2Corinthians 5:17 (Amp) says, "Therefore if any person is ingrafted in Christ Jesus (the Messiah), he is a new creation (a new creature altogether); the old previous moral and spiritual condition has passed away, Behold the fresh and new has come." Notice, that the fresh and new is going to come, but that it has come already. We've been waiting for this to come to pass in the future, when it has already come.
The changing of our spiritual body is yet to come, but even now, 2Corinthians 6:16 (Amplified) says, "What agreement can there be between a temple of God and idols? For we are he temple of the Living God: Even as God said, I will dwell in and with and among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be My people." This is for now, and not just in the future. In the age to come, we will walk in the glorified body and in a different realm of this new creation, but it's all ours, even now.
1John 3:1 (Amplified) says this about the new creation people, living in this present time on the earth. Thus, it says, "See what an incredible quality of Love the Father has given (shown, bestowed on us), that we should be permitted to be named and called and counted the children of God! And so we are! The reason that the world does not know (recognize, acknowledge) us is that it does not know (recognize, acknowledge) Him."
Although we call God, "Father," we fail to recognize the Truth of this. He really is our Father, but many would ever know this, because of the things we've been taught and learned. If a natural father would do the things we've been told that God does to His children, then he would be accused and locked up for child abuse. We've held onto the world's view of our Heavenly Father, because we came out of the world, before being born-again.
Much of what we've been taught about God comes from the Old Testament. We don't envision Him as a Father, but as an angry God Who still punishes us for our failures. This is the world's view, which has followed us even after being born-again. Isaiah 53:11 (Amp) says, "He shall see the fruit of the travail of His soul and be satisfied; by His knowledge of Himself which He possesses and imparts to others shall My uncompromisingly Righteous one, My servant, justify many and make many Righteous (upright and in right standing with God), for He shall bear their iniquities and their guilt with the consequences, says the Lord."
Jesus didn't only take our sins and transgressions, but He also took the consequences of our sins and transgressions. It would be Double Jeopardy if God make us pay the consequences for our sins and transgressions now. God wouldn't be true to His covenant if He did this either. We're not to continue sinning and transgressing, but we must know that that God doesn't teach His new creation family, by putting things upon us. If we think that God is doing it, then where do we go to get out of it?
We've been deceived about how God teaches, corrects and trains His children today. We know that God is a Spirit, according to John 4:24 (Amp) which says, "God is a Spirit (a Spiritual Being), and those who worship Him must worship Him in Spirit and in Truth (reality)." Jesus tells us in John 6:63 (Amp), "It is the Spirit Who gives Life (He is the Life-Giver); the flesh conveys no benefit whatever (there is no profit in it)! The Words (Truths) that I have been speaking to you are Spirit and Life." Just prior to His Ascension, Jesus also says in John 14:16-17 (Amp), "And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Comforter, Counselor, Helper, Intercessor, Advocate, Strengthener, and Stand-by, that He may remain with you forever. The Spirit of Truth, Whom the world cannot receive (welcome, take to its heart), because it does not see Him or know Him or recognize Him, But you know Him and recognize Him, for He lives with you constantly and will be in you."
Jesus continues in John 14:26 (Amp), saying, "But the Comforter, Counselor, Helper, Intercessor, Advocate, Stand-by, Strengthener, the Holy Spirit, Whom the Father will send in My Name, in My Place, to represent Me and act on My behalf, He will teach you all things and He will cause you to recall (remind you of, will bring to your remembrance), everything I have told you." 2Timothy 3:16-17 (Amp) says, "Every scripture is God-breathed (given by His Inspiration) and is profitable for instruction, for reproof and conviction of sin, for correction of error and discipline in obedience and for training in Righteousness, in holy living, in conformity to God's will in thought, purpose and action. So that the man of God may be complete and be proficient, well-fitted and thoroughly equipped for every good work."
Paul writes about the five-fold ministry that Jesus gave to the Church, in order to minister and build up the Body of Christ in Ephesians 4:11-12 (Amp), saying, "That it might develop until we all obtain oneness in the faith which is nothing less that the standard height of Christ's Own Perfection, the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ and the completeness found in Him."
We don't find any place in the above scriptures, where the Father uses sickness, hardship, trials and disease, to teach and train His people. When we yield to other forms of correcting, then we place ourselves in a place of being double-minded. James 1:1-8 (Amp) say that if we're double-minded, then we'll be "unstable in everything we think, feel and decide." Verse 5 says, "f any of you is deficient in Wisdom, let him ask of the Giving God, Who gives to everyone liberally and ungrudgingly, without reproaching or fault finding, and it shall be given to him."
If you've been taught that all the things happening to you are "God teaching you," then you must "ask God for His Wisdom in these things, and He will give you Wisdom in these things." James says that we must "Ask in faith, to receive this Wisdom." We must not be double-minded in receiving God's answer. If we don't know if God is using the things happening to us, in order to teach us or if satan is trying to wear us down with these things, then we are double-minded.
James 1:2-4 (Amp) tells us that, "Trials and temptations and tests will come, but we're to know from whom they come from and remain in faith,while patiently going through them, then we will end up perfect and developed and lacking in nothing." Tests and trials will come, but we must know from whom they come.
God is a Spirit, His Word is Spirit and by the new creation birth, we are Spirit. God has given us the Holy Spirit, to teach us His will and His ways. Only the Holy Spirit can teach our own spirit. Satan attacks our flesh, in order to keep us from knowing Truth, in our spirits. If you think God is doing these things, then you're not believing the Truth of God's Word, which tells us that God sent the Holy Spirit to teach us.
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