Knowing God Lesson 5

      Jesus said in John4:23-24(Amp), "A time will come, however, indeed it is already here, when the true, genuine worshipers will worship the Father in Spirit and in Truth (reality); for the Father is seeking just such people as these as His worshipers. God is a Spirit (a Spiritual Being), and those who worship Him must worship Him in Spirit and in Truth (reality)."

     Jesus tells us in 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."

     Gen.1:27(Amp) says, "So God created man in His Own Image, in the Image and Likeness of God He created him; male and female He created them."  Gen.2:7(Amp) says, "Then the Lord God formed man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the Breath or Spirit of Life, and man became a living being."

     Notice that man was in the Image and Likeness of God, before his body was formed from the earth.  Our bodies aren't made in the Image and Likeness of God, our new creation spirit is.  Jesus was Spirit, before He was flesh.  Jesus said, "When you have seen Me, you have seen the Father," referring to the works the Father did through Him and not to the way He looked in His Human Form.

     All of mankind is spirit, made in the Image of God, but Adam's transgression caused us to be separated from God.  Jesus said in John10:10(Amp), "The thief comes only in order to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have and enjoy Life, and have it in abundance (the the full, till it overflows)."  Jesus was speaking to people who were alive in their flesh, but were dead in spirit.

     When Adam and Eve ate from the Tree in the Garden, they died and were separated from God Who is Life, in their spirit.  They were still made in God's Image and Likeness as spirit beings, but their spirits were no longer united with the Holy Spirit and the Father.  Remember, Jesus said, "It is the Spirit Who gives Life (He is the Life-Giver), the flesh profits nothings."

     Jesus is the Firstborn and is the Head of His Body, the Church, according to Col.1:18(Amp) which says, "He also is the Head of His Body (the Church); seeing He is the Beginning, the Firstborn from among the dead, so that He alone in everything and in every respect might occupy the Chief Place (stand First and be preeminent)."  Jesus wasn't the first person raised from physical death, but Spiritual death.  Jesus Himself raised many from physical death during His earthly ministry, so He wasn't the Firstborn from physical death, but Spiritual death.  Jesus was separated from His Own Father on the cross, like Adam was.  Jesus took our place and bore our punishment.  He was judged as a man and was pronounced "not guilty," by the Judge of all creation.  Jesus was raised for our justification and through Him, we can now be made alive again, to and through God the Father.

     Adam was created a spirit, in the Image of God.  Adam was an individual spirit, but through Jesus, the new creation people have been made to be "one Spirit with God," according to Col.2:9-10(Amp) which says, "For in Him (Jesus) the whole fullness of Deity (the God-Head) continues to dwell in bodily form, giving complete expression to 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."

     1Cor.6:17,19(Amp) says, "But the person that is united with Christ the Lord, becomes one spirit with Him. Do you not know that your body is the Temple (the very sanctuary), of the Holy Spirit Who lives within you, Whom you have received as a Gift from God? You are not your own."

     1Cor.15:44(Amp) says, "It is sown a natural body; it is raised a Super-natural, a spiritual body, As surely as there is a natural body (physical body), there is also a spiritual body."  We're born-again, new creation persons who have already received a new spiritual body which has become the very natural and Presence of God.  God's children will receive a new body from the natural body, when it's raised at Jesus' Return.  1John3:2(Amp) says, "Beloved, we are even here and now God's children, it is not yet disclosed and made clear what we shall be hereafter, but we know that when He comes and is manifest, we shall as God's children, resemble and be like Him, for we shall see Him just as He really is."

     The physical bodies are a house that our spirits live in while we're still on earth.  God says it's already "the Temple of the Holy Spirit, the Ark of the Covenant and God's home on earth.

Knowing God Lesson 4

      John8:19(Amp) says, "Then they said to [Jesus], Where is this Father of Yours? Jesus answered, You know My Father as little as you know Me; If you knew Me, you would know My Father also."

     Many of God's children still debate the "mystery" of creation and Eden, saying they are "Parables."  They question why God made mankind and gave him dominion over all this earth.  Some wonder why there were two trees in the Garden and who was in control of them and why?  And, how did the serpent get into the Garden of Eden?

     If you don't know God, then you don't know the mystery of these questions or know the answers to them.  Did God intend for Adam to fail or did Love give Adam free will to choose for himself?  Let's remember that Jesus was and still is, the Word of God and that He was crucified before the foundation of the world.

     When God put forth His Word over Adam and this earth, it was irreplaceable and "forever settled."  When God spoke His Word, there was no other choice but to "watch over it to perform it."  The Word was made flesh, which was crucified and fulfilled in Jesus.  God's Promise of His Word was made to man and it still stands today, just like when He spoke it.  

     God's Word, Jesus, is still in place like it was in the beginning, whether or not we know or believe it.  Heb.1:5,6(Amp) says, "For to which of the angels did God ever say, You are My Son, today I have begotten You, established You in an official Sonship relation, with Kingly dignity? AND AGAIN, I will be to Him a Father and He will be to Me a Son?"

     Verse 6 goes on, "Moreover, when He brings the Firstborn Son AGAIN into the habitable world, He says, Let all the angels of God worship Him."  It was God's Word that brought His Son to begin with and it was His Word that fulfilled itself when God said, "Today I have begotten You."  The "again" is the fulfilling of God's Word when He said, "Let Us make man in Our Image and Likeness," that created him.  

     God didn't crucify Jesus before creation and before making mankind.  His Word created mankind and it was His Word that maintained itself through Jesus, the "Word made flesh," which cannot fail and is exalted even above His Name.  Psalm138:2(Amp) says, "I will worship toward Your Holy Temple and praise Your Name for Your Loving Kindness and for Your Truth and faithfulness: for You have exalted above all else Your Name and Your Word and You have magnified Your Word above all Your Name."  If His Name is not good and proven, then His Name wouldn't hold honor either.

     When God made mankind and put forth His Word which created him, then God's Word was on the line to perform what He had spoken about mankind and His Word, Jesus, which brought forth mankind into being and was crucified in order to uphold what the Father spoke and was exalted even above His Name.  Mankind would need to be in the true Nature of God, in order to be in His Image and Likeness.  God gave mankind a will, so he/she could make decisions and be sons and daughters, not servants.  God didn't make puppets who would be obedient to the one who pulled the strings.  God made sons and daughters who would walk with Him out of love, honor and respect.  God made mankind to be His family and not servants.  

     Adam had free will to choose for himself, just like we do today.  We're free will agents, who make the decision to walk with God as sons and daughters.  Through Jesus, we decide to accept God's offer or deny it.  God's Word has given us this right.  The serpent in the Garden wasn't a tool God used to test Adam and Eve.  Adam failed to use the authority God gave him, to guard and protect the Garden.  Adam. instead, allowed the serpent to enter.  

     1Cor.3:9(Amp) says, "For we are fellow workmen, joint promoters, laborers together with and for God; you are God's garden and vineyard and field under construction, you are God's building."  Like it was with the First Adam, through Jesus, we've been placed back into what the Father did in the beginning.  We have dominion restored through Jesus.  We have the same job that Adam had and are to guard, tend and keep the garden like Adam was to do.

     Prov.4:23(Amp) says, "Keep and guard your heart with all vigilance and above all that you guard, for out of it flow the springs of Life."  The serpent is still loose and uses the same weapons against God's children.  We must guard the Garden God has chosen.  Matt.18:19(Amp) says that what we "bind or loose, is what God will bind or loose."  Our job is to guard and protect our garden, and not allow the serpent to enter.  Even today, we find there is a Tree of Life and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.  God never told Adam and Eve they couldn't partake of the Tree of Life in the center of the Garden, but the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.  Adam and Eve had the choice and we have the same choice today.  Jesus is the Word and Spirit, and the Tree of Life.  The Tree of Good and Evil is still here too, as is the same serpent.

     Rom.8:6(Amp) tells us, "Now the mind of the flesh, which is sense and reason without the Holy Spirit is death, death that comprises all the miseries arising from sin, both here and hereafter. But the Mind of the Holy Spirit is Life and soul peace both now and forever."  Both Trees are still present today, so we must guard our hearts and choose to eat from the Tree of Life that God offers.

     Gal.6:7-8(Amp) says, "Do not be deceived and deluded and misled; God will not allow Himself to be sneered at, scorned, disdained or mocked by mere pretensions or professions, or by his precepts being set aside, he inevitably deludes himself who attempts to delude God. For whatever a man sows, that and only that is what he will reap."

Knowing God Lesson 3

     Most Christians have some understanding of Jesus did on the cross, when He took our place.  However, we've lost sight of what Jesus did for us in His Resurrection.  Jesus became what we were, so we could become what He is.

     Jesus was separated from the Father, so we could be united with Him again.  Jesus took our failures and spiritual death, in order to give us Life and unite us with the Father.  God made us to be the Righteousness of God, in Christ Jesus.  The most awesome thing that came through Jesus and His Sacrifice, is that He made it possible for be where the Father created us to be, before the transgression in the Garden.

     The Father fashioned us to be His family and to always be in His Presence.  The first Adam fell under the lies and deception of safe, when he accepted the lie satan offered him.  Jesus went into the same place of temptation, but never yielded to it.  He did what Adam should have done, which is use God's Word as His defense against sin.

     We have that same defense that Jesus used, against the trials and temptations of satan.  Eph.6:17(Amp) says, "Take the helmet of salvation and the Sword that the Spirit wields, which is the Word of God."  We must use Spiritual weapons, in order to do warfare in the Spirit realm.  We'll lose every battle that satan brings, if we try to defeat him by carnal weapons.  The first thing a person does in boot camp, is to learn how to use the weapon issued to them.  

     We must know God's Word, in order to use it as a weapon against the enemy and that comes by knowing and trusting the weapons issued to us.  Many believers aren't familiar with the Word, which leaves them defenseless against the enemy's strategies.  We must know God's Word, so we know whether God is putting sickness on us or the enemy is trying to steal, kill and destroy us, so that we can confidently use the Word as a Spiritual weapon against the sickness.

     When we're double-minded about our Heavenly Father and His Word, then we can become prey for the enemy.  We learn the what the weapons of God are and how to use them in 2Cor.10:3-5(Amp).  This scripture tells us that if we don't know the Father for ourselves, then we can be swayed and conform to what others say.  Thus, Paul writes, "For though we walk (live) in the flesh, we are not carrying on our warfare according to the flesh and using mere human weapons. For the weapons of our warfare are not physical (weapons of the flesh and blood), but they are might before God for the overthrow and destruction of strongholds. In as much as we refute the arguments and theories and reasonings and every proud and lofty thing that sets itself up against the true knowledge of God, and we lead every thought and purpose away captive into the obedience of Christ (the Messiah, the Anointed One)."

     Many theories, arguments and reasonings have been taught and passed down through generations, but simply because they're generational, doesn't mean they're true.  Man's reasonings and theories have no power to overcome the enemy, because they are carnal weapons.  God's Church is in a place of doubt and unbelief in God's Word, because we haven't learned God's Word.

     We don't know whether God is our problem or if He's our Answer.  We don't know if God uses trials and sickness to teach us or if He has provided the way to overcome through His Word.  We don't know whether God uses His Word to lead and correct us or if He use the things of the world and flesh to do so.  Some think that God uses satan to fulfill His Plan of Redemption, instead of doing this by Himself.  Why would God even think about using satan to teach or correct His Own children?  Why would God use the very thing that Jesus bore on the cross to redeem us, in order to teach us?

     We somehow still see ourselves as old covenant people, who God deals with by the flesh instead of by the spirit.  We need to be trained by the Word and Spirit.  We must believe in God's Promises and believe what His Word says about who we are now in Christ Jesus.

     Is God still our Healer or does He use sickness to teach us?  Is Jesus still our Redeemer or are we still under the Curse of the Law?  Are we still walking under the Law or did Jesus fulfill all the Law and the prophets, like He said?  We know God through His Word and through Jesus, according to Heb.1:3(Amp), which says, "He (Jesus) is the Sole Expression of the Glory of God (the Light-Being and Outraying or Radiance of the Divine): and He (Jesus) is the Perfect Imprint and Very Image of God's Nature, upholding and maintaining and guiding and propelling the universe by His Mighty Word of Power. When He, by offering Himself accomplished our cleansing of sin and riddance of guilt, He sat down at the Right Hand of the Divine Majesty on High."

     We know God the Father, by knowing Jesus.  Jesus said, "When you see Me, you have seen the Father.  Jesus didn't mean that He "looked" like God, but that everything Jesus did was God doing the work.  If Jesus didn't put or use sickness on people, then God doesn't do it either.  If Jesus didn't hold back mercy, truth or Blessing, then God doesn't do it either.  Jesus taught His disciples about their being cleansed, in order to bear fruit like He did, in John15:3(Amp), saying, "You are cleansed and pruned already, because of the Word which I have given you (the teachings I have discussed with you)."  

     If we wish to be cleansed and pruned, in order to bear more and better fruit, then we must let God's Word and the Holy Spirit to do the job.  We've already been judged and acquitted by Jesus' Blood, so we mustn't look for trails or sickness to do so.  Jesus told us to look to the Word to cleanse and prune us.  Jesus is the Word become flesh, Who is our Source.  Jesus is the Exact Likeness of God.  If Jesus didn't do it, then God doesn't do it either.  We must know Him." 

Knowing God Lesson 2

     Jesus said in John10:10(Amp), "The thief comes only in order to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have and enjoy life, and have it in abundance (to the full, till it overflows)."

    How did the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ, come to the place where we don't know the difference between the Lord and the thief?  We have the individual responsibility to know the Father and nothing can take the place of having a relationship with Him.  To know the Father secondhand by someone else's opinion, can't reveal Him firsthand.  I'm not saying that we should ignore what is taught or said, but we must meditate on His Word and seek Him for ourselves, so we can know the Truth.

     1John2:19-20(Amp) says, "They went out from our number, but they did not really belong to us; for if they had been of us, they would have remained with us. But they withdrew that it might be plain that they all are not of us. But you have been anointed by (you hold a sacred appointment from, you have given and unction from the Holy Spirit), and you know the Truth, or you know all things."

     The Holy Spirit speaks through John again in 1John4:1(Amp), saying, "Try the spirits, whether they be of God."  Thus, he writes, "Beloved, Do not put faith in every spirit, but prove, test the spirits to discover whether they proceed from God; for many false prophets have gone forth into the world. By this you may know, perceive and recognize the Spirit of God; every spirit which acknowledges and confesses the fact that Jesus Christ (the Messiah) actually has become Man (has come in the flesh) is of God (has God as it's source)."

     Many Christians sadly, don't spend as much time in His Presence like we should. but simply take everything that is preached or taught as being the Gospel (the Good News).  We've been taught that God will sometimes put sickness on us, will take a loved one or hold back His Blessing, in order to correct or teach us something.  If this was true, then we wouldn't have needed a new covenant and a new creation.  God had to deal with those under the Law by their flesh, because they were still carnal men/women and dead to Him.

     Under the New Covenant, by which Jesus is our covenant, God deals with us through His Word and by the Holy Spirit in our spirits.  In order to receive and operate in this Spiritual family, we must know and hear God for ourselves, so we don't yield to every wind of doctrine.  James1:6(Amp) says, "Only it must be in faith that he asks with no wavering (no hesitating, no doubting), For the one who waves (hesitates, doubts), is like the billowing surge out at sea that is blown hither and thither and tossed by the wind."  James goes on to explain why a double-minded person cannot receive anything from God,  in the next Verse.  John doesn't say that the answer wouldn't be give, by it would be lost in the person of two-minds or one who is carnal minded, because the carnal mind overrides the mind of the spirit.

     It's true that trials and tests will come to the believer, but they're not by our Father, the Holy Spirit or Jesus.  We must determine who is the thief and Who is our Lord, because they're definitely not one in the same.  We still live in a fallen world, where "the god of this world" tries to "blind the minds of unbelievers," according to 2Cor.4:4.  Someone can be born-again, while not believing what the Word says.  Different denominations teach that certain things have "passed away" or these things were "only for the Early Church."  These are born-again children of God, but they haven't taken the time to study and know the Truth for themselves.

    We must listen to teachings or preaching by our natural ears only, but must seek God's Word whether or not whether we're hearing the True Gospel of Christ.  If we don't know the Father firsthand and for ourselves, then we won't know whether we're hearing someone's else's opinion or God's Truth.  I asked the congregation if anyone "knew the President."  The entire congregation answered, "No."  I asked if anyone they knew, "knew the President" and of course, the answer was "No."  Everything we knew about the President, was based on the news media or personal opinion.  Sadly, this is how many of God's people know the Father.

     Every child of God is granted the privilege of knowing our Heavenly Father firsthand.  This privilege was granted to us by the Power of the Blood of the Perfect Lamb of God.  No child of God has any advantage over another, but we must press into His Throne Room of Grace, not just to seek His Hands, but His Heart.  Prayer might be the greatest privilege ever given to mankind in this New Covenant.  Mankind could never been able to come face to Face with the Creator Himself and address Him as "Father," before Jesus came, died, rose from the dead and ascended to Heaven, where He is seated at God's Right Hand.

     Knowing Him in the Power of His Resurrection, is knowing Him in all of His Risen Glory and Love.  Knowing what He has done by His act of Love, is above all we can ever hope and knowing Him intimately in Spirit and Truth.

    

Knowing God Lesson 1

      John8:19(Amp) says, "Then they said to [Jesus], Where is this Father of Yours? Jesus answered; You know My Father as little as you know Me, if you knew Me, you would know My Father also."

     Many in the Body of Christ today, have different understandings about our Heavenly Father.  Some still see Him as He operated among those under the Law and the old covenant, while others see Him as ignoring His Word and doing whatever He wants to do, because He is God.  Some see Him as using hard circumstance, trials and sickness, to teach and correct His new covenant family.  Some see Him as being the One Who is responsible for all the chaos, sickness, disease, trials and heartache we see around us.

     God's Church should be asking the same question the disciples did in the above scripture.  We should be saying, "Show us the Father."  It's difficult to walk in God's will and Grace, when we don't know what His will is and what His Grace mean for our lives.  The Father reveals Himself through Jesus.  Jesus says on multiple occasions, "When you see Me, you have seen the Father."  How can we say we know Jesus, yet still believe that the Father is the Author of the sickness, trials and heartache among His family?  Many religious teachings have caused God's children to be double-minded and uncertain about our relationship with our Heavenly Father.  If we don't know Him, His purpose and will in our lives, then we will no longer trust in His Word.

     How can we believe that God is our Healer, if we think He's the One Who put sickness on us, in order the teach or correct us?  Jesus made a profound statement in John6:63(Amp), where He said, "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 seem to forget that we're now born-again by the Spirit and our Heavenly Father deals with us, by and through the Spirit.  Jesus said that, "The Words I speak to you are Spirit and Life."  How does a Spirit Father teach, correct, discipline and train up a spirit child?  2Tim.3:16-17(Amp) says, "Every scripture is God-breathed, given by His Inspiration, and profitable for instruction, reproof, and conviction of sin, for correction of error and discipline in obedience and for training in righteousness in holy living, in conformity to God's will in thought, purpose and action. So that the man of God may be complete and proficient, well-fitted and thoroughly equipped for every good work."

     God teaches us how to know and walk in His will and purpose, by His Word and Spirit.  We blame God for so many of the bad things in our lives on God.  This is nothing more than giving satan and unbelief free reign in our lives.  This is because we haven't known our Father and His Heart.  It must hurts God's Heart to hear His Own children, the ones He gave Jesus for, "God is the problem and not the answer."  We've allowed the world and enemy to determine the Person of God to us, instead of God's Word and His Spirit.  We still see Him from the old covenant, instead of the new covenant we've been born-again into.

     In James1:22-23, James, by the Holy Spirit, writes about those who look into the Perfect Law of Liberty, the Word of God, and see who God has made them to be, but then go away from it and forget who they really are.  This is what so many new creation people of God have done.  We see in God's Word, that we are "heirs of God and joint heirs with Jesus and sons and daughter of the Most High God."  We see that we are no longer sinners, but righteous and holy in His sight.  We see that we have access to God anytime and that we've been redeemed from the Curse and are now under the Blessing.  We can see ourselves in the Mirror of the Perfect Law of Liberty, the Word of God, then put down our Bibles and forget what we look like in God's eyes.

     Jesus didn't leave us like we were before being born-again by the Word of God.  He created us in His Own Likeness and Image.  We see what God has done on our behalf, but we're afraid to believe it, because we don't want to appear proud or self-righteous.  We're not made righteous by our own efforts, but we're made to be righteous through Jesus.  When we refuse to believe what Jesus has actually done for us, then we're like those in the Wilderness who refused to enter the Promised Land.  The Holy Spirit cautions us in Heb.3:12(Amp), to "Abstain from the heart of unbelief, like those in the Wilderness, because this limited God in their lives."  This same unbelief will limit what God is able to do for and through us today.