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."
Understanding who we've now become in Jesus, determines how we approach God in faith and prayer. The worldview and God's view of Christians, are completely different. One is perception and the other is Truth. Paul writes to the Church, in Rom.12:2(Amp), "Do not be conformed to this world (age), fashioned after and adapted to its external (superficial) customs, but be transformed, changed by the entire renewal of your mind, by its new ideals and its new attitude, so that you may prove for yourselves what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God, even the thing that is good and acceptable and perfect in His eyes for you."
We've been taught that we're still sinners and not the Righteousness of God. The external, superficial customs of the world, tell us that we "can't be righteous, until we get to Heaven," but God's Word says that we've been created new, are righteous and cleansed by the Blood of Jesus. We've adapted to and conformed to this world (age), because of man-made religion, when the Power of Jesus' Sacrifice has already provided our liberty from the guilt and condemnation of who we used to be, before making Jesus our Savior.
It requires spending time in God's Word, to discover who and what we've been made to be in our new creation being. The above scripture says that we can "know and approve for ourselves, what God's Perfect will is for us." What has God called us to be and what has He called us to do? What is His Perfect, Good and acceptable will for our lives?
Many in today's Church, don't know or understand what God's will is. Paul prays for all of us who make us God's Body (the Church), in Col.1:9-10(Amp), saying, "For this reason we also, from the day we heard of it (their love in the Holy Spirit, Verse8) 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, that you may walk, live and conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to Him and desiring to please Him in all things, bearing fruit in every good work and steadily growing and increasing in and by the knowledge of God, with fuller, deeper and clearer insight, acquaintance and recognition."
Paul continued praying for the Church in Colossus and for all in God's Church, through the rest of the chapter. This prayer is for all who will accept the Truth of his prayer. The Revelation given to Paul, reveals who the new creation man/woman is made to be and what we're capable of doing and how we can know God's will and heart.
Religion and the world tell us that "no one can know God's will or heart. We've been erroneously taught by carnal minded, man-made religion and customs. Paul writes about the Israelites and those who came up under the Law, in Rom.10:2-3(Amp), saying, "I bear them witness that they have a certain zeal and enthusiasm for God, but it is not enlightened and according to correct and vital knowledge. For being ignorant of the Righteousness that God ascribes, which makes one acceptable to Him in word, deed, and thought, and seeking to establish a righteousness, a means of salvation of their own, they did not obey or submit themselves to God's Righteousness."
These people had a "zeal and enthusiasm" for God, but they were without the correct and vital knowledge of Him. Many today have a zeal for God, but lack a correct and vital knowledge of Who He really is and who He has made us to be. Many decide to establish our own way of doing things, which results in our being disobedient and not being submissive to God.
It's one thing to read God's Word and another to believe what we've read. Many have read what God's Word says about the new creation family of God, but are waiting to take our place in His family. We look more on the flesh, with it's unrenewed mind, to accomplish what we desire to be in Christ. Jesus did all the hard work on the cross. Our job is to believe in what He has done and enter into the Rest of God, by faith in what God's Grace has already provided for us.
Our old minds must be renewed, so we can know what we've been created to be. Before being saved, we were trained and brought up in this natural environment. Now that we've been born-again, our natural minds have become stumbling blocks to Spiritual things and insight into them. Our mind has retained things we still need and use in this world. We still know how to spell, drive, dress ourselves and do these necessary natural things, but the Spiritual knowledge we need, only comes through God's Word and His Holy Spirit, Who lives in our new creation spirit man/woman.
There's a big difference between the earth and the world. The world system was established after Adam's fall. It was and is, anti-God. This is why our unrenewed minds must be changed and brought into submission to God's Word. Our trying to reach and know God by the world's standard, is futile and useless, according to Rom.8:7(Amp), which 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."
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