LONG LIFE
(week 13/13)
OLUBI JOHNSON
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Psalms 91:16 KJV: with long life will I satisfy him, and shew him my salvation.
Psalms 90:10 NIV: The length of our days is seventy years— or eighty, if we have the strength; yet their span is but trouble and sorrow, for they quickly pass, and we fly away.
Deuteronomy 34:7 MKJ: And Moses was a hundred and twenty years old when he died. His eye was not dim, nor had he lost any of his natural strength.
Here the scriptures tell us that God wants to satisfy us with long life.
According to these scriptures, long life is living for between 70-120 years or more.
In fact, if we look at Ps. 90:9-10 in the Amplified Bible:
Psalms 90:9-10 AMP: For all our days [out here in this wilderness, says Moses] pass away in Your wrath; we spend our years as a tale that is told [for we adults know we are doomed to die soon, without reaching Canaan]. [Num. 14:26-35.] (10) The days of our years are threescore years and ten (seventy years)–or even, if by reason of strength, fourscore years (eighty years); yet is their pride [in additional years] only labor and sorrow, for it is soon gone, and we fly away.
We see that 70 or 80 years was the limit for those who had disobeyed God and were destined to die in the wilderness (Num. 14:22-35); but we see Moses living up to 120 years in good health: his eye not dim nor his natural strength depleted.
Moses therefore is to be taken as an example (1 Cor. 10:11) for us to copy. Moses’s life of 120 years can be divided into 3 sections:
1. 0-40 years: time of preparation—-the period of our natural education and spiritual literacy: beginning of our spiritual education.
2. 40-80 years: time of revelation—the period in which God and His purpose for our lives is revealed to us: completion of our spiritual education—the complete revelation knowledge, wisdom and instructions of the principles of perfection.
3. 80-120 years: time of manifestation—the period in which we act upon the revelation and experience and manifest the purpose of God that was revealed and His glory: application of our spiritual education.
It is instructive to note that you can only know and fulfil the FULNESS of God’s purpose for your life IF YOU GROW INTO THE PERFECTION AND FULNESS OF CHRIST AND SO INHERIT THE POWER OF THE SPIRIT WITHOUT MEASURE.
It was the power of the Spirit without measure that Moses used to fulfil his life’s purpose to free Israel from Egyptian slavery!
This truth is a type for all of us in the New Testament: our lives in Christ should have 3 sections: preparation, revelation and manifestation.
Sadly, many Christians live and die only in the preparation stage; some in the revelation stage and few (Mt. 7:14) after the manifestation stage. This is NOT THE WILL OF GOD: HENCE THIS MESSAGE!
Now, it does not have to take us up to 120 years to complete these three periods of God’s will for our lives, but we should live long enough to complete them; in other words, we should not die UNTIL WE ARE SATISFIED THAT WE HAVE GROWN INTO THE PERFECTION AND FULNESS OF CHRIST AND HAVE MANIFESTED THE GLORY OF GOD IN OUR LIVES.
This is why God has promised us long life: we are to live long enough to grow into the perfection and fulness of Christ (Eph. 4:11-16) and manifest His glory like the Lord Jesus did (Jn. 1:14; 2:11; 11:40-44); 14:12).
The Lord Jesus died when He was 33 years old because He had fulfilled these 3 sections of the will of God for His life:
1. Preparation: 0-12 years (Lk. 2:42-49).
2. Revelation: 12-30 years (Lk. 2:51-3:23).
3. Manifestation: 30-33 years (Jn.2.11-17.4).
Also, since the Lord Jesus was God, after He had manifested the glory of God and fulfilled the purpose of God for His life, it was not necessary for Him to stay on earth any longer and so He died and went back to heaven to be united with the Father and the Holy Spirit in glory:
John 17:4-5 KJV: I have glorified thee on the earth: I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do. (5) And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory, which I had with thee before the world was.
So using both Moses and the Lord Jesus as examples and types, we are to live long enough (if necessary up to 120 years or more) to manifest the glory of God like the Lord Jesus (Jn. 14:12) and fulfill God’s purpose for our lives.
In our generation (Mt. 24:34, Ps.22:30-31, Gen. 15:13,16), there will be those who will accomplish these things in 120 or more years; some in 70-120 years; some in 30-70 years!
This will depend on how quickly we get born-again and obtain both our natural and spiritual education.
What is important is that God wants us to live long enough to manifest His glory, fulfill our destiny and enjoy all things richly (1 Tim. 6:17)!
Job 36:11 AMP: If they obey and serve Him, they shall spend their days in prosperity and their years in pleasantness and joy.
Psalms 35:27 AMP: Let those who favor my righteous cause and have pleasure in my uprightness shout for joy and be glad and say continually, Let the Lord be magnified, Who takes pleasure in the prosperity of His servant.
In our article next week, we will see what it takes to live long enough to manifest the glory of God and fulfill His purpose for your life.
