The Devotional

Papa “J” Says

The universal fatherhood of God and the universal brotherhood of man, a lot of people believe this lie. God is not the father of all, but God is the Creator of all just as He created the roach and the rat and you are not a brother or sister to either of those, are you?

In order to be a submarine sailor in the Navy when I was on subs, a person needed to go to submarine school. During this training, there would be the study of all the systems; Electrical, Air Pressure, Water distilling plants, Nitrogen systems, Chemical analysis, Fresh air systems, Weapons systems, electronics and several others that I fail to remember. Most all of these systems were taught by using what was called, “piping tabs” booklets that showed the basic layout of each system as that system ran through the ship. With a piping tab one could literally find their way from stem to stern and find every valve or check point along the way. There was other training too, like; how to survive when the ship is flooding or when there is fire on board. All of this was good and needed information. There were “submarine trainers” mockups of submarine sections to go into and operate various equipments. But all of this instruction and training did nothing to make you a qualified submarine sailor. To be qualified, you had to be on one and you had to get to know the submarine in a personal way. You needed to know how it breathed, sounded, moved and protected. In the very same way we need to study about Jesus and through the power of the Holy Spirit, get to know Him personally. 2 Corinthians 3:17-18.

1 Corinthians

1 Corinthians 13:1-13 As you know, for any training exercise a person must know about the tools that will be used and the mission or task at hand. In chapter 12 we learned about all of the spiritual needs of the universal church of God and how God uses those saints in local churches to accomplish the mission of the gospel. Matthew 28:16-20

Now in chapter 13, Paul will explain to us that there are three characteristics of the Holy Spirit that need to be in us, in order for the spiritual need of a local church to function in the capacity that God intends. Faith, Hope and Love and the greatest attribute of the Holy Spirit is Love. How abused is this subject today? Many people believe that this chapter is about marriage and relationship between a husband and a wife. This chapter is far from teaching that.

The attributes of the indwelling Holy Spirit, Galatians 5:22-23 must be believed. One must be breathing and living in the power of the Holy Spirit. Could it be that we have left out some of the command of the Great Commission of Matthew 28:16-20 like (teaching) and put people in ministries without proper training and that is why we have such a diverse spiritual atmosphere in our Churches today? The mission has not changed, but the method has become distorted and confused. Thus many churches have laid aside the spiritual needs of the church for programs, plans and purposes of human effort that have an emptiness and powerlessness about them.