Lesson 1 The New You in Him

     2Cor.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."

     1John3:2(Amp) says, "Beloved, we are even here and now God's children; it is not yet disclosed, made clear what we shall be hereafter, but we know that when He comes and is manifested, we shall as God's children resemble and be like Him, for we shall see Him just as He really is."

     1Peter1:23(Amp) says, "You have been regenerated (born-again), not from a mortal origin (seed, sperm), but from One that is Immortal by the Ever Living and Lasting Word of God."

     John4:24(Amp) says, "God is a Spirit (a Spiritual Being), and those who worship Him must worship Him in Spirit and in Truth (reality)."  Jesus goes on in John6:63(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."

     Col.2:9-10(Amp) says, "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 God Head (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."

     These are just a few scriptures that reveal who we've become now, by being born of the Seed of God.  The Law of Genesis is given in Gen.1:11-12(Amp) which says, "And God said, Let the earth put forth tender vegetation, plants yielding seed and fruit trees yielding fruit whose seed is in itself, each according to it's kind upon the earth. The earth brought forth vegetables; plants yielding seed according to their own kinds and trees bearing fruit in which was their seed, each according to it's kind; and God saw that it was good (suitable, admirable), and He approved it."

     This Law is still true today and everything bears after kind, by the seed.  Corn seed only brings forth corn, the seed of a horse always brings a horse, acorns will only produce Oak trees, monkeys only bring forth monkeys and the species of man, will only bring forth mankind.  God's Word is Seed and that Seed will only bring forth after Kind.  The above scripture tells us that, "God is Spirit."  God's Seed will only bring forth spirit people, who are made in His Image and after His Kind.  The new you is your spirit.  God deals with His children now, by our spirit.

     Many of us have put off the idea of actually being made whole, for when we go to Heaven, but the Truth is that we've been born into the Kingdom now.  We still see ourselves more after the flesh and the world's way of seeing and knowing ourselves, rather than after the birth rights we have in Christ Jesus.  We still believe God deals with us, like He did those under the Law, by the flesh and in natural terms.  Those under the Law weren't born-again by the Seed to produce after Kind.  They were born by the seed of Adam, who was dead in trespass and sin.  We've been born from death unto Life, by the Super-natural Seed of God's Word, Jesus.  God is now our Father and deals with, guides and corrects us through our spirit, by His Word and not the flesh.

     Things arise in our natural bodies that bring trials and even death, but many of them are self-inflicted, because we don't know who or what we really are and how we're to walk with God in the Spirit and His Word.  We've been brought up in religion, so we don't know how to walk in reality.  We still see ourselves as being unworthy and sinners, instead of seeing ourselves as God has made and birthed us to be in Christ Jesus.

     We've believed that the things Jesus has done for us, are for when we get to Heaven, instead of walking by the Spirit while we're here now.  We're born of and by the Super-natural Seed of God, produced through a Super-natural Father, and produced after Kind by God's Word, Jesus.  Luke1:14(Amp) says, "And the Word (Seed) Christ became flesh (human, incarnate) and tabernacled (fixed) His tent of flesh, lives 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."

     Jesus, the Word was made flesh, in order to identify with earthly man and to die in our place.  Adam brought death to mankind and Jesus was to die for mankind, in order to restore us back to God.  He gave us Life once more, through and in our spirit.  This is the new you.  Man was responsible for sin and death, so a Man Who was without sin needed to die as a Sacrifice, to restore us back to God.  Jesus has become the Seed, according to Gal.3:16(Amp), which says, "Now the Promises (covenants, agreements) were decreed and made to Abraham and his Seed (offspring, His Heirs), He God, does not say, and to seeds, (descendants, heirs), as if referring to many persons, but, and to your Seed (Descendant, Your Heir), obviously referring to One Individual, Who is none other than Christ (the Messiah)."  We've been born from and are joint heirs with Christ Jesus, the Messiah.

    

Developing the New Creation Lesson 97

     2Cor.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."  There are many things involved in developing the new creation God has made, some of which we never think about, but make a big difference.  There have been many teachings about watching what we say, but some believe this is foolishness.  Jesus said in Mark11:23(Amp), "Truly I tell you, whoever says to this mountain, Be lifted up and thrown into the sea and does not doubt at all in his heart but believes that what he says will take place, it will be done for him."

     Jesus didn't say that the mountain will obey what we say, but He tells us that, "Whatever you say and do not doubt but believe, will come to pass."  How many would like all the things we say, including the good and bad, come to pass?  Do we truly believe that the mountain will move?  Or are we believing that, "I doubt I can have whatever I say?"

     We're living in a "Woke" world, that tells us what we can say and what is politically correct.  If we speak out of turn, then we're cancelled, removed from media sites, and sometimes fired from our jobs.  This isn't about politics, but about freedom.  Today's churches aren't allowed to speak out about ungodly things happening in our nation.  Paul writes to the Church in Rom.12:2(Amp), saying, "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, so that you may prove for yourselves what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God, even the thing which is good and acceptable and perfect in His sight for you."

     The things happening in today's world, are Spiritual and not political.  Americans stand to either choose freedom or free stuff.  If we comply with the ungodly mandates and orders from our political class, then we will receive free stuff, while losing our freedom.  Is God still our Source or is the ungodly government our source?  God instructs us in Prov.22:6(Amp), saying, "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."

     There is a struggle happening in our nation, between parents who believe they should have a say about what their children are trained up in and those who believe they should be trained by the woke culture, with it's beliefs.  We must not allow this age and it's woke culture, to train up our children and cancel all that God's done in and for this nation.  This is totally against what God's Word and His Spirit says.  We're not allowed to say, "Merry Christmas," but "Happy Holidays.' today, so we don't offend anyone.  

     If we remove and cancel the things God has done in the founding of our nation, then the next generation won't remember the covenant our founders made with God.  Our founding fathers weren't without fault, no one is, but God could and did use them to establish a nation that He designed.  America has lost sight of the Blessing God pronounced on us, trying to become like other nations.  God's people have never and will never, be like everyone else.  We are a new creation people, made in God's Image and Likeness.

     The ungodly have noticed how there is power in the words we speak.  That's what cancel culture and political correctness are about.  I'm amazed that God's Church has awakened to this revelation.  The entire planet is controlled by the words we speak, but we believe that what we say is "of no avail."  We submit to the world and watch what we say, but refuse to submit to the Power of God's Word in our speech.  If we speak contrary to the world, then we're cancelled and silenced.  Jesus Christ is the Word and will never be cancelled!  Rev.12:11(Amp) says, "They overcame by the Blood of the Lamb and the Word of their testimony."  

     Psalm12:2-4(Amp) says, "To his neighbor each one speaks words without use or worth or truth; with flattering lips and double heart, deceitfully they speak. May the Lord cut off all flattering lips and the tongues that speak proud boasting. Those who say, With out tongues we prevail; our lips are our own to command at our will-who is lord and master over us?"

     God's Church is supposed to be a Light to the world and salt to the earth.  Salt is a preservative that prevents things from spoiling and decaying.  Sugar cured ham isn't cured by the sugar, but by salt.  Without the Church, the earth is bound to be rotten and in decay.  Jesus gave the Great Commission, telling His followers to, "Go into all the world, preaching the Gospel or Good News and bringing others to salvation."  God's Church can't allow the ungodly things of the world, to be mixed with the things of God.  Our nation will be saved and restored by the Promise and integrity of God, but we have a part to play in this too.  Heb.5:14(Amp) says, "But solid food is for full grown men, for those whose senses and mental faculties are trained by practice to discriminate and distinguish between what is morally good and noble and what is even and contrary either to Divine or human law."  Some human laws are contrary to the Divine Laws of God's Word.  

Developing the New Creation Lesson 96

     2Cor.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."

     We became new creations, the moment we accepted Jesus as our Lord and Savior.  The fresh and new "HAS COME," not will come in the future.  It's of upmost importance that we go to God's Word to see how we're to live and function in this new spirit man/woman, while we're here in these natural bodies.  We can also watch those who've gone before us, in order to learn who we've been made to be in Jesus Christ.

     When looking at Jesus' life and earthly ministry, we can see what God's will for both Him and us.  If Jesus was doing it, then it must be God's will to do it.  If healing wasn't God's will, then Jesus wasn't in God's will when He healed people.  Jesus said, "When you see Me, you have seen the Father" and "It's not Me, but the Father in Me that does the work."  Many seem confused as to what God's will is for His people.  The Holy Spirit is always speaking and leading the child of God, but we must listen to His Voice.

     Many don't recognize the Voice of the Holy Spirit, because they don't know God's Word.  The Holy Spirit will always refer to the Word and will never contradict it.  Everything He speaks to us, will always line-up with the Word.  1John5:7-8(Amp) says, "So there are three witnesses in Heaven: the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit, and these are One. And there are three witnesses on the earth: the Spirit, the water and the Blood; and these three are in union: their testimony coincides."

     The Holy Spirit will never direct us to do anything that isn't from the Father or doesn't line-up with His Word.  The Blood is one of the witnesses in the earth and is the Truth of the covenant and the Authority and dominion of our Sacrifice Lamb that provides protection from the destroyer.  If we don't understand the Blood and covenant, then we can only hope that things in this life will work out.  We can't put much faith in something we don't have knowledge of.  Many only hope and believe that prayer is like playing The Lottery, taking a chance that something will happen.

     Many have lost confidence and faith in prayer and the Super-natural things of God, because they don't know God's Word and His Promise.  The one scripture we thankfully place faith in, is "All who call upon the Lord, shall be saved," but aren't the rest of God's Promises just as True?  We can't only rely on what others tell us are God's Promises, but we must know the Truth for ourselves.  2Cor.1:18-19(Amp) says, "As surely as God is trustworthy and faithful and means what He says, our speech and message to you have not been Yes that might mean No. For the Son of God (Christ Jesus, the Messiah), Who has been preached among you us, by myself (Paul), Silvanus and Timothy, was not Yes and No: but in Him is always the Divine Yes. For as many as are the Promises of God, they all find their Yes Answer in Christ. For that 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."

     Do we know what God's Promises are and believe and put faith in them, as quickly as we believe in His Great Promise of salvation and being born-again?  We've never allowed our faith to grow in the other Promises, because we haven't been taught to believe in the Super-natural Presence of our covenant.  Our Father Promised more than just going to Heaven when we die.  God Promised that we'd be a new creation people and sons and daughters of His Own Seed, when we receive Jesus.

     When we put faith in this Promise, we become new creation children of God.  All of God's Promises are just as sure.  Paul writes in Rom.1:17(Amp), "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."  We were dead in sin and trespasses, but are now alive and living by faith in Christ Jesus and the Promise of God's Word.

     One of God's Promises is that we have been made Righteous, by our faith in Christ Jesus.  Do you truly believe you are righteous in God's eyes, by faith in that Promise?  Or, do you still deny that, quoting Rom.3:10(Amp), which says, "As it is written; None are righteous, just and truthful and upright and conscientious, no not one?"  If you haven't received the Promise of Righteousness, then read Rom.1:22(Amp) which says, "But now, the Righteousness of God has been revealed independently and altogether apart from the Law; although it is attested to by the Law and the prophets. Namely, the Righteousness of God which comes by believing with personal trust and confidence, reliance on Christ Jesus the Messiah, and is meant for all who believe, for there is no distinction."

     This is one of God's Promises that is "Yes and Amen in Christ Jesus, to the Glory of God."  Do you believe what God says about you or do you believe what others say?  Do we believe this Promise, as quickly as we believe in salvation and forgiveness?  This is going from faith to faith in God's Promises.  It isn't being prideful to believe that we've been made righteous by Jesus' Righteousness.  This is the Promise of the new creation.  We were created in Righteousness, when we received Jesus and His Own Righteousness.

Developing the New Creation Lesson 95

      2Cor.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."

     Wondering why I've spent so much attention on this particular topic?  Every child born, either in the natural or the Spirit, comes into this world without knowledge of life or things that pertain to life.  Every child, both natural and Spiritual, must learn to walk and conduct our lives by what and how they learn.  If we learn things that are wrong, then we will walk in those things.  The outcome of adulthood and the progress we gain, depend on how and what we learn.

     Prov.22:6(Amp) says, "Train up a child in the way he should go, and in keeping with his individual gift or bend, and when he is old he will not depart from it."  If we train ourselves in God's Word, then we will trust and walk with Him as we grow into Spiritual maturity.  Our Spiritual walk will direct our natural walk, when we train ourselves by God's Word.  We will either learn to lean on God and His way of doing and being right, or we will learn on the world's ideas, with it's religious traditions and customs.

     Raising a child in a home filled with double-standards, will cause indifference in that child's heart, which he/she teaches to the next generation.  If we just attend church on Sunday and live another way the rest of the week, then we're training ourselves and our children that's it's proper to be indifferent about our walk with God.  It's difficult to turn a heart that has been raised and trained up like this, because it's become an established part of that person's life.  David writes in Psalm119:113(Amp), "I hate the thoughts of the undecided in religion (double-minded people), but Your Law (Word) do I love."  David confesses to not living by what he tells others.  He tells us not to copy his actions, but just obey what he says.  

     Many today have been trained to walk with God, just like this.  We attend church on Sunday, while not paying attention to the Lord until the next Sunday.  Most of us haven't been trained to take God at His Word and trust in Him, so we raised our children to do the same.  Many Christians ridicule those who seek to walk with God in a greater way, calling us "fanatics, Word people or faith people."  God is raising believers in the Power of His Word, who refuse to walk according to the religious dictates of the world.

     Most Christians only know what our denomination has taught us, without searching God's Word and His will for ourselves.  They are saved and born-again, but don't see the need to go beyond what they've been taught.  They are still in the infant stage of the walk with God, because they haven't searched God's Word and received the knowledge of their new creation identity. 

     Knowing the Father by what others have taught us, isn't true fellowship with Him.  Jesus said that, "My sheep know My Voice."  It's up to every individual child of God to build their own relationship with the Father.  We're to be in fellowship and close companionship with the Lord, so we hear when He speaks and can follow His instructions.  Many say, "God doesn't speak to me," but Jesus says this isn't so.  It's not a matter of God not speaking, but we're not listening or hearing.

     Some view God's Word as being like magic and that things will simply come to pass with a certain hand movement or word.  It requires time in God's Word for us to receive the knowledge of who we've become in Christ, to trust  in Who He really is, and to rest in what He has Promised in His Word.  It's not magic, but trust and assurance in God's faithfulness, that builds our relationship with Him.  If we don't know His Word and covenant, then we won't know what to put faith in when we pray.  Sadly, many ignore God and His Word, until a crisis arises in our lives.  Then we try building enough faith to receive a miracle.

    Many Christians have left the reading and studying of God's Word, to their preachers and ministers.  This has been one of the biggest mistakes in Christianity.  We don't believe we're called to the ministry, so we don't feel compelled to study God's Word for ourselves.  If we believed that studying math was the teacher's job in school, then we probably couldn't balance our checkbooks.  Teachers are charged with bringing forth the application of math in our lives and the student's job is to apply what we've been taught, so we can count.

     How often do we take the lesson taught in Church and study the scriptures until we know the Truth of God's Word for ourselves?  Our math teachers gave us math books and homework, that furthered what they taught.  What would society be like if only teachers were taught to read?  Can you imagine the chaos that resulted because drivers couldn't read road signs?

     A disciples is a student.  Jesus said in Matt.28:19(Amp), "Go then and make disciples of all nations."  Disciples are students who learned what Jesus taught about our Heavenly Father and how God's Kingdom functions here on earth, applying His Name to bring others into His Kingdom.  There's never been a rocket scientist who can't read or count for him/herself.  They must know how to read and count, in order to achieve this title.

Developing the New Creation Lesson 94

     2Cor.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." 

    Sadly, few believers understand that we are God's children, who are already Blessed with every Spiritual Blessing and that the old things have truly passed away.  If we don't spend time in God's Word like we should, then we will fail to understand that Jesus bought and paid for our complete deliverance on the cross. 

     James1:2-4(Amp) says, "Consider it wholly joyful, my brethren, whenever you are enveloped in or encounter trials of any sort or fall into various temptations. Be assured and understand that the trial and proving of your faith brings out endurance and steadfastness and patience have full play and do a thorough work, so that you may be people perfectly and fully developed with no defects, lacking in nothing."

     Jesus gave "The Parable of the Sower," in Mark4:15,27-29(Amp), saying, "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."  2Tim.2:6(Amp) says, "It is the hard working farmer who labors to produce who must be the first partaker of the fruits."  Jesus continued His Parable in Verses27-29, saying, "The Kingdom of God is like a man who scatters seed upon the ground and then continues sleeping and rising night and day while the seed sprouts and grows and increases-he knows not how. The earth produces acting by itself-first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear. But when the grain is ripe and permits, immediately he sends forth the reapers and puts in the sickle because the harvest stands ready."

     Jesus said that, "The Word is like Seed sown in the ground."  The Seed is God's Word and the ground or soil, is the spirit of man.  It takes times for the seed to produce a harvest in a natural garden.  We plant many seeds like corn, beans, squash, knowing that it takes time for the seeds to produce a harvest.  We continue "sleeping and rising night and day, while the seed sprouts and grows and increases, knowing not how."

     James writes about the patience of sleeping and rising, while the seed brings forth it's fruit, in the above scripture.  In the natural, many gardeners put fences around our gardens, because animals and birds try to eat the seeds we've planted.  In the Spirit, we have an adversary who "comes at once, and by force takes away the Message sown into people's hearts."  Satan tries to steal the Seed, before we put faith in God's Word and receive the fruit of our labor.  Timothy writes about the hard working farmer who labors to produce and must be the first partaker of the fruits.

     We too easily give up on the Seed of God's Word, which produces after kind.  1Pet.1:23(Amp) says, "You have been regenerated (born-again), not from a mortal origin (seed, sperm), but from one that is Immortal, by the Ever Living and Lasting Word of God."  Is.61:11(Amp) says, "For as surely as the earth brings forth it's shoots, and as a garden causes what is sown in it to spring forth, so surely the Lord God will cause Righteousness and justice and praise to spring forth before all the nations through the self-fulfilling Power of His Word."

     Nothing can stop the Seed of God's Word from bringing forth whatever the Word says.  The same "self-fulfilling Power" that brings forth the Seed or Word of salvation, will bring forth the Seed or Word of healing.  The hard working farmer can sow whatever Seed is needed, into our born-again hearts (spirits) and it will bring forth a harvest.

     The Apostles James and Mark both write about how the enemy tries to dig up the Seed of God's Word, before it brings forth a harvest.  Many think that, "It must not work for me," but Mark says that we "sow, sleep, and rise day and night, while the seed produces, while we know not how."  The same "self-fulfilling Power" that holds the universe in it's place, is working in us today.

     The Seeds of healing, peace, righteousness, and fellowship with the Father, all "produce after kind," according to the Law of Genesis.  The Holy Spirit inspires Paul to write in 1Cor.3:9(Amp), saying, "For we are fellow workers (joint promoters, laborers), together with and for God; you are God's garden and vineyard and field under cultivation, you are God's building."  The Seed that God planted through Jesus, is now the family God Planned in the beginning.  It's the self-fulfilling Power in that Seed (Jesus, the Word) that has brought forth and is still providing the harvest today.

     Satan comes immediately to try to steal the Seed sown in our hearts, because if he can't take it away, then the Seed will produce by it's self-fulfilling Power.  Once we've received the Seed and keep it in our hearts, then we can "Count it all joy."  Why would we do that?  Because we know that if the enemy is out to stop it, then we know he's fearful of the harvest coming to the hard working farmer.  When we know that nothing can stop the Seed and harvest, then satan knows he's defeated in our lives.  Satan is the Seed eater, so we must stand firmly in faith, with the Seed of God's Word in our lives.     

Developing the New Creation Lesson 93

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     2Cor.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.

     Paul writes to the Church (including us), in Rom.12:2(Amp), saying, "Do not be conformed to this world (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, so that you may prove for yourselves what is the Good and acceptable and perfect will of God, even the thing which is Good and acceptable and perfect in His sight for you."  

     Paul understood that before we were born-again, our lives were fashioned and formed by the world, without God.  We had functioned by our senses and emotions, instead of by God's Word and His Spirit.  Our senses and emotions can't conceive or understand the Spiritual things of God's Kingdom.  The only way to understand Spiritual things, is by the Spirit.  Jesus told His followers in John6:63(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."

     We can read God's Word without having the Spiritual Revelation of the Truth, not understanding they are Spirit and Life.  Most opinions about God and His Word, have come from what Paul describes in the above scripture as the "external, superficial customs of man."  Many rituals and religious traditions that we've been taught, have very little to do with the new creation man/woman of God.

     Many only see God as being angry and often displeased at the new man/woman He has created.  Many too, believe that God spends much of His time putting sickness and hardships on us, in order to teach us how to do right.  We must truly understand that God has created us in Righteousness and that He sees us that way.  We try making ourselves righteous enough to deserve God's Goodness, without understanding that He has already made us righteous and that His Goodness has already been given to us to enjoy.

     Through faith in Jesus, we've already become new creation beings, without sin or the remembrance of sin, in God's eyes.  The world would have us live like we are still sinners and need to try becoming good enough to deserve God's Grace.  We have already become heirs of God and joint heirs with Jesus.  God has given us our inheritance to enjoy, but it must come into the new creation person, by Revelation from His Word and the Holy Spirit, not by the carnal way of man's thinking.

     Prov.4:7(Amp) 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, and interpretation)."  We became new creations, when we were born-again and whether or not we know it, we received Wisdom.  1Cor.1:30(Amp) says, "But it is from Him (God) 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."

     God says that, "Wisdom is the principal thing" and Jesus is our Wisdom from God.  We've been given Wisdom by God, but lack the Revelation and discernment that Proverbs tells us will bring us understanding.  This was all provided for and to us, when we received Jesus as our Lord and Savior, but we haven't understood it.  God instructs us in the above scripture, saying, "With all that you have gotten, get understanding."  If we don't understand the Spirit and Truth of God's Word, then we will lack understanding and fail to receive what our Heavenly Father has provided for us.  We will fall into the "external and superficial customs" of man and miss out on the inheritance given us, through Jesus.

     We don't strive to earn this.  This is an inheritance God's new creation family receives, by faith in the Finished Work of Jesus.  An inheritance is something that another has obtained by their life's labor and then leave to those he/she loves.  Gal.3:14-16(Amp) tells us, "To the end that through their receiving Christ Jesus, the Blessing Promised to Abraham might come upon the Gentile, so that we, through faith might receive the realization of the Promise of the Holy Spirit. To speak in terms of human relations, brethren, if even a man makes a last will and testament (a merely human covenant), no one sets it aside or makes it void or adds to it when once it has been drawn up and signed (ratified, confirmed). Now the Promises (covenants, agreements), were decreed and made to Abraham and his Seed (his Offspring, his Heir)."  God doesn't say that it was given to "his seeds, descendants," as if to many persons, but says, "And to your Seed, your Descendant, your Heir," obviously referring to One Individual, Who is none other than Christ Jesus, the Messiah.  Rom.8:16-17(Amp) says, "The Spirit Himself thus testifies together with our spirit, assuring us that we are children of God. And if we are His children, then we are His heirs also, heirs of God and fellow, joint heirs with Christ, sharing His inheritance with Him; only we must share His suffering if we are to share His Glory."

     Jesus' suffering was denying Himself, so we could gain Him.  In order to deny ourselves, we must renew our minds by God's Word and Spirit, and following what the Spirit says, at all costs.  Jesus needed to get Himself off His mind and putting us on His mind, in order to go to the cross for us.  We're new creation children of the Most High God, heirs of God and part of His family.  We must renew our minds to the Spirit, so we can carry out His will for our lives.  If we remain carnal minded, having only ourselves on our minds, then we will be taking the easy road, instead of the one that doesn't require self- denial.

Developing the New Creation Lesson 92

     2Cor.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."

     We can only discover who God created this new creation man/woman to be, through Revelation of God's Word.  Natural man cannot show us who we've become, because this Revelation is Spiritually discerned.  1Cor.2:13(Amp) says, "And we are setting these Truths forth in Words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Holy Spirit, combining and interpreting Spiritual Truths with Spiritual language to those who possess the Holy Spirit."

     A carnal mind can't discern the Truth of the new creation being.  We must learn who we are now by God's Word and the Holy Spirit.  Believers have been held in bondage by carnal thinking and rituals, some which say that "We will only become new creations after we die and go to Heaven."  Carnal thinking has left God's Church impotent and useless to today's world.  Those who came to the Lord with only man's ideas of the new birth, are still in bondage to carnal thinking and devoid of the Truth of what Jesus has done for us now.  

     We must go to the One Who created us, in order to find out who and what God has made us to be.  2Cor.3:17-18(Amp) says, "Now the Lord is the Spirit and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty (emancipation from bondage, freedom). And all of us, with unveiled face, because we continue to behold in the Word of God, as in a mirror the Glory of the Lord, are constantly being transfigured into His Very Own Image in ever increasing splendor and from one degree of Glory to another, for this comes from the Lord Who is Spirit."

     James1:23-25(Amp) says, "For if anyone only listens to the Word without obeying it and being a doer of it, he is like a man who looks carefully at his own natural face in a mirror: for he thoughtfully observes himself, and then goes off and promptly forgets what he was like. But he who looks carefully into the faultless Law (the Law of Liberty), and is faithful to it and perseveres in looking into it, being not a heedless listener who forgets but an active doer who obeys, he shall be Blessed in his doing, his life of obedience."

     God's Word is a mirror that reflects back to us, who we've now become through Jesus, as God's new creation family.  God's Word is the Faultless Law of Liberty, which reflects who we are now in this new creation and not who we once were.  Through Jesus, we've been created righteous, pure, holy, justified, and joint heirs with Him. 

     This is not what we've been taught over the years, which fosters mistrust in what God's Word says about the new creation beings.  Religion has left us fearful of being full of pride, so we continue seeing ourselves as unworthy sinners and unrighteous in God's eyes.  If God made us a new creation, then did He create us like we were when we came to Him?  Or, did God create us in the image He intended us to be, as His family?

     If God left us like we were, then we're not new creations, but we're left to be tolerated and not accepted by Him.  God chose us to be His very Own children and created us to be exactly that, without spot or wrinkle, in Jesus.  This is by God's choosing and not ours.  Do we still make mistakes?  Of course, but these mistakes grow smaller as we develop our new creation spirit, making it stronger and more mature in Him.

     Our problem isn't that what Jesus did isn't enough, but that we have walked in the flesh and carnal mind, maintaining the habits from who we were before being born-again.  We thought like the world, talked like the world, were raised by the world and we're now faced with an entirely new way of living and need to be taught anew by the Spirit.  This is why Paul instructed in Rom.12:2(Amp), saying, "Do not be conformed to this world (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, so that you may prove for yourselves what is the Good and acceptable and perfect will of God, even the thing which is Good and acceptable and perfect in His sight for you."  What is Good, acceptable and perfect in His sight?  The new creation man/woman who was created by His Own will for Himself, as His very Own children. 

      God doesn't find it pleasing and Good, when we deny what He has done in us, by Jesus.  Heb.11:6(Amp) says, "But without faith it is impossible to please or be satisfactory to Him. For whoever would come near to God must necessarily believe that God exists and that He is the Rewarder of those who earnestly and diligently seek Him out."  We can only cone near to God by right standing, not in our own right standing, but by faith in God's Free Gift of Righteousness.  If we don't have faith in this Gift of Righteousness, then we won't come near Him in confidence.

     We must develop our new creation man/woman, so we can come before God in confidence and with the assurance.  We must have faith in what God has done for us in Jesus and by His Blood Sacrifice, making us new creatures altogether.

Developing the New Creation Lesson 91

     2Cor.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."

     We have received the Gift of God's Grace, by faith in Jesus' Sacrifice.  God's Grace has provided the removal of our sins and trespasses and has given us His Own Righteousness.  Rom.5:17(Amp) says, "For if by one man's trespass (lapse, offense), death reigned through that one (Adam), much more surely will those who receive God's overflowing Grace (unmerited favor) and the free Gift of Righteousness, putting them in right standing with Himself, reign as kings in life through the One Man Jesus Christ (the Messiah, the Anointed One)."

     If we do not accept the free Gift of God's Grace, then it will not benefit us.  If we do not accept and reject this Gift, then it offends the One Who offered it.  None who are born-again would ever seek to offend our Lord Jesus, but that's what we're doing when we reject the Gifts He offers.  He is at a loss to deliver us, when we reject the Gifts He offers.  Some believe it's "prideful," to consider ourselves righteous, but it's pride that leads us to disbelieve and reject the Gift of Righteousness.

     Believing and receiving God's free Gift of Righteous, will make a great difference in the new creation child of God.  We believe that we've been placed in right standing with God, through Jesus, which builds confidence in our prayers and faith for all God has done through the Blood of our Sacrifice Lamb.  John writes about the Life we now have in Jesus and the fellowship we have with the Father, in 1John5:14-15(Amp) saying, "And this is the confidence, the assurance, the privilege of boldness, which we have in Him; we are sure that if we ask anything (make any request) according to His will (in agreement with His Own Plan), He listens to and hears us. And if, since we positively know that He listens to us in whatever we ask, we also know with settled and absolute knowledge that we have granted us as our present possessions the requests made of Him."
     How do we know God's will?  We must be in His Word enough to know what God has granted us through Calvary's cross and Jesus' Blood.  If Jesus bore it for us, then we are, by His will, exempted from it.  Our sins and death were placed on Jesus, so it's God's will that we, by accepting Jesus, receive by faith, the remission and extraction of sin and death.  We are heirs of God and joint heirs with Jesus, according to Rom.8:17(Amp), which says, "And if we are His children, then we are His heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, sharing His inheritance with Him; only we must share His suffering if we are to share His Glory."

     The suffering we share with Jesus, is being mocked and rejected by others, not being sick or depressed.  Jesus bore the Curse of the Law for us.  We must identify with Jesus' Sacrifice on Calvary, in order to share His suffering.  We share His death by dying with Him, as though we were nailed to the cross ourselves.  When we know in our hearts that Jesus did all this for us, we can have confidence in our hearts and minds, knowing that we were also raised with Him into His Glory.

     If we believe that God is still holding us accountable for the old creature we were, then it will be impossible to truly walk and have faith in the new creation man/woman God made us to be.  Paul writes in Gal.2:20(Amp), "I have been crucified with Christ (in Him I have shared His crucifixion); it is no longer I who live, but Christ (the Messiah) lives in me; and the life I now live in the body I live by faith in and adherence to and reliance on and complete trust in the Son of God, Who Loved me and gave Himself up for me."

     We don't receive Jesus' suffering on the cross, when we believe that we're sick because "God is testing us."  We must identify with Jesus and share His suffering for us, so we can understand the extent of what Calvary has granted to us, by Him.  We're not in sin, if we get sick and God isn't testing us, when we get sick.  It simply means that we don't understand the full effect of what Jesus has accomplished for us on the cross.  We share in Jesus' suffering, so we don't have to endure it.  

     As joint heirs of Jesus, we haven't inherited sickness, disease, poverty, fear, captivity, sin or death, but we're inherited what He died to restore us back to, which is the fullness of God's Love.  Jesus was justified and seated at God's Right Hand, and we must truly understand that He has made us free and fellow heirs, sharing His Glory and inheritance.

     If we believe that God is trying to teach us by making us sick, then we haven't shared in His suffering and have laid ourselves open to the enemy's deception.  If we don't receive the Father's Free Gift, even though it's Priceless, then it will not profit us.  Salvation has been offered to the entire world, but many have rejected this Gift.  The Father has offered it, but they haven't yet received it, for one reason or another.  When we receive the Gift of Salvation, the rest of God's Gifts are ours also, because we've become heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ.  This Gift comes by faith and is ours to enjoy, as part of our inheritance.

Developing the New Creation Lesson 90

      2Cor.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."

     Witnessing the things occurring under this present Administration in America, leads me to Ex.1:8(Amp), which says, "Now a new king arose over Egypt who did not know Joseph."  I see a pharaoh, who is trying to make himself god over the American people.  Looking at the things the world is showing us can be overwhelming, but this is why we look to Jesus, Who is the "Author and Finisher of our faith."

     We must keep our eyes on our Heavenly Father and His Promises, which are all "Yes and Amen to His Praise and Glory in Christ Jesus," so our discouragements turn once again to victory.  There might be giants in the Land, but we serve the One Who is Greater than them.  In these Last Days, God is looking for people who will take the Land and believe in Him and His Promises.  This is a Joshua Generation that will simply trust God at His Word and take the Land, instead of dying in the Wilderness.

     Many feel alone in what we're doing, but that is a lie from the enemy.  God is raising up a people all over this Land, who will walk in the Rest He has Promised in His Word.  Joshua took Canaan and we can take back America.  The time has come to put our faith in God's Promise, in Psalm2:8(Amp), where He says, "Ask of Me, and I will give you the nations as your inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth as your possession."

     Things might look bad and things might seem to be in disarray, but we must stand in faith on God's Word.  Heb.4:2(Amp) says, "The Message they heard did not benefit them, because it was not mixed with faith (with the leaning of the entire Personality on God in absolute trust and confidence in His Power, Wisdom and Good); by those who heard it. Neither were they united in faith with the ones (Joshua and Caleb) who heard and did believe."  We're not alone in believing God for deliverance.  God is raising up a people who will enter in and we're called to go with them, instead of murmuring about the giants.

     The mention of "Rest," wasn't speaking about entering into Canaan, because if Joshua had given them rest, then God would not speak afterward about another day of Rest in Heb.4:9(Amp), which says, "So then, there is still awaiting a full and complete Sabbath-Rest reserved for the true people of God."  The Sabbath-Rest refers to our having faith in God, to do what He has Promised to and for us.  This isn't only for when we get to Heaven,  but is our resting in Him now, during our time of trial and testing by the enemy who "knows not Joseph (Jesus).  God never instructed us to give back this Land to the devil, but to stand our ground and retain what He has given us.

     Those who say, "We can't fight city hall," don't understand what our Almighty God can do.  He won't only fight city hall, but He will overcome it for us, if we'll do what He said and "mix faith with His Promises."  It might look dark, but God's Word is True and the Light will overcome the darkness.  This is for all people in all nations, as well as America.

     This isn't about politics, but about Light and dark, in the kingdom.  America is about to enter into her best days, by the Hand of God for His people and for those who are unsaved yet.  The awesome things we read about in the first covenant, are still in the Hands of the One Who did those things to deliver His people.  We must keep our eyes on Jesus, instead of the giants or anything else the enemy tries to show us.  I don't know how He's going to do it, but I know that He is going to do it.

     There will soon be an outpouring of the Manifest Presence of God in this earth, so that even those who don't believe, will surely say, "This is God in our midst."  The eleventh chapter of Hebrews is not yet complete and we will overcome all obstacles by faith in God and His Word.  I look for your name to be written in the Believers Hall of Fame.  The Church isn't going out of here with a whimper and crying, but with glorious and triumphant praise and Glory.  God hasn't forsaken or forgotten His children and "Pharaoh will let His people go."

     We must use the things we learned and have laid dormant in our hearts, because, just prior to His Ascension, Jesus Promised in John14:26(Amp) that, "The Holy Spirit is coming to bear fruit."  Thus, He said, "But the Comforter, (Counselor, Helper, Intercessor, Advocate, Strengthener, Stand-by), 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 (will remind you of, bring to your remembrance) everything I told you."  

     Our having faith in the Power of Jesus' Name, the power of confident prayer, the knowledge of God's will and faith in His Word, will bring about all God has Promised.  We can't only have faith for ourselves, our families and our loved ones, but we must have faith for our nations and the world.  Some in the Church, who don't have faith in the Message they've heard, might choose to remain in the Wilderness, like those who came out of Egypt did.  The giants might look bigger than what they can handle, but we're not the ones who have to handle them.  We only must believe and Rest in God and take the Land He has given us.  God will take care of the giants, as we go.

Developing the New Creation Lesson 89

     2Cor.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 Spiritual condition has passed away. Behold, the fresh and new has come."

     The new creation person is exactly that...a new creation.  We've been given dominion over the enemy, by Jesus' Blood and the Power of His Name.  Jesus forgave us for and removed our sins, so the lying enemy cannot keep us under the condemnation of them, when we come against him with the Name of Jesus.  Many believe that being saved only means that we're forgiven sinners, who will go to Heaven when we die.  This is true, but by God's Grace, salvation means so much more than that.

     Jesus completely removed our sins on Calvary's cross, bore our sickness, removed us from the Curse of the Law, and brought our peace and reconciliation with our Heavenly Father.  Through Jesus, we've been restored back to what God intended His family to be, when He made man in His Own Image.  The same dominion that Adam had, has been restored and we've been given dominion over the spirit world, through Jesus.

     Many Christians haven't heard the full Truth, so we have very little faith or understanding about the Truth of what Jesus Blood has purchased for us.  "Faith comes by hearing," so when we don't hear, then we have applied little faith in what salvation has brought us.  The sin problem was done away with by the Blood of Jesus, so there is no need for another sacrifice for sin and the Blessing.  Our right standing with God or righteousness, has been restored, by faith in Jesus.

     Many in today's Church have heard false teachings about healing and the Baptism of the Spirit, so they believe that, "These things are for only a few people" or "These were only for the early Church."  The Same Jesus Who took our sin, also took the rest of what Adam lost in the Garden of Eden.  We're now restored and created to the intentions our Father had at the beginning.  The things we endure today, were dealt with at Jesus' death and Resurrection.  The earth is enemy territory and we must stand in faith, receiving what our Blood covenant and our Sacrifice Lamb has accomplished for us.  If we haven't heard this, then we won't stand in faith for it.

     2Cor.1:20(Amp) 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."  This doesn't just include the Promise of our sins being forgiven, but the Curse of the Law and the restoration of everything Adam's fall caused.  We've been restored back to God's Original Intent.  Most of us have never applied faith in much else than forgiven and the Promise of Heaven.  Many still struggle with having faith in their forgiveness and live under condemnation of our pasts.

     The Father promised Jesus in Gen.3:15(Amp), saying, "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 heal."  This is one of the Promises we read about in the above scripture, which tells us that, "All the Promises of God are Yes and Amen in Christ Jesus."  This is the ultimate Promise on which all of our salvation rests.  All the Promises the Father made to us through Jesus and now Yes and Amen in Him.

     Luke1:38(Amp) and Luke2:11(Amp) says, "For to you is born this day in the town of David, a Savior, Who is Christ (the Messiah, the Lord)."  All the Promises of the new creation hinged on this Promise being met and has been fulfilled in Jesus Christ.  Every Promise for and to the new creation family of God, is now Yes and Amen (So be it) through the One to Whom this Seed was Promised.  The scriptures tell us that these Promises were fulfilled for and through Him.

     The Promise of righteousness we read about in Is.53:45 has been fulfilled in Jesus.  Jesus has restored us back to right standing with God, which we read about in Is.54:18.  Is.54:17(Amp) tells us, "But no weapon that is formed against you shall prosper, and every tongue that shall rise 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 the vindication which they obtain from Me, this is that which I impart to them as their justification, says the Lord."  The Resurrection of Jesus has made these Promises ours and many more.  If we don't know what these Promises are, then how can we put faith in what the Father has Promises us, in Jesus?

     The world, with man's opinions and carnal thinking, have replaced relationship with God with religion, so many of these Promises have been unfilled in our lives.  It's imperative that every believer read God's Word and hear from Him on our own, besides just hearing from our preacher on Sunday.  Most have lost sight of the Promises in God's Word.  We can't be like double-minded, like James1:8 says.  Many don't know if God is testing, teaching or punishing us or if the devil is trying to steal the Word and destroy us.  We must know God's Promises for ourselves and put faith and trust in them.

    

Developing the New Creation Lesson 88

      2Cor.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."

     1Pet.2:2(Amp) says, "Like newborn babies you should crave (thirst for, earnestly desire), the unadulterated Spiritual milk of the Word, that by it you may grow and be nourished and grow unto completed salvation."

     Every baby must grow and mature, including Spiritual babies.  We're all born with the things that pertain to the life in our natural bodies and the Life in our new creation.  Both require nourishment, in order to develop into mature, proper adults.  Natural children don't know anything that we haven't been taught and this is true for the Spiritual child, who is born of the Spirit.  God's children must learn from His Word and His Spirit, in order to understand "His way of doing and being right,"  (Matt.6:33).

     We don't read God's Word as a religious duty, but we do so, to hear His instructions on how to live this new Life He has given us.  Reading the Word is a matter of education, while understanding it, is a matter of receiving Revelation and discernment from the Holy Spirit.  Many read the Word by carnal knowledge, without having Spiritual discernment.  God instructs us to "Get understanding," in Prov.4:7(Amp), saying, "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, and interpretation."

     We can read the Word in our carnal, educated minds, and still not have comprehension or understanding from the Spirit.  This is true for every are of our lives.  Many dismiss the Spiritual interpretation of what God's Word reveals to us, because they don't have Revelation knowledge.  This only comes from meditating and seeking the Father.  Our believing that God's Promises are only for when we die and go to Heaven, does little or no good to us, while we're in the enemy's territory.

     God's Word is a Living Word, whereby God speaks, guides and keeps us, while we're in this fallen world.  We'll be in the Presence of the Word of God, Who is Jesus Himself, when we get to Heaven, so we won't need to read the printed Word.  Jesus instructed in John6:63(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."

     Jesus told His followers in Mark4:24(Amp), "Be careful what you are hearing, the measure of thought and study you give to the truths 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."  Many things we hear aren't really what the Father says.  We've misread or misspoke the Word and replaced it with what we think it says.

     When Jesus rose from the dead and presented His Blood on the Mercy Seat in Heaven, the new covenant was ratified and all who would believe and receive Jesus as our Lord and Savior, would be under the Blood covenant and become family in the House of the Lord.  Many have received Jesus, without knowing who He has made us to be, by the new creation.  We still see ourselves more as who we once were, instead of who we now are in Him.  We are really who the Father has created and called us to be, even though some don't believe this.  Our true identity isn't found in our opinion or the opinion of others, but only the Truth of God's Word.

     No one can stop what God has done, but in order to fully understand our new creation identity, we must seek God's Word and listen to His Spirit.  If we will only believe what He says about us, instead of what the world or religion says, then we can walk here, like we're already in Heaven.  The only things we must deal with here, is the same things Jesus dealt with while He was here, which are the lies and deception of the enemy.  If we stay on God's Word, having faith in what Jesus has done, then we will keep satan in the realm of the spirit, where he has no defense from the power of the new creation.  Satan will try keeping us ignorant to who we've become and hold us in this carnal realm.

     Jesus said, "The Words (Truths) I speak to you are Spirit and Life."  God's Word keeps us in the realm of the Spirit, where we're always victorious.  When we allow ourselves to be deceived and walk in the natural realm, instead of having faith in the Truth of God's Word, then we'll be open to deception.  Jesus gave "The Parable of the Sower," saying in Mark4:15(Amp), "Satan comes at once to take away the Word that was sown in their hearts."  No seed can produce, if it's dug up and removed from the soil of our hearts.  The devil will use anything he can in this natural realm, to stop the Seed of God's Word from taking root and producing what God has Promised and declared.

     We're been lied to by the enemy, for so long, that we've been convinced that it's "not God's will for us to have what He says" or "These things are for only when we die and get to Heaven."  We must believe God's Word for ourselves.  No one can believe it for us.  It is the responsibility of the hearer, who is each of us.

Developing the New Creation Lesson 87

     2Cor.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 come. Behold, the fresh and new HAS COME." 

     Heb.11:6 (Amp) says, "But without faith it is impossible to please and be satisfactory to Him. For whoever would come near to God must necessarily believe that God exists and that He is the Rewarder of those who earnestly and diligently seek Him out."

     Everything we do in developing the new creation we've become, is based on our faith in what Jesus has already done for us.  We must accept God's Gift of Righteousness, in order to be pleasing to Him and to come near to Him.  We cannot establish our own righteousness or right standing before God, by our good deeds, rituals or works.  We must have faith in Jesus' Sacrifice and receive His Righteousness.

     Jesus said in Matt.6:33(Amp), "But seek, aim at and strive after first of all, His Kingdom and His Righteousness (His way of doing and being right), and all these things taken together will be given you besides."  God's way of doing and being right or His Righteousness, comes by faith in His Gift of Righteousness.  Those under the Law were trying to establish righteousness by the blood of goats and bulls they sacrificed and by observing rituals and traditions.  Rom.3:10,23-24,22(Amp) says, "As it is written, None is righteous (just and truthful and upright and conscientious), no not one."  Those under the Law weren't righteous and their sins were only covered by the blood of bulls and goats.  Paul continues teaching about righteousness in Verses23-24, saying, "Since all have sinned and are falling short of the honor and Glory which God bestows and receives. 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."

     Verse22 tells us, "Namely, the Righteousness of God which comes BY BELIEVING WITH PERSONAL TRUST AND CONFIDENT RELIANCE ON JESUS CHRIST (THE MESSIAH), and it (this righteousness) is meant for all who believe, for there is no distinction."  God has reconciled Himself to mankind through Jesus, but we must by faith, reconcile ourselves to Him and receive what He has done for us through Jesus.  2Cor.5:20(Amp) says, "So we are Christ's ambassadors, God making His appeal as it were through us. We, as Christ's personal representatives beg you for His sake to lay hold of the Divine favor now offered you, and be reconciled to God."

     In order to be reconciled to God, we must by faith, accept what He has offered us through Jesus and receive by faith, believing He has done all that needs to be done to reconcile God and mankind for eternity.  Through Jesus, God has made us righteous by faith and reconciled us to Himself.  We must stop trying to be righteous on our own and reconcile ourselves to the Truth of what He has already done for us, so we can have faith to enter into His Presence.

     Heb.11:6(Amp) tells us that, "Without faith [faith in what He has already done for us) it is impossible to be pleasing and be satisfactory to Him without first being reconciled by faith in what He Himself has provided for us to be righteous (in His standing)."  Trying to be righteous by our own standards, isn't God's way of doing and being right or righteous.  We must reconcile ourselves to Him by faith and believe what He has done for us, so we can freely enter in.

    This doesn't mean that we can live any way we please, but we must follow God's way of doing and being right, which is being obedient to His Word and adjusting our lifestyles to match His Word.  Everything God has is already ours, when we were born-again, through faith in Jesus.  We must reconcile ourselves to God's way and not the world's or our own way of doing, in order to receive what God has given us through Jesus.

     We keep trying to earn what has already been given, instead of reconciling ourselves to God's Word and His way of doing and being right.  Many find it difficult to believe that all God has Promised, has been given to us without our having to work for it.  This is contrary to the world's way of thinking, which says that we don't get anything we don't deserve or work for.  We don't deserve anything in God's Kingdom, but through His Great Love, Jesus has done what no man could do.  He has made us heirs of God and joint heirs with Himself, without our having done anything to deserve it.

    We must renew our minds by God's Word, in order to reconcile ourselves to God's great mercy, Love and Grace.  Our natural minds can't be reconciled to God's way of doing and being right.  Rom.8:7(Amp) says, "That is because the mind of the flesh, with its carnal thoughts and purposes is hostile to God, for it does not submit itself to God's Law (indeed it cannot)."  Reconciling ourselves to the Power of God's Grace, requires our renewing our minds to how we thought before being born-again and created new.  We must put on the Mind of Christ, so we can see ourselves after He has made us to be, instead of who we were before being saved.

     If we could become righteous and justified by our own works, then Jesus would never needed go to the cross for us.  When we deny that we can only be righteous before God, through Jesus.  Trying to be righteous on our own is not having faith and Heb.11:6 says that, "Without faith it is impossible to please or be satisfactory to God."  We can't boldly enter into God's Throne Room of Grace, without fear or shame, unless we have renewed our minds by God's Word and reconciled ourselves to the Truth of His Word. 

     

      

     

 

Developing the New Creation Lesson 86

      2Cor.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."  

     When we were born-again from the Lordship of Jesus, then we're not only saved like the world and some in the Church teach, but we have become new creations.  We're new creations in God's eyes, from the moment we received Jesus and we have no past.  The adversary likes to remind us of who we used to be, but God says we are new creations, with no past or sin to condemn us.

     In order to live free of the bondage of condemnation and guilt that satan tries to keep us under, we must renew our minds by God's Word and see who we are now in Christ Jesus.  Our Heavenly Father sees us as righteous, judged not guilty and sanctified.  He has brought us into His Own family, and made us clean and righteous.  If we'll renew our minds by God's Word, then we'll see ourselves like the Father has now created us to be.  We'll see ourselves through the eyes of the One Who was crucified in and with Jesus.  The wages of sin are death, so we died with Jesus died on Calvary's cross, where He paid our debts.  We are now new creation by and in His Resurrection into Glory.

     Jesus said, "Whomsoever the Son sets free, is free indeed," speaking about how we're free from the past and now have Life with and in, the Father and His Kingdom.  Few churches teach this, so we believe we're just "old sinners saved by Grace."  We were sinners and our penalty was death, but Jesus died in our place and paid the debt we owed.  We are judged in Him and found righteous because of Him.  We're found to be not guilty, in the eyes of the One True Judge of Heaven.

     Here in America, we have a Supreme Court which judges the cases of the people.  When someone is accused or when a controversial law is passed, the Supreme Court might hear and overturn these cases.  God is the Chief Justice of Heaven's Supreme Court.  He ruled and overturned the ruling made against the old man/woman we once were.  He has found us to be not guilty, because Jesus Paid the bill and we don't owe that bill any longer.  The Son has made us free, so we should walk in the freedom from condemnation and guilt.  God didn't overlook or forgive our sins, but He actually removed and completed the penalty for those sins, when He judged u8s in Christ Jesus Who fulfilled that Law, for all who would accept Jesus.

     If we paid off the mortgage on our home, then the bank can no longer repossess it, even if someone paid off that mortgage.  The debt is cancelled and we're debt free from that mortgage.  This is a simple comparison, but it's essentially what happened to us through the new birth in Christ Jesus.  Satan is the "father of lies" and would like us to believe that we still owe the debt, because we weren't the ones who "paid the debt."  We must renew our minds and realize who we've become in Christ, so we can shut out the lies and accusations satan tries slinging against us.  

     God gave Paul the responsibility to preach the Gospel to the Gentiles and it was much different than anyone had ever heard before.  Those under the Law continued trying to make restitution for themselves, instead of allowing Jesus to pay their debt.  Their sacrifices and rituals couldn't set the people free, because the blood of animals only covered their sins.  Only a Man without sin could forever settle the debt for us.  All had sin, so Jesus, Who was sinless, laid down His Life, in order to pay the debt and clear the penalty that a Just and Holy Judge required to be paid.

     The man Adam brought sin and death to humanity, and it would take a Man without sin, to pay that penalty for sin.  Through faith in the Finished Work of Jesus, our entire debt has been paid and we're no longer responsible to pay it.  We only need to receive this free Gift.  When we don't walk under the old condemnation of the adversary, we can enter into fellowship with the Father and He will reveal the fullness of what we, as new creations, have inherited through Jesus.  This is His Peace.  It's not the world's peace, but is His Peace which passes all understanding.  It's difficult to have God's Peace and actually stand in His Presence, when we haven't renewed our minds by faith in the Salvation that Jesus brought and paid for, on our behalf.

     Paul writes about our going "from faith to faith," in Rom.1:17, which is a growing Revelation of the Finished Work of Jesus.  Jesus has done everything needed to be done on our behalf.  We haven't seen it all, but we're growing into it.  It's a continuing Revelation, which won't be totally clear to us, until we get Home.  We can though, see it more clear if we dare to believe what God says, instead of satan's lies.

     All that we've received through Jesus, isn't only for when we get to Heaven, but is now ours, in this world.  Putting these off for only when we die and go to Heaven, is a religious way of saying that we're only "sinners that God can't fix, while we're living in these flesh and blood bodies."  In Matt.19:26, Jesus tells us that, "With God, all things are possible and all things are possible to those who believe."  The limits we put on this are based on renewing our minds and believing what God has said and done for us, in Christ Jesus.

    

Developing the New Creation Lesson 85

      2Cor.5:17-18(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. All things are from God, Who through Jesus Christ reconciled Himself to us (received us into favor, brought us into harmony with Himself)."

     We have been reconciled back unto God, through Jesus.  As believers, we must have faith to receive this reconciliation through Jesus and the Holy Spirit.  You might believe this is automatically done, when you were saved, but it isn't.  Many believers still refuse to accept all that Jesus has done for us, at His Resurrection.  God has made us righteous by actually placing the Righteousness of Jesus, in and through us, but many refuse to reconcile themselves to this Truth.  They consider themselves to be only "sinners saved by Grace."

    God's Word doesn't bear this out, so they're not reconciling themselves to God.  This doctrine mostly comes from those who really don't know the fullness of reconciliation, in terms of God's Awesome Grace, in their hearts.  God's Gift of Grace brought us into His family and it had nothing to do with the life we lived before receiving Jesus as our Lord.  Righteousness was given to us, when we received Jesus, but if we don't know who we've become in the new creation, then we'll continue considering ourselves from the old person we once were.  We must have faith in God's Word, in order to be reconciled in this part of our walk with the Father.  He now sees us as "the Righteousness of God, in Christ Jesus."

    Rom.5:17,19(Amp) says, "For those who receive God's overflowing Grace (unmerited favor) and the free Gift of Righteousness, putting them in right standing with Himself, reign as kings in life through the One Man Jesus Christ (the Messiah, the Anointed One)."  In order to reconcile ourselves to this Truth, WE MUST, by faith in His Truth, accept and receive it to ourselves.  If we continue seeing ourselves as being unrighteous in God's eyes, then our ability to receive answers to our prayer and other portions of the new creation child of God, will be dwarfed.   

     Paul goes on to explain God's Grace to us in Jesus, in Verse19, which says, "For just as by one man's disobedience (Adam's failing to hear, heedlessness, and carelessness), the many were constituted sinners, so by One Man's obedience (Jesus) the many will be constituted righteous (made acceptable to God, brought into right standing with Him.)  Righteousness is a word that has been removed from today's vocabulary and has been replaced by what we think it means.  Righteousness or right standing with God, is a Gift of Grace that was offered to us, when we received Jesus.  Now, in Jesus and the new creation He has birthed by His Sacrifice, we've been restored or brought into existence by the Father.  We've been brought into God's family, through Jesus and have the same ability Adam had before his transgression, to enter into the Very Presence of God, without sin, guilty, condemnation.  We are new creations and are children of the Most High God.    

     The reconciliation God has offered us in Jesus, is already done on God's behalf.  We must however, accept this Gift of Righteousness and reconcile ourselves with Him.  Religion and carnal minds will continue telling us that we are "still unworthy, unrighteous and still sinners.  If we believe this, then will won't reconcile ourselves to the Truth of God's Word, which says this is already ours to enjoy.  When we lack faith in what Jesus has done, we won't be able to enjoy fellowship with the Father in His Presence, like He desires.  And, we won't be able to learn His will and Love, like we should.

     We remain in the Outer Court, like the Old Testament saints, instead of entering the Holy of Holies with Him, when we don't understand the Fullness of God's Grace.  God invites us to come directly and boldly into His Very Presence and His Throne Room of Grace, in Heb.4:16.  God invites us to enter into His Presence, any time we need or want to, His Door is always open.  Christianity isn't just some religion, but it's family and home to the Most Loving, generous and providing Father.  He Loved us, when we were at our worst and welcomes and receives us, as Jesus made us to be in Himself.

     We, of course, make mistakes in this life of the flesh and the world.  I hope though, that if you've truly accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord, in Truth and faith, then you're not deliberately living in sin or aren't growing in knowledge of who you've become in Him.  Grace isn't a license to live any way we desire, but is the Strength of God that keeps His new creation children.  Through Jesus, God has done what no one could do for ourselves, despite how hard we try.  It's only by faith in what Jesus has already done for us, we can be made righteous in His Presence for eternity.

     Paul writes about our going from "faith to faith," in Rom.1:17(Amp).  Our faith in what Jesus has truly done, is an ongoing Revelation that will bring us into the maturity of our salvation.  We will either accept or reject our reconciliation and our right standing before the Father, by faith in Jesus.  Our trying to make ourselves righteous by works and pride in our ability, will never work.  Everything in our salvation, is determined by how much faith we put in His Finished Work.  Because we are already "heirs of God and joint heirs with Jesus," (Rom.8:17), all these things are already ours to enjoy.  We must accept them in faith in Jesus, in order to truly enjoy them in this life and when we get Home to Heaven.  This is our inheritance.  It's not something we work for or can earn, but is what we receive by faith in Jesus' Work for us.

Developing the New Creation Lesson 84

     2Cor.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."  We're the only ones who can develop the new creation we've become in Christ.  We can, like others, attend church and live clean moral lives or we can spend time reading God's Word and fellowshipping with Him.  We can grow beyond the world's ideas of Christianity and become what the Father has planned for us.  This personal fellowship with God is based upon us, not Him.  He wished to be a Father and have a close Personal fellowship with all His children, but not all of God's children spend time getting to know Him.

     God's Door is always open and His Presence is always there for us to enjoy.  Through Jesus, God has opened up the Mystery of His will and His Presence, to all His children.  Many seek Him when things aren't going right and then back off when He fixes the problem.  Then, when they find themselves in another mess, they wonder, "Where is God?"  God is always there, not just in times of crisis, and is longing to fellowship with us and keep us out of the crisis.

     The purpose of Jesus' coming to earth, was to bring God's children home to Him again.  Now that we're new creations and have entry into His Presence, God longs to fellowship and know us as His sons and daughters.  We have access to God's Throne of Grace any time we wish to enter in, not just to ask for help, but to fellowship with the Father.  Those whose faith is small, are those whose time of fellowship is limited and lacking.  We don't only come to Him in prayer or in need, but just talk with and learn to know Him as Father, not just as God.

     I recall President John F. Kennedy's being in the Oval Office with dignitaries from around the world, when his small son called John John crawled into his lap.  The President was "Daddy" to John John, not just the President.  That's what our Heavenly Father desires of us.  Of course He is Almighty God, but He is also our Daddy and wants us to be comfortable in His House.

     There are things we learn in fellowship with Him, that we can't learn by any other means.  We learn the Heart of the One Who Loved us enough to die in our place and returned us back home to Himself.  Many hear God's Word, but don't hear His Heart.  Some view Him as a God of rules and Laws which we're to follow, without understanding His Heart.  All the things in God's Word and the covenant, are for our good and are there to protect and Bless His children.  Any good parent will establish boundaries for their children, in order to protect them from harm.  Our Heavenly Father is no different, except He knows what is ahead, while we don't.

     We need to understand that God's Word and His Spirit will guide us, protect us and keep us safe.  Many disobedient children have lost their lives on this earth, because they failed to listen to the words of their parents or guardians.  Many of God's children have gone Home to be with Him long before their time, because of their disobedience.  God didn't "take them," but He did receive them, when their time on earth was cut short, because they would not hear.  Many today, have lost their lives from drug abuse and overdose accidents.  They were told to avoid and stay away from these things, but they didn't heed the word of warning and believed they could handle it on their own.

     Most of us aren't smart or savvy enough to navigate this world without the Holy Spirit's Guidance.  God created our lives and He knows best how we should live it.  Adam believed that both he and Eve could make it on their own, which cost them everything.  Surely we can learn by his mistake and follow God's way of doing and being right.  Jesus has restored us back into what the Father created for mankind in the beginning.  We don't know how to handle it, but He does.

     The Psalmist write in Psalm119:9-11(Amp) saying, "How shall a young man cleanse his way? By taking heed and keeping watch on himself according to Your Word (conforming His life to it). With my whole heart I have sought You, inquiring for and of You, and yearning for You. O let me not wander or step aside, either in ignorance or willfully from Your Word. Your Word have I hid in my heart that I might not sin against You."  We can't take the new creation being we've become in Christ for granted.  We don't need another religion, but we need to seek a family relationship with our Heavenly Father.

     Christianity was always to be a family relationship with Him and not another religion with rules and regulations.  Jesus came to restore us to unity and fellowship with the Father again.  Many crazy things have come from our misunderstanding our relationship with God.  Some even believe they're to punish themselves by flogging and performing other rituals and traditions, in order to serve God.

     If we acted this way in our earthly families, then people would rightly think we're "crazy."  God's family gives all the Love that the Universe holds, according to 1John4:16-17,18(Amp), which says, "And we know, understand and recognize, are conscious of, by observation and by experience, and believe in (adhere to and put faith in and rely on) the Love God cherishes for us. GOD IS LOVE, and he who dwells and continues in love dwells and continues in Him. In this union and communion with Him, Love is brought to completion and attains perfection in us, that we may have confidence for the Day of Judgment with assurance and boldness to face Him, because as He is, so are we in this world."

     John continues in Verse18, saying that "Perfected Love casts out fear (full grown, complete, perfect Love expels every trace of fear."  Because, John writes, "Fear brings with it the thought of punishment, and so he who is afraid has not reached the full maturity of Love (is not yet grown into Love's complete perfection)."  We love our Heavenly Father, because He first Loved us and gave His Only Begotten Son to die on our behalf and bring us into God's family once again.  This was what God had Planned from the beginning.

   

 

Developing the New Creation Lesson 83

     2Cor.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."

     In order to develop this new creation man/woman of God, we must find out what God's Word says about who we've been made to be in Christ Jesus.  Rom.1:17(Amp) says, "For in the Gospel a Righteousness that God ascribes is revealed, both spring from faith and leading to faith, disclosed through the way of faith that arouses to more faith.  We must have faith in what God has now created us to be.

     The world's ideals about what Christians are, can't reveal the Truth of what God has really done in us.  We can only learn the Truth of who we are now, by God's Word and the Holy Spirit, Who is living in our new creation spirit.  Our body and mind didn't change, so we must renew our minds by God's Word, according to Rom.12:2.  We need to search the scriptures, until we understand what God has done and by faith, receive it in our lives now.

     We don't read God's Word as some religious exercise, but as a means of learning who we are.  If we read the Word, without putting faith in what it says and without accepting what God has done by Grace, then we'll believe this Truth is only for when we get to Heaven.  God's Word provides the new creation man/woman with instructions on how we're to live and conduct ourselves in God's Kingdom.  Jesus prayed in John17:16(Amp), "They are not of this world (worldly, belonging to the world). just as I am not of the world."  This doesn't mean that we're no longer in this earth in our natural body, but we no longer govern our lives only by the world's standards.

     Jesus was in this world or earth, in His natural Body, but He didn't allow the dictates of the worldviews to govern His Life.  He still needed to eat, sleep, clothe Himself, and do the things we're doing while here on earth.  Jesus received direction and Wisdom from His Heavenly Father, which set Him apart from the world.  In the world, there wasn't enough bread and fish to feed the multitude.  The disciples said they would need to leave the ministry and get another job, in order to make enough money to buy food for the multitude.  Jesus received His instructions from the Father and God produced more than enough to feed the multitude, with leftovers.

     The Same Father is now our Father and He will do the same thing in our lives, if we will trust and believe in His instructions.  I'm not saying that we should quit our jobs and wait for bread to be placed on our tables, but our job isn't the only source we have.  God is the new creation man/woman's unlimited Source, if we will put faith in His Word. 

     The worldview says that no person can lay hands on the sick and have them recover.  God's Word tells us in Mark16, that by faith in God, we can lay hands on the sick and the Presence of Christ in us, can remove their sickness.  God's Word must be more real in us, then the world's view of reality, if we're to function in what He has created us to be.  Renewing our minds by God's Word takes time.  We must meditate on it, until we believe it and then God's Promises will be our reality.

     This is for all who will believe in what God says.  Many only believe in what they can see, but we know the wind is real, because we see the damage it causes.  Gravity is real, whether or not we believe it.  Step off a tall building and gravity will cause you to hit the ground below, even if you don't believe it.  We can't see the Holy Spirit or the Lord, but this doesn't negate His Word and dismiss His Presence.  We see the aftermath of a hurricane's winds and we witness God's Mighty works, following those proclaiming His Gospel.  Many miracles and healings have been documented by doctors, who say, "There can be no reason this person was healed, it must be God."

     In order to receive this Truth in our lives, we need to believe in what God has said to and about us, and allow God to do what He says He will do.  We must go to God's Word, in order to know what God has Promised.  God's Word is True, but will not work in an unbelieving heart.  I'm the only one who can stop God's Promises from being manifested in my own life.  They're working in the lives of others who believe and allow them to produce what God says.

     God will do what He says about His new creation family.  We're already Blessed, healed, righteous, citizens of the Kingdom, joint heirs with Jesus,and are sons and daughter who have God's Holy Spirit Living inside us as His Temple.  Our lack of faith and trust in God's Word, prevents it from producing the Fullness of God's Promises, according to "The Parable of the Sower."  Jesus says in Mark4:18-19,20(Amp), "And the ones sown among the thorns are others who hear the Word then the cares and anxieties of the world and distractions of the age and the pleasures and delight and false glamour and deceitfulness of riches and craving and passionate desire for other things, creep in and choke and suffocate the Word, and it become fruitless."  

     God's Word didn't fail, but the heart of those who heard it was filled with other things, which stopped the Word from being sown in it.  Jesus went on in the next Verse, saying that, "Those who received, accepted and welcomed the Word, saw it bear fruit even up to one-hundred times as much."  God's Word doesn't fail.  If we put faith in God's Word and allow the Seed to produce, then we will receive one-hundred fold. 

Developing the New Creation Lesson 82

     2Cor.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."  The new creation is born as a baby and like all babies, he/she must be nurtured, raised up and trained in life.  The new creation child of God is born into Life, that is contrary to the culture and life we were trained up and familiar with.  In order to the new creation child of God to grow into the mature person he/she was born to be, we must be taught from the Spirit realm by God's Word and the Holy Spirit.  The way we learned before being born-again, isn't always the True way of our Heavenly Father.

     Many Christians today depend entirely on what we know and have learned from the world.  If we were taught wrong, whether or not it was intentional, it's still wrong when we teach it to the new child of God.  Many of us only know what we learn in church, much of which is according to our denomination and has little or no bearing on "God's way of doing and being right."  Even though we mean well in what we teach newborn Christians, it still might not line-up with God's Word.  If we were Catholic, then we teach them from our Catechism.  If we're some from another denomination, then we teach them what that denomination believes.  Many don't believe in the Baptism of the Holy Spirit, the Super-natural things of God's Word or that we can still hear from God, when He speaks.

     God's Word is True, regardless of what we might think about it.  Many things have invaded the Church throughout the years, from the teachings of men and women who have good intentions.  Many Christians don't spend much time reading or meditating on God's Word, for themselves.  We rely on what others think the Word says, instead of knowing what it says for ourselves.  Every individual believer is responsible to read the Word and hear from God for themselves.

     Many declare, "God doesn't speak to me," but the Holy Spirit lives in us, speaks to us and will lead and guide us into all Truth.  He will never leave you or forsake you, in all our time, but we must train ourselves to hear the Voice of the Spirit.  There are so many voices in today's world, so we must learn to distinguish the Shepherd's Voice for ourselves.  Jesus said, "My sheep will hear My Voice."  We must learn to listen to His Voice in our new creation man/woman, more than depending only one our natural hearing. 

    When we read God's Word, it is God speaking to us, just as though He was right in front of us.  The world's ideas and culture are mostly against what God's Word says about how God's children are supposed to walk.  As a Parent, God the Father knows what is best for His children and our well-being.  We must be willing to do it His ways, in order to walk with Him like He intended and to prove Himself as the Loving Father He is.  No parent rewards their child's wrong behavior, neither does our Heavenly Father.  

     Many have been taught that certain things in God's Word "aren't for everyone" and that prayer "only works for certain people."  Most of us only know what we were taught before being born-again.  Some were taught a moral code of behavior, but some were not.  Like good students, we've done what society teaches and as good parents, we've tried to teach our children the right things.  Not everything we taught our children was wrong, but it wasn't all they should know, because we didn't have a relationship with the Lord and didn't know what His Word says.  Now we read God's Word and listen to His Holy Spirit, so we can teach them those things.  We did the best we knew how, but now we know God's way of doing the things He has laid up for us and them.

    We learned things before being saved, that we still need.  God's Word doesn't teach us how to drive a vehicle, but we still need to drive according to what we learned.  The Holy Spirit can teach us to beware of things to come, that we didn't learn before being saved.  The Lord has spoken to me while driving, telling me to "Stop."  Thankfully I obeyed and witness a person running a stop sign and would have been broadsided, if I had been moving.  My driving instructor couldn't have taught me that.  My life has been saved many times over the years, because I listened to the Voice of the Holy Spirit and followed His instructions.

     We're responsible for many things in the world we live in, but the Lord can and will, show us how to do them in a way that is safe and effective.  He will lead us in our daily walk through the "Valley of the shadow of death."  There are so many things God does in our lives, which we simply take for granted and might not even be aware of.  God will try to direct our paths for our good and we might not see how He protected us, until we go to Heaven.

     The Holy Spirit will navigate our lives in ways we might not see, while we're living in this natural world.  Many of God's children have left this present life way before they should have, because of self-inflicted wounds.  Habits of the flesh and carnal minded ways of living that we've adapted to over time, are often destructive and deadly.  Paul tells us in Rom.12:2(Amp) to, "Renew our minds with God's Word" and "do not adapt to the external, superficial customs of this world," because some of these are deadly.