Heavenly Will Faith
An all-creatures Bible Message

Heavenly Will Faith
 
A Sermon Delivered to
The Compassion Internet Church
 
21 February 2021
 
Frank L. Hoffman, Pastor

Scripture References

Genesis 9:8-17
1 Peter 3:18-22
 
Heavenly will faith is having complete belief and trust in everything that Jesus taught us about His Father and being as nearly perfect as our heavenly Father is perfect.
 
Obviously, being that perfect is probably not completely possible until we are free from the corrupt and ungodly ways of this world.
 
But doing everything in our will to live in God’s heavenly will brings us closer to the perfection that God desires us to have.
 
Also, we are to have His unconditional love, compassion, and empathy for the whole of His creation.
 
Furthermore, we need to remember that it is the corruption and violence of the world that causes millions of humans and billions of animals to suffer and die every year, which is counter to the heavenly will of God.
 
We also need to remember that the Bible contains both God’s commandments and some of His concessions, but the concessions are counter to His heavenly will, such as the eating of animals in the concession in Genesis 9.
 
Do we have the heavenly will faith to avoid these worldly ways and live in His heavenly will?
 
Genesis 9:8-17 follows the portion of scripture where God granted a concession to the hard-of-heart people to eat animals, and we know it is only a concession because it comes with a curse which is still plaguing us today.
 
8. Then God spoke to Noah and to his sons with him, saying,
 
9. "Now behold, I Myself do establish My covenant with you, and with your descendants after you;
 
This is a very interesting covenant and we need to really think about what God is saying.
 
10. and with every living creature that is with you, the birds, the cattle, and every beast of the earth with you; of all that comes out of the ark, even every beast of the earth.
 
This covenant is not only with Noah and his descendants, but He is establishing it with every animal as well.
 
Why would God also establish this covenant with the animals, if He had just condemned some of them to die at the hands of gluttonous human beings?
 
Could it be that He didn’t expect humans to continually kill animals?
 
We just don’t know.
 
11. And I establish My covenant with you; and all flesh shall never again be cut off by the water of the flood, neither shall there again be a flood to destroy the earth."
 
Matthew Henry states in his commentary on these verses that the bow represents a spiritual bow, as an archer’s bow and the flood as being caused by one of His arrows (judgements), and that means that God would never use this flood arrow again, but that He had other arrows in His quiver with which to inflict other judgements upon the earth.
 
If we think about this, then another arrow was already shot with the concession to eat animals, for that arrow brought the curses that come with eating animals, such as all the chronic diseases and viruses that plague us even to this very day.
 
To us, these chronic diseases and viruses are proof that the eating of animals is counter to the heavenly will of God and can never be a part of heavenly will faith.
 
12. And God said, "This is the sign of the covenant which I am making between Me and you and every living creature that is with you, for all successive generations;
 
This is a perpetual covenant that will last as long as we last upon this earth.
 
13. I set My bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a sign of a covenant between Me and the earth.
 
To us it is also a reminder that eating animals is not in the heavenly will of God.
 
Most people see this bow as being a rainbow, but a rainbow is not seen in the cloud, it is seen in the rain when the sun is shinning from our backs as we look toward the rain, and nothing is said about any rain or the sun shining.
 
14. And it shall come about, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the bow shall be seen in the cloud,
 
And again the statement is repeated, but with the flood it rained for 40 days and 40 nights, and the rainbow and the sunshine were not mentioned, so if we include the rain and the sunshine, it does confirm the covenant, but then why weren’t the rain and the sun mentioned?
 
15. and I will remember My covenant, which is between Me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and never again shall the water become a flood to destroy all flesh.
 
This makes sense, if it means that when God sees the rainbow in the rain, and not the bow in the cloud, but then again, why aren’t either seeing the rain or the sun mentioned in these verses?
 
Could it be because God wanted people who have heavenly will faith to question these things and come to the understanding that this covenant is also a reminder of the plagues that come with eating animals, so that we wouldn’t join in with the worldly people?
 
16. When the bow is in the cloud, then I will look upon it, to remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth."
 
I keep thinking that there is no bow in the cloud, but there are glories which are rainbow-like circles usually around a shadow of someone standing on the top of a mountain or of an airplane.
 
When I was a pilot flying with the sun to my back, I would often see them in a cloud ahead of me and actually fly right through the center of them, but then again this is not what the Bible is talking about.
 
17. And God said to Noah, "This is the sign of the covenant which I have established between Me and all flesh that is on the earth."
NASB
 
And remember that following Noah’s killing and sacrificing animals at the end of the Flood, God said that humans were evil from their youth.
 
So until we have a better explanation, we have to settle for the explanation that the Bible is referring to an actual rainbow, and that this is the covenant between God and all other living souls.
 
But the main thing we believe is that we are to see that the curses that come with the human consumption of animal products, are the curses that God set in motion when He gave humans the concession to eat animals, and we strongly believe that COVID-19 is one of them.
 
Let’s close our discussion for today by looking at 1 Peter 3:18-22…
 
18. For Christ also died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, in order that He might bring us to God, having been put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit;
 
This is true, but we don’t believe that it is mutually exclusive from the fact that Jesus was murdered because He challenged the religious hierarchy on many fronts, but perhaps mostly because He challenged their animal sacrifice “business.”
 
19. in which also He went and made proclamation to the spirits now in prison,
 
We are not sure whether or not Jesus went in the spirit to the spirits in prison (perhaps hell), or that His words went to them just as they do to us today.
 
20. who once were disobedient, when the patience of God kept waiting in the days of Noah, during the construction of the ark, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through the water.
 
Did all the people who were not on the ark go to hell?
 
We are not told, but they and the others who have died in the corrupt and ungodly ways of this world could be the ones referred to in verse 19 above.
 
21. And corresponding to that, baptism now saves you — not the removal of dirt from the flesh, but an appeal to God for a good conscience — through the resurrection of Jesus Christ,
 
This doesn’t mean that if anyone gets dunked in water that they are saved; rather it means that believers’ baptisms save people, and we also believe that simply through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, people can be saved.
 
It’s really the faith that saves coupled with His grace and mercy.
 
22. who is at the right hand of God, having gone into heaven, after angels and authorities and powers had been subjected to Him.
NASB
 
This is the power of salvation.
 
As long as we understand this and live by it, we have heavenly will faith.
 
Amen?
 
Amen.

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