Charles McPherson - Sons of God: The Authority of the Believer and the Church

I would like to acknowledge and say thank you to those who helped with the edits. Martha Pech and Bette Cox, your help was invaluable. Thank you for all you did.

Introduction

O ur glorious heavenly Father has given us a great salvation that means more with a much higher purpose than meets the eye, so to speak.

My goal in writing this book is to incite a faith and desire for the reader to step out of the confines of normalcy and allow their minds to be stretched to a new level of seeing who we are in Christ. There appears to be a grave misunderstanding of the position and authority God has invested in the believer and the church.

It is not my desire to be critical of what others teach or the church of Jesus Christ as a whole.

I believe now is the time to expand our faith and understanding of what God is saying to us in our day. Of course, this can only be done as God allows.

Christ is soon coming to claim that which belongs to Him. May we all be ready.

My prayer is, as you read what I believe God has given me to write in this book, it will help ready you for the great events that lie just ahead.

Amen.

The Full Blessing of Sonship

For as many as received Him, to them gave He power to become sons of God.

John 1:12

A s Christians we have a wonderful blessing imparted to us, that is the blessing of dwelling in the presence of Jesus Christ for all eternity. But too often we make the serious mistake of believing that Jesus came only for that purpose. There is much, much more purpose to our salvation that is rarely spoken of. If it is mentioned at all, the depth of it would barely wet the bottom of your toes if it were a pool of water. In other words, our doctrine is not very deep; in this case, not very wide either.

In our verse John has given us, we see and understand that there must be a reception of Christ in our lives, a receiving that is supported by true heart belief in the work of the cross and the resurrection of Christ. It also must be confessed with the mouth, as Paul instructs, If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved (Romans 10:9-10).

Scripture teaches us that the power of death and life are in the tongue and leads us to speak life as we confess our faith in the redemptive work of our Lord. There is so much more than mere sound waves going through the air. What we speak has power; how we speak determines the results.

Many lives have been powerfully changed by just a few words. This is why Jesus warns us that we will give account for every idle word that we speak. This is a powerful warning that should be heeded.

Only when we receive Him do we enter the blessing of becoming a son of God. Often, we hear something said like, We are all children of God. This is one of those Bible sayings thats not of the Bible. It stands to reason that we are all sons of Adam, and in that sense, everyone is a child of the Most High, but only in that sense can it be said.

For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. (Rom. 8:14)

In our verse, the words are clear. It is those who are led by the Spirit of God that are called sons of God.

Jesus told the religious leaders of His day, You are of your father, the devil. What Jesus is telling us is that religious affiliation or being a member of humankind does not make us sons of God. Only those who receive him are given the power to become sons of God.

Again, lets look at our chapter verse and the word power . This word in the Greek is exousia, pronounced ex-oo-see-ah , and means privilege, force, capacity, authority, along with a few other meaningful words. There is a privilege along with the authority, force, and capacity poured out on the receiver that enables him to do something that could not be done otherwise.

This word, power , should not be confused with the word power in Acts 1:8: But you shall receive power after that the Holy Spirit is come upon you. This is the Greek word dynamis and means miraculous power or explosive power.

The next word we must study in our verse is become . We have been given the ability to become, the Greek word ginomai , pronounced ghin-om-ahee . The meaning is the same in English for the most part.

To become something would indicate that in the beginning, you have not yet mastered or fully become what you are becoming; in this case, become sons of God or fully matured sons of God.

This is not to say that when one comes to Christ, he or she is not fully a child of God. The scripture is telling us there is a becoming that should take place, a maturing into full-grown sons of the Most High. This is much like when a child is born; he or she is male or female, but does not possess the fullness of a grown adult. Yet, the child is one hundred percent human.

Scripture tells us in Romans 8:14 that it is those who are led by the Spirit of God that are the sons of God. The whole of the process of our salvation is to bring us into the fullness of the Spirit of God that we might live and express the knowledge and presence of Jesus Christ as sons of God.

To accept Christ as Savior and then turn again to this world or to use His great blessing to satisfy the desires of the flesh, while considering oneself a partaker of the fullness of sonship of the Most High God, is surely a serious error. It is a terrible mistake many have been taught.

It seems many believe, once they are saved, they now have the task of waiting for death or the rapture. This is not where the Spirit of God takes us. Scripture is clear: it is those who are led by the Spirit that are called sons of God.

Surely, on our path to maturity when we stumble, our loving Father does not cast us out or remove us from sonship; not at all. He picks us up and encourages us on into His fullness, a fullness He has for everyone who walks with Him.

It is the scripturally expressed desire of our Father that we enter into and walk day by day in the full blessing of sonship.

In order for this to happen, we must come to understand what scripture says about sonship and the authority of the believer.

It is the desire of this author to bring the reader into a greater knowledge of living in the fullness of Christ and sonship. To do this, we must venture back to the beginning as one must understand Gods intent from the beginning.

In the Beginning

Then God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.

Genesis 1:2627

O nce we understand our glorious Fathers desire from the beginning, the journey to a fuller understanding of His desires will be made possible.

In our scripture, we see that the creator of all made man in His own image. In other words, scripture is telling us God made man to look like Him.

Is scripture telling us that God has two arms and two legs? I think scripture as a whole would tell us He certainly appears in this form oftentimes. However, I do not think this is the point being made in the scripture.

Then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature. (Gen. 2:7)

It was the very breath of God that put life into man. This is not said of any other creature. The breath (Spirit) or life of the Almighty is the very power of life that came into man. Our first verse states that man was created in the likeness of God. This meaning in the original is the same as English and means to be the same; not just look the same, but be the same. To say the same in character and integrity does no harm to the intent of scripture here.