BLESSED ASSURANCES

My Dear Precious Child,
    After Jesus Christ took the disciples aside and told them that eventually He would go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders of the temple, the high priests and the lawmaking scribes, He told them that He would be killed and on the third day rise from the dead.   Then He took Peter aside and filled him in more completely on what was going to happen to Him.  Peter reacted violently to the news of what was actually going to happen to Jesus Christ, telling Him that God must forbid that plan that was going to happen to His Lord.  (Matthew 16:21-22)  Jesus vehemently turned away from Peter and said, "Get behind Me, Satan.  You are in My way, a hindrance and a snare to Me, for you are minding what is of the flesh and not what is of the Spirit. " (Matthew 16:23)
     Jesus launched into a teaching relating to things that are of the flesh of man and things that are of My Holy Spirit.  He told the disciples that anyone who desires to be His disciple needs to deny the things that are of the flesh, take up his own personal cross and follow Jesus Christ, being conformed into His example in living and even in dying.   He told them that anyone who is determined to save the security of his fleshly life will lose it, and anyone who loses his fleshly life for His sake, shall find the magnificent power of eternal life, the same life-giving power that was in Christ Jesus.  He told the disciples that it would not profit a person if he or she gains the whole world but loses the magnificent life that was going to be offered to the person in My kingdom of God when My plans took place in the earth.  (Matthew 16:24-26)
    Jesus then revealed to His disciples what was going to happen soon after He was crucified and rose from the dead.  He told them that He was going to come, along with Me and My angels, to call to account what had been done in the flesh, meaning that My judgment for the demons who had cursed the earth would receive their judgment from Me beginning on that day, the day of Pentecost when My Holy Spirit and My kingdom of God would descend upon the earth in the lives of all of the people who were waiting in the upper room for My promise. ( Matthew 16:27)  Jesus even told His disciples the approximate time when it would happen.  He told them that there were some of them sitting there listening to His words who would not die in the flesh before they saw Him, Jesus Christ the Son of Man, coming in His kingdom into the earth. (Matthew 16:28) 
    The disciples did not realize what they were hearing, that the event prophesied by the old covenant prophets was that My new and final covenant with humanity would come through Jesus Christ.  They did not realize that My plan included Jesus' crucifixion, death, visit to hell where He defeated the devil and took from him the authority to the earth and heavens, His being catapulted back from hell into the earth by the power of My Holy Spirit where He appeared to over 400 people and continued teaching about My kingdom of God which was soon to come into the lives of the people who seek Me and My righteousness.  Then Jesus Christ ascended into My heaven to end His ministry in the earth, sending My Holy Spirit, who was His source of power, into the earth to set up My kingdom in the bodies of people in the earth by their being born of My Holy Spirit and baptized in My Holy Spirit.  It was My new covenant, that I would live in people and be their God, writing My words on their hearts and in their minds, one on one, in divine fellowship.  (Jeremiah 31:31-33; Hebrews 8:8-12; Hebrews 10:16-24)
    The disciples of Jesus Christ were being personally taught by My Holy Spirit through the words of Jesus what was going to happen soon when My plan for the salvation of the earth became reality and not just something for the distant future.
    You have the assurance of what was to happen, what did happen, and what is still happening every day in the lives of people just like it happened to you, that Jesus Christ came back to earth in the person of the Holy Spirit and He lives inside of you to be your guide and your ever present help, your protector, your provider, your healer, your Spirit of Truth, and My creator of New Life in you.  He is still creating new beings in the earth with new attitudes, new thoughts, a new prayer language and new actions.  It's called My kingdom of God that has come to live inside of you, making you conquerors over evil in your lives on earth and also your receiving My promise of your coming to live with me in My heaven when your earthly life is over and you become part of the crowd of witnesses who surround you now, just like Jesus did.  (Hebrews 12:1 and 22-25)
    You are a recipient of all that Jesus Christ did for the world, the promise that he made to His disciples.  He is worthy of your constant praise.
    Your Father of Glorious Promises