Romans 1:5-7 (Amplified) tells us, "It is through Him that we have received Grace (God's unmerited favor), and our, Apostleship to promote obedience to the faith and make disciples for His Namesake among all the nations, and this includes you, called of Jesus Christ and invited as you are to belong to Him. To you then, all God's beloved ones (in Rome) or wherever you live, called to be saints and designated for a consecrated life: Grace and Spiritual Blessing and peace be yours from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ."
Paul wrote the above scriptures to the Church in Rome, but this Truth is for all the God's people (the Church), wherever you are. The Holy Spirit inspired Paul to address you as "God's beloved ones, called of Jesus Christ to belong to Him (designated for a consecrated life." Then he writes, "Grace, peace, and Spiritual Blessing be yours, from God and Jesus." This is a direct Message from the Father and Jesus, to His Church.
In order to begin seeing our true identity in our new creation lives, we must first dare to believe what God's Word says about us, instead of what the world or religion dictates. The Holy Spirit leads Paul to tell us that, "We are invited and called to belong to the Father, called to be saints and are consecrated to this new life."
Many have been taught and are still being taught that, "You're just a sinner," even after being born-again. This makes it difficult to receive what the Holy Spirit and God's Word says we are seen in God's eyes. In God's eyes, we are truly new creations in Jesus. God sees us as new creations and not just ones that are cleaned up and painted over, like houses that are flipped. God's Word says that we are new creations altogether, in Jesus.
When we received Jesus as our Lord and Savior, our spirit was reborn and actually created from the Same Resurrection Power of the Holy Spirit Who raised Jesus from the dead. We're brand new in Him. Your spirit being, the new you, has never before existed or been previously alive. Your spirit was in sin and death and was dead before you invited Jesus to be your Savior. Now, it's been raised from the dead with Jesus and is created new in Him. We still look at our soul (our mind, will, and emotions) and old physical body (the house our spirit lives in), then we judge our own identity by our natural failures.
Our new creation identity is one of the Spirit realm, which we had no knowledge of before being born-again. We must learn who we've become in this new creation man/woman, accept who we've become, and learn how to live life like God intended from the beginning. This was a mystery to us from Genesis 1:26 until now. It was so foreign to our way of thinking, that we would still have no idea of who we really are, without God's Word and His Holy Spirit.
How does a person live with God in this natural body, while still functioning like he/she is called to be in this new life? We have very few examples of how a new creation person walks in this life and does it God's way for His Kingdom. Jesus and Adam were the sample sons, who did this very thing. Adam walked this earth in a physical body, while simultaneously functioning as a Spirit-led son of God. Jesus was born of the flesh and was filled with the Holy Spirit. He walked in a physical body and still functioned in the Spirit-led Life of God.
We find such believers as Paul, Peter and John, who walked by the Spirit in a natural body. We've been taught that they were "special" and "chosen to do these things" and were heroes of The Bible. They were called to be the first examples of the new creation. We've lost our identity, by trying to distinguish the calling of an Apostle and the call God has placed on all believers. The Apostles of the early Church were new creation men of God, just like we are, who were called to take God's Word about the new creation, to a dead world. They were called, just like we are, to bring forth the Life of God, through His Word and His Spirit, to a dead people. During His earthly ministry, Jesus taught His Apostles God's Word, so they could in turn, teach others what they learned from Jesus.
You might not be called to be an Apostles, but you're called to be a disciple who studies God's Word and is an example of the new creation family. We've never seen ourselves like the heroes of the early Church. We should really be more able to see who we are in Christ, than they were, because they didn't have the Revelation that Paul had received from Jesus. They had a limited view of what Jesus was to reveal to Paul.
The people of the early Church preached God's Word to the world and were followed with Mighty acts of God. They were the first in the new family of God and were examples for the rest of us, on how to live in the Spirit. Jesus was the Perfect Example of how a flesh and blood Man could hear from and walk like, for the new creation family of God.
We keep saying, "Yes, but that was Jesus" or "Not everyone can do the things He did." Jesus said in John 14:12 (Amplified), "I assure you, most solemnly I tell you, IF ANYONE steadfastly believes in Me, he will himself be able to do the things that I do: and he will do even greater things than these, because I go to the Father."
If anyone but Jesus had said this, then I don't think I could receive it. BUT JESUS DID SAY THIS. When He was raised from the dead and Glorified, he became the First Born of many brethren. In Him, we too were raised from the dead and created new. We're like He is, in the new creation family of God. You're not the Messiah, but you are like Him in every way. We must now learn to walk like the new creation family is supposed to walk. Centuries of tradition and religious rules and customs, have clouded the Truth of how God's new creation family is to walk. We weren't taught how to rely on our new creation spirit being, who has once again been created in God's Image and Likeness.
We haven't been told the Truth that we are "born from Above," like Jesus said, so we think our salvation only includes just going to Heaven when we die. This isn't how the Father created us to be, even though it's true we'll go to be in the Fullness of His Presence when we leave this planet. God wants His Presence to be manifested in us, while we're still on earth, so we can shake the world into His salvation, like the early Church did.
Some think this is foolish and will ridicule this, while others will receive hope for a new life, not only for themselves, but for others who are suffering and are without hope. The world needs to see the ability of God working through us, like it did in the early Church. They need to see a Super-natural people, like the early Church. If Jesus is "the same yesterday, today and forever," and He is, then He hasn't changed. We've changed. We must believe who God the Father has made us to be, in Christ Jesus.
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