John 1:16-17 (Amplified) says, "For out of His fullness (abundance), we have all received, all had a share and were all supplied with, 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."
God's Word has always been Truth, but the world's religions and carnal minds, have obscured it. We've read the Word with our own understanding and not the understanding of the Holy Spirit. Man's idea of what the Word says, is not what God truly says. Only the Holy Spirit and our born-again spirit can interpret the Truth of God's Word. We've been educated enough to read and understand the words we read by our own intellect, but Jesus said in John 6:63 (Amplified), "It is the Spirit Who gives Life (He is the Life-Giver); the flesh (senses) conveys no benefit whatever (there is no profit in it). The Words (Truths) that I have been speaking to you are Spirit and Life."
God's Word is a Spiritual Word and the natural man, with it's natural mind, can't receive the Spiritual Truth from it. We don't understand the Spiritual Wisdom from the Word, so we foster our own interpretations with our carnal understanding. We see our natural bodies as being the "real us," instead of realizing our spirit was made in God's Image and Likeness and is the "real us." Our spirit man lives on, after the natural man has ceased living. The spirit man is the one who has the Wisdom and knowledge of God, in him. If we lack Spiritual understanding, then we're not much different than those who lived under the Law. Jesus spoke of them, saying, "By your traditions, you have made the Word of God of no effect." They held to what they knew, instead of taking hold of what Jesus was offering.
After living in something long enough, we believe that anything else is wrong. Jesus talked about this very thing, saying that, "You can't put new wine in an old skin." We're so sure that we're right and refuse to change. In this Year of Understanding, God's raising up a new people, who haven't become rooted in man's religion, but are rooted in the Truth of God's Word. These will be different Christians than what we're used to and will continue reaping a harvest for God, in these last days.
We're living in the last days on this earth, as God's children and His judgment is at hand for His people. The enemy has convinced God's people that we're the underdog, but now the time of the Lord is at hand. Paul wrote in Galatians 3:2-3 (Amplified), "Let me ask you this one question. Did you receive the Holy Spirit as a result of obeying the Law and doing it's works, or was it by hearing the Message of the Gospel and believing it? Was it from observing a Law of rituals or from a Message of faith? Are you so foolish and so senseless and so silly? Having begun your new life Spiritually with the Holy Spirit, are you now reaching perfection by dependence on the flesh?"
Many have been born-again and then became part of a denomination church that didn't believe in the Spiritual and Super-natural things of God is for this day and age. Many have been taught that, "These things have passed away" or that "These were for another time." This has resulted in our being like those under the Law in Jesus' time and our missing out on what God has truly done. Obeying dress codes, not wearing make-up or jewelry, or observing any other man-made law, will teach us the fundamentals of the Truth of God's Word. God's Church is a Spiritual Church and is led by the Spirit, not by the flesh.
Paul's teaching to the Church in Corinth, is still true today. Thus, he says in 2Corinthians 3:13-15, 16-18 (Amplified), "Nor do we act like Moses, who put a veil over his face so that the Israelites might not gaze upon the finish of the vanishing splendor which had been upon it. In fact, their minds were grown hard and calloused, they had become dull and had lost the power of understanding; for until this present day, when the Old Testament (the old covenant), is being read, that some veil still lies on their hearts, not being lifted to reveal that in Christ it is made void and done away. Yes, down to this very day whenever Moses is read, a veil lies upon their minds and hearts."
The same is True for those in the Church, who have no understanding of the Truth of what the new covenant family of God has become in Jesus. We continue expecting God to correct and discipline us, like He did the old covenant people, which sets us up for physical attacks from the enemy. Paul continues in Verses 16-18, saying, "But whenever a person turns in repentance to the Lord, the veil is stripped off and taken away. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty, emancipation from bondage, freedom. AND ALL OF US, as with unveiled face, because we continue to behold in the Word of God, as in a mirror the Glory of the Lord, are constantly being transfigured into His Very Own Image and in ever increasing splendor and from one degree of Glory to another, for this comes from the Lord Who is the Spirit."
Many have taught the old covenant to the new covenant children, because of their lack of understanding. We've had the same veil that Paul writes about, over our own understanding and have failed to become transfigured from Glory to Glory and have failed to become the Super-natural Church that God planned at the beginning. We've allowed ourselves to be put back under the natural law of religion and under the bondage of the flesh.
This kind of Church is powerless against a Spiritual outlaw, who is determined to steal, kill, and destroy. Paul writes in Ephesians 6:12 (Amplified), "For we are not wrestling with flesh and blood, contending only with physical opponents, but against the despotisms, against the powers, against the master spirits who are the world rulers of this present darkness, against the spirit forces of wickedness in the Heavenly Super-natural sphere."
It would be foolish to try overcoming Spiritual forces, by natural means. The only way we can overcome these Spiritual forces, is by Spiritual force and in order to do this, the Church must again be like it was when it was birthed in the Upper Room and the Power of the Spirit was released into God's new born family. Just prior to His Ascension, Jesus speaks to His followers, saying in Acts 1:8 (Amplified), "But you shall receive Power (ability, efficiency and might), when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, And you shall be My witnesses in Jerusalem and all Judea and Samaria and to the ends (the very bounds) of the earth."
Those who understand the Glory placed on us by the new creation birth, will express this Glory from one degree to the next degree of splendor, like Paul wrote about. Sadly, many today still have the same veil over our hearts and minds, like it was before Jesus. The Revelation of this new creation, removes this veil. This Revelation has always been there, but the veil hid it. We though, can now see it.
The same Glory that was on the Ark of the Covenant, is now the Glory that's on the Church, because the Church has become the Ark of the Covenant. The Church holds the Spirit, the Word, the Blood that cleanses, the Bread of Life (which is Jesus). The new creation carries this Power to the world. The Ark of the Covenant is mobile and is no longer concealed to the world. It's alive and has brought this Light and Life out of concealment and into the world.
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