[Affirmations series: Introduction, Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, and Conclusion.]

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~ Affirmations ~

1. The Eternal Purpose, Christ, and the Church

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I affirm that before time began, the Father desired, designed and established His eternal purpose according to His good pleasure and glory, and that all of His works in time are governed by and unto the fulfillment of this eternal purpose.

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I affirm that the central motivation of the Father’s heart and mind in establishing His eternal purpose was His supreme love for His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.

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I affirm that in the eternal purpose the Father has ordained the Lord Jesus Christ to occupy the central and supreme place in and over all things in relation to creation, redemption, the Church and the Kingdom.

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I affirm that the Church, the Body of Christ, shares in Christ’s eternal calling and is the chosen vessel through which the eternal purpose of God is to be first embodied and expressed among all of creation.

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I affirm that the highest calling, purpose and pattern for the Church is the eternal purpose of God, and that any deviation from it constitutes a corruption of the Church and its calling.

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I affirm that the centrality and supremacy of the Lord Jesus Christ is the first and foremost feature of the eternal purpose that the Church is to corporately embrace, embody and manifest as she is spiritually and practically fashioned according to it in all things.

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I affirm that in Christ all fullness dwells and that the Church has been given all fullness in Christ.

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I affirm that the Church is called to manifest the fullness of Christ and can only do so when it is constituted according to the centrality, supremacy and all-sufficiency of the Lord Jesus Christ in all things related to her.

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I affirm that the most essential ways in which Christ is to be given the central and supreme place in the Church are for Him to become, in spiritual and practical reality, her unrivaled Center, her unifying Identity, her sole Foundation, and her Uncontested Head.

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I affirm that whenever Christ is rivaled in His centrality or preempted in His supremacy in any of these four essential areas, that disunity, diminishment, defilement, and distortion are brought into the Church and it is corrupted thereby.

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I affirm that although the Church has historically substituted and supplanted Christ in these four areas, and has tragically reaped the fruit of her eccentricities, that God will in the end have a remnant who will return to His original, eternal purpose and once again be fashioned according to the centrality, supremacy and all-sufficiency of the Lord Jesus Christ in all things, beginning with these four essential aspects.

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I affirm that only by an uncompromising, radical return to the practical establishment of the Lord Jesus Christ as the Church’s unrivaled Center, unifying Identity, sole Foundation, and Uncontested Head can the remnant of the Church be rescued from the prevailing process of corruption and be restored it to its original high calling, according to God’s eternal purpose.

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These truths I affirm!

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Continued…

Related:

A Personal Note and Blogging Update

“Affirmations” Introduced

Our Deepest Convictions

Shaped by God’s Eternal Purpose

Rebels, Refugees, and a Returning Remnant (series)