March 2015
 Jim Wies is a lover of God and has served the Lord in a variety of capacities for more than three decades as a pastor, teacher, counselor, author, equipper and conference and seminar speaker, providing training and mentoring on a number of topics. Jim has written eight books, including, See Jesus, His Glorious House, and The Advancing Kingdom. He serves as administrative pastor at XP Shiloh Fellowship and Shiloh Tent fellowship groups. In this devotion, Jim shares on the greater way of the New Covenant. |
“The ministry Jesus has received is … superior to theirs… since the new covenant is established on better promises. For if there had been nothing wrong with that first covenant, no place would have been sought for another.… By calling this covenant “new,” he has made the first one obsolete; and what is obsolete and outdated is ready to vanish away.” (Hebrews 8:6-7,13)
Our history with our Creator, as recorded in the Scriptures, is a history of covenants between God and mankind. This is how the mighty King and the human species relate: through a covenant. The Bible is the written record of these covenants.
There are five major covenants in the Bible. Noah had a covenant. Abraham had a covenant. David had a covenant. But the Big One was the Mosaic Covenant, often called The Old Covenant.
Four of them are, by nature, “Grant Covenants.” That is, a “Greater” (God) granting or bestowing a promise of blessing upon a lesser. Such was the nature of the Noahic, Abrahamic and Davidic Covenants. The Mosaic Covenant, on the other hand, was what is called a “Kinship Covenant,” which is a conditional covenant between two parties based on keeping the rules or conditions of the covenant. This is a very important distinction. Deuteronomy 28 functions as kind of a summary: “You’ll be blessed when you obey, and you’ll be cursed (or punished) if you disobey.”
The New Covenant is the ultimate Grant Covenant, and it fulfilled the Abrahamic and Davidic Covenants through the person of Jesus, making those who are in Christ full recipients of those covenant promises. That is why Matthew 1:1 begins with the declaration about Jesus: “This is the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah the son of David, the son of Abraham.” It begins with the story of the New Covenant, meant to completely replace the Mosaic Covenant as a means of relationship with God. We see Jesus, sitting in the Upper Room, where He is offering a new covenant – a covenant of an “everybody is a priest” relationship between man and God: “For this is My blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many for the remission of sins” (Matt. 26:28, Mark 14:24, Luke 22:20, 1 Cor. 11:25). With that token meal, God removes us from the Old Covenant and makes us participants, instead, in the New Covenant. Hebrews 8:13 makes it clear: “In that He says, “A new covenant,” He has made the first obsolete. Now what is becoming obsolete and outdated is ready to vanish away.” *
*In fact it quite vanished away when the city and temple of Jerusalem were destroyed, which was a little time after the writing of this epistle; so that the apostle, with great propriety, says, it is “ready to vanish away.” – Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
And with this covenant the conditions change. The seminal New Covenant verse, John 3:16, says it beautifully: “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.” Our part now is to simply put faith in God and love one another (John 13:34). And if that wasn’t clear enough, John 3:17 clarifies that the New Covenant is not about punishment: “For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.” YES!
In Christ, we are recipients of all of His covenantal promises, one of which I like to call His promise of covenantal mercy. In Paul’s dramatic sermon recorded in Acts 13 he stated: “We tell you the good news: What God promised our fathers he has fulfilled for us, their children, by raising up Jesus. As it is written in the second Psalm: ‘You are my Son; today I have become your Father.’ The fact that God raised him from the dead, never to decay, is stated in these words: “I will give you the holy and sure mercies promised to David” (Acts 13:32-34).
We see here that through Jesus we have become partakers of the sure mercies or the covenantal mercies of David. The sure mercies of God are simply the steadfast intentions of God to do us good. In other words, we must know that God is a God of compassion and mercy.
David knew of the mercies of God, the steadfast intentions of God to do him good. The following are excerpts from the book of Psalms, revealing David’s insights into the mercy of God:
For the LORD is good; his mercy is everlasting, and His truth endures to all generations. (Psalm 100:5 NKJV)
The LORD is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in mercy… He has not dealt with us according to our sins, nor punished us according to our iniquities (Psalm 103:8,10).
The prophet Isaiah also prophesied of the sure mercies of David, indicating that we would be partakers through the promised New Covenant: “Ho! Everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat. … and let your soul delight itself in abundance. Incline your ear, and come to Me. Hear, and your soul shall live; and I will make an everlasting covenant with you– the sure mercies of David. … Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; let him return to the LORD, and He will have mercy on him; and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon” (Isaiah 55:1-3,7).
God speaks this in Isaiah 54:9-10; “Just as I swore in the time of Noah that I would never again let a flood cover the earth, so now I swear that I will never again be angry and punish you. For the mountains may move and the hills disappear, but even then my faithful love for you will remain. My covenant of blessing will never be broken,” says the Lord, who has mercy on you.
What an amazing God. He loves you, and you can’t change His mind!
Prayer Directives
This month: pray for yourself, for one another and for XP Ministries these great apostolic prayers from Scripture:
- For the Knowledge of God
Therefore I …do not cease to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers: that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe ~Paul (Ephesians 1:15-19). - For the Power of God and the Love of God
For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ …that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height– to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God ~Paul (Ephesians 3:14-19). - For the Knowledge of His Will
For this reason we …do not cease to pray for you, and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power, for all patience and longsuffering with joy; giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light ~Paul (Colossians 1:9-12). - For the Fruits of Righteousness in Our Lives
And this I pray, that your love may abound still more and more in knowledge and all discernment, that you may approve the things that are excellent, that you may be sincere and without offense till the day of Christ, being filled with the fruits of righteousness which are by Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God ~Paul (Philippians 1:9-11).
Resources
Want more? May we suggest:
Want more? Then may we suggest:
See Jesus – A book by Jim Wies
To know the real Jesus is absolutely critical to our lives and eternal destiny. A thorough examination of Scriptures will reveal that there are many more facets to who He is and what He has done for us than most people realize. This book is an in-depth look into the multi-faceted person of Jesus Christ. It will inspire you, quite possibly surprise you, and ultimately build you up in your faith in the God who is the creator of all things.
The OFFICE & FUNCTION of the NEW COVENANT PROPHET – A Seminar Workbook (digital e-book) by Jim Wies
Seminar Workbook on the office and functions of the New Covenant Prophet
We at XP Ministries thank you for your prayers, partnership, and financial support. May you be richly and abundantly blessed. And remember, God loves you with an everlasting love!
