We've heard and believed so many things, that aren't the Truth of and about God and His intent for us today. Much of what we've read and heard, are about fallen man. We've never seen anyone who truly walks freely in the fullness of Life, other than Jesus and Paul (and a few others).
We've heard many teachings about faith and how it works in our lives, but it's been difficult for most to connect to faith. Much of what we know about our Heavenly Father, comes by second hand knowledge, instead of knowing Him firsthand. Having a personal relationship with the Father, is the most important things in a believer's life. We feel the strong Presence of God, when worshiping with God's family in church service. This same Presence though, is available in your personal relationship with God and will grow as you talk and listen to His Voice.
Most of us only see Adam after his fall from God's Grace and union with the Father. No one knows how long Adam walked with God in fellowship, before satan could deceive him. Adam's close relationship with the Father was total faith in his Father's revealing, training and maturing the relationship with one another. Adam trust his Father in absolute faith, to show him, care for him and protect him in everything God created him to be. No one had to tell Adam what they thought about his Father, because Adam knew him.
The Last Adam, Jesus, was also in close fellowship with the Father, during His earthly ministry. Jesus knew the very heart of God, for Himself. Many of those around Jesus, couldn't understand the way Jesus walked in God, because this wasn't what others told them about God. We can relate to others telling us that Jesus is our Savior, but do we seek Him for yourself as Lord, after you're saved? Many hold differing opinions about our Heavenly Father, but most of those are based on someone else's account of Him.
There are so many different doctrines and opinions, within God's family, the Church, telling us "Who our Father really is." We claim to worship the Same Father, but we hold so many different opinions of Who He is. Some see the Father as being strict and harsh, while others view Him as being permissive and lax about sin and life itself. Some Christians believe that God is a hard Taskmaster, while others believe He allows almost anything.
Many still don't realize the difference between how God dealt with mankind in the old and how He deals with those of us in the new covenant today. Many believe Jesus and God are Separate Beings, but Jesus said, "When you have seen Me, you have seen the Father." We see how Jesus never failed to heal people. Jesus never allowed the sick to remain sick, so the sickness could teach them something, but we think God does this. Jesus said that, "He could only do what the Father said to do."
God's Blessing coming on the old covenant people, depended upon their ability to perform things the Law prescribed, but today, God's Blessing depends on our faith in the things Jesus endured to receive it. We keep trying to help the Father in deliverance and salvation, instead of putting faith in the complete work of Jesus. We're only required to put faith in His Word and His Grace will fulfill His Word.
Romans 4:10 (Amplified) says, "Therefore, inheriting the Promise is the outcome of faith and depends entirely on faith, in order that it might be given as an act of Grace (unmerited favor) to make it stable and valid and guaranteed to all his (Abraham's) descendants. Not only to the devotees and adherents of the Law, but also to those who share the faith of Abraham who is thus the father of us all." The Gentiles had no covenant with God at all, because the Law of Moses was given to and through Moses, for the Hebrew people. The Promise was made to Abraham, concerning the Holy Spirit, by faith in God's Word. Galatians 3:14 (Amplified) says, "To the end that through their receiving Christ Jesus, the Blessing Promised to Abraham might come upon the Gentiles, so that we through faith might all receive the realization of the Promise of the Holy Spirit."
We've so misunderstood the Promise of the Holy Spirit. Some believe it only refers to speaking in new tongues, while others believe it's the ability to lay hands on the sick. Those who know the very Presence of God, understand that His Life in us has returned us to His Original Intent. When we were born-again by the Holy Spirit, it placed us back to Eden and the Original Intent God had for His family from the beginning. There was no Law, no sacrifices, no Bible in the beginning of man in the beginning of Genesis. There was only Grace, Love and God's Spirit and Presence in man's life. All of man's training, wisdom and knowledge, came by the Spirit of God Who continuously lived in man's presence. Man's life was God's Life. Man's training derived from the Holy Spirit and evil wasn't part of man's life.
God never taught man the difference between Good and evil and Blessing and calamity. There was no need for him to know this, because the Father's heart only intended man to be Blessed and Good. Genesis 3:22 (Amplified) says, "And the Lord God said, Behold, the man has become like one of Us (the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit), to know how to distinguish between Good and evil and Blessing and calamity; and now, lest he put forth his hand and take also from the Tree of Life and eat, and live forever---."
God left the rest of the above sentence unsaid, because the thought of mankind in the state of curse forever, was too horrible for Him to even think on. God had no choice but to put mankind out of the Garden of Eden, until He could get Jesus into the world, pay the penalty for Adam's sin and bring about the Promise of the Holy Spirit or make man to be born-again. Without these things, man would have lived in the fallen state, without God in his life, for eternity.
The Promise of the Holy Spirit was to bring mankind back to what God intended from the beginning, where man would be united by and in God's Spirit forever. God first made man in His Image, so man was an eternal spirit. God formed man's body from the earthly elements, but he was to be immortal. When Adam transgress, he was separated from the Life of God, his spirit was still eternal. If Adam had been left to satan's plan, he would have taken from the Tree of Life and even his earthly body would have remained immortal for eternity. He would have been eternally foul, diseased, with satan ruling his flesh and blood body. Despite what happened to it, Adam's body wouldn't have died and this was too horrible for God to speak that in the above scripture.
Hollywood's nightmarish zombie movies couldn't compare to the real thing that could have happened, if God hadn't removed Adam and Eve from Eden. God was still full of Grace and mercy, even when the Curse came at Adam's fall, so He began a Sacrifice of Blood, in order to atone for sin. Sin demanded death and the death of an animal could at least provide a small payment for sin. The only thing that could pay the price for man's sin, was another man's death. That man needed to be without sin, but none could meet that requirement, so the continual sacrifice of goats and bulls, temporarily covered sin.
This is why, even though you're born-again and are alive unto God, your body is still dead in trespass and sin. God reckons your mortal body, to still be dead and your spirit alive unto Him. Jesus provided healing by His stripes and although the residue of death is still in your body, He has provided healing for the time you're living in that body. We will be given new bodies at the Resurrection. We will be returned back to God's Original Intent and will be immune from sickness and disease for all eternity.
The Blessing God pronounced on man from the first, is still available to all who will by faith, accept His Promise. His Promise to justify, proclaim Righteous and give a new life life, through faith in Jesus, is just as valid as His Promise to forgive our sins. If one part of His Promise is True, then all of God's Promises are True. God's Word tells us that, "Faith comes by hearing," so until it's preached in Truth and anointing, the faith of God's people will remain tethered.
We continue thinking God will deal with us, the way He dealt with those who weren't born-again in the old covenant. The new covenant is based on simple faith in God's Grace and Truth, to His family. We're God's children and He doesn't deal with us by our dead flesh, but by our new and living spirit, like the First and Last Adam were led. While Adam lived in the Garden, he was led by his spirit and not his flesh. Satan couldn't penetrate the Truth of his spirit, so he attacked Adam's senses and untried flesh.
From the very beginning of man, God's provision and the authority He bestowed upon man, was then and still is, by Grace. We've been brought back to God's Original Intent, living again by faith in God's unmerited favor and Love. We've misunderstood the Power of God's Love, because of man's teachings we're received. We confess that, "God Loves us," but we still expect bad things at His hands. Read Galatians 5:6 (Amplified) carefully. Thus, it says, "For if we are in Christ Jesus, neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith activated and energized and expressed and working through Love."
Our faith is in His Love and trust in His Promise. We're to do good works, but not in order to gain God's Grace, but because of His Grace. We do works of righteousness, not be become righteous, but because we are Righteous, by His Grace. This might sound like a "play on words," but it's the motive of the heart that makes what we do acceptable or not, to God. Romans 14:23 (Amplified) says, "But the man who has doubts (misgivings and an uneasy conscience) about eating and then eats perhaps because of you, stands condemned before God because he is not true to his convictions and does not act from faith, whatever does not originate from faith is sin (whatever is done without a conviction of it's approval by God is sinful)."
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