By Faith We Are the Family of God Who Inherits Eternal Life

Hebrews 11:17-22

Click for a description of the mark of the beast
Click here for a description of the image of the beast.

• Faith Enabled the Prophecy of the Purpose of Christ’s Coming.
• Faith Enabled the Prophecy of the Blessings to Come through Jesus Christ.
• Faith Enables the Prophecy of Being Adopted into the Family of God.
• Faith Enables Us to Talk About Freedom from Sin and Eternal Life.

Faith Enabled the Prophecy of the Purpose of Christ’s Coming.

“By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac,
and he who had received the promises offered up his only begotten son, of whom it was said, 
“In Isaac your seed shall be called,” concluding that God was able to raise him up,
even from the dead, from which he also received him in a figurative sense.”
Hebrews 11:17-19

By faith, we give our own life to God through the sacrifice that Jesus made on the Cross. We believe that we will be raised from the dead to live eternally with Him in the New Jerusalem.

Abraham, the father of Isaac, offered up Isaac his son to use as a sacrifice to atone for sin. God intervened by supplying a goat for the sacrifice at just the time Abraham was about to thrust the knife through his son. That is part of the “scarlet cord” in the Old Testament pointing to the Lord Jesus, whom God gave as the sacrificial lamb. He died in our place to atone for our sin. We were supposed to be the Isaac scheduled for death, but Jesus stepped in as our substitute as an act of atonement. In the same way Isaac was given life by God providing a sacrificial goat, we are given eternal life by the sacrifice Jesus made for us. Isaac was raised from the dead, so to speak, and we will be raised from the dead through Jesus Christ.

Today, the future ages are being formed by eliminating the Deity of Jesus Christ and the message of the Cross. They are forming the global “democracy” on the faith they have in the thing that has power over physiology and is able to form emotions, thoughts, behaviors, and feelings. It enables the image of the beast to live and speak through them. They are conformed to their place in life by what they say and do as they are groomed to the mark of the beast.

Through the faith of Abraham, the Holy Spirit revealed the purpose of Christ’s coming, which is summed up like this, “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

God told Abraham to sacrifice his only biological son, like an animal sacrifice, for the atonement of sin. Abraham was past the age of one hundred, and God had already promised him that his descendants would be as many as the stars. If he sacrificed Isaac, that would end his hope of having any descendants. He believed God’s promise to give him many descendants and at the same time had faith to sacrifice his son as a sin offering. Abraham believed God was able to raise Isaac from the dead to fulfill his promise of many offspring. Abraham laid Isaac on the altar, had the knife raised in the air, and at that moment an angel of God told him not to do it. A ram appeared, caught in the thickets, and Abraham was able to make the sacrifice with the ram.

Faith Enabled the Prophecy of Blessings to Come through Jesus Christ.

“By faith Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau concerning things to come.
Hebrews 11:20

Today, the followers of Jesus Christ continually talk about the blessings that will be ours when we are resurrected from the dead to inherit eternal life. On that day, the shackles and burdens of this life will be removed as we enter the Paradise of God. All of those blessings are by faith since we don’t have an actual picture from beyond the grave. The faith we have today has been formed by the faith of our ancestors many years ago. For example, Isaac blessed Jacob by faith believing he would inherit the blessings of what would come. He blessed Esau by faith believing that he would be relieved of his shackles and burdens. By our faith in Jesus Christ, the burdens and shackles of sin rolls away, and we believe in the future of eternal life to come.

The world today is forming a future without faith in the blessings of an afterlife. They keep all things focused on what can be explained by human rationale, which means this perishing world is all there is for them. Their faith is in the thing which forms their thoughts, behaviors, feelings, and speech which wears the clothing of humanism.

Jacob, whose name was changed to Israel (Genesis 32:27-28), is the father of the twelve tribes of Israel, the twelve tribes are his twelve biological sons. Usually, the older of the sons receive the father’s blessing, but this time the younger received the blessing. That is the Holy Spirit speaking to us that those who come to Jesus Christ would be more esteemed than the Jewish nation itself. The Jewish nation being the older and Christianity coming afterwards as the younger. Jacob is a son of Isaac, and Isaac is the son of Abraham. Through Jacob and the twelve tribes, God’s promise would be fulfilled to Abraham of making his descendants as many as the stars. Those descendants include all of us who accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.

Faith Enabled the Prophecy of Being Adopted into the Family of God.

By faith Jacob, when he was dying, blessed each of the sons of Joseph,
and worshiped, leaning on the top of his staff.”
Hebrews 11:21

Ephraim and Manasseh are the names of Joseph’s sons. They were not Jacob’s sons and technically would not have been blessed by Jacob. This was a form of Jacob adopting Joseph’s sons into his family (the twelve tribes of Israel). In fact, Ephraim and Manasseh became what is known as “half-tribes” but both together formed one tribe, which replaced the tribe of Joseph. Likewise, as non-Jews, we technically would not have a place within God’s family, but through Jesus Christ we have been adopted.

Ephraim the younger was blessed before Manasseh the older (which recurs several times throughout the Bible where the younger is blessed before the older). That symbolizes Christianity receiving a greater blessing over the Jewish nation. Christianity was the second born and the Israelites were the first born. The only way to inherit the blessings of God is by coming to Jesus Christ for the remission of the sin.

The faith of the followers of Jesus Christ is to believe that we have been adopted into the family of God through Jesus Christ. There are no adoption papers to verify that we are part of the Jewish nation, but we are part of God’s family through the Jewish family tree. Jesus was Jewish, and by His blood we become children of God. “He predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of His will.” Ephesians 1:5 The world today has been formed by the faith our ancestors had in the adoption process.

The future world is being formed without the faith of being adopted into the family of God through Jesus Christ. If a person is not part of the social network that lives by the thing which forms what they think, feel, do, and speak, then they are like orphans in an unGodly world. It creates an image of the masses of homeless migrants around the world who have little hope of being adopted into a welcoming society. Without the Gospel of Jesus Christ being presented to them, they are without the hope of being adopted into the family of God.

Joseph is one 0f the twelve tribes of Israel, a son of Jacob. Joseph is also the one whom his brothers threw into a pit and told Jacob he was killed by a wild animal. He is also the same Joseph that became a very powerful leader for the Egyptians, until the day that he died. Joseph’s two sons, Ephraim and Manasseh, were adopted into the tribe of Joseph by Jacob. Jacob blessed the younger first and then the older, which is the Holy Spirit telling us once again that adopted Christianity would receive a greater blessing than the Jewish nation. That greater blessing is a result of coming to God to through Jesus Christ.

Faith Enables Us to Talk About Freedom from Sin and Eternal Life.

“By faith Joseph, when he was dying, made mention of the departure of the children of Israel,
and gave instructions concerning his bones.”
Hebrews 11:22

Down through the ages, the world has been formed by belief in the future destination within the New Jerusalem. From the very last breaths from the followers of Jesus Christ comes the words of the eternal hope. We want our bones to be carried into the Paradise of God. From our very last breaths, we want others to prepare for eternal life by departing from captivity to sin by living for Jesus. Up to the very last turbulent days of this old and perishing world, the promised land will be talked about and prepared for by the faithful few.

The future of this world is being formed without any faith in a promised land beyond this world. They have no thoughts of where they want to be after their death, and they have no thoughts about future generations departing the captivity of this unGoldy world. They will always be enslaved to the turbulence and tribulation of this present world. They have chosen to live by the thing which forms what they think, feel, do, and speak in the name humanism.

Joseph died as a powerful leader of the Egyptians, yet he believed the Word of God about the flight of the Jewish people from Egypt. He even gave instructions to his brothers for his bones to be carried out of Egypt. That is talked about in Genesis 50, then the Israelites escaped Egypt later in Exodus. Joseph spoke of the departure of Israel from Egypt in search for the promised land because he believed the Word of God spoken to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (his father) about leaving Egypt to find the land of milk and honey. Even from the very last breaths that he breathed, he believed in the heavenly country. That faith has formed our world today, as we believe the Word of God about having eternal life through Jesus Christ.

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“….to you who do not hold to her teaching and have not learned Satan’s so-called deep secrets,“
‘I will not impose any other burden on you, except to hold on to what you have until I come.’”
“I am coming soon. Hold on to what you have, so that no one will take your crown.”
Revelation 2:24-25, 3:11