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 (brought 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)."
As new creations, we're translated into the actual spirit realm where God resides. Although, we've been assigned to work in this natural realm, our true identity is raised up together and is seated together with Christ, Who seats at the right hand of the Father. We've been created anew in Christ Jesus and we've now children of the Most High God.
If we read these things in the Word with our own intellect, then they're just words that provide us hope for our lives after death. When we receive revelation about the Spiritual Truths, these words contain totally different meanings. Jesus walked as a flesh and Blood Man on this earth, but He was never restrained by the natural things. Jesus commissioned His followers (us) to go into the world and we witness the power of the Spirit that followed them.
These men and women weren't born-again yet, but they functioned in the Super-natural authority of Jesus' Name We've not only been given His Name to use (through the power of Attorney) and we are actually "In Him" and have become the Body of Christ. The Body and the Head are all one person, according to 1John 4:17 (Amplified) which says, "In this union and communion with Him (Love is brought to completion and attains perfection with us), that we may have confidence for the day of judgment (with assurance and boldness to face Him) because as He is, so are we in this world."
We've been waiting until death comes to our physical body, to be as He is, but the Word says that "as He is, so are we in this world." As far as the Father is concerned, our physical man has already undergone death and our life is now in Him. In Galatians 2:20 (Amplified) the Holy Spirit inspires Paul to write, "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 love me and gave Himself up for me."
The above scripture isn't just some "pretty and religious thing to say," but is a Spiritual Truth in Jesus. Even though Paul was given this revelation, he still was confined to live in the natural body, until his time was up and he was delivered up to God. Paul goes on in Galatians 5:25 (Amplified), "If we live by the Holy Spirit, let us also walk by the Holy Spirit, if we have our life in God, let us go forward walking in line (our conduct controlled by the Holy Spirit)." Paul was telling us that "Because our new creation life is spirit, then our spirit (by the Holy Spirit) should control our natural body."
Many look at this as being "crazy" and "too far out," but we must remember that the Holy Spirit directed Paul to write them. Hebrews 10:38 (Amplified) reiterates this, saying, "But the just )or those who are justified in Jesus) shall live by faith (My righteous servant shall live by His conviction respecting man's relationship to God and Divine things, and holy fervor born of faith and conjoined with it) and if he draws back and shrinks in fear, My soul has no delight or pleasure in him)."
We simultaneously know these things, and don't know these things. We read with our intellect, but never receive them into our spirits. What God literally says is, "You are already dead and the only life we now have, is the Life we have from His Spirit, into our spirit." You are already seated in Heavenly places with Jesus. 1John 3:2 (Amplified) says, "Beloved, we are (even here and) now God's children; be (hereafter), but we know that when He comes and is manifested, we shall (as God's children) resemble and be like him, for we shall see Him just as He (really) is."
We still see the parts of ourselves and others, that don't look like Jesus yet, because we only look at the outer man (the house our new creation lives in). No person on earth looks like he/she will look like when He comes. No one has seen with his natural eyes, what He really looks like, because we can only see the real Christ with our spiritual eyes. 2Corinthians 5:16 (Amplified) says, "Consequently, from now on we estimate and regard no one from a (purely) human point of view (in terms of natural standards of value) (No) even though we once did estimate Christ from a human viewpoint and as a Man, yet now (we have such knowledge of Him that) we know Him no longer (in terms of the flesh)."
This is a powerful statement, but we don't seem to understand it in our spirits yet, because we still see ourselves after the flesh. It's Gods Life in our spirits, that actually gives Life to our flesh. When your spirit leaves your body, it will fall down like leaves from a tree. The only life we have now, is by faith. This is what the Word mean. s when it says, "The just shall live, and shall live by their faith." It was (and is) your faith in Him, that gave you life. It's only this faith in Him, that can sustains life, because it's His Life we received. This is what Paul wrote above in Galatians 2:20.
We've been translated into the Kingdom of Heaven, by our faith in Jesus. This isn't something that's "going to happen," but has already happened. We're now to walk in our assigned place in the provision of His Spirit and bring Life through Him as He brought Life to us. We've been delivered from time, to eternity. Healings that should take weeks or years to happen, can now be brought about instantly, because time has been suspended for the new creation family of God.
Time has been man's enemy, since the fall of Adam in the Garden. We began dying, the very moment we were birthed. We're governed by minutes and hours, instead of by the unlimited realm of eternity. Even our prayers have been governed by our awareness of time. Jesus told His followers in Mark 11:24 (Amplified), "For this reason I Am telling you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe (trust and be confident) that it is granted to you, and you will (get it)."
We allow time to dictate "when we are to get it (if we get it at all)," but Jesus said "Believe you get it, when you pray." He never told the blind man, "Hold on, because even if you don't receive sight here and now, then you will see in Heaven." Jesus bypassed time altogether and brought a miracle to pass, by faith. Miracles supersede time and there's no "waiting for nature to take its course." It doesn't matter whether it's a premature death or a sickness, time is suspended when the Spirit intervenes. God is timeless. He is eternal and has made us to be eternal too. As Christians, we have never entered into the realm of the timeless eternal, place of God, because we still allow ourselves to be governed by the flesh and time.
When we allow ourselves to live by the Spirit, instead of the flesh and time, then miracles will happen through the Spirit. We find a deacon named Philip, who was sent to minister to an Ethiopian eunuch, in Acts 8:38-40 (Amplified). Philip baptized the eunuch and led him to Jesus, so that the Gospel could be brought back to Ethiopia. Then, the Holy Spirit "removed" Philip from time and he was translated into a town called Azotus. Verses 39-40 says, "And when they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord (suddenly) caught away Philip, and the eunuch saw him no more, and he went on his way rejoicing. But Philip was found at Azotus, and passing on he preached the Good News (the Gospel) to all the towns until he reached Caesarea."
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