Summary of What Jesus Said about Gospel Partnership

David W Palmer

Jesus loves you. He knows and deeply appreciates your willingness to follow in his footsteps; like him, you have temporarily foregone [some of your] divine privileges so you can humbly serve and lay down your life as a full partner in his gospel mission. While on mission for him, he has promised to meet all of your needs and to protect you too. But just as he was exalted at the conclusion of his assignment, he wants you to enjoy the full benefits and shared inheritance of your partnership with him as soon as your assignment allows.

God the Father deeply loved and appreciated all that Jesus did for him in obedience to his gospel mission. Therefore, he reinstated the captain of our salvation to full divine privileges, and gave him ultimate promotion after he arrived back in heaven.

Our Lord Jesus has similar sentiment and rewards for us. Our joint-heir privileges are stored for us in God’s heavenly vault—we are blessed with every blessing in the spirit realm; and, as in Jesus’s case, all will be eternally available to us. But—although we may experience some delay because of the [temporary] demands of some aspects of our assignments—he promised that we don’t have to wait till we get to heaven to use and enjoy all that he has set aside for us. Note that in the following passage, Jesus says that our benefits apply “in this time”; and then he contrasts what he means when he says “this time,” by making a subsequent statement about the “age to come”:

(Mark 10:29–30 NKJV) So Jesus answered and said, “Assuredly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or lands, for My sake and the gospel’s, {30} who shall not receive a hundredfold now in this time—houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions—and in the age to come, eternal life.”

We have seen that to fully walk in all the privileges of our partnership with Jesus and his gospel ministers, we need faith in God’s word and the Holy Spirit’s help. In Mark 11:22–25, Jesus taught us how to operate the required faith:

Let God’s faith be in you—receive with meekness the implanted word (Mark 11:22, James 1:21)

Speak to the “mountain”

Declare to it the outcome you want— “Be lifted up and thrown into the sea”

Do not doubt in your heart

Believe that what you say will happen

Forgive

So, what have we learned in this chapter about getting the doubt out of our heart and believing that what we say will happen?

We noted that doubt is not a positive force. Doubt originates with the devil, as is clearly seen in Genesis 3, when he tempted Eve. Doubt is therefore the offspring of very dark deception—the opposite of God’s illuminating revelation. How do we get the dark doubt out? We open ourselves to the illuminating revelation of the Holy Spirit through meditating on God’s word, with the full intention of believing it and acting on it.

(Psalm 1:2 NLT) But they delight in the law of the LORD, meditating on it day and night.

We have also looked at how to be fully assured that what we say will come to pass. Jesus gave us the key when he said, “Out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.” We need to fill our hearts—completely fill them to overflowing—with God’s word, and we need to listen to the Good Shepherd’s voice. When we hear from him and store up his words within us, we will be assured that what is in our hearts can come to pass. Then as it overflows in our words, we can fully believe that what we say will happen. Why? Because God always does what he says.

From the book of Joshua, we see that we need to meditate in God’s word until it comes to life in actions and pictures that we can observe in the spirit. Then, like Jesus did in relationship with his loving Father, we can say and do what we see and hear with him (See: John 5:19–20).

Faith that comes through this assuring process is then the “title deed” to our joint-heir ownership with Jesus. It is the “evidence” and all the “proof” we need to have our case heard and approved in the court of heaven—by the ultimate judge. All the hosts of heaven’s army then enforce our ownership and possession on earth of what we have the title deed to. (Our spiritual title deed—approved and declared by the ultimate judge, our heavenly Father—is superior to any earthly title deed.) That’s the way we take possession in the here and now of the partnership benefits that Jesus has made available for us to share in. How, in summary, do we do this?

Hear the word

Believe the word and fully trust in Jesus

Receive Jesus’s new birth—if you haven’t already

Receive God’s Spirit of holiness and walk humbly in relationship with him

The Holy Spirit is the guarantee of our inheritance

He is also the down payment of all we have inherited in Christ

Walk humbly in close relationship with him—ensuring that you do not grieve or sadden him by any un-holiness in word or action.

Meditate in God’s word—his will and testament—day and night

Receive with meekness the word he implants in your heart

Nurture, protect, and grow it there until it overflows in mountain-moving words exploding out of your mouth

Take possession of your inherited benefits by doing and saying what you see and hear with him in his secret place

Stand, and having done all … stand:

(Ephesians 6:13–17 MKJV) Therefore take to yourselves the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. {14} Therefore stand, having your loins girded about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness {15} and your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace. {16} Above all, take the shield of faith, with which you shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. {17} And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God.

Remember, the Holy Spirit is the key who unlocks the revelation concealed by God in his written word:

(Proverbs 25:2 NASB) It is the glory of God to conceal a matter, But the glory of kings is to search out a matter.

(Ephesians 3:20 MKJV) Now to Him who is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us.

(1 Corinthians 2:9–10 MKJV) But as it is written, “Eye has not seen, nor ear heard,” nor has it entered into the heart of man, “the things which God has prepared for those who love Him.” {10} But God has revealed them to us by His Spirit; for the Spirit searches all things, yea, the deep things of God.