2Corinthians 5:17 (Amplified) says, "Therefore, if any person is (ingrafted) in Christ (the Messiah) he is a new creation (a new creature altogether); the old (previous moral and spiritual condition) has passed away. Behold, the fresh and new has come."
The above scripture reveals a truth that most of us have never come to understand and that is that, we the Church, are truly a new creation on this earth. Jesus said in John 17:15-16 (Amplified) that, "I do not ask that you will take them out of the world, but that you will keep and protect them from the evil one. They are not of the world (worldly, belonging to the world) (Just) as I am not of the world." 2Corinthians 5:20 (Amplified) tells us, "So we are Christ's ambassadors, God making His appeal as it were through us. We (as Christ's personal representatives) beg you for His sake to lay hold of the Divine favor (now offered you) and be reconciled to God."
Ephesians 2:18-19 (Amplified) also says, "For it is through Him that we both (whether far off or near) now have an introduction (access) by One (Holy) Spirit to the Father (so that we are able to approach Him). Therefore you are no longer outsiders (exiled, migrants and aliens, excluded from the rights as citizens), but you now share citizenship with the saints (God's Own people, consecrated and set apart for Himself) and you belong to God's (Own) household."
And, we read in Romans 8:1-4 (Amplified), "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 Spirit. 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."
This "Law of our new being" is a spiritual Law that governs Heaven and God's Own house. Verse 3 says, "For God has done what the Law could not do, (it's power) being weakened by the flesh (the entire nature of man without the Holy Spirit); Sending His Own Son in the guise of sinful flesh and as an Offering for sin. (God) condemned sin in the flesh (subdued, overcame, deprive it of its power over all who accept that Sacrifice)." Verse 4 goes on, "So that the righteous and just requirement of the Law might be fully met in us who live and move not in the ways of the flesh but in the ways of the Spirit (our lives governed not by the standards and according to the dictates of the flesh, but controlled by the Holy Spirit)."
We continue trying to govern the flesh, instead of the being governed by the Spirit, because we have failed to understand what we have and who we are in Christ. We still try dealing more with the flesh than by our spirit.
Jesus gave an example of how the new creation man is to walk in Matthew 18:18-9 (Amplified) saying, "Truly I tell you, whatever you forbid and declare to be improper and unlawful on earth must be what is already forbidden in Heaven, and whatever you permit and declare proper and lawful on earth must be what is already permitted in Heaven. Again I tell you, if two of you on earth agree (harmonize together, make a symphony together) they may ask, it will come to pass and be done for them by My Father in Heaven."
I recognize how Jesus began the above discourse speaking about wrongdoing towards your brother, but it doesn't change the Laws of the Spirit about "binding and loosing" here on earth. This is how the Law of the Spirit worked through Jesus on earth. The power of binding and loosing was placed in our hands, as new creation people. This is where we are to listen to the dictates of the Spirit, and not the flesh.
Do we truly know what is "already permitted in Heaven" and what is "unlawful in Heaven"? Luke 13:11-13 (Amplified) says, "There was a woman there who for eighteen years had had an infirmity caused by a spirit (a demon of sickness). She was bent completely forward and utterly unable to straighten herself up or to look forward. And when Jesus saw her, He (called her to Himself) and said to her, Woman, you are released from your infirmity! Then He laid (His) hands on her, and instantly she was made straight, and she recognized and thanked and praised God."
According to the KJV, Jesus said, "I loose you from your infirmity." This display of loosing was a knowing in His Spirit what is permitted and what isn't allowed in Heaven. We previously read, "What is and what is not allowed to be declared proper on earth." If it wasn't proper in heaven, then the higher laws of the Spirit, will declare it improper on earth as well.
During Jesus' ministry, we witnessed His walking after the dictates of the Spirit and not the flesh. And, as long as He walked after the dictates of the Spirit, Jesus walked above the dictates of the flesh, because the Laws of the Spirit are Higher Laws. Jesus walked as an Ambassador of a Higher Kingdom. As He continued walking by the Spirit, the spiritual laws of a fallen world couldn't contain Him. Satan's laws of sin and death can never override the Spiritual Laws that govern Heaven. So, as long as we walk as ambassadors for Christ, we have Diplomatic Immunity from the Law of Sin and Death.
Jesus said that we "Are in this world, but not of this world." Ambassadors acting in another country aren't subjected to the laws of that country. We are to abide by the civil laws of this country (laws that don't oppose God's Word), but we do not have to abide by the spiritual laws of satan that oppose the Laws of the Kingdom of God. Our citizenship is in Heaven, where we are "seated together with Christ Jesus in Heavenly places," according to Ephesians 2:6 (Amplified) which says, "And He raised us up together with Him and made us sit down together (giving us joint seating with Him) in the Heavenly sphere (by virtue of our being) in Christ Jesus (the Messiah) the Anointed One."
Our joint seating in Heaven is given by God's grace and His mercy towards us. We're not simply saved persons who are going to heaven, but we are a new creation people sent as Heaven's ambassador to do God's will here on and in the earth. When we truly understand what Jesus said about "What is lawful and what is unlawful in Heaven," then we can know what and how to "bind and loose" with authority, through the dictates of the Spirit.
The power of God's Holy Spirit in us, is so much greater than the demonic spirits that have captured the world. The woman in Luke 13:11-13 was a covenant woman under the Law. She should have been exempt from the demonic force of the spirit that held her captive. The Priests had the authority to set her free, even under the Law, but they also walked by the "dictates of the flesh, and not the Spirit."
Like those Priests, we've failed to understand the delegated authority and the higher Laws of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus and have allowed the god of this world to hold us down under his usurped authority. When we read about how Jesus and the Apostles healed and delivered the people by the Holy Spirit, we see miracles and healings and deliverance from God Himself. We see God Himself setting the Law of the Spirit of Life in order, the things declared "unlawful" already in Heaven.
The Holy Spirit, operating through the new creation people who walk by His dictates, was restoring what God intended for us from the beginning. Jesus and the Apostles brought Heaven's (God's) will to bear on "Earth, as it is in Heaven." Jesus prayed that, "Thy Kingdom come, They will be done,m on earth as it is in Heaven," in what we call "The Lord's Prayer." We can see by the things Jesus did, how God's will is in Heaven was being restored back to earth.
We are quickly coming to the place where more and more Christians will be walking in God's Kingdom Authority and not the world's. "We are in this world, but are not of it," because we are ambassadors sent from the very Presence of God. We've been sent to restore to the world, that which is in Heaven. Instead, though, we vacillate between questions of "Is it God's will for healing today?" and saying, "Those things aren't for today's Church." We have fallen into the dictates of the flesh, instead of the Spirit. Once we begin realizing who we truly are and how the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand, then things will change. We've been so careful to not exalt ourselves, that we forgot God will exalt us as we submit to Him. It's not our authority, but His Authority being delegated to us, just like it's not our righteousness, but Jesus' righteousness. Since we've become citizens of Heaven, we walk in the Laws that govern Heaven (the Kingdom of God).
We are new creatures, with new abilities, new Laws and a new King Who is from a greater Kingdom. We're supposed to represent this New King, by revealing His Superior Laws and rule over the god who has set himself over the earth. We are instructed to pray, "Thy will be done on earth, as it is in Heaven" and conduct our lives accordingly. When we encounter things on this earth that are not aligned with Heaven's Laws, we are to restore it back (like the woman in Luke 13 who glorified God after Jesus made her straight).
Miracles are part of who we are as God's representatives on this earth. When we preach about King Jesus, we display God's Kingdom before the people's eyes, as super-natural people from another Kingdom. In Matthew 11:4-6 (Amplified) when John the Baptist wished to know whether or not Jesus was the True Messiah, Jesus answered him by listing the things that followed Him saying, "The blind receive their sight and the lame walk, lepers are cleansed (by healing) and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have Good News (the Gospel) preached to them and blessed (happy, fortunate, and to be envied) is he who takes no offense at Me and finds no cause for stumbling in or through Me and is not hindered from seeing the truth."
Jesus answered by describing Himself and what He had been doing. As Christians, how do we describe who we are? Do we describe our own works in the flesh or the power of the Spirit? Jesus brought restoration back in Luke 8:24 (Amplified) which says, "The disciples came and woke Him, saying, Master, Master, we are perishing! and He, being thoroughly awakened, censured and blamed and rebuked the wind and the raging waves; and they ceased and there was calm." He brought God's will to be done on earth, as it is in Heaven and stopped the wind and saved His disciples.
If Jesus was doing God's will on earth, like He said, then apparently this storm wasn't God's will. We've been told in the midst of calamities that, "They are acts of God," when in truth, they are actually demonic forces. These demonic forces were trying to destroy Jesus and His disciples through a storm. I find it difficult to believe that hurricanes, earthquakes, tidal waves, or any such acts are God's will in Heaven. Do we know what to "bind or loose" from what we've been preached or taught? If Jesus stopped that wind, then it wasn't God's will being done on earth, but was satan trying to destroy. Peter allowed the dictates of the flesh to govern him and began being swallowed by the water. Jesus allowed the dictates of the Spirit to govern Him. One brought fear, while the other brought calm (even to the sea). Peter later began allowing the Spirit to dictates his way of doing things in Acts 9:40-41 (Amplified) when, "A lady named Dorcas, much loved by the people in town, had died. They sent for Peter to come to them for help. But Peter put them all out (of the room) and knelt down and prayed; then turning to the body he said; Tabitha, Get up! and she opened her eyes; and when she saw Peter, she raised herself and sat upright. And he gave her his hand and lifted her up. Then calling in God's people and the widows, he presented her to them alive."
As the disciples learned about the Spirit and how to follow His dictates, we witness the works of Jesus continuing through their ministries and being taught to the Church. The enemy has convinced the Church that the age of miracles has passed. God though, is reviving the Church through His people who will follow the dictates of the Spirit and not the flesh. Your flesh will always argue about the Word, but your spirit will simply walk in God's will "Here on earth, as it is in Heaven." Then, we will bring God's Kingdom into glory, in the eyes of the people we minister to.
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