Lesson 5 Learning To Live

     John 10:10 (Amplified) says, "The thief comes only in order to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have and enjoy life, and have it in abundance (to the full, till it overflows)."
     We find in Genesis 1:26-27 (Amplified) that, "God said, let us (Father, Son and Holy Spirit) make mankind in Our Image, after Our likeness, and let them have complete authority over the fish of the sea, the birds of the air, the (tame) beasts, and over all of the earth, and over everything that creeps on the earth."  Verse 27 says, "So God created man in His Own Image, in the Image and likeness of God He created him; male and female He created them."
     In Genesis 2:7 (Amplified), we find a second creation or formation of Adam and Eve in a body, "Then the Lord God formed man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath or spirit of life, and man became a living being.  In the same chapter of Genesis:21-23, God made Eve from the same substance that Adam was made of. 
     After Adam's transgression in the Garden, we find the death (or deaths) of Adam and his wife.  The spiritual death or separation from God came first.  Then, in Genesis 5:3-5 (Amplified), when Adam had lived 130 years, "he had a son in his own likeness, after his image; and he named him Seth. After he had Seth, Adam lived 800 years and had other son and daughters. So altogether Adam lived 930 years, and he died."
     The Bible doesn't say how long Adam and Eve were in the Garden before the transgression.  It only says that when they transgresses, death came.  I have more confidence in the creation of my Father, than to believe they died quickly.  Adam and Eve might have been in the Garden for thousands of years before the devil invented a temptation that they would yield to.
     The only thing satan could tempt them with was the only Law that God had given them at that time.  Genesis 2:16-17 (Amplified) says, "And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, You may freely eat of every tree of the garden, But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and blessing and calamity you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die."
     The only Law they could break was the Law of not eating from that tree.  Everything else was "freely given."  No man ever lived to be a thousand years old after God said "That day you shall surely die."  Spiritual death set in immediately, but the natural death (death of the body) took 930 years.  Some might say that they didn't die that day, but 2Peter 3:8 (Amplified) says that, "Nevertheless, do not let this one fact escape you, beloved, that with the Lord one day is a thousand years and a thousand years as one day."
     No man has lived a thousand years.  Methuselah was the oldest man ever listed in the Word of God.  Genesis 5:27 (Amplified) says, "So Methuselah lived 969 years, and he died."
     When I say that we must learn to live, I'm referring to the life Jesus came to give us which is the life in the Spirit of God again.  This life will also extends the life of our flesh.  Reports come out saying man is living longer because of medical breakthroughs, but I believe it's because we have more revelation knowledge of Jesus and the Word of life.  Even after the fall of man in the Garden, it took satan 930 years to teach Adam to die.  All he knew was the life and presence of God.  He had no idea how to die or even what death was.
     On the other hand, we have no idea how to live or understand what Jesus said about having abundant and overflowing life.   We've thought the life was just going to heaven when we die.  Jesus said that we should have life "to the full, till it overflows."  Jesus, Who is the Word made flesh, now dwells in out spirit.  He, Who is the Word, is like medicine even to our natural body as well as to our spirit.  Unless Jesus comes first, every natural man will die in the body.  But, we've been granted an extension of life by His Word according to Proverbs 4:20-23 (Amplified) which says, "My son, attend to My Words; consent and submit to My sayings. Let them not depart from your sight; keep them in the center of your heart. For they are life to those who find them, healing and health to all their flesh."  Verse 23 goes on to say, "Keep and guard your heart (your spirit) with all vigilance and above all that you guard, for out of it (your spirit) flow the springs of life."
     We haven't been very careful about what we allow to enter into our heart (spirit).  We program ourselves with the world and death constantly.  We set ourselves up for all the ailments of the world and preach how health and healing have passed away.  We fill ourselves up with fear, death, disease, pills, doctors and almost everything except God's Word.  Yet, in Proverbs 4:20-21 (Amplified) God says, "My son, attend to My Words, consent and submit to My sayings. Let them not depart from your sight; keep them in the center of your heart."
     Even Jesus admonished in Mark 4:24 (Amplified) saying, "Be careful what you are hearing. The measure (of thought and study) you give (to the truth you hear) will be the measure (of virtue and knowledge) that comes back to you---and move (besides) will be given to you who hear."
     I wonder what we've been listening for all these years.  God taught Adam to live and it took satan 930 years to teach him to die.  Satan has been teaching mankind how to die and kill every since that time.  The Church taught us how to receive life through salvation messages, but failed to teach us how to live.  We've always heard how to live through the outward man.  We learned about not drinking, lusting, stealing, lying, committing adultery and all the rules of the flesh, but we didn't learn how to partake of the very life of God from within.
     The only thing satan could tempt Eve with was the only "Thou shall not" given to her, which was thou shall not eat from the tree of knowledge.  Now, we've given satan an arsenal of "Thou shall nots" to mess with and very few "Thou shalls" to accept.  We hear very little teaching about how "Old things have passed away" and much about all of the faults we still have.  Grace has made its way into the spirit of those who "Have ears to hear" and healing, joy and power flows from this abundant life til it overflows in healing and life to others.
     I hear much teaching in the Church about who I used to be, but very little about who God has made me to be in Jesus.  I don't hear much on our being made the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus.  I mostly hear in the Church, how to die and not how to live.  I don't mean to live holy, but how to accept holiness and live in it.  I don't mean trying to live righteous, but accepting righteousness by faith and living in His righteousness.
     We must learn how to live by faith in Jesus' sacrifice and not in our performance.  Your performance will change from bad to good constantly, but your sacrifice Jesus, will not.  He is the same, yesterday, today and forever.  We've been taught to live by our feelings and our flesh instead of by our own born again spirit.  Your flesh can and probably will, fail you.  Your Christ filled spirit, will not. 

     Thank you all for the prayers for my brother, Garland.  We can't wait until he gets to leave the hospital.  His dog, Gracie, really misses him too.  Your kindness and thoughtfulness are greatly appreciated.  THANKS!
                                             Love,
                                             All of us Hayes

Lesson 4 Learning To Live

     John 10:10 (Amplified) says, "The thief comes only in order to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have and enjoy life, and have it in abundance (to the full, till it overflows)."
     John 6:63 (Amplified) says, "It is the Spirit Who gives life (He is the Life-Giver); the flesh conveys no benefit whatever (there is no profit in it). The Words (Truths) that I have been speaking to you are Spirit and Life."
     The abundant Life that Jesus is proclaiming, is life into their spirit.  In the new covenant, we take for granted the new life that Jesus was speaking about.  But, the people listening to Jesus were spiritually dead.  Before receiving Christ, we were equally as dead in trespass and sin.  Under the Law, it was the acts of obedience in the flesh, that covered them by the blood of bulls and goats.  Even though, they had sacrifice to cover them, it could not give them life.  As we read in John 6:63(Amplified), "It is the Spirit Who gives Life (He is the Life-Giver)."
     Jesus also said in John 6:63 (Amplified) that, "The Words (Truths) I have been speaking to you are Spirit and Life."  When Jesus said that, "He came that we have life and have it to the full, till it overflows," He was to give us Life with His Life and that by His Spirit, we are made alive in Him.  Jesus' Blood paid for our sin and trespasses.  Hebrews 9:22 (Amplified) says, "(In fact) under the Law almost everything is purified by means of blood and without the shedding of blood there is neither release from sin and its guilt nor the remission of the due and merited punishment for sins."  
     Hebrews 10:19 (Amplified) says, "Therefore, brethren since we have full freedom and confidence to enter into the (Holy of) Holies (by the power and virtue) in the Blood of Jesus." 
     We now have Life in Christ Jesus and it is Life in our spirit and it is the God kind of Life.  Our spirit has been made alive once more in Christ Jesus.  Jesus said that His Words are also Spirit and Life, so we can now enter into "overflowing" life by His Word.
    This is exactly what I mean when I talk about "Learning To Live."  Now that Life has come, by our receiving Jesus, how do we walk in this Life?  How do we take this life into the fullness, the abundance and the overflowing that Jesus said it will produce.
    If the Word is also Life and the Spirit is life, then as we read God's Word by the Holy Spirit, it will reveal His power and guidelines to learn about this life.  We've mostly read the Word from a sense of duty rather than life seeking.  We often argue and stumble over His covenant.  If God's Word is Life and Spirit (and it is), then we grow into the fullness of this life by reading the Word and receiving it into your spirit. 
      Proverbs 4:20-22 (Amplified) says, "My son, attend to My Words; consent and submit to My sayings. Let them not depart from your sight; keep them in the center of your heart. For they are life to those who find them, healing and health to all their flesh."
     This is Life to the fullest.  We have eternal life (are made alive) in Christ Jesus.  We have forgiveness and right standing by His Blood.  We've been made joint-heirs with Jesus and heirs of God.  We are delivered from satan and have been raised together with Christ.  Because we are now alive in Him, we also have the ability to receive the Spirit of His Word and not just the Law.  Now, this Spirit Word will even heal and bring health to our body.
     We're beginning to see what Jesus meant when He said we would have "Life to the full."  Not only would we be alive again to God, but this life would also flow in the natural realm.  God's Spirit (Life) would now affect every aspect of our lives, spirit, soul and body.  We would not just "Go to heaven when we die," but we actually have heaven (God Himself) living in us at all times.  How can our body not respond to this?
     If Jesus, Who is this life, could lay His hands on sick people and heal them, then how hard is it for Jesus to heal us when He lives in us bodily.  If you could touch His garment and be healed, then why wouldn't His Presence in us, bring healing to our body as well?
     We don't know how to live this Life that Jesus came to give us because we've allowed the old man or the man who isn't reborn, to teach us the Word of God.  The world still looks at the Bible as a book.  We look at the Bible as our life and the length of our days.  It isn't a book of rules, but of liberties.  It's not a book of condemnation, but of peace.
     Everything that is born must have a teacher of life.  Babies must be taught how to live because they have life, but don't even know what that means.  They must be taught everything about life that we can teach them.  They can't talk, walk, or feed themselves.  Everything in life must be learned.
     We now have life because of Jesus, but are unsure of what that means for us here.  Sometimes, we get stubborn headed or prideful and refuse to listen to the truth.  It seems easier somehow and sometimes to simply do nothing. 
     It is true that you will still have eternal life and unbroken fellowship with the Father even when we do nothing.  But, the full or abundant life that was supposed to enter into our lives here, might not manifest into overflowing and abundance when we do nothing.
     The more we receive the Life and Spirit by His Word, the more we learn and live in His Life.  He had so much life that He could give it to all who would receive it.  By just the touch of His hands, Jesus could heal sick bodies.  Now, the whole of this Life (not just His hands), but His very Life, is in us.  Proverbs 4:22 (Amplified) says that, "His Word (Jesus) is healing and health to all your flesh."
     This is life more abundantly for anyone who has ever been sick.  This is life to the full (eternal life in heaven and long healthy life on earth).  To the lame man, this is overflowing life that makes him able to stand righteous before God in eternity and able to stand whole before his family and his friends here on earth.  This is truly overflowing life. 

Lesson 3 Learning To Live

     John 10:10 (Amplified) says that, "The thief comes only in order to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have and enjoy life, and have it in abundance (to the full, till it overflows)."
     As Christians, we have mostly never understood the significance of what Jesus meant when He made this statement.  We've mostly thought He was talking about being saved, forgiven and heaven bound after death.  All of this is true, but it goes much deeper than that.  At the new birth, we would receive the very nature, the very Spirit and the very life of God Himself.  Everything in the Spirit realm would now be ours as well as the return of the dominion that was man's in the very beginning (see the Blog "Law of the Kinsman Redeemer").  We weren't only forgiven of our sin, but we were reinstated as God's Own children.
     We have allowed the enemy to use tradition and religion to keep us under the bondage of the old man.  The Law could help men in their behavior modification of the flesh, but couldn't change the nature (spirit) of man.  The blood of bulls and goats could give man an artificial life, but not the true life.  The sacrifice kept getting bigger and more abundant in order to keep this artificial life going, in the old covenant people.  It's like when someone in a hospital is declared clinically dead, then we could put them on a life support system, but that person remains lifeless.  The body would function, the heart would pump blood, the lungs would carry oxygen to the blood, but for all intents and purposes, the person is still dead.
     The blood of bulls and goats could extend the function of the body in the old covenant.  But,  the
spirit was still dead because of the sin nature that came down from Adam.  God could use the blood of goats and bulls to cover the sin, but not to remove it.  The Law could show us how to modify the behavior, but couldn't change the sin nature of man.  Under the old covenant, it could show you God was the Almighty, all powerful, Creator of heaven and earth.  but, it couldn't show the people Who God was.
     It could reveal Him as God, but couldn't reveal Him as Father.  It could reveal God as One Who demanded holiness, but they couldn't become holy.  God demanded love, but they couldn't love like He commanded.  The Law demanded righteousness, but they couldn't do enough of their own works to make themselves righteous. 
     The life that they were living under the old covenant,was at best, just the natural, carnal life of the flesh.  The only life the spirit of man could hope for was the life in the blood of their sacrifice.  When Jesus said that He came that they could have and enjoy life to the full, the people had no idea what He was talking about.
     Today, we still don't understand the full significance of His statement.  When we received "Life" through Jesus, it is the very life of Almighty God.  This life isn't for when we die and go to heaven, but all the Life of God Himself is for here on earth.  This Life was to flow from our new creation spirit, into our flesh and blood body.  The supernatural life of our Father,was the life He breathed into Adam and Jesus, the Last Adam.  This life wouldn't modify the behavior of the flesh, but would control it from within our new, God made spirit.
     We haven't allowed this life Spirit be made manifest in the flesh and blood bodies we live in.  We still set it for the future when we die and go to heaven.  We have mostly used the Law to modify our behavior, but we've failed to allow the new life to control our behavior.  Galatians 5:16 (Amplified) says, "But I say, walk and live (habitually) in the (Holy) Spirit (responsive to and controlled and guided by the Spirit); then you will certainly not gratify the cravings and desires of the flesh (of the human nature without God)."
     I remember when I was young and went to the circus.  I saw lions in a big cage that jumped through hoops of fire, sit on stools and stand on their hind legs.  They had trained the lions by modifying their behavior patterns, but if you turned your back to them, then they'd eat you.  All the modification in the world couldn't change the nature of the lions.
     The Law could help modify man's behavior, but couldn't change his nature.   As Christians, we still try using the Law to change our behavior, instead of allowing the "Life" of the Holy Spirit to change our nature into His nature.  You have been made new, by the sacrifice of Jesus, into the very Image and likeness of the Father.
     God intended us to use this "Life" to bring life to others.  We're supposed to use this abundant life, along with its inherited power, to set the world free from death.  Healing for ourselves and healing for others, is in this "Life" that Jesus came to give us.  The very same life that He has, is the very same life that we have.  There is so much life inside us, that we can dismiss sickness from other people by laying our hands on them.  This "Life" is the very presence of God Himself now living inside of us.  No wonder Jesus said that, "It's not Me, but the Father in Me Who does the work."
     I'm not sure why it's been so difficult for us to learn how to live.  We keep trying to live the God kind of life by the same standards we had before we were created anew.  Sickness and disease are simply a partial death and something that slows down the flow of life in our body.  If we are made new in His likeness, then doesn't this mean we are to be like He is?  Jesus said that we were to be one with God as He is One with God.  John 17:20 (Amplified) says, "I have given to them the glory and honor which you have given Me, that they may be one (even) as We are One."
     This Life is the very presence of God in our life and is our life.  What He is, we are.  You are not God, but you have received His very nature, ability and power.  We are to use this gift of life on behalf of others, meeting theirs needs like Jesus did.  This is the Life that Jesus came to give us.  It's abundant life.  It's more life than we can ever use up.
     We are to share this Life with anyone who has a need.  Everything that man could ever need is found in this Life.  We have more life than the devil has death and we have more healing than satan has sickness.  "Greater is He Who is in us than he who is in the world."
     We are being brought into the knowledge of how to actually live in the Spirit and to flow from the Spirit and to allow the Spirit to flow through us.  What flows out from our spirit to others is actually God Himself.  God flows from our spirit and not our flesh.  As we lay hands on people, God flows through our contact into the person having hands laid on them (just like it was Jesus laying His hands on them).  The power flowed out of Jesus' hands into the woman with the issue of blood, healing her.  Jesus felt the power go out of Him.  The same is true for us, too,as God flows out of our spirit that's made new and in His likeness.  We are now learning how to actually, truly live.

Lesson 2 Learning To Live

     John 10:10 (Amplified) says, "The thief comes in order to steal and kill and destroy.  I came that you may have and enjoy life, and have it in abundance (to the full, till it overflows)."
     When Jesus spoke these words, was He speaking to people who were already alive or not?  I'm the sure His listeners were perplexed by what He said.  Having no understanding of death in the spirit, they must not have understood what Jesus was saying.  Today, we don't seem to have much more revelation about this statement than they did.
     Why would Jesus address a live crowd with the statement, "I came that you may have and enjoy life?"  They must have all thought they already had life and were, for the most part, enjoying that life.  What was Jesus talking about?  He came to "give," "that we may have life."  Today, if we were talking to the unsaved, then they wouldn't have any idea what we were talking about if we said that "we came that they might have life."  It's even sadder, that even the Church might would think we're talking about heaven if we said they have new life and more abundant life than they had before. 
     This "life" doesn't begin when we get to heaven, but begins when you receive Christ as your Savior.  This life is the "Zoe, time, spirit or the God kind of life.  Death no longer dwells in our spirit, but God's very Own life is now there.  We've never really understood what this life has made available to us here, in this world.  Jesus used this "Life" to allow God to make His love available to mankind.  Jesus knew how to live this God kind of life to the full advantage and enjoyment that pleases the Father.
     When Jesus said He'd give us life to the full, He meant that not only would we have the life that we now live in our own body, but God's life and ability in our spirit to govern our body.  We now need to learn how to live this God kind of life.
     We watched Jesus as He walked in this God life.  We see that it raised Him above all the natural things of this world.  Jesus was not only never sick, but sickness couldn't remain even on others around Him as He dismissed it.  He knew the power of spoken words in this "life" that He possessed and was very respectful of how He spoke.  He could speak death to a tree and life to a dead man and then calm a storm with His words.  He had authority over all the elements and the laws of physics that govern the natural world.
     We find that knowing how to live this full life was the power of this new life.  Jesus knew what to say and how to say it.  Demonic spirits were subject to this new life along with everything else.  This new, abundant life, didn't just mean a way to gain wealth or things, but was actually the source of wealth and things.  When Jesus needed food for the people, this life produced enough and twelve baskets were left over.  When Jesus needed money, this life produced money from the fish's mouth.  Whatever Jesus needed and whenever He needed it, life produced it for Him.  This is life more abundantly.
      One version of this verse says that Jesus came to bring "more life than we will ever need."  Because Jesus had this life living in Him and flowing through Him, when He came into contact with death or sickness (which is a form of death in itself), this full, abundant, Zoe kind of life drove out demons, death, and disease.  This is the same kind of life Jesus gave to those Who receive Him at the new birth.
     Our problem has been, that we have never learned how to live in this new life.  We watch some who were learning to live this new life.  We see in the Word, how Peter and John were at the Gates of the Beautiful Garden and learned the power of words in this new life.  They didn't pray, they didn't lead the crippled man in prayer.  They simply said, "In the Name of Jesus, rise up and walk" and then life came into the man's crippled feet and legs and he rose up leaping and praising God.
     We watched Paul begin to learn how this "life" work.  He shook a poisonous viper off from his hand into the fire and had no adverse reactions to the poison.  We see throughout the Word how this "life" was used to cast out demons that were tormenting people.  They were learning how to live!
     We see in the Book of Genesis how this God kind of life was given to Adam.  This God life was above all other things on earth.  God walked with Adam, talked with Adam and even allowed him to name all the animals on the planet.  God showed him how to live.
     Only the Holy Spirit can teach us how to live this new life and all that it encompasses.  Without the Holy Spirit to teach us, we would be like we were before life came.  Our problem isn't that we don't have this "new life," but we have never learned how to live it.  Today, what we call "Christianity" comes from dead men trying to teach us life and it hasn't worked very well.  They've tried teaching abundant life through dead regulations.  Rather than pursuing abundant life, we've reverted back to dead regulations.  All the supernatural power that this life has given has been removed and made of no effect in our lives.
     Every newborn has potential, but must be taught how to live.  A new baby must have someone to teach him everything about life.  They don't know how to talk, walk , distinguish between persons, colors and animals.  They don't know how to eat or what to eat.  They don't know the difference between things that will harm them or bless them.  They have to learn how to live.
     1Peter 2:2 (Amplified) says, "Like newborn babies you should crave (thirst for, earnestly desire) the pure (unadulterated) spiritual milk, that by it you may be nurtured and grow onto (completed) salvation."  The Word instructs us to grow in this knowledge of this new life and to live it to His glory.
     We took this new life and chose to keep it bound through rituals, by behavior modification, by religion and by sheer willpower not to sin.  We fought against sin by our own power and didn't allow life to swallow death, like it's supposed to do.  We reduced this life by enforcing dress codes, denominations and by searching for others to group together with us.  We became like the dumb television show of the living dead.  We became life wrapped up with dead rituals and customs.  It actually smells as badly as the walking dead smell.  It smells like manna that was held onto for the next day.
     The Holy Spirit was sent when Jesus returned to the Father.  His job it to lead, guide, reveal, direct and teach the Church how to live this new life.  Unless those teaching the Church are actually being left by the Holy Spirit, we are still like the "blind leading the blind."  Jesus told the young man to "Come, follow Me."  The young man asked if he could first bury his dead father.  Without this life that Jesus came to give us, the man with the shovel was as dead as the one being buried.
     How do we learn how to live?  We were born unto death.  We have conducted all of our affairs governed by death.  Every decision we've ever made, was instructed from death.  When we were born again, we continued allowing death to govern our life because we were never taught how to live in the abundant life of God that lifted us back into His life.  We never understood what the Bible was actually saying to us.  We've never really seen ourselves as new creatures in Christ and having new life here on earth.  We've never allowed life to reign here on earth and deliver this abundant life to bear on a sick and dead world, like Jesus instructed us.

Lesson 1 Learning To Live

     John 10:10 (Amplified) says that, "The thief comes only in order to steal and kill destroy. I came that they may have and enjoy life, and have it in abundance (to the full, till it overflows)."
     Something in this scripture has always eluded and left me wondering what was really going on.  We now know that Jesus was talking about the new birth and the born again experience.  Most of us, even after being born again, don't seem to understand what Jesus was really saying.
     I'm sure that all of those present at the time of this discourse, were astonished at what Jesus said.  All of those listening probably thought they were "alive" already and yet Jesus was saying that He came that they should have life.  I can almost hear them saying among themselves, "Does He think we are dead?"  And, they probably whispered, "Are we not walking and talking and breathing?" and "Do we not have life within ourselves?"
     When Jesus said this to the crowd, He was actually the only true living Man among them.  He was actually, at that time, the only truly living Man on the entire planet.  Romans 5:12 (Amplified) says, "Therefore, as sin came into the world through one man, and death as the result of sin, so death spread to all men (no one being able to stop it or to escape its power) because all men sinned."
     This scripture isn't just speaking of natural death that occurs in the body, because we Christians still die in the body (until the resurrection).  He was speaking about a spiritual death which is separation from God that happened because of the fall of Adam.
     Because we lack understanding of spiritual death, we still don't understand the terms of it.  We still have an eternal spirit, but because of Adam, it was cut off from God - Who is life.  Man functioned only in the natural or carnal life, but without God's life being in us anymore.  When Jesus said that, "He came that we might have life and have it to the full," He was speaking of our being made one with God again through His sacrifice and the new birth. 
     The full and abundant life Jesus was speaking about, was God's life Itself that would live in us again.  This life would be all that Adam had, all that Jesus had and all that God Himself has.  This is more life than we could ever use.  This is eternal life through the Holy Spirit of God Himself.  This life of God is now open to us again and it's everything God had planned for man from the beginning.  We would no longer be limited to just the natural man and the arm of the flesh, but now the blessings of heaven would flow through us like it did in the Garden of Eden.
     When a woman gets pregnant, a child is alive in her womb, but that child's world is limited to total darkness and confinement.  Once the child is born, it is no less alive, but a vast life has opened to it that it never knew existed.  It's more abundant life and a great new world than the child knew in the womb.  Jesus declared that the believer would now have life "to the full."  We were taken from spiritual death into life with God again.  Colossians 2:10 (Amplified) says, "And you are in Him, made full and having come to 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)."
      In spiritual death or separation from God in the spirit, we could only strive walking in obedience of laws and rules that would help us from total destruction.  Ephesians 2:1-2 (Amplified) says, "And you (He made alive) when you were dead (slain) by (your) trespasses and sins In which at one time you walked (habitually) You were following the course and fashion of this world (were under the sway of the tendency of this present age) following the prince of the power of the air. (You were obedient to and under the control of) the (demon) spirit that still constantly works in the sons of disobedience (the careless, the rebellious, and the unbelieving, who go against the purposes of God)."
     Once we were set free from death and entered into life through Jesus, we must learn how to live.  We have once again placed ourselves under laws and creeds and have continued in the same age old confines of our death walk.  Although life was restored to us , we still walk in the realm of the dead.  All of this life that Jesus has now given us, has been greatly lost to the believer.
     We were now to have "life to the full," but much like a newborn, we became overwhelmed with so much life.  We used religion to bring it down to terms we could understand and lost the liberty and power of unity with out Father.  Paul wrote to the Church in Rome about understanding the vastness of this new life.  Thus, he says in Romans 10:2 (Amplified), "Do not be conformed to this world (this age) fashioned after and adapted to its external, superficial customs) but be transformed (changed) by the (entire) renewal of your mind (by its new ideals and its new attitude)."
     If we do not renew our minds with the truth of the new birth, then we will continue in the same customs and traditions we held when we were dead to God.  Jesus said in John 6:63 (Amplified) that, "It is the Spirit Who gives life (He is the Life-giver) the flesh conveys no benefit whatever (there is no profit in it) the Words (truths) that I have been speaking to you are Spirit and Life."
     If we renew our minds like Paul instructed, then we can begin understand the life that has been given to us.  Now, we can finally begin to understand what Jesus was speaking about in John 8:31-32 (Amplified) saying, "So Jesus said to those Jews who had believed in Him, If you abide in My Word (hold fast to My teachings and live in accordance with them) you are truly My disciples and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free."
     It is only by continuing and abiding in Jesus and allowing His Word to abide in us, that we will ever know the truth and be free from the death that kept us bondage to the world.  In the Church today, we are abiding in Him through the new birth, but His Word isn't abiding in us.  And, because of this, we have never known the truth that makes us truly free.  We still live under the flesh (that has no benefit) and have never really learned how to live.  The reason for these teachings is to teach the Body of Christ how to live and walk into this abundant life with God that opens up a whole new life with His Spirit.  
     Many things taught to these last days Church, have been about this abundant life.  Mostly, though, the carnally minded Christians have dismissed these teachings.  Many teachings about prosperity or the authority of the believer to claim things in faith and grace, have been dismissed as "Name it and claim it" or "Blab it and grab it" tactics.
     All these things are part of this life that is once again ours by the new birth.  Because we refuse to believe what God's Word says and because we choose to live as being dead to the Words of the Spirit, we still operate in the flesh instead of the Spirit.  We're like the newborn baby who is frightened by the vastness of the world that has opened up to him.  Newborn still seek the closeness and the familiar things of the womb.  You wrap them tightly in a blanket and they feel the familiar confines of their previous life in the womb.
     Like a newborn, we turn to the familiar ways we were in before being born again.  Remember, Jesus said that, "If we will abide in Him and His Words abide in us, then we will know the truth and that truth will set us free."  The only way to have life to the fullest like in John 10:10, is to know the truth about this new life by His Word.  This new life is the very life God gave when He made man in His Image and likeness.

Lesson 8 A Reasonable Man

     2Corinthians 10:3-5 (Amplified) tells us, "For thought we walk (live) in the flesh, we do not carry on our warfare according to the flesh and using mere human weapons; the weapons of our warfare are not physical (weapons of flesh and blood) but they are mighty before God for the overthrow and destruction of strongholds."  Verse 5 says, (In as much as we) refute arguments and theories and reasonings and every proud and lofty thing that sets itself up against the (true) knowledge of God; and we lead away captive into the obedience of Christ (the Messiah, the Anointed One)."
     The Apostle Paul was speaking here about man's ideas and opinions about the true Gospel of Christ.  As men reasoned and argued and held different theories about what the true Word really said, Paul declared that he refuted all those ideas for the truth.  Today, we have much the same thing occurring in the body of Christ (the devil has never changed his tactics).  We find in different circles, differing opinions about the Word.
     Some have determined that, because we see people (even Christians) who are sick, healing has passed away and God no longer heals.  I still see people who aren't saved, but would that mean that God no longer saves?  Just because man doesn't understand and receive what God has done through Jesus, doesn't mean that God's Word and His intent has changed.  When God, through Jesus, sent the Holy Spirit, "For the promise (of the Holy Spirit) is to and for you and your children, and to and for all that are far away, (even) to and for as many as the Lord our God invites and bids to come to Himself" according to Acts 2:39 (Amplified).
     This is God's reasoning concerning the gift of His Holy Spirit, but I hear too often today, reasonings that declare this gift isn't for everyone and that God's gifts have passed away with the early Church.  Above all people of the earth, we have been blessed with everything heaven has to offer God's children.  When the Church came into being, we were made to be God's family and friends by Jesus.  Because we still see things in the carnal way instead of after the Spirit, we've allowed the devil to seduce us like he did in the Garden of Eden.
     Somehow, we've become afraid to believe that we have been made like our Father and our Lord.  By carnal reasonings, we still see ourselves as being inferior and unworthy.  In our old selves and our old being, this was true, but we're no longer in our old selves.  We're now in Christ Jesus.  By being in Christ, we are no longer inferior or unworthy.  That would mean His sacrifice was of no avail.  He didn't leave us like He found us, but He changed us into His very Own Image and likeness.  He declared us to be righteous and accepted in Jesus.  1Peter 2:9 (Amplified) says, "But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a dedicated nation. (God's) Own purchased people, that you may set forth the wonderful deeds and display the virtues and perfections of Him Who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light."
     We are to show forth and display His virtues and perfection to the world.  This doesn't mean that we're just to be nice, but powerful in His deeds as well.  Jesus didn't limit His ministry simply to just being sweet, but by His being moved by His compassion to set those who were bound free.  This Love of God that was poured into hearts by the Holy Spirit, was to be used as a power to liberate those who were held captive.
     When we read about the gifts of the Holy Spirit in 1Corinthians 12, we find these gifts are from God to be used as weapons against the devil to free those who are under his power.  This is what Jesus used them for and this is still their purpose.  We've preached the new birth and the forgiveness of sin, but have left the people in their own bondage of sickness, condemnation, and oppression.  The gifts of the Spirit are the very weapons of our warfare according to 2Corinthians 10:4.
     These gifts weren't to glorify some man, but to glorify Jesus.  They were intended for the warrior who would learn to use them to liberate the people and for the glory of the Lord.  When we learn the true power of His love for the people, then we will learn the true meaning of His gifts of the Spirit.
     Jesus couldn't go anywhere that His love for the people didn't pull His power out of Him and set them free.  He loved so deeply that He couldn't stand to see the people under slavery of the enemy.  We have determined that it doesn't make a difference if people are healed and made whole on earth because they'll be so in heaven.  Thus, we've concluded that healing isn't really that important.  Someone should have told Jesus that.
     I once prayed for a woman whose hands were crippled from arthritis.  She couldn't open her finger at all.  As I prayed for her healing, nothing happened.  I asked God why her healing hadn't come and His answer was His reasoning and not mine.  God told me that she needed loosed and not healed.  He took me into Luke 13:16 (Amplified) which says, "And ought not this woman, a daughter of Abraham, whom satan has kept bound for eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the Sabbath?"  Jesus answered in Verse 12 saying, "She needed to be loosed, released from her infirmity."
     I never thought about a there being a difference between healing and loosening before that.  I went back to this same lady the next week and as I walked towards her, I could see the hope ion her eyes.  I laid my hands on her and said, "In the Name of Jesus, I loose you from this infirmity."  As I watched, her fingers began to straighten and flex into working hands again.
     I could have reasoned away why healing hadn't worked and made excuses about how she didn't have enough faith.  I could have reasoned that God was using this arthritis to teach her or that healing wasn't for today or for everyone.  Instead, though, I decided to, "Come let us reason together says the Lord."  His reasonings set the lady free when many reasonins had left her bound.
     It's so easy to justify what happens to us and look for a reason why things happen or don't happen (even at the expense of the Word).  We so want reasons for everything that happens in our lives.  Some even reason that God puts these things on us to make us love Him.  Man's reasonings and traditions have made God's Word of no effect.  God is raising up a people in these last days before Jesus returns, who put away reasonings and just walk in His love and His power to set the captives free.  It is time for us to let God be God once again and to see His great love loosed upon this planet in a great way today.

Lesson 7 A Reasonable Man

     Being a reasonable man is a desirable quality in many areas of life.  Being capable of coming to an understanding with others without being stubborn and bullheaded is good.  Many wars and disagreements have been and could be avoided if man could learn to be reasonable.  When it applies to the Word of God, reasoning is how we excuse our behavior instead of applying it correctly.
     There are many things in the Word we don't understand, but reasoning them away is not the answer.  Many don't understand the supernatural things available to man through the new birth.  Over the years, reasoning has simply declared them as being "passed away" or that they are "arbitrary."  Some have reasoned these gifts and powers as being only for the apostles and the early Church.
     I can't recall a time where we've needed the supernatural more than we need it now.  We were born again of the very supernatural Spirit of the Living God.  We have His attributes and His very nature living inside us, according to God's Word.  Even when it concerns the new birth, we try to reason things away.  Some have even come to the point of not actually believing we are considered sinless and blameless in the eyes of our Father.
     Religious minds have reasoned that because we still may sin, we aren't truly righteous with God.  Reasoning has come to the place where we're more aware of what we do rather than we are of what Jesus has done.  It seems reasonable that if we're still weak and make mistakes, then we cannot be considered sinless in our Lord.
     Perhaps I'm not a reasonable man when it applies to the things of God, but I will not dishonor the Blood of Jesus by believing it wasn't enough to set me free from sin.  Reasoning has decided that because we aren't perfect, we must still be sinners and nothing is further from the truth than this.  I am as my Lamb was and still is and that's perfect, clean and pure in the eyes of God.  He only sees me through the Blood and sacrifice of the Lamb of God.
     Reasoning with carnal minded men only leads to carnal thinking.  Only those who are spiritually minded can understand the power of the sacrifice of Jesus.  We see the Man on the cross, we see Him die and be buried, and yet we can 't seem to understand the truth beyond just the death of the Man.  It wasn't just the death of Jesus' body, but the death of sin and death itself that took place.  Jesus' Blood and His death were something that carnal thinking and reasoning can't explain. 
     Trying to understand the Word of God by reasoning and without God, will only come back to religious thinking and put man back under the same condemnation he was in before.  If I died of some disease, then I would continue believing and confessing that "Healing is for us today."  What I think about it, doesn't change the truth of God's Word.  His Word is true, even if I don't receive it for myself.
     We've never really accepted the truth of what His Word has declared to be true concerning us today.  Through our reasoning away the truth of God's Word, we continue making ourselves feel unworthy, unclean and unable to approach such a Holy God.  Reasoning has prevented the cleansing power of Jesus' Blood to be effective in our lives.  The Blood hasn't lost its power, but reasoning has stopped us from believing in it.  Therefore, we continue to live and walk like those who have never received cleansing.
     By reasoning, we have placed more faith in what we do to become right with God rather than in what Jesus did to make us right.  Who are we to say that we're still unrighteous, when it's God Who says we are righteous through Jesus?  Who are we to accuse ourselves of still being sinners, when it's God Who says that He doesn't remember our sins and iniquities any longer?  How can reasoning declare we're still unclean when God Himself has declared us to be clean?  Isaiah 1:18 (Amplified) says, "Come now, and let us reason together, says the Lord: though our sins be as scarlet, they shall be white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be like wool."
     Do you know what crimson looks like when it's mixed with crimson blood?  You can't see it.  The crimson blood covers and mixes with the crimson sin and all you see is the blood.  Isaiah 1:19 (Amplified) goes on to say, "If you are willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land."
     Many aren't eating the good of the land because of their reasoning.  Reason has stopped them from accepting the truth that God has decreed and they won't enter in because of unbelief.  Hebrews 4:2 (Amplified) 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 entire leaning of their personality on 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)."
     We have listened to the voice of reason and haven't allowed ourselves to believe what the truth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ has promised.  Every time the Lord opens a new door to His revelation, we close it by reasoning.
     If we are to reason about the Word of God, then at least we should reason with Him.  Jesus didn't die, descend into the abyss and become sin in our place just to give us another religion, but to give us relationship.  Only by the truth of God's Word can you ever have a relationship with the Father.  If you still consider yourself a sinner, then you will never enter into the Presence of a Holy and Righteous God.  Undeserved guilt and shame will always leave you in the outer courts and not in the Holy of Holies.
     Put your faith in what Jesus has done and not in what you have done, both good and bad.  No matter how good the works are, they aren't what gives you right standing with God.  No matter how bad the bad might be, Jesus' Blood has already removed it from you.  You have been made righteous with His Own righteousness according to 2Corinthians 5:21 (Amplified) which says, "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 relationship with Him, by His goodness)."
     You have been made righteous by His Own righteousness and that cannot be improved upon.  All you can do (without reasoning it away), is accept it by faith and enjoy God as much as He wants to enjoy you.
     Can you imagine how it must hurt the heart of God to know that even after all He has done gain us back, reasoning with His truth still separates us from Him?  It doesn't seem reasonable to the carnal mind that all we're required to do to be righteous with Him, is to believe.  We're to believe on and in Jesus, believe in and on the truth of His sacrifice and then we're made righteous, acceptable, approved and in right standing with Him.
     Your mind would reason that there's got to be more to it than that.  What must I do to be righteous and in right standing with God?  Abraham believed God and it was accounted to unto him as righteousness.  Romans 4:21-22 (Amplified) says, "Fully satisfied and assured that God was able and mighty to keep His Word and do what He had promised, that is why [Abraham's] faith was credited to him as righteousness (right standing with God)."
     Don't be a reasonable man when it comes to God's Word.  If you must reason, then "Come reason together with Me, says the Lord."
     If you base your walk with God on reasonings and works, then you will always fall in your pursuit of Him.  His Presence isn't determined by goosebumps or by denomination titles or on how much you read and pray.  His Presence is determined by faith in His Word that, "I Am with you always."  If the only way you determine His Presence is when you get goosebumps or are being really good, then most of your time is spent without His Presence.
     God is there because He said He would be.  Conduct your life on that basis and you will walk above the world.  He isn't a "Man that He should lie."  We know better than to say God would life to us about anything, so reasoning begins making excuses for Him because we don't see the supernatural.  We must do the supernatural to see the supernatural.  Mark 16:20 (Amplified) says, "And they went out and preached everywhere, while the Lord kept working with them and confirming the message by the attesting signs and miracles that closely accompanied (it). Amen (so be it)."
     What are we preaching that He can confirm today with signs and miracles?  They didn't come to the people as reasonable men, but as men of faith in Christ Jesus.  After all, it's not you, but "the Father in you" Who does the works.

     Thank you for all the prayers.  I have my tractor back and have all the hay bailed that I had down.  I have to get the second cutting off the two horse hay fields and get the bails off the fields and then I'm done (until I have to feed it to the critters, ha ha).

Lesson 6 A Reasonable Man

     When we reason with someone or something, we're tying to understand or have something explained to us so that it meets our own way of thinking about it.  We boil things down to a level that we can understand or compromise in agreement with ourselves or another.  We hear the word "reason" constantly from politicians.  They're always looking for someone to be "reasonable," when it comes to passing bills and legislation.  If one side will agree to pass a bill, then they will allow the other side to put in other items (mostly pork spending) if they will be "reasonable" and allow their bill to pass.
     Sometimes, it appears like compromising is the lesser of two evils.  They may want to pass something that is good, but are forced "by being reasonable," to pass something that isn't good simply to get it through.  Thus, we have reasonable legislators.
     It seems like when it comes to the Word of God, we've almost "reasoned" ourselves out of most everything except going to heaven when we die.  God said in Isaiah 1:18 (Amplified), "Come let us reason together."  The word "reason" here has an entirely different meaning to it according to Strong's Concordance #3198 where in Hebrew text means, "to be right, (i.e.) correct, to argue, to decide, justify or convict, appoint, chasten, convince, correct, judge, maintain, reprove, daysman."     
     When I read the word or title of daysman, I thought about what Job had said in Job 9:32-33 (King James Version), "For He (God) is not a man, as I am, that I should answer Him, and we should come together in judgment. Neither is there any daysman betwixt us, that might lay His hand upon us both."
     In the Amplified Bible, Job 9:32-35 says, "For (God) is not a (mere) man as I am, that I should answer Him, that we should come together in court. There is no umpire (daysman) between us, who might lay His hand upon us both (would that there was) that He might take His rod away from (threatening) me, and that the fear of Him might not terrify me, (Then) would I speak and not fear Him, but I am not so in myself (to make me afraid, were only a fair trial given me)."
     The meaning of "reason, daysman" is none other than our Mediator, Jesus.  Had He been the One Who Job could call upon (like He is today for us), then Job said that he "would not be afraid" and "he would get a fair trial."  The concept of "reason" is a whole different thing than how we mostly think of it.  When we "Come and reason together with Him," then it's through our "Daysman," Jesus.  It's now through the power of our new covenant and it's through the wisdom granted to us by the Holy Spirit Who indwells in us.  We have the Daysman that Job wished he had. 
     Through our own thinking and reasonings, we have invented some of the most outlandish rules and doctrines that have ever messed up a people.  Some of the reasonings we have come up with are simply man's ignorant take of God's wisdom.  By reason, we still try getting God to bless us through our works.  In other words, we believe that if we're good, then God will bless us or if we're bad, then God will punish me.  This sounds reasonable to most of us today, but it's wrong.  It's true that there are consequences for wrong behavior, but it isn't God Who is bringing them, they're the result of wrong choices.
     The punishment for sin and wrong behavior fell on our Daysman instead of on us.  This doesn't sound reasonable to the carnal mind.  If God was going to punish us for our wrong doing, then do you think any of us would have lived long enough to even get saved?  The Gospel defies reason to any degree when God would actually give His Own Son to die on my behalf, cleanse me, call me righteous and accept and bless me even before I knew Him.  Does that sound reasonable to you?
     I suppose that's why the Word instructs us in 2Corinthians 10:5 (Amplified) to, "Refute arguments and theories and reasonings and every proud and lofty thing that sets itself up against the (true) knowledge of God."  In our own way of thinking and reasoning, we feel like there must be more for us to do in order to be blessed with all heaven has given us through Jesus.  We say that He "did it all," and then by reasoning, we say we must do something to deserve it.  As long as reason rules our spiritual life, faith cannot work.  Faith is letting our Daysman stand in our place and trust Him for all of it.  Where reason tries to earn it by our good works and deeds, it's no longer faith, but earned credit.
     Have you ever really thought about how we have determined the Gospel over all these years?  If we only received what we deserved from God, then we would burn.  Nothing we got from Him was earned or deserved, but it was only by grace and love.  It's not reasonable to expect God to bless people who are still messed up (even after being born again).  I've never met a Christian who is perfect in all he does.  The only perfect thing about us, is Jesus.  When I reason together with Him, I see myself the way He sees me and not the way others see me.  This concept alone, seems unreasonable to some Christians.
     I've been reasoning together with Him and His reasoning says that, "through my Daysman and Mediator, I am righteous, perfect, sanctified, made one with Jesus, an heir of God and a joint heir with Jesus.  Now, you can see where some call me "unreasonable."
     I refuse to let myself or others to try reasoning me out of what my Father has graced me with.  I refuse to walk in guilt or condemnation and I refuse to walk in doubt as to my relationship with my Father.  I refuse to walk in the fear that God would turn His back on me or refuse to hear me.  I will not let reasonings prevent me from receiving what Jesus has done for me.
     "Well, yes, Brother Jim," you say, "Don't you think?"  No!  When it comes to God's Word, I don't think outside of His Word.  If God says that I have been made righteous in Christ Jesus, then I don't even want to reason myself out of that even if it means getting along with someone else.  You might say that I'm not reasonable at all and that no one can talk to me or that I won't listen to reason at all.  Now, you're getting the picture.  I just won't listen to reason.  I'm not a reasonable man.

Lesson 5 A Reasonable Man

     Sometimes, while we reason things out, we deliberate on certain things in order to make the right decision. When it comes to reasoning on the Word of God, we're to reason together with Him according to  Isaiah 1:18 (Amplified).  When we begin to reason with ourselves or with one another, then we usually rationalize the truth out of God's Word.
     James 1:5-8 (King James Version) says, "If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given to him. But let him ask in faith, nothings wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the and tossed.  Verses 7-8 say, "For let not that man think that he shall receive anything of the Lord. A double minded man is unstable in all his ways."
     We learned from the above scripture that if any man lacks wisdom, then he needs to ask God and He will give it liberally.  If a man asks God for wisdom, God gives the wisdom and the man didn't receive what was given, then it was because the man lacked faith in what he heard.  Wisdom came.  God said He'd give wisdom to those who ask and God doesn't lie.  The man didn't receive the wisdom because he didn't receive it in faith. When wisdom came, the man began reasoning with the wisdom and to debate it with himself as to whether what he heard was really from God.
     Too often we reason away the wisdom of God when it comes to debating or reasoning about what God said.  We wonder, "Was that really God?"  Or, we say, "That can't be God because it doesn't make sense to me."  Or, we say, "God if that's really You, then give me a sign."  Our reasoning can't always sort out God's Word so we must simply obey it by faith.
     Faith doesn't always need reasoning, it just needs faith.  Jesus told Peter to, "Throw your net out on the right side of the boat and you'll have a great catch."  Peter had been fishing all night and had caught nothing.  Reason would have said, "What's the use," but faith threw out the net.  Reasoning would have left Lazarus in the grave because, "By now, he stinketh."  Reasoning said that because he stinks, he cannot be raised.  Faith said, "Move the stone."
     Reason would have taken God's instructions to Joshua at Jericho and would have probably lost the battle and probably destroyed half of Joshua's army.  In Joshua 6:1-5 (Amplified), God tells Joshua to walk around the city seven times, have the Priests blow their trumpets, and tell all the people to shout.  Does that make any sense at all to the natural man's reasoning?  Of course not.  This is why we "Come reason together with the Lord."  In the kingdom of God, things work differently than in the reasonings of man.
     When we are called to lay hands on the sick, it defies reasonings.  When Jesus and Peter walked on water, reasoning would say, "I've seen too many people drown to believe you can walk on water."  The Word is Spirit and must be received in your spirit because your carnal mind (unrenewed thinking) will reason away the truth of the Word.
     I don't know whether or not I've found much of anything in God's Word that make sense to my carnal mind.  The death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus makes no sense through the eyes of reason.  We arrive at many different opinions about God's Word based on the degree of spiritual growth in God's people.  Even God Himself makes no sense to the natural man's way of thinking.
     1Corinthians 14 (King James Version) says, "But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him;  neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned."  Natural man will always "reason" with God's Word because without hearing from the Holy Spirit, you will not understand.  The more we reason with God's Word, the more we misunderstand it and neuter it with reasoning.  We leave it with no power to produce in our lives, with our reasoning.
     Your head (the natural man) cannot understand the speaking of unknown tongues.  Reason will tell you, that if it's unknown, then you can't speak it.  That sounds reasonable, doesn't it?  How can I speak in a language that I don't even know?
     Compromise of God's Word always comes by "reasonable men," who try understanding the things of God, without God.  He will speak this Spirit Word into our spirit man and faith will override the natural man and bring about the miracle of truth.  Our reasoning and our unrenewed minds keep us from receiving our healing, the baptism of the Holy Spirit, miracles and everything that grace has provided, because it makes no sense to the reasonable man.
     As we move through this day of grace and the time of His coming, we find more and more that some have reasoned the power of the Spirit out of our congregations all over this nation.  Anything that is supernatural is beyond the reasonable man and is dismissed.  We have replaced the supernatural power of God with creeds and doctrines that make the reasonable man can understand and make sense of.  We are striving to put ourselves under the Law, because natural man can understand this kind of thinking.
     This makes sense to the reasonable man.  He thinks that, "If I do this, then God will do this and if I do something else, then God will do something else."  God's Word is a spiritual Word given to natural people who aren't born again.  It made sense to the natural man to walk this way.

Lesson 4 A Reasonable Man

     Many times in my walk with God, I've been accused of not being reasonable.  I've taken some stands that I know are the Word and I will not compromise those things.  I am willing to listen to what others think and I try to get along with other Christians (as long as I don't have to compromise what I know the Lord has shown me).  I will try explaining what I know to others and will go through the scriptures with them.  If I am wrong, then I'm perfectly willing to change, but only if I'm wrong.
     Many doctrines or teachings we have in today's Church, are based on reasonings of men and not necessarily the revelation of the Word.  Just like they did in Jesus' days, we've hung onto our own truth (or what we believe to be truth) and haven't allowed the Holy Spirit to show us the true meaning of the Word.  Jesus could only show them a limited portion of the new covenant for many various reasons.  He taught about putting new wine into old wine skins because the people couldn't or wouldn't accept His new teachings.
     The people's ideas of "reasonable," was debating the Word and coming up with something to appease everyone (something we can all agree on or that will please the majority).  God's Word is not debatable and isn't always something that will please all people.  Those who aren't saved today, aren't pleased with the things the Word says to do.  Before I became a Christian, I didn't want to live the way God's Word laid out.  I wanted to live the way I wanted to live.  I "reasoned" with the Bible and used others to justify my position about certain things in the Bible.  If I wanted to drink, then I could find Christians who drank and could justify my own "reasonings" by watching them.  This didn't make what I was doing right, but by reasoning it out, I considered myself okay.
     In today's Church, we're so willing to get along with everyone, that we will allow reasoning to justify almost anything.  It still isn't right according to the Word, but we try to reason with it to the point of acceptance.  We are in this world, but not supposed to be of this world.  We're not called to "go along just to get along," but we're called to be different.  I don't mean to be obnoxious, but to stand firm in our belief.
     We're not to be Bible thumping people and hit them in the head with scripture, but to stand firm in what the Word says.  The Church isn't a democracy, but a body.  We don't vote or ask for the majority rule, because even if it's not popular, God's Word is still true.  Jesus said that, "When we see Him, we have seen the Father."  It's safe to say, then, that God's Word is true.
     We should be able just to watch Him and know what the will of God is.  If Jesus was healing people, then it must be God's will today.  If Jesus was casting out devils, then it must be the will of God.  If He was showing mercy to the unsaved, then it must be God's will.  The persons Jesus had a problem with, were the ones who tried to "reason" out what He was doing (even to the point of condemning Him for proclaiming Himself to be God's Own Son).  Even in today's Church, we still have those who by reasoning, will tell us we're not yet God's sons and that will only happen once we get to heaven.
     They will reason that because we still sin and make mistakes and aren't perfect, we can't be His sons and daughters.  Even when we read in the Word how "Jesus was made sin for me so I could be made righteous and in right standing with God, reasoning will hold back this truth.  This leaves us in the condemnation of the old man we were instead of the new man we are.  This type of reasoning will leave you in bondage of sin, even though you are free in Christ.
     We are not going to be God's sons and daughters.  If we are saved, then we already are God's sons and daughters.  When we make up creeds an doctrines in today's Church, we "reason" with one another as to what we believe.  Then we proceed with rules against what we won't believe and this leaves very little room for God to show us the true Word.
     If we've already decided that tongues have ceased by reasoning, then how can we accept what we've already decided is gone?  We went through the Word accepting and discounting what we can and cannot do, then we reasoned If we're only going to accept what God is doing in my life, then I have limited the power of God in everyone's life.  If I reason that because I don't speak in tongues, then no one does.  That's setting myself up as the great example of God's covenant instead of Jesus.
     Since I didn't get healed, does that mean healing is not for today?  I know many people who fail to see others and themselves not healed, then reason that healing isn't for today.  I happen to know many people who aren't saved, but that doesn't mean that salvation isn't for today.  God is still God and "Jesus is still the same yesterday, today and forever."  If Jesus did it, then He still does it today. 
     We need to stop "reasoning" about the Word and accept it.  When it comes to the Word of God, I am not a reasonable man.  If He said it is true, then it is true (even if I'm not walking in it for myself).  We need to let "God be God and every man a liar."
      
  

Lesson 3 A Reasonable Man

     When we think about being reasonable, we think of the word "compromise."  We constantly see it in our politics and in our government.  One party has some thing they want to pass into law, while the other side is opposed to it.  Then they arrive to the point of being reasonable.  However, they believe that being reasonable is when one side wants the other to change their position on this bill.  If they stand their ground, then they appear "unreasonable" in the eyes of the other party.  So then, there is gridlock and nothing gets done.
     All this means is that one party or the other has very strong convictions on a particular law or amendment.  Sometimes they do "reason" together and compromise on a matter.  They declare that makes them reasonable men and women.  It seems as though man, without God, can never stand strong in what they believe or stand for.  They achieve a compromise that still isn't the right one, but they say it's better than doing nothing at all.
     This might be how the world and governments work to get things done, but it's not God's way.  If we are to "reason" about God's Word, then Isaiah 1:18 (Amplified) says, "Come now and let us reason together, says the Lord!"  When we reason with God about what His Word tells us, there is no compromise to be had.  God will reveal His Word to us so we can understand it, but He will not compromise one word of it.  Psalm 119:89 (Amplified) says, "Forever, O Lord, Your Word is settled in heaven (stands firm as the heavens)."
     Being "reasonable" men, we have made the decision to compromise when it comes to God's Word, for the "betterment" of the people.  We sound like politicians, don't we?  We have "reasoned" with the people and with one another, and have decided to do what the people say rather than what God says.   King Saul did this in 1Samuel 13:8-14 (Amplified) which says, "So Saul waited seven days, according to the set time Samuel had appointed. But Samuel had not come to Gilgal, and the people were scattering from Saul."  Verses 9-11say, "So Saul said, bring me the burnt offering and the peace offering (which he was forbidden to do). And just as he had finished offering the burnt offering, behold, Samuel came! Saul went out to meet and greet him. Samuel said, What have you done? Saul said, because I saw that the people were scattering from me, and that you did not come within the days appointed, And that the Philistines were assembling at Michmash."  Verses 12-14 go on, "I thought, the Philistines will come down now upon me to Gilgal, and I have not made supplication to the Lord, So I forced myself  to offer a burnt offering. And Samuel said to Saul, You have done foolishly! You have not kept the commandment of the Lord your God which He commanded you; for the Lord would have established your kingdom over Israel forever. But now your kingdom shall not continue; the Lord has sought out (David) a man after His Own heart, and the Lord has commanded him to be prince and ruler over His people, because you have not kept what the Lord commanded you."
     Saul's reasoning may have seemed logical to him, but God's Word is not to be compromised.  We've done almost the same today, in the Body of Christ.  In order to keep the people from "scattering from us" (like Saul did), we've reasoned together with ourselves and have made some very costly mistakes.  When the people have made up their minds concerning certain things in the Word, we have made allowances for them by "reasoning" instead of teaching the truth of the Word.
     When we "reason together with the Lord" like Isaiah 1:18 says, then we will always come to the right decision in our thinking.  Isaiah 55:8-11 (Amplified) says, "For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways, My ways, says the Lord, For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts. For as the rain and snow come down from the heavens, and return not there again, but water the earth and make it bring forth and sprout, that it may give seed to the sower and bread to the eater."  Verse 11 says, "So shall My Word be that which goes forth out of My mouth; it shall not return to Me void (without producing and effect, useless) but it shall accomplish that which I please and purpose, and it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent!"
     When God said that His thoughts and His ways are higher than ours, He wasn't being boastful, but letting us know that if we're to understand (without compromise) and if we will reason together with Him, then He will instruct us in His Word.  James 1:5 (Amplified) says, "If any of you is deficient in wisdom, let him ask of the giving God (Who gives) to everyone liberally and ungrudgingly, without reproaching or faultfinding, and it will be given."
     We have "reasoned together" to the point where anything supernatural in the Word has been "reasoned" out.  After all, how can simply laying hands on someone who is sick, heal them?  It doesn't seem reasonable, does it?  So, if more people are disbelieving this, then we (like Saul) will reason and dismiss this (or compromise) in order to kep the people from scattering.
     When it comes to God's Word, there can be no compromise.  The Word of God doesn't work the way we want it to, but the way God sent it to.  Reasoning with the Word is the world's way (politics) in disguise.    
    

Lesson 2 A Reasonable Man

     There are many meanings of the word "reason" or "reasonable" in the Bible.  Many are good and many are not when it comes to the truth of God's Word.  In Luke 20:1-8 (Amplified), Jesus was teaching in the temple and the chief Priests and scribes asked Him a question.  They had the complete revelation of Who Jesus was and why He came within their grasp.  They missed out on everything Jesus would have told them, by reasoning among themselves.
     Thus, it says in Luke 20:1-9 (Amplified), "One day as Jesus was instructing the people in the temple (porches) and preaching the good news (the gospel) the Chief Priests and the scribes came up with the elders (members of the Sanhedrin) And said to Him, tell us by what (sort of) authority you are doing these things? Or who it is who gave you this authority?  Verses 3-5 say, "He replied to them, I will also ask you a question, Now answer Me. Was the baptism of John from heaven, or from men? And they argued and discussed (it) and they reasoned together with themselves, saying, If we reply, from heaven, He will say, why then did you not believe Him?"  Verses 6-8go on, "But if we answer, from men, all the people will stone us to death, for they are long since firmly convinced that John was a prophet. So they replied that they did not know from where it came. Then Jesus said to them, Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things."
     By reasoning over the truth of God's Word, man talked himself out of the great truth of the Person and purpose of the Son of God.  Debate is not a good thing when it comes to the Word.  God says in Isaiah 1:18 (Amplified), "Come now, and let us reason together, says the Lord!"
     When we reason together with Him and His reasoning, we will always come into the truth of His Word.  He will not and cannot deny Himself.  He and His Word are One.  The word "reasoning" found in Isaiah 1:18 means "to be right (i.e. correct), to argue, to decide, justify or convict, appoint, chasten, convince, correct, correction, daysman dispute, Judge, maintain, plead, reason (together), rebuke, reprove, surely, (in any wise), " according to The Strong's Concordance #3198.
     So what God is saying, is that when we reason with Him in His reasoning, it will correct us (from wrong thinking), it will rebuke us (when we are in error), it will justify us when we are in a dilemma and it will convict us (when we go against it).
     Reasoning with God will always put us on the right path of His truth.  Always!  Too many times, we reason like the scribes did and miss the great truth of God's Word for our lives.  Today, we have many different views of God's truth.  Most of them came from man's reasoning and without "Come let us reason together, says the Lord."
     We've had multiple and various views about the Gospel in these last days because we reasoned among ourselves.  We've had disputes about the prosperity message, the healing Word , the Word concerning God's grace, the believer's authority, the speaking of other tongues and the gifts of the Spirit and so many other things that God promised.
     All of these things are the reasonings of men and dispute the scriptures and covenant.  Many people try to God's people back under the Law (which the Gentile was never under to begin with because it was for the Jews).  We continue to stumble over what God's will is for His family in these last days.  Most of the problems stem from the fact that we reason with ourselves instead of reasoning together with Him.
     We've known that God's Word is true for many years, but we can never seem to have much success with it working in our lives.  Jesus said that, "Whatever you ask the Father in My Name, I will do it."  We've all struggled with receiving the answer to our prayers.  We know that God's Word is true, but we don't see results that the Word has promised.  Instead of going to God and reasoning with Him, we reason among ourselves and decide that "We can't say," like the scribes did. 
     We've put God's forgiven and redeemed family under bondage and condemnation with statements like, "You must have sin in your life and that's why your prayers aren't answered," or "God is using these things to teach you something," and even worse, "You never know what God is going to do."
     In these last days before Jesus returns for His bride, there will be a people who will stop reasoning with men in their reasoning and begin to reason with God in His reasoning.  Because we have prided ourselves in our own knowledge and reasonings, we've become like the scribes and Pharisees who change His Word to meet our own doctrines when our own reasonings don't line up with the Word.
     We argue about the rapture of the Church and the last days.  We fight and quarrel trying to make what we believe mean more than the truth.  We have even broken fellowship with people from our own company because they disagreed with out little doctrines.
     I have set my course to study God's Word for myself, with the Holy Spirit and reasonings with my Father, to prove for myself what is "the good and acceptable and perfect will of God" for my life.  Romans 12:2 (Amplified) says, "Do not be conformed to this world (this age) (fashioned after and adapted to its external, superficial customs), but be transformed (changed) by the (entire) renewal of your mind (by its new ideals and its attitude) So that you may prove (for yourselves) what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God, even the thing which is good and acceptable and perfect (in His sight for you)."
     2Corinthians 10:5 (Amplified) says, "(In as much as we) refute arguments and theories and reasonings and every proud and lofty thing that sets itself up against the (true) knowledge of God; and we lead every thought and purpose away captive into the obedience of Christ (the Messiah, the Anointed One)."
     The child of God is required to seek God on his own.  Too many times, the only Word we hear is the Sunday morning sermon from the pastor.  For those wanting to know and receive from the Father, we are to seek "As for silver and gold."  This doesn't mean you should dismiss your pastor's teachings, but you must add it to God's truth (that you've studied from His Word for yourself).
     Don't allow reasonings to do away with truth.  Many people have said that "tongues have ceased," but I know thousands of Christians who speak in tongues today.  It's obvious, then, that tongues haven't ceased, but mans reasonings have kept them from the Church.  I'm confident that man's reasonings saying that tongues have ceased, didn't come from evil intent, but from a carnal mind.  We're to cast down these thoughts that are contrary to God's Word and allow the Word to rule without compromise in our lives. 
  
    

A Reasonable Man

     When I was in the world and without Christ, I had always heard about and even admired a reasonable man.  These were men who seemed to have it altogether and weren't contrary to different things and ways.  You could come to an agreement and make a deal with a reasonable man.  They were men who would look at both sides of any argument and make a way to compromise an agreement that would satisfy both parties.
     I still admired and looked at these men admiringly (even Christian men).  One day the Lord spoke to me from Isaiah 1:18-19 (Amplified) saying, "Come now, and let us reason together, says the Lord, Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall be like wool."  Verse 19 says, "If you are willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the Lord."
     I never gave much attention to reasoning with the Lord, but only with other believers.  How can I reason with the Lord?  Many view God as an unreasonable Being.  Others believe that God is unpredictable.  Many believe that you don't dare question God.  Still other Christians don't see any rhyme or reason to God.  They think He did whatever He pleased and that "You can never know what God will do."
     I found that the invitation God offered me from Isaiah 1:18-19 (Amplified) was something that most of us had almost ignored.  God's inviting us to look into His heart and His mind and His will for us.  It was God Himself offering insight into His thoughts and actions for me.
     God said something to me from Isaiah 1:19 (Amplified) that I'd never thought about until He said, "If you are willing and obedient, then you shall eat the good of the land."  Until that time, I had been obedient, but not always willing.  I had left my home, job and all of my kin behind when I came to New York.  I packed up my wife and family and left Illinois like God wanted.  When I arrived in New York, I naively believed that people would want to hear what God had sent me here to say.  Wrong again!
     All the while, I was in New York, but things didn't seem to work out the way I'd "reasoned."  Then the Lord spoke to me saying, "You have been obedient, but your will has been against Me from the time you left your home."  He said that I had been like the Israelites in the wilderness whose heart and soul was still living in Egypt.  They were willfully set against God's deliverance.  They murmured and complained the whole time in the wilderness.
     When I was a boy, most kids played a game whereby they could beat on you until you cried, "Uncle."  They could make you say, "Uncle," but they couldn't make you mean it.  I was being obedient by my works of the flesh and left home, but my spirit (my heart) was still "down home in Illinois.  I complained about the weather being 35 degrees below zero.  I complained about the people being cold too.  I complained about the wages I was being paid.  I was obedient, but I wasn't willing.
     I'd never thought of them as separate acts because I always just read them together in the scriptures.  I began seeing that reasoning with God was very different than reasoning with men.  God didn't compromise on what He said and He never made excuses for what He said.
     Isaiah 55:8-9 (Amplified) says, "For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways, says the Lord, For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts."
     God wasn't saying this in boasting and arrogance, but in fact.  What He intended us to do was "reason with Him in His reasoning, to think with Him in His thoughts and to know His ways, which are higher than our ways."  In other words, I was to reason with Him in His reasonings, thoughts and ways, not with man's reasonings, thoughts and ways.
     Man's way of reasoning is to look at both sides of a situation and create a way of making it work.  God's way of reasoning is to look at one side (God's side) and then to judge and decide according to His Word.  His ways and thoughts are higher than our ways and thoughts, so we need to elevate our way of thinking and not bring down His way of thinking to our level.
     We can clearly see mans way of reasoning in all spiritual things in Mark 8:15-16 (Amplified) which says, "Jesus (repeatedly and expressly) charged and admonished them (the disciples), saying, Look out, keep on your guard and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod and the Herodians."  Verse 16 says, "And they discussed and reasoned with one another; it is because we have no bread."
     Finally, Jesus explained how it was the doctrine of the Pharisees that He was speaking about and then He reminded them about the loaves and the fishes.  Jesus asked the disciples how they could think He was worried about not having enough bread after He fed 5,000 men along with women and children with 5 loaves of bread?  It was the religious doctrine of the Pharisees that was the leaven Jesus spoke of.  Can you see how sometimes reasonable people can come up with unreasonable answers to spiritual things?
     When we "reason" with our own understanding, we always miss the mark of the truth of God's Word.  It seems reasonable to men that healing, tongues, casting out demons and anything that is spiritual, really isn't reasonable without, "Come reason with the Lord."

Lesson 10 The Holy Spirit and the Church

     We've concluded in these studies that the Holy Spirit is to be the Teacher of the Church.  Even born again men  who are not led by the Holy Spirit will bring God's people back to bondage with man made doctrines.  When we're not led by the Holy Spirit, we remain babies in Christ instead of growing to be mature men.  Hebrews 5:12-14 (Amplified) says that, "For even though by this time you ought to be teaching others, you actually need someone to teach you over again the very first principles of God's Word. You have come to need milk, not solid food."  Verse 13 continues, "For everyone who continues to feed on milk is obviously inexperienced and unskilled in the doctrine of righteousness (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."
     Paul is speaking here to Christians who haven't listened to the Holy Spirit, but are still led by the carnal, unrenewed mind of the natural man.  He continued in Hebrews 6:1-3 (Amplified) saying, "Therefore let us go on and get past the elementary stage in the teachings and doctrines of Christ (the Messiah) advancing steadily toward the completeness and perfection that belong to spiritual maturity. Let us not again by laying the foundation of repentance and of dead works (dead formalism) and the faith (by which you turned to God)."  Verses 2-3 say, "With teachings about purifying, the laying on of hands, the resurrection from the dead, and eternal judgment and punishment (these are all matters of which you should have been fully aware, long long ago). If indeed God permits, we will (now) proceed (to advanced teaching)."
     These weren't just the congregations, but the minister Paul was addressing.  When we attend church, we should be in a place of peace and surety.  We seem to remove the armor of God, kick off the shoes of the Gospel of peace and lay down our shields when we're at church.  We open our spirit to what's being said to us and everything preached goes in unfiltered.  Few will discern whether what's being said is from the carnal man or from the Holy Spirit.  We should be in a safety zone at church, but we need to be aware of what's being said.
     Jesus spoke the parable of the sower in Mark 4:24 (Amplified) saying, "And He said to them, Be careful what you are hearing. The measure (of thought and study) you give (of virtue and knowledge) that comes back to you-and more (besides) will be given to you who hear." 
     Jesus said to, "Be careful what you hear!"  Romans 10:17 (Amplified) says, "So faith comes by hearing (what is told)."  This scripture is talking about our faith in God and how faith comes by hearing God's Word.  The principal also works in anything else.  Faith in communism comes by hearing communism preached.  Faith in Hitler came by hearing what he preached.  Faith in anything else come by hearing whatever is preached, told, or spoken enough times.  And, if we listen to it, then it will be what we now believe (even if it isn't true).
     In Mark 4:14 (Amplified), Jesus said that, "The sower sows the Word!"  So, words are seeds and the heart (or spirit) of man is the soil.  In this case, the seed (Word) that was being sown is the Word of God.  What if the seeds (words) being sown are not the Word of God?  If your heart (spirit) is the good soil, then it will grow whatever you sow into it.  The earth has no way to discriminate what seed goes into it.  The earth will grow weeds just as quickly (or more quickly) than it will grow corn.
     If our hearts (spirits) are born again, then it is good soil.  It will now grow whatever is sown into it.  It will grow fear, doubt, unbelief, dead formalisms and whatever else you allowed be sown in it.  That is why Jesus admonished, "Be careful what you are hearing."  An unrenewed minds will read the spiritual Word of God and remove the revelation from it, leaving only the carnal thoughts to guide them.  This always leads to condemnation, feelings of unworthiness, fear of God and doubt when we pray because we still see ourselves through man's eyes and not God's eyes.
     Romans 12:2 (Amplified) says, "Do not be conformed to this world (this age) (fashioned after and adapted to its external, superficial customs) but be transformed (changed) by the (entire) renewal of your mind (by its new ideals and its new attitude) so that you may prove (for yourselves) what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God; even the thing which is good and acceptable and perfect (in His sight for you)."
     If we do not allow the Holy Spirit to renew our mind (our old carnal way of thinking), then even though we're born again, we will continue thinking on and in the same manner we did before being saved.  When reading the Word, the carnally minded man will still identify with the old, sinful man and not with the new being he's become.
     Do you remember when Peter was up on the roof of his home and received a vision from God?  God lowered a sheet down to Peter by the four corners of the sheet.  Acts 10:11-16 (Amplified) says, "And he (Peter) saw the sky opened and something like a great sheet lowered by the four corners, descended to the earth.  Verses 13-14 say, "It contained all kinds of quadrupeds and wild beasts and creeping things of the earth and birds of the air. And there came a voice to him, saying, Rise up, Peter, kill and eat. But Peter said, No, by no means, Lord; For I have never eaten anything that is common and unhallowed or (ceremonially) unclean."  Verse 15 says, "And the voice came to him again a second time, What God has cleansed and pronounced clean, do not you defile and profane by regarding and calling common and unhallowed or unclean."
     Listen carefully to what I wish to say to you in this next sentence.  If God has cleansed you by His Blood, has pronounced you clean and pure, has declared you to be the "Righteousness of God in Christ Jesus and has declared you clean from all unrighteousness, then He would say unto you what He said unto Peter.  God would say, "Do not defile and profane by regarding and calling common and unhallowed or unclean, what God has cleansed."
     We refer to ourselves (by the carnal mind), as "old sinners"," unworthy", "just pilgrims" and say how "non are righteous, no not one."  God said, "Don't call unclean, what I have made clean."  God says, "Don't call yourself a sinner if I have declared you righteous."  And, He says, "Do not defile and profane what I have pronounced clean and good."
     The carnal (unrenewed) mind of man will still run by feelings and by guilt.  The renewed mind (the mind of the Holy Spirit) will rise above the old man and receive himself as "that which God has made clean and cleansed by His Own sacrifice."  We fail to realize that when referring to ourselves as unclean and unrighteous and sinners saved by grace, we're actually defiling and profaning what God declares clean and righteous.
     This sounds slightly different when viewed from God's point of view, doesn't it?  It sounded good and right to Peter when he said to God, "Not so Lord, I won't partake of anything unclean."  As a man who was raised under the Law, Peter's response sounded correct.  What Peter failed to see, was what the Holy Spirit had to say about it.  To those of us who raised under denominations and churches that were taught by carnally minded men, it sounds right to us to say, "All have sinned and come short of the glory of God" and "None are righteous, no not one."
     We forgot that the Holy Spirit is telling us that we've been made righteous by Jesus' righteousness and we have been cleansed from all unrighteousness through Jesus.  You are not unclean and profane, because God has cleansed us.