As we're learning how to live and thrive in the new life we've been given through Jesus' resurrection, we're finding that we must start from scratch. 1Peter 1:23 (Amplified) says that, "You have been regenerated (born again) not from a mortal origin (seed, sperm) but from one that is immortal by the everliving and lasting Word of God." 1Peter 2:2 (Amplified) says that, "Like newborn babies you should crave (thirst for, earnestly desire) the pure (unadulterated) spiritual milk, that by it you may be nurtured and grow into (completed) salvation." This same verse in The King James Version says, "As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the Word, that ye may grow thereby."
Once we become born again, it seems like we want to remain in the infant state where we started. We get born again into the spirit and try to grow by demands on our flesh. We fashion rules and traditions in hopes of keeping out of sin. It's certainly not wrong to discipline the flesh, but we still need to feed our spirit.
Galatians 5:16 (Amplified) says, "But I say, walk and live (habitually) in the Holy Spirit (responsive to and controlled and guided by the Spirit), then you will certainly not gratify the cravings and desires of the flesh (of human nature without God)."
When we try walking in our own power even after being born again, then we walk like we're still without God. The constant fight we have with the flesh comes from our trying to walk without the Holy Spirit. We don't walk that way because we don't care, but because we don't know how to walk by the Holy Spirit.
Galatians 5:25 (Amplified) says that, "If we live by the (Holy) Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit. (If by the Holy Spirit we have our life in God, let us go forward walking in line, our conduct controlled by the Spirit)." We have very few examples of Spirit led men, so we need to spend time studying the men from the Word as examples.
1Corinthians 11:1 (Amplified) says, "Pattern yourselves after me (follow my example), as I imitate and follow Christ (the Messiah)." By his own admission, Paul imitated Jesus. This was the pattern for his life. Jesus, on the same token, patterned His life after the Father. Very few people have actually walked by the Holy Spirit, but Jesus, Paul, Peter and those of the early Church did. The difference in their lifestyle and our lifestyle today, is the signs and wonders that are from this new spirit life we have.
Acts 16:6 (Amplified) says, "Paul and Silas passed through the territory of Phrygia and Galatia, having been forbidden by the Holy Spirit to proclaim the Word in (the province of) Asia."
How many of us today would hear the Holy Spirit in such a way? Learning to live this life in the Spirit, will require our listening to and paying attention to hear Him as He leads us. Jesus was our example of how a Spirit led man walks with God. We've used the fact that Jesus was God as an excuse for not following His example. We continually excuse ourselves by saying, "Yes, but that was Jesus." He wasn't to be the only One to hear and obey the Father's voice. He was our example of what can be done by those who will hear.
Paul said he was imitating Jesus and his ministry included signs and wonders, wisdom and counsel and power from the Holy Spirit. He learned how to walk in the presence of the Spirit. As we follow the Apostles and men of the early Church throughout the Word, we see healings, miracles and revelation that is missing in our lives.
We learned the doctrines and traditions, but we didn't always learn the way of the Spirit. These men learned how to actually live in the spirit realm with God.
If you are truly born again, then your position in heaven (salvation) is secure. I'm not talking about whether or not you're saved, but whether we are learning to live in the Spirit while we remain in this body. We must listen to and for God's voice. We must learning how to distinguish His voice from all the voices we hear.
Jesus wasn't speaking idly when He said that, "His sheep know His voice." We are enabled by the new birth to hear God's voice and to be led by His Spirit. Some people find it strange when someone declares that God told him something. We seem to have problems with spiritual things and people in the Church. Healings and miracles are the very character of our Father, but they are foreign in today's Church.
As we learn how to live in this new life of the Spirit, there are many things to learn. Following in Jesus' footsteps doesn't mean to stop sinning. Following in His footsteps means receiving from the Father, the ability to help others on every plane of life. This can only be achieved from having the Spirit of God in us. In His Spirit abides everything needed to set the captives free. We must learn how to live in the Spirit in order to do what He told us to do.
Don't come under condemnation over not knowing how and don't just pass it off as foolishness. Seek the Holy Spirit on your own and He will teach you and lead you into all truth. The Father has placed these things into the Holy Spirit's hands.
1Corinthians 12 isn't simply a chapter for the Church at Corinth, but it's a chapter for the Church as a whole. The gifts and miracles are part of our new being and living in this new life. They are the very nature and character of God in us. Jesus walked as our example of how a Spirit filled, born again man is to walk and function on earth.
It's up to us to learn how to live. We already have this life within us, it's just a matter of learning to yield to it more than we yield to the flesh, like we did before.
Friday, September 26, 2014
Thursday, September 25, 2014
Lesson 9 Learning To Live
When we were born again, we were instantly moved into a new life that we'd never had before. Everything instantly changed. But, because we had no idea how to function in this new kingdom, we continued on in the only way we knew how. If you could imagine being moved into a new country where you couldn't speak or understand the language. You would have no idea how to get along, drive, work, or shop. You would either have to try getting along in the only way you knew, or learn how to speak and make life bearable.
When we were born again, we had the Bible as our guideline and the Holy Spirit as our Teacher. We had to learn a new language and learn how to hear in an entirely different way. Because God is a Spirit, we needed to learn to listen and function in the new level of the spirit. Since our spirits had been shut off from God through Adam's transgression, we had no idea what the Father's voice even sounded like.
Satan couldn't keep you from becoming born again, so his only way of controlling the new believer was to try keeping up from learning how to live in this new life. He tries keeping us from learning the language and ways of the Spirit. As long as he can keep us functioning in the flesh, we will be unsuccessful in our spiritual walk.
Paul speaks about spiritual warfare in several of his writings like Ephesians 6:11-12 (Amplified) which says, "Put on God's whole armor (the armor of a heavy armed soldier which God supplies) that you may be able successfully to stand up against (all) the strategies and the deceits of the devil." Verse 12 goes on, "For we are not wrestling with flesh and blood (contending only with physical opponents) but against the depotisms, against the powers, against (the master spirits who are) the world rulers of this present darkness, against the spirit forces of wickedness in the heavenly (supernatural) sphere."
Before we were born again, we walked in this world ruled by satan. This worldly way of living was familiar to us, but the spirits themselves weren't. Most of us had no idea that our lives were being manipulated by evil forces. We had no idea how to deal with spirit things at all. Many of us were involved in such satanic things as horoscope readings and had no idea about the consequences of involvement.
Now then, we are thrown into a battle with forces we don't recognize or see. We can no longer defend ourselves with conventional weapons or with muscle power. We don't know how to live in this new life. Mostly, we've chosen to act like it doesn't exist. Even when we do acknowledge the truth of a spiritual enemy, we act like he is powerless to do anything to us if we're saved. We are not to be fearful of this enemy, but we are to be able to stand against "all the strategies and deceits" of the devil.
When we realize that things are wrong in this world, we try handling them with the knowledge of the world in which we are familiar. When the nation is in trouble (and it is), we march with signs and protest and work for fair elections. We return to being a democrat or republican, but we don't see it as a satanic attack and as one of his strategies. The armor of God and the weapons of our warfare are mostly dormant in our lives.
We've been moved into a place with God in the new birth that supersedes this natural world and its authority, but we don't know how to function in it. 2Corinthians 10:3-4 (Amplified) says, "For though we walk (live) in the flesh, we are not carrying on our warfare according to the flesh and using mere human weapons." Verse 4 says, "For the weapons of our warfare are not physical (weapons of flesh and blood) but they are mighty before God for the overthrow and destruction of strongholds."
Learning to live in this new life must be a spiritual understanding of supernatural things.
When we were born again, we had the Bible as our guideline and the Holy Spirit as our Teacher. We had to learn a new language and learn how to hear in an entirely different way. Because God is a Spirit, we needed to learn to listen and function in the new level of the spirit. Since our spirits had been shut off from God through Adam's transgression, we had no idea what the Father's voice even sounded like.
Satan couldn't keep you from becoming born again, so his only way of controlling the new believer was to try keeping up from learning how to live in this new life. He tries keeping us from learning the language and ways of the Spirit. As long as he can keep us functioning in the flesh, we will be unsuccessful in our spiritual walk.
Paul speaks about spiritual warfare in several of his writings like Ephesians 6:11-12 (Amplified) which says, "Put on God's whole armor (the armor of a heavy armed soldier which God supplies) that you may be able successfully to stand up against (all) the strategies and the deceits of the devil." Verse 12 goes on, "For we are not wrestling with flesh and blood (contending only with physical opponents) but against the depotisms, against the powers, against (the master spirits who are) the world rulers of this present darkness, against the spirit forces of wickedness in the heavenly (supernatural) sphere."
Before we were born again, we walked in this world ruled by satan. This worldly way of living was familiar to us, but the spirits themselves weren't. Most of us had no idea that our lives were being manipulated by evil forces. We had no idea how to deal with spirit things at all. Many of us were involved in such satanic things as horoscope readings and had no idea about the consequences of involvement.
Now then, we are thrown into a battle with forces we don't recognize or see. We can no longer defend ourselves with conventional weapons or with muscle power. We don't know how to live in this new life. Mostly, we've chosen to act like it doesn't exist. Even when we do acknowledge the truth of a spiritual enemy, we act like he is powerless to do anything to us if we're saved. We are not to be fearful of this enemy, but we are to be able to stand against "all the strategies and deceits" of the devil.
When we realize that things are wrong in this world, we try handling them with the knowledge of the world in which we are familiar. When the nation is in trouble (and it is), we march with signs and protest and work for fair elections. We return to being a democrat or republican, but we don't see it as a satanic attack and as one of his strategies. The armor of God and the weapons of our warfare are mostly dormant in our lives.
We've been moved into a place with God in the new birth that supersedes this natural world and its authority, but we don't know how to function in it. 2Corinthians 10:3-4 (Amplified) says, "For though we walk (live) in the flesh, we are not carrying on our warfare according to the flesh and using mere human weapons." Verse 4 says, "For the weapons of our warfare are not physical (weapons of flesh and blood) but they are mighty before God for the overthrow and destruction of strongholds."
Learning to live in this new life must be a spiritual understanding of supernatural things.
Wednesday, September 24, 2014
Lesson 8 Learning To Live
When Jesus said in John 10:10 that He came so we could have and enjoy life, He didn't mean when we got to heaven we'd have it. He meant that He would restore our relationship (our life) back to the Father as it was intended before the fall of Adam. This Life was to be the very presence of God on a continual basis. We would never be out of fellowship or be cast out of God's presence again.
We were created and made by God our Father, for fellowship and joy in His life as well as the joy and fellowship in our lives. Jesus brought us back to the place in God's heart that had been lost in the Garden. We never actually lost our place in His heart, but we lost His presence. The continual plan of our Father was always at work to bring us back. We have been wholly restored back like Adam's fall never happened.
Because we were cut off from God, we never really knew what it was like to be His family. We walked in death and darkness for thousands of years. We learned how to walk in the world and only by the flesh and the five senses. God was always at work, but only from the outside and not from our spirit.
Now that Jesus has come and brought spiritual life back into God's with His sacrifice, we have to learn how we were meant to live from the beginning. Through great patience and understanding, God has given grace for our childish ways as we learn what it means to be alive unto Him. As new babies, we make many mistakes while we learn. We have lived and behaved the same way we did before being saved. We still try doing it on our own because that was all we knew.
The Holy Spirit is always at work in our lives bringing life to God's Word into our spirits. Every child must learn as they grow into maturity and we are no different. As natural men and women, we have made many mistakes as we grow, just like all babies do.
As we now learn not to live from the senses, but by the Spirit, it is all new to us. We find ourselves under condemnation at our continued mistakes and failures. We find ourselves trying harder and harder to get it right, but we always end up failing or messing up somewhere.
Learning how to live is a process that will be with us for all of our natural lives on this earth. We can only watch the life of Jesus and follow His example of how to live. Jesus said that He only says and does what the Father says and does. So, like our example, we must follow Him when we treat others kindly and when we hear the Father's voice and move on it.
We were never in the place that Adam and Jesus were in at the beginning. They were both in God's presence from the start. We however, were trained and taught by the world and the "Spirit of disobedience" for most of our natural lives. Now that we've been brought back to life through Jesus, we must learn a completely new way of living.
We try disciplining our flesh and controlling it by the same means we did before we were saved. Only the Holy Spirit can bring this to pass in our hearts. This new life we are learning to live, is actually God's life living through us. As we learn to listen to our Heavenly Father, He will instruct us just like every father does.
Our earthly father taught us how to "become men" in the only way they knew how. Mostly though, unless your father was born again (mine was not), he could only teach you what they have learned through the natural life. Some didn't even do that much. We grew up with no or very little knowledge about God. We lived what we were taught, both good and bad. Some people grew up without an earthly father or father figure.
Once you've learned something and it's already lodged in your brain, it's hard to unlearn or dislodge it or ignore it. Our minds were to be filled with the knowledge of God and never to be erased. Once the thoughts and knowledge are in our minds, learning to renew our minds to think differently is a life long process. The old memories of our disobedient past are still there. All of the wrong things we did still haunt us and seem to always make us feel unclean in God's presence.
Even though we struggle to be right and do right, we fight this battle of faith over our past. Placing faith in what Jesus has done for us is the only way we can ever hope to approach a Holy God and help us feel unclean. Even when we read His Word about Jesus' sacrifice, we still seem to meditate more on our mistakes than on the victory. We mediate more on Paul's snake bite, shipwreck, and his beatings and stoning. We still refer more to his "thorn in the flesh," which didn't come from God, but was a messenger from satan sent to buffet Paul. We seem to miss the abundance of the revelation of Christ and the works in the Church that God gave him.
This learning to live message, is a new way of thinking about who you are now in Jesus and not who you were before you were saved. It almost seems to be a contradiction in our lives to say we are now righteous because of remembering who we used to be. Sometimes, it makes you feel like you are lying when you say you are clean in His presence.
We struggle walking in the truth of our salvation and restoration because of our past and our mistakes. The contradictions of our flesh with God's Word is a constant battle in our walk with Him. Our carnal mind still says that we don't deserve it and we keep working so we can feel justified for His favor. The truth about this new life is that we didn't deserve it and it was all by His grace. This is somehow hard for us to deal with.
In our life before Jesus, we had to work hard to get anything. When you got a paycheck, it was something that was owed to you and you felt justified in taking it because you felt deserving of it. Now, all these things that God has granted us, come by grace. It's backwards to everything we ever knew.
Learning how to receive from our Father is a whole new way of doing things and we must learn how to live this new life by faith in Jesus' finished work and not by our works. This doesn't mean we can do whatever we want to do, but it also doesn't mean you should constantly beat yourself up because of your mistakes. Surely, you can't believe that our Father didn't foresee the fact that we would have to learn and would make mistakes when He sent Jesus.
Jesus' Blood didn't merely take care of our past, but our future too. It's hard to believe we can be blessed even when we fail. We still try punishing ourselves for our mistakes instead of believing, by faith, that Jesus bore our punishment. It's hard to understand from our old point of view. We still feel like we don't belong sometimes. And, we can't come into God's presence until we feel we've made restitution when we're under condemnation for our mistakes. This hurts the very heart of God because He made provision for this in Jesus. Jesus bore everything that was due us, so that we could not only be in God's presence, but abide there always.
When you make a mistake (and you will), don't run from Him, but run to Him. You won't catch Him by surprise. That's what His throne of grace is all about. Grace made a blanket of the Blood of Jesus that covers us for all time. As we stand in God's presence, He only sees the Lamb and not the one who brought the Lamb. Every time we pray in Jesus' Name, we present the Lamb. Every time we praise Him in that Name, He sees only the pure, sinless Lamb and not you.
We need to learn how to rest in our sacrifice that was provided for us and not in our own performance. Learning how to live in God's presence, is learning how to stay in faith with our sacrificed Lamb. When the Lamb is pure, you are pure. Amen.
We were created and made by God our Father, for fellowship and joy in His life as well as the joy and fellowship in our lives. Jesus brought us back to the place in God's heart that had been lost in the Garden. We never actually lost our place in His heart, but we lost His presence. The continual plan of our Father was always at work to bring us back. We have been wholly restored back like Adam's fall never happened.
Because we were cut off from God, we never really knew what it was like to be His family. We walked in death and darkness for thousands of years. We learned how to walk in the world and only by the flesh and the five senses. God was always at work, but only from the outside and not from our spirit.
Now that Jesus has come and brought spiritual life back into God's with His sacrifice, we have to learn how we were meant to live from the beginning. Through great patience and understanding, God has given grace for our childish ways as we learn what it means to be alive unto Him. As new babies, we make many mistakes while we learn. We have lived and behaved the same way we did before being saved. We still try doing it on our own because that was all we knew.
The Holy Spirit is always at work in our lives bringing life to God's Word into our spirits. Every child must learn as they grow into maturity and we are no different. As natural men and women, we have made many mistakes as we grow, just like all babies do.
As we now learn not to live from the senses, but by the Spirit, it is all new to us. We find ourselves under condemnation at our continued mistakes and failures. We find ourselves trying harder and harder to get it right, but we always end up failing or messing up somewhere.
Learning how to live is a process that will be with us for all of our natural lives on this earth. We can only watch the life of Jesus and follow His example of how to live. Jesus said that He only says and does what the Father says and does. So, like our example, we must follow Him when we treat others kindly and when we hear the Father's voice and move on it.
We were never in the place that Adam and Jesus were in at the beginning. They were both in God's presence from the start. We however, were trained and taught by the world and the "Spirit of disobedience" for most of our natural lives. Now that we've been brought back to life through Jesus, we must learn a completely new way of living.
We try disciplining our flesh and controlling it by the same means we did before we were saved. Only the Holy Spirit can bring this to pass in our hearts. This new life we are learning to live, is actually God's life living through us. As we learn to listen to our Heavenly Father, He will instruct us just like every father does.
Our earthly father taught us how to "become men" in the only way they knew how. Mostly though, unless your father was born again (mine was not), he could only teach you what they have learned through the natural life. Some didn't even do that much. We grew up with no or very little knowledge about God. We lived what we were taught, both good and bad. Some people grew up without an earthly father or father figure.
Once you've learned something and it's already lodged in your brain, it's hard to unlearn or dislodge it or ignore it. Our minds were to be filled with the knowledge of God and never to be erased. Once the thoughts and knowledge are in our minds, learning to renew our minds to think differently is a life long process. The old memories of our disobedient past are still there. All of the wrong things we did still haunt us and seem to always make us feel unclean in God's presence.
Even though we struggle to be right and do right, we fight this battle of faith over our past. Placing faith in what Jesus has done for us is the only way we can ever hope to approach a Holy God and help us feel unclean. Even when we read His Word about Jesus' sacrifice, we still seem to meditate more on our mistakes than on the victory. We mediate more on Paul's snake bite, shipwreck, and his beatings and stoning. We still refer more to his "thorn in the flesh," which didn't come from God, but was a messenger from satan sent to buffet Paul. We seem to miss the abundance of the revelation of Christ and the works in the Church that God gave him.
This learning to live message, is a new way of thinking about who you are now in Jesus and not who you were before you were saved. It almost seems to be a contradiction in our lives to say we are now righteous because of remembering who we used to be. Sometimes, it makes you feel like you are lying when you say you are clean in His presence.
We struggle walking in the truth of our salvation and restoration because of our past and our mistakes. The contradictions of our flesh with God's Word is a constant battle in our walk with Him. Our carnal mind still says that we don't deserve it and we keep working so we can feel justified for His favor. The truth about this new life is that we didn't deserve it and it was all by His grace. This is somehow hard for us to deal with.
In our life before Jesus, we had to work hard to get anything. When you got a paycheck, it was something that was owed to you and you felt justified in taking it because you felt deserving of it. Now, all these things that God has granted us, come by grace. It's backwards to everything we ever knew.
Learning how to receive from our Father is a whole new way of doing things and we must learn how to live this new life by faith in Jesus' finished work and not by our works. This doesn't mean we can do whatever we want to do, but it also doesn't mean you should constantly beat yourself up because of your mistakes. Surely, you can't believe that our Father didn't foresee the fact that we would have to learn and would make mistakes when He sent Jesus.
Jesus' Blood didn't merely take care of our past, but our future too. It's hard to believe we can be blessed even when we fail. We still try punishing ourselves for our mistakes instead of believing, by faith, that Jesus bore our punishment. It's hard to understand from our old point of view. We still feel like we don't belong sometimes. And, we can't come into God's presence until we feel we've made restitution when we're under condemnation for our mistakes. This hurts the very heart of God because He made provision for this in Jesus. Jesus bore everything that was due us, so that we could not only be in God's presence, but abide there always.
When you make a mistake (and you will), don't run from Him, but run to Him. You won't catch Him by surprise. That's what His throne of grace is all about. Grace made a blanket of the Blood of Jesus that covers us for all time. As we stand in God's presence, He only sees the Lamb and not the one who brought the Lamb. Every time we pray in Jesus' Name, we present the Lamb. Every time we praise Him in that Name, He sees only the pure, sinless Lamb and not you.
We need to learn how to rest in our sacrifice that was provided for us and not in our own performance. Learning how to live in God's presence, is learning how to stay in faith with our sacrificed Lamb. When the Lamb is pure, you are pure. Amen.
Tuesday, September 23, 2014
Lesson 7 Learning To Live
John 10:10 (Amplified) says, "The thief comes only in order to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have and enjoy life, and have it in abundance (to the full, till it overflows)."
The abundant, joyful and overflowing Life, is the very restored and resurrected Life with the Spirit of God through Jesus. We have had a difficult time enjoying this new life because of the condemnation of the dead man we were. We have failed to appropriate the fullness of this new life because we've never learned how to live life to the fullness.
Sometimes, it sounds like we never really got born again. We say we've received Jesus as our Lord and Savior. We declare that our sins have been cleansed and remitted, but then we try holding onto the condemnation of those sins. Everything seems to contradict what we're learning here because we try living in the deadness of the old man. The flesh still wants to rule us by our senses and the Spirit wants to lead us by His truth.
We've been given the very Life of God and we don't know how to live in it. The changes we have to make in order to live this new life, seem to be too many to make. If you were moving from California to Alaska, then you'd have to change the way you live. Surfing will become sledding, coats will replace shorts, and your entire way of life will necessarily need to change. The life you have is the same life, but there needs to be a new way to live it.
Jesus gave us the Life of the Spirit of God Himself when we were born again. We received the life, but continued trying to operate the same way we had before we received it. We didn't learn to change our habits and ways of doing things. We still wanted to dress and live the way that was appropriate for California, but it was difficult to do in Alaska. We tried surfing, but the ice made it impossible. We tried wearing shorts, but the temperature was greatly uncomfortable.
We tried to live in the old death of the spirit and force the flesh to walk in the newness of life. Romans 8:1-2 (Amplified) says, "Therefore (there is) now no condemnation (no adjudging guilty of wrong) for those who are in Christ Jesus, who live (and) walk not after the dictates of the flesh, but after the dictates of the Spirit."
Who walks without condemnation ? Those who are saved? No! Those who do not walk according to the dictates of the flesh, but according to the Spirit, walk without condemnation. Romans 8:1 (Amplified) says, "There is now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who don't live by the flesh but by the Spirit." Notice that they are both in Christ Jesus? One lives in the condemnation by the flesh and the other lives without condemnation by the Spirit. They were both in Christ Jesus.
Romans 8:2 (Amplified) tells us why we can walk above the condemnation of the flesh saying, "For the Law of the Spirit of Life (which is) in Christ Jesus (the Law of our new being) has freed me from the Law of sin and of death."
These verses tells us that even though both persons were "in Christ Jesus," one walked in the Law of the Spirit of Life and one was walking under the Law of Sin and death. Life had come to both persons "who are in Christ Jesus," but only one of them learned how to Live, while the other didn't make the change. Both were "in Life," but one still walked in death. Notice that death didn't walk in him, but he was walking in death. Although the individual was saved, cleansed, declared righteous and given God's Own life, he still walked in the death and condemnation of the flesh.
In Romans 8:3 (Amplified), we ready why it's possible to walk in this joyful, abundant and overflowing life, without condemnation. Thus, it says, "For God has done what the Law could not do, (its power) being weakened by the flesh (the entire nature of man without the guise of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, (God) condemned sin in the flesh (subdued, overcame, deprived it of its power over all who accept that sacrifice."
You can see that it's not a matter of whether we have life now, but whether we will learn how to live. If we continue trying to live in the flesh like we did before, the flesh will always fail you and bring you the same condemnation you had before being saved. If we learn to live in the Spirit, then we'll be able to "enjoy this Life to the full, till it overflows, and is now abundant Life to you."
It seems like we've read the entire chapter of Romans 8 and only centered in one one verse to justify our lack of learning how to live. We came up with, "All things work together for the good," and failed to read what that chapter was saying. First of all, that isn't what the true verse says. Secondly, what are "all things" that Romans 8 spoke about?
By reading this chapter by the flesh, we've determined that "all things" meant car accidents, cancer, sickness, death, divorce, drugs, poverty and whatever else we might throw into the mix, work together for our good. That's not what it says !
What it does say, is that this Life we've been given and this new creation that we've become, are clean before God even though the flesh may still try to condemn you. It says that, in Jesus Christ, if we will learn how to live this new life we've been given, then we will walk above the lies of the old, dead man we were and walk in the joy of the Life we now have in Jesus.
The old, dead nature of the lost man, still wants to rule over the new creation. We are to live after the dictates of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus and not after the dictates of the flesh. The only way to live and enjoy the life that John 10:10 speaks about, is to live by the Spirit despite of the flesh. We already have this new, abundant, overflowing life, but we don't want to change from the way we've always done things to live it.
It no longer matters what the dead or flesh part of you says. You are not walking and living by and through the flesh, but by and through the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus. The flesh could never fulfill the demands of God's holiness. Romans 8:3 says that God has done what the Law could not do because of the weakness of the flesh. If you still live in the weakness of the flesh instead of the newness of the Spirit, then you will never learn how to live and enjoy this abundant life we now share with Christ.
When I say that we have to learn how to live, it's because the Word and the Holy Spirit keep telling us to be spiritually minded. Romans 8:14 (Amplified) says, "For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons (mature) of God."
The abundant, joyful and overflowing Life, is the very restored and resurrected Life with the Spirit of God through Jesus. We have had a difficult time enjoying this new life because of the condemnation of the dead man we were. We have failed to appropriate the fullness of this new life because we've never learned how to live life to the fullness.
Sometimes, it sounds like we never really got born again. We say we've received Jesus as our Lord and Savior. We declare that our sins have been cleansed and remitted, but then we try holding onto the condemnation of those sins. Everything seems to contradict what we're learning here because we try living in the deadness of the old man. The flesh still wants to rule us by our senses and the Spirit wants to lead us by His truth.
We've been given the very Life of God and we don't know how to live in it. The changes we have to make in order to live this new life, seem to be too many to make. If you were moving from California to Alaska, then you'd have to change the way you live. Surfing will become sledding, coats will replace shorts, and your entire way of life will necessarily need to change. The life you have is the same life, but there needs to be a new way to live it.
Jesus gave us the Life of the Spirit of God Himself when we were born again. We received the life, but continued trying to operate the same way we had before we received it. We didn't learn to change our habits and ways of doing things. We still wanted to dress and live the way that was appropriate for California, but it was difficult to do in Alaska. We tried surfing, but the ice made it impossible. We tried wearing shorts, but the temperature was greatly uncomfortable.
We tried to live in the old death of the spirit and force the flesh to walk in the newness of life. Romans 8:1-2 (Amplified) says, "Therefore (there is) now no condemnation (no adjudging guilty of wrong) for those who are in Christ Jesus, who live (and) walk not after the dictates of the flesh, but after the dictates of the Spirit."
Who walks without condemnation ? Those who are saved? No! Those who do not walk according to the dictates of the flesh, but according to the Spirit, walk without condemnation. Romans 8:1 (Amplified) says, "There is now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who don't live by the flesh but by the Spirit." Notice that they are both in Christ Jesus? One lives in the condemnation by the flesh and the other lives without condemnation by the Spirit. They were both in Christ Jesus.
Romans 8:2 (Amplified) tells us why we can walk above the condemnation of the flesh saying, "For the Law of the Spirit of Life (which is) in Christ Jesus (the Law of our new being) has freed me from the Law of sin and of death."
These verses tells us that even though both persons were "in Christ Jesus," one walked in the Law of the Spirit of Life and one was walking under the Law of Sin and death. Life had come to both persons "who are in Christ Jesus," but only one of them learned how to Live, while the other didn't make the change. Both were "in Life," but one still walked in death. Notice that death didn't walk in him, but he was walking in death. Although the individual was saved, cleansed, declared righteous and given God's Own life, he still walked in the death and condemnation of the flesh.
In Romans 8:3 (Amplified), we ready why it's possible to walk in this joyful, abundant and overflowing life, without condemnation. Thus, it says, "For God has done what the Law could not do, (its power) being weakened by the flesh (the entire nature of man without the guise of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, (God) condemned sin in the flesh (subdued, overcame, deprived it of its power over all who accept that sacrifice."
You can see that it's not a matter of whether we have life now, but whether we will learn how to live. If we continue trying to live in the flesh like we did before, the flesh will always fail you and bring you the same condemnation you had before being saved. If we learn to live in the Spirit, then we'll be able to "enjoy this Life to the full, till it overflows, and is now abundant Life to you."
It seems like we've read the entire chapter of Romans 8 and only centered in one one verse to justify our lack of learning how to live. We came up with, "All things work together for the good," and failed to read what that chapter was saying. First of all, that isn't what the true verse says. Secondly, what are "all things" that Romans 8 spoke about?
By reading this chapter by the flesh, we've determined that "all things" meant car accidents, cancer, sickness, death, divorce, drugs, poverty and whatever else we might throw into the mix, work together for our good. That's not what it says !
What it does say, is that this Life we've been given and this new creation that we've become, are clean before God even though the flesh may still try to condemn you. It says that, in Jesus Christ, if we will learn how to live this new life we've been given, then we will walk above the lies of the old, dead man we were and walk in the joy of the Life we now have in Jesus.
The old, dead nature of the lost man, still wants to rule over the new creation. We are to live after the dictates of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus and not after the dictates of the flesh. The only way to live and enjoy the life that John 10:10 speaks about, is to live by the Spirit despite of the flesh. We already have this new, abundant, overflowing life, but we don't want to change from the way we've always done things to live it.
It no longer matters what the dead or flesh part of you says. You are not walking and living by and through the flesh, but by and through the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus. The flesh could never fulfill the demands of God's holiness. Romans 8:3 says that God has done what the Law could not do because of the weakness of the flesh. If you still live in the weakness of the flesh instead of the newness of the Spirit, then you will never learn how to live and enjoy this abundant life we now share with Christ.
When I say that we have to learn how to live, it's because the Word and the Holy Spirit keep telling us to be spiritually minded. Romans 8:14 (Amplified) says, "For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons (mature) of God."
Monday, September 22, 2014
Don't forget that we're having Convention this week with Tommy Williams. If you're unable to attend, then please pray that this Convention will be successful in bringing new people to God's family. Thank You.
Don't forget that tomorrow, Wednesday, September 24th is "See You At The Pole day." We will be gathered around the flagpole at Ken's beside the church. We hope that you will join us and pray for our school, the students and teachers along with Pastor Jim (the Principal). Let's be a witness to others tomorrow. Thank You.
Don't forget that tomorrow, Wednesday, September 24th is "See You At The Pole day." We will be gathered around the flagpole at Ken's beside the church. We hope that you will join us and pray for our school, the students and teachers along with Pastor Jim (the Principal). Let's be a witness to others tomorrow. Thank You.
Lesson 6 Learning To Live
John 10:10 (Amplified) says that, "The thief comes only in order to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have and enjoy life, and have it in abundance (to the full, till it overflows)."
I've noted before, how strange Jesus' statement must have seemed to the people He was speaking to. I'm sure they thought they were alive. Because we have misunderstood the importance and the truth of spiritual life and death, many in today's Church still have a problem with this statement.
The life we were living before receiving Jesus, was simply the life of the flesh and not the life of the spirit. We could only love to a point and do only the things that the flesh knew how to do. Only the life of God, through the Holy Spirit, could allow us to love and live like God intended for us. We were limited by the death that was in our spirit because of the fall of Adam.
We've mostly believed that the new life held just the forgiveness of sin that came when we were saved. Now though, we understand that once the sin was dealt with and that it wasn't simply forgiveness of our sin, but the removal of that sin, death had no more dominion over and in our spirit. Now, God Himself could enter into our spirit and intertwine His life into our very spirit. And, the life we're living is actually His life within us.
Paul said in Galatians 2:20 (Amplified) that, "I have been crucified with Christ (in Him I have shared His crucifixion) it is no longer I who live, but Christ (the Messiah) lives in me; and the life I now live in the body, I live by faith in (by adherence to and reliance on and complete trust in) the Son of God, Who loved me and gave Himself up for me."
So, the life we're now living is actually God's very life itself. When Jesus said that, "He came that we should have life," He meant His life lived through us. Again, you must be born again.
John 3:6 (Amplified) says, "What is born (from) the flesh is flesh (of the physical is physical); what is born of the Spirit is spirit." By misunderstanding spiritual death, we misunderstood what Jesus was talking about. We're like Nicodemus who couldn't understand how someone could be born a second time. We ask Jesus to come into our hearts, we ask Him to forgive our sins, and we ask Him to be our Lord, but we still don't understand what happened to us when we did these things.
Because we failed to learn how to live from the life within, we went on living the same life we lived before (which was the life of the flesh). We still tried ruling over our body with willpower and rules and laws from the religious foundation we served. We bound ourselves with more laws about wearing make-up, jewelry, certain clothes and cleaving to behavioral modifications. We made the "Liberty" in Christ, so hard to follow that we had no joy left in our walk with Him.
We never learned to live the new life we have received because we never recognized it as actually being a new life. We tried to stop sinning after we were saved, but for the most part, we still did sin. Perhaps we didn't commit the same old sins we used to, but nonetheless, we found that we weren't perfect. We tried walking in obedience to God, but we were still disobedient.
And, because we continued making the same dumb mistakes, we walked in condemnation most of the time and always felt unworthy and lowly. This is far from what Jesus promised in John 10:10 (Amplified) which says, "I came that they may have and enjoy life; and have it in abundance (to the full, till it overflows)."
Most of the time, our new life was a constant struggle. Since we never learned (by the Holy Spirit) how to live, we continued walking in the death that was in the world we were born in and not in the world we were now born out of, even though we no longer had death in us. It was the only "life" we had known. Like a child learning to walk, we were afraid to turn loose of the support we held onto. So now, we are full of life, but we're still living in death instead of being free from sin and still walking in condemnation and still struggling with sickness even though we've been healed.
We write sermons about how hard it is to walk with God, how weak we are and how we need to just hold on until the end. We put off ever having victory in this life and have resigned ourselves to "someday everything will be alright." We tried consoling ourselves by identifying with such men as the Apostle Paul and his struggles. We patterned our lives after Job and other men in the Word. We forgot that Job didn't have the life that Jesus gave the Church. The life he had was just the flesh.
Paul and the men of the early Church, were pioneers of the Gospel we read today. Paul wrote in 2Corinthians 12:7 (Amplified), "And to keep me from being puffed up and to much elated by the exceeding greatness (pre-eminence) of these revelations, there was given me a thorn (a splinter) in the flesh, a messenger of satan, to rack and buffet and harass me, to keep me from being excessively exalted."
We've allowed religion to use this man's experiences with God, to be twisted into a pattern of defeat to pattern our lives after. We said that "God kept Paul knocked down because of his pride." This isn't what the scripture says. Paul said that the revelations came from God and that the thorn in the flesh (the pain in the neck) was a messenger of satan sent to stop Paul from revealing this new birth.
God exalted the Apostle Paul above almost all other New Testament preachers. So, he was afterall, exalted. Despite all the persecution Paul suffered, he went on to victory in this world and glory when he left. If you wish to conform to what Paul suffered, then walk the walk he walked. Don't identify with his trials if you don't identify with his mission.
Paul learned how to live by learning how to die unto himself. Jesus met with much persecution of His Own. It wasn't because God didn't want Him exalted, but because the devil didn't want Him to be exalted. Jesus' Own thorns in His flesh, was demons who constantly buffeted Him, but who could not stop Him. When they thought they had finally defeated Jesus and had Him crucified, He was lifted up and exalted above all Names, Kingdoms and Thrones.
We need to stop looking for excuses to fail and living in the old way of death. We must enter into the victory of the new walk in life. If it is His life we're now living, then how can it fail? The religions Scribes and Pharisees of our day are always telling us what we cannot do, just the way they did with Jesus. The Holy Spirit and the Word of God are always telling us that, "With God, all things are possible."
We are finally learning how to live for Him and live in Him and live from Him. Afterall, it is His life. The enemy would like us to believe that there is no way we can measure up to God's standards. You know, he's right. The Good News is that you don't need to worry about measuring up to God's standards because your life is in Christ Jesus and it's His place with God that now measures your standing with God. If Jesus is righteous, then you, in Him, are also righteous. If Jesus is pure before God, then you are, in Him, also pure before God.
When learning how to live this "God kind of life," always be mindful to put your faith in Jesus' sacrifice and not in your performance. The Priest already knew you were messed up and that's why we brought the lamb for them to sacrifice. He doesn't see your mistakes, but He only sees the Lamb. Never return to judging yourself by your own efforts. Always judge yourself by the Holiness of the Sacrifice Lamb, Jesus.
Even though you might mess up, your Lamb did not or will not. God only sees the Lamb and not you. As long as you live the life of the Lamb, you will learn how to live.
I've noted before, how strange Jesus' statement must have seemed to the people He was speaking to. I'm sure they thought they were alive. Because we have misunderstood the importance and the truth of spiritual life and death, many in today's Church still have a problem with this statement.
The life we were living before receiving Jesus, was simply the life of the flesh and not the life of the spirit. We could only love to a point and do only the things that the flesh knew how to do. Only the life of God, through the Holy Spirit, could allow us to love and live like God intended for us. We were limited by the death that was in our spirit because of the fall of Adam.
We've mostly believed that the new life held just the forgiveness of sin that came when we were saved. Now though, we understand that once the sin was dealt with and that it wasn't simply forgiveness of our sin, but the removal of that sin, death had no more dominion over and in our spirit. Now, God Himself could enter into our spirit and intertwine His life into our very spirit. And, the life we're living is actually His life within us.
Paul said in Galatians 2:20 (Amplified) that, "I have been crucified with Christ (in Him I have shared His crucifixion) it is no longer I who live, but Christ (the Messiah) lives in me; and the life I now live in the body, I live by faith in (by adherence to and reliance on and complete trust in) the Son of God, Who loved me and gave Himself up for me."
So, the life we're now living is actually God's very life itself. When Jesus said that, "He came that we should have life," He meant His life lived through us. Again, you must be born again.
John 3:6 (Amplified) says, "What is born (from) the flesh is flesh (of the physical is physical); what is born of the Spirit is spirit." By misunderstanding spiritual death, we misunderstood what Jesus was talking about. We're like Nicodemus who couldn't understand how someone could be born a second time. We ask Jesus to come into our hearts, we ask Him to forgive our sins, and we ask Him to be our Lord, but we still don't understand what happened to us when we did these things.
Because we failed to learn how to live from the life within, we went on living the same life we lived before (which was the life of the flesh). We still tried ruling over our body with willpower and rules and laws from the religious foundation we served. We bound ourselves with more laws about wearing make-up, jewelry, certain clothes and cleaving to behavioral modifications. We made the "Liberty" in Christ, so hard to follow that we had no joy left in our walk with Him.
We never learned to live the new life we have received because we never recognized it as actually being a new life. We tried to stop sinning after we were saved, but for the most part, we still did sin. Perhaps we didn't commit the same old sins we used to, but nonetheless, we found that we weren't perfect. We tried walking in obedience to God, but we were still disobedient.
And, because we continued making the same dumb mistakes, we walked in condemnation most of the time and always felt unworthy and lowly. This is far from what Jesus promised in John 10:10 (Amplified) which says, "I came that they may have and enjoy life; and have it in abundance (to the full, till it overflows)."
Most of the time, our new life was a constant struggle. Since we never learned (by the Holy Spirit) how to live, we continued walking in the death that was in the world we were born in and not in the world we were now born out of, even though we no longer had death in us. It was the only "life" we had known. Like a child learning to walk, we were afraid to turn loose of the support we held onto. So now, we are full of life, but we're still living in death instead of being free from sin and still walking in condemnation and still struggling with sickness even though we've been healed.
We write sermons about how hard it is to walk with God, how weak we are and how we need to just hold on until the end. We put off ever having victory in this life and have resigned ourselves to "someday everything will be alright." We tried consoling ourselves by identifying with such men as the Apostle Paul and his struggles. We patterned our lives after Job and other men in the Word. We forgot that Job didn't have the life that Jesus gave the Church. The life he had was just the flesh.
Paul and the men of the early Church, were pioneers of the Gospel we read today. Paul wrote in 2Corinthians 12:7 (Amplified), "And to keep me from being puffed up and to much elated by the exceeding greatness (pre-eminence) of these revelations, there was given me a thorn (a splinter) in the flesh, a messenger of satan, to rack and buffet and harass me, to keep me from being excessively exalted."
We've allowed religion to use this man's experiences with God, to be twisted into a pattern of defeat to pattern our lives after. We said that "God kept Paul knocked down because of his pride." This isn't what the scripture says. Paul said that the revelations came from God and that the thorn in the flesh (the pain in the neck) was a messenger of satan sent to stop Paul from revealing this new birth.
God exalted the Apostle Paul above almost all other New Testament preachers. So, he was afterall, exalted. Despite all the persecution Paul suffered, he went on to victory in this world and glory when he left. If you wish to conform to what Paul suffered, then walk the walk he walked. Don't identify with his trials if you don't identify with his mission.
Paul learned how to live by learning how to die unto himself. Jesus met with much persecution of His Own. It wasn't because God didn't want Him exalted, but because the devil didn't want Him to be exalted. Jesus' Own thorns in His flesh, was demons who constantly buffeted Him, but who could not stop Him. When they thought they had finally defeated Jesus and had Him crucified, He was lifted up and exalted above all Names, Kingdoms and Thrones.
We need to stop looking for excuses to fail and living in the old way of death. We must enter into the victory of the new walk in life. If it is His life we're now living, then how can it fail? The religions Scribes and Pharisees of our day are always telling us what we cannot do, just the way they did with Jesus. The Holy Spirit and the Word of God are always telling us that, "With God, all things are possible."
We are finally learning how to live for Him and live in Him and live from Him. Afterall, it is His life. The enemy would like us to believe that there is no way we can measure up to God's standards. You know, he's right. The Good News is that you don't need to worry about measuring up to God's standards because your life is in Christ Jesus and it's His place with God that now measures your standing with God. If Jesus is righteous, then you, in Him, are also righteous. If Jesus is pure before God, then you are, in Him, also pure before God.
When learning how to live this "God kind of life," always be mindful to put your faith in Jesus' sacrifice and not in your performance. The Priest already knew you were messed up and that's why we brought the lamb for them to sacrifice. He doesn't see your mistakes, but He only sees the Lamb. Never return to judging yourself by your own efforts. Always judge yourself by the Holiness of the Sacrifice Lamb, Jesus.
Even though you might mess up, your Lamb did not or will not. God only sees the Lamb and not you. As long as you live the life of the Lamb, you will learn how to live.
Thursday, September 18, 2014
Lesson 5 Learning To Live
John 10:10 (Amplified) says, "The thief comes only in order to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have and enjoy life, and have it in abundance (to the full, till it overflows)."
We find in Genesis 1:26-27 (Amplified) that, "God said, let us (Father, Son and Holy Spirit) make mankind in Our Image, after Our likeness, and let them have complete authority over the fish of the sea, the birds of the air, the (tame) beasts, and over all of the earth, and over everything that creeps on the earth." Verse 27 says, "So God created man in His Own Image, in the Image and likeness of God He created him; male and female He created them."
In Genesis 2:7 (Amplified), we find a second creation or formation of Adam and Eve in a body, "Then the Lord God formed man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath or spirit of life, and man became a living being. In the same chapter of Genesis:21-23, God made Eve from the same substance that Adam was made of.
After Adam's transgression in the Garden, we find the death (or deaths) of Adam and his wife. The spiritual death or separation from God came first. Then, in Genesis 5:3-5 (Amplified), when Adam had lived 130 years, "he had a son in his own likeness, after his image; and he named him Seth. After he had Seth, Adam lived 800 years and had other son and daughters. So altogether Adam lived 930 years, and he died."
The Bible doesn't say how long Adam and Eve were in the Garden before the transgression. It only says that when they transgresses, death came. I have more confidence in the creation of my Father, than to believe they died quickly. Adam and Eve might have been in the Garden for thousands of years before the devil invented a temptation that they would yield to.
The only thing satan could tempt them with was the only Law that God had given them at that time. Genesis 2:16-17 (Amplified) says, "And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, You may freely eat of every tree of the garden, But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and blessing and calamity you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die."
The only Law they could break was the Law of not eating from that tree. Everything else was "freely given." No man ever lived to be a thousand years old after God said "That day you shall surely die." Spiritual death set in immediately, but the natural death (death of the body) took 930 years. Some might say that they didn't die that day, but 2Peter 3:8 (Amplified) says that, "Nevertheless, do not let this one fact escape you, beloved, that with the Lord one day is a thousand years and a thousand years as one day."
No man has lived a thousand years. Methuselah was the oldest man ever listed in the Word of God. Genesis 5:27 (Amplified) says, "So Methuselah lived 969 years, and he died."
When I say that we must learn to live, I'm referring to the life Jesus came to give us which is the life in the Spirit of God again. This life will also extends the life of our flesh. Reports come out saying man is living longer because of medical breakthroughs, but I believe it's because we have more revelation knowledge of Jesus and the Word of life. Even after the fall of man in the Garden, it took satan 930 years to teach Adam to die. All he knew was the life and presence of God. He had no idea how to die or even what death was.
On the other hand, we have no idea how to live or understand what Jesus said about having abundant and overflowing life. We've thought the life was just going to heaven when we die. Jesus said that we should have life "to the full, till it overflows." Jesus, Who is the Word made flesh, now dwells in out spirit. He, Who is the Word, is like medicine even to our natural body as well as to our spirit. Unless Jesus comes first, every natural man will die in the body. But, we've been granted an extension of life by His Word according to Proverbs 4:20-23 (Amplified) which says, "My son, attend to My Words; consent and submit to My sayings. Let them not depart from your sight; keep them in the center of your heart. For they are life to those who find them, healing and health to all their flesh." Verse 23 goes on to say, "Keep and guard your heart (your spirit) with all vigilance and above all that you guard, for out of it (your spirit) flow the springs of life."
We haven't been very careful about what we allow to enter into our heart (spirit). We program ourselves with the world and death constantly. We set ourselves up for all the ailments of the world and preach how health and healing have passed away. We fill ourselves up with fear, death, disease, pills, doctors and almost everything except God's Word. Yet, in Proverbs 4:20-21 (Amplified) God says, "My son, attend to My Words, consent and submit to My sayings. Let them not depart from your sight; keep them in the center of your heart."
Even Jesus admonished in Mark 4:24 (Amplified) saying, "Be careful what you are hearing. The measure (of thought and study) you give (to the truth you hear) will be the measure (of virtue and knowledge) that comes back to you---and move (besides) will be given to you who hear."
I wonder what we've been listening for all these years. God taught Adam to live and it took satan 930 years to teach him to die. Satan has been teaching mankind how to die and kill every since that time. The Church taught us how to receive life through salvation messages, but failed to teach us how to live. We've always heard how to live through the outward man. We learned about not drinking, lusting, stealing, lying, committing adultery and all the rules of the flesh, but we didn't learn how to partake of the very life of God from within.
The only thing satan could tempt Eve with was the only "Thou shall not" given to her, which was thou shall not eat from the tree of knowledge. Now, we've given satan an arsenal of "Thou shall nots" to mess with and very few "Thou shalls" to accept. We hear very little teaching about how "Old things have passed away" and much about all of the faults we still have. Grace has made its way into the spirit of those who "Have ears to hear" and healing, joy and power flows from this abundant life til it overflows in healing and life to others.
I hear much teaching in the Church about who I used to be, but very little about who God has made me to be in Jesus. I don't hear much on our being made the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. I mostly hear in the Church, how to die and not how to live. I don't mean to live holy, but how to accept holiness and live in it. I don't mean trying to live righteous, but accepting righteousness by faith and living in His righteousness.
We must learn how to live by faith in Jesus' sacrifice and not in our performance. Your performance will change from bad to good constantly, but your sacrifice Jesus, will not. He is the same, yesterday, today and forever. We've been taught to live by our feelings and our flesh instead of by our own born again spirit. Your flesh can and probably will, fail you. Your Christ filled spirit, will not.
We find in Genesis 1:26-27 (Amplified) that, "God said, let us (Father, Son and Holy Spirit) make mankind in Our Image, after Our likeness, and let them have complete authority over the fish of the sea, the birds of the air, the (tame) beasts, and over all of the earth, and over everything that creeps on the earth." Verse 27 says, "So God created man in His Own Image, in the Image and likeness of God He created him; male and female He created them."
In Genesis 2:7 (Amplified), we find a second creation or formation of Adam and Eve in a body, "Then the Lord God formed man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath or spirit of life, and man became a living being. In the same chapter of Genesis:21-23, God made Eve from the same substance that Adam was made of.
After Adam's transgression in the Garden, we find the death (or deaths) of Adam and his wife. The spiritual death or separation from God came first. Then, in Genesis 5:3-5 (Amplified), when Adam had lived 130 years, "he had a son in his own likeness, after his image; and he named him Seth. After he had Seth, Adam lived 800 years and had other son and daughters. So altogether Adam lived 930 years, and he died."
The Bible doesn't say how long Adam and Eve were in the Garden before the transgression. It only says that when they transgresses, death came. I have more confidence in the creation of my Father, than to believe they died quickly. Adam and Eve might have been in the Garden for thousands of years before the devil invented a temptation that they would yield to.
The only thing satan could tempt them with was the only Law that God had given them at that time. Genesis 2:16-17 (Amplified) says, "And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, You may freely eat of every tree of the garden, But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and blessing and calamity you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die."
The only Law they could break was the Law of not eating from that tree. Everything else was "freely given." No man ever lived to be a thousand years old after God said "That day you shall surely die." Spiritual death set in immediately, but the natural death (death of the body) took 930 years. Some might say that they didn't die that day, but 2Peter 3:8 (Amplified) says that, "Nevertheless, do not let this one fact escape you, beloved, that with the Lord one day is a thousand years and a thousand years as one day."
No man has lived a thousand years. Methuselah was the oldest man ever listed in the Word of God. Genesis 5:27 (Amplified) says, "So Methuselah lived 969 years, and he died."
When I say that we must learn to live, I'm referring to the life Jesus came to give us which is the life in the Spirit of God again. This life will also extends the life of our flesh. Reports come out saying man is living longer because of medical breakthroughs, but I believe it's because we have more revelation knowledge of Jesus and the Word of life. Even after the fall of man in the Garden, it took satan 930 years to teach Adam to die. All he knew was the life and presence of God. He had no idea how to die or even what death was.
On the other hand, we have no idea how to live or understand what Jesus said about having abundant and overflowing life. We've thought the life was just going to heaven when we die. Jesus said that we should have life "to the full, till it overflows." Jesus, Who is the Word made flesh, now dwells in out spirit. He, Who is the Word, is like medicine even to our natural body as well as to our spirit. Unless Jesus comes first, every natural man will die in the body. But, we've been granted an extension of life by His Word according to Proverbs 4:20-23 (Amplified) which says, "My son, attend to My Words; consent and submit to My sayings. Let them not depart from your sight; keep them in the center of your heart. For they are life to those who find them, healing and health to all their flesh." Verse 23 goes on to say, "Keep and guard your heart (your spirit) with all vigilance and above all that you guard, for out of it (your spirit) flow the springs of life."
We haven't been very careful about what we allow to enter into our heart (spirit). We program ourselves with the world and death constantly. We set ourselves up for all the ailments of the world and preach how health and healing have passed away. We fill ourselves up with fear, death, disease, pills, doctors and almost everything except God's Word. Yet, in Proverbs 4:20-21 (Amplified) God says, "My son, attend to My Words, consent and submit to My sayings. Let them not depart from your sight; keep them in the center of your heart."
Even Jesus admonished in Mark 4:24 (Amplified) saying, "Be careful what you are hearing. The measure (of thought and study) you give (to the truth you hear) will be the measure (of virtue and knowledge) that comes back to you---and move (besides) will be given to you who hear."
I wonder what we've been listening for all these years. God taught Adam to live and it took satan 930 years to teach him to die. Satan has been teaching mankind how to die and kill every since that time. The Church taught us how to receive life through salvation messages, but failed to teach us how to live. We've always heard how to live through the outward man. We learned about not drinking, lusting, stealing, lying, committing adultery and all the rules of the flesh, but we didn't learn how to partake of the very life of God from within.
The only thing satan could tempt Eve with was the only "Thou shall not" given to her, which was thou shall not eat from the tree of knowledge. Now, we've given satan an arsenal of "Thou shall nots" to mess with and very few "Thou shalls" to accept. We hear very little teaching about how "Old things have passed away" and much about all of the faults we still have. Grace has made its way into the spirit of those who "Have ears to hear" and healing, joy and power flows from this abundant life til it overflows in healing and life to others.
I hear much teaching in the Church about who I used to be, but very little about who God has made me to be in Jesus. I don't hear much on our being made the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. I mostly hear in the Church, how to die and not how to live. I don't mean to live holy, but how to accept holiness and live in it. I don't mean trying to live righteous, but accepting righteousness by faith and living in His righteousness.
We must learn how to live by faith in Jesus' sacrifice and not in our performance. Your performance will change from bad to good constantly, but your sacrifice Jesus, will not. He is the same, yesterday, today and forever. We've been taught to live by our feelings and our flesh instead of by our own born again spirit. Your flesh can and probably will, fail you. Your Christ filled spirit, will not.
Friday, September 12, 2014
Friday, September 5, 2014
Lesson 4 Learning To Live
John 10:10 (Amplified) says, "The thief comes only in order to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have and enjoy life, and have it in abundance (to the full, till it overflows)."
John 6:63 (Amplified) says, "It is the Spirit Who gives life (He is the Life-Giver); the flesh conveys no benefit whatever (there is no profit in it). The Words (Truths) that I have been speaking to you are Spirit and Life."
The abundant Life that Jesus is proclaiming, is life into their spirit. In the new covenant, we take for granted the new life that Jesus was speaking about. But, the people listening to Jesus were spiritually dead. Before receiving Christ, we were equally as dead in trespass and sin. Under the Law, it was the acts of obedience in the flesh, that covered them by the blood of bulls and goats. Even though, they had sacrifice to cover them, it could not give them life. As we read in John 6:63(Amplified), "It is the Spirit Who gives Life (He is the Life-Giver)."
Jesus also said in John 6:63 (Amplified) that, "The Words (Truths) I have been speaking to you are Spirit and Life." When Jesus said that, "He came that we have life and have it to the full, till it overflows," He was to give us Life with His Life and that by His Spirit, we are made alive in Him. Jesus' Blood paid for our sin and trespasses. Hebrews 9:22 (Amplified) says, "(In fact) under the Law almost everything is purified by means of blood and without the shedding of blood there is neither release from sin and its guilt nor the remission of the due and merited punishment for sins."
Hebrews 10:19 (Amplified) says, "Therefore, brethren since we have full freedom and confidence to enter into the (Holy of) Holies (by the power and virtue) in the Blood of Jesus."
We now have Life in Christ Jesus and it is Life in our spirit and it is the God kind of Life. Our spirit has been made alive once more in Christ Jesus. Jesus said that His Words are also Spirit and Life, so we can now enter into "overflowing" life by His Word.
This is exactly what I mean when I talk about "Learning To Live." Now that Life has come, by our receiving Jesus, how do we walk in this Life? How do we take this life into the fullness, the abundance and the overflowing that Jesus said it will produce.
If the Word is also Life and the Spirit is life, then as we read God's Word by the Holy Spirit, it will reveal His power and guidelines to learn about this life. We've mostly read the Word from a sense of duty rather than life seeking. We often argue and stumble over His covenant. If God's Word is Life and Spirit (and it is), then we grow into the fullness of this life by reading the Word and receiving it into your spirit.
Proverbs 4:20-22 (Amplified) says, "My son, attend to My Words; consent and submit to My sayings. Let them not depart from your sight; keep them in the center of your heart. For they are life to those who find them, healing and health to all their flesh."
This is Life to the fullest. We have eternal life (are made alive) in Christ Jesus. We have forgiveness and right standing by His Blood. We've been made joint-heirs with Jesus and heirs of God. We are delivered from satan and have been raised together with Christ. Because we are now alive in Him, we also have the ability to receive the Spirit of His Word and not just the Law. Now, this Spirit Word will even heal and bring health to our body.
We're beginning to see what Jesus meant when He said we would have "Life to the full." Not only would we be alive again to God, but this life would also flow in the natural realm. God's Spirit (Life) would now affect every aspect of our lives, spirit, soul and body. We would not just "Go to heaven when we die," but we actually have heaven (God Himself) living in us at all times. How can our body not respond to this?
If Jesus, Who is this life, could lay His hands on sick people and heal them, then how hard is it for Jesus to heal us when He lives in us bodily. If you could touch His garment and be healed, then why wouldn't His Presence in us, bring healing to our body as well?
We don't know how to live this Life that Jesus came to give us because we've allowed the old man or the man who isn't reborn, to teach us the Word of God. The world still looks at the Bible as a book. We look at the Bible as our life and the length of our days. It isn't a book of rules, but of liberties. It's not a book of condemnation, but of peace.
Everything that is born must have a teacher of life. Babies must be taught how to live because they have life, but don't even know what that means. They must be taught everything about life that we can teach them. They can't talk, walk, or feed themselves. Everything in life must be learned.
We now have life because of Jesus, but are unsure of what that means for us here. Sometimes, we get stubborn headed or prideful and refuse to listen to the truth. It seems easier somehow and sometimes to simply do nothing.
It is true that you will still have eternal life and unbroken fellowship with the Father even when we do nothing. But, the full or abundant life that was supposed to enter into our lives here, might not manifest into overflowing and abundance when we do nothing.
The more we receive the Life and Spirit by His Word, the more we learn and live in His Life. He had so much life that He could give it to all who would receive it. By just the touch of His hands, Jesus could heal sick bodies. Now, the whole of this Life (not just His hands), but His very Life, is in us. Proverbs 4:22 (Amplified) says that, "His Word (Jesus) is healing and health to all your flesh."
This is life more abundantly for anyone who has ever been sick. This is life to the full (eternal life in heaven and long healthy life on earth). To the lame man, this is overflowing life that makes him able to stand righteous before God in eternity and able to stand whole before his family and his friends here on earth. This is truly overflowing life.
John 6:63 (Amplified) says, "It is the Spirit Who gives life (He is the Life-Giver); the flesh conveys no benefit whatever (there is no profit in it). The Words (Truths) that I have been speaking to you are Spirit and Life."
The abundant Life that Jesus is proclaiming, is life into their spirit. In the new covenant, we take for granted the new life that Jesus was speaking about. But, the people listening to Jesus were spiritually dead. Before receiving Christ, we were equally as dead in trespass and sin. Under the Law, it was the acts of obedience in the flesh, that covered them by the blood of bulls and goats. Even though, they had sacrifice to cover them, it could not give them life. As we read in John 6:63(Amplified), "It is the Spirit Who gives Life (He is the Life-Giver)."
Jesus also said in John 6:63 (Amplified) that, "The Words (Truths) I have been speaking to you are Spirit and Life." When Jesus said that, "He came that we have life and have it to the full, till it overflows," He was to give us Life with His Life and that by His Spirit, we are made alive in Him. Jesus' Blood paid for our sin and trespasses. Hebrews 9:22 (Amplified) says, "(In fact) under the Law almost everything is purified by means of blood and without the shedding of blood there is neither release from sin and its guilt nor the remission of the due and merited punishment for sins."
Hebrews 10:19 (Amplified) says, "Therefore, brethren since we have full freedom and confidence to enter into the (Holy of) Holies (by the power and virtue) in the Blood of Jesus."
We now have Life in Christ Jesus and it is Life in our spirit and it is the God kind of Life. Our spirit has been made alive once more in Christ Jesus. Jesus said that His Words are also Spirit and Life, so we can now enter into "overflowing" life by His Word.
This is exactly what I mean when I talk about "Learning To Live." Now that Life has come, by our receiving Jesus, how do we walk in this Life? How do we take this life into the fullness, the abundance and the overflowing that Jesus said it will produce.
If the Word is also Life and the Spirit is life, then as we read God's Word by the Holy Spirit, it will reveal His power and guidelines to learn about this life. We've mostly read the Word from a sense of duty rather than life seeking. We often argue and stumble over His covenant. If God's Word is Life and Spirit (and it is), then we grow into the fullness of this life by reading the Word and receiving it into your spirit.
Proverbs 4:20-22 (Amplified) says, "My son, attend to My Words; consent and submit to My sayings. Let them not depart from your sight; keep them in the center of your heart. For they are life to those who find them, healing and health to all their flesh."
This is Life to the fullest. We have eternal life (are made alive) in Christ Jesus. We have forgiveness and right standing by His Blood. We've been made joint-heirs with Jesus and heirs of God. We are delivered from satan and have been raised together with Christ. Because we are now alive in Him, we also have the ability to receive the Spirit of His Word and not just the Law. Now, this Spirit Word will even heal and bring health to our body.
We're beginning to see what Jesus meant when He said we would have "Life to the full." Not only would we be alive again to God, but this life would also flow in the natural realm. God's Spirit (Life) would now affect every aspect of our lives, spirit, soul and body. We would not just "Go to heaven when we die," but we actually have heaven (God Himself) living in us at all times. How can our body not respond to this?
If Jesus, Who is this life, could lay His hands on sick people and heal them, then how hard is it for Jesus to heal us when He lives in us bodily. If you could touch His garment and be healed, then why wouldn't His Presence in us, bring healing to our body as well?
We don't know how to live this Life that Jesus came to give us because we've allowed the old man or the man who isn't reborn, to teach us the Word of God. The world still looks at the Bible as a book. We look at the Bible as our life and the length of our days. It isn't a book of rules, but of liberties. It's not a book of condemnation, but of peace.
Everything that is born must have a teacher of life. Babies must be taught how to live because they have life, but don't even know what that means. They must be taught everything about life that we can teach them. They can't talk, walk, or feed themselves. Everything in life must be learned.
We now have life because of Jesus, but are unsure of what that means for us here. Sometimes, we get stubborn headed or prideful and refuse to listen to the truth. It seems easier somehow and sometimes to simply do nothing.
It is true that you will still have eternal life and unbroken fellowship with the Father even when we do nothing. But, the full or abundant life that was supposed to enter into our lives here, might not manifest into overflowing and abundance when we do nothing.
The more we receive the Life and Spirit by His Word, the more we learn and live in His Life. He had so much life that He could give it to all who would receive it. By just the touch of His hands, Jesus could heal sick bodies. Now, the whole of this Life (not just His hands), but His very Life, is in us. Proverbs 4:22 (Amplified) says that, "His Word (Jesus) is healing and health to all your flesh."
This is life more abundantly for anyone who has ever been sick. This is life to the full (eternal life in heaven and long healthy life on earth). To the lame man, this is overflowing life that makes him able to stand righteous before God in eternity and able to stand whole before his family and his friends here on earth. This is truly overflowing life.
Wednesday, September 3, 2014
Lesson 3 Learning To Live
John 10:10 (Amplified) says that, "The thief comes only in order to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have and enjoy life, and have it in abundance (to the full, till it overflows)."
As Christians, we have mostly never understood the significance of what Jesus meant when He made this statement. We've mostly thought He was talking about being saved, forgiven and heaven bound after death. All of this is true, but it goes much deeper than that. At the new birth, we would receive the very nature, the very Spirit and the very life of God Himself. Everything in the Spirit realm would now be ours as well as the return of the dominion that was man's in the very beginning (see the Blog "Law of the Kinsman Redeemer"). We weren't only forgiven of our sin, but we were reinstated as God's Own children.
We have allowed the enemy to use tradition and religion to keep us under the bondage of the old man. The Law could help men in their behavior modification of the flesh, but couldn't change the nature (spirit) of man. The blood of bulls and goats could give man an artificial life, but not the true life. The sacrifice kept getting bigger and more abundant in order to keep this artificial life going, in the old covenant people. It's like when someone in a hospital is declared clinically dead, then we could put them on a life support system, but that person remains lifeless. The body would function, the heart would pump blood, the lungs would carry oxygen to the blood, but for all intents and purposes, the person is still dead.
The blood of bulls and goats could extend the function of the body in the old covenant. But, the
spirit was still dead because of the sin nature that came down from Adam. God could use the blood of goats and bulls to cover the sin, but not to remove it. The Law could show us how to modify the behavior, but couldn't change the sin nature of man. Under the old covenant, it could show you God was the Almighty, all powerful, Creator of heaven and earth. but, it couldn't show the people Who God was.
It could reveal Him as God, but couldn't reveal Him as Father. It could reveal God as One Who demanded holiness, but they couldn't become holy. God demanded love, but they couldn't love like He commanded. The Law demanded righteousness, but they couldn't do enough of their own works to make themselves righteous.
The life that they were living under the old covenant,was at best, just the natural, carnal life of the flesh. The only life the spirit of man could hope for was the life in the blood of their sacrifice. When Jesus said that He came that they could have and enjoy life to the full, the people had no idea what He was talking about.
Today, we still don't understand the full significance of His statement. When we received "Life" through Jesus, it is the very life of Almighty God. This life isn't for when we die and go to heaven, but all the Life of God Himself is for here on earth. This Life was to flow from our new creation spirit, into our flesh and blood body. The supernatural life of our Father,was the life He breathed into Adam and Jesus, the Last Adam. This life wouldn't modify the behavior of the flesh, but would control it from within our new, God made spirit.
We haven't allowed this life Spirit be made manifest in the flesh and blood bodies we live in. We still set it for the future when we die and go to heaven. We have mostly used the Law to modify our behavior, but we've failed to allow the new life to control our behavior. Galatians 5:16 (Amplified) says, "But I say, walk and live (habitually) in the (Holy) Spirit (responsive to and controlled and guided by the Spirit); then you will certainly not gratify the cravings and desires of the flesh (of the human nature without God)."
I remember when I was young and went to the circus. I saw lions in a big cage that jumped through hoops of fire, sit on stools and stand on their hind legs. They had trained the lions by modifying their behavior patterns, but if you turned your back to them, then they'd eat you. All the modification in the world couldn't change the nature of the lions.
The Law could help modify man's behavior, but couldn't change his nature. As Christians, we still try using the Law to change our behavior, instead of allowing the "Life" of the Holy Spirit to change our nature into His nature. You have been made new, by the sacrifice of Jesus, into the very Image and likeness of the Father.
God intended us to use this "Life" to bring life to others. We're supposed to use this abundant life, along with its inherited power, to set the world free from death. Healing for ourselves and healing for others, is in this "Life" that Jesus came to give us. The very same life that He has, is the very same life that we have. There is so much life inside us, that we can dismiss sickness from other people by laying our hands on them. This "Life" is the very presence of God Himself now living inside of us. No wonder Jesus said that, "It's not Me, but the Father in Me Who does the work."
I'm not sure why it's been so difficult for us to learn how to live. We keep trying to live the God kind of life by the same standards we had before we were created anew. Sickness and disease are simply a partial death and something that slows down the flow of life in our body. If we are made new in His likeness, then doesn't this mean we are to be like He is? Jesus said that we were to be one with God as He is One with God. John 17:20 (Amplified) says, "I have given to them the glory and honor which you have given Me, that they may be one (even) as We are One."
This Life is the very presence of God in our life and is our life. What He is, we are. You are not God, but you have received His very nature, ability and power. We are to use this gift of life on behalf of others, meeting theirs needs like Jesus did. This is the Life that Jesus came to give us. It's abundant life. It's more life than we can ever use up.
We are to share this Life with anyone who has a need. Everything that man could ever need is found in this Life. We have more life than the devil has death and we have more healing than satan has sickness. "Greater is He Who is in us than he who is in the world."
We are being brought into the knowledge of how to actually live in the Spirit and to flow from the Spirit and to allow the Spirit to flow through us. What flows out from our spirit to others is actually God Himself. God flows from our spirit and not our flesh. As we lay hands on people, God flows through our contact into the person having hands laid on them (just like it was Jesus laying His hands on them). The power flowed out of Jesus' hands into the woman with the issue of blood, healing her. Jesus felt the power go out of Him. The same is true for us, too,as God flows out of our spirit that's made new and in His likeness. We are now learning how to actually, truly live.
As Christians, we have mostly never understood the significance of what Jesus meant when He made this statement. We've mostly thought He was talking about being saved, forgiven and heaven bound after death. All of this is true, but it goes much deeper than that. At the new birth, we would receive the very nature, the very Spirit and the very life of God Himself. Everything in the Spirit realm would now be ours as well as the return of the dominion that was man's in the very beginning (see the Blog "Law of the Kinsman Redeemer"). We weren't only forgiven of our sin, but we were reinstated as God's Own children.
We have allowed the enemy to use tradition and religion to keep us under the bondage of the old man. The Law could help men in their behavior modification of the flesh, but couldn't change the nature (spirit) of man. The blood of bulls and goats could give man an artificial life, but not the true life. The sacrifice kept getting bigger and more abundant in order to keep this artificial life going, in the old covenant people. It's like when someone in a hospital is declared clinically dead, then we could put them on a life support system, but that person remains lifeless. The body would function, the heart would pump blood, the lungs would carry oxygen to the blood, but for all intents and purposes, the person is still dead.
The blood of bulls and goats could extend the function of the body in the old covenant. But, the
spirit was still dead because of the sin nature that came down from Adam. God could use the blood of goats and bulls to cover the sin, but not to remove it. The Law could show us how to modify the behavior, but couldn't change the sin nature of man. Under the old covenant, it could show you God was the Almighty, all powerful, Creator of heaven and earth. but, it couldn't show the people Who God was.
It could reveal Him as God, but couldn't reveal Him as Father. It could reveal God as One Who demanded holiness, but they couldn't become holy. God demanded love, but they couldn't love like He commanded. The Law demanded righteousness, but they couldn't do enough of their own works to make themselves righteous.
The life that they were living under the old covenant,was at best, just the natural, carnal life of the flesh. The only life the spirit of man could hope for was the life in the blood of their sacrifice. When Jesus said that He came that they could have and enjoy life to the full, the people had no idea what He was talking about.
Today, we still don't understand the full significance of His statement. When we received "Life" through Jesus, it is the very life of Almighty God. This life isn't for when we die and go to heaven, but all the Life of God Himself is for here on earth. This Life was to flow from our new creation spirit, into our flesh and blood body. The supernatural life of our Father,was the life He breathed into Adam and Jesus, the Last Adam. This life wouldn't modify the behavior of the flesh, but would control it from within our new, God made spirit.
We haven't allowed this life Spirit be made manifest in the flesh and blood bodies we live in. We still set it for the future when we die and go to heaven. We have mostly used the Law to modify our behavior, but we've failed to allow the new life to control our behavior. Galatians 5:16 (Amplified) says, "But I say, walk and live (habitually) in the (Holy) Spirit (responsive to and controlled and guided by the Spirit); then you will certainly not gratify the cravings and desires of the flesh (of the human nature without God)."
I remember when I was young and went to the circus. I saw lions in a big cage that jumped through hoops of fire, sit on stools and stand on their hind legs. They had trained the lions by modifying their behavior patterns, but if you turned your back to them, then they'd eat you. All the modification in the world couldn't change the nature of the lions.
The Law could help modify man's behavior, but couldn't change his nature. As Christians, we still try using the Law to change our behavior, instead of allowing the "Life" of the Holy Spirit to change our nature into His nature. You have been made new, by the sacrifice of Jesus, into the very Image and likeness of the Father.
God intended us to use this "Life" to bring life to others. We're supposed to use this abundant life, along with its inherited power, to set the world free from death. Healing for ourselves and healing for others, is in this "Life" that Jesus came to give us. The very same life that He has, is the very same life that we have. There is so much life inside us, that we can dismiss sickness from other people by laying our hands on them. This "Life" is the very presence of God Himself now living inside of us. No wonder Jesus said that, "It's not Me, but the Father in Me Who does the work."
I'm not sure why it's been so difficult for us to learn how to live. We keep trying to live the God kind of life by the same standards we had before we were created anew. Sickness and disease are simply a partial death and something that slows down the flow of life in our body. If we are made new in His likeness, then doesn't this mean we are to be like He is? Jesus said that we were to be one with God as He is One with God. John 17:20 (Amplified) says, "I have given to them the glory and honor which you have given Me, that they may be one (even) as We are One."
This Life is the very presence of God in our life and is our life. What He is, we are. You are not God, but you have received His very nature, ability and power. We are to use this gift of life on behalf of others, meeting theirs needs like Jesus did. This is the Life that Jesus came to give us. It's abundant life. It's more life than we can ever use up.
We are to share this Life with anyone who has a need. Everything that man could ever need is found in this Life. We have more life than the devil has death and we have more healing than satan has sickness. "Greater is He Who is in us than he who is in the world."
We are being brought into the knowledge of how to actually live in the Spirit and to flow from the Spirit and to allow the Spirit to flow through us. What flows out from our spirit to others is actually God Himself. God flows from our spirit and not our flesh. As we lay hands on people, God flows through our contact into the person having hands laid on them (just like it was Jesus laying His hands on them). The power flowed out of Jesus' hands into the woman with the issue of blood, healing her. Jesus felt the power go out of Him. The same is true for us, too,as God flows out of our spirit that's made new and in His likeness. We are now learning how to actually, truly live.
Tuesday, September 2, 2014
Lesson 2 Learning To Live
John 10:10 (Amplified) says, "The thief comes in order to steal and kill and destroy. I came that you may have and enjoy life, and have it in abundance (to the full, till it overflows)."
When Jesus spoke these words, was He speaking to people who were already alive or not? I'm the sure His listeners were perplexed by what He said. Having no understanding of death in the spirit, they must not have understood what Jesus was saying. Today, we don't seem to have much more revelation about this statement than they did.
Why would Jesus address a live crowd with the statement, "I came that you may have and enjoy life?" They must have all thought they already had life and were, for the most part, enjoying that life. What was Jesus talking about? He came to "give," "that we may have life." Today, if we were talking to the unsaved, then they wouldn't have any idea what we were talking about if we said that "we came that they might have life." It's even sadder, that even the Church might would think we're talking about heaven if we said they have new life and more abundant life than they had before.
This "life" doesn't begin when we get to heaven, but begins when you receive Christ as your Savior. This life is the "Zoe, time, spirit or the God kind of life. Death no longer dwells in our spirit, but God's very Own life is now there. We've never really understood what this life has made available to us here, in this world. Jesus used this "Life" to allow God to make His love available to mankind. Jesus knew how to live this God kind of life to the full advantage and enjoyment that pleases the Father.
When Jesus said He'd give us life to the full, He meant that not only would we have the life that we now live in our own body, but God's life and ability in our spirit to govern our body. We now need to learn how to live this God kind of life.
We watched Jesus as He walked in this God life. We see that it raised Him above all the natural things of this world. Jesus was not only never sick, but sickness couldn't remain even on others around Him as He dismissed it. He knew the power of spoken words in this "life" that He possessed and was very respectful of how He spoke. He could speak death to a tree and life to a dead man and then calm a storm with His words. He had authority over all the elements and the laws of physics that govern the natural world.
We find that knowing how to live this full life was the power of this new life. Jesus knew what to say and how to say it. Demonic spirits were subject to this new life along with everything else. This new, abundant life, didn't just mean a way to gain wealth or things, but was actually the source of wealth and things. When Jesus needed food for the people, this life produced enough and twelve baskets were left over. When Jesus needed money, this life produced money from the fish's mouth. Whatever Jesus needed and whenever He needed it, life produced it for Him. This is life more abundantly.
One version of this verse says that Jesus came to bring "more life than we will ever need." Because Jesus had this life living in Him and flowing through Him, when He came into contact with death or sickness (which is a form of death in itself), this full, abundant, Zoe kind of life drove out demons, death, and disease. This is the same kind of life Jesus gave to those Who receive Him at the new birth.
Our problem has been, that we have never learned how to live in this new life. We watch some who were learning to live this new life. We see in the Word, how Peter and John were at the Gates of the Beautiful Garden and learned the power of words in this new life. They didn't pray, they didn't lead the crippled man in prayer. They simply said, "In the Name of Jesus, rise up and walk" and then life came into the man's crippled feet and legs and he rose up leaping and praising God.
We watched Paul begin to learn how this "life" work. He shook a poisonous viper off from his hand into the fire and had no adverse reactions to the poison. We see throughout the Word how this "life" was used to cast out demons that were tormenting people. They were learning how to live!
We see in the Book of Genesis how this God kind of life was given to Adam. This God life was above all other things on earth. God walked with Adam, talked with Adam and even allowed him to name all the animals on the planet. God showed him how to live.
Only the Holy Spirit can teach us how to live this new life and all that it encompasses. Without the Holy Spirit to teach us, we would be like we were before life came. Our problem isn't that we don't have this "new life," but we have never learned how to live it. Today, what we call "Christianity" comes from dead men trying to teach us life and it hasn't worked very well. They've tried teaching abundant life through dead regulations. Rather than pursuing abundant life, we've reverted back to dead regulations. All the supernatural power that this life has given has been removed and made of no effect in our lives.
Every newborn has potential, but must be taught how to live. A new baby must have someone to teach him everything about life. They don't know how to talk, walk , distinguish between persons, colors and animals. They don't know how to eat or what to eat. They don't know the difference between things that will harm them or bless them. They have to learn how to live.
1Peter 2:2 (Amplified) says, "Like newborn babies you should crave (thirst for, earnestly desire) the pure (unadulterated) spiritual milk, that by it you may be nurtured and grow onto (completed) salvation." The Word instructs us to grow in this knowledge of this new life and to live it to His glory.
We took this new life and chose to keep it bound through rituals, by behavior modification, by religion and by sheer willpower not to sin. We fought against sin by our own power and didn't allow life to swallow death, like it's supposed to do. We reduced this life by enforcing dress codes, denominations and by searching for others to group together with us. We became like the dumb television show of the living dead. We became life wrapped up with dead rituals and customs. It actually smells as badly as the walking dead smell. It smells like manna that was held onto for the next day.
The Holy Spirit was sent when Jesus returned to the Father. His job it to lead, guide, reveal, direct and teach the Church how to live this new life. Unless those teaching the Church are actually being left by the Holy Spirit, we are still like the "blind leading the blind." Jesus told the young man to "Come, follow Me." The young man asked if he could first bury his dead father. Without this life that Jesus came to give us, the man with the shovel was as dead as the one being buried.
How do we learn how to live? We were born unto death. We have conducted all of our affairs governed by death. Every decision we've ever made, was instructed from death. When we were born again, we continued allowing death to govern our life because we were never taught how to live in the abundant life of God that lifted us back into His life. We never understood what the Bible was actually saying to us. We've never really seen ourselves as new creatures in Christ and having new life here on earth. We've never allowed life to reign here on earth and deliver this abundant life to bear on a sick and dead world, like Jesus instructed us.
When Jesus spoke these words, was He speaking to people who were already alive or not? I'm the sure His listeners were perplexed by what He said. Having no understanding of death in the spirit, they must not have understood what Jesus was saying. Today, we don't seem to have much more revelation about this statement than they did.
Why would Jesus address a live crowd with the statement, "I came that you may have and enjoy life?" They must have all thought they already had life and were, for the most part, enjoying that life. What was Jesus talking about? He came to "give," "that we may have life." Today, if we were talking to the unsaved, then they wouldn't have any idea what we were talking about if we said that "we came that they might have life." It's even sadder, that even the Church might would think we're talking about heaven if we said they have new life and more abundant life than they had before.
This "life" doesn't begin when we get to heaven, but begins when you receive Christ as your Savior. This life is the "Zoe, time, spirit or the God kind of life. Death no longer dwells in our spirit, but God's very Own life is now there. We've never really understood what this life has made available to us here, in this world. Jesus used this "Life" to allow God to make His love available to mankind. Jesus knew how to live this God kind of life to the full advantage and enjoyment that pleases the Father.
When Jesus said He'd give us life to the full, He meant that not only would we have the life that we now live in our own body, but God's life and ability in our spirit to govern our body. We now need to learn how to live this God kind of life.
We watched Jesus as He walked in this God life. We see that it raised Him above all the natural things of this world. Jesus was not only never sick, but sickness couldn't remain even on others around Him as He dismissed it. He knew the power of spoken words in this "life" that He possessed and was very respectful of how He spoke. He could speak death to a tree and life to a dead man and then calm a storm with His words. He had authority over all the elements and the laws of physics that govern the natural world.
We find that knowing how to live this full life was the power of this new life. Jesus knew what to say and how to say it. Demonic spirits were subject to this new life along with everything else. This new, abundant life, didn't just mean a way to gain wealth or things, but was actually the source of wealth and things. When Jesus needed food for the people, this life produced enough and twelve baskets were left over. When Jesus needed money, this life produced money from the fish's mouth. Whatever Jesus needed and whenever He needed it, life produced it for Him. This is life more abundantly.
One version of this verse says that Jesus came to bring "more life than we will ever need." Because Jesus had this life living in Him and flowing through Him, when He came into contact with death or sickness (which is a form of death in itself), this full, abundant, Zoe kind of life drove out demons, death, and disease. This is the same kind of life Jesus gave to those Who receive Him at the new birth.
Our problem has been, that we have never learned how to live in this new life. We watch some who were learning to live this new life. We see in the Word, how Peter and John were at the Gates of the Beautiful Garden and learned the power of words in this new life. They didn't pray, they didn't lead the crippled man in prayer. They simply said, "In the Name of Jesus, rise up and walk" and then life came into the man's crippled feet and legs and he rose up leaping and praising God.
We watched Paul begin to learn how this "life" work. He shook a poisonous viper off from his hand into the fire and had no adverse reactions to the poison. We see throughout the Word how this "life" was used to cast out demons that were tormenting people. They were learning how to live!
We see in the Book of Genesis how this God kind of life was given to Adam. This God life was above all other things on earth. God walked with Adam, talked with Adam and even allowed him to name all the animals on the planet. God showed him how to live.
Only the Holy Spirit can teach us how to live this new life and all that it encompasses. Without the Holy Spirit to teach us, we would be like we were before life came. Our problem isn't that we don't have this "new life," but we have never learned how to live it. Today, what we call "Christianity" comes from dead men trying to teach us life and it hasn't worked very well. They've tried teaching abundant life through dead regulations. Rather than pursuing abundant life, we've reverted back to dead regulations. All the supernatural power that this life has given has been removed and made of no effect in our lives.
Every newborn has potential, but must be taught how to live. A new baby must have someone to teach him everything about life. They don't know how to talk, walk , distinguish between persons, colors and animals. They don't know how to eat or what to eat. They don't know the difference between things that will harm them or bless them. They have to learn how to live.
1Peter 2:2 (Amplified) says, "Like newborn babies you should crave (thirst for, earnestly desire) the pure (unadulterated) spiritual milk, that by it you may be nurtured and grow onto (completed) salvation." The Word instructs us to grow in this knowledge of this new life and to live it to His glory.
We took this new life and chose to keep it bound through rituals, by behavior modification, by religion and by sheer willpower not to sin. We fought against sin by our own power and didn't allow life to swallow death, like it's supposed to do. We reduced this life by enforcing dress codes, denominations and by searching for others to group together with us. We became like the dumb television show of the living dead. We became life wrapped up with dead rituals and customs. It actually smells as badly as the walking dead smell. It smells like manna that was held onto for the next day.
The Holy Spirit was sent when Jesus returned to the Father. His job it to lead, guide, reveal, direct and teach the Church how to live this new life. Unless those teaching the Church are actually being left by the Holy Spirit, we are still like the "blind leading the blind." Jesus told the young man to "Come, follow Me." The young man asked if he could first bury his dead father. Without this life that Jesus came to give us, the man with the shovel was as dead as the one being buried.
How do we learn how to live? We were born unto death. We have conducted all of our affairs governed by death. Every decision we've ever made, was instructed from death. When we were born again, we continued allowing death to govern our life because we were never taught how to live in the abundant life of God that lifted us back into His life. We never understood what the Bible was actually saying to us. We've never really seen ourselves as new creatures in Christ and having new life here on earth. We've never allowed life to reign here on earth and deliver this abundant life to bear on a sick and dead world, like Jesus instructed us.
Monday, September 1, 2014
Lesson 1 Learning To Live
John 10:10 (Amplified) says that, "The thief comes only in order to steal and kill destroy. I came that they may have and enjoy life, and have it in abundance (to the full, till it overflows)."
Something in this scripture has always eluded and left me wondering what was really going on. We now know that Jesus was talking about the new birth and the born again experience. Most of us, even after being born again, don't seem to understand what Jesus was really saying.
I'm sure that all of those present at the time of this discourse, were astonished at what Jesus said. All of those listening probably thought they were "alive" already and yet Jesus was saying that He came that they should have life. I can almost hear them saying among themselves, "Does He think we are dead?" And, they probably whispered, "Are we not walking and talking and breathing?" and "Do we not have life within ourselves?"
When Jesus said this to the crowd, He was actually the only true living Man among them. He was actually, at that time, the only truly living Man on the entire planet. Romans 5:12 (Amplified) says, "Therefore, as sin came into the world through one man, and death as the result of sin, so death spread to all men (no one being able to stop it or to escape its power) because all men sinned."
This scripture isn't just speaking of natural death that occurs in the body, because we Christians still die in the body (until the resurrection). He was speaking about a spiritual death which is separation from God that happened because of the fall of Adam.
Because we lack understanding of spiritual death, we still don't understand the terms of it. We still have an eternal spirit, but because of Adam, it was cut off from God - Who is life. Man functioned only in the natural or carnal life, but without God's life being in us anymore. When Jesus said that, "He came that we might have life and have it to the full," He was speaking of our being made one with God again through His sacrifice and the new birth.
The full and abundant life Jesus was speaking about, was God's life Itself that would live in us again. This life would be all that Adam had, all that Jesus had and all that God Himself has. This is more life than we could ever use. This is eternal life through the Holy Spirit of God Himself. This life of God is now open to us again and it's everything God had planned for man from the beginning. We would no longer be limited to just the natural man and the arm of the flesh, but now the blessings of heaven would flow through us like it did in the Garden of Eden.
When a woman gets pregnant, a child is alive in her womb, but that child's world is limited to total darkness and confinement. Once the child is born, it is no less alive, but a vast life has opened to it that it never knew existed. It's more abundant life and a great new world than the child knew in the womb. Jesus declared that the believer would now have life "to the full." We were taken from spiritual death into life with God again. Colossians 2:10 (Amplified) says, "And you are in Him, made full and having come to fullness of life (in Christ you too are filled with the Godhead-Father, Son and Holy Spirit-and reach full spiritual stature) and He is the head of all rule and authority (of every angelic principality and power)."
In spiritual death or separation from God in the spirit, we could only strive walking in obedience of laws and rules that would help us from total destruction. Ephesians 2:1-2 (Amplified) says, "And you (He made alive) when you were dead (slain) by (your) trespasses and sins In which at one time you walked (habitually) You were following the course and fashion of this world (were under the sway of the tendency of this present age) following the prince of the power of the air. (You were obedient to and under the control of) the (demon) spirit that still constantly works in the sons of disobedience (the careless, the rebellious, and the unbelieving, who go against the purposes of God)."
Once we were set free from death and entered into life through Jesus, we must learn how to live. We have once again placed ourselves under laws and creeds and have continued in the same age old confines of our death walk. Although life was restored to us , we still walk in the realm of the dead. All of this life that Jesus has now given us, has been greatly lost to the believer.
We were now to have "life to the full," but much like a newborn, we became overwhelmed with so much life. We used religion to bring it down to terms we could understand and lost the liberty and power of unity with out Father. Paul wrote to the Church in Rome about understanding the vastness of this new life. Thus, he says in Romans 10:2 (Amplified), "Do not be conformed to this world (this age) fashioned after and adapted to its external, superficial customs) but be transformed (changed) by the (entire) renewal of your mind (by its new ideals and its new attitude)."
If we do not renew our minds with the truth of the new birth, then we will continue in the same customs and traditions we held when we were dead to God. Jesus said in John 6:63 (Amplified) that, "It is the Spirit Who gives life (He is the Life-giver) the flesh conveys no benefit whatever (there is no profit in it) the Words (truths) that I have been speaking to you are Spirit and Life."
If we renew our minds like Paul instructed, then we can begin understand the life that has been given to us. Now, we can finally begin to understand what Jesus was speaking about in John 8:31-32 (Amplified) saying, "So Jesus said to those Jews who had believed in Him, If you abide in My Word (hold fast to My teachings and live in accordance with them) you are truly My disciples and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free."
It is only by continuing and abiding in Jesus and allowing His Word to abide in us, that we will ever know the truth and be free from the death that kept us bondage to the world. In the Church today, we are abiding in Him through the new birth, but His Word isn't abiding in us. And, because of this, we have never known the truth that makes us truly free. We still live under the flesh (that has no benefit) and have never really learned how to live. The reason for these teachings is to teach the Body of Christ how to live and walk into this abundant life with God that opens up a whole new life with His Spirit.
Many things taught to these last days Church, have been about this abundant life. Mostly, though, the carnally minded Christians have dismissed these teachings. Many teachings about prosperity or the authority of the believer to claim things in faith and grace, have been dismissed as "Name it and claim it" or "Blab it and grab it" tactics.
All these things are part of this life that is once again ours by the new birth. Because we refuse to believe what God's Word says and because we choose to live as being dead to the Words of the Spirit, we still operate in the flesh instead of the Spirit. We're like the newborn baby who is frightened by the vastness of the world that has opened up to him. Newborn still seek the closeness and the familiar things of the womb. You wrap them tightly in a blanket and they feel the familiar confines of their previous life in the womb.
Like a newborn, we turn to the familiar ways we were in before being born again. Remember, Jesus said that, "If we will abide in Him and His Words abide in us, then we will know the truth and that truth will set us free." The only way to have life to the fullest like in John 10:10, is to know the truth about this new life by His Word. This new life is the very life God gave when He made man in His Image and likeness.
Something in this scripture has always eluded and left me wondering what was really going on. We now know that Jesus was talking about the new birth and the born again experience. Most of us, even after being born again, don't seem to understand what Jesus was really saying.
I'm sure that all of those present at the time of this discourse, were astonished at what Jesus said. All of those listening probably thought they were "alive" already and yet Jesus was saying that He came that they should have life. I can almost hear them saying among themselves, "Does He think we are dead?" And, they probably whispered, "Are we not walking and talking and breathing?" and "Do we not have life within ourselves?"
When Jesus said this to the crowd, He was actually the only true living Man among them. He was actually, at that time, the only truly living Man on the entire planet. Romans 5:12 (Amplified) says, "Therefore, as sin came into the world through one man, and death as the result of sin, so death spread to all men (no one being able to stop it or to escape its power) because all men sinned."
This scripture isn't just speaking of natural death that occurs in the body, because we Christians still die in the body (until the resurrection). He was speaking about a spiritual death which is separation from God that happened because of the fall of Adam.
Because we lack understanding of spiritual death, we still don't understand the terms of it. We still have an eternal spirit, but because of Adam, it was cut off from God - Who is life. Man functioned only in the natural or carnal life, but without God's life being in us anymore. When Jesus said that, "He came that we might have life and have it to the full," He was speaking of our being made one with God again through His sacrifice and the new birth.
The full and abundant life Jesus was speaking about, was God's life Itself that would live in us again. This life would be all that Adam had, all that Jesus had and all that God Himself has. This is more life than we could ever use. This is eternal life through the Holy Spirit of God Himself. This life of God is now open to us again and it's everything God had planned for man from the beginning. We would no longer be limited to just the natural man and the arm of the flesh, but now the blessings of heaven would flow through us like it did in the Garden of Eden.
When a woman gets pregnant, a child is alive in her womb, but that child's world is limited to total darkness and confinement. Once the child is born, it is no less alive, but a vast life has opened to it that it never knew existed. It's more abundant life and a great new world than the child knew in the womb. Jesus declared that the believer would now have life "to the full." We were taken from spiritual death into life with God again. Colossians 2:10 (Amplified) says, "And you are in Him, made full and having come to fullness of life (in Christ you too are filled with the Godhead-Father, Son and Holy Spirit-and reach full spiritual stature) and He is the head of all rule and authority (of every angelic principality and power)."
In spiritual death or separation from God in the spirit, we could only strive walking in obedience of laws and rules that would help us from total destruction. Ephesians 2:1-2 (Amplified) says, "And you (He made alive) when you were dead (slain) by (your) trespasses and sins In which at one time you walked (habitually) You were following the course and fashion of this world (were under the sway of the tendency of this present age) following the prince of the power of the air. (You were obedient to and under the control of) the (demon) spirit that still constantly works in the sons of disobedience (the careless, the rebellious, and the unbelieving, who go against the purposes of God)."
Once we were set free from death and entered into life through Jesus, we must learn how to live. We have once again placed ourselves under laws and creeds and have continued in the same age old confines of our death walk. Although life was restored to us , we still walk in the realm of the dead. All of this life that Jesus has now given us, has been greatly lost to the believer.
We were now to have "life to the full," but much like a newborn, we became overwhelmed with so much life. We used religion to bring it down to terms we could understand and lost the liberty and power of unity with out Father. Paul wrote to the Church in Rome about understanding the vastness of this new life. Thus, he says in Romans 10:2 (Amplified), "Do not be conformed to this world (this age) fashioned after and adapted to its external, superficial customs) but be transformed (changed) by the (entire) renewal of your mind (by its new ideals and its new attitude)."
If we do not renew our minds with the truth of the new birth, then we will continue in the same customs and traditions we held when we were dead to God. Jesus said in John 6:63 (Amplified) that, "It is the Spirit Who gives life (He is the Life-giver) the flesh conveys no benefit whatever (there is no profit in it) the Words (truths) that I have been speaking to you are Spirit and Life."
If we renew our minds like Paul instructed, then we can begin understand the life that has been given to us. Now, we can finally begin to understand what Jesus was speaking about in John 8:31-32 (Amplified) saying, "So Jesus said to those Jews who had believed in Him, If you abide in My Word (hold fast to My teachings and live in accordance with them) you are truly My disciples and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free."
It is only by continuing and abiding in Jesus and allowing His Word to abide in us, that we will ever know the truth and be free from the death that kept us bondage to the world. In the Church today, we are abiding in Him through the new birth, but His Word isn't abiding in us. And, because of this, we have never known the truth that makes us truly free. We still live under the flesh (that has no benefit) and have never really learned how to live. The reason for these teachings is to teach the Body of Christ how to live and walk into this abundant life with God that opens up a whole new life with His Spirit.
Many things taught to these last days Church, have been about this abundant life. Mostly, though, the carnally minded Christians have dismissed these teachings. Many teachings about prosperity or the authority of the believer to claim things in faith and grace, have been dismissed as "Name it and claim it" or "Blab it and grab it" tactics.
All these things are part of this life that is once again ours by the new birth. Because we refuse to believe what God's Word says and because we choose to live as being dead to the Words of the Spirit, we still operate in the flesh instead of the Spirit. We're like the newborn baby who is frightened by the vastness of the world that has opened up to him. Newborn still seek the closeness and the familiar things of the womb. You wrap them tightly in a blanket and they feel the familiar confines of their previous life in the womb.
Like a newborn, we turn to the familiar ways we were in before being born again. Remember, Jesus said that, "If we will abide in Him and His Words abide in us, then we will know the truth and that truth will set us free." The only way to have life to the fullest like in John 10:10, is to know the truth about this new life by His Word. This new life is the very life God gave when He made man in His Image and likeness.
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