Lesson 86 The Church's Identity Crisis

      2Cor. 5:17 (Amp) tells us that any person "who is ingrafted in Christ Jesus (the Messiah), is a new creation (a new creation altogether)."  Most believers believe that they are forgiven sinners after being born-again in Jesus, but don't understand that we are new creations in Him.  We continue to identify more with our old selves, instead of new creation beings.  We believe we are saved and going to Heaven when we die, but don't believe we are new creatures altogether while we're in these bodies and are here on earth.  God's Word tells us that we have become citizens of God's Kingdom, as heirs and children of God.

     Jesus instructed His followers in Matt. 6:33 (Amp) to, "Seek first the Kingdom of God and His Righteousness (His way of doing and being right)."  This is completely out of character for most of today's Church.  We keep trying to establish our own righteousness, by our own works and how we live.  Many believe it's "sacrilegious," to even think we're righteous.  God made us to be the Righteousness of God in Christ Jesus, when He made us new creations.

     We are no longer who we used to be, because Jesus has made us new.  Our Heavenly Father and His Kingdom have a way we're now to live here on earth,  that is completely new to us.  We're to "seek first, God's Kingdom and His way of doing and being right."  We can only be right or righteous before God, by being made righteous by the new creation in Christ Jesus.  Rom. 3:10 (Amp), says, "None is righteous (just and truthful and upright and conscientious), no, not one."  When we try to be righteous by our own works and efforts, then we will fail.

     God's Kingdom has Spiritual Laws that govern it, just like those on earth have laws to govern us.  The Laws of Physics that govern here, are also Spiritual Laws that God created.  He created gravity and other laws that govern this entire planet.  These laws came under the influence of a fallen angel (satan), after Adam's transgression.  Satan is "the god of this world", according to 2Cor.4:4 (Amp).  The Laws that God created are still present, but they've been perverted by the demonic forces in high places, according to Eph. 6:13 (Amp), which says, "For we are not wrestling with flesh and blood, contending only with physical opponents, but against the despotism, against the powers, against the master spirits who are the world rulers of this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly supernatural sphere." 

     We must fight against these spiritual forces, by Spiritual Laws and means.  We must seek first,  God's Kingdom and His way of doing and being right.  The tornadoes, hurricanes, plagues and other things that we have on earth, weren't present at God's creation and they don't belong here now.  Jesus calmed storms, cured sickness and disease, and cast out demons by God's way of doing and being right.  Both Good and evil spiritual things, can only be dealt with by Spiritual Laws.  The Laws of God's Kingdom aren't like the Law of Moses.  The Law of Moses was Spiritual,but the people were not.

     The Laws that God gave to Moses, are still in effect today, but they don't carry the threat of punishment.  God's Grace has given the new creation people, the ability to walk them Laws out.  Adultery is just as wrong now, as it was in the old covenant, but we can rise above what those in the old covenant couldn't overcome, if we seek God's way of doing and being right and walk in His Grace.  God's way says that by His Grace and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, the new creation persons can overcome the lies and forces of satan.  We dwell in God and He dwells in us, when we seek His way of doing and being right and are made righteous in Christ Jesus.

     Everything of earth was created by Words and still reacts to the Words that created them.  The Fig tree reacted by Words, the storm on the Sea of Galilee reacted to Words, sickness and disease reacted to Words and the dead reacted to Words.  Heb. 11:3 (Amp) says, "By faith we understand that the worlds during the successive ages were framed, fashioned, put in order and equipped for their intended purpose by the Word of God, so that what we see was not made out of things which are visible."  I wonder how many of us are conscience of the power our words hold, in our everyday life.  

     Jesus is our Example and as the First Born of many brethren, but He needed to learn how to function as the First Spirit-filled man in a physical form, in order to govern what God sent Him to do, by God's way of doing and being right.  John 3:34 (Amp) says, "For since He Whom God has sent speaks the Words of God (proclaims God's Own Message). God does not give Him His Spirit sparingly or by measure, but boundless is the Gift God  makes of His Spirit."

     Do you suppose that if God could trust fully in the words we speak, then the Gifts of His Spirit might be more boundless in our lives?  What do you suppose would happen in our lives, if everything we spoke was as powerful as Jesus' Words?  How many dead trees or people might come to life?  How many storms would cease to form, if instead of repeating what the news media says, we spoke God's Words, saying, "Peace be still?"  Many think it's foolish to watch our words, but God's way of doing and being right, is and always was, by His Words.

     We are now new creations, made in the Image and Likeness of our Father.  So, do you suppose that the words we speak are our powerful as the Words Jesus spoke?  We should say, "By Jesus' striped, I am healed," instead of speaking fear about Covid-19 and other ailments which are promoted by the god of this world.  We believe that it's lying to speak healing when we are sick, but is it lying when God says we're healed?

     Jesus gave "The Parable of the Sower," in Mark 4:14 (Amp) and tells us that, "The Sower sows the Word."  Did this Word work for us, when we were dead in trespass and sins?  Didn't this Word make us new creations in Christ, when we were saved and born-again?  Even when we showed no sign of being new creation persons at that time, the Word still created exactly what it said it would.  We don't look any different, but we are new creations and are new creatures altogether, because we simply believed what God says.  Do you think salvation is the only way God's Word works for us?  If we believed God's Word made us new creations, when we asked Jesus to come into our hearts and forgive our sins, then we should believe that all of God's Word will work.  

     This seems so contrary to what we learned before being saved, but we must now speak God's way of doing and being right.  John 1:1-3 (Amp) says, "In the beginning (before all time), was the Word, Christ, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God Himself. He was present originally with God. All things were made and came into existence through Him; and without Him was not one thing made that has come into being."

Lesson 85 The Church's Identity Crisis

     2Cor. 5:17 (Amp) says, "Therefore, if any person is ingrafted in Christ Jesus (the Messiah), he is a new creation (a new creature altogether)."  The new creation person has been delegated the Laws of God's Kingdom, in order to override the authority satan has here on this earth.  Through Jesus, we've been redeemed and restored back to the authority God gave the First Adam.  All the dominion, authority and Blessing that God placed on Adam, has been restored and more than that, through the Last Adam, Jesus.

     Most of the teaching and preaching God's Church has heard, focus on abstaining from sin and waiting to go and be with the Lord.  Most of the Church's ministry has been about getting people born-again and while this is undoubtedly the most important thing, it doesn't address Jesus' instructions to "make disciples out of the new believers."  Jesus spent much of His earthly ministry of three and a half years, teaching His disciples how to walk in the Super-natural authority, so they could teach others, who would in turn teach more people, how to walk in this.

     Most of the people we lead to the Lord Jesus in salvation, know very little about the Super-natural Life of the new creation being.  Most of them have probably been taught that "These things aren't for us today" and/or "These things have passed away."  Much of the Body of Christ no longer walk in the authority over this present darkness.  We've been told that we "must suffer" these things, in order to be made right enough to go to Heaven.  There is much suffering in today's world, but it's not because Jesus didn't do His job of teaching His disciples, but because we've believed the enemy's lies.  

     Like children, we've become complacent and are barely holding onto what Jesus gave us at His Resurrection.  Jesus didn't tell the world to come to the church and hear the Gospel, but He told the Church to "Go into all the world and preach the Good News of the Gospel."  "The world" here, is anyone who is not born-again.  These could be your family members, neighbors or co-workers.  Jesus said that He "will confirm the Word by the attesting signs and wonders."  Not everyone is called into the five-fold ministry, but every believer is called into full-time ministry in this world.

     Paul writes about the Gifts of the Spirit in 1Cor. 12:11 (Amp) saying, ""All these Gifts (achievements, abilities), are inspired and brought to pass by One and the Same Holy Spirit, who apportions to each person individually exactly as He chooses."  If you're ministering the Gospel to people and leading them to the Lord, then the Holy Spirit will deliver whatever is needed to set them at liberty.  The Baptism of the Holy Spirit will heal their bodies.  

     Jesus said that "These signs will follow those who believe" in Mark 16.  He didn't say these signs will follow those with special callings or those in the five-fold ministry.  Jesus said, These signs will follow those who believe. In My Name they will cast out devils, lay hands on the sick" and much more.  The Holy Spirit administrates these gifts as He chooses.  He is here to deliver, heal and do whatever is needed today, just like He's always done.  We've been taught that only certain people can do these things, but the Truth is that no one can do these things, without the Holy Spirit.  No natural man/woman has the ability to do these things, but if we're new creation beings, then we have the Holy Spirit living in us.  We must allow Him to do the work He was sent to do.  

     We must only believe that the Holy Spirit still chooses to set the captives free, like He's never stopped doing since being sent on Pentecost.  If it wasn't His choosing, then we wouldn't have seen the signs and wonders in the early Church, because He is the One Who does the work.  Jesus said that, "It's not Me, but the Father in Me, that does the work."  Jesus relied on the Holy Spirit to perform the miracles and healing, during His earthly ministry.  

     1John 2:20 (Amp) says, "But you have been Anointed by (you hold a Sacred Appointment from, you have been given and unction from), the Holy One and you know the Truth, or you know all these things."  The Holy Spirit has Anointed the Body of Christ, to do the ministry Jesus called us into, prior to His Ascension.  Are there still lost people in today's world?  Are there still sick or lame people on this earth today?  If there are, then as believers, we're called to preach the Gospel, lay hands on the sick, cast out devils, and the things Jesus Commissioned, by and through the Same Holy Spirit Who did these things through Christ.

     How does He do it?  The Word says, "As He chooses."  To whom does He choose to administrate these Gifts?  "To those who believe."  If you don't believe that He will do these things through you, the He will find another who does believe and do these things through them.  This is where the saying, "Not everyone can do these things" came from.  Everyone who believes and has the Holy Spirit living in them, not only can, but should be doing these things.  It's time for signs and wonders to be done, in the Name of Jesus Christ.  This world desperately needs to see what we've been preaching.

     Peter writes about a lame man begging at the Gate Beautiful outside the Temple, in Acts 3:15-16 (Amp), "But you killed the very Source, the Author of Life, Whom God has raised from the dead. To this we are witnesses. And His Name, through and by faith in His Name, has made this man whom you see and recognize well and strong."  We witness many such believers as Stephen and Philip, who weren't Apostles, preaching the Gospel with signs following, by and through faith in His Name."  This is the Holy Spirit showing Himself, through those He chooses. 

     When giving The Great Commission, Jesus said that, "These signs will accompany those who believe in My Name."  If you don't believe this, then how can the Holy Spirit work these signs and wonders through you?  We're only required to believe in the Name of Jesus and allow the Holy Spirit to move as He chooses, demonstrating God's Power and Love through us, to a dying world.

Lesson 84 The Church's Identity Crisis

     Ephesians 5:8-10 (Amp) says, "For once you were darkness, but now you are Light in the Lord; walk as children of Light, lead the lives of those native-born to the Light. For the fruit (the effect, the product) of the Light, or the Spirit consists in every form of kindly Goodness, uprightness of heart and truthiness of life; and try to learn in your experience what is pleasing to the Lord, let your lives be constant proof of what is most acceptable to Him."

     1John 1:7 (Amp) says, "But if we really are living and walking in the Light, as He Himself is in the Light, we have true unbroken fellowship with one another, and the Blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses (removes) us from all sin and guilt, keeps us cleansed from sin in all it's forms and manifestations."

     Paul tells us in the first scripture that, "we were once darkness, but now we are Light in the Lord."  Paul didn't say that we were in darkness, but that we were darkness, and that we are now Light in the Lord.  We've never walked in this Light before and we still don't understand how to walk as Light.  The Psalmist writes in Psalm 23:4 (Amp), "Yes, though I walk through the deep, sunless valley of the shadow of death, I will fear or dread no evil, for You are with me. Your rod to protect me and Your staff to guide, they comfort me."  

     This world is the "valley of the shadow of death."  Jesus said that He "came that we might have Life," but most haven't fully understood His Words.  We now live in the Light which illuminates our paths, as we walk through the valley.  Satan is the god of this world and too many succumb to premature death, because his entire mission is to "steal, kill, and destroy."  Only Light can show us how to walk through this life, instead of being swallowed up in the darkness.

     The only way we can live in the valley of the shadow of death, is by the guiding Light and the Holy Spirit.  We will of course live on with the Lord after we leave this valley, but we still have a place and purpose here, so we must learn how to navigate in this hostile world.  We need to know how to walk in the Light.  Psalm 119:130 (Amp) says, "The entrance and unfolding of Your Words gives Light, their unfolding gives understanding, discernment and comprehension to the simple."

     We must know and understand God's Word, in order to "walk in the Light as He is in the Light."  Jesus said, "I only do what I hear My Father say."  The Word of God was His Light and showed Jesus the way.  Many today have disregarded much of God's Word and have fallen back into walking in the darkness.  This doesn't mean that the darkness is in them, but that they are in the darkness.  There is no darkness in their spirit man/woman, but is in the old man/woman who hasn't renewed his/her mind.  They've allowed themselves to walk in the natural, rather than the Super-natural things of God.  Proverbs 16:25 (Amp) says, "There is a way that seems right to a man and appears straight before him, but at the end of it is the way of death."  If we don't have the Light of God's Word guiding us, then we might not be able to walk through the valley of the shadow of death, in the natural.

     Many things in the natural life don't provide Light to show us where to walk.  We've been taught many things about God's Word that come from a carnal viewpoint, so they don't bring Light.  Man's ideas of what they think God's Word says, can leave us in the darkness.  Psalm 119:30 tells us that, "The entrance and unfolding of God's Word gives Light."  The True Light will actually illuminate our pathway, only when the Word enters into us.  Some ridicule readers of God's Word, but I would rather be ridiculed for being a man of God's Word, rather than being a blind man.

     Jesus said that, "They have ears, but they don't hear and have eyes, but don't see."  These are those who still walk in the darkness of a carnal mind and not in the Light.  Religion and reality aren't the same thing.  Religion isn't truly Light, bit is still a shadow.  The prince of darkness, satan, comes only to steal, kill and destroy and he depends on darkness to hide his work and strategies from us.  Light will stop satan in his tracks.  If you're unaware of his strategies, then you're still in darkness and without Light to see by.  The Psalmist prays in Psalm 119:133 (Amp), "Establish my steps and direct them by means of Your Word; let not any iniquity have dominion over me."

     Some would say, "I don't think I need to do all of that, in order to get to Heaven."  They're right of course, but they might get there sooner than they thought, by not allowing the Word to keep them walking in the Light.  It shouldn't be a chore to read God's Word.  God says that we are to "Delight ourselves in His Word."  If it's a chore, then it's religion and if it's joy, then it's truly Light to our paths.  This isn't something everyone is doing, but is individual worship and precious fellowship with the Father, as He directs our paths.  Some believers will read God's Word and seek the guidance of the Holy Spirit, while others won't.  The choice is ours.  Both might be saved, but both aren't walking in the Light of that salvation.  It's healing to some, but those walking in the darkness believe "God is testing me."  Which are you?  James 1:17 (Amp) says, "Every Good Gift and every perfect Gift comes down from the Father of all that gives Light."

Lesson 83 The Church's Identity Crisis

      Romans 8:16 (Amp) says, "The Spirit Himself thus testifies together with our own spirit, assuring us that we are God's children."

     Do you remember what your life was like and where it was headed, before being born-again?  We don't live in guilt and condemnation over who we once were, but we can compare what that was like with the new life and relationship we have now in Christ Jesus.  We have an adversary who hates us and everything we stand for.  He hated you before you were saved and he hates you even more now that you're close to God.  God's children have a place in God's Kingdom that satan wanted and still wants.  As God's children, we've been exalted to a place high above anything satan could imagine.

     Satan wanted to be an heir of God and joint-heir with Jesus Himself, at the time iniquity was found in him.  We need to understand the fullness of who we've become by the Blood and Power that made us new creations in Christ.  Many believers still see themselves as forgiven sinners, while satan sees us as who we truly are in Christ and he's afraid we'll discover who we are.  Jesus' death removed sin, so that the Father's Grace and mercy could do what God had intended from the beginning, when He made a family for Himself.

     God intended to Bless His family, so we could walk in fellowship with Him at all times.  The Father never intended for His family to be without Him or Him Presence.  We must understand the fullness of God's unconditional Love for us, in order to understand what He intended for us.  Most of us can easily quote John 3:16, but fail to understand the Power of God's Love this scripture speaks about.

     1John 4:16 (Amp) says, "And we know, understand (recognize, are conscious of) by observation and by experience, and believe, adhere to and put faith in and rely on the Love God cherishes for us. GOD IS LOVE, and he who dwells in God and continues in God, and God dwells and continues in him."  John goes on in Verses 16-17 to describe and explain God's great Love.  When we don't understand the Love God has for us, we fail to put faith in our prayer life and in our walk with Him.  We focus on our failures, instead of God's Love for us, causing us to lose confidence in our ability to receive from Him.  1John 5:14-15 (Amp) says, "And this is the confidence (the assurance, the privilege of boldness), which we have in Him; we are sure that if we ask anything according to His will (make any request of Him, according to His Own Plan), He listens to and hears us. And if since we positively know that He listens to us in whatever we ask, we also know with settles and absolute knowledge that we have granted us as our present possessions the requests made of Him."

     If we're walking in God's Love and we love Him, then we can't ask anything outside His will and Plan for our lives.  1John 4:18 (Amp) says, "Perfect Love casts out fear and even dread of punishment."  If we're unsure of the greatness of God's Love for us, then we will hold back on our faith in Him.  We're heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ Jesus, and God's Love and perfection are His will for us.  We've been taught that certain things aren't God's will for our lives, which has held back healing and Blessings in our lives.  We're afraid to trust God, in so many areas of our lives.

     God's Love gave everything it had to give, when our Heavenly Father gave His Only Begotten Son, Jesus, to Redeem and return us to Him.  If Love gave Jesus for us, then what part of His Love was held back from us?  We've judged the Love of God, by our own love for one another.  We fall in and out of love, instead of having unconditional Love God sees us through.  When we see ourselves the way God sees us, then we can understand and have faith and confidence in His Love.  We can trust and have faith in His Love for us and will be assured that He will answer our prayers.  Our entire relationship with the Father is based on understanding His Love for us.  If we don't have faith in His Love for us, then we can't have faith in the Promises God made to us through Jesus.  If you think you don't qualify, then your faith isn't active.

     We don't qualify of ourselves, but God qualifies us.  God made us righteous.  It's not something we did or could do for ourselves.  Love did that for us.  Love made us in right standing with God and has justified us, so what is there that Love would hold back from us?  God doesn't remember who we were before receiving Jesus as our Lord and Savior and being made new creations.  We are pure in God's eyes and He purposely doesn't want to see us any other way, than through His Love for us.

     We must understand the depth of God's Love for us, in order to understand His will for our lives and walk with Him.  Does Love want us to "prosper and be in good health, even as our soul prospers?"  The Apostle whom Jesus Loved, wrote in 3John 1:2 (Amp), "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."  This is God's will and Love for us.

Lesson 82 The Church's Identity Crisis

      We're all thankful today, that the Goodness of God brings men/women to repentance.  Our Heavenly Father wanted us to have so very much and Loved us so much, that He willingly gave His Life for us.  H was willing to pay the Ransom for our sins, even though He was without sin.  We sometimes take all the Blessings we've received from God for granted, because He has Blessed us with so much.  I remember what life was like, before being born-again and being without His Blessings.

     I look back at all God has done and continues to do for me and give thanks unto Him.  My wife and I have been married for sixty years, our children are serving God, our grandchildren and great grandchildren are all health and Blessed, we are healthy and Blessed, our home is full of peace and our ministry is filled with family members who love and serve God.  I remember what it was like growing up poor and not having food to eat, so I give God special thanks for the Thanksgiving feast we sat down to.

     God is so Good to anyone who will simply receive Him and trust Him for his/her future.  I know there are people who can't find anything to be thankful for, because I lived that life before being born-again.  They have probably tried doing anything within their means, hoping to improve the quality of their life, without reaping good results.  Reaching out to God seems to be a means of last resort, but it doesn't have to be.  Things didn't  change for the better, until I allowed God to enter my life. 

     It wasn't God's fault that things were so bad.  He tried to help me for years, but I stood in His way, by being foolish, prideful and stubborn.  I felt stuck, without any way out to fix things.  I hope you won't wait until everything is lost, before turning your life over to Him.  Reach out to God, while your marriage and family are still there to love and support you.  God's Plan for your life is so much better, than the plan you have for your life.

     We've all heard testimonies coming from those who were completely lost, before they turned to God.  Don't wait until there's nothing left, before calling on Him.  Do it while you still have hope and God will redeem and restore what the enemy has tried stealing from you and yours.  It''s true that God can give you a new life even after losing everything, but why wait until you have nothing left for Him to redeem for you?

     I can't imagine what my life and the lives of my family would be like, if I had never called upon our Heavenly Father.  My wife and I would certainly be divorced and my children would probably blame me, causing them to alienate themselves from me.  My grandchildren and great grandchildren probably wouldn't know me.  God would have given me a new life and maybe even another family, but things would never be the same.

     God would that we acknowledge Him at an early age, so we would never endure turmoil and heartache.  If we could have made it on our own, then what was the cross for?  Jesus wouldn't have needed to die, if we could have made it on our own.  Jesus didn't die, just so we could go to Heaven when we die.  He died so the Father could intervene and fix the mess we've gotten into.  We've erroneously believed and been taught that God is bringing hardship and heartache, in order "to teach us something."  I can't think of anything in my life before Jesus, that God was responsible for, other than His Promise to help me if I would call on Him for help.

     My part was to believe and call on God and His part was to hear my cry and answer my prayer. God was waiting to hear and respond the entire time.  We should celebrate Thanksgiving to God, every day, not just once a year or when we need a miracle from Him.  It's far better to walk in God's Grace and mercy at all times, rather than building our faith in His faithfulness during a time of crisis.  We must know that God is our Father.

     We call Him "Father," but forget that He really is our Father.  My dad was killed in a coal mine when I was nine years old and I never gave thought to the provisions he provided, before that time.  I simply expected that we would have food at the table, at mealtime.  I never thought about having a roof over my head or having heat in the house, before his death.  I took these things for granted.  We never give much thought to the life our Heavenly Father has given, until we are in need.

     I thank God daily for my relationship with Him and for the Blessings he has given.  I recognize that my life would be a ship wreck, without Him.  I speaks heartfelt words of thanks to God, for the life I'm now living.  Does this mean that I never have a bad day or endure trials?  No.  I face several trials every day, but I also know that God will bring me through every one of them, by His Grace and love for me.

     Let's not celebrate Thanksgiving once a year, but let's live lives of constant thanks to Him.  When hard times come, then let's remember God has delivered us and thank Him that He will do it again.

Lesson 81 The Church's Identity Crisis

     Romans 8:15 (Amp) says, "For the Spirit which you have now received is not a spirit of slavery to put you once more in bondage to fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption (the Spirit of son-ship), in the bliss of which we cry, Abba, Father, Father."

     We are given names and titles that we go by, when we're birthed into this natural realm.  We become a son or daughter, a brother or sister, a friend, a preacher, pastor, neighbor, co-worker, boss, and many other names.  We receive a surname from our parents, but in my life and hopefully yours too, there is one Name that ranks above all others.  

    My name is James Larry Hayes, but not one of my children call me "Jim" or "Mister Hayes."  They all call me, "Dad."  This name is reserved for for only a few who have the right and place in my life.  This title is more intimate and precious than any of the other titles I've acquired in this life.  It's a name that only my children have a right and place to use.  I hold the endearment and love by which they use this name, to be very precious.  It signifies the respect, love, trust, acceptance, honor and privilege they have for me.

     God's Word uses many names for many nations and people, but we alone have the privilege of calling Him, "Father" and "Abba," which means "Daddy or Dad" in Hebrew.  Using this title for God makes us a unique class of people.  We're privileged to be part of God's family and use the loving term of "Father."  Only those who are born of God through faith in Jesus Christ, can call Him this.  Contrary to common belief, we're not all God's children, but only become this upon being born-again.

     We've somehow lost the understanding of what a privilege it is to call God "Father" and be in His family, so we call Him what others call Him.  Although He is the "Almighty God," I never call Him this Name, unless I'm witnessing to someone.  I'm a son of God and have my own relationship Him, whereby I refer to Him as "Father."  I doubt that President Trump's children call him, "Mr. President," unless they're speaking to others about him.  The title of "President" is one of honor, but it's not the title his children use to show their love and respect for him.  

     Many who call God "Father," still see Him the way the Old Testament people did.  He is still God but now this Awesome God has become my Father.  The relationship I have with the Father has changed from being one where I feared His Power, to being one I'm confident in, because of His Power.  I know the Truth that His Awesome Power is always there to protect, care for and provide for me, because He Loves me as His son.

     I have confidence that, "No evil shall befall me and no plague come nigh my dwelling," because my Heavenly Father watches over me and gives me Rest.  Many though, see Him as the God of the Old Testament, Who is out to get them.  They quote Hebrews 12:6, which says, "God corrects and chastens His own."  I respond by telling them that God is a Spirit and uses Spiritual things to deal with His children of the Spirit.  Ephesians 4 says that, "God uses His Word and the Holy Spirit to teach us."  We won't read that God uses sickness, disease, poverty, hardship or even Covid-19 to teach us.  God wants us to trust Him to deliver us from all these things.

     Although God is the Same God of the Old Testament, our relationship with Him isn't the same as the old covenant saints had with Him.  If you don't know this, then you don't know your Heavenly Father like you should.  Can God still deal with people like He did in the old covenant?  Yes, but not with His own kids, as Father.  Only a terrible, awful father would deal with his own children with sickness, disease, and other such afflictions.  Would you put a cancer on your baby girl, in order to teach her how to behave?  Of course not.  Are you then, a better father than our Father in Heaven?  We don't believe that a Father Who loved us enough to die in our place, would do these terrible things to see what we would do, unless the adversary has deceived us and caused us to believe that "God uses these things to teach us, out of His Love for us."

     Jesus prayed in John 17:23 (Amp), saying, "That You have loved them even as You have loved Me."  Jesus bore all the things He endured on Calvary's cross, so that we wouldn't have to.  It would be a miscarriage of justice, if our Heavenly Father placed them on us now.  It would make the cross of no avail, if He did so now.  James 1:16-18 (Amp) says, "Do not be misled, my beloved brethren. Every good gift and every perfect (large, free, full) gift is from Above; it comes down down from the Father of all that gives Light, in the shining of Whom there can be no variation (rising or setting or shadow cast by His turning as in an eclipse). And it was of His Own free will that He gave us birth as sons by His Word of Truth, so that we should be a kind of first fruits of His creatures, a sample of what He created to be consecrated to Himself."

Lesson 80 The Church's Identity Crisis

      2Corinthians 5:17 (Amp) 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 away. Behold, all things have become new and all things are of God."

     Many have said to me, "You're taking this God thing overboard."  I ask, "How can you have too much God in your life?"  If God is really God, and we know that He is, then how can anyone go overboard in Him?"  Is Jesus the fanatical and crazy Man others say He is?   Or did Jesus actually have a much better understanding about God, than we have today?  Many believe that taking our walk with God outside the denominational theater, makes us "fanatics and crazy."

     How far is too far?  Were the three young Hebrew men fanatics, when they were thrown into the fiery furnace for refusing to bow before the statue?  Or were they walking in a faith, that the other Hebrews were afraid to walk in?  It's time that believers accept our Heavenly Father for Who He is and learn to walk in the new creation identity we've been given in Christ Jesus.  When we eliminate God from the Super-natural ability that God Alone posses, then we've reduced Him to the natural realm and made Him just a man.  Is God greater than the Covid-19 plague?  Was He greater than the plagues of the Old Testament?  Then, He still is today.  We keep the Power of God from doing what His Word has said He will do, by our unbelief and denial.  Those in the Wilderness limited God by their unbelief and we're doing this today too.  The only limits God have, are placed upon Him by unbelief.

     Joshua and Caleb refused to limit God and were the only two from their generation, who entered the Promise Land and inherited the Promise.  The others remained in the desert until they died.  They were still His people, but they never entered the Promise, because of their unbelief.  Jesus has Promised His people, a Rest , but have we been held back in the natural man, because of our unbelief and the limits we've placed on Him.  Hebrews 4:8-9,11-12 (Amp) says, "This mention of a Rest was not a reference to their entering Canaan, For if Joshua had given them rest, He (God), would not speak afterward about another day. So then, there is still awaiting a full and complete Sabbath-Rest reserved for the true people of God."

     Verse 11 goes onto say, "Let us therefore be zealous and exert ourselves and strive diligently to enter that Rest of God, to know and experience it for ourselves, that no one may fall or perish by the same kind of unbelief and disobedience into which those in the Wilderness fell."  God says that, "His Word is still alive and active today," in Verse 12.  

     Can or do we trust God, like Joshua and Caleb did?  Or, do the giants look bigger than Our God and Father?  It's time we look to our faith in Him.  Do I want to believe what those who saw themselves as being "grasshoppers," in the eyes of the giants and limit God?  Or do I want to see the giants as being grasshoppers, in the eyes of my God?  God didn't mention the giants, because He was going to go with them into Canaan, so they need not fear the giants.  God lives inside of us and tells us that, "He will never leave or forsake us."  God intends to accompany us, in everything He has told us to do.  Jesus gives us the majority wherever we go, because He goes with us.

     The men and women of old, only had God's Word and His Promise of a Rest, but we have His Word and His Spirit living within us, to bring us into the Rest.  All of God's Promises are "Yes and Amen in Christ Jesus."  We cannot fail, because Jesus is the "Author and Finisher of our faith" and He will complete whatsoever He starts, including this Last Day Awakening.  Good fathers protect and care for their children, so when God is our Daddy, we're in good hands and "no evil shall befall you and no plague come nigh your dwelling."  Do you truly believe this, or do you limit God by seeing Covid-19 giants?  Is this over the top and too much God or is this what He expects His family to walk in?

     God's Word says that we are new creations and joint heirs with Jesus.  We have the same kind of faith that Jesus has, but we've never been taught to use like He did.  We have the Holy Spirit of God living in us, so we can do the works Jesus did.  Jesus said in John 14:12 (Amp), "I assure you, most solemnly I tell you, if anyone steadfastly believes in Me, he will himself be able to do the things that I do; and he will do even greater things than those, because I go to My Father."

     We could dismiss the above scripture, if we didn't have the Same Holy Spirit, the Same Father and the same faith that Jesus had, but we're faced with this Truth, because Jesus said it.  Getting others saved and leading them to be born-again in the Spirit of God, are "the greater things."  The other works are meeting the needs of mankind by the Power of God, through the Same Holy Spirit Jesus had.  There has never been a people on this planet like us, except Jesus Himself.  We're born of the Same Seed, the Word of God and we know that "Every seed bears fruit after it's kind."  Genesis 1:11 (Amp) tells us, "And God said, Let the earth put forth tender vegetation; plants yielding seed and fruit trees yielding fruit whose seed is in itself, each according to it's kind upon the earth. And it was so."  And so it is upon the earth today, according to God's Word.

     Jesus said in John 12:24 (Amp), "I assure you, most solemnly I tell you,  Unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just one grain; it never becomes more but lives by itself alone. But if it dies, it produces many others and yields a great harvest."  Jesus Himself is the One Grain or Seed.   When His Seed fell into the earth and died, it produced the harvest of new creation children of God.  We've become the Seed of Abraham in Christ Jesus, as He is the Promised Seed, according to Galatians 3:28-29 (Amp), which says, "There is now no distinction, neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is not male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you belong to Christ, are in Him Who is Abraham's Seed, then you are Abraham's offspring and Spiritual heirs according to Promise."

     You have the Same Seed living in you, which will produce after kind through your words and spirit.  You are the new creation child of God, born of the Same Word of God.  1Peter 1:23 (Amp) says, "You have been regenerated (born-again), not from a mortal origin (seed, sperm), but from One that is Immortal by the Ever Living and Lasting Word of God."  The Same Seed, Jesus has become flesh and dwells among us.

    

Lesson 79 The Church's Identity Crisis

      2Corinthians 5:17 (Amp) 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 away. Behold, all things are new and all things are of God (because Spiritual awakening bring a new Life)."

     The above scripture tells us that, "All things are new and all things are of God" and this means exactly that.  You're not the same person you were before being born-again.  God no longer sees the old sin natural and you're no longer Spiritually separated from Him, but you're a new creation in Christ Jesus.  We're now God's sons and daughters and are part of His family.  We sometimes act like we really don't belong to God and are afraid to approach Him.

     "Fearing God," doesn't mean we're to be afraid, but it means we're to honor and revere Him.  Christians should never be afraid of our Heavenly Father.  If God was out to get us, then He would have done so, before we were saved.  God seeks to save and deliver us from the one who is out to get us (satan) and return us to Himself.  God set out to bring us back to Himself by Jesus' Sacrifice, immediately after Adam's fall.  We were always on His mind and still are.

     Jesus and the Word are One.  The Word is God's perfect GPS system and is a Light unto out path.  God says that we're always to keep His Word before our eyes.  No one carries a lamp behind him/herself, but always carries is before themselves, in order to light up their path.  Psalm 23:1,3 (Amp) tells us that, "The Lord (Word) is my Shepherd and He leads me in paths of righteousness for His Own Namesake."  Jesus is the Word of God Himself and is our Shepherd, Who leads us.  He is the Lamp and the Light to our path.

     The more we know Jesus as our Lord and our Lamp, the easier it will be to follow Him.  God will direct our steps, by His Word.  We can walk in the Light, by following His path.  Jesus isn't only in the Light, but He is the Light and we will not walk in darkness.  The Word of God isn't just a book of rules and religious items we must follow, but it's a Light that will show us how and where to walk with Him.  Jesus told His followers in Matthew 6:33 (Amp), "Seek first the Kingdom of God and His Righteousness (His way of doing and being right)."  God's Word is His way of doing and being right.  God's Word illuminates our paths to righteousness.

     If we listen to the GPS while in our vehicle, then it will direct our every turn, so we can reach our destination.  If we don't follow the GPS and take a shortcut, then we probably will get lost or arrive late to our destination.  The GPS will continue directing you, but you probably will need to make extra turns to get back on the path.  God's GPS or His perfect Plan or system, will always bring us to our goal, if we simply follow the Lamp and Light of His Word.  There will be smaller light along the way and many roads we could take but they don't all lead to where we want to go.  Proverbs 1:20-21 (Amp) says "Wisdom cries aloud in the streets, she raises her voice in the markets. She cries at the head of the noisy intersections, in the chief gathering places, at the entrance of the city gates she speaks."

     Wisdom is always trying to lead us in the paths of righteousness, but we must listen and heed it.  How many times have we failed to forgive someone, when God was trying to keep us on the right path and telling us that we needed to forgive?  Wisdom, the Word and Lamp directed us to forgive, but we took a shortcut and held onto unforgiveness, until it took a toll on us in some way.  We failed to listen to God's GPS and got lost in the noisy intersection.  Proverbs 1:2-5 (Amp) says, "That people may know skillful and Godly Wisdom and instruction, discernment and comprehend the Words of understanding and insight. Receive instruction in Wise dealings and the discipline of Wise thoughtfulness, Righteousness, justice and integrity, that prudence may be given to the simple, and knowledge discernment, and discretion to the youth. The wise also will hear and increase in learning, and the person of understanding will acquire skill and attain to sound counsel, so that he may be able to steer his course rightly."

     We're new creations and citizens of a new Kingdom, so we must learn what the rules and Laws of that Kingdom are and how they  govern our lives.  The only way we can fully walk in the new Life that God's Word Jesus has given us, is by abiding by His Word.  There are many voices at a busy intersection, that will tell us to "turn here or go there."  When we listen to these voices, more than we follow God's GPS, then it will be difficult to stay on the right course or the paths of righteousness.

     We must pay very close attention to the signs and directions, while driving in a large city that we're unfamiliar with.  If we don't, then we'll get off course fairly quickly.  It doesn't mean that we won't finally reach our destination, but we might encounter construction, closed roads or spend extra hours driving, when we took the wrong turn.  God tried to have us repent and listen to His instructions, but we didn't listen and held onto our forgiveness.  

     We can still get out of trouble, after not following His Word.  We stubbornly drive around a long time, before humbling ourselves and asking for directions, but once we do this, we quickly get back on the right path.  We sometimes listen to and heed the big signs and neglect the smaller signs.  Adultery is a big sign, but shouldn't we follow the smaller sign and love our brethren?  If we drive past such small signs as forgiving, not gossiping, strive, division, unbelief, limiting God by our opinions, and lying, then we can get off course. 

     God doesn't put up road signs that aren't important, but He puts them in His Word, in order to Light our paths.  We've never walked in this new creation, so it's easy to try and follow the same paths we walked before knowing Jesus.  God's Kingdom has a way of doing and being right, which we must follow.  God is King in His Kingdom and His way is the only right way.  We must listen to God's Holy Spirit and follow His Word, in order to navigate this new Life.  Jesus is our Great Shepherd, the Word and them Lamp unto our feet.  He doesn't drive us, but leads us.  We must follow His Word.    

Lesson 78 The Church's Identity Crisis

     2Corinthians 5:17 (Amp) 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 away. Behold, the fresh and new has come."

     The new creation is a NEW CREATION.  Other than Jesus Himself, we're a people who never existed before in all of God's creation.  We're elevated by faith in the Finished Work of Jesus and made new creations that aren't like the First Adam.  We've been grafted into and created in and like the Last Adam Jesus.  This is nearly impossible for the carnal mind to conceive.  The only way to truly understand the full impact of what our Father has done for us, is to receive it by the Revelation knowledge of God's Word through the Holy Spirit.

     We find very few in the history of the Church, who have moved in the Truth of this Revelation.  We have assumed though, that only a few have been chosen to do the things they did.  The Truth is that we have all been chosen to walk in this realm of Revelation, but it requires spending time in God's Word and in fellowship with the Father, in order to see it.  God doesn't have a few special people, but all are special to Him.  John 1:1-5 (Amp) says, "In the beginning (before all time), was the Word (Christ), and the Word was God Himself. He was present originally with God. All things were made and came into existence through Him; and without Him was not even one thing made that has come into being. In Him was Life, and the Life was the Light of men. And the Light shines on in the darkness, for the darkness has never overpowered it, put it out or absorbed it or appropriated it, and is unreceptive to it."

     We have the God-Head fully dwelling within us, Who is God, Jesus the Word made flesh and the Holy Spirit Who is also the Word.  We often view them as three separate Beings, but they are all different manifestations of the Word.  Jesus said in John 4:24 (Amp), "God is a Spirit (a Spiritual Being), and those who worship Him must worship Him in Spirit and in Truth (reality)."  Jesus went on to say in John 6:63 (Amp), "It is the Spirit Who gives Life (He is the Life-Giver); the flesh conveys no benefit whatever (there is no profit in it). The Words (Truths) that I have been speaking to you are Spirit and Life."

     We see in these scriptures that God, in Spirit and in the flesh, are all the Word.  John 1:14 (Amp) says, "And the Word (Christ), became flesh (human, incarnate), and tabernacled (fixed His tent of flesh), lived awhile among us, and we actually saw His Glory, His honor."  We look for a person or a feeling, that we can identify with, instead of identifying with the Word.  When we identity with what God's Word says about  us, then we begin to identify with the new creation Word, Spirit, Christ-like being that we've been created to be, by God's Word Jesus.  Jesus never prayed for God to do something, but prayed to find out what God would have Him do, with what what He had already said.  

     Jesus and the Word, are One and the Same.  1Peter 1:23 (Amp), "You have been regenerated (born-again), not from a mortal seed (origin, sperm), but from One that is Immortal, by the Ever Living and Lasting Word of God."  Jesus is the Word and God's Word is Spirit and Life.  John 1 tells us that, "The Word was with God and the Word is God."  When we spend time reading God's Word, then we're spending time in Life and fellowship with the Father.  Reading God's Word isn't a religious duty, but it's Life to all our flesh.  God says in Proverbs 4:22 (Amp), "My Words are Life to those who find them, healing and health to all their flesh."  Your life isn't in your flesh, but the Word and God's Spirit are the Life of your flesh.

     Reading God's Word isn't something we should do, but it's something we must to, in order to keep in fellowship with God and walk in the Light.  1John 1:7 (Amp) says, "But if we really are living and walking in the Light (the Word), as He Himself is in the Light (the Word), we have true unbroken fellowship with one another, and the Blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses, removes us from all sin and guilt (keeps us cleansed from sin in all it's form and manifestation)."

     Jesus said in Luke 4:4 (Amp), "It is written, Man shall not live and be sustained by bread alone, but by every Word and expression of God."  Jesus says that it's important for the natural body to have bread and food, but the True Life comes from God's Word, which is Spirit and Life.  Reading God's Word isn't a religious ritual or Law which must be performed, but is our very Source of Life, in itself/  Food brings nourishment to your body, but doesn't feed the spirit.  We are Spirit and must feed on God's Word, in order to keep Life flowing into our spirit and flesh.

     Reading God's Word and understanding what His Word says about us and what it is doing in and through us, is spending time in fellowship with God.  Jesus tells us in John 10:20 (Amp) that, "I and the Father are One."  The Word, which is God, the Word Who became flesh, and the Word by which we were born-again, are also One.  We are of the Word of God and born of that Word, like Jesus was.  We are one with Him and One in the Father.  We don't have Life, if we don't have God's Word, which is Spirit and Eternal, living in us.  The more we're in God's Word, the more we'll experience the God Kind of Life in our spirit.  Jesus said in John 10:10 (Amp), "I have come that they may have and enjoy Life, and have it in abundance (to the fill, til if overflows)."  The more Word we have in us, the more we'll have the Overflow of God Himself in us.  When hard times come, we draw from the Overflow of God Himself and the Abundance of Life through the Spirit operating in us, like it did in Jesus.  Jesus said that, "The Words I am speaking to you are Spirit and they are Life."  These are the Words of Life spoken by the Word Himself, to all who would hear Him.

     If we're unable to understand the difference between the old and new covenants, then we won't have the enjoyment and overflow that Jesus Promised, even though the Promise is still there.  The Law will continue to accuse us and make us feel guilty, limiting the joy of fellowship through our natural man/woman of the flesh.  We must know that we're born of and in the Likeness of the Truth of God's Word.  The Law of Genesis says, "Everything produces after kind, and everything has Seed in itself to bring forth after kind."  We're born of the Seed (Word), which is God Himself and produced after Kind.  We're not the same apple, but like it. 

Lesson 77 The Church's Identity Crisis

     2Corinthians 5:17 (Amp) says, "Therefore if any person is ingrafted in Christ Jesus (the Messiah), he is a new creation (a new creature altogether)."

     We seldom see ourselves, the way God's Word describes us to be, in Jesus.  We've mostly seen ourselves as "forgiven sinners."  This is a true description of us, but we are far more than that.  The Blood of Jesus completely removed our sins and the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus has elevated into right standing with God.  We've been made new creatures and that means we're creatures who never existed before.

     What kind of new creature have we been created to be?  We didn't become a new creature, but were created new.  This means that the person we were before receiving Jesus, no longer exists.  God didn't just repair the old man/woman with all his/her faults and sins, but He made us new creatures in Christ.  God didn't repair the earth and the heavens.  They never existed, until God created them.  

   We still see ourselves in a natural mirror, instead of the Mirror of God's Word.  James 1:22-26 (Amp), says, "But be doers of the Word (obey the Message), and not just merely listeners to it; betraying yourselves into deception by reasoning contrary to the Truth. For if anyone only listens to the Word without obeying it and being a doer of it, he is like a man who looks carefully at his own natural face in a mirror; For he thoughtfully observes himself, and then goes off and promptly forgets what he was like. But he who looks carefully into the faultless Law (the Law of Liberty), and is faithful to it and perseveres in looking into it, being not a heedless listener who forgets but an active doer who obeys, he shall be Blessed in his doing (his life of obedience). If anyone thinks himself to be religious (previously observant of the external duties of his faith), and does not bridal his tongue but deludes his own heart, this person's religious service is worthless (futile, barren)."

     James sums up the duties or service, of the new creation person that the Perfect Law of Liberty reflects back to those who perseveres, in Verse 27, which says, "The pure and unblemished service in the sight of God the Father is this: To visit and help and care for the orphans and widows in their afflictions and need, and to keep oneself unspotted and uncontaminated from the world."  God rejects the external, religious worship and outward acts.  God tells us in Isaiah 58, that His way of fasting isn't  going without food, but is a way of Life for the believer.  This is how we're to live before Him, in our every day life on earth.  God doesn't respond to the outward religious acts and worship.  He doesn't wants us to give an offering for the poor and widows in church.  It's good that we give an offering to help the orphans and widows, but God also wants us to help our neighbors and those around us.

     We send offerings and help those in other nations, but we should also help those around us, as our personal worship to the Father.  When we don't see ourselves in the Mirror of God's Word like we should, we leave it up to the pastor to ensure our giving goes where it should.  Even though the pastors are doing good with our gifts, he/she might not know that our neighbor is in need.  This is personal ministry.

     You might think it's better to feed two-thousand people, instead of just one.  If you were "the one," and had three hungry children, then you probably wouldn't agree.  This is the Isaiah Fast and the personal service towards God.  This is just as Super-natural, as laying hands on the sick and casting out devils.  You might need to lay hands on your neighbor or cast a demon out, that has held your neighbor under the Curse for years.  This isn't just a way to worship God in this realm of life.  When we live in the Law of Liberty, we operate in both realms of life (spirit, soul, and body).  There's an old saying that says, "You get so Heavenly minded, that you're no earthly good."  I believe we can also get so earthly minded, that we're no Heavenly good.

     We must learn who we are In God and learn the might and ability He has provided us, in order to function like He intends.  We can't meet the needs of all those who have needs, without the Super-natural provisions of our Father.  Even Jesus had to go to His Father, in order to feed the five-thousand.  There are more needs than any one person can provide on his/her own, but there's no need that our Father can't meet.   If we don't see who we are in the new creation, then it can be overwhelming to see the needs, healing, hunger, depression, poverty and despair of those around us.  We must learn who we are and what Heaven has made available to us, if we ever hope to reach the dying world.

     God can build a ministry and bring those who are Gifted by the Spirit to help, but every individual still has service and duty that He has given him/her.  There are many charity organizations that provide aid for those in need around the world, but our personal prayer and help is still needed.  We've mostly looked at the ministry as being a pulpit and a building, but when God sends us to minister to someone who thinks God has forgotten them, it's personal.  

     Let's do everything we do, as unto the Lord, because it all matters.  We shouldn't just appoint a visitation committee to do what we are called to do.  This doesn't mean we should quit our job and take up full-time ministry.  We should make our jobs personal between God and ourselves, ministering beyond the professional realm into the Spirit.  Let's allow God to reach beyond our natural selves.  Let's allow His ability reach into the new creation person He's made us to be,  into those we touch.

Lesson 76 The Church's Identity Crisis

     Romans 8:16-17 (Amp) says, "The Spirit Himself thus testifies together with our own spirit, assuring us that we are children of God. And if we are His children, then we are His heirs also; heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, sharing His inheritance with Him, only we must share His suffering if we are to share His Glory."  The suffering Paul writes about here, isn't the suffering Jesus endured on the cross.  No man can suffer that, except Jesus.  This suffering was for our salvation and redemption and the new creation Life we have in Christ Jesus.

     The "suffering we share with Him," is the rejection Jesus received from those who misunderstood Who and What He was, as the Son of God.  Many today, don't understand who and what we are in Him, so they persecute and reject us, like they did Jesus.  Being joint heirs with Jesus, means that everything the Father did and furnished for Christ, has been made available to us today.  This is the Super-natural provision our Father has provided from our new position in Jesus, so we can do what we've been commissioned to do, which is to reveal the Father to world and bring the salvation that Jesus provided to them.  Jesus said in Mark 16:15 (Amp), "Go into all the world and preach and publish openly the Gospel to every creature of the human race."

     At the time of His earthly ministry, Jesus was the Only Begotten Son of God.  After His Resurrection, He is called "the First Born of many brethren."  Romans 8:29 (Amp) says, "For those whom He foreknew (of whom He was aware of and Love beforehand), He also destined from the beginning, foreordaining them to be molded into the Image of His Son and share inwardly His Likeness, that He might become the First Born among many brethren."  Jesus isn't the Only Begotten Son, but is now the First Born of many brethren.

     God sees us through Jesus, as being as much His children as Jesus is.  Jesus is the First Born and is exalted to High Priest and Lord over all that God has in His new creation family.  We're brothers and sisters of Christ, sharing in His inheritance the Father gave at Jesus' Resurrection, in order to bring back what the Father had intended for His family in the beginning, before time.  God isn't waiting to see how we turn out, before He accepts us.  We were in His heart, before the foundation of the world.  There was no reason for God to create the earth, if His family didn't need a home.  God created everything here for His family, including the beauty of the flowers and the glory of the sun and stars.  It was all for you and is now yours again, through Jesus.

     Jesus prayed in John 17:22-23 (Amp), I have given to them the glory and honor which You have give to Me, that they may be one even as We are One; I in them and You in Me, in order that they may become one and perfectly united, that the world may know and definitely recognize that You have sent Me and that You have Loved them even as You have Loved Me."  Jesus didn't refer to us as being, "step children," but called us "God's Own Offspring."  This is for now, while we're still on this earth and not just when we get to Heaven.

     We've been taught that humans are low and weak beings, that fall short of what God intended.  Adam's sin of disobedience resulted in mankind's being separated from God, but the Father never left us there.  Through Jesus, we've been lifted up and exalted above all creatures, including satan, by the Power of His Name, which is above all names.  We're identified in Him and not in ourselves.  When we confess that we're unrighteous, we're telling the Father that Jesus wasn't enough for us.  This is prideful and is false humility.  

     Jesus' death and Blood were more than enough to pay the Price for Adam's transgression and to satisfy the Heavenly Courts of Justice.  We're to humble ourselves under the Mighty Hand of God, according to 1Peter 5:6 (Amp), which says, "Therefore humble yourselves, demote, lower yourselves in your own estimation under the Mighty Hand of God, that in time He may exalt you."  The Holy Spirit inspires Jame to write in James 4:7 (Amp), "So be subject to God, resist the devil, stand firm against him, and he will flee from you."

     The only way the devil will flee from us, is by understanding the Authority of who we are in Christ Jesus.  If we try standing against him in our own power, then satan will rule over us and keep us in the same bondage he's held mankind in for millenniums.  We must submit and be subject to God.  How do we do this?  By accepting what Jesus has done for us, when He made us without sin and perfect and righteous before God, even when we don't feel righteous, sinless or perfect in our own righteousness and imperfections.

     Being subject to God, is believing what He says about us, instead of what we say about ourselves or what others say about us.  If God says we are righteous in Jesus, then who are we to disagree with the One Who created us?  Paul says we must renew our minds, in Romans 12:1-2 (Amp), saying, "I appeal to you therefore brethren, and beg of you in view of all the mercies of God, to make a decisive dedication of your bodies, presenting all your members and faculties as a living sacrifice, holy, devoted, consecrated and well-pleasing to God, which is your reasonable (rational, intelligent), service and Spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world (this age), fashioned after and adapted to it's 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 that good and acceptable and perfect will of God, even the thing that is good and acceptable and perfect in His sight for you."

     Paul goes on in the next Verse, saying we're not to have an exaggerated opinion of ourselves.  Some have read this scripture and believe we're to debase ourselves, continuing to see ourselves as old sinners saved by Grace.  This is contrary to scripture.  When we think of ourselves in ways that are contrary to what God has made us to be in Jesus, then we're thinking more highly of ourselves than we should.  You've never done anything that the Power of Jesus' Blood hasn't covered.  If you think otherwise, then you won't have Power in the Blood of Jesus and you won't know God's will and purpose for you life.  Many prayers aren't answered in Christian circles, because we feel like we don't deserve God's Blessing.  WE DON'T DESERVE IT---this is Grace.  Don't deny God's Grace and try "getting" God to answer your prayers, by your own merit.  Romans 4:16 (Amp) 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)." 

Lesson 75 The Church's Identity Crisis

      2Corinthians 5:17 (Amp) 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 away. Behold, the fresh and new has come."

     The above scripture tells believers that we are more than just forgiven sinners.   The first human the Father created was Adam and He has made us new creations too.  Adam didn't have a past, so there were no sin barriers between him and the Father.  It was only after Adam disobeyed God in the Garden of Eden, that he and Eve lost fellowship with God.  The Father could only cover their sin by the blood of animals, which the Father killed and went onto make tunics for them to wear.

     The blood of animals could only cover the sin for a period of time, so it needed to be reapplied on a regular basis.  When the Last Adam Jesus was born into this earth, His Blood (the very Blood of God Himself) brought Life instead of death to mankind and His Blood only needed to be applied by faith one time.  The Blood of Jesus eradicated sin at it's very base and reapplied the Life again, creating a new creation people.  We continue to see ourselves as merely forgiven sinners, instead of a new creation.  We're every bit as new as Adam was, when God created him in His Image and Likeness.  Mankind had never existed, before God created Adam.  

     As new creations, we're on a higher scale than the First Adam was, because we've been made to be the very Body of Christ Himself.  We're not only made in the Image and Likeness of God, but we've actually become the temple of the Holy Spirit, according to 1Corinthians 6:19 (Amp), which says, "Do you not know that your body is the temple (the very Sanctuary) of the Holy Spirit Who lives within you."  Adam was created in God's Image.  We've been created to be one spirit and one Body, in Christ Jesus.  We are more than like Him, we are one in Him.

     My children were born to be like me.  My DNA was in them.  They were one in me and I in them, like Jesus said in John 17:22-23 (Amp), saying, "I have given to them the Glory and Honor which You have given Me, that they may be one even as We are One. I in them and You in Me, in order that they may become one and perfectly united, that the world may know and definitely recognize that You sent Me and that You have Loved them even as You have Loved Me."  

     The Glory and Honor given to Jesus, is the same Glory and Honor that God Himself is made of; it's His DNA.  It's His Spirit, which is the Glory and Life in its fullness.  We're given a glimpse of this Glory and Honor in Matthew 17:1-2 (Amp), which says, "And six days after this, Jesus took with Him Peter and James and John his brother, and led them upon a high mountain by themselves and His appearance underwent a change in their presence; and His face shone clear and bright like the sun, and His clothes became as white as light."  This is the DNA that we've received in this new creation, with the Living Spirit of God living within us.  We just don't recognize yet, who we've become in Him.

     God instructed the First Adam to "take dominion over everything on this earth."  God wouldn't have told him to do this, if Adm didn't have the authority and ability to do so.  The new creation people have been granted and inherited this authority and ability, in Jesus.  We have more though, because we have the Name and Person of Jesus to back us up.  We're a Super-natural being, created by and in Him.  We're not just like Him, but we're in Him and have become one with Him.

     The world and religion have told us that we're just forgiven sinners, instead of sons and daughter and heirs of God.  God's Kingdom doesn't only extend into the heavens, but over all the earth and everything in it.  There have been a handful of believers, like John G. Lake and Smith Wigglesworth, who have understood the Revelation of their true identity in Christ.  Their teachings staggered the world and religion said that, "Only a few were chosen to do these things" and "God didn't allow everyone to walk in the things these men and women walked in."  These believers chose God and rejected the world's idea of Who He really is.  Most of us have accepted the world's idea of Who God is, rather than what His Word has said about Him and about us being in Him.  I believe that God intended all of His Children to walk naturally Super-natural, like Jesus did on this earth.  This Super-natural ability came into our new creation spirit, the very moment we received Jesus and the new birth.

     We need to be sold-out to God's Word and His Spirit, in order to walk in who we've been created to be in Jesus.  God has made this available to all His children, but it must be developed in our hearts by God's Word and the Revelation knowledge the Holy Spirit gives.  We have the Same Holy Spirit and the Same Father that Jesus has, so we have the same potential of Genesis 1:11 (Amp), where God said, "Let the earth put forth tender vegetation; plants yielding seed and fruit trees yielding fruit whose seed is in itself, Each according to its kind upon the earth. And it was so."

     This is still God's Plan and His way of doing today.  Everything still bears fruit after its seed.  We are heirs with The Seed Jesus and The Seed Principal above, is fulfilled in Him.  We've been cautioned to "Be careful, so as not to exalt ourselves," instead of being told to "Be ourselves."  We've been careful and have forgotten who we were created to be and what we are created for.  Jesus told His followers, in John 16:14-15 (Amp), "God will honor and Glorify Me, because He will take of (receive, draw upon) what is Mine and will reveal (declare, disclose, transmit) it to you. Everything that the Father has is Mine, that is what I meant when I said that He (the Spirit), will take the things that are Mine and will reveal (declare, disclose transmit) it to you."

     God's Word says that, "Every seed bears fruit after kind."  We're the fruit that came from the Seed Jesus, Who is God's Word.  1Peter 1:23 (Amp) says, "You have been regenerated (born-again), not from a mortal origin (Seed, sperm), but from One that is Immortal by the Ever Living and Lasting Word of God."  The principal that, "Everything bears fruit after kind," is still True for us today.  1John 4:17 (Amp) 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." 

Lesson 74 The Church's Identity Crisis

     2Corinthians 5:17 (Amp) says, "Therefore, if any person is ingrafted in Christ (the Messiah), he is a new creation (a new creature altogether); the old previous moral and Spiritual condition has passed away. Behold, the fresh and new has come."

     This is more than just a "hopeful" scripture.  This is our new identity into and unto the family of the Most High God.  Hebrews 11:1 (Amp) says, "NOW FAITH is the assurance, the confirmation, THE TITLE DEED OF THE THINGS WE HOPE FOR, being the proof of things we do not see and the conviction of their reality, faith perceiving as real fact what is not revealed to the senses."

     We need to have hope mixed with faith, in order to give it substance, so we can walk in the true identity we have in Christ, in this life.  There's much more that we can't currently see, but faith in God's Word is still revealing them to us when we have faith in His Promises.  You are NOW as much a child of God, as you will be when Jesus returns or when we die and go to be with Him in Heaven.  When you go to Heaven, you'll understand more of what the new creation family of God already has here on earth, but it won't take faith to walk it out, because you won't need faith to believe what you can already see.  We need to have faith here, in what God has already done in us and for us.  We must understand our new identity in Christ to have faith.

     It's no surprise that the Church doesn't know who we really are.  Many men and women in this generation, don't know what sex they are.  Some men believe they are women and some women believe they are men, while some can't decide what sex or even species they are.  The Church widely accepts that we are saved, but disagrees with the Father, as to when salvation comes.  Many question whether we're saved after we die or when Jesus died.  Does salvation come after we're raised from the dead and go to Heaven or are we now saved and made to be what God created us to be in Christ Jesus?

     The enemy has diligently worked to cause God's people to wonder when we're saved.  Many believers still struggle with the Truth that our sins are gone and that God remembers them no more.  We still walk under the condemnation of  the mistakes we made in our past lives.  1Corinthians 6:11 (Amp) says, "And such were some of you, But you were washed clean, purified by a complete atonement for sin and made free from the guilt of sin; and you were justified (pronounced righteous), by trusting in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Holy Spirit of God."

     Many people say that, "They're trying to find themselves."  The only way believers can find themselves, is to look into God's Word and by faith, believe who we are in Christ Jesus.  James 1:23-25 (Amp) says, "For if anyone only listens to the Word without obeying it and being a doer of it, he is like a man who looks carefully at his own natural face in a mirror. For he thoughtfully observes himself and then goes off and promptly forgets what he was like. But he who looks carefully into the faultless law (the Law of Liberty, the Word of God, and is faithful to it and perseveres in looking into it, being not a heedless listener who forgets but an active doer who obeys, he shall be Blessed in his doing, his life of obedience."

     2Corinthians 3:17-18 (Amp) says, "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 in ever increasing splendor and from one degree of glory to another, for this comes from the Lord Who is the Spirit."

     We are new creation and the only way to understand the creation, is to go to the One Who created it.  We must find out what God has made us to be, by going to His Word and listening to His Spirit.  If you ask people what the new creation is supposed to be, then you'll receive many opinions.  The more people you ask, the more opinions you'll end up with.  God's Word is the Manufacturer's Handbook, on what the new creation is to be and how it's supposed to function.  The world and religion have tried telling us what the new creation is,, but they've done so with carnal minds.  

     Romans 8:7 (Amp) says, "That is because the mind of the flesh with its carnal thoughts and purposes, is hostile to God for it does not submit itself to God's Laws; indeed it cannot."  This is why Paul writes in Hebrews 11;1, "Now faith is the substance of things we hope for."  A carnal mind can't understand our new creation identity.  We must have faith in the Perfect Law of Liberty and God's Word, which is Spirit, in order to do so.

     The "things we hope for," is right standing with God and the ability to come into His Presence without guilt or shame, as His family.  Even though this is already Truth, if we don't have faith in this hope, then the carnal mind will hold us back and we'll forget the Perfect Law of Liberty, which requires faith in Jesus and His Sacrifice and not our good works.  We were created in and by and through Jesus' Own Righteousness and that can't be improved upon.  We must accept this by faith.  This is what we hoped for and faith in Him has give us the title deed and substance of our hope.  When you look into the mirror of God's Word, you must accept what it says your true identity in Jesus is.

Lesson 73 The Church's Identity Crisis

     2Corinthians 5:17 (Amp) says, "Therefore, if any person is ingrafted in Christ (the Messiah), he is a new creation (a new creature altogether); the old previous moral and Spiritual condition has passed away. Behold, the fresh and new has come."

     Most believers have been living a double life, for most of our born-again life.  We have one life of the flesh and another Life we live in the Spirit.  We haven't understood that these aren't separate lives, but one Life is now joined together by the Life Jesus spoke about in John 10:10.  When we separate the Spirit Life from the natural life of the flesh, we don't stay on this planet.  The natural body can't continue living, when our spirit leaves it.

     We put off the Spiritual Blessing for until we get to Heaven and continue struggling in the natural man, believing God doesn't care about this.  Jesus was filled with the Holy Spirit and was God's Son, but He still lived in a flesh and blood body while He was here.  The Spirit realm met all of Jesus' needs, as well as the needs of others in His earthly walk with God.  Jesus never separated Himself from either His Spirit or His Body.  He lived in the fleshly Body, while walking by and in the Spirit.  Jesus walked naturally Super-natural.

     We're like Jesus in His earthly ministry today.  We still have needs here in this natural realm, while having needs in the Spirit realm with God.  Jesus said in Matthew 6:31-33 (Amp), "Therefore do not worry or be anxious, saying, What are we going to eat? or what are we going to have to drink, or what are we going to have to wear? For the Gentiles (heathen) wish for and crave and diligently seek all these things, and your Heavenly Father knows well that you need them all. But seek (aim at and strive after) first of all His Kingdom and His Righteousness (His way of doing and being right), and then all these things taken together will be given you besides."

     Jesus assured us that, "Our Heavenly Father knows well that we need all these things."  He never intended for us to be cold, hungry, without shelter, and miserable in this life; anymore than when we leave this earthly life.  God took care of Jesus, before and after He began His earthly ministry.  Heaven supplied everything Jesus needed from His birth and now.  Do you think God can't do these things for the rest of His family?

     It's not that God can't or won't do this for us, but we don't know how to function in both realms, like Jesus did.  Jesus instructed us to, "Seek, aim at and strive after first of all God's Kingdom and His Righteousness (His way of doing and being right, and then all the other things are added."  Jesus walked in the natural, in a Super-natural way.  He never divided the two, but looked at them like the First Adam did, as being one man made in God's Image and Likeness.  

     We sometimes see prayer as being Spirit, while looking at everyday life as being carnal.  Through Jesus, it's not everyday life and Spirit Life, but just "Life and more abundantly."  Prayer isn't something we do sometimes, when we need something, but it's a constant place of fellowship where we hear and follow the Voice of the Shepherd, like it was with Jesus. 

     We're always praying in the Holy Spirit, while we're at work or at home.  We're in constant fellowship with the Father, through the Holy Spirit, according to 1Corinthians 14:14 (Amp), where Paul writes, "For if I pray in an unknown tongue, my spirit by the Holy Spirit within me prays, but my mind is unproductive (it bears no fruit and helps nobody)."

     Paul is speaking about public prayer and worship in this scripture, but says we're always in contact with the Holy Spirit, even when we're at work or at home.  I can watch TV and still be in contact with God, by my spirit.  My spirit is completely in Christ at all times.  I hear from God when my natural mind is focused on something else and this keeps it from straying into worry or doubt.

     A renewed mind is one that thinks on the Word at all times, even when something else is going on.  God is never really on our mind, but is usually like a circus, waiting to stray into all sorts of things that aren't relevant to what we're seeking God for.  If we can occupy our minds with work or watching TV, instead of letting them run wild, then we can hear God more clearly in our spirits.

     My mind is clear, when my hands are busy at work or play.  The carnal mind and the Mind of Christ, aren't the same thing.  The Mind of Christ comes from my new creation man, while the carnal natural mind is what I use to drive my truck, mow hay or do natural things.  We still use our natural mind and senses, but govern them by God's Word and His Spirit.  You'll have a problem driving downtown during rush hour, if you don't use your senses and your sense ruled mind.  God gave us a natural mind and senses, in order to govern the flesh and He gave us a spirit, in order to govern the natural mind in the natural realm.

     Jesus knew when He was tired, hungry and when He needed extra clothing because it was cold.  Jesus' Spirit didn't get cold or hungry, His senses were used for that.  We don't discard our senses, we rule them.  We're a three part being (spirit, soul and body) and each plays a vital part in our earthly walk.  We must allow our spirit by the Holy Spirit, to rule the soul and body.  When we allow our soul or emotions to rule, instead of governing them by our new creation spirit through God's Word and the Holy Spirit, then we'll get angry, commit sin and get involved in wrong thing.  Our body will eat, until it's bloated and useless, unless we take dominion over it by our spirit.  Through Jesus, we've been given control to govern our body and soul, by our born-again spirit again.  The fleshly carnal natural isn't in control any longer, if we stay in fellowship with the Father.

     The Law of Moses was good, but man's spirits were dead unto God.  The carnal nature still ruled, by Laws and regulations alone.  We've been given the new creation Living Spirit, to govern from within and not just by willpower or Laws.  We must renew our minds with God's Word and His Spirit, so we have dominion over the flesh and senses.  We're not ruled by feelings or emotions, but by the Word.  We've believed that we can't control how we feel, but God's Word says that we can.  We've accepted the world's view about Christianity, but in these Last Days, God has revealed who His family has been created to be in His eyes and things are changing. 

Lesson 72 The Church's Identity Crisis

     2Corinthians 5:17 (Amp) says, "Therefore, if any person is ingrafted in Christ (the Messiah), he is a new creation (a new creature altogether); the old previous moral and Spiritual condition has passed away. Behold, the fresh and new has come."

     Most believers in the Body of Christ, only see ourselves as being only human.  Paul wrote about the differences between the unsaved world and those who are a new creation in 1Corinthians 6:11 (Amp), saying, "And such were some of you once. But you were washed clean, purified by a Complete Atonement for sin and made free from the guilt of sin, and you were consecrated (set apart, hallowed), and you were justified (pronounced righteous) by trusting in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Holy Spirit of God."

     Most believers don't see ourselves as purified, free from the Curse, set apart, hallowed, justified, and pronounced righteous and washed clean.  Man's ideas and the world's ideas about Christianity, have left us in the place where we see ourselves more as we once were, rather than who we've been created to be in Jesus.  We need to renew our minds with God's Word and trust in what Jesus has already done for us now.  We need to see ourselves, the way God sees us, which is through the Blood and Sacrifice of our Lord.  We need to see ourselves as clean and holy, while we still live in this body of flesh. 

     Romans 5:1-2 (Amp) says, "Therefore, since we are justified, acquitted, declared righteous and given a right standing with God through faith, let us grasp the fact that we have the peace of reconciliation to hold and enjoy, peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ (the Messiah, the Anointed One). Through Him also we have our access, entrance, introduction by faith into this Grace (state of God's favor) in which we firmly and safely stand. And let us rejoice and exalt in our hope of experiencing and enjoying the Glory of God."

     Many Christians today, consider our experiencing and enjoy the Glory of God while we're here in these earthly bodies, is just a dream.  God Himself has taken up residence in our body and declared it to be "the Temple of the Holy Spirit Himself," according to 1Corinthians 6:19 (Amp), which says, "Do you not know that your body is the temple (the very sanctuary) of the Holy Spirit Who lives within you, Whom you have received as a Gift from God, you are not your own."

     The Holy Spirit of God can't live in a temple that is unclean.  God's Word says we're pure, clean, holy, consecrated and righteous and we must believe this to be True or the Holy Spirit couldn't live in us and call us His temple.  Without Revelation, our carnal selves believe "it's humble" to confess we're unworthy and old sinners saved by Grace.  The ears of the world and natural realm, seemingly see this as being humble, but to the Father, it sounds like we're saying "the Sacrifice of Jesus wasn't enough to cleanse us and make us worthy."  What sounds humble to unrenewed minds, sounds prideful to God.

     It requires faith in the Finished Works of Jesus, to understand who He's made us to be now.  The only way to obtain this faith in God's Grace, is by agreeing with what His Word says about us, instead of what the devil or the world thinks.  Jesus wasn't being prideful or boastful, when He said that, "The Father and I are One" and that He is "the Son of God."  Jesus was speaking the Truth, when He said, "I only say what I hear My Father say."  This means that Jesus only repeated what the Father in Him said.  Humility is saying what God says about us.  We must agree with Him, despite how we feel about it, because He is the One Who has created us as new creations.  God knows more about who we are, than we do.

     When God made us new creations in Jesus, He created us in His Image and Likeness and He is Perfect.  Our fleshly bodies might not be perfect, but if we renew our minds by God's Word and His Spirit, then it will bring our bodies into subjection to Truth.  Jesus said, "The Words I speak to you are Spirit and Truth."  God's Word and His Spirit will bring the flesh into subjection to our new creation spirit and submit them to God as His temple and Glory.

     Do we still have flaws in our flesh?  Of course we do, but we're no longer after the flesh, but after the Spirit of God.  There's nothing our Heavenly Father cannot fix and make right, if we yield to His Word and Spirit.  Don't give up because you still have flaws in your old house of flesh, because you have overcome already in Jesus.  We're making progress and growing up in Him, so we're making fewer mistakes.  All babies need to grow up and become adults, if they're to be useful in society.  They make mistakes, even as adults, but they're not the same mistakes.  We're still growing past the old way of thinking and living, while Living in the new Life Jesus has given us.

     Jesus came so that we "have Life and have it more abundantly."  Now that we have Life, we need to learn how to live this Life of the Spirit, by His Word, just like we learned how to live our earthly life of the flesh.  Just being born into this earthly realm isn't enough to bring us through this world.  We must learn how to navigate the world, by the teachings and rules that our parent taught us.  We learned to be responsible spouses and parents from those who gave us life.  The same is Truth in the Life that Jesus gave us.  Staying babes in Christ, won't equip us to do the work of the ministry and build up the Body of the Church.  Ephesians 4 tells us that we have the responsibility to grow into "the stature of the fullness of Christ Jesus."  The only way to do so, is by growing by and through God's Word and accepting what He says and having faith in the Truth, even if we don't feel like it.  You are a new creation and must grow into what He created you to be.

     

Lesson 71 The Church's Identity Crisis

     We read in God's Word that "we've been made the Righteousness of God," but most of us have never seen ourselves like the Father sees us in Christ Jesus.  We read how we've become new creations through Christ Jesus, but we continue thinking of ourselves as "old sinners."  We remember who we once were and by focusing on this, we allow the enemy to enter our lives.  He will lie and tell us that, "You're unworthy" and "You're not righteous enough to lay hands on the sick, cast out demons or do the righteous works of the Father."  Guilt and condemnation will prevent us from fulfilling what the Father has called us to do.

     1John 3:19-22 (Amp) says, "By this we shall come to know (perceive, recognize, and understand) that we are of the Truth, and can reassure (quiet, conciliate and pacify) our hearts in His Presence. Whenever our hearts in tormenting self-accusation make us feel guilty and condemn us For we are in God's hands. For He is above and greater than our consciences (our hearts); and He knows (perceives and understands) everything; nothing is hidden from Him. And beloved, if our consciences (our hearts) do not accuse us (if they do not make us feel guilty and condemn us), we have confidence (complete assurance, and boldness) before God. And we receive from Him whatever we ask, because we watchfully obey His orders (observe His suggestions and injunctions, follow His Plan for us, and habitually practice what is pleasing to Him)."

     It's been difficult for many to determine God's True will and His Truth, because we've been taught so many differing teachings about these.  Every believer has the responsibility to discern God's Truth on his/her own, by the Spirit of God.  Paul writes about the structure and Foundation of the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ in 1Corinthians 3:9-17.  Paul tells us that "The Church's structure is laid on this One Foundation" and that, "Whatever we build on it, will be tried and tested by fire."  Paul is referring to Jesus' "Parable of the Sower" in Mark 4:15 (Amp), where Jesus says, "The ones along the path are those who have the Word sown in their hearts, but when they hear, satan comes at once and by force takes away the Message which is sown in them."

     God isn't the One Who is testing and trying them, but the enemy is trying to take away the Message sown in their hearts, by force.  Every new creation person has the Same Foundation, on which to build, according to  1Corinthians 3:12-13 (Amp), which says, "But if anyone builds upon The Foundation, whether it be with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, the work of each one will become plainly (openly) known (shown for what it is), for the Day of Christ will disclose and declare it, because it will be revealed by fire and the fire will test and critically appraise the character and worth of the work each person has done."  

     There are so many beliefs, which are built on the Same Foundation, that it's hard to recognize which is the True House of God.  We don't label them as being "gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay or straw," but we call them "denominations."  There might be many houses, but The Foundation has always been Jesus Christ and Him slain and raised for our salvation.  Many dismiss the Spiritual things of the Church, settling instead on the works of the flesh.  Many churches believe that the Spiritual things have passed away.

     When the house has been constructed by man and the carnality of man, the mortar which holds the stones in place, will crumble and the house will fall.  Today, the Super-natural blueprint has been changed, in order to fit what we think the house is supposed to look like.  We believe that miracles and healings still happen, but we believe that they don't happen very often.  God's will has become so arbitrary to most, so we believe that "You never know what God will do."  We hope that we're now made righteous in Christ, instead of believing it's Truth.

     We've forgotten what having our prayers answered means, because it happens so rarely.  If we truly believed that prayer works and that God answers prayers, then every church's parking lot would be overflowing, because so many would come expectantly believing God would do what He said.  There would be 24 hours/7 days a week, prayer meetings and intercessory prayers would never stop.  We've been building houses of cards, instead of houses of prayer.  Many churches have replaced the Gifts of the Spirit and God's Word, with entertainment and tradition.  Jesus admonished in Matthew 6:33 (Amp), "But seek (aim at and strive after) FIRST OF ALL His Kingdom and His Righteousness (His way of doing and being right), and then all these things (material things of this life) taken together will be given you besides."

     We believe that God will do things for us in Heaven, but not here on earth.  I don't know how real God is to you, but we don't have to wait to be in His Presence in Heaven, because His Presence has come into us here on earth.  Everything God has Promised, is now ours through the new creation birth.  We've tried doing things our way, instead of God's way of doing and being right.  I'm not saying that good works are vain, but doing good works isn't how we get God to move in our lives.  We do good works because He moves in our lives.  We do good works, through Him.

     Jesus is the Foundation on Whom we build our house and He never changes.  He has never changed from the Truth of being God's Word.  Jesus is God's Word and God's way of doing and being right is still His Word.  Paul advised Timothy to, "Rightly divide the Word."  The diving place is the cross and the new creation.  It's no longer by works, but is by God's Grace and faith in Grace.

     God's Church has an identity crisis, because we haven't discerned what God has done and the Truth of our new creation identity through Jesus, by the Spirit.  2Corinthians 5:16-17 (Amp) 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. Therefore, if any person is ingrafted in Christ (the Messiah), he is a new creation (a new creature altogether); the old previous moral and Spiritual condition has passed away. Behold, the fresh and new has come."

     Our old man/woman of the flesh, with it's dead spirit, has become new creations.  The old person hasn't been revamped, but is Spirit born, Spirit filled, Spirit lived, and have become brand new species, that have never existed in the universe.  We don't have a past, in the Father's eyes.  We have His Love, His Life and His Grace for eternity.  God doesn't see any fault in us and He doesn't see failure, when looking at us.  Colossi ans 1:22-23 (Amp) says, "Yet now has Christ (the Messiah), reconciled you to God in the Body of His flesh through death; in order to present you holy and faultless and irreproachable to His, the Father's Presence. And this will He do providing that you continue to stay with and in the faith in Christ, well grounded and settled and steadfast, not shifting away from the hope which rests on and  is inspired by the Glad Tidings (the Gospel), which you heard and which has been preached, as being designed for and offered without restrictions to every person under Heave and of which, I, Paul, have become a minister."

     Ephesians 3:11-12 (Amp) says, "This is in accordance with the terms of Eternal and timeless purpose which He has realized and carried into effect in the Person of Jesus Christ our Lord In Whom, because of our faith in Him, we dare to have boldness, courage, and confidence of free access, an unreserved approach to God with freedom and without fear."  God's Grace has given us this freedom, but that Grace is brought unto us, by faith.  We must believe what Jesus has already done, in order to enjoy this Grace.

     Jesus is the Door to the Father.  We must place faith in Him, to enter through that Door.  We can't enter by works or Law.  This is Grace by faith.  Romans 4:16 (Amp) 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."  The faith that unlocks Grace isn't faith in ourselves and our works, but is faith in what Jesus has already done for us.