John 1:16-17 (Amplified) says, "For out of His fullness (abundance) we have all received, all had a share and were all supplied, one Grace after another and Spiritual Blessing upon Spiritual Blessing, and even favor upon favor and Gift heaped upon Gift. For while the Law was given through Moses, Grace (unearned, undeserved favor) and Spiritual Blessing and Truth came through Jesus Christ."
Nearly everyone can read these Words, but most believers have little understanding of them. Not everyone has the Spiritual understanding and Revelation of what they truly mean. These scriptures convey no meaning or change the lives of the carnal minded Christian, who hasn't renewed his mind by the Word. Throughout our unsaved lives, we were trained by the culture and teachings of the natural man.
Our mind still thinks like it did before we were born-again, when our spirit was dead unto God and our natural man was the only guide we had to lead us, on this earth. Satan is the god of this world and we were trained and taught by the ungodly influence of this fallen, outlaw spirit, until we received Jesus as our Savior and Lord. When Jesus ascended to Heaven, He restored authority back to those who follow Him. Before then, we mostly walked like those who were under the Law. We could read The Bible and recognize it's moral value for us, but we had no Spiritual ability to receive it into our own spirit. We tried governing our unruly mind and body, using willpower and natural strength.
Under the Law, the people were natural men and women who were placed under a Spiritual rule, but they didn't have the Holy Spirit to guide and strengthen them. Before receiving Jesus as our Savior, we were in the same condition. We memorized scriptures, but didn't deposit them into our spirit. We didn't renew our minds with the Word, because we could understand the Words, but we had no Spiritual Revelation of the Truth they had in our spirit man.
Interpreting the Word with a carnal, unrenewed mind, only brings man to recognize his shortcomings than he previously did and leads to condemnation and guilt. The constant struggle to "become righteous," was a never ending fight, for the believer. Revelation knowledge or the Light the Holy Spirit shines on the Word, reveals Truth into the new creation spirit and renews the mind. The Truth reveals to us, that our Sacrifice Lamb hasn't just covered sin, but removed it before the Father. This brings peace with God and peace in our hearts.
Renewing our mind is training our soulish portion to receive from our spirit and take authority over the lusts of the flesh. Man was created a spirit, was placed into a natural body and was given a soul, that would receive from the Spirit of God. The soul (mind, will, emotions) would transmit guidance from the Spirit of God, to the brain of the natural man, allowing us to walk in the Super-natural Presence of God. This is completed communication with God, without any lack in the three realms of man.
Adam's fall caused man to be cut off from the Life of God, causing mankind to die in his spirit. Man was disconnected from the Spirit of God and only lived by the soulish part of our lives. We had to depend on our own ability to know "how to live on earth," because our spirit was dead to God and we possessed no compass to guide the flesh. We only had the soulish identity that was corrupt in it's thinking. Mankind fell into such a decline that caused horrific, terrible things to happen to and through us. This was never God's will or plan for our lives. The Curse of the Law was an act of God's Grace and allowed Spiritual Laws and consequences to operate in the earth and man's lives. This is why the Law was so exact in its compliance.
The only way God could get His Blessing and mercy into man's lives, was to make the natural man conform to the Spirit, by the natural things. God put Laws in the covenant, that natural men could follow, thus allowing the Spiritual Laws to operate in their lives. When man disobeyed the natural things like sacrifice, dress codes, codes of cleanliness and codes of conduct, it stopped the flow of the Spirit. The Curse that came through Adam's fall then came into play, in their lives. The Law was Spiritual, man wasn't. Man could only receive spiritual things, by natural means.
This isn't so for the new creation people of God. We've been infused with God Himself and made alive unto God, through the Life of Jesus. Through Jesus, we have the ability to govern our soulish man (our mind, will and emotions) by our new creation spirit and by the Holy Spirit. Our minds that were programmed by the world and fallen man, but when we renew our minds by God's Word, we can take control over our mind and be led again by the Holy Spirit. This sounds complicated when we first hear and try to do it, but we have the Mind of Christ.
We can plainly see what Paul was saying in 1Corinthians 2:13-16 where he spoke about the "renewed and unrenewed mind." These two minds are one and the same. Our brain is the control center of our fleshly body and moves the body. The mind of the spirit transmits the Word of God to the soul. When the mind (soul) is unrenewed, it can only transmit or relay the things it has learned from the world, instead of the Holy Spirit. Everything we had learned wasn't wrong, it just wasn't all Spiritual. When we are born-again, our spirit becomes alive to God again and our new alive spirit can speak Revelation into our soul, from the Holy Spirit. From a renewed mind, the soul can transfer new orders and information into the brain, which tells the flesh how to act and not act. The control of the flesh is now back in the confines of the Spirit. We once again live from the inside and not from the outside. We're lead by the Holy Spirit, like Jesus was.
Today's Church is still being led by the soulish portion of man, the unrenewed mind, which is the soul. When we use the Spirit to renew the soul,we will think differently and our body will respond differently. Our flesh can only do what our brain tells us to do. The brain can only tell it, what it knows and it only knows what is has learned either from the Holy Spirit or a fallen spirit. If we fail to renew our minds b the Word, after being born-again, then the body will continue to act, think and respond to what it knew previously. This is in direct opposition to what we want to do now as Christians and we'll fight our unruly flesh by only the things of the flesh. This will lead to frustration and despair in our walk with God.
No comments:
Post a Comment