Musings on the Tough Life Questions

SIX STEPS TO THE THRONE Gary Garner Lesson Five:  RAISED     1 Kings 10: 18 Moreover, the king made a great throne of ivory, and overlaid it with the best gold. 19 The throne had six steps, and the top of the throne was round behind: and there were stays on either side on the place of the seat, and two lions stood beside the stays. 20 And twelve lions stood there on the one side and on the other upon the six steps: there was not the like made in any kingdom. This king was Solomon; he had a kingdom that best typifies what the kingdom of God is symbolized as in the scriptures. The war was over; David, his predecessor, had defeated all the enemies; and he was just enjoying the spoils of victory that David had wrought.  Just like this kingdom that we are enjoying spiritually. The King, Jesus, who has defeated all the enemies, produces all that we are enjoying and we are enjoying that. As this kingdom grows within us, we have this expressed symbolically by Solo...

SIX STEPS TO THE THRONE Gary Garner Lesson Four:  QUICKENED       We’ve gone through three steps; this is the fourth one. We have covered being crucified, died with Christ, and being buried with Him.  First we will proclaim from the scriptures that you have been quickened, or made alive, with Christ.We’re going to do it by using two scriptures. I Peter 3:18 For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit. Where the King James says by the Spirit, actually the Greek says “ in” the Spirit. When it says “being put to death in the flesh,” that word “ in” is the same Greek word that is translated “ by” in “but quickened by the Spirit.” It has to be translated “but put to death in the flesh, but quickened in the Spirit.” That second one doesn’t make any sense at all.  But “quickened in the Spirit” - Jesus was quickened. That word quicke...

SIX STEPS TO THE THRONE Gary Garner Lesson Three:  BURIED We would like to begin this phase of our study by focusing our attention on the number “six” in scripture.  Numbers in the Word have symbolic meanings. By understanding these meanings you can get a clearer view of what the Holy Spirit is revealing in a passage of scripture. In the book of Ruth we see that Ruth was given six measures of barley (Ruth 3:15,17) . Jesus filled up six waterpots with water and turned them into wine (John 2:6). The candlestick in Moses’ Tabernacle had one central shaft and then six branches (Ex 25:32).  You remember that on the table of shewbread, the bread was divided into two stacks of six each. I think it would be beneficial, as we continue this series on “Six Steps to the Throne,”  to show you how many times the number “six” is spoken of in scripture. There is something important about those six things that Jesus did.  The Bible says when they were bringing back...

SIX STEPS TO THE THRONE Gary Garner Lesson Two:  DIED   1 King 10:18, 19 Moreover the king made a great throne of ivory, and overlaid it with the best gold.  The throne had six steps, and the top of the throne was round behind; and there were stays on either side on the place of the seat, and two lions stood beside the stays.   Solomon’s kingdom is the most perfect type of the kingdom of God that we have in our Old Testament.  We believe that the Old Testament contains visual aids of spiritual truths.  The kingdom of God is a future thing, but it is also a present thing. Jesus said in Luke’s gospel that the kingdom of God does not come with observation, but he said, behold, the kingdom of God is within you. There has first got to be an awareness of the kingdom of God within us before we are ever going to see the kingdom of God manifested in this earth. We find here that the throne of that king had six steps to it.  I guess if there is a st...