Our herd of cattle are all in where they're supposed to be. Thank you to everyone who helped round them up and sacrificed their week's time. Thank you too, for all the prayers for my brother Garland. He finished radiation treatments this week and although we spent lots of valuable time together, it will be good not to have 2-3 daily doctor's appointments to get to. My son,his wife and their five kids are back in Arizona after visiting the last three weeks. We already miss them.
Jesus said in John 10:10 (Amp), "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)." Many believers have never been taught how to live this Life, the way Jesus intended us to live. Every baby who comes into this world, has life, but doesn't know how to walk, talk, feed or even care for him/herself and needs someone to teach them how to live. They're alive, but they don't know how to live their lives. We too, need someone to teach us how to live.
Good parents will teach their children to live productive lives by providing good examples. Good parents will teach their children manners, provide a good education and pass on what they've learned. It's not true in every case, but we mostly train up our children, after the way we were brought up. Proverbs 22:6 (Amp) says, "Train up a child in the way he should go, and in keeping with his individual gift or bent, and when he is old he will not depart from it."
We've raised our families in what we learned from life, but we know very little about the Life that Jesus spoke about in John 10:10. We've mostly been trained by the religion and traditions, just like those Jesus encountered during His earthly ministry. We know religions, traditions and denominations, but know very little about the Spirit. Jesus came so we "might have and enjoy Life," but very few enjoy our earthly walk with God, because it's full of trouble.
We know so little about the Spirit Life of the Kingdom, that Jesus spoke of. He gave us a glimpse of this Life in John 6:63 (Amp), saying, "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." The Word of God is so much more than a list of rules, regulations or traditions. God's Word is actually Life itself. It's not for after we leave this earth and enter God's Presence, but is God's Own Life breathed into our new creation spirit. God created all things by His Word and loosed His Life into all he created by that Word.
If God withdrew His Word, then all life would cease to be, because "His Word is Spirit and Life and the flesh conveys no benefit whatsoever." Many of us were taught that God's Word is "The Golden Rule," by which we're to live by. We weren't taught that God's Word is Life itself. Proverbs 4:22 (Amp) tells us that God's Words "Are Life to those who find them, healing and health to all their flesh." Jesus told us in John 6:63 (Amp), "My Words (Truths) are Spirit and they are Life."
Our physical body was designed to replenish itself for eternity, but Adam's transgression caused Spiritual death to ensue. Mankind's physical bodies grew weaker and weaker over time, without God's Spirit and Life. Now man's life expectancy is less than ninety years. The more Spirit and Life we put into our spirit man/woman, the healthier our body is and the longer we live. God says in the above scripture that, "My Words are healing and health to all your flesh." When we feed our spirit by God's Word, then our spirit will bring Life and health to our flesh. Life comes from within.
We've tried understanding Spiritual Life and Revelation, by our carnal minds and intellect, causing us to miss the Life that Jesus came to bring us in John 10:10. We've read the Words with our intellect, but haven't discerned the Truth of what Jesus was saying. The Holy Spirit tells us how to perceive and understand what He says in Proverbs 4:7 (Amp). Thus, He says, "The beginning of Wisdom is get Wisdom (skillful and Godly Wisdom). For skillful and Godly Wisdom is the principal thing. And with all you have gotten, get understanding, discernment, comprehension, interpretation."
Godly Wisdom is the Holy Spirit, the new creation, the Lord Jesus Christ and the Word of God, which is Spirit and Truth and Life. When the Holy Spirit instructs us to "Get understanding, discernment, comprehension and interpretation, He isn't directing us to read another translation of The Bible, but is speaking about our getting Spiritual discernment, comprehension and interpretation. Jesus said that "The flesh conveys no benefit whatever (there is no profit in it)." The Church has countless differing opinions about Spiritual things and what is Truth. Jesus said that, "The Words (Truths) I have been speaking to you are Spirit and Life." We've lacked the understanding and discernment of these Truths, because we only received them by our carnal senses. We've said that "God's Word isn't for everyone," along with other untruths. We must remember that the Words God speaks are Spirit, Truth and Life.
God's Word is meant to Live in our spirit and not our head. We can memorize scripture, without knowing what it says. We're born-again new creation beings. We are Spirit like our Heavenly Father and have the ability to understand Spiritual things. We've been trained to learn, but not to think. We accept what we're taught, without questioning whether it's Truth or untruth. Jesus tells us to seek Truth from God's Word and His Spirit in John 16:13 (Amp), saying, "But when He (the Spirit of Truth, the Truth Giving Spirit) comes, He will guide you into all the Truth (the whole, full Truth)."
We've struggled with our faith, when it comes to healing, speaking in tongues, praying and many other Truths, because these things aren't discerned with our natural minds, but are Spiritually discerned. These Truths are discerned through our spirit man/woman and the mind of Christ. We've seemingly lost our identity in the family of God, because we've applied carnal interpretations to the Truth of what God's Word says we are now, in Jesus Christ.
The Holy Spirit's ministry is to teach us the way of God's Kingdom. These things aren't for when we get to Heaven, but are for the realm of here and now, where we've been deployed as Ambassadors of Christ. We can bring others to God's Kingdom by telling them God's Word, after which the Holy Spirit will confirm it to salvation. We must know what salvation truly means in the Life of God's children. It's more than going to Heaven after we die in our natural bodies. God has come to Live in our natural body here on earth. While in His natural Body, Jesus said, "It is not Me, but the Father in Me that does the work." We can say this too.
Even God's Love is released into our spirit, by His Holy Spirit. It's not released into the flesh, but the spirit and in order for it to flow through and out of our flesh, we must feed our spirit by God's Word, which brings Life into the natural realm of life. This is walking naturally Super-naturally and it's how Jesus walked as a Man on earth. Jesus was so natural that people couldn't see that He was God. The people could see the works Jesus did, but only saw His natural Body and not His Spirit. Natural man couldn't understand and discern the Spiritual Man, so the people wouldn't accept Him as God in their presence. Paul expounds on this in 2Corinthians 5:16 (Amp), saying, "Consequently, from now on we estimate and regard no one from a purely human point of view (in terms of natural standards of value). No, even though we once did estimate Christ from a human viewpoint and as a Man, yet now we have such knowledge of Him that we now know Him no longer in terms of the flesh."
Paul says that we can and should know Christ more intimately in our new creation spirit, through and by the Word of God and His Spirit. Those who witnessed Jesus' earthly ministry, couldn't discern that He was actually "Emmanuel, God with us." In His earthly form, Jesus walked like a new creation person should walk today. Yes, He was without sin, but if we truly believe in what Jesus has done in us by His Sacrifice, then we too are without sin and are righteous in Him. Jesus developed His Spiritual awareness by studying God's Word, until it became as natural as putting on clothes in the morning. We must find our true identity in this Life , by reading God's Word and listening to His Spirit. The world and the flesh can't identify or know who the new creation being is.
When asked to identify himself, John the Baptist answered, "I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, Make straight the way of the Lord." John's identity of the Forerunner for the Christ, came directly from God's Word and His Spirit. Our Father gave us an identity and purpose in this new creation being, too. Most have never truly identified what that Life and purpose is, because we've identified more with the world than with the Word and the Holy Spirit. We must learn who we are in Christ, in order to fulfill the purpose God created for.
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