Friday, September 26, 2014

Lesson 10 Learning To Live

     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.

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