John 1:16-17 (Amplified) says, "For out of His fullness (abundance), we have all received, all had a share with 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."
For years, we've been trying to be a people that God has called us to be. Many things are placed upon us, in order to mold us into what men think we ought to be. This quest to make ourselves into what we think we should be, has resulted in condemnation and guilt over our failing to qualify by our own merits. We keep trying to make the flesh behave as we think it should, but it doesn't cooperate.
The Holy Spirit inspired Paul to write in Romans 12:2 (Amplified), "Do not be conformed to this world (age), fashioned after and adapted to its external (superficial) customs, but be transformed (changed), by the entire renewal of your mind, by it's new ideals and it's new attitude, so that you may prove for yourselves what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God (even the thing which is good and acceptable and perfect in His sight for you)."
If you do not renew your mind by the Word of God, then your flesh will continue in what it has been taught and knows. Your flesh (body) does nothing, without instructions from the brain, which is totally carnal. Your brain receives it's instructions through your soul. Your soul is made up of your mind, will, emotions, or the five senses. Your brain receives these instructions and transmits them to the body, which only does what it's told to do.
Your body can't do anything, unless you allow it to do. Your soul has been without God and the Holy Spirit, since the fall of Adam. We had no Spiritual knowledge or Wisdom from God in our spirit man, until we were born-again. Ephesians 2:12,13 (Amplified) says, "Remember, that you were at that time separated, living apart from Christ, excluded from all part in Him, utterly estranged and outlawed from the rights of Israel as a nation, and strangers with no share in the sacred compacts of the Messianic Promise, with no knowledge of or right in God's agreements (His covenants); And you had no hope, no Promise, you were in the world without God."
THANK GOD, PAUL DID NOT STOP THERE, but continues in Verse 13, saying, "But now, in Christ Jesus, you who were so far away, through, by, in, the Blood of Christ have been brought near." Ephesians 4:22-24 (Amplified) says, "Strip yourselves of your former nature, put off and discard your old unrenewed self which characterized your previous manner of life and becomes corrupt through lusts and desires that spring from delusion And be constantly renewed in the spirit of your mind, having a fresh mental and Spiritual attitude. And put of the new nature the regenerate self created in God's Image, God like, in true righteousness and holiness."
Many have never retrained their minds (soul) to think any different, by God's Word. We establish laws and rituals of the flesh, trying to make the body respond differently, but if we don't renew our minds with the Word, then it only receives the same commands it got before we were born-again and it still acts like it always did. If rehab clinics do nothing with the minds of the addicts, then after being released, the return to their old behaviors. Paul writes in Hebrews 5:14 (Amplified), "But solid food is for full-grown men, for those whose senses and mental faculties are trained by practice to distinguish between what is morally good and noble and what is evil and contrary either to Divine or human law."
The difference between "holy" Christians and "mature" Christians, isn't that God gave one group more than He gave the other, but that one group renewed the way they think and therefore act, while the other didn't.
Your new creation, spirit man is already like God. It was born of the Same Seed, the Same Word of God and is already like Him. Our task in Christianity, isn't something lacking in our spirit, but in our soul. Psalm 23 says that, "He, Jesus, restores my soul." Adam's soul wasn't out of line with his spirit, until he fell from his place in God. Once that happened, Adam couldn't walk with a clean heard or uncontaminated soul. He walked only by the dictates of a fallen nature and lost control of his body too.
When a person is comatose, he/she isn't dead, but their brains aren't sending directions to their body, so their body doesn't respond. The brain isn't receiving directions from the mind, will, or emotions and it can't tell the body anything. All communications have ceased and the body doesn't do anything of itself, without instructions from the mind. When we renew our mind by God's Word, the body gets different directions and becomes less of a problem in our Christian walk. Now, instead of working against us, it works with us and brings the whole man into subjection to the spirit.
Our new creation spirit has everything we will ever need to walk with God, in a pleasing and perfect fellowship with Him. Training our soul by what is now in our new creation spirit man, by God's Word and the Holy Spirit as our teacher, we can walk in this realm like the first and Last Adam did. Jesus used the Power of the Word, to teach His senses (soul) to obey His will and His Body did what it was told. Your physical body is nothing more than an earthly home or vehicle, for your spirit man to live, while we're here on earth.
Paul calls your body a "house," in 2Corinthians 5:4 (Amplified), saying, "For while we are still in this Tent, we groan under the burden and sigh deeply, weighted down, not that we want to put off the body, the clothing of the spirit, but rather that we would be further clothed, so that what is mortal (our dying body), may be swallowed up by life after the resurrection." The Holy Spirit inspired John to write in 3John 2 (Amplified), "Beloved, I pray that you may prosper in every way and that your body may keep well, even as I know your soul keeps well and prospers." The prosperity and health in your body, is in direct accord to the prosperity and health in your soul.
Remember Paul's writing in Ephesians 4:23-24, which says, "And be constantly renewed in the spirit of your mind, having a fresh mental and Spiritual attitude And put on the new nature, the regenerate self created in God's Image (Godlike) in true righteousness and holiness." Don't get discourage and stop learning, because your mind and body won't immediately get in line. We must train the senses to respond differently, than they did before being born-again. We spent our entire lives training them to respond that way, before being born-again. Nothing in our lives (either Spiritual or natural), comes without training. No one walked the first time he/she tried. No one colors inside the lines, the first time he/she tried either. These things required training, to do what we now do without even having to think about it. It will do the same thing with Spirit things too, as we train, apply God's Word and listen to our Teacher, the Holy Spirit.
Our soul (senses) are a Gift from God. He gave mankind these things, in order to function and enjoy the natural realm He created for us. It was only after Adam's transgression, that the soul was tainted and became man's directing guide, instead of our servant. We were created to live by our spirit and the soul was our servant and the body was the earthly house, where our spirit lived. This is the same thing that has now been restored to us, through Jesus. Our born-again spirit is as perfect as Jesus' Spirit. Our soul is the place of disobedience and our body is the house that we live in on earth.
Let's allow the Holy Spirit to restore our souls, so that, ""Our body will keep well even as I know your soul keeps well and prospers," like 3John says.
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