I started this series one year ago by asking several basic questions about life as a human being –

  • Why do we exist?
  • Why are we here on planet Earth?
  • What’s my purpose in life?
  • What does the future hold for me?
  • What will happen to me after I die?
  • Why is there evil in the world?
  • Why did God create the devil?

My hope is that I’ve answered these questions to your satisfaction in the previous 51 chapters. You’ll find a link to all of the chapters at the end of this article. What I’d like to do in this last chapter of ‘Train to Reign‘ is look again at the basics of our training during these years on earth. Based on what we read in Scripture, God’s people need to be reminded – often.

The Seed

God promised the human race that He would send ‘the Seed of the woman’ to destroy the seed of the serpent (Genesis 3:15). As we follow God’s plan through the generations we learn that the ‘Seed’ would come through the Jewish tribe of Judah

Judah, you are he whom your brothers shall praise; Your hand shall be on the neck of your enemies;
Your father’s children shall bow down before you. Judah is a lion’s whelp; From the prey, my son, you have gone up. He bows down, he lies down as a lion; And as a lion, who shall rouse him? The scepter shall not depart from Judah, Nor a lawgiver from between his feet, Until Shiloh comes; And to Him shall be the obedience of the people. Binding his donkey to the vine, And his donkey’s colt to the choice vine, He washed his garments in wine, And his clothes in the blood of grapes. His eyes are darker than wine, And his teeth whiter than milk. Genesis 49:8-12

But one of the elders said to me, ‘Do not weep. Behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has prevailed to open the scroll and to loose its seven seals.’ Revelation 5:5

Jesus Christ is that Royal Lion. He has the Name that is above all other names in the universe –

… and what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power which He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality and power and might and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in that which is to come. And He put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all. Ephesians 1:19-23

 Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but  made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. Philippians 2:5-11

Jesus is also the Root and Branch that came from Jesse – the father of King David of the tribe of Judah –

There shall come forth a Rod from the stem of Jesse, And a Branch shall grow out of his roots. The Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon Him, The Spirit of wisdom and understanding, The Spirit of counsel and might, The Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord. His delight is in the fear of the Lord, And He shall not judge by the sight of His eyes, Nor decide by the hearing of His ears; But with righteousness He shall judge the poor, And decide with equity for the meek of the earth; He shall strike the earth with the rod of His mouth, And with the breath of His lips He shall slay the wicked. Righteousness shall be the belt of His loins, And faithfulness the belt of His waist. Isaiah 11:1-5

Jesus Christ is the Promised Seed, Promised Root and Branch of Jesse, and Promised King of Israel – the Son of David who will reign over Israel forever and ever –

And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bring forth a Son, and shall call His name Jesus. He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Highest; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David. And He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of His kingdom there will be no end. Luke 1:31-33

Jesus Christ is the Eternal Son of God. He is ‘above all things’ and ‘holds all things together’ –

He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or  powers. All things were created through Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist. And He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have the preeminence. Colossians 1:15-18

The Five Training Basics

I chose FIVE training basics for this series. Most all of the training skills we will need to ‘train to reign’ are found in these five –

  1. Believe in the Only True God (Monotheism)
  2. Fear God and Obey Him
  3. Worship God and Serve Him
  4. Listen to God and Trust Him
  5. Love God and Devote Your Life to Him

Believe

You may remember in some of the early chapters of this series that God’s people struggled with believing that God is the Only True God. Paganism (idol worship) was a primary belief of the ancient world and impacted God’s people as well as the rest of the human race.

When God gave His Law to Moses, belief in God alone topped the list –

I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. ‘You shall have no other gods before Me.’ ‘You shall not make for yourself a carved image—any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; you shall not bow down to them nor serve them.’ Exodus 20:2-5

The other nations of the world were bowing to carved images of false gods, but God commanded Israel not to do that. Israel was supposed to be different than all the other nations. Unfortunately, Israel disobeyed for centuries and paid terribly for their disobedience. It’s also unfortunate that many Christians today are disobeying this training basic and turning their ‘churches’ and homes into places for pagan-style worship. They may not have a ‘carved image’ on the nightstand, but they are more committed to New Age thinking and practices than real Christian teaching. They have bought into ‘doctrines of demons’ over the teachings of Christ and His apostles.

The Galatians had a similar problem –

But then, indeed, when you did not know God, you served those which by nature are not gods. But now after you have known God, or rather are known by God, how is it that you turn again to the weak and beggarly elements, to which you desire again to be in bondage? Galatians 4:8-9

Why would Galatian Christians want to return to the very things that once held them in spiritual bondage? I could ask the same question of a majority of Christians in churches across our country today. Why practice those things now that kept you from knowing the love and mercy of God in the past? Why?

Believing in God is far more than intellectual assent. As James wrote – ‘You believe that there is one God. You do well. Even the demons believe—and tremble!’ Real belief in God is a deep and abiding commitment to the God of Heaven. To believe is to obey.

Obey

Israel disobeyed God for generations and centuries. The Apostle Peter called the religious leaders on their disobedience when they faced the Sanhedrin and the potential of more imprisonment and even death for their belief in the risen Christ –

But Peter and the other apostles answered and said: ‘We ought to obey God rather than men. The God of our fathers raised up Jesus whom you murdered by hanging on a tree. Him God has exalted to His right hand to be Prince and Savior, to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins. And we are His witnesses to these things, and so also is the Holy Spirit whom God has given to those who obey Him. Acts 5:29-32

God gives the Holy Spirit to those who ‘obey’ Him. How do we obey God? We believe and ‘do’ what He says. God’s offer is not hard to understand, though it does seem hard for many to do.

Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved, you and your household. Acts 16:31

But what does it say? ‘The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart’ (that is, the word of faith which we preach): that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. For the Scripture says, ‘Whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame.’ For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, for the same Lord over all is rich to all who call upon Him. For ‘whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.’ Romans 10:8-13

 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. Ephesians 2:8-10

Continued obedience to God is expected within the teaching of the Bible, but what about those Christians who do not obey?

But as for you, brethren, do not grow weary in doing good. And if anyone does not obey our word in this epistle, note that person and do not keep company with him, that he may be ashamed. Yet do not count him as an enemy, but admonish him as a brother. 2 Thessalonians 3:13-15

We have a responsibility to admonish and guide our fellow Christians toward a life of obedience to God and His Word.

Worship and Serve

Belief in God and obedience to Him should lead to a lifestyle of ‘worship and service.’ Jesus said this to the Samaritan woman at the well –

But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.’ John 4:23-24

The Greek word translated ‘worship’ is προσκυνέω (proskunéō) and means ‘do reverence to, do obeisance to.’ This carried the idea of falling to the ground (either on one knee or prostrate) and kissing the ground before a superior. It is an act of ‘adoration.’ Belief in and obedience to God will lead to a worshipful adoration of our Creator.

During the time that the devil ‘tested’ Jesus in the wilderness, Jesus replied – ‘Away with you, Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only you shall serve’ (Matthew 4:10). Worship of God should also lead to ‘service.’ To say that we love God and worship Him, yet do not serve Him, is a contradiction of terms and intent. Service naturally follows worship.

Listen and Trust

One of my favorite Bible verses is Proverbs 3:5-10 –

Trust in the Lord with all your heart, And lean not on your own understanding; In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He shall direct your paths.

The wisdom from King Solomon for us today is that we should listen to God and not to others. We should not ‘lean’ on our own understanding of things, but trust in the Lord ‘with all your heart.’ We should ‘acknowledge God’ knowing that He will direct our paths.

Question – how do you know what to trust if you haven’t been listening? How do you acknowledge something you haven’t heard?

Listening to God means ‘hearing’ what He says. How do we know what God says? By reading what He says –

God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds. Hebrews 1:1-2

Notice that God ‘spoke’ in time past to the ‘fathers’ by the ‘prophets. In these ‘last days’ God has ‘spoken to us by His Son.’ We ‘trust’ God by ‘listening’ to what He has said through the prophets and through His Son, Jesus Christ. We know from what Jesus said that the Holy Spirit would guide the apostles into ‘all truth’ and that they would record that truth for us to hear.

When you read the Bible, you are ‘listening’ to God. When you are praying, you are ‘speaking’ to God. When you pray Scripture, you are listening and responding. That’s how God will ‘direct our paths.’

Love and Devotion

Jesus answered him, ‘The first of all the commandments is: ‘Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ This is the first commandment. Mark 12:29-31

To love someone with ‘all’ your heart, soul, mind, and strength is certainly a great love. It is also a great devotion. To love and devote yourself to God with every part of yourself means there is no place for selfish love. There is no place for loving anything that would distract or remove you from the full devotional love of God.

This sounds humanly impossible given our tendencies toward selfish behavior, so how do we do it? We learn through imitation –

Therefore be imitators of God as dear children. And walk in love, as Christ also has loved us and given Himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling aroma. Ephesians 5:1-2

God – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit – is our example to imitate. We walk ‘in love’ (live our lives in love) by imitating Jesus Christ who loved us and gave Himself for us. Will that be a challenging thing to do as long as we live in this body of flesh? Yes, but that doesn’t mean we should not strive toward being like Christ –

For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 6:10-11

Subdue and Reign

An important part of ‘subduing’ as we ‘train to reign’ is to learn the lessons of ‘reckoning’ ourselves to be dead to sin, ‘but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.’ The Greek word translated ‘reckon’ is λογίζομαι (logízomai). It means ‘to consider’ based upon logical and reasonable thinking. It comes from the root word for ‘logic’ and carries the idea of using reason to reach a logical conclusion.

To ‘reckon’ ourselves dead to sin is a reasonable and logical conclusion to reach based on what God has done for us through Jesus Christ. We have no reason to consider ourselves alive to sin given that Jesus defeated sin and death through His crucifixion and resurrection. A Christian who thinks differently than that is illogical and unreasonable in their conclusion.

Free eBooks

My hope and prayer is that this year-long (52-part) series has been helpful as you seek God’s will for your life. The eBooks that have come from this series are available free of charge, so please download and share with others as God leads.

You can download the first 13 chapters of this series here.

You can download chapters 14 – 24 of this series here.

You can download chapters 25 – 30 of this series here.

You can download chapters 31 – 39 of this series here.

You can download chapters 40 – 48 of this series here.

You can download chapters 49 – 52 of this series here.

You can download the entire series here.

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