The Interplay Between Precept and Doctrine
Transcript Excerpt
“For this cause I Paul, the prisoner of Jesus Christ for you Gentiles, [2] if ye have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God which is given me to you-ward…” (Ephesians 3:1-2). Paul was speaking of the dispensation of the gospel of Christ. Part of the big burden of the Lord on the hearts of God’s servants (our parents and pastors) in the house, is the dispensation of the gospel of God. It is there in the Bible, overwhelmingly, from the old testament up to the New Testament but the specific burden of the Lord is that the dispensation that He has been proclaiming in every of our meetings which is everlasting life will be open.
There are gospels. There is the gospel of Christ (Rom. 10:15). “And how shall they preach, except they be sent? as it is written, How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things!” (Romans 10:15). In times past, before this season, when we read this portion, we just glided over it. It did not feel like it now feels with the eyes of doctrine and of the knowledge of God. What is being said here is that there are two gospels in this portion.
“For we have not followed cunningly devised fables, when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of his majesty.” (2 Peter 1:16). What Apostle Peter is saying is that what he followed was not a cunningly crafted story but they actually followed the power, and also the coming of the Lord Jesus. So, what Peter rendered in the above scripture is the same thing Paul rendered in Romans 10:15. He called it ‘them that preach the gospel of peace and bring glad tidings of good things’. There are two gospels in the New Testament. There are two gospels in the gospel. You do not teach these gospels to an unbeliever. When you teach an unbeliever, you tell them the goodness of Jesus and how He died for them. What you teach an unbeliever is for him to be born again. After that, you now teach him milk of the word, which is not part of these two gospels.
One thing Satan has worked on in humanity is that he has empowered us to be strong where we should be weak and has made us weak where we should be strong. A silent work has been worked in us that we become discouraged when it comes to learning the gospels which we do not do when it comes to our natural occupation. Unconsciously, a work has been worked in us which makes us murmur when it comes to the things of God making it feel so burdensome; it is the work of the adversary. We are firstly given the milk of the word when we become born again
“And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ.” (1 Corinthians 3:1). When we are born again, though our spirit is recreated to be a new man, in our soul, heart and mind we are babies in the things of God. By reason of the makeup of the gospel in Paul, he struggled to preach Christ (spiritual things) to the Corinthian brethren. The only thing that the life of the spirit in him could do is to preach the milk of the word. After being born again, people are fed the milk of the word which is a meal that turns a baby into a healthy child. These two gospels – the first being the gospel of peace (or the power of God) is what you give to a child. Milk makes the baby a healthy child if he is given the right milk. A healthy baby will be given the teaching of Christ which Peter calls the ‘power of God’, and Paul calls it ‘the gospel of peace’.
In the last couple of years in our community, the Lord has brought the gospel of Christ to us. Paul in Ephesians 3:1-2 is talking about the dispensation of the gospel of Christ which is among the first things that God gave to him and that gospel is meant to make the soul of a child that has been healed from carnality to becoming spiritual. In the last couple of years, our parents have labored, and all our daddy was talking about for a season was the faith of the Son, because what a well fed child can stay on and see as another education is the preaching of Christ. In the spirit, we do not jump courses; we must finish with one before another is brought to us. The blessing of our generation under our parents is that even a person who is being taken through the milk of the word at the stage of his life still has access to his allocation in the gospel of Christ and the current emphasis of heaven over our company.
The reason for believers’ convention is to strengthen milk, to strengthen the preaching of Christ, but more importantly according to the burden of the Lord for the season, it is to lay the slabs of everlasting life; laying them is to set them in order. The burden of the Lord, as He came to His servant, is much more than the precepts of the teaching of everlasting life.
“Whom shall he teach knowledge? and whom shall he make to understand doctrine? them that are weaned from the milk, and drawn from the breasts.” (Isaiah 28:9). Those who are being weaned from the milk are healthy children. What translated them from being spiritual babies in their heart and mind to being children is the milk of the word. The Lord weans them and begins to bring knowledge and doctrine. The first knowledge is the knowledge and doctrine of Christ, the knowledge and doctrine of the Son of God. The Lord through his servant began to spell to us that knowledge is the giving of precepts; precepts are revelations. There is a spirit of precepts or knowledge.
When a minister is teaching, he might be teaching with the senses of doctrine, but you cannot hear doctrine immediately; you must first take precepts. Precept is the orderly laying of the thoughts of God, how thoughts are arranged. Precepts must be upon precepts. When I am hearing knowledge, I am hearing precepts which is a must for anyone that must hear doctrine.
Doctrine is the animation of the laws of precepts. The things that we know; this means that we can store up precepts. We are meant to know precepts. You may never get to doctrine if you do not know precepts. Precepts come before doctrine, it is the knowledge which we should know with our mind. We should know how they are arranged. Doctrine is life. Doctrine is God further coming after he has given precepts to now show how precepts will be lived . Doctrine is also called the spirit of the precept.
It is possible to be full of precepts but most importantly, we must find entrance to lines too. Line is how they measure us. A man can be higher in precepts yet a dwarf in lines. Lines are life, which means how we are in life, not how we are in precepts. In the book of Ezekiel, an angel was sent with a measuring reed to measure. Doctrine are measurements into life. Everytime a leading of the spirit comes after having known precepts or revelation, you are being shown the ‘how’, how to live out the precepts as a lifestyle.
Doctrine is derived from the word ‘doctor’ because every man is sick; it is the prescription of spiritual medicine to turn knowledge into life. It can be as simple as learning how to honour your wife. The devil in homes fights us with lines, not just precepts. The reason for doctrine or instruction is to make sure we come into commensurate life. When doctrine comes, instruction comes and it might just be an impression or dream; anyhow it comes, all the Lord is saying is that we should come and measure up in lifestyle according to the knowledge you know.
“And lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure.” (2 Corinthians 12:7). Paul had an abundance of revelation but he said ‘lest I should be exalted above measure’ Exaltation is in doing doctrine. Doctrine is not just knowledge, rather it is the understanding of the life that knowledge is meant to produce in us.
Part of the burden of the Lord is that we will begin to come into proper sense by the mercies of the Lord, proper discernment of what doctrine means and come into commensurate doctrine. We will be a people that will be doctored; Satan has doctored us wrongly but the Lord wants to doctor us. In the place of doctrine is ways, and a person that allows for ways is a person that allows the giving of spirit, till they discover that they are healed. This mountain is a mountain of healing; there is a grace to convert our precepts into doctrine.
Blessings!