Lesson 8 The REST of Salvation

     When we were born again, it was an eternal life that we received.  The very life of God Himself was placed in our spirit.  We have become one spirit with Him.  In God's heart and mind, we were translated when we were born again according to Colossians 1:13 (Amplified) which says, "(The Father) has delivered and drawn us to Himself out of the control and dominion of darkness and has transferred us into the Kingdom of the Son of His love."
     As far as God's concerned, we're already there.  It's not something He's going to do, but something that's already done.  We're still acting as though we're unsure about whether or not we're going to heaven.  God's brought heaven here to live in us.  Everything He has laid up in heaven, He has given for us to use and enjoy now.  Colossians 2:9-10 (Amplified) says that, "For in Him (Jesus) the whole fullness of Deity (the Godhead) continues to dwell in bodily form (giving complete expression of the divine nature)."  Verse 10 says, "And you are, in Him, made full and having come to the fullness of life (in Christ you too are filled with the Godhead-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)."
     We sometimes read into the Word that the things it says about us are for a time in the future.  God, Who is outside of time, has already done what His Word has declared.  We keep waiting for another time and place in which we can be made holy, righteous and pure before God.  As far as God's concerned; it is finished.  What more can He do to make us clean that He hasn't already done in Jesus?
     We insist on trying to make ourselves more holy by implementing rules and regulations on one another.  We don't believe the truth of God's Word and rely on religious teachings about making ourselves holy.  Paul writes in Colossians 2:18-23 (Amplified), "Let no one defraud you by acting as an umpire and declaring you unworthy and disqualifying you for the prize, insisting on self-abasement and worship of angels, taking his stand on visions (he claims) he has seen, vainly puffed up by his sensuous notions and inflated by his unspiritual thoughts and fleshly conceit."  Verse 19 goes on, "And not holding fast to the Head, from whom the entire body, supplied and knit together by means of its joints and ligaments, grows with a growth that is from God."  Verses 20-22 say, "If then you have died with Christ to material ways of looking at things and have escaped from the world's crude and elemental notions and teachings of externalism, why do you live as though you still belong to the world? (why do you submit to rules and regulations)? -such as Do not handle (this), Do not taste (that) Do not even touch (them), Referring to things all of which perish with being used. To do this is to follow human precepts and doctrines."  Verse 23 says, "Such (practices) have indeed the outward appearance (that popularly passes) for wisdom, in promoting self-imposed rigor of devotion and delight in self-humiliation and severity of discipline of the body, but they are of no value in checking the indulgence of the flesh (the lower nature) (Instead, they do not honor God but were only indulge the flesh)."
     We read what God's Word says concerning the forgiveness of sin, but continue allowing ourselves to be treated (or even treated and spoken of ourselves) like we're still sinners.  God's Word says that we're been made righteous with His Own righteousness and yet, we still act like it didn't happen.  The Word tells us that we're able to use the very power of His Name and authority and yet, we live like it isn't true.  We've allowed ourselves (or put ourselves) in a place where it's for some time in the future.
     All of the religious things we've inistituted to make us feel like we still have something to do with our salvation and it's the very reason we have no rest in His finished work.  The only thing left undone with Jesus' work on the cross, is for us to believe in it.  We cannot rest in the fact that it's already done.  If we will only trust in what Jesus has done, then it's really very easy to live for God.
     Walking with God is easy, whereas, walking in religion and tradition is not.  As we learn through God's Word all that has been made available to us through Jesus' Name, we walk in a place of rest.  The struggles we have on this earth are mostly from those who wish to impose (or oppose) their own ideas of Christianity on us.
     The moment we begin walking in an area of the truth that others don't understand, the trial of our faith is enhanced.  We either conform to popular opinion or we suffer persecution at the hands of others.  The closer you walk with the Lord, the more opposition you encounter.
     It's been this way ever since Jesus came and will probably be this way until He comes again.  There will always be those who won't recognize the power of the Holy Spirit.  This doesn't mean that they haven't received salvation, but that they don't understand what all it means to us for the here and now.  The thought of heaven and being in His presence forever is the things all of us have faith in.  But, being in God's presence now is something we should all have our faith in.
     This is what His "rest" has promised.  It's not just heaven, but heaven on earth as His children.  Surely, His Name has as much power in it as it did when Jesus told His disciples to go and heal the sick, cast out devils and complete all the works He told them to do.  These weren't even born again men.  Surely, there must be more power now that the Holy Spirit lives inside of us and now that He, Himself has taken up resident within us.  It's "Christ in us, our hope in glory."
     We've allowed the world, man's idea of religion and our own prideful flesh to rob us of what we're inherited in Him.  From that day in the Upper Room, until now, heaven has been poured out on us by the very presence of the Spirit of God Himself.  The love of God, the power of God, the Spirit of God, the righteousness of God, being made heirs of God and being joint heirs with Jesus have been poured out on us from the Spirit of God.  About the only thing we've yet to inherit, is a glorified body and that's not far off by the signs of the times.
     Just rest in what Jesus has made ours by His sacrifice.  Don't be concerned about what men might say about you.  If they persecuted Him for saying that He was the Son of God, then they will persecute you for saying the same thing.  Satan would rather have you in a place where he can accuse you, then have you rest in the truth that you've been delivered from him.  Remember, whosoever the Son has freed, is free indeed.

Lesson 7 The REST of Salvation

     We've never really understood the full scale of what actually happened when our Lord was raised from the dead.  Everything Jesus did was for us.  Our Father gave up His only Son so that we could become His very Own family.  Because we're His family, we must be in His very Image and Likeness.  Some people still miss what we say when we say that we're like God.  To the unrenewed mind, like we're being boastful or even blasphemous to declare such a thing.  Even if we say that we're like Jesus, people get very funny in their thinking.
     Jesus didn't think it was boastful to say that He and the Father are One.  We read in God's Word that we've all been made into the Image and Likeness of Jesus.  According to the Word, we have become joint heirs with Christ Jesus and heirs of God.  This isn't for when we get to heaven, but for now.  Now, we are sons of God.  We've been mostly afraid to take our place in the family of God because we're afraid of offending Him.
     Jesus didn't just have authority over the devil when He was raised from the dead.  He always had authority over him.  We were given authority over him when Jesus was raised from the dead.  Jesus didn't need to wait until His resurrection in order to put sickness and disease under His feet.  He always had Divine health when He was here on earth.  This was for us to be able to walk in at His resurrection.  He didn't have to die and be raised in order to be sinless.  He always was sinless.  This was so you and I could be as sinless as He is.
     Somehow, we've put off most of what Jesus did for us for until the resurrection.  What we've failed to understand is that we were raised together with Jesus when He was resurrected.  I certainly don't mean our natural body.  I know that my natural body will still have to be resurrected, but in God's mind and plan, we're already been given eternal life when we were born again.
     1John 4:17 (Amplified) tells us that, "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 Judgement (with assurance and boldness to face Him) because as He is, so are we in this world."
     According to this scripture, we're just like Him as He is now.  Ephesians 2:6 (Amplified) says, "And He raised us up together with Him, and made us sit down together (giving us joint seating with Him) in the heavenly sphere (by virtue of our being) in Christ Jesus (the Messiah, the Anointed One)."  You might say, concerning this scripture, "Yes, but this is only in the heavenly sphere."  Didn't Jesus use His power from the heavenly sphere to walk out His earthly walk?  How else could we ever hope to walk out what we're called to be without the power from on high?
     When Jesus walked as a man on earth, He was the example of how God's Sons were to walk here.  We watched as His Apostles walked in this power and raised the dead, healed the sick, took authority over demonic spirits and dealt with things on this earth.  Were they any more sons of God than we are now?  The same Holy Spirit they walked with is the same Holy Spirit Who is with us now and in us now.  He is the same Holy Spirit Who empowered Jesus at the Jordan River when He started His ministry.
     Paul made a very strange statement for us to comprehend in Philippians 3:10-11 (Amplified) where he said, "(For my determined purpose is) that I may know Him (that I may progressively become more deeply and intimately acquainted with Him, perceiving and recognizing and understanding the wonders of His person more strongly and more clearly) and that I may in that same way come to know the power out flowing from His resurrection (which it exerts over believers) and that I may so share His sufferings as to be continually transformed (in spirit into His likeness even) to His death (in the hope) that if possible I may attain to the (spiritual and moral) resurrection (that lifts me) out from among the dead (even while in the body)."
     Most of us gleaned from this scripture that we may "share in His sufferings."  These sufferings weren't the sufferings that Jesus bore on the cross.  The sufferings on the cross cannot be shared in.  These sufferings were so that you and I could both be free from those things.  We can't share Jesus' sufferings on the cross because that's where He bore our sins.  We couldn't have done that because He is the Only One Who is sinless.  We couldn't have bore the curse of the Law.  Only Jesus could have done that.
     The sufferings Paul spoke about were the things Jesus suffered as a man.  Paul would need Jesus' help bearing up under the scorn and hatred of the people, withstanding the attacks of satan when he stirred up the people and enduring the hardships to preach what he was called to preach.  Even Peter and the other Apostles didn't understand him.
     In order to "finish the course and complete the race," Paul went through things that few of us would even dare undertake.  To be conformed to Jesus' sufferings, didn't mean the sufferings on the cross.  Only Jesus could endure that suffering and He did that (not for us to endure) so we wouldn't have to.  Jesus died in our place so that we would never have to endure the penalty for our sins and trespasses.  We can't do that.
     Paul wanted to know and experience the power that Jesus' resurrection has now exerted over His believers.  What power is that?  The power we now have with Him in His seat beside the Father.  When Jesus was raised, you and I were raised with Him in that power.  When Jesus was given all power in His Name, you and I were given the power of attorney to use that Name in all its power.  When Jesus was declared righteous, you and I were declared righteous.  When He was justified, you and I were justified in His resurrection.  When Jesus was raised, we were raised together with Him and in Him.  When the Father gave Jesus authority in heaven and earth, you and I (in Him), were granted the authority too.
     We've used very little of the legacy granted to us by grace in Jesus.  Mostly, as Christians, we haven't dared believe that this grace and love have delivered us to this place with God.  We keep forgetting that it was our Father Who did this in order to bring us back to His side like in the beginning.  We had nothing to do with it.  It was all His Own doing.  He could have withheld part of our trespass if He wanted to.  He could have left some of His wrath towards us if He chose too, but He didn't.
     Until we understand that it was more that our sins Jesus bore, we will not enter into the "rest."  We keep trying to be that which Jesus has already made us.
    

Lesson 6 The REST of Salvation

     In John 3:3 (Amplified) we read, "Jesus answered him (Nicodemus), I assure you, most solemnly I tell you, that unless a person is born again (anew from above) he cannot ever see (know, be acquainted with and experience) the Kingdom of God."
     2Corinthians 5:17 (Amplified) 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."
     The "rest" that I speak about isn't an extension of who you were, but a new person altogether. We keep trying to be who we were with a better outlook on things.  Our outlook on things now, is an inward look at who we are.  It's not the old man doing better, but the new man doing right.  Paul said that there is no good thing in our flesh and that's why our flesh had to die.  We now live by our born again spirit and its leading and wisdom from the Holy Spirit.
     We still try organizing everything the way we did before.  We try, mostly by our old nature, treating people better, no longer cursing and appearing holy.  These are still deeds of the flesh and willpower. 
     We don't need willpower.  We need to do like Jesus did when He said, "Not My will, but Yours be done."  When we surrender our will over to His will, we walk in His rest.  We're constantly trying to make up for the past mistakes and failures of our old lives.  These things are dead and belong to the old man who died.
     We can never make up for the wrong things we've done.  Only Jesus' death on the cross could do that.  Jesus has gone to the cross, was buried and raised and so were you.  We're no longer living on the side of the cross where Jesus died and was buried, but on the side of His resurrection.  All of these things are new and all these things are of God.
     As long as we continue trying to live on the "dead and buried" side of the cross, we are still trying to do it by our own works.  Only the resurrection side of the cross can produce new life.  That's what Jesus meant when He said that "we cannot see God's Kingdom unless we're born again."  Why?  Because flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God. 
     Only your spirit can see into the new life that we now have.  Even after a man is born again, he cannot see or experience God's Kingdom unless he allows the Holy Spirit to reveal it to him.  2Corinthians 2:14-15 (Amplified) says, "But the natural, nonspiritual man does not accept or welcome or admit into his heart the gifts and teachings and revelations of the Spirit of God, for they are folly (meaningless, nonsense) to him; and he is incapable of knowing them (of progressively recognizing, understanding, and becoming better acquainted with them) because they are spiritually discerned and estimated and appreciated."  Verse 15 goes on, "But the spiritual man tries all things (he examines, investigates, inquires into, questions and discerns all things) yet is himself to be put on trial and judged by no one (he can read the meaning of everything, but no one can properly discern or appraise or get insight into him)."
     When we allow the Holy Spirit to reveal the Kingdom to us, we can see and enter into the promises of the Kingdom.  The carnal Christian puts off the Kingdom for when he dies and goes to heaven.  The spiritual Christian will see and receive and bring heaven down to earth like Jesus did.
     It's not difficult to walk in God's "rest" if we only let the Word by Spirit like Jesus said in John 6:63 (Amplified), "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 I speak (truths)  to you are Spirit and Life."
     We keep rationalizing the Word in our unrenewed minds and cannot see or experience the Kingdom of God because it's not just words, but it is Spirit.  This Word can and does enter your spirit once you're born again.  But, if we try bringing it up from our spirit into an unrenewed mind, then it makes no sense.
     This is why we have so many varying opinions and denominations in the Body of Christ today.  The Word of God is not open to opinions or debate.  It is Spirit and works from the Spirit.  It will invade the natural man's way of doing things because the dead body will receive ability from the Spirit.  This body will only be a vehicle for the born again spirit uses for transportation from one place to another.  It has very little to do with the born again man except for housing the new Spirit to live in. 

Lesson 5 The REST of Salvation

     As Christians, we've come to the Lord by the cross.  We believe that Jesus died for us and we're forgiven and made clean through Him, but we still will not walk in the other side of the cross.  Although we say we believe we're forgiven, we continue to walk in the same sin conscience we did before we were saved.  The other side of the cross is the resurrection.  That's where we were made free.
     If Jesus hadn't been raised from the dead, then you and I would both be lost.  Jesus became sin with my sin and I was made righteous with His righteousness.  It was on the cross where Jesus was made a curse for me, but now through His resurrection, I can walk in the blessing.  These weren't simply things that await me when I get to heaven, but that I can walk in heaven here on earth.
     So often, we keep reminding each other of their sin when God has said that now (because we have accepted Jesus) our sin and trespasses "He remembers no more." We keep identifying with Jesus' bearing our sin, but we haven't actually taking it to the grave with Him.  Jesus died, not being a sinner, but in the place of a sinner.  Jesus died as a curse, but He was risen in glory.  Everything I was, Jesus became.  Now, everything Jesus is, I became.  This great exchange was made in order that we would be born again as a new creation.  Now, God expects us to walk in the cleansing glory of the Risen Christ.
     We have been made so clean, so pure and so holy by Jesus' sacrifice that God Himself has now taken up residence in us.  Of course, you know that a Holy God cannot live in a sinful temple.  Even if the High Priest had sin in his life when entering the Holy of Holies, then he would die.  But, now through Jesus, we've been made so pure by His sacrifice that we've become the temple of the Lord.
     Was our past sinful?  Of course, it was.  That's why Jesus died for us to make us clean.  Now that we've been crucified with Him and buried with Him in baptism, we should also live with Him in His resurrection.  As Christians, we sometimes still identify ourselves more with the cross than in His resurrection.  When Jesus died and was buried, we died and were buried.  When Jesus rose from the dead, we were also raised with Him.  This isn't some future event.  It's a reality for us now.  We're supposed to be living a life of victory and authority in His Name.
      Easter Sunday is soon approaching and we celebrate as His day of glory in His resurrection.  We should celebrate the truth that we were raised with Jesus.  He wasn't the only One Who was raised from the dead that day.  We were raised together with Him.  If we weren't raised with Him in Life, then we're still dead in our sin.
     Nearly all the sermons we hear in church are about Jesus on the cross.  This is the fact that Jesus went to the cross for all who will believe.  I hear very few sermons about us now being without sin and being pure in the Father's eyes.  Somehow, we still act like God looks at us differently than He does Jesus.  The only way God sees us is through Jesus.  When God sees you and me, He sees us from the resurrection side of the cross and not the sin side.
     Romans 6:10-11 (Amplified) says that, "For by the death He died, He died to sin (ending His relationship to it) once for all; and the life that He lives, He is living to God (in unbroken fellowship with Him)."  Verse 11 says, "Even so consider yourselves also dead to sin and your relationship with it broken, but alive to God (living in unbroken fellowship with Him) in Christ Jesus."
     Have you ever thought of yourself living in unbroken fellowship with God?  Probably not.  We still think that ever time we make a mistake, we are in broken fellowship with Him.  We're depending more on our own ability to stay in fellowship than we are in living in unbroken fellowship because of Jesus.
     And, because of this, we're still living (in our own minds) more under Law (based on our performance) than we are in His perfect performance from Calvary to the Throne Room.  Very few Christians I know, are living a life of victory by His resurrection.  We're still putting off our cleansing until we reach heaven.  It is true that, "All have sinned and come short of the glory of God," according to Romans 3:23 (Amplified).  But, what he was saying is that even those under the Law, as well as the Gentile nations, have sinned.  But, in the very next verse Paul says, "(All) are justified and made upright and in right standing with God, freely and gratuitously by His grace (His unmerited favor and mercy) through the redemption which is (provided) in Christ Jesus," Verse 24.
     We have a covenant of Grace and Faith with God because of Jesus.  The Law was fulfilled by the One and last Great Sacrifice Who is the Lamb of God.  There is now, no more sacrifice that can or will be accepted to God on our behalf.  The sacrifice of God's Son on the cross took care of everything and anything that can ever come up on our behalf.
     Because this is a covenant of faith, all grace was made available to every believer when he receives Jesus as his Lord.  However, everything must still be received by faith.  What I mean by this is, even though it's available to every believer, if we won't receive it by faith, then it does not profit us.
     Romans 5:1-2 (Amplified) says, "Therefore, since we are justified (acquitted, declared righteous and given a right standing with God) through faith (it is already done, but we must have faith in it to enjoy it) let us (grasp the fact that we) have (the peace of reconciliation to hold and to enjoy) peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ (the Messiah, the Anointed One)."  Verse 2 goes on, "Through Him also we have (our) access (entrance, introduction) by Faith into this grace (state of God's favor) in which we (firmly and safely) stand. And let us rejoice and exalt in our hope of experiencing and enjoying the Glory of God."
     The "rest" we refer to in our new covenant is that we were made righteous with His righteousness and it can bring peace to us, but only if we accept it by faith.  Even though it's already ours through Jesus, we still must receive it by faith in order to enjoy it.  We have right standing with God through Jesus.  But, if we won't receive it by faith, then we will never enjoy it because we never feel worthy enough to enter into this rest. 
     Even though it's ours in Christ, each portion of our inheritance must be accepted by faith in order to enjoy it.  Our forgiveness comes if we, by faith, only believe what Jesus has done.  Then we can enjoy our walk with God as sinless in His eyes like Jesus is.  We can enjoy our ability to stand in God's presence as clean and as pure as Jesus Himself, because it isn't based on our performance, but His.  Now I can enter His rest.  I no longer have to try and become righteous because I can rest, by faith, in His righteousness.

Lesson 4 The REST of Salvation

     Hebrews 4:1-2 (Amplified) says, "Therefore, While the promise of entering His rest still holds and is offered (today) let us be afraid (to distrust it) lest any of you should think he has come to late and has come short of (reaching) it."  Verse 2 says, "For indeed we have had the glad tidings (Gospel of God) proclaimed to us just as truly as they (the Israelites of old did when the good news of deliverance from bondage came to them); but the message they heard did not benefit them because it was not mixed with faith (with the learning of the entire personality of God in absolute trust and confidence in His power, wisdom and goodness) by those who heard it. Neither were they united in faith with the ones (Joshua and Caleb) who heard (did believe)."
     Here we find the answer to His rest that is promised through Jesus.  Just like them, we haven't allowed our faith to move us into a place of rest.  They did hear, but would not put faith in what they heard.  For whatever reason they doubted, makes no difference.  All that matters is they doubted.
     As new covenant people, we have heard the Good News that came to us by God's Word and His prophets.  Even Jesus Himself preached the completion of the Law through His Own sacrifice.  At one time or another we've read about the cross in His Word from the prophets.  Isaiah 53:1-12 (Amplified) says that, Jesus bore our sins (with the consequences) in Verse 11.  We also read in Isaiah 54 :1-17 that Jesus bore our sickness, our oppression and our entire penalty that was due us, came upon Him.  God declared in Verse 9 that, "For this is like the days of Noah to Me; as I swore that the waters of Noah should no more go over the earth, so have I sworn that I will not be angry with you or rebuke you."
     When God swore that the waters of Noah would never again cover the earth, did they?  Why then, do we have a problem believing God will not be angry with us or rebuke us?  Is it not the same God Who swore?  Why can we believe one part of His promise and not the other?  This lack of faith in God's promise is why we don't enter into His rest.
     God declares in Isaiah 54:14 (Amplified) that, "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, and from terror, for it shall not come near you."  Verse 15 says, "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."
     God has plainly state that because of Jesus, He won't be angry or rebuke us.  He won't stir up strife against us and even oppression won't be for us.  Through Jesus, we are to establish ourselves in righteousness.  Why then is not the "rest" of His truth living in the heart of God's people?  Because, we haven't mixed what God's told us with faith.
     We've used a million excuses why God's Word isn't working in our lives.  We've said that, "None are righteous, no not one" and "healing has passed away" and "God is using this sickness or oppression to teach me" and the age old foolishness of, "You can never know what God may do."
     There isn't any faith in any of these man made excuses that will stand up to the truth of God's Word.  Like the Israelites, we've refused to put faith in His covenant of peace.
     Isaiah 55:8-9 (Amplified) says, "For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are My ways yours ways, Says the Lord, For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts higher than your thoughts."
     God didn't says that we're stupid and He is so much smarter than us.  He says that we need to understand what His promises are by the mind of the Spirit.  In his carnal thinking, man still tries understanding these verses concerning Jesus.  But, God says that His thoughts are higher than our thoughts and we should allow our thoughts to be His thoughts.
     Isaiah 1:18-19 (Amplified) says, "Come now, and let us reason together, says the Lord, thought your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow, though they are red like crimson, they shall be like wool."
     Let me ask you this....If my sins are red like crimson, then what happens to my crimson sins when the red Blood of Jesus covers them?  They are blotted out and are completely invisible in Jesus' Blood.
     Colossians 2:14 (Amplified) says that, "Having cancelled out and blotted out and wiped away the handwriting of the note (bone) with its legal decrees and demands which was in force against us (hostile to us) this (note with its regulations, decrees and demands) He set aside and cleared completely out of our way by nailing it to (His) cross."
     The Blood of Jesus covered the crimson and it flowed together so there was no trace of it left.  We've had this same promise preached to us like (like they did), but we haven't mixed faith with what we've heard.  Fear has risen up in our minds and just like they did, we see the giants in the land of rest and are to fearful to go into it.
      God says in Isaiah that fear and terror would rise up against us, but not by Him.  We've been afraid to trust His Word for anything other than going to heaven when we die.  If that part of the Word's true, then it's all true.  Learn to let His Word be true in your life.

Lesson 3 The REST of Salvation

     Hebrews 4:10-11 (Amplified) says that, "For he who has once entered (God's) rest also has ceased from (the weariness and pain) of human labors, Just as God rested from those labors peculiarly His Own."  Verse 11 says, "Let us therefore be zealous and exert ourselves and strive diligently to enter that rest (of God, to know and experience it for ourselves) that no one may fall or perish by the same kind of unbelief and disobedience (into which those in the wilderness fell)."
     God made a covenant and a promise to Abraham and his seed (which is Christ).  Galatians 3:16 (Amplified) tells us that, "Now the promises (covenants, agreements) were decreed and made to Abraham and his seed (his offspring, his Heir)."  God didn't made a covenant with Abraham and his seed, his descendant and Heir.  God didn't make the covenant with Abraham and his seeds as if referring to many persons.  God's covenant obviously referred to one individual, Who is none other than Jesus Christ, the Messiah.
     Because of His covenant with Abraham, God would and did bring deliverance to all who were in bondage in Egypt.  God didn't deliver them because of their crying, but because of His covenant with Abraham according to Exodus 2:24 (Amplified) which says, "And God heard their sighing and groaning and (earnestly) remembered His covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob."
     Those in bondage in Egypt were delivered simply by God's grace and covenant with Abraham.  Although His promise was actually made through Abraham for Jesus, God honored it even at that time.  This covenant with Abraham was made 430 years before the Law of Moses for the people.  His deliverance came strictly by grace and His promise.  It wasn't based on their works or their keeping the Law (which wasn't in existence yet).
     This promise of the Holy Spirit given o Abraham, was the promise of Life again to a spiritually dead people.  Now, through the covenant of promise based on faith, God can once again walk united with His children like in the Garden of Eden.  In the Garden, there was no need, no shortage, no fear, no sickness and no labor was required to make things work.  Everything was provided by the Father.
     What God wanted the people to do once He brought them out of Egypt, was to trust Him to meet all of their needs and simply rest in His provision.
     Although God provided everything the Israelites needed, they still wanted to do it on their own.  Genesis 2:2 (Amplified) says that God rested because His work was done.  What He wants us to do presently, is to realize that through Jesus, our work is done.  There's no need to work for favor from the Father because it's already been given.  There's no need to try doing good works to receive His blessings because He's already given them.  We don't need to strive to be righteous and have our conscience condemn us over past sins, because Jesus has already provided for our past, present and future. 
     We don't need to do good works and make sacrifice to be blessed and pure.  We do good works because we are blessed and pure.  We don't need to give in order to impress God.  We give because we are impressed by God to do so.  We were to "labor" to enter into His rest and not labor to gain a rest from our works.  What God wants us to know is that everything we can ever need to be back where we belong with Him, has already been provided in Jesus.  2Peter 1:3 (Amplified) says that, "For His divine power has bestowed upon us all things that (are requisite and suited) to life and godliness, through the (full, personal) knowledge of Him Who called us by and to His Own glory and excellence (virtue)."
     God has left nothing for us to do but rest in His finished work.  This doesn't mean that we don't do good works, but we don't do so to gain something (blessings, healings, favor or exaltation) from Him.  All of these things (and many more) have already been provided in Jesus.  All we're required to do now, is to rest in what He has done by faith.
     This covenant of His grace and mercy was made long before man ever thought he could please God by his own efforts.  No matter how hard we might try, we can never please God outside of our faith in Christ.  Our forgiveness isn't based on how hard we try staying out of sin, but on how much faith we place in our sin sacrifice, Jesus.  Our righteousness isn't based on how hard we work to become righteous, but on our faith that Jesus has made us righteous.  We may do good works, but not to become good.  We do good because God has made us good by His grace.
     It's not what we do, but why we do it.  This is the rest that God has called us to enter into.  If we try entering by any other means than grace, then we are back under Salvation through our own efforts.  Self effort doesn't mean no effort, but it's not our self effort that gets the job done.  It's by grace and His efforts.
     Many of us had said that we would die for Him.  He doesn't want us to die for Him.  He wants us to live for Him.  Romans 6:5 (Amplified) says that, "For if we have become one with Him by sharing a death like His, we shall also be (one with Him in sharing) His resurrection (by a new life lived for God)."  This resurrection life is to be lived for Him now and not when we leave here.  We're already living the life of His resurrection here on this earth.
     Romans 6:11 (Amplified) says, "Even so consider yourselves also dead to sin, and your relationship to it broken, but alive to God (living in unbroken fellowship with Him) in Christ Jesus."
     Did you notice how this scripture says we now live in unbroken fellowship with Him?  This is the rest God wants us to realize.  Even when we mess up (and we do), our fellowship with God remains unbroken by faith and rest through Jesus.  Don't beat yourself up with condemnation and futility for your failures.  Rest in His victory and complete glory.
     Romans 5:10 (Amplified) tells us that, "For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, it is much more (certain), now that we are reconciled, that we shall be saved (daily delivered from sin's dominion) through His (resurrection life."  This is the rest God has given.  It's our daily deliverance from sin's dominion through Him.

Lesson 2 The REST of Salvation

     Man's idea of salvation and God's idea about salvation are two totally different things.  Man thinks that if he can be good, accept Jesus as their salvation, stop cussing and attend church, then maybe he can be good enough to get to heaven.  God's idea of salvation is that no matter how hard man works at it, he can never be good enough to get to heaven.
     God purposed that He Himself will remove the barrier of sin that holds man back.  God purposed that the penalty for man's sin must be paid and that He Himself will pay it.  God said that He will give life back to a dead spirit and then will restore the communication lost when Adam sinned in the Garden.  God said that He will not only make man able to reach heaven, but that He Himself will restore heaven back to earth.
     God says that He will take care of the people He made to be His family.  He says that He will break the bond of death and sin and restore His family to grace, life and blessing.  God never intended heaven to be man's home and thus He created the earth.  Heaven and earth were to be one in God's mind.  And, now God and man could inhabit the same space together. 
     We've been taught for much of our lives that God is a Holy God and because man is sinful we can never approach Him.  This is very true.  But, God didn't leave us sinful men.  He did away with sin altogether for those who will believe in the finished work of His Son, Jesus.  Somehow, though,we still act like we're not made righteous in Him.  We say we're forgiven and then spend over half of our time trying to be forgiven.  We confess that God made us righteous through Christ Jesus, but then say that "none are righteous."
     That makes it impossible to enter into the rest spoken about in Hebrews 4:11 (Amplified) which says, "Let us therefore be zealous and exert ourselves and strive diligently to enter that rest (of God) to know and experience it for ourselves that no one may fall or perish by the same kind of unbelief and disobedience (into which those in the wilderness fell)."  Disbelief in God was all that was needed for the Israelites to perish in the wilderness and never enter into the Promised Land.  Psalm 105:37 (Amplified) says that, "[God] brought (Israel) forth also with silver and gold, and there was not one feeble person among their tribes."
     God was their Provide, Protector, Deliverer, Healer.  He provided shade for them in the daytime as a cloud and heat at night as the pillar of fire.  He made manna fall from heaven and provided water for nearly three million people and their livestock too.  The Israelites lived in comfort in the middle of a desert and lacked for nothing.
     The covenant we now have with God is the fullness of His promise to Abraham for Jesus.  In his carnal mind, man still separates God and man.  When he reads with his carnal mind that the fullness of the promise is the Holy Spirit, he doesn't understand the new covenant and separates himself into two places.
     Religion separates the Spirit from the man.  God's plan is to unite man back by the Spirit.  The fall of Adam in the Garden separated man's spirit from the Holy Spirit.  It separated the life of God from man because "the wages of sin is death."  Adam's transgression shut God out of man's spirit.  The promise of the Holy Spirit that God promised Abraham through Jesus, was to unite man and God as one again.  Jesus was to be all that was needed to bring all things back to order.
     Now, by receiving Jesus as our Lord and Savior, by faith, we have the very Spirit of God within our own spirit.  We now have no longer need to sacrifice for our sin.  We no longer need the Law because we live by grace.  And, the Holy Spirit lives in the very heart (spirit) of God's people again.  We don't need words carved on stone to tell us what is right or wrong because we have their very Author living in our spirit.  Hebrews 5:13-14 (Amplified) says, "For everyone who continues to feed on milk is obviously inexperienced (of conformity to the divine will in purpose, thought and action) for he is a mere infant (not able to talk yet)."  Verse 14 says, "But solid food is for full grown men, for those whose senses and mental faculties are trained by practice to discriminate and distinguish between what is morally good and noble and what is evil and contrary either to divine or human law."
     The Holy Spirit will reveal to the spirit of man, the very thoughts of God Himself.  When God reveals His thoughts and heart to us, it's not to say how we're to live in heaven, but how heaven wants to live in the earth.  This was God's plan from the beginning and He doesn't have a plan B.  Plan A is still working and will work much better once we stop fussing over going to heaven and allow heaven to be manifest again on earth.
     Jesus was, and still is, the bridge connecting God and man, heaven and earth.  God didn't send the Holy Spirit to remind us of our sinful past, but to reveal our sinless future.  The Holy Spirit isn't to help us get to heaven, but to allow heaven to walk the earth (through us) once again.  The earth isn't a sinful place, but because the enemy's lies, man has manifested it here.  This earth was created as our home; not heaven.  Romans 8:19-21 (Amplified)  says, "For (even) the whole of creation (all nature) waits expectantly and longs earnestly for God's sons to be made known, (waits for the revealing, the disclosing of their sonship)."  Verse 20 says, "For the creation (nature) was subjected to frailty (to futility, condemned to frustration) not because of some intentional fault on its part, but by the will of him who subjected it-(yet) with hope."  Verse 21 says, "That nature (creation) itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and corruption (and again and entrance) into the glorious freedom of God's children."
    Adam subjected the earth to a bondage of corruption when he turned his authority into the hands of satan.  This earth was made to produce all of the beauty, supply and comfort that God's children would ever need according to Romans 8:19 (Amplified).  It tells us that all of creation is waiting to do what it was created to do.  It's waiting for the "revealing, the disclosure of the sonship of God's children and for God's sons to be made known."
     "Yes, but Brother Jim, that's for when we get to heaven."  NO!  It means that the earth is waiting for God's sons to be revealed.  "Well, yes Brother Jim, that's what I mean. When we get to heaven we will be God's sons."  NO!  When we got born again, we became God's sons.  Now we are called to do what His Son Jesus did and bring heaven to bear on this earth again.
     When are the sons of God to be manifest?  When we get to heaven?  To whom are we then to be revealed?  Everyone who is born again will be made manifest already.  We are to reveal the manifestation as God's sons here on this earth. 
     God wants His children to walk with Him and He will walk with them like He did with Adam before his fall.  If we will rest in His finished work and allow the truth of His Word to truly be made manifest in our lives, then the whole of creation will rejoice at the liberty of what Jesus has done.
     The only hope for the manifestation of His glory being made manifest here for us, is when we enter into His rest.  As long as we are determined to keep this separation of spirit and flesh, we will never see His glory in all of its majesty.  Before his transgression, Adam walked in his flesh and blood body with God in the Garden of Eden.  Jesus walked with God here on this earth in His flesh and blood body.  God and Jesus were One.  You and I are now one with God and He is one with us in these flesh and blood body.  Now, it's no longer me, but the Father in me, Who does the work.
     The Father can reveal Himself through His children again by the promise of the Holy Spirit.  Galatians 3:14 (Amplified) 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 realization of) the promise of the (Holy) Spirit."
     The promise of the Spirit is the born again promise Jesus spoke to Nicodemus about in John 3:3 (Amplified) where He said, "I assure you, most solemnly I tell you, that unless a person is born again (a new, from above) he cannot ever see (know, be acquainted with and experience) the Kingdom of God."
     Now that we're born again, we're back in the family of life through Jesus and restored to what our Father planned in the beginning.  Once again, God and man can walk together as one.  God Himself can once again walk this planet like He did through Jesus.  John 10:30 (Amplified) says, "I and the Father are One."  Now, because of Jesus, a man can be born again and his spirit can receive the life of the Father once more.  Now, through the new birth, God's very Spirit is united with man's born again spirit.  We've now become one with God on this earth because God's very Spirit is united with man's born again spirit.
    Jesus said in John 17:21 (Amplified), "That they all ay be one, (just) as you, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be one in Us, So that the world may believe and be convinced that You have sent Me."  John 14:17 (Amplified) says that, "The Spirit of truth, Whom the world cannot receive (welcome, take to its heart) because it does not see Him or know and recognize Him. But you know and recognize Him, for He lives with you (constantly) and will be in you."             
     This doesn't mean we must go to heaven to receive this blessing, but now heaven has come to earth in the presence of the very Spirit of God and all of heaven's blessing and abundance are made available to man by His presence.  The curse has been fulfilled in Jesus.  The sin debt has been paid, the death penalty was met and now, through Jesus, the blessing can flow unrestricted from the very presence of God's Spirit from within.  Grace and mercy reign now through our accepted Lamb Who has become the door to all the Father has.

Lesson 1 The REST of Salvation

     For as long as the Church has been in existence, we've been struggling to find a place where we feel like we're at peace with God.  We read what the Word says and we confess to believe God's Word.  We also, say that God's Word is truth, but yet we still struggle trying to live up to what we think is expected of us to make us acceptable to God.
     Hebrews 4:10-11 (Amplified) says that, "For he who has once entered (God's) rest also has ceased from (the weariness and pain) of human labors, Just as God rested from those labors peculiarly His Own."  Verse 11 goes on, "Let us therefore be zealous and exert ourselves and strive diligently to enter that rest (of God, to know and experience it for ourselves) that no one may fall or perish by the same kind of disobedience (into which those in the wilderness fell)."
     The rest that God offered to the Israelites in the wilderness, was the same offer that's being made to us today.  The rest God offers through Jesus today, though, is far better.  When God brought His people out of bondage in Egypt, it was before the Law of Moses was in effect.  He brought them out under the grace given through Abraham.  None of the laws that came through Moses were in effect yet.  With all of their murmerings and complaining, God still took complete care of them.  They were never satisfied with what God did though, and they believed they could do better on their own.  They wanted to do things through their own works and not through God's grace and mercy.  The Israelites could have obtained all God had in store for them if they only allowed Him to do like He intended.
     The promise God made to Abraham was what He used to deliver them out of Egypt.  Galatians 3:13-14 (Amplified) says that, "Christ purchased our freedom (redeeming us) from the curse (doom) of the Law (and its condemnation) by (Himself) becoming a curse for us, for it is written (in the scriptures) Cursed is everyone Who hangs on a tree (is crucified) to the end that through (their receiving) Christ Jesus, the blessing (promised) to Abraham might come on the gentiles; so that we, through faith might (all) receive (the realization of)  the promise of the (Holy Spirit)."
     If we only believe that what God did in and through Jesus was all that was needed to fulfill the promises, then we can walk in what God promised Abraham.
     The promise God made to and through Abraham was for Abraham and his seed according to Galatians 3:16 (Amplified)  which says, "Now the promises (covenants, agreements) were decreed and made to Abraham, and his seed (his offspring, his heir). He (God) does not say, and to his seeds (descendants, heirs) obviously referring to One individual, Who is (none other than) Christ (the Messiah)."
     So, ultimately, the promise was made to Jesus and about Jesus.  Abraham was allowed to walk in this blessing and promise until the fullness of the promise could be made manifest in Christ.  Everything that God promised Abraham is ours through faith in Jesus.  Galatians 3:29 (Amplified) says, "And you belong to Christ (are in Him Who is Abraham's seed) then you are Abraham's offspring and (spiritual) heirs according to the promise."
     This promise of the Holy Spirit wasn't just for speaking in tongues and having better church services.  This promise of the Spirit was reconciliation with the Father like it was before the fall of Adam.  It was for complete union with God like it was intended in the beginning.
     I taught in a previous teaching about "The Return to Eden."  This promise of the Holy Spirit was so we can be one with the Father the way He intended from the start.  This means that every blessing the Father had for His children in the beginning, is now ours.  We keep trying to separate spiritual things as belonging to heaven and fleshly things as belonging for here on earth.
     When God created the earth, He made it to be inhabited.  Isaiah 45:18 (Amplified) says, "For thus says the Lord-Who created the heavens, God Himself, Who formed the earth and made it. Who established it and did not create it to be worthless waste; He formed it to be inhabited-I am the Lord, and there is no one else."  God never intended for us to walk with one foot in heaven and one foot on the earth's ground.  He intended for heaven to come to earth and He would supply all of the blessings He had with Him to be poured out on the earth.
     The promise to Abraham of the Holy Spirit we read about in Galatians 3:14 (Amplified) , wasn't something that was to separate the heavenly from the earthly, but the very thing that would reunite heaven and earth.  It would be what released everything the Father had in store for His family when He created them to them.  We were to be once again united with heaven and still be on this earth to inhabit like God intended.
     In his great quest to be religious, man made the same separation Adam did in the Garden.  We have tried to acquire by works what only faith can achieve because we don't enter into the Rest God has promised.  Through faith in the finished work of Jesus, we have been restored back to the beginning.  Everything that was blocked by the sin of Adam, could now be released from heaven to God's people. w
     Don't mistakenly separate what Jesus has done as only pertaining to your spirit when your walk here is done and you go home.  God created the earth to be our home and so it shall be.  They things of this world aren't the things of this earth.  The world is the system that is now operating on the earth.  The earth is still the Lord's and the fullness thereof according to Psalm 24:1 (Amplified) which says, "The earth is the Lord's and the fullness of it, the world and they that dwell in it."  Both the earth and God's people who dwell on the earth are now restored together through Jesus.
     Psalm 25:12-14 (Amplified) says, "Who is the man who reverently fears and worships the Lord? Him shall He teach in the ways He shall choose."  Verses 13&14 say, "He himself shall dwell at ease, and his offspring shall inherit the land (earth). The secrets (of the sweet, satisfying companionship) of the Lord have they who fear (revere and worship) Him, and He will show them His covenant and reveal to them its (deep, inner meaning)."
     We have a difficult time understanding what Jesus really did when He went to the cross.  Religion has dimmed our eyes to the fullness of His sacrifice.  We keep trying to be right with God (and that isn't wrong), but in order to really be right with Him means to accept what Jesus has done and rest in it.  Nothing else is acceptable to Him nor will ever be.

Lesson 15 The Mind of Christ

     I remember very well when I walked into an army recruiter's office and signed up for the army.  I was just seventeen years old and had no idea of what it would take to become a soldier.  It was like when some people go to church, but never really make a commitment to become a Christian.  I went through all of the paperwork and questioning and thought I wanted to join the army.  It all sounded so good.  I could get all my medical benefits, all of my paid vacations, I would travel to different parts of the world and the army would furnish everything I needed in life as long as I was in the army.
     The day I traveled to the induction center in St. Louis, Missouri, I was still a civilian even though I had already made the decision to join the army.  Once I raised my hand and took the oath, I became a soldier.  I still though, had no idea what that really meant.
      I remember the day I took an oath to serve Jesus.  I was still an outsider until I asked the Lord to come into my life, and I became a Christian.  All of the benefits of the new covenant became mine.  All of the promises God made through His covenant came with my oath. 
     I didn't have to wait for all of the things the army promised me.  The very second I took the oath, I was a soldier.  There were many things I needed to learn about my new life.  I was now no longer able to do only what I wanted to do because someone else was in charge of my life.
     My old civilian clothes were no longer acceptable in my new life.  My new family in the army consisted of a bunch of other people just like me.  None of us knew what we were doing.  A drill instructor was placed in charge of teaching us.  We had many things to learn that never would have occurred to us before.  We had a chain of command we had to know along with an assigned number issued to us.  We had to learn discipline like we'd never experienced before.  None of these things made me a soldier.  I became a soldier when I took the oath.  These other things were teaching and illustrating what I was now.
     At the very moment when I asked Jesus to be my Lord, I became a Christian.  I really didn't know how to be a Christian any more than I knew how to be a soldier.  I didn't become a Christian after I learned everything about Christianity, just like I didn't become a soldier only after learning how to be one.
     The moment you accepted Jesus as your Lord, you became a Christian.  You had now received forgiveness for all of your sins and you had been made righteous and in right standing with God.  You now had a new family you never had before being saved.  When you accepted Jesus, you received your healing, your forgiveness, your new inheritance, you became a joint-heir with Christ and a joint-heir of God, you were given His Name and He sent angels to minister to the heirs of salvation.  Everything about you became new.  "Old things had passed away and behold, all things are new and all things are of God" for you.  I was a Christian, but I had to learn how to live like a Christian.
     I had to learn to live like a soldier once I became one.  I was already a soldier, but I didn't know how to walk as a soldier without training.  Jesus said that, "In this world you will have tribulations."  So, I had to learn how to handle tribulations.  Just because I made mistakes didn't mean I wasn't a Christian.  It only meant that I was learning to walk in my newness of life.
     I had a drill instructor who taught me how to walk in my new identity as a soldier.  He taught me how to handle a weapon.  He even taught me how to march like a soldier.  He taught me how to pitch a tent and to dig a trench around it so rain wouldn't run into it.  He showed me the ropes to the infiltration course and the best way to maneuver it.  After a period of time, all of us in boot camp were no longer a rag tag bunch of different people from different parts of the U.S.  We now resembled what we had already become.
     As Christians, we have the Word of God and the Holy Spirit to teach us.  We have the five fold ministry as our drill sergeants.  As we begin listen to our teachers and have our minds renewed by God's truth, we begin walking, talking and looking like what we'd already been made to be.  You are no more a Christian after you learn than you are when you first receive Jesus.  The only difference is that now you begin growing into this newness of life. 
     No one starts out knowing everything about who you are in any walk of life.  Even in the natural life, we start out as a man child.  You will always be a man child, but you only know how to walk like one in your later years.  We must learn how to do what we already are.  You were born a human being.  Nothing changes in your life except you finally fine out how human beings live.
       I was a soldier the day I took the oath.  I was still a soldier the day I was discharged from the army.  My entire identity was the same, except now I knew how to be one.  I was a Christian from the moment Jesus became my Lord.  Everything Jesus promised was already mine.  I am no more a Christian now, as a pastor, than I was the day I got born again.  Now, though, after listening to my Guide (the Holy Spirit), I can walk in my new identity.
     Don't be frustrated with your Christian walk.  It's exactly the same process you went through in any other walk of your life. We must listen and learn how to walk in our newness of life.  The Holy Spirit will teach us everything we need to know and tell us how to do it.  Like everything else, thought, it takes time.
    Simply because you make a mistake, doesn't mean you're not a Christian.  It's like falling when you're ten months old didn't mean you weren't human.  You were born human.  We all have to learn as we go and we all learn at different rates.
     You are a Christian who is made in the Image of your Father.  You've already been granted every grace and mercy needed to maintain that Christianity.  Failure doesn't mean defeat.  It only means that you're still learning.
     All of the men who joined the army with me and went through boot camp with me, were as awkward as I was.  When I was discharged and was clearing post, I saw a whole new bunch of soldiers just coming in.  I knew what they didn't know.  I knew they'd be like me when they were discharged.  What I saw when I looked out at these kids, was soldiers and I knew they'd be alright.
     I learned and took on the mind of a soldier.  My life wasn't my own anymore.  By taking a simple oath, I turned my life over to another person and was committed to learning how to become a good soldier from my teachers.  I did the same thing when I made an oath to Jesus.  My life was no longer my own and I would have to allow Him to teach me how to be that which He called me to be.
     My mind had to be renewed like it did when I was a soldier.  I had to learn to think like a soldier.  It was totally foreign to me, but as I listened, I learned.  When I got born again, I had to learn and open my mind to doing what my Instructor tells me to do.  I had to renew my mind to think like Jesus would have me think.  I didn't have to be a Christian, I already was a Christian.  I just needed to learn what a Christian does.    

Lesson 14 The Mind of Christ

     The mind of Christ, the Anointed One of God, was anointed to proclaim Liberty to those who are lost and bound by sin and separated from God.  When Jesus walked the earth as a Man, He was the only One Who had received the Holy Spirit from within.  When Jesus spoke the Word of God, it was with truth and power because He had all knowledge through the very gift of the Holy Spirit.
     Jesus never performed any miracles or healings until after His baptism in the Jordan River that were recorded in the Bible.  Once the Holy Spirit entered Him, Jesus' entire ministry changed dramatically.  The Holy Spirit made all the difference in Jesus' ministry.
     Jesus, spoke to His disciples (and us) about His soon coming departure in John 14:26 (Amplified) saying, "But the Comforter (Counselor, Helper, Intercessor, Advocated, Strengthener, stand-by) the Holy Spirit, Whom the Father will send in My Name (in My place to represent Me and act on My behalf ) He will teach you all things. And He will cause you to recall (will remind you of, bring to your remembrance) everything I have told you."
     Jesus spoke here about the Holy Spirit (the very Wisdom of God) as the One Who would be placed within the spirit of the believer.  The Holy Spirit would manifest the mind of Christ within the born again man when He came.  When Jesus ascended to the Father, He sent the Holy Spirit (just as He promised) in His place on the day of Pentecost.
     On the day the Holy Spirit came, Peter was in the Upper Room and received revelation concerning the Prophet Joel's words, saying in Acts 2:16 (Amplified), "But (instead) this is (the beginning of) what was spoken through the Prophet Joel."  This scripture had been in the old covenant for quite some time, but now, the Holy Spirit gave life to it with revelation to Peter.
     Suddenly, the Word came alive by revelation.  Now, we read the Word of God and allow the Holy Spirit to reveal the mind of Christ that is within us.  We can read God's Word with revelation of the true meaning.  We come to a scripture that is all too familiar to us in 1Corinthians 2:7-10 (Amplified).  We hear part of this scripture quoted many times, but mostly it's quoted from an unrenewed mind.  Let's read Verse 7 which says, "But rather what we are setting forth is a wisdom of God once hidden (from the human understanding) and now revealed to us by God-(that wisdom) which God devised and decreed before the ages for our glorification (to lift us into the glory of His presence)."  Verse 8 goes on, "None of the rulers of this age or world perceived and recognized and understood this; for if they had, they would never have crucified the Lord of Glory."  Verse 9 says, "But, on the contrary, as the scripture says, what eye has not seen, and ear has not heard and has not entered into the heart of man (all that) God has prepared (made ready and keeps ready) for those who love Him (who hold Him in affectionate reverence, promptly obeying Him and gratefully recognizing the benefits He has bestowed)."  We hear the first part of this scripture quoted often, but not the next verse so much.  In Verse 10 we see the difference between the mind of Christ that is renewed by the Word and the Holy Spirit and the natural, carnal minds of men.  The natural man will stop reading at Verse 9, but the renewed mind, by the mind of Christ, will read onto the next verse and rejoice in it because the Holy Spirit has revealed to and made available what was once hidden to us.  Verse 10 says, "Yet to us God has unveiled and revealed them by and through His Spirit, for the (Holy) Spirit searches diligently, exploring and examining everything, even sounding the profound and bottomless things of God (the Divine counsels and things hidden and beyond man's scrutiny)."
     All of the Divine counsel and things hidden and beyond (natural) man's scrutiny are available to those who will allow the mind of the Spirit to renew our carnal minds.  God has revealed all this wisdom, this mystery hidden from before the foundations of the earth, to us.  These are the things that any Father would love to teach His children and pass on to them as His legacy.
     Can you open your spirit for a moment with me and think of all the things God wants to show us?  God's promise and His grace has now been made available to us by His Spirit and is far above what religion has taught us over the years and only a renewed mind can comprehend the vastness of these things.  Your natural, unrenewed min can't even grasp hold of the beginnings of this revelation.  The mind that is still unrenewed by the Holy Spirit, can't yet understand the deliverance from sin.
     A mind that is still carnal (even in a Christian) looks upon and identifies more with the sin than with the deliverance.  We hear it from Christians many times how they are saved, but will be a sinner until the day they die or how they're just old sinners saved by grace.
     These statements are from people who were born again, but who never renewed their minds.  If you have truly been born again and your sins are forgiven, then the truth of God's Word says you are no longer an old sinner saved by grace.  You were an old sinner and you were saved by grace.  Now, God's Word says you are the righteousness of God.  2Corinthians 5:21 (Amplified) says that, "For our sake He made Christ (virtually) to be sin Who knew no sin, so that in and through Him we might become (endued with, viewed as being in, and examples of) the righteousness of God (what we ought to be, approved and acceptable and in right standing, in right relationship) with Him, by His goodness."
     The renewed mind reads this scripture and rejoices in the truth that we are now (through Jesus) made righteous in God's eyes and are approved and acceptable to Him.  The old mind (the carnal nature) will still walk in the old guilt and condemnation of his past and allow it to hold him back from his Loving Father.
     Only the mind of Christ, by His Holy Spirit, can set a man free in his thought life and give him the liberty Jesus paid for.  This same man, even though he is free, will continue walking in the shame of his past if he fails to allow the Holy Spirit to renew his mind.  This man has all of the benefits of being a joint-heir with Christ and he has all of the privileges of being a son of God.  But, he will never exercise any of them because has hasn't allowed his mind to be open to the full truth of God's Word.  This new covenant is one of total liberty to those who have eyes to see and ears to hear and will allow their hearts to be changed and allow God to heal them.
     

Lesson 13 The Mind of Christ

     As we go through the Word of God seeking His wisdom, we find that God wants us to know and understand His covenant with us.  Most of the problems affecting the Body of Christ result from not knowing what the Father's will for us really is.  His will for us is revealed in His Word and is for us to know, but we must trust the Holy Spirit to reveal it to us.  If we read the Word with simply carnal knowledge, then we will never understand His will.
     Over the years, we've begun relying on our own understanding instead of God's understanding.  Psalms 25:14 (Amplified) says that, "The secret (of the sweet, satisfying companionship) of the Lord have they who fear (revere and worship) Him, and He will show them His covenant and reveal to them its (deep, inner meaning)."  Colossians 1:9 (Amplified) says, "For this reason we also, from the day we heard of it, (Your love) 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 Gd) and in understanding and discernment of spiritual things."
     We also find in 1John 5:14-15 (Amplified), "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."  Verse 15 goes on, "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."
     If we read even these few scriptures and allow the mind of Christ to live in us, then it becomes evident that we are actually expected to know what God's will is.  If we would allow the Holy Spirit to reveal all things in His Word to us, then we could put away the old religious prayer of, "O, Lord if it be Thy will."  This kind of prayer might sound good, but is full of unbelief and doubt.  This indicates that we have no idea what God's will is at all.
     Once in a great while,m we actually get a prayer answered, but mostly it comes by total grace and mercy and by accident.  The mind of Christ (the understanding of the Anointed One) will show us all things which are to come.  In John 16:13 (Amplified), Jesus said that the Holy Spirit is to be our Teacher after Jesus was gone.  The Holy Spirit was poured out in Acts 2:1-3 (Amplified) and is to be the wisdom of God revealed to the Church.
     Without the mind of Christ, man (in his own understanding) is no different than he was before.  The Spirit of the Lord indwells his spirit, but his mind hasn't been renewed by revelation of God's Word.  We insist on reading God's Word with the same traditions which were handed down from those coming before us.  Many such men as E.W. Kenyon, had revelation knowledge for us from the Word.  Man's traditional tea chings have rejected Brother Kenyon's words and have held fast to religious thinking.  In doing this, we haven't only deceived ourselves, but have led many others into deception throughout the years.  We have become "old wine skins."
     We've centered in on the same old things that have kept us in bondage for years.  Without the wisdom of God, we've determined that God uses sickness, death, hard times and accidents to teach His children.  I find from reading God's Word that God uses the Holy Spirit to teach His Church. Read John 14:16-17 , John 15:26, John 16:13, Ephesians 4:11-13 and 2Timothy 3:16-17. 
     When the Father teaches His children, He doesn't need the help of the devil to show us things of God.  He uses the Holy Spirit, His five fold ministers and His Word.  However, we have neglected to be led by these instruments of the Spirit and have preferred to follow the carnal minds of man.  By doing so, we've all but lost all the supernatural power of the Church through Jesus Christ.
     We've proclaimed the new birth to all the world and we've brought many babies into the Kingdom.  Unfortunately, we've left most of them in the nursery.  We were born again by the Holy Spirit into the very Image and likeness of our Father and conformed into the Image of His Son.  Jesus was the firstborn of many brethren.  The same Holy Spirit Who performed miracles and healings through Jesus, lives in us according to John 14:12-13.  Natural man will disregard this fact found in Verse 12 which says, "I assure you most solemnly I tell you, If anyone steadfastly believes in Me, he will himself be able to do the things that I do; and he will do even greater things than these, because I go to the Father."
     The "greater things" Jesus spoke about was the miracle of getting someone born again.  Jesus couldn't get someone born again while He was here on earth.  He first had to die, be buried and then rise again from the dead.  He had to enter into the presence of the Father with His Blood and as our High Priest.  Once He was accepted and His Blood accepted for the new covenant, then the sin of those would believe were blotted out forever.  Now, Jesus could send the Holy Spirit back unto us and we could be born again and have the power of God's Word to get others born again.
     This new covenant also insured that once we were born again, the same Holy Spirit would manifest Himself through us into this natural realm like He did in Jesus.  By His presence in us, we now through Him would heal the sick, raise the dead, cast out devils, speak with new, unknown tongues and preach the gospel of life to those who were spiritually dead like Mark 16:15-20 says.
     To both understand and accept the Great Commission, you must receive it by the inspiration and knowledge of the Holy Spirit and the mind of Christ.  The natural, carnal minded knowledge will disclaim the supernatural things of God.  But, the mind of Christ will cause those who believe to become fearless in the face of the enemy and to rise up as a light upon the hill.
     Only Jesus could ever meet the needs of mankind and He, through the Holy Spirit, will meet them just like He always did.  Now, though, He will do it through the Church.  Hebrews 13:8 (Amplified) tells us that, "Jesus Christ (the Messiah) is (always) the same, yesterday, today, (yes) and forever (to the ages)."  This scripture declares that whatever Jesus did, He still does and that He now does it through His Body, the Church.

Lesson 12 The Mind of Christ

     We have dwelling in our born again spirit, the Holy Spirit of God Himself.  Every answer to every problem is already dwelling in our spirit.  1Corinthians 1:30 (Amplified) says, "But it is from Him that you have your life in Christ Jesus, Whom God made our wisdom from God  (revealed to us a knowledge of the divine plan of salvation previously hidden, manifesting itself as) our Righteousness (thus making us upright and putting us in right standing with God), and our consecration (making us pure and Holy) and our Redemption (providing our ransom from eternal penalty for sin)."
      Listen very carefully to what this scripture is saying.  This is the mind of Christ that God has made to us our wisdom from God.  And, that through this wisdom provided from God through the mind of Christ reaching and agreement with Jesus, we are made in right standing with God.  Jesus' righteousness makes us pure and holy and redeems us from all penalty from sin.
     This is the mind of Christ (the wisdom for us in Christ Jesus).  A man with the mind of Christ has had his mind renewed by the Word of God.  All who receive salvation have this available to them, but not everyone will receive it by faith in His Word.  The same Holy Spirit, Who is our teacher, will not teach something different than God's Word to any born again child of God.  The Spirit will teach the Word, and only the Word, to the believer. 
     All other doctrines and observations coming from those still seek to understand this great plan of God by and unrenewed (carnal) mind.
     We keep reading the scripture and try understanding them from a mind that isn't being taught by the Holy Spirit or from others who are not spiritual.  We then continue in what our own opinions are concerning salvation instead of what the Holy Spirit is telling us.  We become like those who opposed Jesus when He walked among us.  They refused to hear what the Spirit spoke through Jesus because it didn't agree with the teachings of their carnally minded teachers.
      Admitting they could be wrong would wound the pride and ego of carnally minded men.  Carnal minded teachers still try putting the people back under the Law.  As carnal men (mere natural minded men), we are always putting God's people back under a covenant of fear from punishment.  We quote little things about people who they say died because they sinned after being saved.  If all who were saved died if they sinned, then we wouldn't have a church left.
     They've failed to realize how if we sin, then we don't die, but grace covers us until we grow into the righteousness given us through Jesus.  This doesn't mean we're to live in sin, but that we should trust in grace.
     We keep trying to mix grace and Law into our teachings to the point where neither of them work.  We cannot walk in grace because we keep trying to earn it.  We cannot walk in the Law because there is no more sacrifice.  Now, we've trapped ourselves by our own unrenewed mind, to a place where not much of anything works on our behalf.
     Mostly, the carnal mind comes to our rescue with some other equally dumb idea about how God is doing this to teach us something.  All the while, the Holy Spirit is trying to deliver us from fear and false humility into truth and grace.  The the carnal mind will always be satisfied walking in a false humility.  The carnal mind will say "I am now saved, but I'll be a sinner until the day I die."  This might sound humble to the natural, carnal mind, but the Holy Spirit will say it sounds like unbelief.
      Scripture says that Jesus took our sin and gave us His righteousness.  The Word says that my old, sinful man was nailed with Christ on the cross and that my new, born again self is made in the Image of God and that I'm a son of the Most High raised with Jesus and now is seated with Him at the right hand of the Father.
     The carnal minded man has a difficult time with the truth of the scriptures.  The new man who has the mind of Christ operating in him, will walk in liberty from his past and will rejoice in his new beginning.  Only through the wisdom of God and faith in that wisdom, can a man be set free.  Sometimes, without meaning too, w have set ourselves in opposition to the truth of God's Word.  We keep trying to put this great salvation back into our own hands and customs.  When we're opposed in our traditions, we still rise up with religious anger at the truth.
     If you are born again, then you got that way only by the grace of God.  It wasn't anything you did or didn't do, but it was by faith in what Jesus did.  If you are righteous, then it's not because of anything you did or didn't do, but because of what Jesus did for you.  If you are now a son of God and a joint heir with Christ and pure and holy before God, then it's not because of anything you did or didn't do, but because of what Jesus did.  The only thing we did to become all of these things was to believe on and accept Jesus.  When you believed in Him, then you became all of the other things in your new birth.
     The simplicity of the Word is something that always seems to throw us off.  We are always looking for the strings to be attached and for our own efforts to provide.  We couldn't do it and God knew we couldn't do it, but He wanted it done.  So, God provided the way to bring us back to Him by Himself.  All we're required to do now is to believe.  Don't allow religion and tradition and the doctrines of man to cheat you out of what Jesus died and rose from the dead to give us.
     God is the wisdom that created the whole of what we see and even don't see.  If He wanted to make the Word difficult to understand, then it wouldn't be much of a problem for Him.  Instead, though, God made it simple.  You must simply sow a seed and reap a harvest.  You reap what you sow because everything produces after kind.  God brought the wisdom of the Creator of man into the reach of man.  He lowered His wisdom like a college professor would do to teach preschool.  Instead of trying to get us to understand such a great wisdom, Wisdom humbled Himself to our level.
     If we will only keep what He told us, in the simplicity of how He told us, then it will work.
     Hebrews 11:1 says that, "Now faith is the substance of things hoped for."    
     What is it that you are hoping for?  Is it salvation, deliverance, healing, forgiveness, acceptance, or a chance to start life over with a clean slate?  Whatever it is, that hope has been placed in your heart.  Faith is the title deed and assurance that God's Word will bring it to pass.  All He asks of us is that we believe that the seed will produce what the picture shows.  When you see the picture of a tomato on the packet of seeds, then that's what it will produce.
     It's no longer by the Law.  It's no longer by our works.  It's no longer by our crying and trying to get God to do what He says He will do.  It's no longer based on how many hours we pray or how many good works we do to deserve it.
     "Now faith is the substance of things hoped for."  Faith is how we bring the promises of God (through grace) to bear in our lives.
     It's not works, not good deeds, not crying.  It's now through the sacrifice of Jesus and it's Now Faith in what He's done for us.  That's the substance of all we can every hope for.
     Now, it's all available, but only by faith.  We can't earn it, buy it or be good enough to deserve it.  Now! Faith is the only way to obtain it.
     Allow the mind of Christ, the same Holy Spirit that led Jesus, be your guide and teacher.  Dare to believe that God has told us the truth about all things.  And, because He said it, it's yours.  Walk in faith in our new found liberty and enjoy unbroken fellowship with our Father through Jesus.

Lesson 11 The Mind of Christ

     The mind of Christ is one with the Father.  If we don't understand what God's will is for man, then it's impossible to know the mind of Christ.  When God set the new covenant into motion with Jesus, this was, and is, God's will for man.  When Jesus prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane, He prayed that "Not His will, but God's will be done."  He knew what the Father's will was concerning mankind.
     God made a new covenant because He knew that the old covenant could never do what needed to be done.  Man was still in his fallen state under the old covenant.  He could live by laws, but couldn't be born again and he couldn't be a new creation like the Father wanted.  Man could have his sins covered by the blood of bulls and goats, but they weren't removed.  By observing the Law and keeping the covenant, man could at least stay in contact with God, but couldn't enter into His presence.  They could be God's people, but not His children and family.
     The whole of creation was about God having a family to walk with and be able to have fellowship with.  When Adam fell in the Garden and lost fellowship with God, God found Himself once again without children.  The fall in the Garden was much more than eating an apple as some have declared.  It was the separation of life into Adam's spirit  and the entrance of eternal death that set in.  God could no longer walk with His son as He had in the past.  Now, the only way God could be close to Adam was for Adam to sacrifice animals to cover him with their innocent blood and skins.
     God wouldn't give up on Adam (just like we wouldn't) and His dream and purpose for His family when Adam sinned.  God set in motion and purposed a way to stay close with His family until He could bring complete reconciliation.  The lives and blood of animals would cover man's sin for time, but not for forever.  There had to be a death because, "The wages of sin is death."  A death was needed that would suffice and cover all the penalty of sin for all mankind and not just a few.  There had to be a sacrifice that would end all of the penalty sin had brought into God's family.  There needed to be the shedding of blood that would meet all the claims of God's just forever.
     God is righteous and He is just.  Holiness demanded a payment that man couldn't possibly meet.  Justice demanded this claim be met.  The only things that could pay this debt, was "a Man without sin" shedding His Blood for man.  Since there wasn't a man on Earth who was without sin, God Himself would shed His Own Blood by being made a Man of flesh and Blood, God's Own Blood.    
     Jesus, Who is the Word of God, was always with the Father.  John 1:1-4 (Amplified) says that, "In the beginning (before all time) was the Word (Christ) and the Word was with God, and the Word was God Himself."  Verses 2&3 go on, "He was present originally with God. All things were made and came into existence through Him; and without Him was not even one thing made that has come into being."  Verse 4 says, "In Him was Life, and the Life was the Light of men."
     "In Him was Life."  Only through God Himself could life now return into a people who were spiritually dead and separated from Life (Christ).  Jesus was always present with the Father.  His Name was called "The Word of God."  When He came into the earth through Mary's womb, we called that baby "Jesus."  This was to be the name of the Child who housed the now walking and talking Word of God.  John 1:14 (Amplified) says, "And the Word became flesh (human, incarnate) and tabernacled (fixed His tent of flesh, lived awhile) among us."
     How can we not see the love of the mind of Christ when we read in God's Word what had to be done in order to bring God's family back into His presence?  Over the years, the Word has become so distorted by man's carnal thinking and religion that we've somehow lost track of why Jesus came.  No other sacrifice could restore life to a dead family.  John 1:4 (Amplified) says that, "In Him was Life and the Life was the Light  of man."
     God couldn't walk with His family, even when all the sacrifices had been made and the works of the Law had been carried out, without His Holy presence killing all who were there.  God had to abide in a tabernacle made of skins and wood and only the High Priest could actually come near Him.  Even then, it was only once a year and it must have been a fearful thing for the High Priest.  If the High Priest had any sin that hadn't been cleansed by the fulfilling of all the requirements, then he would die.
     God could come close to the family of men He had created, but not too close.  He was still outside and every day there needed to be offerings and sacrifice just to be able to even be that close.  The heart of God, as our Father, was One of longing for His children to see His love and to know His presence.  Because the sin problem was only covered and not removed, God was still outside.  Mostly, the people only knew God from His displeasure and Holy judgments.
     God's people only saw God's power, but not His love.  They didn't seem to realize that it was only His love sustaining them.  It was God's love that provided water from the rock Moses tapped and it was His love that provided manna from heaven.  When God's love provided shelter from the sun as a cloud by day and warmth as fire by night, the people complained about what they lacked and failed to praise Him or recognize Him in His love.
     The mind of Christ, the Word of God was with God from the beginning and was the very heart of God in His creation of all things.  The only reason for creation was you.  Without you or me, without mankind, what would an empty planet be for?  The expectant parents plan a nursery where they paint the walls bright colors.  They buy and put together a crib and bassinet.  They buy baby clothes and toys and things they think their baby will enjoy.  And, finally, when the nursery is completed, they bring the baby home to this place they created for him.
     In Genesis, God lays out all the things He thinks will please the child He brought forth out of His love, Adam.  Adam and Eve were the firstborn in the household of the Father.  After all things were made ready in the nursery, God created His children.  The Father walked with them in the midst or the beautiful Garden He had prepared for them.  He taught them how to talk and live with Him in this paradise.  Adam went walking with his Father and named all of the animal and the things the Father made for him.  He walked in and was born by the love of the Father.
     When God, our Father, lost His family in the act in the Garden, He never gave up on getting His family back.  In His heart of love and in His mind, there was a plan.  It was a plan that would cost Him everything, but it would be worth everything it cost Him to have His children back without any barriers between them any longer.
     Only someone without sin could pay the price for sin.  Only someone who would love enough to stand in our place and pay our penalty could do it.  There had to be death to pay the price for life.  It needed to be a supernatural death and not just a natural death.  It had to be someone who would and could go all the way for man's transgression.
     The mind of Christ, the very thoughts and deeds of Jesus (the Man), was the very thoughts and deeds of Jesus, (the Christ), the very Word of God.  All of His thoughts and deeds, His sacrifice, His sufferings, His bearing and becoming what we were, His becoming the cursed so we could be blessed, His being separated from God and His being forsaken by God was so we could be drawn back and be made one with our Father and never be forsaken again.  Man could never do all the things that Jesus did for us.
     The return and fellowship with God's family was the foremost thought in the mind of Christ.  Hebrews 12:2 (Amplified) says, "Looking away (from all that will distract) to Jesus, Who is the leader and the source of our faith. (Giving the first incentive for our belief) and is also it's finisher (bringing it to maturity and perfection) He, for the joy (of obtaining the prize) that was set before Him, endured the cross, despising and ignoring the shame, and is now seated at the right hand of the throne of God."
     Notice how Hebrews 12:2 (Amplified) says that, "He, for the joy (of obtaining the prize) that was set before Him, endured the cross, despising and ignoring the shame!"  What was the prize that was set before Him that brought Jesus such joy that even the pain, suffering and shame of the cross couldn't quench?  The return of God's family back to the Father.  All God's love was suffering on that cross that day.  This love can never be removed or replaced.  This love will never fail.  This love of God, Who is love, has now come into our hearts by the Holy Spirit crying, "Abba! Father."
     That's what is in the mind of Christ.  It's the total restoration of God's family to Him.  "Old things are passed away and behold, all things are become new and all things are of God."  Once you realize why we were the joy that allowed Jesus to go to the cross, it isn't hard to walk in love with a Father Who gave up everything to get us back.  When you read the new covenant, don't read it with a sense of failure and of not living up to God's standards.  Read it from the point of view that Jesus removed all of our failures, sins, misdeeds, curses and anything that stood in the way of God's bringing us back to Him.  You're not being judged on your merits or your works.  You're being judged by His grace and mercy and love.
     When you read and hear the words of the new covenant, you hear the voice of the mind of Christ assuring you that seeing you in the Father's presence was the joy that brought Me strength to endure all I did for you.  When you read the covenant, don't see you as you were, but see yourself as what Jesus endured to restore to you.
     We're no longer apart from the heart and mercy of the Father, but we're filling His house with the sounds of laughter and He is rejoicing with us.  The mind of Christ, the heart and thoughts of the Father, says that you are like the prodigal who was once dead and is now returned.  We are God's family who was once gone and is now returned.  "Allow Me to place a robe on your shoulders, a ring on your hand and prepare a feast to celebrate every day as My children come home," God says to us, "My house shall be full."
     The mind of Christ will always reveal to you, the light of liberty and not bondage; the truth of what Jesus has done for us and not our own shortcomings.  He will reveal to you the triumph of the resurrection that has raised us with Him.  Don't listen to those who will always point out our imperfections.  Listen to those who will point out His perfection in you.  That is the mind of Christ.