The soul (the mind, will, emotions) of man has been the greatest part of our fight of faith, in this new creation. We've heard sermons about the sins of the flesh and we've been told that the new creation is "for when we go to Heaven." We are all aware that the things we did before receiving Jesus were wrong and sinful and we shouldn't do these things anymore, and we seem to be locked into a place of guilt and condemnation over these actions.
We religiously read the Words of the Bible, but we seem to be helpless in walking in its Truths. We gained the ability to read through education, but the Holy Spirit makes us able to comprehend the Truth of the words we read from the Bible. To the unrenewed mind, reading the Word just becomes tradition, like it was before we were saved. But, when our mind is renewed by God's Word, we are actually feeding our new created spirit, according to 1Peter 2:2 (Amplified) which 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 unto (completed) salvation." The "completed salvation" doesn't mean "when we get to Heaven," but means "completion in this realm" for our spirit, soul and body.
The fleshly part of man or body, must be trained by practice in the Holy Spirit and the Word, according to Hebrews 5:14 (Amplified). We seem to understand this concept in every other part of our lives, except our spiritual life. We know that we must "train and teach" our body to run a marathon, by constantly running and gaining endurance, but we never seem to comprehend that we must do the same to "run the good race." We can train the senses and flesh to do and act in many things by constant repetition and education. We can also train our flesh to respond once again to our spirit, by the renewing of our minds by the Word.
When we were born-again and created new in Christ Jesus, our spirit was born from death unto life. We were, in our spirit, a brand new creation, like a baby is born into the natural world and made alive in this realm. We too, were made alive int a realm that until now, we were not alive unto. Everything we've experienced in this new life, is different to us. We must grow in wisdom and learn how we are to now live, in this new life.
Every baby must have guidance in life, in order to ever understand how to go. As new creation people, we need the exact same thing in the life of the spirit. We continue walking by what we learned from the world, because we don't know how to walk in the spirit. We've never been taught how to hear in the spirit, talk in the spirit or walk in the spirit. We simply subject our new creation baby spirit, to the carnal mind and nature of our old life in the flesh. When we hear Spiritual Truths from God's Word, our unrenewed carnal minds reject this intrusion into the old way of thinking, because they have never been led by the Spirit.
We've been taught that the "natural man" the Bible speaks about, it the "unsaved." It's actually speaking about the Christian who continues thinking like he did, before being born-again. 1Corinthians 2:13-14 (Amplified) says, "And we are setting these Truths forth in Words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Holy Spirit, combining and interpreting spiritual truths with spiritual language (to those who possess the Holy Spirit. But the natural, non-spiritual man does not accept or welcome or admit into his heart the Gifts and teachings and revelations of the Spirit of God, for they are folly (meaningless nonsense) to him, and he is incapable of knowing them (of progressively recognizing, understand, and becoming acquainted with them) because they are spiritually discerned and estimated and appreciated."
Many Christians fear "going too far" in spiritual things, because of someone who disastrously didn't know or listen to the Holy Spirit and failed to have spiritual understanding of God's Word. It's essential that we listen to and understand God's Word and follow the directing of the Holy Spirit.
Many have made a shipwreck out of the faith, by continuing to be led by their carnal mind, instead of the Mind of Christ. Even Jesus was accused of "having a demon spirit," when He said and did things the people didn't understand. Sadly, many Christians today, are led more by demonic spirits, than the Holy Spirit. Jesus said that, "He only did and said what the Father, through the Holy Spirit, instructed Him to do." Many spiritual things have remained unexplored by most, and they forget that satan is still "the god of this world." He operates in deception and carnal minded things, using them to propel us into foolishness.
The enemy tries to draw worship and recognition to himself and not God. He also tries to bring reproach against and distrust of God's Word. I know people who are afraid to speak in tongues, because they believe it might not be of God. These people are in a way, trying to conform to God, by abstaining from this Gift. They don't have revelation or discernment of spiritual things, so they only rely on the carnal mind for understanding. Many have come to ruin, because they listened to the wrong voice in the world, while fear of the unknown, has prevented their coming into "knowing of" the Word of God. Many have moved in presumption, thinking it was faith and some have been mocked and brought reproach upon themselves (and God), by not knowing the Voice of the Shepherd.
There is a place for this new creation man to walk in complete assurance with God. We are content to let the heroes of the Bible to be in this place of complete assurance with God, rather than stepping into this place on our own. We marvel of the parting of the Red Sea, the raising of the dead and Jesus' walking on water, but say they were "only for that time." Or, we say that, "Yes, but that was Jesus."
We find a very familiar scripture in 1Corinthians 2:9-10 (Amplified) which says, "What eye has not seen and ear has not heard and has not entered into the heart of man (all that) God has prepared (made and keeps ready) for those who love Him (who hold Him in affectionate reverence, promptly obeying Him and gratefully recognizing the benefits He has bestowed) Yet to us God has unveiled and revealed them by and through His Spirit, for the Holy Spirit searches diligently, exploring and examining everything, even sounding the profound and bottomless things of God (the Divine Counsels and things hidden and beyond man's natural scrutiny)."
All of the things in the above scriptures, are available and are present, for every new creation man and not the natural man. But, the new man must learn to hear from (and by) the Holy Spirit. God wants us to know and to walk in this revelation knowledge of Him and His Word. Romans 8:14 (Amplified) says, "For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God." Perhaps, a better interpretation is, "Are mature sons of God."
Deception remains satan's greatest weapon, in this day and age. We've been deceived by governments, science, and many other things that we trusted before. And, because of this, we've even come to mistrust the Holy Spirit and the Word of God Himself. Because of wrong thinking, we've invented other religions, leading us and others into further deception. Have you seen how much "Paranormal" programs are on TV? When we believe these things more than we believe in God, we are placed in a place of danger.
Because of all the deception in the world, we no longer seem to be able to distinguish or differentiate between our Father and our enemy. This makes us double-minded men. James 1:8 (Amplified) says, "(For being as he is) a man of two minds (hesitating, dubious, irresolute) (he is) unstable and unreliable and uncertain about everything (he thinks, feels and decides)."
How do we, then, learn to walk in this new creation being and family we have become? If there no place for the Supernatural to work in this world and be real? Can we ever learn to trust the Word and the Holy Spirit enough to do like Jesus said about the Supernatural? Well, of course there is, or He wouldn't have told us to do it. It's up to us, to learn to hear His Voice, seek out His wisdom, be illuminated by His Word, and "Do as the Father tells us to do."
This is being done more and more on the individual scale, than as the Body. It's always been done this way. That is why some of our heroes were brought into the focus of God's Word, instead of others. This wasn't only God's choice, but the choice of those who sought Him out, while others didn't.
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