Restoration Ministries International

• To mutually establish a biblically-based way of life free from slanted Bible interpretations and heresy, read:   

“General Rules of Biblical Interpretation.”

• To remain free of the bitter hatred of contemporary politics and have the heart of our Lord Jesus, read:   

“True Patriots Are Bible-based Constitutionalists.”

December 2, 2023

Our Heavenly Father Doesn’t Just Give Suggestions

Dear Friends in Christ Jesus our Lord,

Please download Teaching Email, The boldness of the righteous inspires making our Lord Jesus known. In it we offer you a glimpse into a particular way our Lord Jesus uses the two of us in the world around us. It's not what we do, but how the Spirit of our Lord uses us as we stay repentant. We see ourselves as fellow pilgrims with you heading for our salvation. And it's our joy to fill you in on some of what the Holy Spirit has accomplished through us by grace during 47 years of following Jesus as our Lord and 30 years of applying the Hebraic foundations to our life motives and goals and purposes.

In past materials we've reaffirmed your need to initially perceive and understand God and His relationship with humanity from the Older Testament, the Hebrew Scriptures. These are foundational for you to internalize Who Jesus is and why He had to die for your sins and rise up in glory. If you've never read the Older Testament with this specific intent of marveling at God's amazing grace and His eternal plan of Jesus becoming man, then we strongly encourage you to start with Genesis, Exodus, and Judges. You'll clearly see His love and compassion as well as His chastisement and judgment. No matter what you may have been taught, our God hasn’t changed in character or purpose from one testament to the other. From His perspective, His entire Word is all a continuum!

God's Two Types Of Commands: Do You Obey Them Both?

During a recent prayer walk the Holy Spirit revealed to us an “advantage”, if you will, which we had at the beginning of our faith walk and His sanctifying work in us. We told you before that Mike became a follower of our Lord Jesus after reading through the Bible from beginning to end twice while he was still in the navy. Last week the Spirit showed us that a particular aspect of the Bible had an especially penetrating effect on Mike those many years ago as he was studying it: the reality of His two types of commands. God’s Word contains 613 commands in the Older Testament and 1,050 in the Newer Testament — good and righteous commands because of Who gave them! And because He is the Sovereign Author of His Word, He has every right to command and instruct and direct all His Creation.

Navy regulations provided Mike the freedom and boundaries of being a military officer and pilot. And the commands in God’s Word does the same for those who love and serve Jesus as Lord of their lives. Along with the commands God has in His Word He also gives specific commands (rhema) to an individual to guide that person to complete His will. Mike realized that this paralleled the specific commands which senior officers gave him (see Joshua 6:2-5; 2Samuel 5:22-25, or just type “the Lord said” into a concordance for examples). He was especially impacted by the account of our Lord’s conversation with the Roman Centurion (Matthew 8:1-10). This military leader responded to Jesus the way any soldier (or sailor) worth his salt would: “For I myself am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. I tell this one, ‘Go,’ and he goes; and that one, ‘Come,’ and he comes. I say to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it” (Matthew 8:9). Scripture records amazement in Jesus at this kind of trust — and also an indictment against the unbelieving in Israel: “When Jesus heard this, He was amazed and said to those following Him, “Truly I tell you, I have not found anyone in Israel with such great faith” (Matthew 8:10). The Centurion understood very well the authoritative nature of God’s overall commands as well as His specific commands (rhema) to him.

Our fervent hope as we write to you is to encourage you to live repentantly, forsaking any sin and pressing onward in love-grounded obedient trust in Jesus as your Lord. As you turn away from any sin in your life, the indwelling Holy Spirit keeps sanctifying you. He empowers you to walk according to God’s commands in the Bible and to stay eager to hear and obey His specific commands out of love for Jesus and for others. This divine interaction inspires boldness in you to represent our Lord Jesus in the midst of a very needy, lost and confused world. Everything about being a true representative of our Lord Jesus in this world depends on His followers staying repentant, cleansed and empowered by His Spirit to do our Father's will. We welcome you in being blessed in living the ‘way of our Lord’.

Mike & Sue