Lesson 63 THE YEAR OF UNDERSTANDING - Original Intent

     Genesis 1:26-27 (Amplified) says, "God said, Let Us (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit), make mankind in Our Image (after Our Likeness), and let them have complete authority over the fish of the sea, birds of the air, the (tame) beasts, and over everything that creeps upon the earth. So God created man in His Own Image, in the Image and Likeness of God He created him; male and female He created them."
     Mankind was created to be in God's class of being and was created to share, fellowship and receive the things Love created.  Hebrews 11:3 (Amplified) says, "By faith we understand the worlds were formed by the Word of God."  We can only understand this, by faith.  Our faith in God and His ability, is the only way to understand the marvelous act of creation.  When one removes God from creation, then there's no understanding it.  The God Factor is the only thing that can bring sense, purpose and order to our own existence and all of creation.
     Without God, we're left with the same questions about creation, that the world has asked for millennia.  We ask, "Who are we?"  "Where did we come from?"  "Are there other people out there?"  "What happens to us, when we die?"  Without faith in God, there are no sensible answers to these questions.  Faith puts us in a place that sense knowledge cannot understand.  It's by faith in God that we understand and receive salvation and we should use this same faith in God, to receive everything else from His Word.  If we don't have faith in God, then salvation is just a religious meas of trying to force the body to do only what it should, but without the Spirit of God and His Word giving Life back into our spirit.  The Same God Who formed the heavens and earth, is the Same God Who created us from the beginning.
     We were created a spirit being and then God formed a body for our spirit to live in, on this earth.  Most of us weren't aware of the reality that we're a spirit being, until we were born-again.  Some believe that we become a spirit, after we die and go to Heaven.  We can only understand this by faith, so we continue struggling with our body.  We were born-again by faith, but we've not applied faith to our spirit man/woman, teaching it how it's to function and live in, while we're still in this body.
     The principle is the same for everything in this new creation: BY FAITH WE UNDERSTAND.  Faith comes by hearing God's Word and the only understanding we have to put faith in, is His Word.  If we don't put God's Word in our hearts, then we won't have faith to bring the Seed of it to pass.  We know about the remission of sin, but we continue struggling to understand it and we still live under the guilt and condemnation of who we once were, instead of who He has made us to be now.  It's by faith in God that we understand we are Righteous in Jesus Christ.  Only He can make us Righteous and reinstate us back into God's Original Intent.  It's only by faith, that this can become a liberty where we can confidently walk in His Presence.  This is still just as True as when the universe was formed and held in place by God's Word, even if you don't have faith and understanding of it.  Our lack of faith and understanding doesn't negate the Truth of God's Word, but we ensure that we continue walking in the bondage of the old man/woman.
     God created man in His Image and Likeness and God is a Spirit.  John 4:14 (Amplified) says, "God is a Spirit (a Spiritual Being) and those who worship Him must worship Him in Spirit and Truth (reality)."  We don't always do this, but walk in the soulish realm of emotions.  Do we only worship Him in Spirit and Truth, for a short duration of church service on Sundays?  Through Jesus, we've been returned to God's Original Intent for His family and we have the right to come into the fullness of His Presence, just like Jesus did in His earthly ministry.  We can only understand this, by faith.
     By faith, we understand that our Righteousness is framed and held into place by God's Word, just like His Word formed the heavens and earth and keeps them in place.  It's not a matter of our "trying to become Righteous," but it's our receiving, by faith, the Truth of God's Word that says we are Righteous.  If we would accept this Truth, then the burden of religion would become the liberty of reality, in our walk with God and it would make us free.  We've been made free, by the Lordship of Jesus.  If we don't have the faith to understand this, then we'll continue trying to become Righteous by our own works.
     Jesus didn't have a sense of being unrighteous, nor did He live under condemnation, during His earthly walk.  Those of us who've been born-again and made brethren, in His Own Image, shouldn't live under guilt and condemnation.  "It's by Him, that we are made to be the Righteousness of God in Christ Jesus," according to 2Corinthians 5:21.  We should walk free from our past and in this new creation person, like Jesus did.
     The Holy Spirit is speaking to each of us, saying in 1Corinthians 1:30 (Amplified), "But it is from Him that you have your Life in Christ Jesus, Whom God made our Wisdom from God (revealed to us a knowledge of the Divine Plan of salvation previously hidden), manifesting itself as our Righteousness, thus making us upright and putting us in right standing with God, and our Consecration, making us pure and holy, and our Redemption, providing our Ransom from Eternal penalty for sin."
     This is something that has already been done for us in Jesus and it's by faith that we understand it.  Without faith, we'll still walk in the memory of the old man/woman and who we used to be, instead of who we've become in Christ.  Jesus has restored us to God's Original Intent, where we have no condemnation, guilt or fear of entering the Father's Presence.  Man only became fearful, after Adam's fall in the Garden.  We've been created new from all sin, guilt and condemnation of our past, because our old man/woman was crucified with Christ and we were raised in His Image and Likeness once again, as new creations.  We can only understand this, by faith.
     We read what God's Word says about this and want to believe.  We keep trying to become what Jesus though God, has already made us to be...a new creation.  The first creation was made in God's Image and Likeness, and this new creation never existed in the world.  The struggle to become something that He has already  made us to be, will end once understanding comes by faith in this Truth.  Our walk with God will be like Jesus taught, "You shall know the Truth and the Truth will make you free."  If we abide in Him and His Word abides in us, then the liberty will become a reality in hearts.  It's already Truth, but it's hidden from us by the enemy's deception, if we don't have understanding.
     We've become what the Father's heart wished for from the beginning.  We're His sons and daughters, living as family in God's house.  We're heirs of God and joint heirs with Jesus.  God's Grace has already provided it and our faith in Him, must simply accept what He has done for us.  Ephesians 2:8 (Amplified) is written for us to understand.  Thus, it says, "For it is by free Grace (God's unmerited favor), that you are saved, delivered from judgment and MADE PARTAKERS OF CHRIST'S SALVATION, THROUGH YOUR FAITH. And this salvation is not of yourselves (of your own doing), it came not through your own striving, but is THE GIFT OF GOD."  It's by faith, we understand.

Lesson 62 THE YEAR OF UNDERSTANDING - Original Intent

     Genesis 1:26-27,28 (Amplified) says, "God said, Let Us (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit), make mankind in Our Image (after Our Likeness), and let them have complete authority over the fish of the sea, the birds of the air, the (tame) beasts, and over all of the earth, and over everything that creeps upon the earth. So God created man in His Own Image, in the Image and Likeness of God He created him; male and female He created them."
     We read about God's Original Intent for His family, in Verse 28, which says, "And God Blessed them and said to them; Be fruitful, multiply and fill the earth, and subdue it, using its vast resources in the service of God and man, and have dominion over the fish of the sea, the birds of the air, and over every living creature that moves upon the earth."  God's Original Intent was for His family to be in total authority over everything He had made and provided for them.  Mankind was to have complete authority and dominion, over all that God had made for them.
     God's creation wasn't for Him, but was for the enjoyment of His family.  As their Father, God enjoyed watching His family prosper and enjoy their inheritance.  At this time, there was no sin, no death, no Curse, and no enemy to oppose God's family or their home.  Man grew, flourished and enjoyed what the Father had Planned for them.  God rejoiced as His family grew and walked with Him, in His abundance.
     Few, other than Jesus and the Apostle Paul, have ever acknowledge the fullness of what the Father has done, through Jesus.  Paul received the Revelation, directly from Jesus, and expressed the Revelation to the people.  The enemy had hidden the Revelation from the people, so Jesus could only reveal it in Parables and "hidden Truths," during His earthly ministry.  God's Plan has never changed, but the Revelation of it remains hidden in the shadows, for most of us today.
     Hebrews 11:3 (Amplified) states this fact, "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."  "By faith we understand," speaks not only of the heavens and earth, but also about everything else that God has made, from things we don't see with our natural eyes.
     By faith we understand our Righteousness before God, which is made by things we don't see, from the death and Resurrection of Jesus.  We didn't see it and cannot see it still, but by faith we believe it and accept it, like we by faith understand that God created the universe by His Word.  Today, many believers still struggle and ask, "Where did we come from?"  They can see the heavens and the earth, bu without faith, they have no understanding of them. 
     This Truth is prevalent throughout the Word of God, but it's only by faith that we understand.  Proverbs 4:7 tells us about Wisdom and understanding, instructing us to "Seek skillful and Godly Wisdom."  Proverbs 8:1-3 (Amplified) tells us that, "Wisdom is present, to whosoever will accept it," saying, "Does not skillful and Godly Wisdom cry out, and understanding raise her voice, in contrast to the loose woman? On the top of the heights (beside the way), where the paths meet, stands Wisdom, skillful and Godly. At the gates (at the entrance of the towns), at the coming in at the doors, she cries out."
     If skillful and Godly Wisdom is to easy to find and is everywhere we go, then why do we know so little about who we are and why we're here?  Hebrews 11:3 tells us that, "By faith we understand."  If we don't apply faith to what God has already done through Jesus, then we won't "hear Wisdom" revealing the Father's heart to us.  Paul prayed for all of us, saying in Colossians 1:9 (Amplified), "Not that they might have Wisdom, but that they might, by faith, have understanding of what Wisdom has already provided for us. For this reason, we also, from the day we heard it, have not ceased to pray and make special request for you, asking that you may be filled with the full (deep and clear), knowledge of His will in all Spiritual Wisdom (in comprehensive insight into the ways and purposes of God), and in understanding and discernment of Spiritual things."  It's by faith, that we understand.
     Paul was writing to born-again people, who loved God and loved the brethren out of His Love.  Paul didn't say that they "lacked Love" or weren't givers.  He said they lacked understanding in the ways, purposes and will of God, for their lives.  Paul didn't pray for God to give them anything they didn't already have.  He prayed for them to have understanding, by faith.
     We know that, "Faith comes by hearing."  If we don't hear, then we don't have faith and if we don't have faith in a certain thing, then it's because we have no understanding.  Some churches preach about the Baptism of the Holy Spirit and the speaking of tongues.  Others teach that, ""tongues have ceased and the Baptism of the Spirit is only available to some."  When we're taught the Truth of God's Word, faith comes and as faith comes, so does understanding about God's Word, which tells us that "tongues is available to all who believe."  It's never been for only some and not others, but is available to those who have understanding enough to apply faith and receive this Gift.
     The only way to know that God created the heavens and the earth, is by faith.  When we apply faith to the Truth of God's creation, then understanding will enter our hearts and the controversy about creation, will be forever settled in our hearts.  This same principle is true in every aspect of God's Word.  Without hearing the Word, we won't have faith.  Without faith, we won't have understanding and without understanding, there won't be manifestation in our lives.
     Paul puts forth a similar prayer for the Body of believers in Ephesus, that he prayed for those in Colossus.  These too, were born-again people who loved God and ministered to Paul and his companions.  Paul didn't tell them that they were lacking anything, but he said they "didn't understand what they already had," in Ephesians 1:17-18.  Paul writes in Colossians 1:17-18 (Amplified), "For I always pray to the God of our Lord Jesus Christ (the Messiah), the Father of Glory, that He may grant you a Spirit of Wisdom and Revelation, of insight into mysteries and secrets in the deep and intimate knowledge of Him By having the eyes of your heart flooded with Light, so that you can know and understand the hope to which He has called you, and how rich is His Glorious inheritance in the saints (His set apart ones)."
     Paul said that these believers only lacked understanding, about what they had already been granted, as inheritors in Christ Jesus.  They failed to receive and accept by faith, the things that had already been granted to them, because they had no understanding.  It's only by faith that we understand.  We keep trying to understand and then have faith, but God's Word says that, "We have faith and then we understand."  God's Promises and inheritance come on a Spiritual level and must be received in our spirit, before we "see" the results in our lives.  We only have faith in what we hear about God.  If we don't hear God's Word, then we won't have faith to accept it and we will never understand it. 
     Years ago, my friend, Hugh Smith, taught a message called, "Hoe your own row."  Everything in a garden is planted in rows and every row must be hoed, in order to keep the soil loose and the weeds out.  We had a big garden growing up and my father assigned each of my siblings and myself, certain rows to keep.  It wasn't any of my business, when my brother didn't hoe his rows.  My dad held me accountable for the rows he had assigned.
     It makes no difference, if others don't believe what you believe.  You need to hoe your own row.  Don't miss out on what the Father has done, just because your circle of believers don't believe it.  By faith you can understand.  Put your faith in what the Father said, instead of what others might say.  We're all part of the Body of Christ, but Jesus doesn't speak only to crowds.  He speaks to individuals.  Put faith in what Jesus has said and then understanding will come, along with the fulfillment of what Jesus has said.  We struggle with Grace, because we haven't applied faith to understand it.  If we seek God, then His Grace and understanding of it will come, along with the freedom that Grace was meant for.  Jesus has already provided everything by Grace.  We only need to accept it by faith.  Understanding will then come.
     The only way we can come to any sort of understanding of God's Great Love and the Grace of our relationship with Him, is by faith.  There's no real understanding with the natural man and man's sense knowledge.  We can only see into the True heart of God, by the Spiritual force of faith.  Religion tries understanding it by establishing rules and habitual rituals.  Those who are taught this, are trying to qualify for what Grace has already theirs, like the people Paul wrote to.  When we have faith in God's Grace, then understanding will come.  Remember, it's by faith, we understand.
       

Lesson 61 THE YEAR OF UNDERSTANDING - Original Intent

     Genesis 1:26-27 (Amplified) tells us, "God said, Let Us (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit), make mankind in Our Image (after Our Likeness), and let them have complete authority over the fish of the sea, the birds of the air, the (tame) beasts, and over all the earth and over everything that creeps upon the earth. So God created mankind in His Own Image, in the Image and Likeness of God He created him; male and female He created them."

     God's Original Intent of making mankind in His Own Image and Likeness, has never changed.  We sometimes forget that Jesus was born in the flesh on this earth and that He operated as a Man, Who was without sin.  We see Jesus as being without sin and as the Messiah, while He walked on this planet.  We must also see that through His death and Resurrection, Jesus made those who believe in Him, to be without sin in God's eyes and in Righteousness through Him.

     Jesus functioned as the Last Adam, according to 1Corinthians 15:45 (Amplified), which says, "Thus it is written, The first man Adam became a living being (an individual personality); the Last Adam (Christ) became a Life-giving Spirit, restoring the dead to life."  Jesus was born without sin, by the Seed of God, the Word.  We've been born-again without sin, according to the Same Seed.  We mostly see ourselves as "sinners saved by Grace," instead of new creations, born of Righteousness.  Jesus walked in the same mandate the First Adam was given.  Now, through Jesus, we have received "all authority over the things in the earth, as well as the demonic powers and principalities that ruled in the heavenlies," according to Ephesians 1:18-21 (Amplified) which says, "By having the eyes of your heart flooded with Light, So that you can know and understand the hope to which He called you, and how rich is His Glorious inheritance in the saints (His set apart ones). And SO YOU CAN KNOW AND UNDERSTAND, what is the immeasurable and unlimited and surpassing greatness of His Power in and for us who believe, as demonstrated in the working of His Mighty strength which Hes exerted in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him and His Own right hand in the Heavenly places Far above all rule and authority and power and dominion and every name that is named, above every title that can be conferred, not only in this age and in this world, but also in the age and the world which are to come."

     The above statement Paul made to the Church, is awesome.  He's saying that we've been called back to the Original Intention God had for His family.  And, through Jesus, we're in a higher place than that.  We've failed to have "the eyes of our heart (spirit) to be flooded with Light, so that we can know and understand the hope to which He called us."  This hope is what brings about our faith to believe in His Promises to us, in Jesus.  Hebrews 11:1 (Amplified) tells us, "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."

     Having faith perceiving as real fact, what is not revealed to our senses, is what Paul wrote about in Ephesians 1:18 (Amplified), saying, "By having the eyes of our heart (or spirit) flooded with Light, so we can KNOW AND UNDERSTAND the hope to which He called us."  This kind of Light, doesn't come through our senses, but only into our spirits, by faith and Revelation from God's Word.  "Faith is the substance of things hoped for," but if we don't have hope in this opening the eyes of our spirit, then we have no place for faith to bring it to pass in our lives.  We continue living as just forgiven sinners, instead of as God's called-out ones in Jesus Christ.  We continue living under the domination and bondage of the enemy, below the place where God has brought us into, through Jesus.

     What good would it do, if Jesus bore the Curse of the Law on our behalf, if it was only for when we die and go to Heaven?  There is no Curse in Heaven, which we need to redeemed and delivered from.  Jesus bore the Curse, so that God's family would once again have complete authority over the earth and over everything that creeps upon it, including the Curse.  The senses have caused God's Church to walk in the carnality of our minds, instead of in "The eyes of our understanding enlightened by the Revelation of Truth."  This isn't arrogance, but is confidence in our Savior, Jesus Christ and His Finished Works.  

     Proverbs 4:7 (Amplified) says, "The beginning of Wisdom is, get Wisdom; skillful and Godly Wisdom! For skillful and Godly Wisdom is the principal things and with all you have gotten, get understanding (discernment, comprehension, and interpretation)."  God is Wisdom.  He can draw a blueprint, but if we don't have understanding, then we'll be unable to read those blueprints.  If we're unable to read the blueprint, then we can't build the building He has laid out for our lives.  It does no good to have a blueprint, if we can't read and understand that blueprint.

     If  "the eyes of our spirit don't receive the Light and understanding, then we won't see the Hope, to which He has called us," according to Ephesians 1:18."  Jesus said in John 16:15 (Amplified), "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, and transmit) it to you."  The only way to see God's Plan and His blueprint for us, is our having "The eyes of our understanding, flooded with Light, through the Holy Spirit."  God's Plan or blueprint is for our lives here on earth, now.  The blueprint is completed already, in Heaven.

     God's Original Intent and Plan for a family, was in His heart from the first and has never changed or been replaced with another blueprint.  The blueprint is complete in Him.  The world we live in, was not nor is, the world which the Father Planned for us.  We read about God's Plan, where we could share and live, in Revelations 21:4-5 (Amplified), which says, "God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; and death shall be no more, neither shall there be any anguish, sorrow, and mourning, nor grief, nor pain anymore, for the old conditions and former order of things have passed away. And He Who is seated on the throne said, See! I make all things new. Also He said, Record this, for these sayings are faithful, accurate, incorruptible, and trustworthy, and True (genuine)."  The blueprint for the Father's House and His family, is complete in Jesus.

     We're to live and have dominion over the earth and everything on it, now.  We must enter into our authority and dominion mandate, while we're here on earth, so we can  dwell in the House of the Lord forever..  Through Jesus, we'll still be able to live in this earth God created for us, and share the entire universe too.  Family was in God's heart and on His mind, when He began creation.  God's Original Intention for His family, has never changed and will never change.    

Lesson 60 THE YEAR OF UNDERSTANDING - Original Intent

     Genesis 1:26-27 (Amplified) says, "God said, Let Us (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit), make mankind in Our Image (after Our Likeness), and let them have complete authority over the fish of the sea, the birds of the air, the (tame) beasts, and over all the earth, and over everything that creeps upon the earth. So God created man in His Own Image, in the Image and Likeness of God He created him; male and female He created them."
     God, Who is Love, created man, in order to have someone to share His Love, His Wisdom and His creativity with.  Adam didn't have fear, doubt, or any sense that God would fail, in what He created Adam to be.  Adam put no thought to God's being unable to fulfill His Promises and Blessing for him.  God was Adam and Eve's Father and showed them everything He had created for them.  They fellow-shipped with and were taught by the Father.
     Adam had no idea about the provision the animals on earth were given.  Adam grew in knowledge and understanding, as the Father taught him about authority and dominion he'd been given.  Adam began to become more like his Father, as the Father showed him around the earth and the Garden He had prepared for him to live in.  The Father raised Adam up in Wisdom, about his ruling authority.  Genesis 2:19 (Amplified) says, "And out of the ground the Lord God formed every living creature of the field and every bird of the air and brought them to Adam to see what he would call them; and whatever Adam called every living creature, that was its name."
     The Father enjoyed and introduced His newborn son and family to the newness and beauty of creation.  Just like we enjoy teaching our children to color, draw, and read, the Father delighted in His son and His son's quest to learn.  Adam and Eve's capabilities were unlimited and were capable of knowing all the Father had to teach them, because they were created in God's Image and Likeness.
     There was only one rule for Adam and Eve to follow, in the vastness of God's creation and that was not eating from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and evil.  Adam knew the good that God showed him and had nothing to gain from knowing the evil.  God need His son to trust in what He told him.  Many don't believe that we have free will and that everything that happens is, "God's will for them."  If Adam didn't have his own free will, then God wouldn't have forbidden him to eat of the Tree of Knowledge.  Adam was allowed to choose for himself, whether to eat of the Tree.
     If Adam trusted his Father's advice and His Word, then he would never have partaken from the Tree.  The first thing satan did, was to make Adam doubt the Father's Love and His Word.  Adam's faith or trust, became doubt and death.  This is the very thing that satan continues to do, even today.  He makes us doubt God's Word and His Love.  The more the enemy can teach us to doubt, the more liberty had gains over God's family.
     The enemy is "more subtle than any other beasts of the field" and began teaching mankind to doubt God's Love and His Word.  We've been taught that, "You can never know what God might do," or "It may not be God's will."  We've been taught that "God allows things to come upon us, in order to teach us something," leaving us to doubt and mistrust God.  The only "rights" the enemy has over us, are those we give him by our lack of trust and understanding of who we really are in Christ Jesus.
     Jesus has restored and redeemed everything that Adam lost in the Garden, by His Sacrifice.  The only thing satan has left to use against us, is the same deception he used against Adam and Eve.  Satan's method of deception has worked for millennia, so why would he stop doing it?  After all, the old saying goes, "If it ain't broke, then don't fix it."  Satan continues using this deception against us, today, just like he did with Adam.  Satan asked Adam and Eve, "Yea! did God say."  In other words, he asked them, "Are you sure what God said is True?"
     The only defense the enemy now possesses is deception, and he's the master of deception.  Throughout the years, he has trained our senses to doubt God's Promises.  The one Promise we trust is that we will go to Heaven after we die.  We mostly distrust and doubt God's other Promises.  We've placed more trust in what others say, than we do in God's Word.  Our faith is based on the testimonies of what others did or didn't receive.
     Your faith in God, is the only thing that can either make or break God's Promises to you.  It's so important that we develop our faith in Him and not in someone else.  If prayer didn't work for another believer, then that doesn't mean it won't work for you.  You can't be sure what that person was believing or not believing.  The only thing we can be sure of, is believing in God's Word.  We know some in the Church who speak in tongues, while others do not.  They didn't believe in the Gift of Tongues, but that doesn't mean that we didn't receive the Promise of that Gift. 
     We can't base our walk with the Father on someone else's faith.  We must base our walk with Him, on our own faith.  Numbers 13 tells us about two million people who trusted in the faith of others and they died in the Wilderness, because they didn't believe God's Promise for them to enter the Promised Land.  Could those who listened to the words of unbelief, have entered into the Land with Joshua and Caleb?  Of course they could, but they chose not to believe and put their faith in what God said.  His Word was for all of Israel, not just for Joshua and Caleb.
     Today, we're bombarded with many different teachings, from many different sources.  It's up to every individual to know God's Word and to know and walk with the Lord, for him/herself.  These teachings derive from saved people, but they have been deceived.  They teach and preach from the things they learned from the carnal minds of men and not from God.  If the teachers have been deceived, then they're probably teaching from that deception and those they're teaching too, will probably not have a successful walk with God.
     We must never take what is being said, without going to God's Word and listening to His Holy Spirit.  When a seed is sown in your heart, then it's not easily removed.  Jesus gave "The Parable of the Sower," in Mark 4.  He said that, "The enemy comes immediately to take away the seed that was sown in their heart."  The enemy does this using many different methods, but his purpose is always to steal God's Word from their hearts.  Jesus said, "If you abide in Me and My Word abides in you, you will know the Truth and the Truth will make you free."  Satan doesn't want us to be set free from his grasp, so he tries making sure God's Word doesn't abide in us.  Satan can't keep us from abiding in Jesus, but he can prevent God's Word from abiding in us, by force if need be.
     It's not a matter of doing, so much as it is believing.  Jesus has already done what was needed to be done.  We're only required to believing what He has already done.  This requires us to spend time in God's Word, His Presence and listening to His Voice.  It seems like everyone can read the same Word, but end up with many different concepts of what it said.  God didn't speak in many concepts, but with one and only one Truth.  The heavens and earth aren't governed by many concepts, but by the Truth and God's Word.  God's Truth never changes, despite what we think or don't think about it.
     What we believe in our heart, will produce what God says about us; not what others think and believe.  We're all God's children and He has given us all the same Promises.  All who are born-again in Christ Jesus, will share the same destination when we die and leave this earth, but we don't all share the same concepts about Truth.  We probably all agree that God's Word is Truth, but we don't all believe that it's for us while we're here on earth.  What God does for one, He will and wishes to do, for all.  Receiving is up to every individual, but it's already ours in Christ Jesus.  If a Christian gets sick, then that doesn't mean that "healing has passed away," but that the Truth has been clouded from them, by the deceiver.  I know people who are sick, but that doesn't mean that Jesus doesn't heal any longer.  We don't believe that salvation doesn't work any longer, simply because there are unsaved people around us.  It all comes by our faith in the Finished Works of Jesus, our Savior and Lord.

Lesson 59 THE YEAR OF UNDERSTANDING - Original Intent

     Genesis 1:26-27 (Amplified) tells us, "God said, Let Us (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit), make mankind in Our Image (after Our Likeness), and let them have complete authority over the fish of the sea, the birds of the air, the (tame) beasts, and over all the earth, and over everything that creeps upon the earth. So God created man in His Own Image, in the Image and Likeness of God He created him; male and female He created them."
     God's creating mankind in His Own Image, was an act of the Love that is not only IN GOD, but is the Essence and Person of God Himself.  God is Love, but without someone to share and express this Love, Love couldn't be what it is.  Love must have someone to express itself to, in order to complete what Love is to be.  In order to be complete in Himself, God Who is Love, must have someone to show Himself to, in all of His intense desire to lavish this nature, character and Person upon.
     Everything that the Father created before He created family, was His Love furnishing all that His family would ever need.  The only understanding Adam had of His Father, was the Love in which his Father loved him.  There was no sense of need, fear, separation or loneliness in Adam and Eve, because Love met every need mankind would have, before making mankind in the beginning.  David wrote about what God created mankind to be, in Psalm 8:4-6 (Amplified), saying, "What is man that You are mindful of him? and the son of earth born man that You care for him? Yet you have made him but a little lower than God (or Heavenly beings), and You have crowned him with Glory and honor. You made him to have dominion over the works of Your hands; You have put all things under his feet."
     Just prior to His crucifixion, Jesus prayed and communed with His Father, saying in John 17:22 (Amplified), "I have given to them the Glory and honor which You have given Me, that they (earth born man) may be one even as We are One."  This is the same Glory and honor that man lost in the Garden.  Jesus returned it back in the new creation man/woman.  This is and always was, God's Original Intention for His family, from the beginning.  Through Jesus, mankind (God's Own family) is in a place of Glory and honor and has dominion over all the works of God's hands.
     1John 3:8 (Amplified) says, "But he who commits sin (who practices evil doing) is of the devil (takes his character from the evil one) for the devil has sinned (violated the Divine Law) from the beginning. The reason the Son of God was made manifest (visible), was to undo (destroy, loosen and dissolve) the works the devil has done."  There's a difference between those who sin or miss it while growing up in Love and those who practice evil doing, as a lifestyle.
      The only way to know God, is to begin understanding the longing and desire of His heart of Love, He has for us.  1John 4:9-10 (Amplified) says, "In this the Love of God was made manifest (displayed), where we are concerned, in that God sent His Son (the Only Begotten or Unique Son), into this world so that we might live through Him. In this is Love; not that we loved God, but that He Loved us and sent His Son to be the Propitiation (the Atoning Sacrifice) for our sins."
     This Great Love had to be shared, in order to even satisfy Itself in the Father.  Ephesians 2:4 (Amplified) says, "But God-so rich is He in His mercy! Because of and in order to, satisfy the great and wonderful and intense Love with which He Loved us. Even when we were dead (slain) by our own shortcomings and trespasses, He made us alive together in fellowship and in union with Christ; He gave us the Very Life of Christ Himself, the same new Life with which He quickened Him, for it is by Grace (His favor and mercy) which you did not deserve that you are saved, delivered from judgment and made partakers of Christ's salvation."
     The same Love Who created and brought mankind into creation at the beginning, is the same Love that gave us the Life we have in Christ Jesus and was done for the same purpose, which was to be able to share His Great Love with us.  We were separated from Him in Adam, but His Love never ceased to make us one with Him again, just like He'd Planned from the beginning.  Love never fails.
     Many refer to 1Corinthians 13 as , "The Love Chapter," because it shows us all the things that Love does and is.  We see different facets of Love being displayed through different people and Gifts.  Paul says though, that "If I move in these Gifts and don't have God's Love in me, I am nothing."  Did you know that Love can work through people who doesn't understand how much God Loves them?  God will still meet the needs of others, even though the person He is using, doesn't understand how much He Loves them.
     We must understand this Love, Who is God, in order to understand God.  The understanding we have of love, is far below God's Love and leaves us to believe that, "God is sending these bad things, in order to teach me something or to test me."  It's like we believe that God has more assurance in troubles and trials teaching us, instead of His Word, His Holy Spirit and His Love.  We believe that God teaches us, using things that Jesus came in Love, to deliver us from.  The very same trials that bring forth sickness and the other things we associate with God, are the same things satan has used to destroy us.
     God's people must be able to distinguish between the earth and the world.  We find the initial reference to the world, in Genesis 6:12 (Amplified), which says, "And God looked upon the world and saw how degenerate, debased and vicious it was, for all of humanity had corrupted their ways upon the earth and lost their true direction."  The world here, is what satan built after Adam's fall.  Through the Holy Spirit's leading, Paul calls satan, "the god of this world," in 2Corinthians 4:4 (Amplified) saying, "For the god of this world has blinded the unbeliever's minds that they should not discern the Truth, preventing them from seeing the Illuminating Light of the Gospel of Glory of Christ (the Messiah), Who is the Image and Likeness of God."
     God created the heavens and the earth, but He never created the world.  The world is the inventions of the warped mind of satan and the sin that made him, "the god of this world."  We read about Jesus'temptation in the wilderness in Luke 4:5-6 (Amplified), which says, "The the devil took Him up to the high mountain and showed Him all the kingdoms of the inhabitable world in a moment of time (in the twinkling of an eye). And he said unto Him, To You I will give all this power and authority and all their glory (all their magnificence, excellence, preeminence, dignity and Grace), for it has been turned over to me, and I give it to whomever I will."  God had given Adam this authority and dominion, and Adam turned it over to satan.  The world or the world system is what satan built upon the earth, with all of his ungodly demands and bondage. 
     The world system continues functioning in today's society, much like it did in Genesis 6:12.  Paul admonishes in Romans 12:2 (Amplified), "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."
     Before being saved, we only knew the world, so we have the attitude that, "This is just how things are."  It might be how things are, but it's not the way they were created to be.  Jesus has returned us back to God's Original Intent, before Adam's fall.  We must come before God and His Word, in order to function like we were created to be from the start.  Jesus speaks to His followers in Matthew 6:33 (Amplified) saying, "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."
     God's ways of doing and being right, has not changed since the beginning, but we have.  We've tried to become righteous, instead of accepting His Righteousness.  We've built on the world's way of doing and being right, instead of God's way of doing and being right.  Every denomination seems to have its own rules and ideas about what is of God and what is not of God.  We mostly know what our denomination has taught us.  Many believe that the Super-natural things of God have passed away, because we've adapted to this present age and conformed to the world, without even knowing we did so. 

Lesson 58 THE YEAR OF UNDERSTANDING - Original Intent

     Genesis 1:26-27 (Amplified) says, "God said, Let Us (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) make mankind in Our Image (after Our Likeness), and let them have complete authority over the fish of the sea, the birds of the air, the (tame) beasts, and over all the earth, and over everything that creeps upon the earth. So God created man in His Own Image, in the Image and Likeness of God He created him; male and female He created them."
     Genesis 1:1,10 (Amplified) says, "In the beginning God prepared (formed, fashioned and created) the heavens and the earth."  This isn't the beginning of God, but the beginning of God's heart and dream of having a family.  John tells us that God is Love and is forever, in 1John 4:8 (Amplified), saying, "He who does not love has not become acquainted with God (does not and never did know Him), for God is Love."  Verse 10 says, "In this is Love, not that we loved God, BUT THAT HE LOVED US and sent His Son to be the Propitiation (the Atoning Sacrifice) for our sins."
     "The beginning" is when God first began to bring the Plan for His family, so He could share His Love and enjoy His family.  God prepared a home where His family could live in His Provision and Presence, for eternity.  Ephesians 2:10 (Amplified) says, "For we are God's Own handiwork (His workmanship) recreated in Christ Jesus, born anew that we may do those Good Works which God predestined (planned beforehand) for us, taking paths which He prepared ahead of time, that we should walk in them, living the good life which He prearranged and made ready for us to live."   From eternity, in the beginning, God dreamt of conceived a family to Love.  It's not "in the beginning God," but is "in the beginning God created a place for His children."
     God's Love brought mankind into being, as His family.  Satan's lie though, stripped God of His family and stopped the fellowship He had with His family.  Because of God's great Love for us, He made Himself a Sacrifice, Who would restore His family to Him.  It was God's heart of Love that He made a family and He refused to continue without His children.  God prepared and planned beforehand, a family to delight in.  God's Plan for His family, didn't include sickness, death, poverty or grief, but was, "The good life which He prearranged and made ready for us to live," according to the above scripture.
     If we don't understand the Love of God, then we don't understand God Himself.  We've missed the Truth of God's heart and His intent to create a family, because we've been taught from the carnal minds of men.  Our Heavenly Father wasn't alone before He created mankind, but there wasn't anyone in His Own Image and Likeness, in which He could fellowship with and lavish His Love on.  There were angels and many heavenly beings who shared the universe with God, but none were family or made in His Own Image and Likeness.  Love without someone to share it with, is incomplete in it's purpose.
     Before God created the heavens, the earth and everything in or on them, God fostered a Plan, where He predestined His family's every need and want.  We've taken this "predestination" in the wrong spirit, because we failed to know Love as He is Love.  We've been taught that everything is "God's will," but nothing could be farther from the Truth.  God's Plan never included the misery and heartache we see today.  Ephesians 2:10 (Amplified) tells us that, "We are God's Own handiwork (His workmanship), recreated in Christ Jesus, born anew, that we may do those good works which God predestined, planned beforehand, (in the beginning) for us, taking paths which. He prepared ahead of time."
     What did God predestine and planned ahead of time, for us?  The scripture continues, saying, "Living the good life which He prearranged and made ready for us to live."  God isn't working on Plan Be, but is still on Plan A.  God has never changed His mind about having a family.  God planned that His family would have unbroken fellowship with Him and who He could lavish His Love on.  Man's ideas and religions, have made our relationship with the Father seem complicated.  The carnal minds of man have taught us not to trust God, because "No one ever knows what God might do."  We've been taught to mistrust God's Word and His Promises, saying that "these things aren't for our earthly lives, but for when we go to Heaven."  Many believers think that the only time God can help us or do anything for us, is after they die and go to Heaven.
     Most of  the Promises of God that we're waiting for, have been rendered useless.  What good are His Promises of healing and deliverance, in Heaven?  There are no sick people who need healing in Heaven and there are no persons who need deliverance there.  It's True that all of God's Promises will be ours, when we get Home, but God predestined and planned them for us to have them here on earth.  Jesus was and is, the Continuation of what God Planned, from the beginning.
     Ephesians 1:4,21 (Amplified) tells us, "Even as in His Love He chose us, actually picked us out for Himself as His Own in Christ before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy, consecrated and set apart for Him, and blameless in His sight, even above reproach before Him in Love."  Paul writes about the world, saying in Verse s 18-21, And I pray that the eyes of your heart (the very center and core of your being) may be enlightened (flooded with Light by the Holy Spirit), so that you will know and cherish the hope (the Divine guarantee, the confident expectation) to which He has called you, the riches of His Glorious inheritance in the saints (God's people), and so that you will begin to know what the immeasurable and unlimited and surpassing greatness of His (active, Spiritual) Power is in us who believe. These are in accordance with the working of His mighty strength which He produced in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His Own right hand in the heavenly places, far above all ruled and authority and power and dominion and every name that is named, above every title that can be conferred, not only in this age and in this world, but also in the age and world which are to come."
     Strong's Accordance #2889 tells us that "the world" in Ephesians 1:4 means, "This world or age, after the fall of Adam and the rule of satan."  "The "world" in Ephesians 1:21, according to #2888 means, "A world ruler, and epithat of satan, ruler."  The "world," according to #165 from Ephesians 1:21 means, "An age, perpetually, also past, by inpl. the world, spec. a Messianic period, present or future, age, eternal, forever, evermore, beginning of the, while, the world began."
     We were chosen before the foundation of the world, but the First Adam gave the authority and dominion God had given him, to satan, "the world or age of the satan ruler and his arrangement."  Jesus has recreated us into God's predestined Plan, before Adam's fall.  This world or Garden was and now is the world we were predestined into, before God ever created us or it. 

Lesson 57 THE YEAR OF UNDERSTANDING - Original Intent

     Genesis 1:26-27 (Amplified) says, "God said, Let Us (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit), make mankind in Our Image (after Our Likeness), and let them have complete authority over the fish of the sea, the birds of the air, the (tame) beasts, and over all the earth, and over everything that creeps upon the earth. So God created man in His Own Image, in the Image and Likeness of God He created him; male and female He created them."
     When God created man, He created family.  He created someone to share His Love with and someone to fellowship with, who was on His level of communion and status.  There were angels and other beings in God's Kingdom, but none were created in His Image and Likeness.  Adam and Eve had no sense of need or want, because their Loving Father had provided their every need.  We're God's new creations now, according to 2Corinthians 5:17 (Amplified), which 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."
     God has provided for His new creation family, just like He did in the beginning.  The Curse that Adam's fall produced, is still here, but through Jesus, God has delivered us from all these things and has restored the authority to His family, through the Name of Jesus.  Matthew 28:18 (Amplified) says, "Jesus approached and breaking the silence, said to them; All authority (all power of rule) in Heaven and earth has been given to Me."  Jesus goes on, in Mark 16:17 (Amplified) saying, "And these attesting signs will accompany those who believe: in My Name they will drive out demons, they will speak in new languages."
     Colossians 2:10 (Amplified) says, "And you are in Him, made full and having come to the fullness of Life, in Christ you too are filled with the Godhead-Father, Son, and Holy Spirit-and reach full stature. And He is the Head of all rule and authority, of every angelic principality and power."  Ephesians 2:10 (Amplified) says, "For we are God's Own Handiwork (His workmanship), recreated in Christ Jesus (born anew), that we may do those good works which God predestined, planned beforehand, for us to take, taking paths which He prepared ahead of time that we should walk in them, living the good Life which He prearranged and made ready for us to live."
     These prearranged paths are the same paths God Planned for His family, in the First Adam and through the Last Adam Jesus, have been made available to us.  The same authority God gave to Adam, has now been restored to us and even greater authority, in Christ Jesus.  Adam had authority over all the earth and everything in it.  In Jesus, we've not only been give authority over the earth and everything in it, but over all the principalities and powers of the enemy too.
     Sickness, death and the Curse came with Adam's sin, but healing, deliverance, redemption, remission of sin, the Blessing, son-ship rights, justification and Righteousness, have been returned upon us, in Christ Jesus.  These are by God's Grace and faith in His Grace, to accept it.  We're no longer required to obtain God's Blessing by the Law, but it's a free Gift of God's Grace and is available now by faith in Jesus' Finished work, on our behalf.
     God has restored His family and made it complete in Jesus.  Romans 10:17 (KJV) tells us, "Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God."  Paul continues saying, "But how will they hear without a preacher?"  Many churches today, have stopped preaching healing and Righteousness, so the people cannot develop faith in most of what Jesus paid and obtained, through His Blood.  We've left it all up to God, saying, "If it be His will."  God's will was Jesus and this is still His will for His family.
     There is nothing we need to obtain by works, but only by Grace in the Finished Word of Jesus on Calvary's cross.  All has been restored, by the One Sacrifice.  for those who by faith, accept Jesus' Sacrifice, 'It is Finished."  We've struggled to know what God's will is for two-thousand year, even though His will was made clear to those who heard and believed.  Do bad things still happen to good people?  Yes, of course they do.  The last thing the enemy wants us to know, is who we really are in Christ Jesus.
     "The Parable of the Sower," in Mark 4, tells us that the Word is the Seed, and the hearts or spirits of the people, is the soil.  Jesus tells us in Verse 14 that, "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."  Satan isn't "after you,"but he's trying to steal the Word you've heard.  Jesus continues in Verse 17, saying, "And they have no real root in themselves, and so they endure for a little while, then when trouble or persecution arises ON ACCOUNT OF THE WORD, they immediately are offended (become displeased, indignant, resentful), and they stumble and fall away."
     When we know God's Word and begin acting upon it, then we become a danger to satan's kingdom.  Can you imagine what satan would do, if every Christian began walking in the authority and Power that Jesus delivered to us?  What sort of miracle services would break out, if all God's family began casting out demons, healing the sick, delivering people from drugs and bondage, and revealing God as a Now God and the Great I Am?  We've been talked out of most of who Jesus made us to be, by man's ideas that are without Revelation.
     The Last Adam has restored us back to the Original Intent God had for His family.  We're in His Image and Likeness once again.  Hebrews 1:1-3 (Amplified) says, "In many separate Revelations (each of which set forth a portion of the Truth), and in different ways, God spoke of old to our forefathers in and by the prophets. But in these Last Days He has spoken to us in the Person of a Son, Whom He appointed Heir and Lawful Owner of all things, also by and through Whom He created the worlds and the reaches of space and the ages of time; He made, produces, built, operated, and arranged them in order. He is the Sole Expression of the Glory of God (the Light Being, the Out-raying or Radiance of the Divine); and He is the Perfect Imprint and Very Image of God's nature, upholding and maintaining and guiding and propelling the universe by His mighty Word of Power. When He had by offering Himself accomplished our cleansing or sins and riddance of guilt, He sat down at the right hand of the Divine Majesty on High."
     It is Finished, NOW! 

Lesson 56 THE YEAR OF UNDERSTANDING - Original Intent

     Genesis 1:26-27 (Amplified) says, "God said, Let Us (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit), make mankind in Our Image (after Our Own Likeness), and let them have complete authority over the fish of the sea, the birds of the air, the (tame) beasts, and over all the earth, and over everything that creeps upon the earth. So God created man in His Own Image, in the Image and Likeness of God He created him; male and female He created them."
     Notice how, in the beginning mankind had complete authority over all the earth and everything in it.  The Father never subjected mankind or the earth and creation, into the enemy's authority, but it was Adam who had the authority to do so.  When Adam and Eve submitted to the lies and temptations of satan, the Blessing became the Curse and Life became death, because the sins cut man off from God's Spirit and His Life.  Jesus said in John 10:10 (Amplified), "The thief comes only in order to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have and enjoy Life, and have it in abundance (to the full, till it overflows)."
     It's been hard for God's children to trust His Word and His Intentions for us, because we've been taught contrary to the Truth, for so long.  Paul writes in Romans 1:17 (Amplified), "For in the Gospel a Righteousness that God ascribes is revealed, both springing from faith and leading to faith (disclosed through the way of faith that arouses to more faith). As it is written, The may who through faith is just and upright shall live and shall live by faith."  Paul writes to the Church in Ephesus, about living by faith, saying in Ephesians 2:12 (Amplified), "Remember that at that time you were separated, living apart from Christ, excluded from all part of Him, utterly estranged and outlawed from the rights of Israel as a nation, and strangers with no share in the Sacred compacts of the Messianic Promise with no knowledge of or right in God's agreements, His covenants and you had no hope (no Promise), you were in this world without God."
     Galatians 3:7 (Amplified) says, "Know and understand that it is really the people who live by faith who are the true sons of Abraham."  Our faith has been limited, because of the things we've heard and have been taught for two thousand years.  Paul writes in Romans 10:17 (KJV), "So faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the Word of God."  In other words, "Faith in God, comes by hearing God's Word.  Faith in any other thing, comes likewise, by hearing it.  People can hear messages about Communism over and over, until they build a Communist nation. 
     The worship of other gods, comes too, by hearing someone teach and preach about those gods.  After hearing about these gods for so long, people develop faith in them, so that nothing can be done to save a nation or the people, other than hearing about the One True God.  Jesus says in Mark 4:24 (Amplified), "Be careful what you are hearing, The measure of thought and study you give (to the truth you hear) will be the measure of (virtue and knowledge) that comes back to you-and more besides will be given to you who hear."  We've allowed things to come into our hearing that have undermine the Truth of God's Word, giving entry to the enemy.  We must be careful of what we hear.
     We've erroneously allowed sickness and calamity into our lives, by hearing that, "It's God's will for these things to come upon you" and "God's using these things to teach you something."  After hearing these things long enough, it's difficult for us to resist them.  We've accepted the same lie that the enemy told Adam and Eve.  Satan asked them, "Did God say?"  We've limited God's ability in our lives, believing it's only for when we die and go to be with Him in Heaven.  It's True that this is our greatest hope, but it's not all that Jesus came to bring to God's people.
     God says in Isaiah 54:14-15,16 -17 (Amplified), "You shall establish yourself in Righteousness (rightness, in conformity with God's will and order): You shall be far from even the thought of oppression or destruction for you shall not fear, and from terror, for it shall not comes near you. Behold, they may gather together and stir up strife, BUT IT IS NOT FROM ME. Whoever stirs up strife against you shall fall and surrender to you."  We need to hear and put faith in the Words our Father says and He says, "It is not from Me."  In Verse 16, God takes complete responsibility for satan, as being the one He created.  But, God declares this to His people in Verse 17, to say, "But no weapon that is formed against you shall prosper, and every tongue that shall rise up against you in judgment you shall show to be in the wrong. This peace, Righteousness, security, triumph over opposition, is the heritage of the servants of the Lord (those in whom the ideal Servant of the Lord is reproduced), this is the Righteousness or vindication which they obtain from Me, This is that which I impart to them as their Justification, says the Lord."
     It's important that you realize where the things coming against you in this world, come from.  The Lord says, "It's not from Me."  Being double-minded about the One in Whom your faith is in, is devastating to the people of faith.  2Corinthians 1:20 (Amplified) says, "For as many as are the Promises of God, they all find their Yes Answer in Him, Christ. For this reasons we also utter the Amen (So be it), to God through Him, in His Person, and by His Agency, to the Glory of God."
     The Promise God gives in Isaiah 54, is "Yes and Amen in Christ Jesus, to the Glory of God," just like the other Promises He made to us, through Jesus.  These Promises are ours here and now, as well as when we go to be with Him in Heaven.  This Promise is only good for us, while we're here on earth, because there won't be any "weapons formed against us, nor will there be oppression, destruction or fear."  These are earthly things, that the enemy comes against us with.  God Promised that He will "keep us, as the heritage of the servants of the Lord."
     The Same Jesus Who bore our sins, in His Own Body on the cross, also bore our sickness, the Curse, our unrighteousness, and everything that stood between us and our Father.  Our Redemption is complete with the exception of a glorified body, which we'll receive when Jesus returns or we die and go to Heaven.  I truly believe that most of us will be here when Jesus returns and we're caught up in the rapture.  We'll return to what the Father Planned for us, before the fall of Adam and we'll truly live with and in God's full Blessing and Presence.

Lesson 55 THE YEAR OF UNDERSTANDING - Original Intent

     Genesis 1:26-27 (Amplified) says, "God said, Let Us (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit), make mankind in Our Image (after Our Likeness), and let them have complete authority over the fish of the sea, the birds of the aid, the (tame) beasts, and over everything that creeps upon the earth. So God created man in His Own Image, in the Image and Likeness of God He created him; male and female He created them."
     We've misunderstood God's heart and His Intention for mankind, when He created mankind in His Own Image.  Many believe that it was God's will for Adam to fall, in the Garden of Eden.  God, though, had prepared everything mankind would ever need, for eternity.  It was never God's Intention or His Plan, for His family to suffer sin, sickness, heartache, sorrow and be separated from Him.  So many believers have attributed all this misery and heartache to God, as being His Plan for mankind.  God has a much better way for us to learn, than using misery and heartache.
     Proverbs 29:18 (Amplified) says, "Where there is no vision (no redemptive Revelation of God), the people perish, but he who keeps the Law of God which includes that of man, Blessed (happy, fortunate and enviable) is he."  The Law of God here, isn't the Law of Moses from the old covenant.  No man could ever keep the whole Law, but our Lord Jesus did.  If you are born-again, then you have kept the whole Law, in Christ Jesus.  Those around Jesus asked Him about His teachings of Grace and Blessing, in Matthew 5:17-18 (Amplified).  Jesus said, "Do not think that I have come to do away with or undo the Law or the prophets; I have come not to do away with or undo, but to complete and fulfill them. For truly I tell you, until the sky and earth pass away and perish, not one smallest letter nor one little hook (identifying certain Hebrew letters), will pass from the Law until all things it foreshadowed are accomplished."
     Everything God has said, is established by the Divine integrity of God Himself.  He can't simply say, "I didn't mean it," and undo His authority.  God sent Jesus to complete the Law and the penalty and Curse of the Law, because no man could ever fulfill the Law and be redeemed from it's Curse.   Those who are in Christ Jesus  have received the Blessing and been redeemed from the Curse.  God sees you as never breaking one part of the Law, in Jesus.  You're qualified to all of the Blessing of the Law, as the Promise to Abraham and his seed.
      We continue seeing our failures, instead of seeing that in Jesus, our slates have been wiped clean and done away with.  Jesus has bought and brought us back to God's Original Intention for His family.  Like the First man was, we are Blessed.  The Curse is still in the earth, because of Adam, but the Last Adam has redeemed us from that Curse and has returned us to the Promise of Abraham.
     We are in Christ Jesus and are the product and descendants of The Seed, Who is Jesus.  The Promise was made to "Abraham and his Seed," Who is Jesus Christ.  Galatians 3:16,29 (Amplified) says, "Now the Promise (covenants, agreements), were decreed and made to Abraham and his Seed (his Offspring, his Heir)."  God didn't make the Promise to Abraham and "his seeds, descendants," as if referring to many persons.  He made the Promise to Abraham and "his Seed, Descendant, his Heir."  He is obviously referring to one individual, Who is none other than Christ, the Messiah.  Verse 29 goes on, "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."
     Paul continues in Galatians 4:5 (Amplified) saying, "To purchase the freedom of (the Ransom), to redeem those who were subject to the Law, that we might be adopted and have son-ship conferred upon us and be recognized as God's sons."  Those who continued in the Law, instead of accepting Jesus as Messiah, were still outside of Grace and were obligated to fulfill the Law on their own.  They were outside of the conferred son-ship rights in Jesus.
     As Gentiles, we were born into son-ship with our acceptance of Jesus, at the new creation family.  We've misunderstood the family agreement Jesus brought us into and have allowed ourselves to be brought back under the Law, like the Hebrew people did.  We've subjected ourselves to fulfilling it on our own.  Paul writes about the Gentile people who were born-again, but have allowed themselves to be brought into the subjection of the Law, in Galatians 5:4 (Amplified).  Thus, he says, "If you seek to be justified and to be given a right standing with God through the Law, you are brought to nothing and so separated (severed) from Christ; You have fallen away from Grace, from God's Gracious favor and unmerited Blessing."
     It's serious for believers to think we can "earn" God's favor and Blessing, through our own deeds, instead of believing in the Finished Work of Jesus.  When we don't understand the difference between the old and new covenants, we don't understand the Truth of what Jesus has truly done our behalf.    We've lost the Revelation of Redemption and have returned to our own endeavors, in order to qualify for God's Blessing and Grace.  Jesus has paid the entire bill and Ransom that we were under, by His Own Blood.  Jesus has brought God's family back to the Original Intention God had for His family, at the beginning.
     Through Jesus, our every need has already been met, just like in the Garden of Eden in the beginning.  We keep trying to "get God" to do, what He has already made ours in Jesus.  We've listened more to carnal man's testimonies and teachings, instead of believing the Truth of God's Word for our lives.  When someone tells us that, "God doesn't do these things any longer. God doesn't heal any longer.  He Blesses us, according to our performance, just like in the Law."  In Jesus, though, it has already been done and is forever settled in Heaven.
     Jesus bore our sin and He has bore the Curse of the Law.  Jesus has already provided healing, peace and righteousness for us, by His Own Sacrifice.  We've been taught to doubt God's Word, in certain areas of our lives and have allowed satan to continue ruling over us, instead of us ruling over him.  Even after Jesus has bore our sickness and disease by His stripes, we believe that God is disciplining us, like He did those under the Law.  We have no vision of Redemption, just like Proverbs 29:18 said.
     This has nothing to do with whether you are saved, but to what extent you enjoy your salvation in Him.  Your Eternal destination is already provided and your temporal salvation was provided by the Same Lord and Savior.  We've been led to accept that everything Jesus provided is for after we die and leave this earth.  This is a lie that satan introduced into Christian theology, so he could still have control over God's people and inflict us at God's expense.  It's sad that we still hold God accountable for all the hell and heartache we endure, as though He gets pleasure seeing us struggle.  It's even sadder  that He inflicted it on Jesus for us, so we could be free from those things.

Lesson 54 THE YEAR OF UNDERSTANDING - Original Intent

    Genesis 1:26-27 (Amplified) says, "God said, Let Us (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit), make mankind in Our Image (after Our Likeness), and let them have complete authority over the fish of the sea, the birds of the air, over all the (tame) beasts and over all the earth, and over everything that creeps upon the earth. So God created man in His Own Image, in the Image and Likeness of God He created him; male and female he created them."
     God's Original Intention was to have a family to share His Love and fellowship with Him.  Love requires being shared.  Most of us can quote John 3:16, which says, "God so greatly Loved the world that He gave His Only Begotten Son, so that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have everlasting Life."  Love cannot simply be retained, growing and feeling like it's complete, without giving of itself.  Love refused to be rejected and Love continued to seek the means and the answer to being made known, so the world would know Him in all that Love is.
     Throughout the years, we've misunderstood the heart and will of God, so that even Love itself has been lost to some.  We misunderstand God, by not understanding Love, which has resulted in all sorts of fables and foolish things among God's family.  Long before there was a Jew or Gentile, there was family.  It was only after Adam's fall, that God needed to seek someone to cut a covenant with, in order to regain entrance back into this earth, as the Father.  God's family had been lost in the lies of His enemy and God's children had gone into captivity and bondage to satan, and required a Ransom from the Father.
     The strength and Power of Love was displayed in the old covenant, when God continually delivered the people, but never like it's displayed in the new covenant of Grace.  God's Love fought against captivity in awesome ways of deliverance in the old covenant, when He delivered the people from false gods, who promised everything, but couldn't deliver anything.  The enemy's deception couldn't erase man's knowledge of "a god."  Satan knew that mankind needed a god to worship and believe in, so he furnished false gods, which held the people in bondage and dead, even while they were living.
     In order to bring family back to Himself, God's Love had to break into these lies of satan.  God is Just and incapable of lying, so He needed to find a way to return His family to Himself, without breaking His Own Laws of the Kingdom, which upholds this entire universe.  God couldn't just ignore what Adam had done and he couldn't go back to the earth, making another man.  Man was now the product of sin and outside the family of Righteousness.  God"s Love couldn't leave man in this state and separated from Himself.
     We look at the old covenant, and view God as hard and demanding, when we should see Him as a diligent, Loving Father Who refused to leave His family in the state of sin and death.  Some are finally beginning to see our relationship with the Father, as an act His of Love and Grace.  Satan though, still manages to keep God's family divided today, through different means of deception.  Some believe that "Grace," means "we can live any way we want and Grace will cover it."  Others believe that "Grace" means we simply "Put up with whatever comes in our lives, because it's God's will for our lives."  One group is deceived into sowing to the flesh and the other group is giving place to the enemy, through our hedonism.
     Some are still trying to earn Grace, by doing good things, while others are accepting everything as being God's will.  Both are wrong.  Satan doesn't care which side you're on, so long as it's not in-line with the Truth.  Do we live any way we want to, because of Grace?  Do we have to work, in order to earn God's Grace?  No.  What are we to do, in order to walk in what God has called us to, today?  We're to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and we shall be saved.  Haven't we done this?  Yes, to some degree, but not in the fullness of Love's Intent and Purpose.
     The new covenant isn't a list of things we must and must not do, but things we need to know and not know.  Adam didn't need to know the evil, but only the Good.  God was to be his Teacher, instructing him in Wisdom and understanding, preventing him from ever knowing evil.  Man had no need to seek any father, to be "like God," because he was already made in God's Image and Likeness.
     Satan tries deceiving man, making him think that God is holding out on us, preventing us from having all there is to have and enjoy.  He tries enticing man into his territory of sin, by promising things that God doesn't want us to enjoy, but he never tells us that he can only promise death and grief.  We see God as a dictator over our lives, threatening terrible things if we don't do what He says.  We should see Him as a Father, Who protects us from the lies that will destroy us.
     God has never held anything back from us, including Himself as our Sacrifice.  Many still think that walking with God is a hard road and difficult way, where we're afraid of stepping out-of-line and incurring His anger.  This is man's understanding, without the understanding of Wisdom.  God's anger doesn't bring forth the result of our disobedience, it's the result of the very thing He tried keeping us away from.
     As Christians under Grace, we're still subject to the Law of Sin and of Death.  We're free from spiritual death, through the newborn spirit that is of God, but sin will still bring forth premature death and disease in our physical body and take our physical life, way before it was our time.  Many see this as God's anger, instead of seeing that Love was trying to direct us away from the enemy's traps.  When a believer strays into sin, and perhaps dies or suffers physically and emotionally from that sin, we think God's punishing them, instead of seeing that person strayed from the path He has laid before them.  Psalm 23, tells us, that, "God leads us in paths of Righteousness, for His Name's sake."  God will never lead us into something that is outside His will for us.  Sin is certainly never His will for us.
     Family is the most important thing in God's heart and through Jesus, we are His family.  We are heirs of God and joint heirs with Jesus, as family.  Everything God's heart held for His family at the beginning, is magnified through Jesus, into an even greater inheritance than at the first.  God has provided everything we would ever need, in order to enjoy life on this earth, here and now.  This was God's Plan for His family at the beginning, before He brought Life to us and it's His Plan for us now, according to Ephesians 2:10 (Amplified) which says, "For we are God's Own handiwork (His workmanship), recreated in Christ Jesus, born anew that we may do those good works which God predestined (planned beforehand), for us, taking paths which He prepared ahead of time that we should walk in them, living the good Life which He prearranged and made ready for us to live."
     God's Plan for His family, is that we walk in the paths He prearranged and prepared ahead of time, and that we live the good Life.  Adam chose his own path, but through Jesus, God has revealed the paths He Originally Intended for us beforehand.  This wasn't an afterthought for His family, but His Own Plan for us, to live free before Him, in all His Blessing.  God's Original Intention included provision for everything we'd ever need.  God Planned for His children to grow before Him, in joy and peace and delight.
     God has no need to create anything more for His family, because He has already made it ours, in Jesus.  Through Jesus, we've been Redeemed and bought back from Adam's decision to walk in his own paths.  Jesus has restored us to the Paths God prepared for us, at the beginning, for both here and hereafter.  Adam's sin caused sin and death to be part of God's family, but they have been defeated when Jesus said, "It is finished," on Calvary's cross.  Jesus became sin with our sin, was wounded for our transgressions, was beaten and striped with a whip for our healing, and was raised from the dead for our justification.  Jesus made us to be the righteousness of God, with His Own Righteousness.  The First Adam didn't do anything, that the Last Adam Jesus failed to have victory over, on our behalf.
     There's nothing left for us to do, but only to believe on what He has already done.  THIS IS GRACE.  This isn't only for when we die and go to Heaven.  We're to believe and walk in Grace here, like we're already in Heaven and as citizens of the Household of Father, like the Father always intended.  We must understand what Jesus has already done on our behalf. 

Lesson 53 THE YEAR OF UNDERSTANDING - Original Intent

     Genesis 1:26-27 (Amplified) says, "God said, Let Us (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit), make mankind in Our Image (after Our Likeness), and let them have complete authority over the fish of the sea, the birds of the air, the (tame) beasts, and over all the earth, and over everything that creeps upon the earth. So God created man in His Own Image, in the Image and Likeness of God He created him; male and female He created them."

     Most believers haven't been taught about God's Original Intent, when He created man in the beginning.  Most of us have never thought about the condition man lived in, before Adam's fall in the Garden.  Jesus came into a fallen planet that was full of sin, in order to redeem it back into God's intention from the beginning.  Romans 8:19 (Amplified) says, "For even the whole creation (all nature), waits expectantly and longs earnestly for God's sons to be made known (waits for the revealing, the disclosing of their sonship)."  We witness Jesus' walking in the authority that was God's Intention for mankind.  We saw Jesus take authority over all things that God had given Adam authority over, at the beginning.  Jesus took authority over the fish of the sea, the storms, lack and the Curse.  This was God's Original Intent for all of His family, from the beginning.

     Many have only studied mankind, from the first two chapters of Genesis, before the sin in the Garden.  We don't know how long Adam lived and walked in fellowship with God, before sinning.  Most of what we know and understand about God and His people, comes from the viewpoint of fallen man and his sin.  Sin and death weren't part of God's Original Intent for His family.  We see how God brought His family home again, but not how they were before Adam's transgression.  If the things we see happening in today's world are God's Intention for mankind, then God could have spared Jesus' death and just left mankind in the mess.

     We'll probably never know how long Adam lived before sinning, until we ask him in Heaven.  There's no written record of how long he and Eve lived before sinning, but we can know for certain, that there was no failure, sickness, lack, hunger, despair or hopelessness.  Our Last Adam Jesus, brought us back into what God intended us to be and He gave us all (and more than all)  He gave to the First Adam.

     We've failed to understand that "It is finished," because of religious, carnal teachings and we're still waiting for God to do something.  We've not understood that, in Jesus, it is already done.  We see the past tense of what we're still seeing in the future tense, in Colossians 2:9-10 (Amplified), where Paul writes, "For in Him the whole fullness of Deity (the God Head), continues to dwell in Bodily Form (giving complete expression of the Divine Nature), and you are in Him; made full and having come to fullness of Life, in Christ you too are filled with the Godhead-Father, Son and Holy Spirit-and reach full Spiritual stature; And He is the Head of all rule and authority of every angelic principality and power."

     Paul writes in Romans 10:17 (Amplified), "Faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the Word of God," but then Paul asks, "But how can they hear without a preacher?"  Many things that God has Promised and has already made good on, even for while we're in this world, haven't been preached, so our faith has never risen to receive them.  We've believed the Promise that, "If you believe in your hearts and confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, then you shall be saved" and were saved.  We believed this, because we heard it preached.  We could and would, the rest of the Promises we have in Jesus, if only they were preached and we heard it.

     2Corinthians 1:20 (Amplified) says, "For as many as are the Promises of God, they all find their Yes Answer in Him (Christ). For this reason we also utter the Amen (So be it), to God through Him, in His Person and by His Agency to the Glory of God."  All God's Promises are True in Jesus, just like the Promise of Salvation in Romans 10:9 is True.  We just haven't heard them preached, so faith hasn't come for them.  Romans 1:17 (Amplified) says, "For in the Gospel a Righteousness which God ascribes is revealed, both springing from faith and leading to faith, disclosed through the way of faith that arouses to more faith, as it is written, The man who through faith is just and upright shall live and shall live by faith."

     Righteousness is a fulfilled Promise of God, to those who are born-again, but many in today's Church continue to struggle with our being Righteous in Jesus.  They continue saying, "None are Righteous," not understanding that the Righteousness they're speaking about was under the Law, and no one could fulfill it.  The Church doesn't need to perform sacrifices or labor to receive it, because it's "a Gift of Righteousness that is ascribed by God, in Christ Jesus."  Romans 3:24 (Amplified) says, "(All) are justified and made upright and in right standing with God, freely and gratuitously by His Grace (His unmerited favor and mercy), through the Redemption which is provided in Christ Jesus."

     Righteousness is a Promise, that is to be received by faith in the Finished Work of Christ Jesus and which will lead to more faith.  We're "trying to get" things from our Father, that He's already freely given by and through Christ Jesus, our Last Adam.  All has already been provided, in this new creation, just like it was in the previous creation.  One reason we haven't been taught these Promises, is because the teachers didn't believe them.  They transferred their unbelief over to us, like the ten spies did to those in the Wilderness (Numbers 13).  Twelve spies went into Canaan, but ten of them returned to tell the people, "There are giants there, and we can't go in."  Joshua and Caleb were the only two who trusted God's Promise and in His ability to do what He said.  The people's unbelief didn't make God's Promise "untrue," but their unbelief stopped them from entering the Promised Land.

     We just read that, "All God's Promises are Yes and Amen in Christ Jesus, to the Glory of God."  How many will say, though, that, "All God's Promises are mine, when I get to Heaven?"  This is True, but what good is the Promise that, "By His stripes we were healed," when we're in Heaven and there is no sick persons there?  This Promise is for us, here and now.  God's Word speaks about many things that He's already done, but we read them as "they will be done someday?"

     "Someday it will be so" is a Promise that is to come, to all who believe, but these Promises are already Yes and Amen in Christ Jesus, for us here and now, by faith in God's Grace.  Ephesians 2:8 (Amplified) says, "For it is by free Grace (God's unmerited favor), that you are saved, delivered from judgment and made partakers of Christ's salvation through your faith."  The Promise of Salvation is by God's Grace, but it doesn't come into our lives, without our putting faith in His Promise.  We are saved by Grace, through faith.  How long did we walk "unsaved," before we accepted God's Promise by faith and become God's children?

      The rest of God's Promises are also based on our having faith in the Finished Word of Jesus.  These won't be manifested in our lives, without our faith, even though they're already ours by God's Grace and even though God's will and Intention is for us to have them here and now.

Lesson 52 THE YEAR OF UNDERSTANDING - Original Intent

     Genesis 1:26-27,31 (Amplified) says, "God said, Let Us (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit), make mankind in Our Image (after Our Likeness), and let them have complete authority over the fish of the sea, the birds of the air, the (tame) beasts, and over all of the earth, and over everything that creeps upon the earth. So God created man in His Own Image, in the Image and Likeness of God He created him; male and female He created them."
     God gave mankind the gifts of authority and dominion, at the beginning.  Verse 31 goes on, "[God] saw everything He had made, and it was very good."  God met every need that man would ever have for eternity, in the beginning.  We read about the First Adam and the Last Adam, Jesus in 1Cointhians 45-48(Amplified), which says, "The first man, Adam, became a living soul (an individual); the Last Adam (Christ) became a Living Spirit (restoring the dead to Life); then the spiritual. The first man (Adam) is from the earth (earthy, made of dust); the second Man (Christ, the Lord) is from Heaven. As is the earthly man (the man of dust), so are those who are of earth, as is the Heavenly (Man), so are those who are of Heaven. Just as we have borne the image of the earthly (the man of dust), we will also bear the Image of the Heavenly (the Man of Heaven)."  Do you suppose that the First Adam had more than the Last Adam?  Everything that man would ever need after Jesus' Resurrection, was met in this Last Adam.
     Adam was to pass the authority and Blessing that God gave him, to his descendants.  Adam's children inherited what God Himself intended them to have, when He created mankind.  This same inheritance held true, even unto Adam's fall from Grace in the Garden.  The Blessing became a Curse, the authority became bondage and his life and abundance became death and lack.  This was never God's intent for His children, so the Plan of Redemption was born in Genesis 3:15 (Amplified), where God tells satan, "And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her Offspring; He will bruise and tread your head underfoot, and you will lie in wait and bruise His heel."  God speaks about a new Offspring having the authority reinstated to the new Offspring and the new creation people, in 2Corinthians 5:17.
     Sickness and disease came with the First Adam's fall and healing returned to the new creation people, by the stripes of Jesus, according to Isaiah 53.  The Curse came through Adam, while the Blessing came with Jesus.  Sin came with Adam and remission from sin, came through Jesus.  Unrighteousness came with Adam, but the Gift of Righteousness and restoration came through Jesus.  Satan became Adam's god.  God has become our Father again, through Jesus.  Fear came through Adam and faith came with Jesus.  Loss came through Adam and eternal Life came to all who would accept it, through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Authority was lost through Adam, Jesus gave us authority over all of satan's works,  saying, "In My Name, you shall..."  Destruction came with Adam and protection came with Jesus.  Stress and the cares of the world, came with Adam.  Peace and the lack of care and stress, came with Jesus.
     We've somehow felt left out from what God's Intentions were for man, after Adam.  The Truth is though, we're far better off than Adam was in the beginning.  In His Resurrection, the Last Adam Jesus, made up for everything Adam lost.  God's not only with us, but we now have God in us.  We're not only in His Image, but we're one with Him, by the indwelling of His Spirit.  We haven't just inherited the earth, but we're joint heirs with Jesus, in Heaven and earth.  We bear His Name, His Likeness, His inheritance, His Righteousness and we're His brethren.
     Jesus provided everything mankind needed in this world, just like God's Blessing provided for mankind under Adam.  We've been elevated to a much higher place, by the Blood of Jesus.  This isn't just for when we get to Heaven, because Heaven has now come to us.  It's true that we are to believe and trust in God to keep His Word, but His Word has kept the universe in place, for all this time, so I think we can trust it.  If God said it, then it is so.  Carnal man has made excuses for things that didn't work for them.  I don't think God needs our excuses, but we need to have Him excuse our unbelief.
     Through the Holy Spirit, Paul instructs us in Colossians 1:9 (Amplified), "Be filled with the full, deep, clear knowledge of His will in all Spiritual Wisdom (in comprehensive insight into the ways and purposes of God), and in understanding and discernment of Spiritual things."
     The Last Adam didn't fail to provide God's will and intention for His family, but we're the ones who failed to believe in it's sureness.  Jesus is the Surety of this new covenant that was "cut" in the Very Blood of God Himself.  Jesus is our Guarantee of the Promise and He can't fail in any part.  We've only put faith in forgiveness of sin and the assurance of going to Heaven, when we die.  These things are True, but it's far from what Jesus paid for, when He died on Calvary.  This planet is still under the Curse, but we're Blessed of God and redeemed from the Curse, through Jesus.  We can live Blessed in the earth, even while the Curse is still here.
     Satan conned Adam from the authority God gave him, but Jesus has restored it to us, 100 fold.  Even if we don't use it, we have authority over creation, including the fish of the sea, the fowl of the air and the (tame) beasts of the field.  We have the delegated authority of the King of kinds and Lord of Lords, Jesus.  We've been given power over sin and death, sickness and disease and the power of satan and his principalities over the earth.  We've failed to understand our place with the Father in Jesus, but it's still there for the Church today.  There's going to be a people who will enter into the Rest of Jesus' Finished Work and the world will see Jesus in all His glory, in these Last Days before Jesus' return.