2Corinthians 5:17 (Amplified) says, "Therefore, if any person is (ingrafted) in Christ Jesus (the Messiah) he is a NEW CREATION (a new creature altogether); the old (previous moral and spiritual condition) has passed. Behold, the fresh and new has come. But all things are from God, Who through Jesus Christ reconciled us to Himself (received us into favor, brought us into harmony with Himself) and gave to us the ministry of reconciliation (that by word and deed we might aim to bring others into harmony with Him)."
As the Holy Spirit guides and teaches us about our new identity, we discover that how the world describes our new identity, is not who we truly are. One can educate the mind by the teachings of the world, but it is not Spiritual Truth. We learn to read and write, to work at our jobs and to function in this world, but Jesus said that, "We are not of this world," in John 17:18 (Amplified) saying, "They are not of this world (worldly, belonging to the world), (Just) as I am not of this world."
We are truly in this world and we must know how to operate while we are here, but we are not limited to the way the world operates. Our Father intended that we enjoy this earth and the things He created, but His creation and the system of the world are two different things. The earth was to be a home for God's children and everything He made was for our enjoyment. The system that operates on the earth, is not the system that was to govern our lives or this planet.
The world and the earth are two separate realms, according to God's will. Jesus taught us to pray, "Thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven" and this should be enough to say that the system in place now, isn't what the Father intended. When Jesus came to bring about the new creation, He intended that we (the Church) would bring about God's will on earth , by the Holy Spirit's being "blended" with our new living spirit.
We were no longer only guided by our carnal mind, but through the Holy Spirit and our new living spirit from within us. Man was still governed by a carnal mind, because his spirit was no longer able to become one with God, until the new creation. All the information we used originated from the world, which was under the control of an outlaw spirit (satan). We were only taught rituals, traditions and regulations that the fallen man (with his carnal nature) could understand. We had a desire to know God, but could only know about Him in the carnal mind and thinking.
The only way we had of truly "knowing" God, was by seeing Jesus as a Man (which was still a carnal thing) or by allowing the Holy Spirit to reveal Him to us by His Word. Even after being born-again, a man was still governed by a carnal mind that hadn't been renewed from within yet. Proverbs 20:27 (Amplified) tells us, "The spirit of man (that factor in human personality which proceeds immediately from God) is the Lamp of the Lord; searching all his inward parts." The man's spirit is where true understanding from God, enters man.
Even after being born-again, if that man doesn't receive the revelation of God's Word into his spirit, then that is still simply educating the carnal mind. We can read the Word and quote the Word and memorize scriptures, but without revelation from withing our spirit, it remains carnally minded. Without the revelation of the Holy Spirit being given in our spirit, we can still do all these things, but get no results, because it has only become carnal knowledge. Even man's carnal mind can be educated and say that "God's Word is true," but still not have revelation and faith that is alive and acting in the NOW realm. Recently, a preacher told a room full of politicians in the White House, that "They should pray for rain." Even though this group was meeting in a room inscribed with "In God We Trust," they laughed at the preacher and called him "foolish for praying."
The carnal mind has been deceived into believing what the world says, instead of believing what God says. Both might say the same thing, but they don't believe the same thing. I was watching the History Channel's "Secrets of the Bible," about the secrets of the Exodus. Many well-meaning,carnally thinking people tried showing how the miraculous journey could have happened. They believed that instead of the Red Sea, the Israelites crossed the Reed Sea, which had only ankle-deep waters for them to cross.
Without revelation from God, the carnal mind can only explain the scriptures, by man's reasonings. Although it might acknowledge God in speech, that carnal mind will never factor God into the Super-natural realm. The carnal mind might consent to supernatural things, but not believe them in reality. Man might talk about God, but usually do so in past or future tense and not in the present tense. The carnal mind cannot "explain" God and therefore, it cannot accept God.
We can read and learn about God, even after being born-again. We might have a head full of scripture and still have an empty life, because we lack the Truth of God's Word. We won't come right out and say, "We don't believe," but we convince ourselves (by carnal thinking) that "It's all for someday." This provides a way for us to believe, without having to believe at all. We reason out, with our carnal reasoning, that "someday it will be true."
Renewing the mind, doesn't just mean we must memorize scriptures. We must trust in what God has said, will work in our lives now, as well as someday. We've debated why the Word works for some, but not for all. It's not that God favors one person more than He favors another, but that one believed with his spirit and the other by his head or carnal mind. One man has his mind is renewed to understand the NOW things of God by faith and the other hasn't renewed his by by the Spirit. Even though he says he believes, his reasoning puts off the actions of the Word by the "Someday Syndrome."
This is something that is done on an individual basis and although it is available to all who will do it, some don't believe it's something important enough to spend much time developing in their lives. I've had many Christians approach me, saying that, "I don't think we need to know all that to get to Heaven." This is true, but we have been commissioned by our Heavenly Father, to not only "get to Heaven," but to present Heaven to the world. Our walk with God will mostly be for personal gain and not so much for aiding others, until we renew our minds to "think like God thinks."
When our head and hearts come together, in agreement to the Truth and Life of God's Word, it becomes reality and not just religion. Many will say, "I've heard all this before," but Jesus said that "hearing we don't hear and seeing we don't see." There is hearing filtered through a mind that still reasons and one that reveals. This is a personal boundary every person sets on his own. The Holy Spirit continually encourages us to be diligent in seeking the Lord with our whole heart, soul and spirit.
Monday, January 23, 2017
Friday, January 20, 2017
Lesson 155 The New Creation
2Corinthians 5:17 (Amplified) says, "Therefore, if any person is (ingrafted) in Christ Jesus (the Messiah) he is a new creation (a new creature altogether); the old (previous spiritual and moral condition) has passed. Behold, the fresh and new has come."
The most difficult barrier in the Christian walk, is with the unrenewed mind. The mind is part of a man's soul, that as the flesh is, not subject to God's will, nor can it be. Romans 8:7 (Amplified) says, "(That is) because the mind of the flesh (with its carnal thoughts and purposes) is hostile to God; for it does not submit itself to God's Law; indeed it cannot." In the early part of his ministry, the Apostle Paul is found dealing with this very issue. In Romans 7:15-25 (Amplified), we see how man's education, goes against the revelation of God. The mind (soul) has been educated by the carnal traditions of his religious background. The mind (soul) has been training the body by carnal things, while the new creation spirit works by the Spirit and the revelations from Jesus.
In Galatians 1:11-12 (Amplified) Paul says, "For I want you to know, brethren, that the Gospel which was proclaimed and made known by me is not man's gospel (a human invention, according to or patterned after any human standard) For indeed I did not receive it from man, nor was I taught it (but it came to me) through a (direct) revelation (given) by Jesus Christ (the Messiah)."
Even though the Law could keep man in covenant with God, it didn't and couldn't renew the mind (soul), which was still dead because of sin. After Paul's encounter with Jesus, his spirit was now a new creation and he was made alive in Christ. His soul was now alive again, but it was still operating in the carnal things of the flesh. Because Paul's carnal mind (the unrenewed soul) still directed him in the new covenant, his soulish part of his spirit was still fighting his new creation man.
When Paul wanted to walk in the new covenant and revelation, his educated mind (or soul) continued to bring him back under the Law. The things we learned from the world, before being saved and born-again, were against the Truth of God's Word. The new creation man lives by revelation in his spirit, but the new creation man without a renewed mind (or carnal mind and soul), continues to struggle against Revelation and walks by education. One could attend a Bible school and be educated by the scriptures according to a certain denomination. Once he is educated by religion, his mind (soul) will fight against the revelation, even though you might not wish it to.
When revelation knowledge enters your new creation, his soul (mind) stands still in the past of condemnation or religious teaching and opposes the maturing in the new relationship with the Father. Even though Paul was taken directly into the Lord's Presence and shown this revelation, he still struggled with the rituals of the Law.
He says in 2Corinthians 12:1-5 (Amplified), "True, there is nothing to be gained by it, but (as I am obliged) to boast, I will go on to visions and revelations of the Lord. I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago-whether in the body or out of the body I do not know, God knows-was caught up to the Third Heaven. And I know that this man-whether in the body or away from the body I do not know, God knows-Was caught up into paradise and he heard utterances beyond the power of man to put into words, which man is not permitted to utter Of this same (man's experiences) I will boast, but of myself (personally) I will not boast, except as regards my infirmities (my weaknesses)."
The above scriptures demonstrate the direct contrast between a man who was educated and a man with revelation. Paul was educated under the Law and the traditions of the religious leaders. He loved God and the Law, by his education and upbringing. His zeal for God, even brought him to persecute the Church. He fought against the teachings of Jesus and the Revelation Jesus gave him, because of his love of the Law. When Jesus gave Paul the Revelation of the above scripture, it fought against the education he received under the Law. Paul's walk with Jesus was difficult to maintain at times, until Paul finally renewed his mind by the Mind of Christ, the Messiah.
After becoming born-again, the greatest Keys to the Kingdom, are a new mind and restored soul. You become a new creation when becoming born-again, but you're still an infant new creation. The telltale sign of an adult new creation, is that he or she will meditate on the Word, until the Holy Spirit reveals the Revelation Truth, instead of relying on the educated acceptance of the Word.
Anyone who is truly born-again, knows that God is a Super-natural God. And, every born-again believer knows that Jesus rose from the dead (if nothing else, this is known to us even by education). Like Paul, we do believe, but we don't always believe unto revelation by fellowship with the Father. Through education, we know that God can perform miracles, but we still might expect miracles to happen, because we lack revelation. We still have the historical church, but don't have a living Church. We believe by education (reading the Word) that miracles and healings occurred in the early Church. Without a renewed mind (restored soul) though, we fail to have the revelation for these things being "for the Church now."
This doesn't mean that we aren't truly born-again and are new creations, but it does indicate how we sometimes avoid revelation by not renewing our minds to have a spirit minded relationship with our Father.
The most difficult barrier in the Christian walk, is with the unrenewed mind. The mind is part of a man's soul, that as the flesh is, not subject to God's will, nor can it be. Romans 8:7 (Amplified) says, "(That is) because the mind of the flesh (with its carnal thoughts and purposes) is hostile to God; for it does not submit itself to God's Law; indeed it cannot." In the early part of his ministry, the Apostle Paul is found dealing with this very issue. In Romans 7:15-25 (Amplified), we see how man's education, goes against the revelation of God. The mind (soul) has been educated by the carnal traditions of his religious background. The mind (soul) has been training the body by carnal things, while the new creation spirit works by the Spirit and the revelations from Jesus.
In Galatians 1:11-12 (Amplified) Paul says, "For I want you to know, brethren, that the Gospel which was proclaimed and made known by me is not man's gospel (a human invention, according to or patterned after any human standard) For indeed I did not receive it from man, nor was I taught it (but it came to me) through a (direct) revelation (given) by Jesus Christ (the Messiah)."
Even though the Law could keep man in covenant with God, it didn't and couldn't renew the mind (soul), which was still dead because of sin. After Paul's encounter with Jesus, his spirit was now a new creation and he was made alive in Christ. His soul was now alive again, but it was still operating in the carnal things of the flesh. Because Paul's carnal mind (the unrenewed soul) still directed him in the new covenant, his soulish part of his spirit was still fighting his new creation man.
When Paul wanted to walk in the new covenant and revelation, his educated mind (or soul) continued to bring him back under the Law. The things we learned from the world, before being saved and born-again, were against the Truth of God's Word. The new creation man lives by revelation in his spirit, but the new creation man without a renewed mind (or carnal mind and soul), continues to struggle against Revelation and walks by education. One could attend a Bible school and be educated by the scriptures according to a certain denomination. Once he is educated by religion, his mind (soul) will fight against the revelation, even though you might not wish it to.
When revelation knowledge enters your new creation, his soul (mind) stands still in the past of condemnation or religious teaching and opposes the maturing in the new relationship with the Father. Even though Paul was taken directly into the Lord's Presence and shown this revelation, he still struggled with the rituals of the Law.
He says in 2Corinthians 12:1-5 (Amplified), "True, there is nothing to be gained by it, but (as I am obliged) to boast, I will go on to visions and revelations of the Lord. I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago-whether in the body or out of the body I do not know, God knows-was caught up to the Third Heaven. And I know that this man-whether in the body or away from the body I do not know, God knows-Was caught up into paradise and he heard utterances beyond the power of man to put into words, which man is not permitted to utter Of this same (man's experiences) I will boast, but of myself (personally) I will not boast, except as regards my infirmities (my weaknesses)."
The above scriptures demonstrate the direct contrast between a man who was educated and a man with revelation. Paul was educated under the Law and the traditions of the religious leaders. He loved God and the Law, by his education and upbringing. His zeal for God, even brought him to persecute the Church. He fought against the teachings of Jesus and the Revelation Jesus gave him, because of his love of the Law. When Jesus gave Paul the Revelation of the above scripture, it fought against the education he received under the Law. Paul's walk with Jesus was difficult to maintain at times, until Paul finally renewed his mind by the Mind of Christ, the Messiah.
After becoming born-again, the greatest Keys to the Kingdom, are a new mind and restored soul. You become a new creation when becoming born-again, but you're still an infant new creation. The telltale sign of an adult new creation, is that he or she will meditate on the Word, until the Holy Spirit reveals the Revelation Truth, instead of relying on the educated acceptance of the Word.
Anyone who is truly born-again, knows that God is a Super-natural God. And, every born-again believer knows that Jesus rose from the dead (if nothing else, this is known to us even by education). Like Paul, we do believe, but we don't always believe unto revelation by fellowship with the Father. Through education, we know that God can perform miracles, but we still might expect miracles to happen, because we lack revelation. We still have the historical church, but don't have a living Church. We believe by education (reading the Word) that miracles and healings occurred in the early Church. Without a renewed mind (restored soul) though, we fail to have the revelation for these things being "for the Church now."
This doesn't mean that we aren't truly born-again and are new creations, but it does indicate how we sometimes avoid revelation by not renewing our minds to have a spirit minded relationship with our Father.
Lesson 156 The New Creation
2Corinthians 5:17-18 (Amplified) says, "Therefore, if any person is (ingrafted) in Christ Jesus (the Messiah) he is a new creation (a new creature altogether); the old (previous moral and spiritual condition) has passed. Behold, the fresh and new has come. But all things are from God, Who through Jesus Christ reconciled us to Himself (received us into favor, brought us into harmony with Himself) and gave to us the ministry of reconciliation (that by word and deed we might aim to bring others into harmony with Him)."
Colossians 3:1-2 (Amplified) says, "If then you have been raised with Christ (to a new life, thus sharing His resurrection from the dead), aim at and seek the (rich, eternal treasures) that are above where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. And set your minds and keep them set on what is above (the higher things), not the things that are on the earth."
We have missed out on so many things about our new life in Jesus, because we have understood little about spiritual death. Man is a spirit (whether saved or unsaved) and is an eternal being. A spirit being will never die, in the sense that they no longer exist. Spiritual death entered in, when Adam transgressed and was separated from God-Who is Life. Adam's spirit didn't cease to be, but could no longer be in communication with his Father. The Word calls this, "spiritual death."
We were once dead in trespass and sin and didn't have fellowship with God in our spirit man. Our spirit man was active, but not to God or Life. The soul is part of our spirit man, but it can only communicate the world's wisdom to our carnal man. Therefore, our mind was at enmity against God, because it had no other source in which to gain wisdom or knowledge. Satan is the god of this world, so the only things our spirit and soul could feed the brain and body, was only unbelief and death.
Colossians 3:1-2 (Amplified) tells us that, "We have been raised with Christ to a new life" and this new life is the new creation being, we've become. Notice how it states that "We have been raised" with Christ. Most of Christianity still looks for the resurrection from the dead. The natural body is still awaiting this resurrection, but our spirit man has already received the new creation experience.
The renewing of our minds (our soulish tie to our spirit) means that we can now receive the true wisdom of God, from the Holy Spirit into our new creation spirit. Until now, the only thing our flesh understood about living, came through the knowledge our mind fed into it. It was trained to believe the lies that the world fed into it from a dead spirit.
The training of our flesh and soul, came through the teaching of a dead spirit and from an outlaw spirit (satan), who is in direct opposition to God. Paul says in Romans 6:19 (Amplified), I am speaking to you in familiar human terms because of your natural limitations. For as you yielded your bodily members (and faculties) as servants to impurities and ever increasing lawlessness, so now yield your bodily members (and faculties) once for all as servants to righteousness (right believing and doing) (Which leads) to sanctification."
Through our resurrection and new creation with Jesus, our soul has once again become in contact and entwined in the Living Spirit of God Himself. We can now receive and feed into our fleshly body, the correct way to function and operate. That body won't even get out of body, unless we tell it too. It will only do, what it hears. And, it only heard from our dead spirit, into a separated soul to communicate to the body, the servitude of sin. We try blaming our body for our shortcomings, but it is only a servant. We have to teach it how to function in the righteousness, in which we have become in the new creation.
For centuries, our natural brain has been programmed by the world and our own dead spirit. Our body only does the things we've been teaching it to do. We've been feeding our spirit, soul and body from the knowledge derived from a fallen spirit and a fallen world. This is why the mind must now be renewed. Now that our spirit is alive again through the new creation, we can once again feed the true date (that comes from the Living Word and the Holy Spirit) into our soul (mind, will and emotions).
Jesus told His followers 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."
He said that "the flesh conveys no benefit whatever." Your body has nothing to do with furthering your walk with God, unless you train it to do so. It will automatically repeat the things it learned and did before, if we don't renew our mind and instruct our brain to do differently. I used to smoke years ago and spent many hours and days teaching my body how to receive smoke into my lungs. Initially, it coughed, choked, and rejected the smoke, but after awhile, I successfully trained my lungs to accept and look forward to the smoke. My body wanted to continue smoking cigarettes and cigars, even after I was born-again and didn't want to smoke anymore. I needed to use God's Word and renew my mind (and train my body) to reject this habit and serve righteousness instead.
Even when we read and heard God's Word, we heard through a baby spirit and an unrenewed soul or mind. Before knowing Jesus, our mind led our lives from what it had been previously taught from the world. Our carnal mind (with all its training from the world) automatically rejects teachings about Super-natural things in the Word, because it only understands the worldly wisdom it had learned until now.
When we read or hear God's Word without the Spirit to reveal it to us, we are like those Jesus speaks about in the "Parable of the Sower." In Mark 4:14-25 (Amplified), Jesus says that the "Seed" is the Word of God," and we know that Seed is an "incorruptible seed." 1Peter 1:25 (Amplified) says, "But the Word of the Lord (Divine instruction, the Gospel) endues forever, and this Word is the Good News which was preached to you." This Parable describes four different types of soil, but only one kind of seed. The fowl ate the same seed that brought forth the "hundred fold return." The difference is found in the "hearer." Jesus said in Verses 23-25 that, "If any man has ears to hear let him be listening and let him perceive and comprehend And He said to them, '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 more (besides) will be given to you who hear. For to him who has will more be given; and from him who has nothing; Even what he has will be taken away (by force)."
So, the one who has his mind renewed by the Word and the Holy Spirit, will increase in revelation and wisdom. To the one who hasn't renewed his mind, the things he learned from the world, will override that revelation and he won't just reject the Word, but will fight against the Truth. His doctrine won't even hold him any longer.
We've seen those who refuse to move away from something they learned when they first got saved. It's wonderful they believed unto salvation, but we are supposed to grow from glory to glory, in our walk with the Father. I'm not saying we should "give up" what we first learned after being saved, but we must continue in revelation knowledge. In Mark 4:15 (Amplified) Jesus said, "The sower sows the Word. The ones along the path are those who have the Word sown (in their hearts) but when they hear, satan comes at once and (by force) takes away the Message which is sown in them."
The "force" satan uses is getting the Word out of you. When you receive and begin operating in who and what we've become in Christ, then satan has no more hold on you. He must get the Word out of you, before you renew the old way of thinking and begin believing once again, in the Super-natural things of God. Once you begin walking in the super-natural realm, even the unsaved can see God in this natural realm. That's when you become dangerous to the kingdom of darkness.
We must now learn to renew our minds from our new creation spirit and not from the outside world. Satan rules the natural world from a dead spirit, through deceit and lies. He has no defense again the Word and the Living Spirit realm, so he tries keeping us in the natural realm. When a child of God begins operating in the Spirit, he is truly free from sin and death.
Colossians 3:1-2 (Amplified) says, "If then you have been raised with Christ (to a new life, thus sharing His resurrection from the dead), aim at and seek the (rich, eternal treasures) that are above where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. And set your minds and keep them set on what is above (the higher things), not the things that are on the earth."
We have missed out on so many things about our new life in Jesus, because we have understood little about spiritual death. Man is a spirit (whether saved or unsaved) and is an eternal being. A spirit being will never die, in the sense that they no longer exist. Spiritual death entered in, when Adam transgressed and was separated from God-Who is Life. Adam's spirit didn't cease to be, but could no longer be in communication with his Father. The Word calls this, "spiritual death."
We were once dead in trespass and sin and didn't have fellowship with God in our spirit man. Our spirit man was active, but not to God or Life. The soul is part of our spirit man, but it can only communicate the world's wisdom to our carnal man. Therefore, our mind was at enmity against God, because it had no other source in which to gain wisdom or knowledge. Satan is the god of this world, so the only things our spirit and soul could feed the brain and body, was only unbelief and death.
Colossians 3:1-2 (Amplified) tells us that, "We have been raised with Christ to a new life" and this new life is the new creation being, we've become. Notice how it states that "We have been raised" with Christ. Most of Christianity still looks for the resurrection from the dead. The natural body is still awaiting this resurrection, but our spirit man has already received the new creation experience.
The renewing of our minds (our soulish tie to our spirit) means that we can now receive the true wisdom of God, from the Holy Spirit into our new creation spirit. Until now, the only thing our flesh understood about living, came through the knowledge our mind fed into it. It was trained to believe the lies that the world fed into it from a dead spirit.
The training of our flesh and soul, came through the teaching of a dead spirit and from an outlaw spirit (satan), who is in direct opposition to God. Paul says in Romans 6:19 (Amplified), I am speaking to you in familiar human terms because of your natural limitations. For as you yielded your bodily members (and faculties) as servants to impurities and ever increasing lawlessness, so now yield your bodily members (and faculties) once for all as servants to righteousness (right believing and doing) (Which leads) to sanctification."
Through our resurrection and new creation with Jesus, our soul has once again become in contact and entwined in the Living Spirit of God Himself. We can now receive and feed into our fleshly body, the correct way to function and operate. That body won't even get out of body, unless we tell it too. It will only do, what it hears. And, it only heard from our dead spirit, into a separated soul to communicate to the body, the servitude of sin. We try blaming our body for our shortcomings, but it is only a servant. We have to teach it how to function in the righteousness, in which we have become in the new creation.
For centuries, our natural brain has been programmed by the world and our own dead spirit. Our body only does the things we've been teaching it to do. We've been feeding our spirit, soul and body from the knowledge derived from a fallen spirit and a fallen world. This is why the mind must now be renewed. Now that our spirit is alive again through the new creation, we can once again feed the true date (that comes from the Living Word and the Holy Spirit) into our soul (mind, will and emotions).
Jesus told His followers 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."
He said that "the flesh conveys no benefit whatever." Your body has nothing to do with furthering your walk with God, unless you train it to do so. It will automatically repeat the things it learned and did before, if we don't renew our mind and instruct our brain to do differently. I used to smoke years ago and spent many hours and days teaching my body how to receive smoke into my lungs. Initially, it coughed, choked, and rejected the smoke, but after awhile, I successfully trained my lungs to accept and look forward to the smoke. My body wanted to continue smoking cigarettes and cigars, even after I was born-again and didn't want to smoke anymore. I needed to use God's Word and renew my mind (and train my body) to reject this habit and serve righteousness instead.
Even when we read and heard God's Word, we heard through a baby spirit and an unrenewed soul or mind. Before knowing Jesus, our mind led our lives from what it had been previously taught from the world. Our carnal mind (with all its training from the world) automatically rejects teachings about Super-natural things in the Word, because it only understands the worldly wisdom it had learned until now.
When we read or hear God's Word without the Spirit to reveal it to us, we are like those Jesus speaks about in the "Parable of the Sower." In Mark 4:14-25 (Amplified), Jesus says that the "Seed" is the Word of God," and we know that Seed is an "incorruptible seed." 1Peter 1:25 (Amplified) says, "But the Word of the Lord (Divine instruction, the Gospel) endues forever, and this Word is the Good News which was preached to you." This Parable describes four different types of soil, but only one kind of seed. The fowl ate the same seed that brought forth the "hundred fold return." The difference is found in the "hearer." Jesus said in Verses 23-25 that, "If any man has ears to hear let him be listening and let him perceive and comprehend And He said to them, '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 more (besides) will be given to you who hear. For to him who has will more be given; and from him who has nothing; Even what he has will be taken away (by force)."
So, the one who has his mind renewed by the Word and the Holy Spirit, will increase in revelation and wisdom. To the one who hasn't renewed his mind, the things he learned from the world, will override that revelation and he won't just reject the Word, but will fight against the Truth. His doctrine won't even hold him any longer.
We've seen those who refuse to move away from something they learned when they first got saved. It's wonderful they believed unto salvation, but we are supposed to grow from glory to glory, in our walk with the Father. I'm not saying we should "give up" what we first learned after being saved, but we must continue in revelation knowledge. In Mark 4:15 (Amplified) Jesus said, "The sower sows the Word. The ones along the path are those who have the Word sown (in their hearts) but when they hear, satan comes at once and (by force) takes away the Message which is sown in them."
The "force" satan uses is getting the Word out of you. When you receive and begin operating in who and what we've become in Christ, then satan has no more hold on you. He must get the Word out of you, before you renew the old way of thinking and begin believing once again, in the Super-natural things of God. Once you begin walking in the super-natural realm, even the unsaved can see God in this natural realm. That's when you become dangerous to the kingdom of darkness.
We must now learn to renew our minds from our new creation spirit and not from the outside world. Satan rules the natural world from a dead spirit, through deceit and lies. He has no defense again the Word and the Living Spirit realm, so he tries keeping us in the natural realm. When a child of God begins operating in the Spirit, he is truly free from sin and death.
Thursday, January 19, 2017
Lesson 154 The New Creation My typist broke her glasses, so please excuse any goofs. Thanks.
2Corinthians 5:17 (Amplified) says, "Therefore, if any person is (ingrafted) in Christ Jesus (the Messiah) he is a new creation (a new creature altogether); the old (previous moral and spiritual condition) has passed. Behold, the fresh and new has come."
Genesis 5:1-2 (Amplified) says, "This is the book (the written record of the history) of the offspring of Adam. When God created man, He made him in the Likeness of God. He created them male and female and blessed them and name them (both) Adam (man) at the timethey were created."
John 4:24 (Amplified) says, "God is a Spirit (a Spiritual Being) and those who worship Him must worship Him in spiritual and in truth (reality)."
When Adam was created, he was created first of all a spirit, in the Likeness of God Himself. And the part of this new creation that is like the Father, is our spirit. Our body is nothing more than a house for our spirit to live in this earth. In order to have contact with natural things, we needed a natural body. This house was only to be a covering and the way of operating in natural things. Our soul, which is a part of the spirit, is much like the natural organs that make up the natural body. Our mind (not our brain) was to be the control center that would regulate and direct the natural brain of our flesh. Our mind, will and emotions are part of our soul, that operates the body.
It's imperative that we understand these principals and that's why I regularly repeat them. When we received Jesus as our Lord and Savior, we were born-again and became a new creation. The first Adam was made a spirit like God and wasn't one with God, but a spirit like God. He was an individual spirit, separate from God, but fully in contact with God. He could see and hear in the spirit, even before he had a natural body. Adam wasn't dependent upon his body for anything, at his creation. Adam only received his five physical senses, after he had a body or house for his spirit to live in, in the natural realm. These five senses were developed by his soulish parts.
As God directed him in wisdom and taught him how to live, Adam developed his body in order to operate and function in the natural realm. God taught Adam, just like we would teach our own children. Adam learned and trained his physical body, by touching, smelling, tasting, seeing and hearing. In order to do this, Adam needed to transmit spiritual information from his spirit and soul, to the physical components of his natural body. He was feeding the very wisdom of God (Spiritual Truth) into a natural brain and storing up data, in order to function in the natural realm.
Adam brought the wisdom of the Spirit, into the mind of the soul and developed the motor functions of the body, from his brain. That sounds wild, doesn't it? The body could walk, talk, feel, smell, hear and function in the natural, from the super-natural. As the mind of the spirit taught the brain of the body, all three realms of natural, super-natural man, operated fully from his spirit and his spirit operated from the Spirit of God. This is what it meant to be "spiritually minded and not carnally minded" at the time. Some make it sound as though, God created man that morning and by noon, Adam had fallen. We have no record of how long Adam and Even lived on earth, before transgressing and falling.
Science tells us that the earth is millions of years old. It might be that it's only been six thousand years since the fall of Adam, but the earth is much older than that. I believe that God worked together with Adam and Eve as a family, for millions of earthly years, before the separation in the spirit. I believe that God taught him how to live in both of the realms he was to occupy by his spirit. Adam was supposed to do like Jesus did in His earthly ministry. He was to walk naturally supernatural. Adam's soul and body were to be led by his spirit and his spirit was to "Only do what he saw his Father do," just like Jesus said.
Adam lived (in his natural state) for 930 years, according to Genesis 5:5, after his transgression and separation from the Spirit realm of Life in God.He didn't know how to "die," because all he had ever known was life and spirit. After losing contact from his Father and yielded himself over to another god (satan), Adam had to learn how to live by only his senses. He couldn't depend on his spirit to direct him any longer, because he only had the lies of the enemy and his carnal mind was dead to Spiritual Truth in God. Adam's soul was now leading his body and could only relay the things it knew of the natural realm to his body. Adam eventually walked more and more, in the carnal (fleshly) realm. There was no longer revelation knowledge flowing through and from his spirit into his mind, but only what he could accomplish by his own efforts.
After the fall, things didn't grow and replenish like they did before and Adam needed to till the land, to make it produce. God's blessing no longer worked through and for him, only the curse or rule of Adam's new god worked . Eventually, the blessing God pronounced on Adam, began to grow more and more distant. Adam was left to depend only upon his own devises, in order to live and eat and provide for Even and their family.
The reality of this curse or lack of blessing, began unfolding before Adam's eyes and his once strong, sound and well body, began growing weary and became sickly. Things Adam once took for granted, now became out of his reach. We grew up in the realm that Adam was just now beginning to witness. It was natural for us to have to work and labor for provisions and shelter and life, but it hadn't been this way before, for Adam. The fullness of his sin, began to set in for Adam, almost immediately. The longer he lived on earth, the more Adam witnessed the results of his foolish, costly mistake. The Word tells us that, "The woman was deceived." 1Timothy 2:14 (Amplified) though, says, "And it was not Adam who was deceived, but (the) woman who was deceived and deluded and fell into transgression."
Although he wasn't deceived by the same temptation that moved Eve, Adam tried redeeming his wife by his own efforts and he traded everything over for her. The very truth of what he did, wasn't apparent to Adam when he did it, but became more and more apparent to him daily. Even though Adam wasn't deceived like Eve was, his spiritual eyes were blinded to the depths of his transgression and its fullness.
As the new creation, our minds must be renewed once again by God's Word. Even though our spirit is created new and even though the Holy Spirit is made one with our new spirit, if we don't renew the mind (the soul) with the Word of God, then our soul (which is the rudder that guides our walk) will still lead us in the only thing it knows, which is a life without God. Everything about this new creation man, is now designed to operate from the inside out. Our salvation, our healing, our strength, our joy, our wisdom, our faith and everything, has now bee turned back to the new creation by the Spirit.
Because of an unrenewed mind (soul), our natural man (flesh body) can only operate by the carnality, that our lost soul had taught it. Because what our brain had been taught to accept from our canal mind it receives this information as truth and refuses to operate in the spirit and real truth. When your carnal being begins to hear (by natural ears) the Super-natural things of God, it simply rejects these things as foolishness. Renewing the mind of the new creation being, is the most important task the new creation man must accept.
When we are born-again and become new creations, our spirit becomes a new creature, our body is declared "dead with Christ on the cross," only the soul is left to deal with. Even when a new creation man hears the Word, that Word is still filtered through a carnal mind and unrenewed soul. The natural man, our body or house of flesh can only do whatever the soul (the mind) directs it to do. When the mind (soul) is left in it s fallen or deadened state, it cannot stop the body of flesh from walking in the things it knows. Our body must be taught or trained by the Word, which comes into our spirit, directed to our soul, and placed in dominion over the flesh.
Everything the Father has for His new creation family, comes once again, from the inside-out. It must come into our spirit, become the the Shepherd of our soul and keep our body as a living sacrifice, by Truth in the Spirit of God.
Genesis 5:1-2 (Amplified) says, "This is the book (the written record of the history) of the offspring of Adam. When God created man, He made him in the Likeness of God. He created them male and female and blessed them and name them (both) Adam (man) at the timethey were created."
John 4:24 (Amplified) says, "God is a Spirit (a Spiritual Being) and those who worship Him must worship Him in spiritual and in truth (reality)."
When Adam was created, he was created first of all a spirit, in the Likeness of God Himself. And the part of this new creation that is like the Father, is our spirit. Our body is nothing more than a house for our spirit to live in this earth. In order to have contact with natural things, we needed a natural body. This house was only to be a covering and the way of operating in natural things. Our soul, which is a part of the spirit, is much like the natural organs that make up the natural body. Our mind (not our brain) was to be the control center that would regulate and direct the natural brain of our flesh. Our mind, will and emotions are part of our soul, that operates the body.
It's imperative that we understand these principals and that's why I regularly repeat them. When we received Jesus as our Lord and Savior, we were born-again and became a new creation. The first Adam was made a spirit like God and wasn't one with God, but a spirit like God. He was an individual spirit, separate from God, but fully in contact with God. He could see and hear in the spirit, even before he had a natural body. Adam wasn't dependent upon his body for anything, at his creation. Adam only received his five physical senses, after he had a body or house for his spirit to live in, in the natural realm. These five senses were developed by his soulish parts.
As God directed him in wisdom and taught him how to live, Adam developed his body in order to operate and function in the natural realm. God taught Adam, just like we would teach our own children. Adam learned and trained his physical body, by touching, smelling, tasting, seeing and hearing. In order to do this, Adam needed to transmit spiritual information from his spirit and soul, to the physical components of his natural body. He was feeding the very wisdom of God (Spiritual Truth) into a natural brain and storing up data, in order to function in the natural realm.
Adam brought the wisdom of the Spirit, into the mind of the soul and developed the motor functions of the body, from his brain. That sounds wild, doesn't it? The body could walk, talk, feel, smell, hear and function in the natural, from the super-natural. As the mind of the spirit taught the brain of the body, all three realms of natural, super-natural man, operated fully from his spirit and his spirit operated from the Spirit of God. This is what it meant to be "spiritually minded and not carnally minded" at the time. Some make it sound as though, God created man that morning and by noon, Adam had fallen. We have no record of how long Adam and Even lived on earth, before transgressing and falling.
Science tells us that the earth is millions of years old. It might be that it's only been six thousand years since the fall of Adam, but the earth is much older than that. I believe that God worked together with Adam and Eve as a family, for millions of earthly years, before the separation in the spirit. I believe that God taught him how to live in both of the realms he was to occupy by his spirit. Adam was supposed to do like Jesus did in His earthly ministry. He was to walk naturally supernatural. Adam's soul and body were to be led by his spirit and his spirit was to "Only do what he saw his Father do," just like Jesus said.
Adam lived (in his natural state) for 930 years, according to Genesis 5:5, after his transgression and separation from the Spirit realm of Life in God.He didn't know how to "die," because all he had ever known was life and spirit. After losing contact from his Father and yielded himself over to another god (satan), Adam had to learn how to live by only his senses. He couldn't depend on his spirit to direct him any longer, because he only had the lies of the enemy and his carnal mind was dead to Spiritual Truth in God. Adam's soul was now leading his body and could only relay the things it knew of the natural realm to his body. Adam eventually walked more and more, in the carnal (fleshly) realm. There was no longer revelation knowledge flowing through and from his spirit into his mind, but only what he could accomplish by his own efforts.
After the fall, things didn't grow and replenish like they did before and Adam needed to till the land, to make it produce. God's blessing no longer worked through and for him, only the curse or rule of Adam's new god worked . Eventually, the blessing God pronounced on Adam, began to grow more and more distant. Adam was left to depend only upon his own devises, in order to live and eat and provide for Even and their family.
The reality of this curse or lack of blessing, began unfolding before Adam's eyes and his once strong, sound and well body, began growing weary and became sickly. Things Adam once took for granted, now became out of his reach. We grew up in the realm that Adam was just now beginning to witness. It was natural for us to have to work and labor for provisions and shelter and life, but it hadn't been this way before, for Adam. The fullness of his sin, began to set in for Adam, almost immediately. The longer he lived on earth, the more Adam witnessed the results of his foolish, costly mistake. The Word tells us that, "The woman was deceived." 1Timothy 2:14 (Amplified) though, says, "And it was not Adam who was deceived, but (the) woman who was deceived and deluded and fell into transgression."
Although he wasn't deceived by the same temptation that moved Eve, Adam tried redeeming his wife by his own efforts and he traded everything over for her. The very truth of what he did, wasn't apparent to Adam when he did it, but became more and more apparent to him daily. Even though Adam wasn't deceived like Eve was, his spiritual eyes were blinded to the depths of his transgression and its fullness.
As the new creation, our minds must be renewed once again by God's Word. Even though our spirit is created new and even though the Holy Spirit is made one with our new spirit, if we don't renew the mind (the soul) with the Word of God, then our soul (which is the rudder that guides our walk) will still lead us in the only thing it knows, which is a life without God. Everything about this new creation man, is now designed to operate from the inside out. Our salvation, our healing, our strength, our joy, our wisdom, our faith and everything, has now bee turned back to the new creation by the Spirit.
Because of an unrenewed mind (soul), our natural man (flesh body) can only operate by the carnality, that our lost soul had taught it. Because what our brain had been taught to accept from our canal mind it receives this information as truth and refuses to operate in the spirit and real truth. When your carnal being begins to hear (by natural ears) the Super-natural things of God, it simply rejects these things as foolishness. Renewing the mind of the new creation being, is the most important task the new creation man must accept.
When we are born-again and become new creations, our spirit becomes a new creature, our body is declared "dead with Christ on the cross," only the soul is left to deal with. Even when a new creation man hears the Word, that Word is still filtered through a carnal mind and unrenewed soul. The natural man, our body or house of flesh can only do whatever the soul (the mind) directs it to do. When the mind (soul) is left in it s fallen or deadened state, it cannot stop the body of flesh from walking in the things it knows. Our body must be taught or trained by the Word, which comes into our spirit, directed to our soul, and placed in dominion over the flesh.
Everything the Father has for His new creation family, comes once again, from the inside-out. It must come into our spirit, become the the Shepherd of our soul and keep our body as a living sacrifice, by Truth in the Spirit of God.
Friday, January 13, 2017
Lesson 153 The New Creation
2Corinthians 5:17 (Amplified) says, "Therefore, if any person is (ingrafted) in Christ Jesus (the Messiah) he is a new creation (a new creature altogether); the old (previous moral and spiritual condition) has passed. Behold, the fresh and new has come."
While delving into who the new creation is, we've learned that the new creation is not for "When we get to Heaven," but for the here and now. The new creation man is already, one who is "born from on High," according to Ephesians 2:6 (Amplified) which says, "He raised us up together with Him and made us sit down together (giving us joint seating with Him) in the Heavenly sphere (by virtue of our being) in Christ Jesus (the Messiah, the Anointed One)."
Living in the Kingdom and the Kingdom authority, are virtues granted to the new creation people. This grace came upon us, when we were born-again. A baby has no idea of who they are or what they are, until they grow up or mature in their identity. As new creation people, we have very little insight and understanding about who we truly are. Many people remain under the bondage of the old covenant, because they don't understand the new covenant.
The new covenant is more than just a working relationship with God, but is a family relationship with our Heavenly Father. The difference between these two relationship, is what has held down God's new creation family. We get a much better look and understanding of who we are in Christ, in Ephesians 2:10 (Amplified) which says, "For we are God's (Own) handiwork (His workmanship) recreated in Christ Jesus, (born anew) that we may do those good works which God predestinated (planned beforehand) for us (taking paths which He prepared ahead of time), that we should walk in them (living the good life which He prearranged and made ready for us to live)."
The Father declared He would make man "in His Image," making us His family. God gave Life to His children and made preparation for them in His Own will and His Love. The Words from the above scripture, "living the good Life which He prearranged and made ready for us to live" are exactly what the Father planned in the very beginning, when He said that, "Everything was good and it was very good."
God made a paradise for His family to abide forever, in the Garden of Eden. His family was to live on earth with Him as our Father and have our every need met, by His Love for us. We were meant to walk with Him, talk with Him, learn from Him and have all our needs met by Him. God would teach us, by His Holy Spirit, to "Do the good works which God predestined (planned beforehand) for us (taking paths which He prepared ahead of time) that we should walk in them (living the good life which He prearranged and made ready for us to live)," like the above scripture says.
This was and is still today, His will for His children. A "will" is something that is even today, hard to break. God's will is unbreakable, because "He changes not." Jesus said that, "He came to do His Father's will" and we should know what that will is. Galatians 3:14-15 (Amplified) says, "To the end that through (their receiving) Christ Jesus, the blessing (promised) to Abraham might come upon the Gentiles so that we through faith might (all) receive (the realization of) the promise of the Holy Spirit To speak in terms of human relations, brethren, (If) even a man makes a last will and testament (a merely human covenant) no one sets it aside or makes it void or adds to it when once it has been drawn up and signed (ratified, confirmed)."
We need to read God's Last Will and Testament and find out what it states, so that we can perform His will. He has arranged and ratified His will, by the Blood of Jesus. Hebrews 9:16-18 (Amplified) says, "For where there is a (last) will and testament involved, the death of the one who made it must be established. For a will and testament is valid and takes effect only at death, since it has no force or legal power as long as the one who made it is alive. So even the (old) first covenant (God's will) was not inaugurated and ratified and put in force without the shedding of Blood."
Why would it be the New Testament or the new and last will, if it wasn't His Last Will and Testament? In order to know what God's will is, we must read the will and know "to whom that will" is written. If you don't know "who you are," then how would you ever know if this Last Will includes you? Romans 8:16-17 (Amplified) tells us, "The Spirit Himself (thus) testifies together with our own spirit, (assuring us) that we are (His) children, then we are (His) heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, (sharing His inheritance with Him)."
The above Verse ends by saying, "Only we must share His suffering if we are to share His Glory." In order to know what kind of "suffering" Christ endured, we must also learn to read His will, without coming to some "theological idea' about what His will is. God's will is what He said. We've invented all sorts of weird things about the will of God, most of them are simple foolishness and man's way of determining spiritual things. Even in this realm of human reasoning, a man can write a will, sign it in the presence of a witness and that will is legal and binding. No one decides "Billy can have this" and "Suzie can have that," this is left to the will of the Testator.
When God's will was drawn up, He decided who would get what. If we are "joint heirs with Christ," then you received what Jesus received, because this is the way the will was written. Even when the virgin Mary received the Word or "will of God," it was already a written will and was the Last Will and Testament of God. In Genesis 3:15 (Amplified) God says, "And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her Offspring. He will bruise and tread your head underfoot, and will bruise and tread your head underfoot, and you will lie in wait and bruis His heel."
God began laying out the terns of His Last Will and Testament, at this moment. His will isn't hard to know or determine, if we would only read this will with as much integrity we would give our earthly father's will. How can we believe the will of a mere earthly father and disregard our Heavenly Father's will for His children?
I hear how some heirs of God, "Got things that others didn't" and are jealous over "Who got what?" I've even heard some heirs say, "That should have been mine, instead of so-and-so" or "I deserved that more than they did." I've even seen others who believe that the "Testator is unfair." Truthfully, no one "deserves" it and it's not our place to decide who should or shouldn't be an heir. The things left to us in the will, weren't ours to leave. They belonged to the One Who made out the will. It was His and it was up to Him, to give it as He wills.
If I left my earthly belongings to someone in a will, then I left them to those I wished to receive them, because that is my will. God did the very same things. He gave to "the Jew and Gentile alike." That was His will and He decided to whom He would leave His inheritance to. God made us "heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ," and said that "His will is to be "Done on earth as it is in Heaven." This will is iron-clad, Blood bought, ratified by the resurrection and is recorded in the book we call "The Last Will and Testament of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ." This is the New Testament for the new creation.
While delving into who the new creation is, we've learned that the new creation is not for "When we get to Heaven," but for the here and now. The new creation man is already, one who is "born from on High," according to Ephesians 2:6 (Amplified) which says, "He raised us up together with Him and made us sit down together (giving us joint seating with Him) in the Heavenly sphere (by virtue of our being) in Christ Jesus (the Messiah, the Anointed One)."
Living in the Kingdom and the Kingdom authority, are virtues granted to the new creation people. This grace came upon us, when we were born-again. A baby has no idea of who they are or what they are, until they grow up or mature in their identity. As new creation people, we have very little insight and understanding about who we truly are. Many people remain under the bondage of the old covenant, because they don't understand the new covenant.
The new covenant is more than just a working relationship with God, but is a family relationship with our Heavenly Father. The difference between these two relationship, is what has held down God's new creation family. We get a much better look and understanding of who we are in Christ, in Ephesians 2:10 (Amplified) which says, "For we are God's (Own) handiwork (His workmanship) recreated in Christ Jesus, (born anew) that we may do those good works which God predestinated (planned beforehand) for us (taking paths which He prepared ahead of time), that we should walk in them (living the good life which He prearranged and made ready for us to live)."
The Father declared He would make man "in His Image," making us His family. God gave Life to His children and made preparation for them in His Own will and His Love. The Words from the above scripture, "living the good Life which He prearranged and made ready for us to live" are exactly what the Father planned in the very beginning, when He said that, "Everything was good and it was very good."
God made a paradise for His family to abide forever, in the Garden of Eden. His family was to live on earth with Him as our Father and have our every need met, by His Love for us. We were meant to walk with Him, talk with Him, learn from Him and have all our needs met by Him. God would teach us, by His Holy Spirit, to "Do the good works which God predestined (planned beforehand) for us (taking paths which He prepared ahead of time) that we should walk in them (living the good life which He prearranged and made ready for us to live)," like the above scripture says.
This was and is still today, His will for His children. A "will" is something that is even today, hard to break. God's will is unbreakable, because "He changes not." Jesus said that, "He came to do His Father's will" and we should know what that will is. Galatians 3:14-15 (Amplified) says, "To the end that through (their receiving) Christ Jesus, the blessing (promised) to Abraham might come upon the Gentiles so that we through faith might (all) receive (the realization of) the promise of the Holy Spirit To speak in terms of human relations, brethren, (If) even a man makes a last will and testament (a merely human covenant) no one sets it aside or makes it void or adds to it when once it has been drawn up and signed (ratified, confirmed)."
We need to read God's Last Will and Testament and find out what it states, so that we can perform His will. He has arranged and ratified His will, by the Blood of Jesus. Hebrews 9:16-18 (Amplified) says, "For where there is a (last) will and testament involved, the death of the one who made it must be established. For a will and testament is valid and takes effect only at death, since it has no force or legal power as long as the one who made it is alive. So even the (old) first covenant (God's will) was not inaugurated and ratified and put in force without the shedding of Blood."
Why would it be the New Testament or the new and last will, if it wasn't His Last Will and Testament? In order to know what God's will is, we must read the will and know "to whom that will" is written. If you don't know "who you are," then how would you ever know if this Last Will includes you? Romans 8:16-17 (Amplified) tells us, "The Spirit Himself (thus) testifies together with our own spirit, (assuring us) that we are (His) children, then we are (His) heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, (sharing His inheritance with Him)."
The above Verse ends by saying, "Only we must share His suffering if we are to share His Glory." In order to know what kind of "suffering" Christ endured, we must also learn to read His will, without coming to some "theological idea' about what His will is. God's will is what He said. We've invented all sorts of weird things about the will of God, most of them are simple foolishness and man's way of determining spiritual things. Even in this realm of human reasoning, a man can write a will, sign it in the presence of a witness and that will is legal and binding. No one decides "Billy can have this" and "Suzie can have that," this is left to the will of the Testator.
When God's will was drawn up, He decided who would get what. If we are "joint heirs with Christ," then you received what Jesus received, because this is the way the will was written. Even when the virgin Mary received the Word or "will of God," it was already a written will and was the Last Will and Testament of God. In Genesis 3:15 (Amplified) God says, "And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her Offspring. He will bruise and tread your head underfoot, and will bruise and tread your head underfoot, and you will lie in wait and bruis His heel."
God began laying out the terns of His Last Will and Testament, at this moment. His will isn't hard to know or determine, if we would only read this will with as much integrity we would give our earthly father's will. How can we believe the will of a mere earthly father and disregard our Heavenly Father's will for His children?
I hear how some heirs of God, "Got things that others didn't" and are jealous over "Who got what?" I've even heard some heirs say, "That should have been mine, instead of so-and-so" or "I deserved that more than they did." I've even seen others who believe that the "Testator is unfair." Truthfully, no one "deserves" it and it's not our place to decide who should or shouldn't be an heir. The things left to us in the will, weren't ours to leave. They belonged to the One Who made out the will. It was His and it was up to Him, to give it as He wills.
If I left my earthly belongings to someone in a will, then I left them to those I wished to receive them, because that is my will. God did the very same things. He gave to "the Jew and Gentile alike." That was His will and He decided to whom He would leave His inheritance to. God made us "heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ," and said that "His will is to be "Done on earth as it is in Heaven." This will is iron-clad, Blood bought, ratified by the resurrection and is recorded in the book we call "The Last Will and Testament of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ." This is the New Testament for the new creation.
Thursday, January 12, 2017
Lesson 152 The New Creation
2Corinthians 5:17 (Amplified) says, "Therefore, if any person is (ingrafted) in Christ Jesus (the Messiah) he is a new creation (a new creature altogether); the old (previous moral and spiritual condition) has passed. Behold, the fresh and new has come."
While tracing my Family Tree, through my Father's lineage, I came across many family members that I didn't know, weren't even aware, or aren't here any longer. I found that many were sent forth as ambassadors for our Father, to different locations. I grew up in southern Illinois and God sent me to Upstate New York (the place where I met my wife and served at Camp Drum). We moved here with eight kids, my brother-in-law and our friends (who were expecting their first child in a month's time).
I've met so many of my family members in this location and am still in contact with them as they've moved forth to other locations to preach the Word. As I was in fellowship with my Father about these things, He informed me that He was readying for a family reunion in the very near future, where all His family would come to His House for a great, reunion supper. He said that He had already marked the date on His calendar and was sending forth angels the announcement. These special messengers would summon His family home for the celebration.
Paul writes in 2Corinthians 5:8-9 (Amplified), "(Yes) we have confidence and hopeful courage and are pleased rather to be away from home out of our body and be at home with the Lord. Therefore, whether we are at home (on earth away from Him) or away from home (and with Him); we are constantly ambitious and strive earnestly to be pleasing to Him."
Those in the new creation family have a job to complete, while we are "away from Him" and in this body. We are to act as His personal representatives, while we are here and bring forth children to His family. Some are working to teach and train up those children, after they have been brought into the fold. Each of us has a part to play, because we all are mirrors that reflect Him to the world's eyes. We have been given the privilege of nurturing and training the Father's children, through the Holy Spirit and His Word. The babes in Christ, must be fed the milk of God's Word and demonstrated the Father's Love, through us. Many in the family, still don't understand the Father and His place and desire for them. I find more and more in His letters to us, what the Father's will and heart towards His children are.
We don't always hear the Father like we should, because we are still present in this body and are not fully present with Him at Home. Like any loving father, He Love His children and has a desired plan for their futures and safekeeping (while we are away from Him, in this body). It's needful for Him to have us on assignments in this world, because this is where He's needed most. There are no more needs in His Kingdom (Heaven).
The Father misses His children, while they are on assignment here on earth, and longs to have them Home with Him. It's necessary, though, for us to be away working for the Kingdom. God looks forward with great anticipation, for the family reunion He has planned for us. He will announce this reunion with a soon-coming trumpet blast and those who have already left this earthly body, are coming with Him to receive their mortal bodies again. Those of us who are in our earthly bodies, will be changed into His Image and will enter into His House with great fanfare.
We can read about His plans for this reunion in 1Thessalonians 4:14-18 (Amplified) which says, "For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will also bring with Him through Jesus those who have fallen asleep (in death) For this we declare to you by the Lord's (Own) Word, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord shall in no way precede (into His Presence) or have any advantage at all over those who have previously fallen asleep (in Him in death). For the Lord Himself will descend from Heaven with a loud cry of summons, with the shout of an archangel, and with the blast of the trumpet of God; And those who have departed this life in Christ will rise first." Verses 17-18 go on, "Then we, the living ones who remain (on the earth) shall simultaneously be caught up along with (the resurrected dead) in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air; and so always (through the eternity of eternities) we shall be with the Lord. Therefore comfort and encourage one another with these Words."
This is the great family reunion, our Father has been in constant joyous planning. His children will be gathered safely in His House and He Himself will dwell with us, like His heart has longed for from before the foundations of the world. This was God's heart from the beginning and is now, to be made full. I can see and understand the great Love the Father has for me and you, through the letters He dictated to the brothers who proceeded us. I know now, how His desire is to bless me and , therefore, make me a blessing to others. As I carry out His instructions, along with the co-laborers He has sent to bring in the harvest, I know that this great Homecoming is what His heart holds for all of mankind. We have not only become those who "sow the Seed" of the new creation, but we are those who will reap the harvest. While we are here, each of us has a portion, that is different from each other. Every one of us, have been called to sow more Seeds of Life, by preaching and nourishing the new creation babies with the milk and meat of His Word.
You will be amazed to find at this family reunion, how you have added to the Father's House. We will each find a place set just for us, at the table. The Father will greet each of us with, "Welcome" and "Well done." What a day that will be, for both us and the Father! 1Thessalonians 5:6 (Amplified) says, "Accordingly then, let us not sleep as the rest do, but let us keep wide awake (alert, watchful, cautious, and on our guard) and let us be sober (calm, collected, and circumspect)."
While tracing my Family Tree, through my Father's lineage, I came across many family members that I didn't know, weren't even aware, or aren't here any longer. I found that many were sent forth as ambassadors for our Father, to different locations. I grew up in southern Illinois and God sent me to Upstate New York (the place where I met my wife and served at Camp Drum). We moved here with eight kids, my brother-in-law and our friends (who were expecting their first child in a month's time).
I've met so many of my family members in this location and am still in contact with them as they've moved forth to other locations to preach the Word. As I was in fellowship with my Father about these things, He informed me that He was readying for a family reunion in the very near future, where all His family would come to His House for a great, reunion supper. He said that He had already marked the date on His calendar and was sending forth angels the announcement. These special messengers would summon His family home for the celebration.
Paul writes in 2Corinthians 5:8-9 (Amplified), "(Yes) we have confidence and hopeful courage and are pleased rather to be away from home out of our body and be at home with the Lord. Therefore, whether we are at home (on earth away from Him) or away from home (and with Him); we are constantly ambitious and strive earnestly to be pleasing to Him."
Those in the new creation family have a job to complete, while we are "away from Him" and in this body. We are to act as His personal representatives, while we are here and bring forth children to His family. Some are working to teach and train up those children, after they have been brought into the fold. Each of us has a part to play, because we all are mirrors that reflect Him to the world's eyes. We have been given the privilege of nurturing and training the Father's children, through the Holy Spirit and His Word. The babes in Christ, must be fed the milk of God's Word and demonstrated the Father's Love, through us. Many in the family, still don't understand the Father and His place and desire for them. I find more and more in His letters to us, what the Father's will and heart towards His children are.
We don't always hear the Father like we should, because we are still present in this body and are not fully present with Him at Home. Like any loving father, He Love His children and has a desired plan for their futures and safekeeping (while we are away from Him, in this body). It's needful for Him to have us on assignments in this world, because this is where He's needed most. There are no more needs in His Kingdom (Heaven).
The Father misses His children, while they are on assignment here on earth, and longs to have them Home with Him. It's necessary, though, for us to be away working for the Kingdom. God looks forward with great anticipation, for the family reunion He has planned for us. He will announce this reunion with a soon-coming trumpet blast and those who have already left this earthly body, are coming with Him to receive their mortal bodies again. Those of us who are in our earthly bodies, will be changed into His Image and will enter into His House with great fanfare.
We can read about His plans for this reunion in 1Thessalonians 4:14-18 (Amplified) which says, "For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will also bring with Him through Jesus those who have fallen asleep (in death) For this we declare to you by the Lord's (Own) Word, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord shall in no way precede (into His Presence) or have any advantage at all over those who have previously fallen asleep (in Him in death). For the Lord Himself will descend from Heaven with a loud cry of summons, with the shout of an archangel, and with the blast of the trumpet of God; And those who have departed this life in Christ will rise first." Verses 17-18 go on, "Then we, the living ones who remain (on the earth) shall simultaneously be caught up along with (the resurrected dead) in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air; and so always (through the eternity of eternities) we shall be with the Lord. Therefore comfort and encourage one another with these Words."
This is the great family reunion, our Father has been in constant joyous planning. His children will be gathered safely in His House and He Himself will dwell with us, like His heart has longed for from before the foundations of the world. This was God's heart from the beginning and is now, to be made full. I can see and understand the great Love the Father has for me and you, through the letters He dictated to the brothers who proceeded us. I know now, how His desire is to bless me and , therefore, make me a blessing to others. As I carry out His instructions, along with the co-laborers He has sent to bring in the harvest, I know that this great Homecoming is what His heart holds for all of mankind. We have not only become those who "sow the Seed" of the new creation, but we are those who will reap the harvest. While we are here, each of us has a portion, that is different from each other. Every one of us, have been called to sow more Seeds of Life, by preaching and nourishing the new creation babies with the milk and meat of His Word.
You will be amazed to find at this family reunion, how you have added to the Father's House. We will each find a place set just for us, at the table. The Father will greet each of us with, "Welcome" and "Well done." What a day that will be, for both us and the Father! 1Thessalonians 5:6 (Amplified) says, "Accordingly then, let us not sleep as the rest do, but let us keep wide awake (alert, watchful, cautious, and on our guard) and let us be sober (calm, collected, and circumspect)."
Tuesday, January 10, 2017
Lesson 151 The New Creation
2Corinthians 5:17 (Amplified) says, "Therefore, if any person is (ingrafted) in Christ Jesus (the Messiah) he is a new creation (a new creature altogether); the old (previous moral and spiritual condition) has passed. Behold, the fresh and new has come."
I've been looking into my family tree, to see where I came from and who I am. My lineage has everything to do with who I really am. Some people wish to discover relatives they never met and that's what I wanted too. To do this, I began my search with my older Brother Jesus, because from Him, I could found out about my Father and what He's all about. Imagine my astonishment, when I found out that He is a King and has a vast Kingdom. I also found out about my Royal Bloodline and that I am a "King and priest" in this new family. My brother Peter writes about this in 1Peter 2:9 (Amplified) saying, "But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a dedicated nation. (God's) Own special 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."
Paul (another brother of mine) writes in 2Corinthians 5:21 about my being an "ambassador sent from my Father's Kingdom into this other land, in order to bring others into my Father's House." He shed more light into my heritage in a letter to part of our family in Rome. Thus, he writes in Romans 8:17 (Amplified), "And if we are (His) children, then we are (His) heirs also; (heirs) of God, and fellow heirs with Christ (sharing His inheritance with Him)."
My Father's will and custom establishes that the "firstborn son will inherit the blessing." Jesus is the First Born Head of my Father's family and He has agreed to share this blessing with me and the entire family, according to Galatians 3:28-29 (Amplified) saying, "There is (now no distinction) neither Hew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is not male or female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you belong to Christ (are in Him Who is Abraham's Seed) then you are Abraham's offspring and (spiritual) heirs according to the Promise."
We have been made the recipients of the Father's will through Jesus, because of the Promise and blessing placed upon Him. Ephesians 2:19 (Amplified) tells us, "Therefore you are no longer outsiders (exiles, migrants and aliens) excluded from the rights of citizens, but you now share citizenship with the saints (God's Own people, consecrated and set apart for Himself) and you belong to God's (Own) household."
My Father explained many things to me, in some letters He wrote to me and the rest of our family. As His children (and being royalty), we are to conduct our lives in accordance to that birthright. Everything we say and do, reflects on Him as not only our Father, but as King over His Kingdom. We bear His Name and we are expected to live our lives accordingly. We are to watch our Brother Jesus' Example and pattern our lives after Him. Like most other older brothers, Jesus is the Protector Who watches over us.
The Father instructs us to listen very closely to Jesus, whenever He speaks. As the older brother, Jesus has already gone through many things and we need to learn from Him. Romans 8:14 (Amplified) says, "For all that are led by the Spirit of God are the sons of God." Jesus taught us what conduct the Father expects from our lives. As part of the royal family, we are not to do anything that brings reproach on His Name.
The Kingdom business of salvation, was given over to God's new creation family, telling others about His Love for them. We must learn the family business, by listening and trusting in what our older Brother Jesus said and did. As God's sons and daughters, we are to take and expand the Father's business globally. 1Corinthians 3:9 (Amplified) says, "For we are fellow workers (joint promoters, laborers together) with and for God' you are God's garden and vineyard and field under cultivation (you are God's building)."
The family business we inherited from our Father, is to be run by our older Brother Jesus (He is the Head of the business). We cannot know how to run the business without Him, because He is the First Born and built it up from the beginning. We are not to change or make decisions in this business, without first checking with Jesus. We are new to the company and we need Jesus to teach us how to operate properly within the family business. In John 14:26 (Amplified) Jesus says, "But the Comforter (Counselor, Helper, Intercessor, Advocate, Stand-by) The Holy Spirit, Whom the Father will send in My Name (in My Place, to represent Me and act on My behalf) He will teach you all things. And He will cause you to recall (will remind you of, bring to your remembrance) everything I have told you."
The Father appointed a Supervisor, to the family and His business. He is the One Who will always be with us, while we are learning how to operate to the fullness of our Father's business. This Supervisor will take what Jesus has received from our Father and will teach us how to walk in them. We are a global family and are to be representatives of our Father, as His ambassadors in the Kingdom. Our older Brother Jesus, as Head of the family business, sent us a Supervisor to teach us the family business of bringing salvation to the world.
If we run into things we don't understand, don't know or cannot handle, then our Supervisor (the Holy Spirit) will fill in for us, to get the job done despite our weaknesses. In 2Corinthians 12:9 (Amplified) Paul writes, "Therefore I will all the more gladly glory in my weaknesses and infirmities, that the strength and power of Christ (the Messiah) may rest (yes, may pitch a tent over and dwell) upon me." Jesus takes charge and gets the job done, that I couldn't complete on my own. He will get the job done right, so I am watching and learning from Him.
My family tree (the Tree of Life), is filled with heroes and such marvelous things, that make me so glad of my heritage in Him. While I am always learning about my Father and my family, I strive to show the world His Goodness and His Glory. Because I bear His Name and I am a reflection of Him, the world makes judgements about Him, because of the things I do. 2Corinthians 6:3 (Amplified) says, "We put no obstructions in anyone's way (we give no offense in anything) so that no fault may be found and our ministry blamed and discredited."
I've been looking into my family tree, to see where I came from and who I am. My lineage has everything to do with who I really am. Some people wish to discover relatives they never met and that's what I wanted too. To do this, I began my search with my older Brother Jesus, because from Him, I could found out about my Father and what He's all about. Imagine my astonishment, when I found out that He is a King and has a vast Kingdom. I also found out about my Royal Bloodline and that I am a "King and priest" in this new family. My brother Peter writes about this in 1Peter 2:9 (Amplified) saying, "But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a dedicated nation. (God's) Own special 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."
Paul (another brother of mine) writes in 2Corinthians 5:21 about my being an "ambassador sent from my Father's Kingdom into this other land, in order to bring others into my Father's House." He shed more light into my heritage in a letter to part of our family in Rome. Thus, he writes in Romans 8:17 (Amplified), "And if we are (His) children, then we are (His) heirs also; (heirs) of God, and fellow heirs with Christ (sharing His inheritance with Him)."
My Father's will and custom establishes that the "firstborn son will inherit the blessing." Jesus is the First Born Head of my Father's family and He has agreed to share this blessing with me and the entire family, according to Galatians 3:28-29 (Amplified) saying, "There is (now no distinction) neither Hew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is not male or female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you belong to Christ (are in Him Who is Abraham's Seed) then you are Abraham's offspring and (spiritual) heirs according to the Promise."
We have been made the recipients of the Father's will through Jesus, because of the Promise and blessing placed upon Him. Ephesians 2:19 (Amplified) tells us, "Therefore you are no longer outsiders (exiles, migrants and aliens) excluded from the rights of citizens, but you now share citizenship with the saints (God's Own people, consecrated and set apart for Himself) and you belong to God's (Own) household."
My Father explained many things to me, in some letters He wrote to me and the rest of our family. As His children (and being royalty), we are to conduct our lives in accordance to that birthright. Everything we say and do, reflects on Him as not only our Father, but as King over His Kingdom. We bear His Name and we are expected to live our lives accordingly. We are to watch our Brother Jesus' Example and pattern our lives after Him. Like most other older brothers, Jesus is the Protector Who watches over us.
The Father instructs us to listen very closely to Jesus, whenever He speaks. As the older brother, Jesus has already gone through many things and we need to learn from Him. Romans 8:14 (Amplified) says, "For all that are led by the Spirit of God are the sons of God." Jesus taught us what conduct the Father expects from our lives. As part of the royal family, we are not to do anything that brings reproach on His Name.
The Kingdom business of salvation, was given over to God's new creation family, telling others about His Love for them. We must learn the family business, by listening and trusting in what our older Brother Jesus said and did. As God's sons and daughters, we are to take and expand the Father's business globally. 1Corinthians 3:9 (Amplified) says, "For we are fellow workers (joint promoters, laborers together) with and for God' you are God's garden and vineyard and field under cultivation (you are God's building)."
The family business we inherited from our Father, is to be run by our older Brother Jesus (He is the Head of the business). We cannot know how to run the business without Him, because He is the First Born and built it up from the beginning. We are not to change or make decisions in this business, without first checking with Jesus. We are new to the company and we need Jesus to teach us how to operate properly within the family business. In John 14:26 (Amplified) Jesus says, "But the Comforter (Counselor, Helper, Intercessor, Advocate, Stand-by) The Holy Spirit, Whom the Father will send in My Name (in My Place, to represent Me and act on My behalf) He will teach you all things. And He will cause you to recall (will remind you of, bring to your remembrance) everything I have told you."
The Father appointed a Supervisor, to the family and His business. He is the One Who will always be with us, while we are learning how to operate to the fullness of our Father's business. This Supervisor will take what Jesus has received from our Father and will teach us how to walk in them. We are a global family and are to be representatives of our Father, as His ambassadors in the Kingdom. Our older Brother Jesus, as Head of the family business, sent us a Supervisor to teach us the family business of bringing salvation to the world.
If we run into things we don't understand, don't know or cannot handle, then our Supervisor (the Holy Spirit) will fill in for us, to get the job done despite our weaknesses. In 2Corinthians 12:9 (Amplified) Paul writes, "Therefore I will all the more gladly glory in my weaknesses and infirmities, that the strength and power of Christ (the Messiah) may rest (yes, may pitch a tent over and dwell) upon me." Jesus takes charge and gets the job done, that I couldn't complete on my own. He will get the job done right, so I am watching and learning from Him.
My family tree (the Tree of Life), is filled with heroes and such marvelous things, that make me so glad of my heritage in Him. While I am always learning about my Father and my family, I strive to show the world His Goodness and His Glory. Because I bear His Name and I am a reflection of Him, the world makes judgements about Him, because of the things I do. 2Corinthians 6:3 (Amplified) says, "We put no obstructions in anyone's way (we give no offense in anything) so that no fault may be found and our ministry blamed and discredited."
Monday, January 9, 2017
Lesson 150 The New Creation
2Corinthians 5:17 (Amplified) says, "Therefore, if any person is (ingrafted) in Christ Jesus (the Messiah) he is a new creation (a new creature altogether); the old (previous moral and spiritual condition) has passed. Behold, the fresh and new has come."I saw so many commercials for Ancestry.com over this holiday season and decided to delve into God's Word and find out about my DNA. Because I am "In this world, but not of it" and my citizenship is of Heaven, I wondered what my DNA truly is.
One must begin his search at Ancestry.com with one person and I needed to begin my heritage search with Jesus, because He is the First Born of many brethren. Since Jesus is the First, then my number was in His lineage somewhere. The Law of Genesis declares that, "everything produces after kind," so if Jesus was the Firstborn, then the ones following Him must be like Him. I wanted to discover where I came from and what type of people my ancestors were.
The original source of information, was the seed from which I came. 1Peter 1:23 (Amplified) tells us, "You have been regenerated (born-again), not from a mortal origin (seed, sperm) but from One that is immortal by the Ever Living and Lasting Word of God." This gives me an Origin to build my family tree on and that is Jesus, the Firstborn. I found how nearly everyone of my early family had the same ability that the Firstborn had.
In The Book of Acts, I found that my early brothers performed the same miracles and healings that Jesus performed. The same spiritual Gifts, abilities, healings, and powers, worked through the outer reaches of my family in Corinth to Galatia. Even in the letter to the Hebrews, I found the same family traits running throughout my entire family, just like they did in my older Brother, Jesus.
I read the letter my brother Paul wrote to my family in Corinth, where he spoke about the Gifts of the Spirit. The same DNA operated like it did in other persons of the same lineage I come from. This strong Blood-line and ability will operate in our new creation family, once we find out who we are.
I have friends who have traced their roots back to Africa, Ireland, Scotland, Germany, as well as other places. They then sought out the customs and traditions of their ancestors, in order to better relate to them. We all want to learn from the past and find our place in it. When I began my journey to find my lineage and the family I was born into, I realized how many in my modern day family members, had lost sight of who they were. They seemed to stray far from the family line and the Firstborn's DNA.
My family tree dates back to a time in Jerusalem, beginning with my Father and older Brother Jesus. My family tree was rooted when my Father and older Brother Jesus, began a record of the family, in what they called a new covenant. I never fully understood my inheritance, until I read the Last Will and Testament of Jesus when He died. Jesus left me, all of the inheritance my Heavenly Father left and gave to Him. I was made an "heir of God" and a "joint-heir with Christ."
I could trace my inheritance and family tree, as well as the authority and far reaches of the Family Name by which I am called. Some have inherited the wealth and name of Rockerfeller, Rothchilde, and Hilton. Both prominence and authority came with those family names. I too, inherited wealth and the authority of my family Name.
Some people inherited artistic or musical abilities from their descendants. My daughter inherited her artistic ability from my family and passed them down to her daughter. They call it "fake ability," because they can make anything they see. I found that the authority and ability to lay hands on sick people, expecting them to be made whole, came from my family lineage and Name (of Jesus). The authority that comes with my birth and family Name carries into all aspects of my life, even now.
Since I am a new creation, I must find out who my new creation family is and what was passed down to me. I didn't need to purchase or go nearly as far with my study, as many people do today. Some people must go all the way back to their great, great, great, grandparents, just to find any information about their past. My family tree goes only to my Father and continues on to today. His generation is still an ongoing thing, from the First Born until now.
I found that my true home and family are from a Source and Kingdom, that I had never seen until now. My family tree tells me that I'm a royal descendant of The King and Kingdom of Heaven. The wealth and power of my Father, the King, transcends all other peoples and nations. The entire universe came out of Him. I love studying my heritage and new creation family!
Saturday, January 7, 2017
Lesson 149 The New Creation
2Corinthians 5:17 (Amplified) says, "Therefore, if any person is (ingrafted) in Christ Jesus (the Messiah) he is a new creation (a new creature altogether); the old (previous moral and spiritual condition) has passed. Behold, the fresh and new has come."
The very fact that we are a new creation, says that we know very little about what or who this new creation is. Everything we are to discover about who we have become, must come from our Heavenly Father and His Word. Because we are a new creation, we cannot go back and find out what this entails from any other source, except God and His Word. The only "pattern" we have of this new creation, is Jesus Himself.
It's essential then, that we must know Jesus in all of His earthly ministry. Our old earthly man and "dead" spirit, have no idea about how to function in this new identity. Most of us are fearful of the unknown and might be very reluctant about delving into this new identity, without someone to guide them. So, some might just ignore the things the new creation holds, while others will wish to learn the details for their new creation being.
The main key to learning about our new identity, is Love. 1John 4:16-18 (Amplified) tells us, "And we know (understand, recognize, are conscience of, by observation and by experience) you believe (adhere to, and put faith in and rely on) the Love God cherishes for us. God is Love, and he who dwells and continues in Love, dwells and continues in God, and God dwells and continues in him. In this (union and communion with Him) Love is brought to completion and attains perfection with us; that we may have confidence for the day of judgment (with assurance and boldness to face Him) because as He is, so are we in this world. There is no fear in Love (dread does not exist) but full-grown (complete and perfect) Love turns fear out of doors and expels every trace of terror! For fear brings with it the thought of punishment, and (so) he who is afraid has not reached the full maturity of Love (is not yet grown into Love's complete perfection)."
The above scripture tells us that "he who is afraid hasn't reached Love's complete perfection." We read in 2Timothy 1:7 (Amplified), "For God did not give us a spirit of timidity (of cowardice, of craven and cringing and fawning fear) but (He has given us a spirit) of power and of Love, and of a calm and well-balanced mind and discipline and self-control." It's apparent from the above scriptures, that we shouldn't be fearful of seeking out who we are supposed to be in this new creation.
1John 1:17 (Amplified) says that, "As [Jesus] is, so are we in this world." That tells us that, we (the new creation beings) are like Jesus, in this world. Even after we've read this from the Word several times, the unrenewed mind would accuse anyone declaring this, "as walking in pride." 1John 3:2 (Amplified) says, "Beloved, we are (even here and) now God's children; It is not yet disclosed (made clear) what we shall be (hereafter) but we know that when He comes and is manifested, we shall (as God's children) resemble and be like Him, for we shall see Him just as He (really) is."
Jesus told His disciples in John 14:7 (Amplified) that, "If you had known Me (had learned to recognize Me) you would also have known My Father, From now on, you know Him and have seen Him." Jesus prayed in John 17:21 (Amplified) saying, "That they may be one (just) as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be one in Us, so that the world may believe that You have sent Me." Hebrews 1:3 (Amplified) instructs us that Jesus should be our Example on this earth. Thus, it says, "He is the Sole Expression of the glory of God (the Light-Being, the out-raying or radiance of the Divine) and He is the perfect Imprint and Very Image of (God's) nature, upholding and maintaining and guiding and propelling the universe by His might Word of power; When He had by offering Himself accomplished our cleansing of sins and riddance of guilt, He sat down at the right hand of the Divine Majesty on High."
The first Adam was supposed to bring forth children unto God in his image, and the Last Adam (Jesus) is also to bring forth children to God in HIS IMAGE. The carnal mind refuses to acknowledge the truth of this, but the Holy Spirit has unveiled it to all who will believe, through God's Word. If you are born-again, then this is who we are called to "grow up" to be. It's already who you are, but we're not yet "made perfect (mature) in Love."
Romans 8:16-17 (Amplified) tells us, "The Spirit Himself (thus) testifies together with our spirit (assuring) us that we are children of God. And if we are (His) children, then we are (His) heirs also; heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ (sharing His inheritance with Him) only we must share His suffering if we are to share His glory." Before you run off and try to "share His suffering," because you must FIRST find out what it was He had to suffer! We don't share what Jesus did for us on the cross or in the grave. Jesus did that for us, in our place. What Jesus suffered was the unbelief and actual hatred from many in the world He came to save.
We witness a glimpse of what Jesus suffered in Isaiah 53:3-5 (Amplified). Some of what He suffered was the redemptive work on our behalf and some was the rejection of those He loved. In Verse 4, we see people around Jesus, who were mocking Him and were calling for His punishment for saying He was the Son of God.
Today, we find some who have entered into part of the new creation walk, only to be mocked and mistreated by the world and even others in the Church. Smith Wigglesworth were subjected to Christian people calling the police, trying to stop his meeting. They accused him of "practicing medicine without a license. Paul was thrown into prison for casting a demon out of a woman. John the Baptist was imprisoned and beheaded for preaching the Truth of the Word.
In order to walk with the Holy Spirit in this new creation, we must first understand His Love for us. Many Christians still believe that sickness, death, disease, poverty and the Curse of the Law, are all "God's Love, teaching us to obey Him." Those who believe this, must take heed of 1John 4:8 (Amplified) which says, "He who does not Love has not become acquainted with God (does not and never did know Him) FOR GOD IS LOVE."
God's power is His Love and while learning how to walk in this new creation, we must first understand that it is when (and only when we) allow Love for God and Love from God to flow through us, because our faith works by Love. Galatians 5:6 (Amplified) says, "For (if we are) in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith activated and energized and expressed and working through Love." Some would say that this scripture tells us, "If we don't walk in what the world calls Love, then we have no faith to do the work." There is merit to this, but I believe this scripture is speaking more about how, "If we understand God's great Love for us, then our faith in that Love, will work even stronger through us."
I enjoy blogging to those who would read and understand them by the Holy Spirit, letting them see what God is beginning to do through the Church in these last days. It's not always easy to teach some of these things in church, because God will change what I would preach, for only one person who comes to the service. These are sort of akin to Paul's writing to the Church of his time. It's much easier to write the revelation, than to travel over the planet to preach it.
The very fact that we are a new creation, says that we know very little about what or who this new creation is. Everything we are to discover about who we have become, must come from our Heavenly Father and His Word. Because we are a new creation, we cannot go back and find out what this entails from any other source, except God and His Word. The only "pattern" we have of this new creation, is Jesus Himself.
It's essential then, that we must know Jesus in all of His earthly ministry. Our old earthly man and "dead" spirit, have no idea about how to function in this new identity. Most of us are fearful of the unknown and might be very reluctant about delving into this new identity, without someone to guide them. So, some might just ignore the things the new creation holds, while others will wish to learn the details for their new creation being.
The main key to learning about our new identity, is Love. 1John 4:16-18 (Amplified) tells us, "And we know (understand, recognize, are conscience of, by observation and by experience) you believe (adhere to, and put faith in and rely on) the Love God cherishes for us. God is Love, and he who dwells and continues in Love, dwells and continues in God, and God dwells and continues in him. In this (union and communion with Him) Love is brought to completion and attains perfection with us; that we may have confidence for the day of judgment (with assurance and boldness to face Him) because as He is, so are we in this world. There is no fear in Love (dread does not exist) but full-grown (complete and perfect) Love turns fear out of doors and expels every trace of terror! For fear brings with it the thought of punishment, and (so) he who is afraid has not reached the full maturity of Love (is not yet grown into Love's complete perfection)."
The above scripture tells us that "he who is afraid hasn't reached Love's complete perfection." We read in 2Timothy 1:7 (Amplified), "For God did not give us a spirit of timidity (of cowardice, of craven and cringing and fawning fear) but (He has given us a spirit) of power and of Love, and of a calm and well-balanced mind and discipline and self-control." It's apparent from the above scriptures, that we shouldn't be fearful of seeking out who we are supposed to be in this new creation.
1John 1:17 (Amplified) says that, "As [Jesus] is, so are we in this world." That tells us that, we (the new creation beings) are like Jesus, in this world. Even after we've read this from the Word several times, the unrenewed mind would accuse anyone declaring this, "as walking in pride." 1John 3:2 (Amplified) says, "Beloved, we are (even here and) now God's children; It is not yet disclosed (made clear) what we shall be (hereafter) but we know that when He comes and is manifested, we shall (as God's children) resemble and be like Him, for we shall see Him just as He (really) is."
Jesus told His disciples in John 14:7 (Amplified) that, "If you had known Me (had learned to recognize Me) you would also have known My Father, From now on, you know Him and have seen Him." Jesus prayed in John 17:21 (Amplified) saying, "That they may be one (just) as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be one in Us, so that the world may believe that You have sent Me." Hebrews 1:3 (Amplified) instructs us that Jesus should be our Example on this earth. Thus, it says, "He is the Sole Expression of the glory of God (the Light-Being, the out-raying or radiance of the Divine) and He is the perfect Imprint and Very Image of (God's) nature, upholding and maintaining and guiding and propelling the universe by His might Word of power; When He had by offering Himself accomplished our cleansing of sins and riddance of guilt, He sat down at the right hand of the Divine Majesty on High."
The first Adam was supposed to bring forth children unto God in his image, and the Last Adam (Jesus) is also to bring forth children to God in HIS IMAGE. The carnal mind refuses to acknowledge the truth of this, but the Holy Spirit has unveiled it to all who will believe, through God's Word. If you are born-again, then this is who we are called to "grow up" to be. It's already who you are, but we're not yet "made perfect (mature) in Love."
Romans 8:16-17 (Amplified) tells us, "The Spirit Himself (thus) testifies together with our spirit (assuring) us that we are children of God. And if we are (His) children, then we are (His) heirs also; heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ (sharing His inheritance with Him) only we must share His suffering if we are to share His glory." Before you run off and try to "share His suffering," because you must FIRST find out what it was He had to suffer! We don't share what Jesus did for us on the cross or in the grave. Jesus did that for us, in our place. What Jesus suffered was the unbelief and actual hatred from many in the world He came to save.
We witness a glimpse of what Jesus suffered in Isaiah 53:3-5 (Amplified). Some of what He suffered was the redemptive work on our behalf and some was the rejection of those He loved. In Verse 4, we see people around Jesus, who were mocking Him and were calling for His punishment for saying He was the Son of God.
Today, we find some who have entered into part of the new creation walk, only to be mocked and mistreated by the world and even others in the Church. Smith Wigglesworth were subjected to Christian people calling the police, trying to stop his meeting. They accused him of "practicing medicine without a license. Paul was thrown into prison for casting a demon out of a woman. John the Baptist was imprisoned and beheaded for preaching the Truth of the Word.
In order to walk with the Holy Spirit in this new creation, we must first understand His Love for us. Many Christians still believe that sickness, death, disease, poverty and the Curse of the Law, are all "God's Love, teaching us to obey Him." Those who believe this, must take heed of 1John 4:8 (Amplified) which says, "He who does not Love has not become acquainted with God (does not and never did know Him) FOR GOD IS LOVE."
God's power is His Love and while learning how to walk in this new creation, we must first understand that it is when (and only when we) allow Love for God and Love from God to flow through us, because our faith works by Love. Galatians 5:6 (Amplified) says, "For (if we are) in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith activated and energized and expressed and working through Love." Some would say that this scripture tells us, "If we don't walk in what the world calls Love, then we have no faith to do the work." There is merit to this, but I believe this scripture is speaking more about how, "If we understand God's great Love for us, then our faith in that Love, will work even stronger through us."
I enjoy blogging to those who would read and understand them by the Holy Spirit, letting them see what God is beginning to do through the Church in these last days. It's not always easy to teach some of these things in church, because God will change what I would preach, for only one person who comes to the service. These are sort of akin to Paul's writing to the Church of his time. It's much easier to write the revelation, than to travel over the planet to preach it.
Friday, January 6, 2017
Lesson 148 The New Creation
The soul (the mind, will, emotions) of man has been the greatest part of our fight of faith, in this new creation. We've heard sermons about the sins of the flesh and we've been told that the new creation is "for when we go to Heaven." We are all aware that the things we did before receiving Jesus were wrong and sinful and we shouldn't do these things anymore, and we seem to be locked into a place of guilt and condemnation over these actions.
We religiously read the Words of the Bible, but we seem to be helpless in walking in its Truths. We gained the ability to read through education, but the Holy Spirit makes us able to comprehend the Truth of the words we read from the Bible. To the unrenewed mind, reading the Word just becomes tradition, like it was before we were saved. But, when our mind is renewed by God's Word, we are actually feeding our new created spirit, according to 1Peter 2:2 (Amplified) which 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 unto (completed) salvation." The "completed salvation" doesn't mean "when we get to Heaven," but means "completion in this realm" for our spirit, soul and body.
The fleshly part of man or body, must be trained by practice in the Holy Spirit and the Word, according to Hebrews 5:14 (Amplified). We seem to understand this concept in every other part of our lives, except our spiritual life. We know that we must "train and teach" our body to run a marathon, by constantly running and gaining endurance, but we never seem to comprehend that we must do the same to "run the good race." We can train the senses and flesh to do and act in many things by constant repetition and education. We can also train our flesh to respond once again to our spirit, by the renewing of our minds by the Word.
When we were born-again and created new in Christ Jesus, our spirit was born from death unto life. We were, in our spirit, a brand new creation, like a baby is born into the natural world and made alive in this realm. We too, were made alive int a realm that until now, we were not alive unto. Everything we've experienced in this new life, is different to us. We must grow in wisdom and learn how we are to now live, in this new life.
Every baby must have guidance in life, in order to ever understand how to go. As new creation people, we need the exact same thing in the life of the spirit. We continue walking by what we learned from the world, because we don't know how to walk in the spirit. We've never been taught how to hear in the spirit, talk in the spirit or walk in the spirit. We simply subject our new creation baby spirit, to the carnal mind and nature of our old life in the flesh. When we hear Spiritual Truths from God's Word, our unrenewed carnal minds reject this intrusion into the old way of thinking, because they have never been led by the Spirit.
We've been taught that the "natural man" the Bible speaks about, it the "unsaved." It's actually speaking about the Christian who continues thinking like he did, before being born-again. 1Corinthians 2:13-14 (Amplified) says, "And we are setting these Truths forth in Words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Holy Spirit, combining and interpreting spiritual truths with spiritual language (to those who possess the Holy Spirit. But the natural, non-spiritual man does not accept or welcome or admit into his heart the Gifts and teachings and revelations of the Spirit of God, for they are folly (meaningless nonsense) to him, and he is incapable of knowing them (of progressively recognizing, understand, and becoming acquainted with them) because they are spiritually discerned and estimated and appreciated."
Many Christians fear "going too far" in spiritual things, because of someone who disastrously didn't know or listen to the Holy Spirit and failed to have spiritual understanding of God's Word. It's essential that we listen to and understand God's Word and follow the directing of the Holy Spirit.
Many have made a shipwreck out of the faith, by continuing to be led by their carnal mind, instead of the Mind of Christ. Even Jesus was accused of "having a demon spirit," when He said and did things the people didn't understand. Sadly, many Christians today, are led more by demonic spirits, than the Holy Spirit. Jesus said that, "He only did and said what the Father, through the Holy Spirit, instructed Him to do." Many spiritual things have remained unexplored by most, and they forget that satan is still "the god of this world." He operates in deception and carnal minded things, using them to propel us into foolishness.
The enemy tries to draw worship and recognition to himself and not God. He also tries to bring reproach against and distrust of God's Word. I know people who are afraid to speak in tongues, because they believe it might not be of God. These people are in a way, trying to conform to God, by abstaining from this Gift. They don't have revelation or discernment of spiritual things, so they only rely on the carnal mind for understanding. Many have come to ruin, because they listened to the wrong voice in the world, while fear of the unknown, has prevented their coming into "knowing of" the Word of God. Many have moved in presumption, thinking it was faith and some have been mocked and brought reproach upon themselves (and God), by not knowing the Voice of the Shepherd.
There is a place for this new creation man to walk in complete assurance with God. We are content to let the heroes of the Bible to be in this place of complete assurance with God, rather than stepping into this place on our own. We marvel of the parting of the Red Sea, the raising of the dead and Jesus' walking on water, but say they were "only for that time." Or, we say that, "Yes, but that was Jesus."
We find a very familiar scripture in 1Corinthians 2:9-10 (Amplified) which says, "What eye has not seen and ear has not heard and has not entered into the heart of man (all that) God has prepared (made and keeps ready) for those who love Him (who hold Him in affectionate reverence, promptly obeying Him and gratefully recognizing the benefits He has bestowed) Yet to us God has unveiled and revealed them by and through His Spirit, for the Holy Spirit searches diligently, exploring and examining everything, even sounding the profound and bottomless things of God (the Divine Counsels and things hidden and beyond man's natural scrutiny)."
All of the things in the above scriptures, are available and are present, for every new creation man and not the natural man. But, the new man must learn to hear from (and by) the Holy Spirit. God wants us to know and to walk in this revelation knowledge of Him and His Word. Romans 8:14 (Amplified) says, "For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God." Perhaps, a better interpretation is, "Are mature sons of God."
Deception remains satan's greatest weapon, in this day and age. We've been deceived by governments, science, and many other things that we trusted before. And, because of this, we've even come to mistrust the Holy Spirit and the Word of God Himself. Because of wrong thinking, we've invented other religions, leading us and others into further deception. Have you seen how much "Paranormal" programs are on TV? When we believe these things more than we believe in God, we are placed in a place of danger.
Because of all the deception in the world, we no longer seem to be able to distinguish or differentiate between our Father and our enemy. This makes us double-minded men. James 1:8 (Amplified) says, "(For being as he is) a man of two minds (hesitating, dubious, irresolute) (he is) unstable and unreliable and uncertain about everything (he thinks, feels and decides)."
How do we, then, learn to walk in this new creation being and family we have become? If there no place for the Supernatural to work in this world and be real? Can we ever learn to trust the Word and the Holy Spirit enough to do like Jesus said about the Supernatural? Well, of course there is, or He wouldn't have told us to do it. It's up to us, to learn to hear His Voice, seek out His wisdom, be illuminated by His Word, and "Do as the Father tells us to do."
This is being done more and more on the individual scale, than as the Body. It's always been done this way. That is why some of our heroes were brought into the focus of God's Word, instead of others. This wasn't only God's choice, but the choice of those who sought Him out, while others didn't.
We religiously read the Words of the Bible, but we seem to be helpless in walking in its Truths. We gained the ability to read through education, but the Holy Spirit makes us able to comprehend the Truth of the words we read from the Bible. To the unrenewed mind, reading the Word just becomes tradition, like it was before we were saved. But, when our mind is renewed by God's Word, we are actually feeding our new created spirit, according to 1Peter 2:2 (Amplified) which 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 unto (completed) salvation." The "completed salvation" doesn't mean "when we get to Heaven," but means "completion in this realm" for our spirit, soul and body.
The fleshly part of man or body, must be trained by practice in the Holy Spirit and the Word, according to Hebrews 5:14 (Amplified). We seem to understand this concept in every other part of our lives, except our spiritual life. We know that we must "train and teach" our body to run a marathon, by constantly running and gaining endurance, but we never seem to comprehend that we must do the same to "run the good race." We can train the senses and flesh to do and act in many things by constant repetition and education. We can also train our flesh to respond once again to our spirit, by the renewing of our minds by the Word.
When we were born-again and created new in Christ Jesus, our spirit was born from death unto life. We were, in our spirit, a brand new creation, like a baby is born into the natural world and made alive in this realm. We too, were made alive int a realm that until now, we were not alive unto. Everything we've experienced in this new life, is different to us. We must grow in wisdom and learn how we are to now live, in this new life.
Every baby must have guidance in life, in order to ever understand how to go. As new creation people, we need the exact same thing in the life of the spirit. We continue walking by what we learned from the world, because we don't know how to walk in the spirit. We've never been taught how to hear in the spirit, talk in the spirit or walk in the spirit. We simply subject our new creation baby spirit, to the carnal mind and nature of our old life in the flesh. When we hear Spiritual Truths from God's Word, our unrenewed carnal minds reject this intrusion into the old way of thinking, because they have never been led by the Spirit.
We've been taught that the "natural man" the Bible speaks about, it the "unsaved." It's actually speaking about the Christian who continues thinking like he did, before being born-again. 1Corinthians 2:13-14 (Amplified) says, "And we are setting these Truths forth in Words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Holy Spirit, combining and interpreting spiritual truths with spiritual language (to those who possess the Holy Spirit. But the natural, non-spiritual man does not accept or welcome or admit into his heart the Gifts and teachings and revelations of the Spirit of God, for they are folly (meaningless nonsense) to him, and he is incapable of knowing them (of progressively recognizing, understand, and becoming acquainted with them) because they are spiritually discerned and estimated and appreciated."
Many Christians fear "going too far" in spiritual things, because of someone who disastrously didn't know or listen to the Holy Spirit and failed to have spiritual understanding of God's Word. It's essential that we listen to and understand God's Word and follow the directing of the Holy Spirit.
Many have made a shipwreck out of the faith, by continuing to be led by their carnal mind, instead of the Mind of Christ. Even Jesus was accused of "having a demon spirit," when He said and did things the people didn't understand. Sadly, many Christians today, are led more by demonic spirits, than the Holy Spirit. Jesus said that, "He only did and said what the Father, through the Holy Spirit, instructed Him to do." Many spiritual things have remained unexplored by most, and they forget that satan is still "the god of this world." He operates in deception and carnal minded things, using them to propel us into foolishness.
The enemy tries to draw worship and recognition to himself and not God. He also tries to bring reproach against and distrust of God's Word. I know people who are afraid to speak in tongues, because they believe it might not be of God. These people are in a way, trying to conform to God, by abstaining from this Gift. They don't have revelation or discernment of spiritual things, so they only rely on the carnal mind for understanding. Many have come to ruin, because they listened to the wrong voice in the world, while fear of the unknown, has prevented their coming into "knowing of" the Word of God. Many have moved in presumption, thinking it was faith and some have been mocked and brought reproach upon themselves (and God), by not knowing the Voice of the Shepherd.
There is a place for this new creation man to walk in complete assurance with God. We are content to let the heroes of the Bible to be in this place of complete assurance with God, rather than stepping into this place on our own. We marvel of the parting of the Red Sea, the raising of the dead and Jesus' walking on water, but say they were "only for that time." Or, we say that, "Yes, but that was Jesus."
We find a very familiar scripture in 1Corinthians 2:9-10 (Amplified) which says, "What eye has not seen and ear has not heard and has not entered into the heart of man (all that) God has prepared (made and keeps ready) for those who love Him (who hold Him in affectionate reverence, promptly obeying Him and gratefully recognizing the benefits He has bestowed) Yet to us God has unveiled and revealed them by and through His Spirit, for the Holy Spirit searches diligently, exploring and examining everything, even sounding the profound and bottomless things of God (the Divine Counsels and things hidden and beyond man's natural scrutiny)."
All of the things in the above scriptures, are available and are present, for every new creation man and not the natural man. But, the new man must learn to hear from (and by) the Holy Spirit. God wants us to know and to walk in this revelation knowledge of Him and His Word. Romans 8:14 (Amplified) says, "For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God." Perhaps, a better interpretation is, "Are mature sons of God."
Deception remains satan's greatest weapon, in this day and age. We've been deceived by governments, science, and many other things that we trusted before. And, because of this, we've even come to mistrust the Holy Spirit and the Word of God Himself. Because of wrong thinking, we've invented other religions, leading us and others into further deception. Have you seen how much "Paranormal" programs are on TV? When we believe these things more than we believe in God, we are placed in a place of danger.
Because of all the deception in the world, we no longer seem to be able to distinguish or differentiate between our Father and our enemy. This makes us double-minded men. James 1:8 (Amplified) says, "(For being as he is) a man of two minds (hesitating, dubious, irresolute) (he is) unstable and unreliable and uncertain about everything (he thinks, feels and decides)."
How do we, then, learn to walk in this new creation being and family we have become? If there no place for the Supernatural to work in this world and be real? Can we ever learn to trust the Word and the Holy Spirit enough to do like Jesus said about the Supernatural? Well, of course there is, or He wouldn't have told us to do it. It's up to us, to learn to hear His Voice, seek out His wisdom, be illuminated by His Word, and "Do as the Father tells us to do."
This is being done more and more on the individual scale, than as the Body. It's always been done this way. That is why some of our heroes were brought into the focus of God's Word, instead of others. This wasn't only God's choice, but the choice of those who sought Him out, while others didn't.
Thursday, January 5, 2017
Lesson 147 The New Creation
2Corinthians 5:17 (Amplified) says, "Therefore, if any person is (ingrafted) in Christ Jesus (the Messiah) he is a new creation (a new creature altogether); the old (previous moral and spiritual condition) has passed. Behold, the fresh and new has come."
Your spirit man was created perfect in Christi Jesus, the very moment you received Him as your Lord and Savior. Our struggle hasn't been with the sin in our lives, but with remembering the sin from our old lives. Our mind (which is part of our soul) have never been seriously renewed. The only thing our soul knew, was the ways of the world. Our spirit man was separated from the Spirit of God, at Adam's fall in the Garden.
The only information and education our fleshly man (the house of our spirit) can now receive, come from only our soul and five senses. We were created in the Likeness of God and Jesus said that "God is a Spirit." The part of us that is like Jesus' was (and is), is our spirit. When God placed the spirit man into a body formed from the earth, God breathed into him and man became a living spirit. The Life breathed into this fleshly man (or house for his spirit to live in), was made to contact the earthly realm that God created for us to lie in.
Our spirit was housed in a physical body, in order to have dominion over the physical earth. In this physical man, God breathed a soul or a center of communication between the spirit and the flesh. Our brain is a physical component that directs the body and was to be educated by the Spirit of God, in how to walk with Him on earth. Your body was the earth contact, your soul is the information center, your spirit is supposed to be the authority over both your soul and body, and your spirit is to be in perpetual contact with God's Spirit. Everything Adam was to know, was to come from God, in his spirit. Adam then, would control his soulish part by the Words God spoke to him and Adam's flesh would simply carry out his directions on earth.
God and man were to be in constant contact with one another and were to grow in the relationship of a Father teaching his child. When Adam transgressed and communication was severed from the Spirit of God, the soul took dominion over the flesh and blood body, teaching it how to function and what to function in. God was no longer able to deal in man's spirit and must by necessity, deal with man from the outside and not the inside. The Law was created to do so.
The Law was the Word of God that dealt with man, in the order of controlling him from the soulish realm. Even though the Law was spiritual, man could only comply in his flesh. Following commandments and rituals of the things of God, man could remain in God's grace and God could dwell with man in a limited capacity. God could live in a temple with them, as long as man would obey His Law. Men couldn't openly come into God's Presence and God couldn't openly come into their presence.
Man's soul was only taught from the outside and the natural realm, leaving the soul to train and teach the body by very limited counsel. The soul began gathering information from other sources and persons, leaving the flesh (which was a slave to what it was taught) to follow in what it learned. The flesh developed habits that it learned from the world and became addicted to a certain way of behavior and conditioning. Since it has been programmed into this way of being, the flesh protests when we try changing it.
When we renew our minds with God's Word, we begin reprogramming the soul (mind) to teach a different curriculum, thus changing the habits of the flesh. Romans 8:6 (Amplified) says, "Now the mind of the flesh (which is sense knowledge and reasoning without the Holy Spirit) is death (death that comprises all the miseries arising from sin, both here and hereafter) But the mind of the Holy Spirit is Life and (soul) peace (both now and hereafter)." When we read this scripture by the Holy Spirit, Romans 8:5 (Amplified) reads, "For those who are according to the flesh and are controlled by its unholy desires set their minds on and pursue those things which gratify the flesh,but those who are according to the Spirit and are controlled by the desires of the spirit set their minds on and seek those things which gratify the Holy Spirit."
The carnal mind, the world trained soul and mind that was in us when we were born-again, will still lead the flesh in the same paths as before. The mind that is renewed by God's Word, will "lead us into the things of God." Romans 8:7 (Amplified) says, "(That is) because the mind of the flesh (with its carnal thoughts and purposes) is hostile to God, for it does not submit itself to God's Law; indeed it cannot."
Our minds (soul) have been taught contrary to God's Spirit and it refuses to follow everything which goes against what it knows. If someone tries telling you that, "Two plus two equals five," then your mind would reject that as being wrong, because you were taught in elementary school that it equals four. It only accepts the things it's been taught over time. When your mind has been trained against God, then it rejects the Truth of God.
Our "religious" minds have been taught and trained to believe in God, so we can accept that He exists, but still go against His reality for us in this realm. We can "religiously" accept that God is, but then reject that which we've been taught about the Super-natural things in this life. The carnal mind is at war with Spiritual Truths.
The soul (mind, will, emotions) is the part that didn't submit to the new birth, when we accepted Jesus. This part of every man must be retrained or once again conformed by the Word of God. In Matthew 15:6 (Amplified), Jesus told the religious people of His time, "So for the sake of your traditions (the rules handed down by your forefathers) You have set aside the Word of God (depriving it of force and authority and making it of no effect)." These people didn't deliberately try to set aside God's Word, but they accepted what they'd been taught. And, they would do so, until their minds (as well as their senses) were trained to reject anything different than the carnal concepts of God.
These people observed the Feast Days and the ceremonial things that their minds and bodies had been taught, but they lost sight of the Spiritual things of God. They observed the formalities of religion, but had forgotten or been trained against the Truth in which they came.
Your spirit man was created perfect in Christi Jesus, the very moment you received Him as your Lord and Savior. Our struggle hasn't been with the sin in our lives, but with remembering the sin from our old lives. Our mind (which is part of our soul) have never been seriously renewed. The only thing our soul knew, was the ways of the world. Our spirit man was separated from the Spirit of God, at Adam's fall in the Garden.
The only information and education our fleshly man (the house of our spirit) can now receive, come from only our soul and five senses. We were created in the Likeness of God and Jesus said that "God is a Spirit." The part of us that is like Jesus' was (and is), is our spirit. When God placed the spirit man into a body formed from the earth, God breathed into him and man became a living spirit. The Life breathed into this fleshly man (or house for his spirit to live in), was made to contact the earthly realm that God created for us to lie in.
Our spirit was housed in a physical body, in order to have dominion over the physical earth. In this physical man, God breathed a soul or a center of communication between the spirit and the flesh. Our brain is a physical component that directs the body and was to be educated by the Spirit of God, in how to walk with Him on earth. Your body was the earth contact, your soul is the information center, your spirit is supposed to be the authority over both your soul and body, and your spirit is to be in perpetual contact with God's Spirit. Everything Adam was to know, was to come from God, in his spirit. Adam then, would control his soulish part by the Words God spoke to him and Adam's flesh would simply carry out his directions on earth.
God and man were to be in constant contact with one another and were to grow in the relationship of a Father teaching his child. When Adam transgressed and communication was severed from the Spirit of God, the soul took dominion over the flesh and blood body, teaching it how to function and what to function in. God was no longer able to deal in man's spirit and must by necessity, deal with man from the outside and not the inside. The Law was created to do so.
The Law was the Word of God that dealt with man, in the order of controlling him from the soulish realm. Even though the Law was spiritual, man could only comply in his flesh. Following commandments and rituals of the things of God, man could remain in God's grace and God could dwell with man in a limited capacity. God could live in a temple with them, as long as man would obey His Law. Men couldn't openly come into God's Presence and God couldn't openly come into their presence.
Man's soul was only taught from the outside and the natural realm, leaving the soul to train and teach the body by very limited counsel. The soul began gathering information from other sources and persons, leaving the flesh (which was a slave to what it was taught) to follow in what it learned. The flesh developed habits that it learned from the world and became addicted to a certain way of behavior and conditioning. Since it has been programmed into this way of being, the flesh protests when we try changing it.
When we renew our minds with God's Word, we begin reprogramming the soul (mind) to teach a different curriculum, thus changing the habits of the flesh. Romans 8:6 (Amplified) says, "Now the mind of the flesh (which is sense knowledge and reasoning without the Holy Spirit) is death (death that comprises all the miseries arising from sin, both here and hereafter) But the mind of the Holy Spirit is Life and (soul) peace (both now and hereafter)." When we read this scripture by the Holy Spirit, Romans 8:5 (Amplified) reads, "For those who are according to the flesh and are controlled by its unholy desires set their minds on and pursue those things which gratify the flesh,but those who are according to the Spirit and are controlled by the desires of the spirit set their minds on and seek those things which gratify the Holy Spirit."
The carnal mind, the world trained soul and mind that was in us when we were born-again, will still lead the flesh in the same paths as before. The mind that is renewed by God's Word, will "lead us into the things of God." Romans 8:7 (Amplified) says, "(That is) because the mind of the flesh (with its carnal thoughts and purposes) is hostile to God, for it does not submit itself to God's Law; indeed it cannot."
Our minds (soul) have been taught contrary to God's Spirit and it refuses to follow everything which goes against what it knows. If someone tries telling you that, "Two plus two equals five," then your mind would reject that as being wrong, because you were taught in elementary school that it equals four. It only accepts the things it's been taught over time. When your mind has been trained against God, then it rejects the Truth of God.
Our "religious" minds have been taught and trained to believe in God, so we can accept that He exists, but still go against His reality for us in this realm. We can "religiously" accept that God is, but then reject that which we've been taught about the Super-natural things in this life. The carnal mind is at war with Spiritual Truths.
The soul (mind, will, emotions) is the part that didn't submit to the new birth, when we accepted Jesus. This part of every man must be retrained or once again conformed by the Word of God. In Matthew 15:6 (Amplified), Jesus told the religious people of His time, "So for the sake of your traditions (the rules handed down by your forefathers) You have set aside the Word of God (depriving it of force and authority and making it of no effect)." These people didn't deliberately try to set aside God's Word, but they accepted what they'd been taught. And, they would do so, until their minds (as well as their senses) were trained to reject anything different than the carnal concepts of God.
These people observed the Feast Days and the ceremonial things that their minds and bodies had been taught, but they lost sight of the Spiritual things of God. They observed the formalities of religion, but had forgotten or been trained against the Truth in which they came.
Tuesday, January 3, 2017
Lesson 146 The New Creation
2Corinthians 5:17 (Amplified) says, "Therefore, if any person is (ingrafted) in Christ Jesus (the Messiah) he is a new creation (a new creature altogether); the old (previous moral and spiritual condition) has passed away. Behold, the fresh and new has come."
Many Christians struggle with their walk with the Father, because of the guilt they hold onto from the past. Many have even convinced themselves that this is what we need in order to keep us humble. We continue walking under condemnation and feel like sinners still, because of what we were before receiving Jesus as our Lord and Savior. We've even been taught to feel this way, by much of our religious teaching and preaching over the years.
We should be praising the Father and giving Him eternal thanks, for His glorious grace and Love for us. We should never walk in our past, but learn to live in the eternal life and family of God. Walking as just "old sinners saved by grace, " comes from an unrenewed mind and from not being spiritually minded. An unrenewed mind will hinder the power of the new creation man from being the one in charge of his own flesh, even in our physical body. The Apostle John writes to the Church in 3John 1:2 (Amplified) saying, "Beloved, I pray that you may prosper in every way and (that your body) may keep well, even as (I know) your soul keeps well and prosper."
A "prosperous soul (mind and emotions)," is one that has been renewed by God's Word and has been trained by thinking on the Word, to not think only on things of the earth. We're instructed continuously in the Word, how and what to think. And, because God is the One Who has created this new creation, He should (above all Persons) know how we are to think. When you became the new creation, only your dead spirit was created alive and returned to perfect fellowship with the Father. Your body and your soul remained like they were. Many of those who received Jesus in salvation, were healed simultaneously. This had much to do with the message, that was being preached at the time they were saved.
We don't hear much about being healed at the same time we are born-again, but in the early Church, this was what was being preached. The things we continually think on are the way we live our lives in the flesh. In the world, those who "suffer" depression, are those whose minds are fixed in guilt and condemnation, even if they're not currently sinning, but from things they did in the past. This is simply being carnally minded and not being able to silence the voices from the past.
The soul of man was never to be the part of the man that would reign in authority in the lives of God's people. The spirit man was supposed to be the one who would direct and have dominion over mankind. The soul of man was to be the one that would "broadcast" the signals to the brain, that would move the flesh. The spirit (which is alive now unto God again), is to receive directions from the Spirit of God. Then, the spirit is to relay this new wisdom to the soul (mind, will and emotions) and the physical brain, which will cause the body to be directed like the Body of Jesus was, on this earth.
When Jesus said, "I only do and say what the Father says and does," He meant exactly that. Jesus received instructions in His Spirit, and His soul was subject to His Spirit. The thoughts and directions that were relayed to His physical brain, were the thoughts of God. Jesus never allowed His thoughts to dwell on anything but what the Father said. We sometimes forget that Jesus was also a man and had a will and a soul (mind) of His Own.
Your body can only do what your brain tells it to do and your brain will only receive the things that are taught to it, through your soul. The soul of man, was to be the "link" between the spirit and the flesh. When a person leaves this earth and is present with the Lord, his soul also goes with him. His brain (which is a physical component), remains intact with the flesh of his body, but the soul and spirit will not be in it any longer. When we fully enter into the Presence of the Lord, your soul will no longer be pulled two ways, but will be single minded on the things of God.
James spoke about receiving wisdom from God when we ask, but not being "double minded" when we receive it. James 1:5-8 (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 fault finding, and it will be given. Only it must be in faith that he asks with no wavering (hesitating, no doubting). For the one who wavers (hesitates, doubts) is like the billowing surge out at sea that is blown hither and thither and tossed by the wind." Verses 7-8 go on, "For truly, let not such a person imagine that he will receive anything (he asks for) from the Lord. (For being as he is) a man of two minds (hesitating,dubious,irresolute) (he is) unstable and unreliable and uncertain about everything (he thinks,feels,decides)."
The man James writes about, knows he needs the Wisdom of God in his life, so He asks God for it. God "liberally" gives the man the wisdom he requests according to the Word. But, because the man's mind is not renewed, he still thinks in the carnal realm (is carnally minded). And, when he receives wisdom, his carnal mind rejects it, because it's "foolishness" to the natural man and mind and the carnal mind rejects and doesn't act on the wisdom. The soul is not renewed and it makes demands on the flesh, which brings confusion to the brain and the flesh remains inactive on the wisdom.
Years ago, Brother Kenneth Hagin made a statement concerning carnal thoughts, saying, "I can't keep the birds from flying over my head, but I can keep them from building a nest in my hair." We might not be able to make our mind think on only God's Word, but we can control whether or not we allow those thoughts to remain there. We can simply replace the old thoughts and teachings of the world, by training our soul and mind what to think.
Paul writes to the Church in Philippians 3:15 (Amplified) saying, "So let those (of us) who are spiritually mature and full-grown have this mind and hold these convictions; and if in any respect you have a different attitude of mind, God will make that clear to you also." In Philippians 4:8,9 (Amplified) Paul tells us what we are to keep our hearts and minds trained on, in order to live in peace. Thus, he says, "For the rest, brethren, whatever is true, Whatever is worthy of reverence and is honorable and seemly, Whatever is just, Whatever is pure, Whatever is love and lovable, Whatever is kind and winsome and gracious, If there is any virtue and excellence, if there by anything worthy of praise, think on and weigh and take account of these things (fix your minds on them). Practice what you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, and model your way of living on it, and the God of peace (of untroubled,undisturbed, well being) will be with you."
When we allow the world to invade the body and brain, with uncensored thoughts, it brings forth dis-ease in the body, as well as distress to the enzymes that flow thought the flesh. Proverbs 17:22 (Amplified) tells us, "A happy heart is good medicine and a cheerful mind works healing, but a broken spirit dries up the bones.
We cannot afford to leave our minds unrenewed, to the Word of God. We've all heard the saying, "As the mind leads, the man follows." Your body can only do or not do, what you allow it to. The things you think on and move on in your body, determine how you live and walk. Jesus didn't allow the words of satan, the unbelievers, or the religious people, to direct His mind (soul). He only did and said what, "The Holy Spirit directed Him to say and do."
The greatest difficulty many face, in living the Gospel like the Lord directs, is that we do not allow the Lord to direct it. Our unrenewed minds don't allow the body to lay hands on the sick, because our double-minded thinking paralyses the body, like a man who suffered a stoke. Our spirit wishes to do the things God directs, but the flesh will not react to this Truth. The mind tells the flesh, that "These things are not for today or not for us or only for certain others."
As Christians, we believe in God, but don't believe "God in us." The very same Father Who directed Jesus, is the very same Father Who now lives in us. He hasn't changed from what He directed Jesus to do and what He directs us to do, The greatest difference being, a mind that is directed by the Spirit and not just the flesh. Only a mind that is renewed by the Word, can comprehend the miraculous things that only our God can do. The carnal mind cannot and will not acknowledge "God in us." We're still living as mere men, without this, according to Hebrews 5:14 (Amplified) which says, "But solid food is for full-grown men, for those whose senses and mental faculties are trained by practice to discriminate and distinguish between what is morally good and noble and what is evil and contrary either to divine or human law."
The flesh was made to house the spirit, the soul was to direct the flesh, the spirit was to direct the soul, and God was to direct the spirit. This is the Trinity of God displayed in the Three Part man, who was made in His Image. After the fall of Adam, directions from the Spirit of God was severed and the soul could only receive directions from the earthly things around it. The body, then, came under the control of the worldly elements and not of the God Who created it. With the soul directing, the cravings of the flesh began to grow disproportionately from the things God directed, to the evil influences of a fallen world.
This is all that the soulish control center of man could transmit to the brain. As the soulish center was programmed in sin and death, the body acted in that training. When we begin training the senses and faculties by the Word of God, the flesh will accept the commands from the soul, the soul will be led by our spirit, and your spirit (just like Jesus' Spirit was) will be led by the Holy Spirit. This is how the new creation will rule through God, just like it was intended to do.
Many Christians struggle with their walk with the Father, because of the guilt they hold onto from the past. Many have even convinced themselves that this is what we need in order to keep us humble. We continue walking under condemnation and feel like sinners still, because of what we were before receiving Jesus as our Lord and Savior. We've even been taught to feel this way, by much of our religious teaching and preaching over the years.
We should be praising the Father and giving Him eternal thanks, for His glorious grace and Love for us. We should never walk in our past, but learn to live in the eternal life and family of God. Walking as just "old sinners saved by grace, " comes from an unrenewed mind and from not being spiritually minded. An unrenewed mind will hinder the power of the new creation man from being the one in charge of his own flesh, even in our physical body. The Apostle John writes to the Church in 3John 1:2 (Amplified) saying, "Beloved, I pray that you may prosper in every way and (that your body) may keep well, even as (I know) your soul keeps well and prosper."
A "prosperous soul (mind and emotions)," is one that has been renewed by God's Word and has been trained by thinking on the Word, to not think only on things of the earth. We're instructed continuously in the Word, how and what to think. And, because God is the One Who has created this new creation, He should (above all Persons) know how we are to think. When you became the new creation, only your dead spirit was created alive and returned to perfect fellowship with the Father. Your body and your soul remained like they were. Many of those who received Jesus in salvation, were healed simultaneously. This had much to do with the message, that was being preached at the time they were saved.
We don't hear much about being healed at the same time we are born-again, but in the early Church, this was what was being preached. The things we continually think on are the way we live our lives in the flesh. In the world, those who "suffer" depression, are those whose minds are fixed in guilt and condemnation, even if they're not currently sinning, but from things they did in the past. This is simply being carnally minded and not being able to silence the voices from the past.
The soul of man was never to be the part of the man that would reign in authority in the lives of God's people. The spirit man was supposed to be the one who would direct and have dominion over mankind. The soul of man was to be the one that would "broadcast" the signals to the brain, that would move the flesh. The spirit (which is alive now unto God again), is to receive directions from the Spirit of God. Then, the spirit is to relay this new wisdom to the soul (mind, will and emotions) and the physical brain, which will cause the body to be directed like the Body of Jesus was, on this earth.
When Jesus said, "I only do and say what the Father says and does," He meant exactly that. Jesus received instructions in His Spirit, and His soul was subject to His Spirit. The thoughts and directions that were relayed to His physical brain, were the thoughts of God. Jesus never allowed His thoughts to dwell on anything but what the Father said. We sometimes forget that Jesus was also a man and had a will and a soul (mind) of His Own.
Your body can only do what your brain tells it to do and your brain will only receive the things that are taught to it, through your soul. The soul of man, was to be the "link" between the spirit and the flesh. When a person leaves this earth and is present with the Lord, his soul also goes with him. His brain (which is a physical component), remains intact with the flesh of his body, but the soul and spirit will not be in it any longer. When we fully enter into the Presence of the Lord, your soul will no longer be pulled two ways, but will be single minded on the things of God.
James spoke about receiving wisdom from God when we ask, but not being "double minded" when we receive it. James 1:5-8 (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 fault finding, and it will be given. Only it must be in faith that he asks with no wavering (hesitating, no doubting). For the one who wavers (hesitates, doubts) is like the billowing surge out at sea that is blown hither and thither and tossed by the wind." Verses 7-8 go on, "For truly, let not such a person imagine that he will receive anything (he asks for) from the Lord. (For being as he is) a man of two minds (hesitating,dubious,irresolute) (he is) unstable and unreliable and uncertain about everything (he thinks,feels,decides)."
The man James writes about, knows he needs the Wisdom of God in his life, so He asks God for it. God "liberally" gives the man the wisdom he requests according to the Word. But, because the man's mind is not renewed, he still thinks in the carnal realm (is carnally minded). And, when he receives wisdom, his carnal mind rejects it, because it's "foolishness" to the natural man and mind and the carnal mind rejects and doesn't act on the wisdom. The soul is not renewed and it makes demands on the flesh, which brings confusion to the brain and the flesh remains inactive on the wisdom.
Years ago, Brother Kenneth Hagin made a statement concerning carnal thoughts, saying, "I can't keep the birds from flying over my head, but I can keep them from building a nest in my hair." We might not be able to make our mind think on only God's Word, but we can control whether or not we allow those thoughts to remain there. We can simply replace the old thoughts and teachings of the world, by training our soul and mind what to think.
Paul writes to the Church in Philippians 3:15 (Amplified) saying, "So let those (of us) who are spiritually mature and full-grown have this mind and hold these convictions; and if in any respect you have a different attitude of mind, God will make that clear to you also." In Philippians 4:8,9 (Amplified) Paul tells us what we are to keep our hearts and minds trained on, in order to live in peace. Thus, he says, "For the rest, brethren, whatever is true, Whatever is worthy of reverence and is honorable and seemly, Whatever is just, Whatever is pure, Whatever is love and lovable, Whatever is kind and winsome and gracious, If there is any virtue and excellence, if there by anything worthy of praise, think on and weigh and take account of these things (fix your minds on them). Practice what you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, and model your way of living on it, and the God of peace (of untroubled,undisturbed, well being) will be with you."
When we allow the world to invade the body and brain, with uncensored thoughts, it brings forth dis-ease in the body, as well as distress to the enzymes that flow thought the flesh. Proverbs 17:22 (Amplified) tells us, "A happy heart is good medicine and a cheerful mind works healing, but a broken spirit dries up the bones.
We cannot afford to leave our minds unrenewed, to the Word of God. We've all heard the saying, "As the mind leads, the man follows." Your body can only do or not do, what you allow it to. The things you think on and move on in your body, determine how you live and walk. Jesus didn't allow the words of satan, the unbelievers, or the religious people, to direct His mind (soul). He only did and said what, "The Holy Spirit directed Him to say and do."
The greatest difficulty many face, in living the Gospel like the Lord directs, is that we do not allow the Lord to direct it. Our unrenewed minds don't allow the body to lay hands on the sick, because our double-minded thinking paralyses the body, like a man who suffered a stoke. Our spirit wishes to do the things God directs, but the flesh will not react to this Truth. The mind tells the flesh, that "These things are not for today or not for us or only for certain others."
As Christians, we believe in God, but don't believe "God in us." The very same Father Who directed Jesus, is the very same Father Who now lives in us. He hasn't changed from what He directed Jesus to do and what He directs us to do, The greatest difference being, a mind that is directed by the Spirit and not just the flesh. Only a mind that is renewed by the Word, can comprehend the miraculous things that only our God can do. The carnal mind cannot and will not acknowledge "God in us." We're still living as mere men, without this, according to Hebrews 5:14 (Amplified) which says, "But solid food is for full-grown men, for those whose senses and mental faculties are trained by practice to discriminate and distinguish between what is morally good and noble and what is evil and contrary either to divine or human law."
The flesh was made to house the spirit, the soul was to direct the flesh, the spirit was to direct the soul, and God was to direct the spirit. This is the Trinity of God displayed in the Three Part man, who was made in His Image. After the fall of Adam, directions from the Spirit of God was severed and the soul could only receive directions from the earthly things around it. The body, then, came under the control of the worldly elements and not of the God Who created it. With the soul directing, the cravings of the flesh began to grow disproportionately from the things God directed, to the evil influences of a fallen world.
This is all that the soulish control center of man could transmit to the brain. As the soulish center was programmed in sin and death, the body acted in that training. When we begin training the senses and faculties by the Word of God, the flesh will accept the commands from the soul, the soul will be led by our spirit, and your spirit (just like Jesus' Spirit was) will be led by the Holy Spirit. This is how the new creation will rule through God, just like it was intended to do.
Monday, January 2, 2017
Lesson 145 The New Creation
2Corinthians 5:17 (Amplified) says, "Therefore, if any person is (ingrafted) in Christ Jesus (the Messiah) he is a new creation (a new creature altogether); the old (previous moral and spiritual condition) has passed. Behold, the fresh and new has come."
For many years, we have viewed the soul and the spirit are one in the same. Many still believe that they are the same, today. As far as God is concerned, when we received Jesus as our Lord and Savior, He now sees our old sinful body of flesh as already dead. Romans 6:3-7 (Amplified) says, "Are you ignorant of the fact that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? We were buried therefore with Him by the baptism into death, so that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glorious (power) of the Father, so we too might (habitually) live and behave in newness of life." Verses 5-7 go on, saying, "For if we have become one with Him by sharing a death like His, we shall also be (one with Him in sharing) His resurrection (by a new life lived for God). We know that our old (unrenewed) self was nailed to the cross with Him in order that (our) body (which is the instrument) of sin might be made ineffective and in active for evil; that we might no longer be the slaves of sin. For when a man dies, he is freed (loosed, delivered) from (the power of) sin (among men)."
When we were created new in our union with Jesus, God accounted our old body to be as dead as Jesus' body on the cross. By that same power that raised Jesus from the dead, we were already raised with Him, according to Ephesians 2:5-6 (Amplified) which says, "Even when we were dead (slain) by (our own) shortcomings and trespasses, He made us alive together in fellowship and in union with Christ; (He gave us the very life of Christ Himself, the same new life with which He quickened Him for) it is by grace (His favor and mercy which you did not deserve) that you are saved (delivered from judgement and made partakers of Christ's salvation) And He raised us up together with Him and made us sit down together (giving us joint seating with Him) in the Heavenly sphere (by virtue of our being) in Christ Jesus (the Messiah, the Anointed One)."
For much of our Christian walk, we have looked at the above scriptures as being "future events." The truth is that God has already done these things in the believer's life. It is true that our natural bodies haven't been resurrected from the earth yet, but as far as God is concerned, it died with Jesus and the new creation (the living Spirit in Jesus) is already raised by the same life that is in Jesus Himself.
Even though it's connected to his spirit, the soul of a man is unrenewed to the life of the new creation. The proof of this is that our soul (our mind, our will, our emotions, our natural senses) still act like they did, before our new creation being was alive. Jesus gives the account of the "Rich Man and the Beggar (Lazarus)" in Luke 16:20-24 (Amplified). Both of these men died and were buried, but Lazarus was carried to The Bosom of Abraham, by the angels and the rich man went to Hades (the realm of the dead). Keep in mind, that both men were now dead in their bodies and their brain was still in their buried bodies.
Jesus says in Verses 23-24, "And in Hades, being in torment, he (the rich man) lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham far away, and Lazarus in his bosom. And he cried out and said, Father Abraham, have pity and mercy on me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am in anguish in this flame."
So, even in physical death (brain included), the rich man could still think, remember, see and recall his former life of the flesh. This man wasn't born-again and his body was buried in the earth, but he had his faculties about him. This is the soul, that is in connection with his spirit. We are three-fold beings: we are a spirit, we have a soul, and we live in this physical body. When we are born-again, our spirit is made (created) new in Christ Jesus. Our body of flesh is considered to be dead by our identification with Jesus, our soul (that was what directed our lives up to this point) is still in tact with our new creation spirit being.
Now, you can better understand what Paul said in Romans 12:2 (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) 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)."
Your flesh is dead to God, your spirit is alive in total unity with Him, but the soul still remembers all the things it has been taught throughout our natural lives. Since our new creation spirit is still a baby (a newborn from the dead) and our flesh is only a servant to what it receives, our soul is more in control of what we think and do, than our new creation spirit man is. Psalm 23:3 (Amplified) says that, "The Lord restores my soul." Proverbs 22:17-18 (Amplified) says, "Listen (consent and submit) to the words of the wise, and apply your mind to My knowledge For it will be pleasant if you keep them in your mind (believing them) your lips will be accustomed to (confessing) them." Proverbs 23:12 (Amplified) says, "Apply your mind to instructions and correction and your ears to words of knowledge."
The soulish realm trained our reasoning faculties and intellect in fleshly training, over the years. Romans 8:6-7 (Amplified) says, "Now the mind of the flesh (which is sense and reason without the Holy Spirit) is death (death which comprises all the miseries arising from sin, both here and hereafter). But the mind of the Holy Spirit is Life and (soul) peace (both now and forever). (That is) because the mind of the flesh (with its carnal thoughts and purposes) is hostile to God, for it does not submit itself to God's Law; indeed it cannot."
2Corinthians 10:3-5 (Amplified) tells us, "For though we walk (live) in the flesh, we are not carrying on our warfare according to the flesh, and using mere human weapons. For the weapons of our warfare are not physical (weapons of flesh and blood) but they are mighty before God for the overthrow and destruction of strongholds (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 above scriptures tell us that, it's not that the new creation didn't work, but we did not train the soul, that still remembers the training it had in the world. It continues to think and act, like it did before we were created new and the flesh is still being controlled by the impulses of the unrenewed mind of our old man of sin. Paul says, we have been "conformed to the world," by the teachings of the world. Now, we must learn to "renew" our mind by the Spirit of God (the mind of Christ). We must bring the flesh into subjection to our new creation spirit, by the Word of God.
For many years, we have viewed the soul and the spirit are one in the same. Many still believe that they are the same, today. As far as God is concerned, when we received Jesus as our Lord and Savior, He now sees our old sinful body of flesh as already dead. Romans 6:3-7 (Amplified) says, "Are you ignorant of the fact that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? We were buried therefore with Him by the baptism into death, so that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glorious (power) of the Father, so we too might (habitually) live and behave in newness of life." Verses 5-7 go on, saying, "For if we have become one with Him by sharing a death like His, we shall also be (one with Him in sharing) His resurrection (by a new life lived for God). We know that our old (unrenewed) self was nailed to the cross with Him in order that (our) body (which is the instrument) of sin might be made ineffective and in active for evil; that we might no longer be the slaves of sin. For when a man dies, he is freed (loosed, delivered) from (the power of) sin (among men)."
When we were created new in our union with Jesus, God accounted our old body to be as dead as Jesus' body on the cross. By that same power that raised Jesus from the dead, we were already raised with Him, according to Ephesians 2:5-6 (Amplified) which says, "Even when we were dead (slain) by (our own) shortcomings and trespasses, He made us alive together in fellowship and in union with Christ; (He gave us the very life of Christ Himself, the same new life with which He quickened Him for) it is by grace (His favor and mercy which you did not deserve) that you are saved (delivered from judgement and made partakers of Christ's salvation) And He raised us up together with Him and made us sit down together (giving us joint seating with Him) in the Heavenly sphere (by virtue of our being) in Christ Jesus (the Messiah, the Anointed One)."
For much of our Christian walk, we have looked at the above scriptures as being "future events." The truth is that God has already done these things in the believer's life. It is true that our natural bodies haven't been resurrected from the earth yet, but as far as God is concerned, it died with Jesus and the new creation (the living Spirit in Jesus) is already raised by the same life that is in Jesus Himself.
Even though it's connected to his spirit, the soul of a man is unrenewed to the life of the new creation. The proof of this is that our soul (our mind, our will, our emotions, our natural senses) still act like they did, before our new creation being was alive. Jesus gives the account of the "Rich Man and the Beggar (Lazarus)" in Luke 16:20-24 (Amplified). Both of these men died and were buried, but Lazarus was carried to The Bosom of Abraham, by the angels and the rich man went to Hades (the realm of the dead). Keep in mind, that both men were now dead in their bodies and their brain was still in their buried bodies.
Jesus says in Verses 23-24, "And in Hades, being in torment, he (the rich man) lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham far away, and Lazarus in his bosom. And he cried out and said, Father Abraham, have pity and mercy on me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am in anguish in this flame."
So, even in physical death (brain included), the rich man could still think, remember, see and recall his former life of the flesh. This man wasn't born-again and his body was buried in the earth, but he had his faculties about him. This is the soul, that is in connection with his spirit. We are three-fold beings: we are a spirit, we have a soul, and we live in this physical body. When we are born-again, our spirit is made (created) new in Christ Jesus. Our body of flesh is considered to be dead by our identification with Jesus, our soul (that was what directed our lives up to this point) is still in tact with our new creation spirit being.
Now, you can better understand what Paul said in Romans 12:2 (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) 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)."
Your flesh is dead to God, your spirit is alive in total unity with Him, but the soul still remembers all the things it has been taught throughout our natural lives. Since our new creation spirit is still a baby (a newborn from the dead) and our flesh is only a servant to what it receives, our soul is more in control of what we think and do, than our new creation spirit man is. Psalm 23:3 (Amplified) says that, "The Lord restores my soul." Proverbs 22:17-18 (Amplified) says, "Listen (consent and submit) to the words of the wise, and apply your mind to My knowledge For it will be pleasant if you keep them in your mind (believing them) your lips will be accustomed to (confessing) them." Proverbs 23:12 (Amplified) says, "Apply your mind to instructions and correction and your ears to words of knowledge."
The soulish realm trained our reasoning faculties and intellect in fleshly training, over the years. Romans 8:6-7 (Amplified) says, "Now the mind of the flesh (which is sense and reason without the Holy Spirit) is death (death which comprises all the miseries arising from sin, both here and hereafter). But the mind of the Holy Spirit is Life and (soul) peace (both now and forever). (That is) because the mind of the flesh (with its carnal thoughts and purposes) is hostile to God, for it does not submit itself to God's Law; indeed it cannot."
2Corinthians 10:3-5 (Amplified) tells us, "For though we walk (live) in the flesh, we are not carrying on our warfare according to the flesh, and using mere human weapons. For the weapons of our warfare are not physical (weapons of flesh and blood) but they are mighty before God for the overthrow and destruction of strongholds (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 above scriptures tell us that, it's not that the new creation didn't work, but we did not train the soul, that still remembers the training it had in the world. It continues to think and act, like it did before we were created new and the flesh is still being controlled by the impulses of the unrenewed mind of our old man of sin. Paul says, we have been "conformed to the world," by the teachings of the world. Now, we must learn to "renew" our mind by the Spirit of God (the mind of Christ). We must bring the flesh into subjection to our new creation spirit, by the Word of God.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)