, the wisdom of God? We are being watched. Not only are they watching us, but God is watching us. And believe me, God is watching us to see how we live our lives. Are we glorifying Him, or are we glorifying the flesh?

But Jesus, when he was in the Pharisee's house, there was a man that was suffering from a disease called dropsy, which is excessive fluid buildup in the body that causes swelling and can even cause death. And Jesus asked them, is it okay to heal on a Sabbath day? And they held in peace. Jesus healed him. Then the word says that Jesus said to them, If you have a donkey or an ox that falls into a pit on a Sabbath day, will you not lay hold, lift it out? Outstretch your hand, and lift him out of the pit? And the point I want to make here, that we are, as the hand of God, are the power of God, are commissioned by God, to lift up others in their time of need. And notice I said Jesus did this on a Sabbath day. Jesus is our Sabbath. He is our Sabbath rest. Let us realize that to abide in Sabbath rest takes a walk of commitment, and resolve, and discipline. To come into that rest is a place that is a supernatural blessing. It is not just kicking back on the couch, and having your wife feed you grapes, and fan you with a fan and everything is fine. It is not that. It is a place of rest where we're in communion and fellowship with God. We are experiencing His peace and joy.

But also, notice this. In His place of rest is a place of power. And I refer to it as this: the Sabbath power. See, the man that was suffering from dropsy, he was miserable; he was in pain. But when Jesus healed him by reaching out the Hand of God, the power of God, and the power of light, and lifted him up, he entered into rest and peace, and he was happy. So, for us, when we are in this Sabbath power, this Sabbath rest, God wants to use Sabbath power to reach out and to lift up other people out of the pit of despair and death. And believe me, nowadays, there are many people suffering. There is such fear, and torment, and distress in the world. But God wants us, His people, to walk in Sabbath rest, Sabbath power, to be His hand extended to reach out to lift people up. Praise God. Remember, our hand is God's Hand. Such power! We need His power so that no devil, sickness, sin, disease, or even the storms of nature can stop or hinder. We have the power of God!

Speaking of power, the hand of power, Second Chronicles 20:6, listen to this: Oh, Lord God, in your Hand—remember, in Your Hand, and we are His hand in the now—is (present tense) power and might, so that none is able to withstand. Think of that: The power of God through us, such power and light that nothing: no devil, sickness, sin, disease, anything going on in the world can withstand us, For we have the Power of God, by His Leading, to command it to cease!

The Hand of God is the sovereign power of God. And God's desire is for us to come into the path of life that's abundant and eternal. The purpose of the word of God is to teach us to have the faith of Jesus, to have the walk of faith: to live in, abide in, and manifest the Kingdom of God. In Psalms 16:11, listen to this: God is all about life. Remember 1 John 1, That we might have fellowship with God, and fellowship with one another that our joy may be full. And in John 1:1–4, That we might have life. Remember John 10:10, That we might have abundant life. In Psalms 16:11, Thou will show me the path of life. And how does He do that? Through His word, by His Spirit. In Your presence is the fullness of joy. As we submit to the word and the Spirit of God, we come into His presence and fellowship with Him. Ephesians 3 talks about doing exceeding abundantly above all that we ask to think according to the power that works in us; that power is as the word and Spirit of God reigning in our life. As the Spirit and the word of God reigns in our life, in our thoughts, our imaginations, our memories, our desires, our emotions, our attitude, and our will, then we become more like Him. And as we become more like Him, God will increase what He will do for us: In thy presence is the fullness of joy. Not in the presence of money, not in the presence of a career, not in the presence of popularity, but in the Presence of God is Fullness of Joy. At Your right Hand are pleasures for evermore. Praise God. And His hand, through our hand, to reach out and to lift people up so they might know the goodness of God, the pleasures of God. That is what it is all about. But if we are not a light that is manifesting the Life of God, how can people see the reality of God? How can they? We are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hid: we are not to hide the Nature of God and the Goodness of God. But so many people that go to church do just that. And that is a sad story.

God wants us to be the happiest and most fulfilled people on planet Earth. I love the scripture in Luke 8:1. The Bible says that Jesus went about preaching and showing glad tidings of the Kingdom of God. He did not just preach it, but He showed glad tidings. Now, what does that mean, He showed glad tidings? He showed the good news of the gospel. What did he do? He healed people. He delivered people. He taught people. He taught people how to walk in fellowship with God. He brought Joy! And that is what we as Christians should be doing. When we are around people, we are to be ministers of Light and Joy. Praise God. God wants us to reach out to lift people up out of the pit of sin, and despair, and death, and hopelessness into His Light, and His peace, and His joy, and His hope: Yes, into the Abundant and Eternal Life of God!

Let us now look at Romans 10:17–19, to bring out another point here. We are talking about revelation of the word and the Life of God and His Kingdom; now, sometimes the word itself will define itself. In other words, like in James 1, the Bible says, The trying of our faith works patience. But let patience have her perfect work, that you may be perfect and entire lacking nothing. Now, the definition of patience is found in 1 Corinthians 15:58. And that says, Beloved, be steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as you know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord. The definition of patience in James is found in 1 Corinthians 15, which is, Patience is being steadfast, unmovable, and always abounding. That is the definition of patience.

Now, in Romans 10:17–19, the word says, Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. In that verse, it uses the word hearing twice. And people will say, Well, faith comes by hearing, and hearing, and hearing, the Word of God. And that is true. That is 100 percent true. But I want to take it one step further. That faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. Okay, that is verse 17. Now verse 18 defines what the first hearing is, where it says, Have they not heard, okay? Faith comes by hearing. Have they not heard? Which means that first hearing is we must hear the word of God, whether audibly, or reading the word, or hearing the word. Faith comes by hearing.

The second hearing is defined in verse 19. The word says in verse 19, But I say, did they not know? The second hearing is to know, or understanding, or revelation. Verse 17 in Romans 10, Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. We can say it like this. Faith comes by hearing and revelation by the Word of God. So that is the point there. It is the revelation of the word of God that is so very, very important. The first time you hear the word, revelation could come. Or sometimes meditating and going over the word, finally down the road, it comes. But that is why we need to always be meditating on the word. It is one thing to read the Word of God, but it is another to receive revelation of it. Without revelation, reading the Word becomes just that, just reading. The life-changing power—this is important to know—the life-changing power of the Word of God comes from revelation. Where it is like a light of enlightenment turns on in our hearts, and we know, we know the life, and power, and reality of the Truth of the word of God.

Paul said it perfectly in Ephesians 1:17–18 when he said, The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, has given unto us the spirit of—what?—wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him that we may—what?—know. Enlightenment and revelation is so important. Faith comes by hearing, and then revelation and understanding. Praise God. Revelation can only come by the Holy Spirit, but only to a heart that genuinely desires to know the truth of the word. If we are so settled in our mind this is the way it is, this is the way we have been taught, this is the way my denomination says it is, and I want to hear nothing else, well, we are hardening our heart against the Holy Spirit, because maybe there might be something the Lord wants to reveal to us. We must have a heart that genuinely wants to know the Truth of God's Word, because revelation and obedience will bring us into the fullness and fellowship with God. Revelation and obedience will bring us into the fullness of experiencing the Life of God, and His peace, and His joy. So then, when faith comes by hearing and revelation by the word, the Power, and the Life, and the Reality of the word, yes, of God, is now released in and through our lives. Praise God. Therefore, we need to keep studying the word and receive revelation of the word of God. Yes, revelation of the truth of the word of God.

The Holy Spirit desires and will lead us into all truth, if we have a sincere heart to know the truth. And here is a little cute way of saying it. The Holy Spirit will Lydia truth. Remember Lydia? She was the one that the Lord opened her heart, and she understood, and received revelation, and attended. So we can say the Holy Spirit will Lydia truth. In other words, the Holy Spirit will L-y-d-i-a truth. The Holy Spirit will Lead You Divinely In to All truth. This is a little simple thing there. How many Lydias do we have in the world these days? And sad to say, there are not many of them. Why? because so many people are indoctrinated and so settled in what they think is truth and is not the truth. Praise God for those whose hearts are open to truth. I just want to ask, do we have a heart that desires truth?

We want to be like Lydia, so that we can receive more revelation. And if we have a heart to receive Truth, if we have a heart that longs for Truth, God sees that, and He will give us the Truth. Remember in Acts, when Paul left Thessalonica, and they came to Berea, that the Bereans were more noble than those in Thessalonica because they what? They searched the word of God to see if what Paul was saying was true. Even though it was the great, anointed apostle Paul, they still searched the Scriptures to see what he was saying was the truth. So no matter how popular someone may be on television, or have a big name, or Mr. Know-It-All, just because they teach something, we still need to search the Scriptures like they did in Berea, to see if what they are saying is the truth. Because the Truth will set us free. All we need is a heart that desires truth.

Now, I want to mention something that nowadays it seems like it is more prevalent and being used more than ever, is that people like to use the Greek and the Hebrew. They say, Well, the Greek says this. The Hebrew says that. And what I would like to mention here is whether they say the Greek or the Hebrew or the Amplified or some other translation or a Webster's Dictionary, the emphasis and focus and desire of our heart is Holy Spirit, reveal to me the truth of your Word. The Greek, Hebrew, Amplified, other translations, the dictionary are all good if it is backed up by the Spirit: the Holy Spirit to say, Yes, this is the truth. And I think that many people want to say, The Greek says, and the Hebrew says, because many people, when they say, The Greek says, and the Hebrew says, then people are automatically going to say, That is the truth then. The Greek says. Or, The Hebrew says this. That is the truth. We cannot say, Okay, because someone says, The Greek says, or The Hebrew says, that is revelation of the word of God. I am going to give an example of that, so just bear with me. If you do not agree, that is fine, but don't let it hinder you from continuing on in our teaching of the Faith of Jesus, because this is very, very, very important and essential.

In 1 Peter 5:7, that is a scripture that we hear many times, and it is, Casting all your care upon Him for His cares of you. I am not just trying to find fault, but I am trying to make a point here, that because someone says Greek or Hebrew or Amplified or whatever, it is not necessarily revelation of the truth of God's Word. Now, in 1 Peter 5:7, twice it uses the word care. Care, "casting all your care upon Him for He cares for you. Now, the Greek and the Amplified and other translations translate that first care, casting all your care, as anxiety, worry, concerns. Then the second care, for He cares for you," they translate that as affectionately and watchfully looking over us. Affection and watchfulness. There are two different definitions of the word care. And what I would like to propose is that the word care, in both examples, is the same definition, and that definition is the definition that we use or is being used for how God cares for us. As you just bear with me and just see if the Lord will give you understanding.

God affectionately—that is He cares—loves and places His devotion and focus directly on us. He places His devotion, His affection, and His focus directly on us because His desire is to what? Please us and to bless us. And this, in reality, is our desire for Him. We should be saying to God, You are the one that we place our love, and our devotion, and our focus on. And this is the reality of the first one: casting all our affection, and desire, and devotion on you, Lord, because you are number one. We are talking about devotion. We are talking about casting all our devotion, our affection, making Him number one because He has made us number one. And for Him to allow Jesus to come to this earth and suffer and die on the cross for us, His focus was on us. He was loving us. He was showing His love for us, in that He gave His only begotten Son. So is His devotion and affection for us. And in the same way, we should have our devotion and affection toward Him.

And look at this. In Luke 14, Remember, I am talking about devotion and putting Him number one, casting all our care, our devotion, for Him. Jesus said, If you do not love Me more than your own family and friends, if you do not love Me more than everything in your life, if you do not love Me enough to where you're willing to take up your cross and follow Me, you're not My disciple. How do you get any plainer than that? Does it mean that we cannot have family and friends and cannot have a career? No. But He must be number one. And He says, if I am not number one in your life, you are not my disciple. If we are not putting Him number one in our life, and if we are living a life of carnality and sin and lust, guess what, people? I do not care what church you belong to. I do not care how much money you give to the church. I do not care what you do on Sunday. If Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday you are not living your life as Jesus, then Jesus would say to us, You are not my disciple.

And let us look at Proverbs. We are talking about Jesus being number one in our life. Before looking at Proverbs 4:20–23, I want to make this point here also. Many times, we say the commandments of God: thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not commit adultery, thou shalt not steal, thou shalt not bear false witness. Well, you know what? These are the commandments of God too when Jesus says, Take up your cross and follow Me. He's not saying, I advise you to. No! This, is a commandment! That is as much of a commandment as thou shalt not kill. It is a commandment! His word is a commandment! When Jesus tells us to Love God and one another, it is a Commandment! It is so vitally important for us to understand this.

Looking at Proverbs 4:20–23, This is a commandment. My Son, attend to—what?—my words. Attend means pay attention. Now, earlier we said casting all our care upon Him. Well, guess what? The definition of attend is not only pay attention to but to give care to. That is part of attending. Give care to. My Son, attend to My words. Incline thine ear unto My saying. It is God's Word, not the words and the sayings of the devil, the world, and people that do not know God. What God says is what counts. Incline means to point toward so as you do not want to miss even one little sound. Let them not depart from Your eyes. That is a commandment! "Let them not depart. Keep the word