Genesis 1:26-28 (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 of the field, 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. And God Blessed them and said to them, Be fruitful, multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it, using all 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 mandate gave complete deliverance of the earth and everything on and in it, over to Adam. We've missed what the Father had done, when giving this planet over to His son. God no longer had authority on this planet, but had released the authority over to His son, Adam. This wasn't a mandate that said, "If you don't do it right, then I'll take it back." God no longer had the right to go into the earth, in order to rule it. Man had the authority to do what God said, or to do what Genesis 3:6 tells us that Adam did. It tells us that Adam partook of the deception that had come upon his wife, and transgressed against God, by eating of the Tree, after God explicitly told him not to eat of the Tree. God had given Adam the authority over everything that creeps upon the earth, even the serpent. We've believed this mandate was conditional, but it was not.
God was shut out from the earth, after giving that authority to Adam. Adam gave this authority over the an insane fallen angel and satan would now use man's own authority in and over the earth and over everything on it. God began to speak a new Man back into the earth, in order to take back the authority and dominion over the earth and bring it all back to Kingdom rule again. God said in Genesis 3:15 (Amplified), "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."
This was the beginning of what occurred in John 1:14 (Amplified) which tells us, "And the Word, Christ, became flesh (human, incarnate Man) and tabernacled, fixed His tent of flesh, lived awhile among us; and we actually saw His Glory, His Honor, His Majesty, such Glory as an Only Begotten Son receives from his father, full of Grace, favor, Loving Kindness, and Truth." God incrementally spoke Jesus, a Man, into this earth and when Jesus was perfectly formed by His Word, God spoke the complete Man into Mary's womb. The Word became or took upon flesh, becoming a Man. The Last Adam, Jesus restored God's Original Intent and gave the dominion and authority God gave the First Adam back to mankind, because He had become flesh or a Man.
We haven't understood what God actually did when He restored this planet back to man's authority, through Jesus. We've learned that Jesus could only do the things He did on earth, "because He was Jesus." The Truth is that He did these things, because He was a Man. Jesus was conceived without sin and wasn't under the Law of Sin and of Death, so He could walk in the authority God gave man in the beginning. If satan could tempt the Last Adam Jesus, like he did with the First Adam, then he could have retained his control over earth and mankind.
Jesus was led by the Spirit, into the wilderness, in order to be tempted of the devil. Jesus underwent the temptation as a Man, Who was without sin and in the God-given authority of man, in order to overcome sin, instead of submitting to it. Jesus' flesh wouldn't yield, so His authority remained over satan and over the earth and everything that creeps upon the earth. Through Jesus and His Finished Work on Calvary, we could become new creation persons. Through Jesus we could be born-again of the Spirit, born without sin and restored back as man into the mandate God gave to mankind.
We've been taught for so long that we're "just old sinners, saved by Grace." We were old sinners and were saved by Grace, but we're not old sinners anymore. We've been made the righteousness of God Himself, by Grace. Through Jesus, we've been made sons and daughters of God and given the authority again, over the earth and everything that creeps on it.
This was and is God's Original Intent, when He made us in His Own Image and Likeness. Satan has deceived God's Church about how Jesus restored us back to God's family and about our inheritance. We've been afraid to accept what Jesus did, thinking we were being prideful if we believed what God's Word says about us. It's prideful when we still refer to ourselves as being "old sinners, who are unrighteous and unworthy." This is denying the Finished and Complete Works Jesus did for us.
It's prideful to say, "Jesus wasn't enough to completely bring a new creation man/woman, who is perfect and righteous and without sin, back to God." It's the highest form of pride to stand in God's Face and tell Him that, "The things Jesus did, weren't enough to cleanse me and bring me back to God." We think we're being humble, but we're really being wrong.
Satan is a liar and has deceived God's family into thinking we're still in sin and in a fallen nature. When we think that way, then we're vessels that won't yield to the Holy Spirit and there's very little the He can do in our lives. We haven't seen the Truth of the new creation Man. It wasn't all about going to Heaven, but bringing God back into the earth. We've become the Temple of the Holy Spirit, because of Jesus, according to 1Corinthians 6:19 (Amplified), 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."
Ask yourself this question. If you're still an old sinner, after receiving Jesus as your Savior, then could or would the Holy Spirit, Who is God, live in such a sin riddled temple? God has considered your old natural, sinful flesh, to be dead by Jesus' crucifixion and raised with Christ Jesus. You're a new creation man/woman, without spot or wrinkle, perfect in Jesus and called the Body of Christ. This is why Paul told us to "Renew our minds by the Word of God and His Holy Spirit."
Do we still mess up and do dumb things, while growing up in Jesus? Of course we do, but the Father now sees us through the Blood the the Lamb of God. Jesus' Sacrifice doesn't cover sin, but eradicated it in our lives. God only see the new man/woman, who has come back into His family.
We've practiced training the flesh, so it won't perform like it did before being born-again. This is good and necessary to do, but we've failed to train our new creation spirit man/woman how to live and grow in the way of the Spirit of God and in God's way of doing and being right. We've tried establishing our righteousness through works, instead of receiving His Righteousness and walking after the Spirit.
Most Christians will tell you that, "God doesn't speak to me" or "I don't recognize His Voice." We train our new creation person, by listening to Him and not yielding to the voice of the flesh, according to Romans 8:1-2 (Amplified), which says, "Therefore, there is now no condemnation, no adjudging guilty of wrong, for those who are in Christ Jesus, who live and walk not after the dictates of the flesh, but after the dictates of the Spirit." We can't allow our flesh to dictate who we are, but we must let the Holy Spirit dictate or tell us, who we really are now in Christ Jesus. Verse 2 continues, saying, "For the Law of the Spirit of Life, which is in Christ Jesus (the Law of our new being), has freed me from the Law of Sin and of Death."
This doesn't mean an we're to continue sinning, but means the lies of the flesh can no longer keep us from being what Jesus has now made us to be. I listen to the Holy Spirit saying to me, "You are the righteousness of God" and "You're not an old sinner anymore." This gives me the strength of God in my life, instead of the condemnation of my past.
We must settle who we really are in our lives and accept what Jesus did to redeem us, realizing it's not through anything we do, but what He did for us. We can't allow the enemy to hold us in bondage and condemnation, like he did before we became new creatures in Christ Jesus. When satan can make us question our identity, then he'll hold us in bondage. And, even though we're not living in sin, he'll bring up our past, in order to keep us under condemnation of who we once were. Satan tried making Jesus question His Identity, when he tempted Jesus in the wilderness in Luke 4. Satan said, "If You are the Son of God." Satan knew Who Jesus was, but he wanted to see if Jesus really belived in Who He was.
The devil knows who you are when you got born-again, but he wants to see if you know who you are. If you live by the dictates of the flesh, then you won't know your own identity in Christ. If you live by the dictates of the Spirit, then you'll be able to answer the devil with the Truth and "The Truth will set you free." The only hold satan has over you, is your past. As a new creation in Christ Jesus, you have not past. If you do, then you're not a new creation, but one that's just reworked and still under the stain of our past.
No comments:
Post a Comment