"who is a guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory." Ephesians 1:14 

"That {Spirit} is a guarantee of our inheritance- the first fruit, the pledge and foretaste, the down payment on our heritage- in anticipation of its full redemption and our acquiring[Complete] possession of it, to the praise of His glory." Ephesians 1:14 Amplified Bible

I love using different versions of the Bible to gain insight into a verse. I try to remind myself the purpose of different versions and that the amplified is a paraphrase to bring to light the meaning.

 It is not a word for word translation, which tries to stick as close as possible to the meaning in the original language.  The Amplified would not be used to establish doctrine or for teaching. I'm glad for it because extending the language helps me to better understand the text.

 The text is not any good if we can't understand what it says. Still we need to dig deeper to find meaning because of cultural differences. The days of the new testament are extremely different than our life in 2018. If we just look at the noise pollution around us compared to a day before airplanes, technologies, and electric we would be amazed.

What I want to share is this verse. The Spirit of God,  the third part of our triune God, has been given to us, as an inheritance. When we say "Yes" to Jesus, and live for him, we are sealed, which I delighted in sharing with you yesterday.{Please read yesterday's blog if you haven't already.}

The presence of God is with us whether we can feel Him or not. It's not about our emotions, it's about the truth."The grass withers and the flowers fade, but the word of the Lord endures forever."{Isaiah 40:8} English Standard Version. God has given this guarantee because he knows our nature. We need something to lean on or grab on to. The God who made all things by the breath of his mouth has said it is sealed.

Will we defy the Almighty in saying this is not true? Not me. It's a down payment if you will, in anticipation of the entire, complete redemption that comes with Christ's return. We are in the church age, you know.

 We don't have the entire view yet. It's as if we are sitting in the last row of a beautiful dance, and we can only see when people ahead of us move. We can't possibly understand the entire program. The day is coming lovely ones, when we will see, in full view, as if we are the only one.

 We won't be aware of anyone else. We won't care what we are wearing, or how our make-up looks, because the one and only the one true God will be looking straight into our eyes.The thought of it now makes me want to run and hide, but on that day, we will stand strong, knowing that our redemption is here!