2Corinthians 5:17-18 (Amplified) says, "Therefore, if any person is (ingrafted) in Christ Jesus (the Messiah) he is a new creation (a new creature altogether); the old (previous moral and spiritual condition) has passed. Behold, the fresh and new has come. But all things are from God, Who through Jesus Christ reconciled us to Himself (received us into favor, brought us into harmony with Himself) and gave to us the ministry of reconciliation (that by word and deed we might aim to bring others into harmony with Him)."
Colossians 3:1-2 (Amplified) says, "If then you have been raised with Christ (to a new life, thus sharing His resurrection from the dead), aim at and seek the (rich, eternal treasures) that are above where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. And set your minds and keep them set on what is above (the higher things), not the things that are on the earth."
We have missed out on so many things about our new life in Jesus, because we have understood little about spiritual death. Man is a spirit (whether saved or unsaved) and is an eternal being. A spirit being will never die, in the sense that they no longer exist. Spiritual death entered in, when Adam transgressed and was separated from God-Who is Life. Adam's spirit didn't cease to be, but could no longer be in communication with his Father. The Word calls this, "spiritual death."
We were once dead in trespass and sin and didn't have fellowship with God in our spirit man. Our spirit man was active, but not to God or Life. The soul is part of our spirit man, but it can only communicate the world's wisdom to our carnal man. Therefore, our mind was at enmity against God, because it had no other source in which to gain wisdom or knowledge. Satan is the god of this world, so the only things our spirit and soul could feed the brain and body, was only unbelief and death.
Colossians 3:1-2 (Amplified) tells us that, "We have been raised with Christ to a new life" and this new life is the new creation being, we've become. Notice how it states that "We have been raised" with Christ. Most of Christianity still looks for the resurrection from the dead. The natural body is still awaiting this resurrection, but our spirit man has already received the new creation experience.
The renewing of our minds (our soulish tie to our spirit) means that we can now receive the true wisdom of God, from the Holy Spirit into our new creation spirit. Until now, the only thing our flesh understood about living, came through the knowledge our mind fed into it. It was trained to believe the lies that the world fed into it from a dead spirit.
The training of our flesh and soul, came through the teaching of a dead spirit and from an outlaw spirit (satan), who is in direct opposition to God. Paul says in Romans 6:19 (Amplified), I am speaking to you in familiar human terms because of your natural limitations. For as you yielded your bodily members (and faculties) as servants to impurities and ever increasing lawlessness, so now yield your bodily members (and faculties) once for all as servants to righteousness (right believing and doing) (Which leads) to sanctification."
Through our resurrection and new creation with Jesus, our soul has once again become in contact and entwined in the Living Spirit of God Himself. We can now receive and feed into our fleshly body, the correct way to function and operate. That body won't even get out of body, unless we tell it too. It will only do, what it hears. And, it only heard from our dead spirit, into a separated soul to communicate to the body, the servitude of sin. We try blaming our body for our shortcomings, but it is only a servant. We have to teach it how to function in the righteousness, in which we have become in the new creation.
For centuries, our natural brain has been programmed by the world and our own dead spirit. Our body only does the things we've been teaching it to do. We've been feeding our spirit, soul and body from the knowledge derived from a fallen spirit and a fallen world. This is why the mind must now be renewed. Now that our spirit is alive again through the new creation, we can once again feed the true date (that comes from the Living Word and the Holy Spirit) into our soul (mind, will and emotions).
Jesus told His followers 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."
He said that "the flesh conveys no benefit whatever." Your body has nothing to do with furthering your walk with God, unless you train it to do so. It will automatically repeat the things it learned and did before, if we don't renew our mind and instruct our brain to do differently. I used to smoke years ago and spent many hours and days teaching my body how to receive smoke into my lungs. Initially, it coughed, choked, and rejected the smoke, but after awhile, I successfully trained my lungs to accept and look forward to the smoke. My body wanted to continue smoking cigarettes and cigars, even after I was born-again and didn't want to smoke anymore. I needed to use God's Word and renew my mind (and train my body) to reject this habit and serve righteousness instead.
Even when we read and heard God's Word, we heard through a baby spirit and an unrenewed soul or mind. Before knowing Jesus, our mind led our lives from what it had been previously taught from the world. Our carnal mind (with all its training from the world) automatically rejects teachings about Super-natural things in the Word, because it only understands the worldly wisdom it had learned until now.
When we read or hear God's Word without the Spirit to reveal it to us, we are like those Jesus speaks about in the "Parable of the Sower." In Mark 4:14-25 (Amplified), Jesus says that the "Seed" is the Word of God," and we know that Seed is an "incorruptible seed." 1Peter 1:25 (Amplified) says, "But the Word of the Lord (Divine instruction, the Gospel) endues forever, and this Word is the Good News which was preached to you." This Parable describes four different types of soil, but only one kind of seed. The fowl ate the same seed that brought forth the "hundred fold return." The difference is found in the "hearer." Jesus said in Verses 23-25 that, "If any man has ears to hear let him be listening and let him perceive and comprehend And He said to them, '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 more (besides) will be given to you who hear. For to him who has will more be given; and from him who has nothing; Even what he has will be taken away (by force)."
So, the one who has his mind renewed by the Word and the Holy Spirit, will increase in revelation and wisdom. To the one who hasn't renewed his mind, the things he learned from the world, will override that revelation and he won't just reject the Word, but will fight against the Truth. His doctrine won't even hold him any longer.
We've seen those who refuse to move away from something they learned when they first got saved. It's wonderful they believed unto salvation, but we are supposed to grow from glory to glory, in our walk with the Father. I'm not saying we should "give up" what we first learned after being saved, but we must continue in revelation knowledge. In Mark 4:15 (Amplified) Jesus said, "The sower sows the Word. The ones along the path are those who have the Word sown (in their hearts) but when they hear, satan comes at once and (by force) takes away the Message which is sown in them."
The "force" satan uses is getting the Word out of you. When you receive and begin operating in who and what we've become in Christ, then satan has no more hold on you. He must get the Word out of you, before you renew the old way of thinking and begin believing once again, in the Super-natural things of God. Once you begin walking in the super-natural realm, even the unsaved can see God in this natural realm. That's when you become dangerous to the kingdom of darkness.
We must now learn to renew our minds from our new creation spirit and not from the outside world. Satan rules the natural world from a dead spirit, through deceit and lies. He has no defense again the Word and the Living Spirit realm, so he tries keeping us in the natural realm. When a child of God begins operating in the Spirit, he is truly free from sin and death.
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