Developing the New Creation Lesson 14

     1Peter 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 be nurtured and grow into completed salvation."  

     We don't read God's Word as a duty or a religious thing to do, even though it's good to read it, but we do so in order to feed the newborn spirit from God.  Every child must be nurtured and cared for, in order to obtain growth and maturity.  We're newborn babies, born of God and as Spiritual children, we must be fed on Spiritual food.  Ham and eggs can't nourish the spirit, only the Word of God can do that.  Jesus said in Luke 4:4 (Amp), "Man shall not live and be sustained by (on) bread alone, but by every Word and expression of God."

     In the old covenant, God established the Law by which mankind was to live, so that He could still Bless and provide for them.  These weren't born-again people and couldn't  truly understand Spiritual things.  Their flesh was in total control and they were led by their flesh.  God could at least hold them in a place where He could still minister to them, by establishing Laws they had to perform and follow.  We're not controlled by the flesh, but are Love controlled.  We walk with God in obedience to His Word and we remain with Him out of Love and not Law.

     God's Love lets us choose to leave and rebel or walk with Him, out of Love for Him.  Paul referred to this walk as being like a marriage between a man and his wife, in Eph. 5:21-33.  Our spouse doesn't stay with us, because they're afraid to leave.  They stay with us, because they choose to do so and because they love us.  I don't need to chain my wife every morning, to ensure she'll be there when I come home.  I know she'll be there, because she loves me and has chosen me as her husband.  She chose me from among the millions of men on earth, not because I'm handsome, rich or famous.  She chose me out of love and her love remains today, after 61 years of marriage.  The love we have for one another, has held us together through good and bad.

     Everything we've done and do, has been done out of the love my wife and I have for one another.  We chose to do these things, out of love.  Love doesn't make us serve God, but Love serves Him with an appreciative heart, because He Loved us so much.  Love will respond to Love, but will resist slavery or bondage by outward sins and fear.  God Loved us because HE IS LOVE.  God wasn't looking to dominate us, but wanted us to Love Him by choice.  Despite how hard we try, we cannot make someone love us.  That is a choice they must make.  We Love God, because He first Loved us and we responded to His Love.

     The covenant we have with the Father, is one of Love and was ratified by the Blood of His Son Jesus.  It's a Blood covenant, but Love furnished the way for us to return to God's Love for His family.  We know from John 3:16, that Love brought Jesus to offer the Blood that Redeemed us.  I don't follow and walk with God, because I'm afraid of what He might do to me.  He gave me the choice to either believe in His Love that sent Jesus, or not to believe.  The scripture says that God sent Jesus that, "Whosoever would believe should be saved."  The choice is ours, but the will and Offer was made to all.

     I don't abstain from sin, because I'm afraid of what my Heaven Father might do to me.  I abstain from sin, because we have a Love covenant together and I would never do anything to jeopardize that relationship or hurt the heart of God.  He likewise doesn't Bless me, because He's obligated to His covenant.  He does so, because He Loves me and now by Jesus, He has the way to Bless me like He always wanted to do.  Sin created a barrier between God and mankind and in order to Bless the people, they needed to walk in total obedience to the Law.  If they failed to do so, then the Blessing was detained.  We don't have a sin barrier, which holds back God's Blessing, because Jesus removed the sin and brought for right standing and righteousness to open Love's Door and to His Blessing again.

     God still wants to Bless, heal, prosper, deliver and be our Father and our God today.  We must trust in His Great Love, where Love died in our place, in order to make God's Blessing available to us again.  It's God's will to Bless us with all Spiritual Blessings for life while we're on this earth.  God can still do what He said, but we must trust in the Love that Promised it.

     We keep trying to jump through religious hoops, in order to qualify for God's Blessing.  Jesus took care of our qualifications, when he ascended to the father on our behalf.  We haven't understood this kind of Love.  The privilege of knowing Him and responding to Him in Love, is greater than anything this world has to offer.  It would be devastating to learn that my wife only stayed with me these sixty years, because she believed she had to or because she was afraid to leave.  God wants us to stay with Him because we want too and not because we wanted something from Him.  When we serve and remain with God in Love, He will lavish everything on us, "According to His riches in Glory."  God wanted to bring us back to Himself, in order to give us all the things He intended to for us in the beginning, before we were even manifested in the earth.  We were in God's heart and Plan, from the beginning.

     Everything God created was for us.  He didn't create the heavens and earth, because He was homeless.  He created it for us, so that He could dwell here with us and we could dwell in Love with Him.  Gen. 1:1 (Amp) says, "In the beginning God."  This doesn't mean that this was God's beginning, but the beginning of the creation He brought forth for His children to live.  God didn't need the heavens and earth to dwell in.  He created it for us.  It was to be like a nursery to God's children.  After seeing that everything was good, God approved it and placed His newborn children in it, to live in.  God furnished the earth with everything His children would need and then gave it to them to rule and enjoy.  God Himself could enjoy teaching His children.  The Father would provide anything His children would need in their nursery.

     Adam and Eve could walk in this natural realm and still be in the Spirit realm, because they were one realm before sin separated them from the Spirit realm.  We must learn how to walk back with God in this Spirit realm, we've been born into.  We can live in the body and live in the Spirit, just like Jesus did in His earthly walk.  There wasn't supposed to be a separation between the body, soul and spirit.  Jesus' Sacrifice has restored into the realm of the Spirit to complete salvation.  We're to walk was one with Him and carry His will out on the earth.

    

Developing the New Creation Lesson 13

     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 is passed away. Behold, the fresh and new has come."

     Newborn babies learn to trust those who take care of them and they learn to depend upon their caretakers for their every need.  They can't take care of themselves, so they depend entirely on the Love their parents or caretakers have for them, in order to meet their needs.  It's a total dependence on the Love of the parents and caretakers.

     1Peter 2:2 (Amp) says, "Like newborn babies you should crave (thirst for, earnestly desire), the pure, unadulterated Spiritual milk (of the Word), that by it you may be nurtured and grow unto completed salvation."  God's Word nurtures us by Love and brings trust and growth to the new creation beings.  Many believers today lack the nurturing of God's Word, which is to train them and meet their needs, as well as comforting them and lead them to trust in the One Who is nurturing them.

     We are unsure about how much and what we can trust God's Word to do in our lives, because wrong teaching has crept into the Church over the years.  If we feed on His Word, then we will learn to trust what God says and believe what He says.  We keep trying to be Blessed and receive what His Blessing has said, when we should be trusting Gal.3:14 (Amp), which says, "To the end that through their receiving Christ Jesus, the Blessing Promised to Abraham might come upon the Gentiles, so that we, through faith, might all receive the Revelation of the Promise of the Holy Spirit."

     The Promise of the Blessing of the Holy Spirit, isn't only speaking in tongues, but is God Himself living in us and bringing His nature, His Love, and His ability, in an through us.  We're no longer limited to our own ability, because the Lord Himself lives within us, in order to meet our needs, nurture and teach us how this new creation child of God is to live.  God is our Father, our Procter, Provider, Healer and Life itself.  Like newborn babies trust their parents or caretakers to care for them, we're newborn babies of the Spirit, who must learn to trust that God won't allow anything to happen to us.  Parents hold their child's hand when crossing the street or when they're walking in public.  Our Heavenly Father holds our hands too.

     We hear and have much to say about the Love of God, but we don't always trust that His Love will care for us in this world.  Jesus prayed in John 17:15 (Amp), "I do not ask that You will take them out of the world, but that You will keep and protect them from the evil one."  This is total faith in the Father and His Word, which brings peace and Rest.  Many say, "You never know what God will do," because we don't trust in God's Word, which caused us to lose faith in many areas of our lives.  God is either still God or He is not.  Either God's Word is True or we're wasting our time reading it.  Many believe that God will only take care of us in Heaven, but God is not helpless and will take care of us while we're here on earth.  

     We trust that He'll care for us in eternity, but believe He doesn't care for us in this temporal life.  This belief has entered into the Church, because some have tried to believe and failed, so they make excuses for that failure, saying, "This doesn't work for everyone."  Just because someone fails in their faith, doesn't mean that we must fail too.  Many have failed to believe and place their trust in God, just like those in the Wilderness did, but not everyone fails.  Joshua and Caleb led the children of those who failed in the Wilderness, into the Promised Land.  Gal.5:6 (Amp) says, "For if we are in Christ Jesus,neither circumcision nor uncircomcision counts for anything, but only faith activated and energized and expressed and working through Love."

     The more we understand and believe the Love that God our Father has for us, the stronger our faith in Him will allow us to trust in His Word for us.  All of God's Promises are already ours, through Jesus.  The above scripture tells us that, "It's not the Law, nor circumcision, nor uncircumcision, but faith that works by Love."  If we don't believe the Love, then we won't trust God at His Word of Love and His Promises won't work in our lives.  If Love and faith in His Love didn't work, then we'd still be lost in our sins.  John 3:16 (Amp) says, "For God so Loved the world, that He gave His Only Begotten Son, so that we should not be lost or perish, but have Everlasting Life."

     This Promise is based on God's Love and will for work for anyone who will believe in His Love.  We only had God's Word and His Love, but we trusted in that Love and became God's children and new creations.  If we can trust His Love in the Promise that Jesus died for us and brought salvation to the world, then we can believe all of His Promises.

     Our faith will work in direct proportion to the trust we put in the Love God has for us.  Faith works by Love.  We've been seeing Medicaid commercials which tell us, "All these promises are yours, but you don't get them automatically, you must apply for them."  All God's Promises are ours, but we must believe by faith, in His Promises.  You are already Blessed through Jesus.  The Blessing of Abraham is already ours, but we must believe and apply faith in what God has said.  Some aren't Blessed more than others.  We are all joint heirs with Jesus, but in order to walk in the inheritance and Blessing, we must believe they are ours by faith.  That faith is not in ourselves, but in His Love for us, that brings these Blessings into this natural realm.

     1John 4:16 (Amp) says, "And we know understand, 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 God, and God dwells and continues in him."  The more we continue in Love, the more we continue in God.  The more we continue in Love, the more God continues in us, because GOD IS LOVE.  We can't continue in God, without continuing in Love.

     Continuing in Love doesn't mean that we stay saved, but the we grow into completed salvation.  A newborn baby is alive and has life, but isn't completed in this life.  As the newborn grows in knowledge and matures in his/her body,  he/she grows into completed maturity and adulthood.  If that person never studied or matured, then he/she is still a human being, but never grew into completed life.  Some children of God haven't never known anything beyond their salvation.  Growing into completed salvation requires faith in God's Love and Trust in His Promises.  We must put faith in and trust in the Love God has for His children.

     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."     

Developing the New Creation Lesson 12

     2Cor.5:17 (Amp) tells us that we're not an "Urban Renewal" project, but we've been made new creatures altogether in Jesus Christ.  We're a new species of being that has never existed in all of God's creation.  Our carnal minds prevent us from seeing the Truth of what God has done for and in us, by Jesus.  The Love covenant that He has brought into being, is stronger and more powerful than anything God has ever created.

     It was because of God's Love for mankind, that He established the Law, whereby the people's sins would be covered, until He could bring Jesus into the earth.  God tried using Grace from the time of Adam, but sin separated the people's spirits from God and the flesh couldn't accept Grace and allow it to lead them.  God needed to govern mankind in the flesh, until Jesus.  "All had sinned," but God's Love accepted the innocent blood of Lambs as covering for sin, instead of destroying mankind.  The blood needed to be renewed daily, so it was shed daily.

     The people were still sinners and "None were righteous," but God's Love fostered the Law to hold back what justice demanded.  Satan used every kind of temptation, trying to provoke God into destroying mankind and bring justice for their disobedience and sin.  LOVE though, NEVER FAILS.  We've misunderstood the awesome power and patience of God's Love for His children.  Some like Noah, found Grace in God's eyes, by doing everything possible to walk according to His Word and live right before Him.  Love provided Grace to those who were seeking Him, by His Word.  Most though, only offered the sacrifices needed to prevent their destruction, by appeasing God and His Law.  God appointed certain days and sacrifices for the people to follow, in order for them to remain covered by the blood.  Very few offered sacrifices to God, because they loved Him.

     The new creation people are to bring our tithes and offerings to God in love, rather than obligation or fear.  We don't "take up" a collection.   We receive an offering brought not to the church, but to the Lord in love and in faith in His Love for us.  God didn't only demonstrate His Love in Jesus, but He sent His Love into our hearts (spirits) by His Own Spirit.  God's Love lives inside the spirit of every believer, in order to show us how to understand His heart.

     The world has influenced the lives of God's people, causing us to trade God's Love for the Law of the old covenant and other man-made laws, by which we're to serve Him.  God's Grace has allowed our good intentions, but has never truly been touched by them.  He wants us to return His Love.  If we really understood the covenant of Love, then we could remove the guilt and condemnation of the old man/woman and walk in faith, in the family position we've been placed in.  We keep waiting for "the other shoe to drop," because our faith hasn't reached into the realm of the Father's Love, whereby we could rest in the salvation He has provided.  Jesus paid the entire bill that Adam's transgression brought onto mankind.  The blood of animals could cover, but not erase the bill we owed from Adam's transgression.  

     The only way one could completely walk in what God had for mankind, was to perfectly walk out the Law and receive the fullness of Blessing.  James tells us that, "If you broke even one of those Laws, then you were guilty of the whole Law."  The only Man Who completely walked it out, was Jesus and in Him, God sees us as having completely walked it out too.  Jesus said that He "didn't come to take away the Law, but to fulfill it."  Not even the Law has a hold on the new creation people.

     Many today, still observe the habits of the Law, especially in their eating habits.  We don't "have" to eat certain things, but we don't have to abstain from eating them either.  We read about someone who knows his/her covenant by faith and one who knows his/her covenant by tradition, in Rom.14.  Paul tells us that "All things are good to eat," but if this brings offense to those who don't understand, then we're to walk in love and abstain from doing so in their presence.  It is sin, when we don't walk out of love for the person who is weak in the faith and doesn't understand the new covenant.  These liberties are for every believer, but those who don't know their covenant of Love are afraid of offending God and receiving punishment for breaking these Laws.

     We're not just covenant people, but through Jesus, we are family.  The covenant of Blood brought us into the full Grace, by faith.  We are heirs of God and joint heirs with Jesus.  By faith in God's Word, we're as much sons and daughters of God, as Jesus is.  We're blood family of the Almighty Creator Himself and He has created us new.  This is His Blood swore oath to us.  God's covenant holds all the deliverance He Promised, but God went beyond covenant and made us His family, by the Blood of Jesus.  

     Genesis 1:12 (Amp) says, "The earth brought forth vegetation; plants yielding seed according to it's own kind 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."  We were created after the Seed or Word of God, after Kind.  1Peter 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."  Everything produces after kind, including mankind, animals, plants, and family.  We're not just covenant, by we're God's Own children and He has Blessed us with the inheritance of a Father to His children, through Jesus.  God created the heavens and earth for us to enjoy, from the beginning.  We lost it through Adam's transgression, but we've received it again through Jesus.

     My wife and I made a marriage covenant 60 years ago.  Our children now carry the DNA of their father, because of this covenant.  They're recipients of this covenant and all we have it theirs to share equally.  Our Father made covenant with Jesus and because to that covenant, we share His DNA or Same Spirit.  Just prior to His arrest, Jesus prayed in John 17:22 (Amp), "I have given to them the Glory and honor which You have given Me, that they may be one even as We are One."  Jesus told His followers, in John 16:14-15 (Amp), "He will honor and Glorify Me, because He will take of, receive, draw upon what is Mine and will reveal, declare, disclose, transmit it to you. Everything that the Father has is Mine. That is what I meant when I said that He (the Spirit) will take the things that are Mine and will reveal, declare, disclose, transmit it to you."  We are joint heirs with Jesus and everything the Father has is His. 

       

Developing the New Creation Lesson 11

      Peter writes about "growing into completed salvation, by the Truth of God's Word," in 1Peter 2:2.  When we won't forgive the old man/woman we were before being born-gain and who died on the cross with Jesus, we can't enjoy the Grace and unmerited favor of our salvation.  We get a fuller picture of completed salvation in 1John 4:17-18 (Amp), which says, "In this union and communion with Him, Love is brought to completion and attains perfection with us, that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, with assurance and in boldness to face Him, because as He is, so are we in this world. There is no fear in Love (dread does not exist), but full grown complete and perfect Love turns fear out of doors and expels every trace of terror! For fear brings with it the thought of punishment, and so he who is afraid has not reached the full maturity of Love, and is not yet grown into Love's complete perfection."

     We must understand the Love that brought us salvation and trust in that Love by faith in the Grace that saved us, in order to understand the complete salvation Peter writes about.  If you believe that you will receive punishment for your old sins, then you haven't grown into the maturity of completed salvation.  We have a Blood covenant with God, which as brought about by Love.  We read about God's Great Love in Gen. 22:7-8 (Amp), when God told Abraham to climb Mt. Moria and sacrifice his son, Isaac. Thus, we read, "And Isaac said to Abraham, My father! And he said  here I am my son. Isaac said, see, here are the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for the burnt sacrifice? And Abraham said, my son, God Himself will provide a Lamb for the burnt sacrifice."

     God's Word tells us that, "There is no forgiveness for sin, without the shedding of blood, in Heb. 9:22 (Amp).  Love provided the Lamb Who would shed His Own Blood, so that His Grace, mercy and unmerited favor could come upon those who would believe.  The covenant of Love was sealed by a blood sworn oath from God Himself.  Jesus was the Surety and Guarantor of the Love covenant, which was sealed on the Blood of Jesus Himself.

     In order to mature in this covenant, we must follow 1John 4:16 (Amp), which says, "And we know (understand, recognize and are conscious of) by observation and by experience and believe (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 God and God dwells and continues in him."

     We have a Blood covenant with God, by the Blood of Jesus Christ and it was Love that held Jesus to the covenant, before going to the cross.  John 3:16 tells us that, "God so Loved the world that He gave His Only Begotten Son."  Only Love could and would, do something this powerful.  It was the Blood that was shed on Calvary's cross that did away with sin and the old sinful man/woman through death, but it was a Love covenant that "sent Himself a Lamb for the Sacrifice," like Abraham prophesied.  

     We don't understand a Love this powerful, because we're still carnal in much of our affairs with the Father.  We think of love as being an emotional thing, but Love is a Person, God.  We lack Revelation of Love, so we're afraid of punishment and Love isn't made complete and perfected in us.  We have very little Revelation of Love and God, which might be why so many have a difficult time seeing God and Jesus as One.

     We see God from the old, first covenant and then have a difficult time seeing Him and Jesus as being One, when we read about Jesus' life in His earthly walk.  Sadly, many believers are waiting for God to punish them, for their past sins.  We know we deserve punishment and can't believe God would just ignore it.  We've failed to realize that Love completely removed the sin and the old man/woman who committed those sin, died on the cross with Jesus.  God now sees us as righteous, justified, pure, holy, and complete in the Sacrifice of Himself for us. C.S. Lewis wrote, "The Son of God became the son of man, so that the son of man could now become the sons of God."  1John 4:17 (Amp) says, "Because as He is, so are we in this world."

     He is not unrighteous.  He is not an old sinner saved by Grace.  He is not unworthy and He is not awaiting the fear of punishment, because perfected Love will cast out fear.  Isaiah 54:14-15 (Amp) prophecies about Jesus and the new covenant of Blood and Love, saying, "You shall establish yourself in Righteousness (rightness, in conformity with God's will and order). You shall be far from even the thought of oppression or destruction, for you shall not fear (Perfect Love casts out fear), and from terror, for it shall not come near you. Behold, they may gather together and stir up strife, but it is not from Me. Whoever stirs up strife against you shall fall and surrender to you."

     This is the maturity of the complete salvation, Peter writes about.  Faith in the Power of His Love and the Price of His Blood, gives us the privilege of having confidence in our Father.  1John 3:19-20 (Amp) says, "By this we know (without any doubt) that we are of the Truth, and will assure our hearts and quiet our conscience before Him whenever our hearts in tormenting self-accusation make us feel guilty and condemns us, for we are in God's hands, For He is above and greater than our consciences, our hearts, and He knows, perceives and understands everything; nothing is hidden from from."  We must renew our minds by God's Word and His Love.

Developing the New Creation Lesson 10

      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 moral and Spiritual condition is passed away. Behold, the fresh and new has come."

     The Church has never truly understood the above scripture, which says "the old moral and Spiritual condition has passed away" and "the fresh and new has come."  Believers of the Lord Jesus aren't just "forgiven sinners," but we are new creations.  There is nothing about the old person we once were, because we've been made new.

     We've spent years trying to change the old man/woman, only to find that he/she was crucified with Christ.  You can't change a dead man/woman, so we must renew our minds with God's Word and develop the new creation person we've become, into maturity of who God created us to be.  The mind or soul is still undeveloped to the truth of who the new creation is in Christ.  We condemn ourselves over what a dead man/woman used to do, instead of teaching the new person how we're to live.

     The newborn child of God or Baby in Christ, has no idea of what his/her potential can do or become.  We've never lived in the realm of the Spirit before being born-again, so we don't know how this new man/woman is to be.  Jesus said in John 6:63 (Amp), "It is the Spirit Who gives Life (He is the Life-Giver); the flesh conveys no benefit whatever (there is no profit in it). The Words (Truths) that I have been speaking to you are Spirit and Life."

     Jesus tells us that, "The old traditions and rituals many practice even today, are the works of the flesh and don't benefit the Spirit Life we're born into."  We've been instructed by carnal minds to worship only on certain days and not to wear jewelry or certain clothing.  These are all things of the flesh and have no benefit in developing the new creation we've been born into.

     The only way to develop a spirit being, is by Spiritual things.  Jesus said that, "God's Word is food and education for the spirit."  1Peter 1:23 (Amp) says, "You've 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."  Peter continues in 2Peter 2:2 (Amp) saying, "Like newborn babies you should crave (thirst for, earnestly desire) the pure, unadulterated Spiritual mile."  The (KJV) says, "You should crave the milk of the Word, that by it you may be nurtured and grow unto completed salvation."

     What is completed salvation?  The word "salvation" doesn't only mean that our sins are forgiven, but that they no longer exist in the eyes of God, our Father.  Under the Law, the blood of animals could cover the people's sin, but it couldn't eliminate the sin, so the sacrifice needed to be continually offered up, in order to keep the people's sin was covered.  The Blood of our Lamb Jesus didn't just cover our sins, but completely removed them.  The old man/woman has been crucified with Christ Jesus, because the wages of sin is death.  The sin brought death to the old you at the cross and the Life of Jesus brought forth a new creation person, who is sinless.

     We've now become new creation children of God, with no sin and faults.  The only way to develop the new creation person and bring him/her into the mature sons and daughters of God and into completed salvation, is the raise him/her in the Life-Giver or the Spiritual Life of God, which is God's Word.  Paul writes in Gal. 2:20-21 (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 by adherence to and reliance on and the complete trust in the Son of God, Who Loved me and gave Himself up for me. Therefore, I do not treat God's Gracious Gift as something of minor importance and defeat its very purpose, I do not set aside and invalidate and frustrate and nullify the Grace (unmerited favor) of God. For if justification, righteousness, acquittal from guilt comes through observing the rituals of the Law, then Christ (the Messiah) died groundlessly and to no purpose and in vain (His death was then wholly superfluous)."

     We keep trying to become what our Sacrifice Lam has already made us to be.  We foster new laws and rituals, in order to become righteous, when Jesus died and was raised again, to set us free.  We're to "grow into the Truth of the Spirit and completed salvation, by the milk of God's Word," according to 2Peter 2:2.  Completed salvation is the Truth that Jesus' Sacrifice has completed everything we're trying to become by our fleshly works.  We can't teach a dead person to do good works and be justified by those works.

     We accept the covenant of Grace, by faith in what Jesus has already done for us.  This is completed salvation.  If we don't accept the Truth that Jesus has completed our salvation, by Grace, then our faith in Him is incomplete.  This leads us to trying to follow self-inflicted traditions and rules.  Paul says in Gal. 2:21 (Amp), this will "Set aside, frustrate, nullify the Grace and unmerited favor of God, and try to validate righteousness and acquittal from guilt by observing rituals and traditions of men to make it valid."  

     We will never accept by faith, the Truth of our completed salvation and will continue in the flesh, trying to finish what Jesus has done for us, unless we renew our minds with God's Word.  This is a miserable place to be.  This leaves us under condemnation and guilt of the old man/woman, even though he/she was crucified with Christ.  It's awful to continuously live with the memories of the dead man/woman and be bound to the guilt of the old person.

     I know many people who are bound to the memories of the old man/woman.  These people are tortured by these memories, even though the old man/woman who was responsible for these things, is dead in Christ.  The old man/woman is dead, but if satan can haunt us with the memories of life prior to being saved and born-again, then he can keep us in bondage.  We must learn to forgiven ourselves and walk in the forgiveness of the cross.  This is how we learn to love ourselves, not the old person who is dead and gone, but the one who now lives in the Truth of completed salvation.

Developing the New Creation Lesson 9

      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."

     Becoming a new creation in Christ Jesus is more than just receiving Him as our Lord, it's learning to let Him be Lord.  He is living in us and is truly Lord of all, but yielding to that Lordship requires work on our behalf.  Jesus is Lord, whether or not we allow His Lordship in our lives, He is still Lord.  Jesus said to His disciples, "Why do you say unto Me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things I command you?"  Many have made Him their Savior, but still haven't made Him their Lord.

     God gave man authority and dominion in the beginning, in the Garden.  After Adam's transgression, dominion was still in his spirit and his soulish part.  That dominion has lost it's true place over the earth, by Adam's sin and it now under the demands of an outlaw spirit, which causes struggles between nations and people for that dominion.  This has caused wars and heartbreak from the very first, because it's not under the Lordship of Jesus, but is still under the individual's authority.  We were never given authority over other men/women, unless it was a position God elevated him/her to by His Own authority, like King David or the High Priests.

     Under the Lordship of Jesus, the authority God gives is to minster His way of doing and being right, by the Spiritual Laws that govern His Kingdom.  When we walk in the Kingdom authority, we're under the Lordship of Jesus.  When we revert to doing things our own way and do the things we did before being saved, we leave the guidance of His Lordship.  This is why we must renew our minds by God's Word and be led by the Holy Spirit.

     We've been born into a new way of life, which is governed by the Laws of God's Kingdom.  It's different than the way we used to live, so we much learn how to actually live, by the Laws that govern Life.  Before being born-again, we were taught and learned in the natural realm.  Now, we've entered into the way God had intended Life to be lived at the beginning.  We're still in these natural bodies and live in the natural world, but through the Lordship of Jesus, we now live in this natural realm by the new Life of God, within our spirits.

     Breaking the old habits and beliefs we lived in before being saved, takes God's Word and the Revelation knowledge of His Word. We want to do as the Spirit leads, but our old habits, traditions, and teachings have been planted in our soulish realm and satan uses them to draw us back under his control.  The "Life" that Jesus said He came to give us in John 10:10, is Spiritual Life and a connection back to God, that we didn't have before.  The Life Jesus gave us, isn't just for when we leave this planet in physical death, but is for while we're still here in these fleshly bodies.  The more we know about the Life of the new creation person, the more control we have over the flesh and blood world.  We're now like Jesus was in His earthly Body.  We were designed to function in both the realm of the Spirit, which rules over the realm of the natural.

     We're born-again and are new creation people, but we don't really know who the Father has made us to be.  Much of our Christian life, has rightly been trying not to sin, but we must now live from our new Life, so that sin shall no longer have dominion over us.  We've been given dominion over sin and it shouldn't even be an option for us.  It's not supposed to be something we fight against every day, but should be so far from us that we no longer are tempted to consider it.

     Our strength comes from our spirit man/woman and is fed by God's Word.  Jesus said in John 6:63 (Amp), "It is the Spirit Who gives Life (He is the Life-Giver); the flesh conveys no benefit whatever (there is no profit in it). The Words (Truths) that I have been speaking are Spirit and Life."  We observe some of the things Jesus said to us, but other things seem not to be important.  John 3:34 (Amp) says, "For since He Whom God has sent speaks the Words of God (proclaims God's Own Message); God does not give Him His Spirit sparingly or by measure, but boundless is the Gift God makes of His Spirit."

     Jesus said in Luke 4:4 (Amp), "It is written,, Man shall not live and be sustained by (on) bread alone, but by every Word and expression of God."  Every Word has power to deliver and bring God's will to pass in our live.  We strive to walk with God, but find ourselves living more in things others say are important and not so much in what God has said.  We've let the Super-natural aspects of God's Word become not important.  Eph. 6:12 (Amp) tells us though, "For we are not wrestling with flesh and blood (contending only with physical opponents), but against the despotisms, against the powers, against the master spirits who are the world rulers of this present darkness, against eh spirit forces of wickedness in the heavenly Supernatural sphere."

     We don't see most of the problems caused by Spiritual things, with our natural eyes, but only through the Holy Spirit and His eyes.  Everything is subject to the Name and Authority of Jesus and we've been given that Name to use in our deliverance and the deliverance of others.  We must first recognize that it's a spiritual force, which is being used against us, in order to be free from it.  

     Prov. 24:10 (Amp) says, "If you faint in the day of adversity, your strength is small" and Prov. 18:14 (Amp) says, "The strong spirit of a man sustains him in bodily pain or trouble, but a weak and broken spirit who can raise up or bear?"  We must understand that when we strengthen our inner person or the new creation man/woman, it's easier to control the outer man/woman.  We continue trying to do what we know to be right with God, but the old, flesh and soulish man/woman of the past, seems to have more control than he/she should.

     Prov. 16:32 (Amp) says, "He who is slow to anger is better than the mighty, he who rules his own spirit than he who takes a city."  We rule our own spirit, by submitting to the Holy Spirit and Word of God.  We sometimes forget that our life is in our spirit and not the flesh.  Our strength comes out of our new creation spirit, which strengthens and even heals our body and keeps it well.  It's so important that we feed our new creation person the Word of God, on a daily basis.  We go to exercise venues, in order to workout and maintain our body strength, but we fail to keep our spirits strong on God's Word.  We should keep our bodies strong, but we shouldn't deny the spirit which brings strength to it.

Developing the New Creation Lesson 8

     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 Church has been taught for centuries that we are forgiven sinners, but not much else has been accepted as the Truth of the new creation.  We haven't applied much faith in what else happened to us by the cross.  We've mostly lived in the condemnation of our past life before Jesus, with very little confidence in what Jesus' Sacrifice has done for us while we're still here in this body.

     In 1Cor. 6:11 (Amp), the Apostle Paul writes about things that weren't right in the lives of those outside of Christ and unsaved.  Then, Paul writes to those who were in Christ Jesus, by faith in His Grace, saying, "And such were some of you at one time. But you were washed clean, purified by a complete atonement for sin and made free from the guilt of sin, and you were consecrated (set apart, hallowed) and you were pronounced Righteous by trusting in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Holy Spirit of our God."

     Paul goes on in Rom. 1:17 (Amp), saying, "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."  Do we have enough faith in what Jesus did for us, that we believe that what God has done and what He says about those who are new creations?  Can we have faith enough to believe that God sees us as new creations in Christ Jesus?

     The "righteousness that God ascribes," is the complete work of Jesus by His Sacrifice.  If you truly believe you're a new creation, then there's nothing like you, prior to Jesus.  We're new creation people who are acceptable to God, without a past life at all.  If you have a past, then you're not a new creation  This earth and universe has no past, because it didn't exist until God created it.  There's no past knowledge of a universe, before God spoke it into existence.  It's a new creation.

     Rom. 8:30 (Amp) speaks about those whom God had in mind, before He made man in His Image and Likeness.  God desired family and declared and for-ordained that family, before creating Adam.  Through Jesus, we have become what was in God's heart from the beginning.  Through Jesus, we've become a people who are righteous and in right standing with God, at all times.  There's no stain of sin on you or in you, because of Jesus.  God didn't make a new creation who had the same faults and weaknesses that caused His first creation to fail.

     Adam fell through the weakness of his flesh and soulish parts, but the new creation person's flesh and body was crucified and died with Christ Jesus.  A dead person doesn't sin.  We never think of ourselves as being dead into God in the flesh, but alive in the Spirit.  We're made so aware of the weakness of the body we're living in, making it nearly impossible to look beyond that and see the full Truth of our being a new creation man/woman.  We judge ourselves by the old man/woman that used to be our identity, forgetting what God now says about who we really are in Him.  We must accept by faith, what Jesus has really done in our redemption, in order to develop the new creation person we are in Him.

     We accept that our sins have been done away with, but people, the devil and our unrenewed mind keep reminding us who we were before being born-again.  We must renew our minds by God's Word and see ourselves in the Mirror of the Word, in order to see who we are now and live by faith.  Our true life is in our spirit man/woman and the Life we now live is by faith in Jesus.  You can live in the flesh and condemnation or you can live in Truth, which will set you free.  True, we must hold our flesh in line with God's Word, but now we're to live from the spirit man/woman and not the dictates of the flesh.

     Paul teaches the Church about the new creation person in Rom. 8:1 (Amp), saying, "Therefore, there is now condemnation (no adjudging guilty of wrong) for those who are in Christ Jesus, who live and walk not after the dictates of the flesh, but after the dictates of the Spirit."  If we're living under condemnation about who we used to be, then we're being dictated to by the flesh and not the Spirit.  The Holy Spirit will never condemn us about who we were before being born-again.  He doesn't see the person we once were, but sees a new creature who never existed before He took up residence in us and gave us Life.

     Some believe that seeing ourselves the way God sees us is "being prideful."  They ask, "Who do you think you are to are righteous and just before God?""  It's truly prideful to say we're not righteous, because we're declaring that Jesus' Sacrifice wasn't to cleanse us and give us right standing before God.  Jesus' Sacrifice was more than enough and it all came by God's Grace.  When we don't accept God's Grace, we try making ourselves righteous.  If God says we are righteous, then who are we to say He is wrong?  Rom. 8:7 (Amp) says, "That is because the mind of the flesh with it's carnal thoughts and purposes, is hostile to God, for it does not submit itself to God's Law, indeed it cannot."

Developing the New Creation Lesson 7

     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 is passed away. Behold, the fresh and new has come."

     Many in the Body of Christ see ourselves as being only "sinners saved by Grace," which is True, but we have also been created new in Christ Jesus.  We are new creations that have never existed before, just like the universe never existed outside of God's heart and mind, before He created it.  The new creation people didn't exist in God's creation, until Jesus' death and resurrection.  We're not just cleaned-up, polished and renewed sinners, but we're new creations in God's eyes.  We're made Righteous with God's Own Righteousness.

     We've been taught that God sees us as lower class citizens and that we must work to become what Jesus has already made us to be.  We need to understand what it cost God, in order to make us righteous in His sight and we must walk in total thanksgiving for His mercy and favor.  We must live up to what the Father has done for us, in Jesus.  James writes about our looking into the mirror or Word of God and then forgetting what we looked like in James 1:22-26 (Amp), saying, "But be doers to the Word (obey the Message,) and not merely listeners to it, betraying yourselves into deception by reasoning contrary to the Truth. For if anyone only listens to the Word without obeying it and being a doer of it, he is like a many who looks carefully at his own natural face in the mirror; For he thoughtfully observes himself, and then goes off and promptly forgets what he was like."  When you look into a mirror, it shows who you are and not who you WERE.  When you see yourself like the Word shows you to be, then that's the "real" you, which is a new creation.  We're to take away the Finished Work that Jesus did to make us sons and daughters of God.  Jesus' Sacrifice made us righteous, clean, justified, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ and one spirit with Him.  Verses 25-26 go on, saying, "But he who looks carefully into the faultless Law (the Law of Liberty), and is faithful to it and persevere 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). If anyone thinks himself to be religious (piously observant of external duties of his faith), and does not bridle his tongue but deludes his own heart, this person's religious service is worthless, futile, barren."

     When we see who Jesus has made us to be in God's Word and then deny what He has done by calling ourselves "only forgiven sinners" and "unrighteous," then we're forgetting what the mirror of God's Word has shown us to be and disqualify ourselves from God's Blessing, by default.  We've been taught that we're unworthy in ourselves (and we are), but we're no longer in our own selves, but we are in Him.  This is having faith in what Jesus has already done for us, instead of relying on our works to become righteous.  Like a mirror, God's Word shows who we've been made to be in this new creation.  New creations don't have a past, because it never before existed.

     We need to understand what God and His Word have made us to be already.  It's not some future thing.  In His heart and mind, God sees us as already what Jesus made us to be.  Until we understand this in our spirit, the carnal mind and the world's influence, will hold us in this carnal form of Christianity.  We're what God has already made us to be, not what He's going to make us to be in the future. 

     We read God's Own idea of what and who He created us to be from the beginning in Romans 8:29-30 (Amp) which says, "For those whom He foreknew (of whom He was aware and Loved beforehand), He also destined from the beginning fore-ordained them [this was before God made His Own family, Adam and Eve] to be molded into the Image of His Son and share inwardly His Likeness, that He might become the first born among many brethren. And those whom He thus fore-ordained, He also called, and those whom He called, He also justified, acquitted, made righteous, putting them in right standing with Himself. And those whom He justified, He also glorified, raising them to a Heavenly dignity and condition or state of being."  This is what God has already done us in Christ Jesus, but we must be doers and believers of what He says about us, instead of what the world and it's external ideas portray us to be.

     We must let the old man/woman die the death of the cross with Jesus, in order to develop the new creation man/woman.  We must allow ourselves to be raised with Jesus and become the new creation persons Jesus came to restore to the Father.  "The wages of sin is death," so Jesus took our sin with Him to His death and raised a new creation family who died, was buried in Baptism and raised up with Him.  Jesus is the First Born of many brethren and He paid for the wages of sin, by His death.  Jesus paid the debt for all that are in Him and believe in Him.  We're no longer obligated to the Law, but we're alive by Grace.

     Remember, the mirror of God's Word shows who we are and not who we were.  We must not look into the Perfect Law of Liberty and then allow the world to put us back under the bondage of religion and the world's carnal ideas.  We must look into the Perfect Law of Liberty and see who God has already made us to be, in Jesus.  If we're still unworthy, unrighteous and old sinners, then Jesus failed the mission He was sent to do.     

Developing the New Creation Lesson 6

     2Cor.5:17 (Amp) says, "Therefore if any person is ingafted 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 must know how a child of this new creation family is to live, in order to develop  the new creation man/woman of God.  The only way to do this is by God's Word and His Spirit.  We must renew our minds with God's Word, according to Rom.12:2 (Amp) which says, "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."

     Rom. 10:17 (Amp) says, "So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God."  This is Truth and we put faith in something else, by hearing it.  We are new creation persons, born of the Spirit of God, and we must discern what we are hearing.  We're responsible for what we hear.  People put faith in the theory of evolution, by hearing it taught over and over.  What we're hearing will determine our faith in God's Promises and His Plan for us.

     I'm careful about what I hear, even if it comes from ministers and saved people.  In Rom. 12:2, Paul calls the things of "the world and this age," "superficial and external customs of the world."  These things have found their way into the Body of Christ and have undermined the Truth of God for His people.  Jesus tells us that "words are seeds" in the "Parable of the Sower" in Mark 4:24 (Amp) saying,
"Be careful what you are hearing."   We're not to just plant whatever is sown, into the soil of our spirit.

     Prov. 4:23 (Amp) says, ""Keep and guard your heart (your spirit), with all vigilance and above all that you guard, for out of it flow the springs of Life."  When words of doubt and unbelief are sown into our hearts, they diminish the Power of the Truth of God's Word and causes us to be "blown about like the waves of the sea."  James 1:6 (Amp) says, "Being double-minded about what you are hearing will cause you to be unstable, unreliable and uncertain in everything he thinks, feels, decides."

     We've learned many things throughout the years that have come from tradition and not Truth.  Many of God's people say, "If it be Thy will," because they don't know enough about the Truth of God's will is.  1John 5:14-15 (Amp) says, "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 to us our present possessions the requests made of Him."

     Col. 1:9 (Amp) says this about God's will, "For this reason, we also from the first day we heard of it, have not ceased to pray and make special request for you, asking that you may be filled with the full, deep and clear knowledge of His will in all Spiritual Wisdom, in comprehensive insight into the ways and purposes of God, and in understanding and discernment of Spiritual things."

     God has revealed His will for us, in the Person of Jesus Christ.  Heb. 1:3 (Amp) says, "He (Jesus) is the Sole Expression of the Glory of God (the Light-Being, the outraying or Radiance of the Divine), and He is the Perfect Imprint and Very Image of God's nature, upholding and propelling the universe by His Mighty Word of Power."  We can know God's will for us, by the ministry and Life of Jesus.  If Jesus did it, then it was and is, God's will for our lives.  We struggle with understanding God under Law and God under Grace and how God needed to deal with carnal man and the way He can deal with the new creation person by the spirit.  We've tried making both covenants work the same way, trying to take part of the Law and making it work under Grace.  This is mixed seed and will not produce what it is intended to produce.

     The Law won't work under Grace and Grace won't work under Law.  When we try making these two separate covenants work together, then we're showing unbelief in what Jesus did on the Cross on our behalf.  If we're still subject to the Law, then Jesus died for no avail and we're left looking for a way to be right with God, instead of accepting His Righteousness, by faith.

     Gal. 5:4-5 (Amp) says, "If you seek to be justified and declared righteous and to be give a right standing with God through the Law, you are brought to nothing and so separated (severed) from Christ. You have fallen away from Grace (God's unmerited favor and Glorious Blessing). For we, not relying on the Law, but through the Holy Spirit's help, by faith anticipate and wait for the Blessing and Good for which our righteousness and right standing with God, our conformity to His will in purpose, thought and action causes us to hope."

     It's impossible to walk in a half truth, because God doesn't work in half truths, but absolute Truth.  Faith comes by hearing and we're responsible for what we're hearing.  We will place our faith, in what we're hearing the most.  We must rightly divide the truth we hear, and we must divide it at Calvary's cross.  We live under a covenant of Grace and in full dependence on God's unmerited favor to give us what He wants us to have, instead of what we deserve.  We must start screening what we hear and not just rely on what someone else says, in order to develop our new creation man/woman in faith and God's Truth.

    

Developing the New Creation Lesson 5

     2Cor. 5:17 (Amp) says "Therefore if any person is ingrafted in Christ (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."

     God's people have read the above scripture many times, but only the Holy Spirit can reveal what it is saying to us.   When we were saved and born-again, the Holy Spirit created a completely new man/woman living in our spirit.  The spirit that was born anew by the Holy Spirit of God, has brought us from death to Life.  Like babies birthed into the natural realm, we have all the things needed to grow into mature adults, but this requires time and teaching to do.  We've spent lots of time and work, in order to grow our children into responsible adults.  We've sent them to good schools and technical programs, but we haven't invested in the realm of the Spirit world.

     We teach Spiritual principles to our children, that we learned from mostly denominational points-of-view.  We taught them more about religion, than we did reality.  We've dismissed the Super-natural things of the Spirit Life, because the natural man/woman can't understand them.  Rom. 8:7,9 (Amp) says, "The mind of the flesh with it's carnal thoughts and purposes, is hostile to God, for it does not submit itself to God's Law; indeed it cannot."  Paul writes about the new creation in Verse 9, saying we have access to the mind of the Spirit.  Thus, he says, "But you are not living the life of the flesh, you are living the Life of the Spirit, if the Holy Spirit of God really dwells in you (directs and controls you). But if anyone does not possess the Holy Spirit of Christ, he is none of His (he does not belong to Christ and is not truly a child of God)."

     If we are truly born-again, then the Holy Spirit of God dwells within our spirit.  We're not living the life of the flesh, but we're living the Life of the Spirit.  This means that every person who is born of God, has access to the mind and Wisdom of the Holy Spirit.  This changes the entire way we understand what God's Word says, because the Holy Spirit gives us Revelation knowledge.  Carnally minded persons can read and understand God's Word, without truly understanding what is means in the Spirit.  Unsaved people believe that they're already alive, but Jesus says in John 10:10 (Amp). "I came to give you Life."  Our being able to understand and differentiate between natural life and Spiritual Life, comes from God.  

     It's only the Holy Spirit Who can reveal the Truth about the Spiritual death that happened to Adam, when he disobeyed God in the Garden of Eden.  The Holy Spirit can reveal the truth that this Spiritual death was sown into the spirit of everyone born in the natural realm after Adam.  The Spiritual death was a Spiritual separation from God, caused by Adam's sin.  Rom. 5:12 (Amp) says, "Therefore, as sin came into the world through one man (Adam), and death as a result of sin, so death spread to all men, no one being able to stop it or escape it's power because all men sinned."

     This death was entered every person's spirit born into this world, from the time of our conception and comes from Adam's genes.  We inherited this death from Adam and it has nothing to do with our actions.  Some babies are born addicted to heroine, without their ever taking that drug.  So too, sin was born into mankind from the First Adam.  Jesus is the Only One Who can bring Life into our spirit and return us to our Heavenly Father, without sin and death.  This is why Jesus said, "I came that you may have Life."

     If you're born from above, into the Spirit of God, then you have access to what Adam knew before he transgress and so much more.  You now have what Jesus knows and the Holy Spirit will reveal more to you.  The new creation person has access to God's Own Wisdom and His Word is now a Living thing and not just words.  When we understand this Truth, we can better understand what Paul was saying in Rom. 12:2 (Amp), saying, "Do not be conformed to this world or 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)." 

     We can only get past the carnal way of seeing God and knowing His will for our lives, if we renew our minds to the Living Word, by our new and Living spirit of our new creation.  The carnal mind still refuses to see God as He really is.  We've fostered images of God in our minds, but it's only by our newborn spirits, that we can truly know Him.  If we don't renew our minds by God's Word and His Spirit, then we'll hold onto the old traditional way of seeing and knowing God, even after we're born-again.

     Jesus says in John 6:63 (Amp), "It is the Spirit Who gives Life (He is the Life-Giver); the flesh conveys no benefit whatever (there is no profit in it). The Words (truths) that I have been speaking to you are Spirit and Life."