We have dwelling in our born again spirit, the Holy Spirit of God Himself. Every answer to every problem is already dwelling in our spirit. 1Corinthians 1:30 (Amplified) says, "But it is from Him that you have your life in Christ Jesus, Whom God made our wisdom from God (revealed to us a knowledge of the divine plan of salvation previously hidden, manifesting itself as) our Righteousness (thus making us upright and putting us in right standing with God), and our consecration (making us pure and Holy) and our Redemption (providing our ransom from eternal penalty for sin)."
Listen very carefully to what this scripture is saying. This is the mind of Christ that God has made to us our wisdom from God. And, that through this wisdom provided from God through the mind of Christ reaching and agreement with Jesus, we are made in right standing with God. Jesus' righteousness makes us pure and holy and redeems us from all penalty from sin.
This is the mind of Christ (the wisdom for us in Christ Jesus). A man with the mind of Christ has had his mind renewed by the Word of God. All who receive salvation have this available to them, but not everyone will receive it by faith in His Word. The same Holy Spirit, Who is our teacher, will not teach something different than God's Word to any born again child of God. The Spirit will teach the Word, and only the Word, to the believer.
All other doctrines and observations coming from those still seek to understand this great plan of God by and unrenewed (carnal) mind.
We keep reading the scripture and try understanding them from a mind that isn't being taught by the Holy Spirit or from others who are not spiritual. We then continue in what our own opinions are concerning salvation instead of what the Holy Spirit is telling us. We become like those who opposed Jesus when He walked among us. They refused to hear what the Spirit spoke through Jesus because it didn't agree with the teachings of their carnally minded teachers.
Admitting they could be wrong would wound the pride and ego of carnally minded men. Carnal minded teachers still try putting the people back under the Law. As carnal men (mere natural minded men), we are always putting God's people back under a covenant of fear from punishment. We quote little things about people who they say died because they sinned after being saved. If all who were saved died if they sinned, then we wouldn't have a church left.
They've failed to realize how if we sin, then we don't die, but grace covers us until we grow into the righteousness given us through Jesus. This doesn't mean we're to live in sin, but that we should trust in grace.
We keep trying to mix grace and Law into our teachings to the point where neither of them work. We cannot walk in grace because we keep trying to earn it. We cannot walk in the Law because there is no more sacrifice. Now, we've trapped ourselves by our own unrenewed mind, to a place where not much of anything works on our behalf.
Mostly, the carnal mind comes to our rescue with some other equally dumb idea about how God is doing this to teach us something. All the while, the Holy Spirit is trying to deliver us from fear and false humility into truth and grace. The the carnal mind will always be satisfied walking in a false humility. The carnal mind will say "I am now saved, but I'll be a sinner until the day I die." This might sound humble to the natural, carnal mind, but the Holy Spirit will say it sounds like unbelief.
Scripture says that Jesus took our sin and gave us His righteousness. The Word says that my old, sinful man was nailed with Christ on the cross and that my new, born again self is made in the Image of God and that I'm a son of the Most High raised with Jesus and now is seated with Him at the right hand of the Father.
The carnal minded man has a difficult time with the truth of the scriptures. The new man who has the mind of Christ operating in him, will walk in liberty from his past and will rejoice in his new beginning. Only through the wisdom of God and faith in that wisdom, can a man be set free. Sometimes, without meaning too, w have set ourselves in opposition to the truth of God's Word. We keep trying to put this great salvation back into our own hands and customs. When we're opposed in our traditions, we still rise up with religious anger at the truth.
If you are born again, then you got that way only by the grace of God. It wasn't anything you did or didn't do, but it was by faith in what Jesus did. If you are righteous, then it's not because of anything you did or didn't do, but because of what Jesus did for you. If you are now a son of God and a joint heir with Christ and pure and holy before God, then it's not because of anything you did or didn't do, but because of what Jesus did. The only thing we did to become all of these things was to believe on and accept Jesus. When you believed in Him, then you became all of the other things in your new birth.
The simplicity of the Word is something that always seems to throw us off. We are always looking for the strings to be attached and for our own efforts to provide. We couldn't do it and God knew we couldn't do it, but He wanted it done. So, God provided the way to bring us back to Him by Himself. All we're required to do now is to believe. Don't allow religion and tradition and the doctrines of man to cheat you out of what Jesus died and rose from the dead to give us.
God is the wisdom that created the whole of what we see and even don't see. If He wanted to make the Word difficult to understand, then it wouldn't be much of a problem for Him. Instead, though, God made it simple. You must simply sow a seed and reap a harvest. You reap what you sow because everything produces after kind. God brought the wisdom of the Creator of man into the reach of man. He lowered His wisdom like a college professor would do to teach preschool. Instead of trying to get us to understand such a great wisdom, Wisdom humbled Himself to our level.
If we will only keep what He told us, in the simplicity of how He told us, then it will work.
Hebrews 11:1 says that, "Now faith is the substance of things hoped for."
What is it that you are hoping for? Is it salvation, deliverance, healing, forgiveness, acceptance, or a chance to start life over with a clean slate? Whatever it is, that hope has been placed in your heart. Faith is the title deed and assurance that God's Word will bring it to pass. All He asks of us is that we believe that the seed will produce what the picture shows. When you see the picture of a tomato on the packet of seeds, then that's what it will produce.
It's no longer by the Law. It's no longer by our works. It's no longer by our crying and trying to get God to do what He says He will do. It's no longer based on how many hours we pray or how many good works we do to deserve it.
"Now faith is the substance of things hoped for." Faith is how we bring the promises of God (through grace) to bear in our lives.
It's not works, not good deeds, not crying. It's now through the sacrifice of Jesus and it's Now Faith in what He's done for us. That's the substance of all we can every hope for.
Now, it's all available, but only by faith. We can't earn it, buy it or be good enough to deserve it. Now! Faith is the only way to obtain it.
Allow the mind of Christ, the same Holy Spirit that led Jesus, be your guide and teacher. Dare to believe that God has told us the truth about all things. And, because He said it, it's yours. Walk in faith in our new found liberty and enjoy unbroken fellowship with our Father through Jesus.
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