Throughout the body of Christ, we haven't been taught as much about who we are as who we were. For so long a time, we have been taught to be more aware of our old sin and less aware of old things that are passed away. We've become a church full of unbelieving believers. We declare that we believe what the Word has to say and at the same time we find ways to exempt the supernatural from our walk with the Father.
In many circles yet in the church, to declare that we are a son of God sounds like blasphemy. Yet, we will stand and declare The Lord's Prayer to our Father Who art in heaven. We keep hearing the age old statement of being an "old sinner saved by grace." The truth is that you were an old sinner who was saved by grace. But, now you are no longer a sinner, by grace you were saved and you are a child of God and a joint heir with Christ.
We've walked and are still walking most of our Christian walk by our senses and not by the Word or spirit. When Jesus walked as a man on this earth, He dealt with those who weren't born again people. No one was born again until after His resurrection. The disciples were just natural men without the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. All they knew about Jesus was what they could see, what they could hear and what they could feel. They saw the miracles and felt the love that radiated from Jesus. They didn't understand the things that He told them unless He spoke in parables using things their minds could grasp.
Even Nicodemus, who was in the hierarchy of the covenant, couldn't understand when Jesus told him he must be born again. He related this statement with only his sense knowledge of birth and said how asked Jesus "How can a man go back into his mother's womb?"
Jesus was always telling them about faith, asking where was their faith, referring to their little faith and addressing them as "ye of little faith." In Paul's epistles you never hear Paul these statements at all. The reason is because Paul is writing to the Church of the Lord Jesus and without faith to believe in Him you can't be part of the Church. If you're born again, then you already have faith. It's not about having faith; it's about what we do with the faith that we have. We have done almost the same thing as the disciples did by walking only in the sense realm and not the spirit realm. Mostly, we know God is in our midst by how we feel or we know it was a healing service by what we see. We allow our emotions to dictate whether Jesus showed up or not. We travel all over to see and hear people who walk in the gifts because when we see the miracles, then we can believe. Jesus told Thomas, "You believe because you see me, blessed are those who believe without seeing."
In other words, your senses have now affirmed my presence, but those who by the spirit believe, "beyond what their senses tell them:" these people are blessed.
In Hebrews 5:11 (Amplified),the apostle Paul had this to say to the church, "this we have much to say which is hard to explain, since you have become dull in you (spiritual) hearing and sluggish (even slothful) in your spiritual insight." Verse 12 continues, "for even tho by this time you ought to be teaching others, you actually need someone to teach you over again the very first principles of God's word. You have come to need milk, not solid food." Verse 13 says, "for everyone who continues to feed on milk is obviously inexperienced and unskilled in the doctrine of righteousness (of conformity to the divine will in purpose, thought and action) for he is a mere infant (not able to talk yet)." Verse 14 continues, "But solid food is for full grown men, for those whose senses and mental faculties are trained by practice to discriminate and distinguish between what is morally good and noble and what is evil and contrary either to divine or human law."
This was written 2,000 years ago, and we find that most of the Church is still in this infant stage of Christianity. In Hebrews 6:1 (Amplified) the apostle Paul goes on with his discourse in this way, "Therefore, let us go on past this elementary stage in teachings and doctrines of Christ (the Messiah) advancing steadily toward the completeness and perfection that belong to spiritual maturity. Let us not again be laying the foundation of dead works (dead formalism) and of the faith (by which you turned) to God." Verse 2 goes on, "with teachings about purifying, the laying on of hands, the resurrection from the dead, and eternal judgement and punishment. (These are all matters of which you should have been fully aware of long, long ago)." Verse 3 says, "If indeed God permits, we will (now) proceed (to advance teaching)."
I wonder sometimes how the Church will take this to "advanced teaching." It seems that every time we step into the spiritual teachings of Jesus, the flesh and senses want to rise up in opposition to this truth. It's almost like when Jesus talked to the scribes and Pharisees about the kingdom of God and they became indignant because it interfered with their doctrine.
Throughout the centuries, the enemy has tried to keep the Church in bondage of some sort or another. He has fought the baptism of the Holy Spirit, the speaking of new tongues, the healing of the body, the authority of the believer, the power of prayer and even the truth of righteousness and redemption. It is hard to tell some people that they are "now" the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. Some still want to act as though sometimes you are and sometimes you're not the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. We need to learn to walk by the Word and the Spirit instead of by the senses that lie about God.
No comments:
Post a Comment