Bøger udgivet af Stanley R Abbott

Jesus said the ones who believe on Him will do the works He did. Yet today when we look at the church, we see individual Christians en masse who are defeated and unfulfilled. Not only are we not doing the works of Jesus, we suffer emotional problems, financial woes, health troubles, and relationship breakdowns at an alarming rate. Rather than looking like Christ in our works, it is hard to tell most Christians from unbelievers. Something is very, very wrong. Where is the breakdown? What is the solution? Doesn't God have a purpose and a plan for us? Our God is good, His mercy endures forever, and He loves you and me. The sacrifice of His Son, Jesus, on the cross demonstrated this love. He is a Father who wants the very best for His children. He has planned carefully for our lives. However, until we learn what His plan is and understand His purpose, we will never become who He wants us to be. The intent for this book is to explore God's plan and purpose for us and to find His way to achieve His results for our lives.

This book is about knowing God! It is about God the Holy Spirit whose primary responsibility is to help us know our God. The Father has assigned the responsibility to "...guide us into all truth..." to the "...Spirit of truth...". However, we have seen the Father's will does not operate automatically, it must be activated by faith. We have learned we obtain faith in order to be able to activate the Father's will for our lives through knowledge and understanding. This book was written to help us know and understand the Father's will concerning the person and ministry of the Holy Spirit. Once we have grown in knowledge and understanding of who the Holy Spirit is, the proper basis to relate to Him, and how to receive ministry from Him, we will be better prepared in faith and ability to know God.

In the late 1800's a wonderful tale flowed out of the mind of Mark Twain onto the pages of a novel entitled The Prince and the Pauper. In this story two boys discovered they were identical in appearance and determined to change places with one another for a season to experience life from the other's perspective. One of the boys was Prince Edward, son of King Henry VIII, the other Tom Canty, a pauper and son of an abusive drunken father. The difficulties which ensued were monumental. King Henry VIII died, and Tom Canty was about to be crowned King of England. Finally, Edward's true identity was established allowing him to regain his rightful place to be crowned King instead of Tom. Imagine if we were actually princes destined in some dispensation to reign as "...kings and priests to our God..." (Revelation 5:9,10) but living as paupers. Imagine all of the horrors of our lives as paupers were direct results of mistaken or misplaced identity. The similarities between the theme of Twain's novel and the condition of the church on the earth today are striking. You and I have been born again with God Himself as our Father (John 1:11-13). We have become "...members of the household of God..." (Ephesians 2:19). We have been baptized into Christ as flesh and bone parts of His body (Ephesians 5:30-32). We have the same Spirit who raised Jesus from the dead living inside of us (Romans 8:11). We are ordained to live as Jesus lived (I John 2:6) and to do the works Jesus did (John 14:12). We must escape from our captivity and take our rightful place in the household of our Father. How do we do that? Jesus is our way! This book provides a modicum of revelation as only one small piece necessary to help us move out of our old traditions into the new covenant!

The need for called and gifted persons in the church today is really great! The fundamental building block of all ministry is to reveal Christ to the lost so they may know Him to be saved and to the church so they may know Him to grow to maturity. We need an increase in the revelation of Christ to all men! It is Jesus Himself who gave the offices of ministry! It is the Lord who gives each office revelation of Himself! It is Jesus as the Head of the church who sends these ministers out to impart the revelation He has given them to the sons of God. We absolutely must change our perspective of the offices, their purpose, and the results Jesus has designed them to produce. Perhaps if we can gain a better understanding of the purpose of the offices, the equipment of the offices, and known devices of the enemy hindering the function of the offices, we will be able to move forward more productively. One thing is absolutely certain, Jesus is not going to change His plan for these offices of ministry. We are going to have to change our understanding of them in order to see the increase in the church for which we are looking. Because these offices of ministry are given by Christ as His will, He has a way for them to do His will!

"For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life." John 3:16 We understand God giving His only begotten Son meant Jesus would be required to die on the cross as the sacrificial lamb of God to redeem mankind from the power of darkness in order to translate us into the kingdom of God's dear Son. There is no stretch of the imagination in which we can view Jesus' death as the means for our redemption only to leave us to live the exact same lives from which He died to redeem us. That is beyond absurd; it is corrupt! We have been deceived by the subtle craftiness of the enemy. We must awaken to the truth from God and pull down these strongholds of the enemy and everything which exalts itself against the knowledge we have of our God.

Instead of being a simple fundamental by which the church lives, sin, repentance, and forgiveness have become a "...riddle..."! They are currently puzzling questions, problems, or matters void of most real practical meaning to the church. We must unravel the riddle to make dealing with sin, repentance, and forgiveness fundamental to our life in Christ once again!

We desire to help the church see where we are in relation to Jesus' expectations, where we need to go to meet His expectations, and how to get there. As we answer these questions, we must be constantly vigilant to keep our motives pure as to why we desire to show the church answers to these questions. Our motives must be to help the church, the sons of God, see so they may be able to move forward in God.