Hear what the Apostle Paul says in 2Corinthians 5:16-17 and 2Corinthians 12:1-5 (Amplified). This is the same man who was taken to the Third Heaven and received this firsthand revelation from God. Thus, the second says, "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 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)."
Paul wrote nearly two-thirds of the New Testament and was told by Jesus, the things of the new creation, the son-ship rights, the righteousness by faith, the redemption from the curse, the blessings on the Church and salvation from sin and death. Paul received these revelations, directly from Jesus, Himself.
Paul was charged with the ministry of being the one who would deliver this Truth to the world. Remember, that when you read Paul's epistles, these Words could very easily be written in Red (as the words of Jesus). Paul was directly quoting God Himself. Paul's writings weren't doctrines or religions fabricated by man, but were God speaking to the world, through Paul. Just as surely as it was when Jesus spoke to the world before His resurrection, He is speaking to the world after His resurrection through Paul.
The things Jesus couldn't reveal to His Own disciples on earth, He is now telling the world what His crucifixion and resurrection accomplished for mankind. 1Corinthians 2:8 (Amplified) says, "None of the rulers of this age or world perceived and recognized and understood this, for if they had, they would never have crucified the Lord of Glory." Jesus couldn't reveal the whole truth of His crucifixion lest the enemy should hear and prevent the death of the Messiah and man would remain fallen.
Now that Jesus' Sacrifice has been made and accepted, Jesus could reveal (through Paul) the fullness of His resurrection on our behalf. 2Corinthians 5:16 (Amplified) says, "Now we estimate and regard no one from a (purely) human point of view (in terms of natural standards of value). (No) even though we once did estimate Christ from a human viewpoint and as a Man, yet now (we have such knowledge of Him that) we see Him no longer (in terms of the flesh)."
This was a significant statement for anyone to speak and to the carnal minded Christian it seems to be almost blasphemous. However, this is what Jesus told Paul and what the Holy Spirit is saying to us. Most in the Church, still view Jesus as a Man, more than the Lord of Glory. You might ask, "Aren't they the same?" Well, we see Jesus, not only as the Son of God, but also as the Son of Man. His human body was to die in our stead and His Spiritual body was to be raised on our behalf. Now, because of Jesus, the same Holy Spirit Who was wrecking satan's house, could indwell God's new creation, after our receiving Him as Lord and Savior and believe in what Jesus did on our behalf.
We're no longer "mere men," but are new creation people. We've been made so clean, so holy and so pure by Jesus, so that God Himself can now come live in us and walk in us. We've become the Temple for Him to inhabit. God cannot, and will not, inhabit a temple without it's being clean. Does this give you any idea how the Lamb of God totally cleansed and made new this new creation?
Our outer man (the flesh) isn't perfect and can mess up at times. but Paul said, "We are no longer seen as mere (natural) men, but after the Spirit." Jesus spoke to the old covenant people (men before the new creation) and said in Matthew 23:24-26 (Amplified), "You blind guides filtering out a gnat and gulping down a camel. Woe to you, scribes and pharisees, pretenders (hypocrites) for you clean the outside of the cup and of the plate, but within they are full of extortion (prey, spoil, plunder) and grasping self-indulgence. You blind pharisees! First clean the inside of the cup and of the plate, so the outside may be clean also."
Jesus went on to say in Verse 27, "Woe to you, scribes and pharisees, pretenders (hypocrites) For you are like tombs that have been white washed, which look beautiful on the outside but inside are full of dead men's bones and everything impure." Jesus was saying that it's not the outside look of religion that changes a man, but the new creation of his spirit that changes. Once the inside is "washed," the outside will be clean too.
The Law, with all of its legalism, couldn't produce the cleansing of the spirit man. We keep trying to make the outside obey by rules and regulations, because we don't understand the principle of the new creation (Spirit of God) within us to cleanse the inside and outside. Galatians 5:16 (Amplified) says, "But I say, walk and live (habitually) in the Holy Spirit (responsive to and controlled and guided by the Spirit); then you will certainly not gratify the cravings and desires of the flesh (of human nature without God)."
If we do not under the working of the Word in our spirit and only become born again without receiving His righteousness by faith and continue trying to obtain it in other ways, then we will become like "white washed tombs." We might look good on the outside, but are struggling to control our flesh. In John 6:63 (Amplified) Jesus says, "It is the Spirit Who gives life (He is the Life-Giver_ the flesh conveys no benefit whatever (there is no profit in it). The Words (Truths) that I have been speaking to you are Spirit and Life."
All the Life, healing, righteousness and the Image of God, come from the inside-out and not from the the outside-in. Reading the Word and understanding the Word are two different things, according to Proverbs 4:7 (Amplified) which says, "The beginning of wisdom is: Get (skillful and godly) wisdom (it is preeminent)! And with all your acquiring, get understanding (actively seek spiritual discernment, mature comprehension, and logical interpretation)."
God's Word is wisdom, but understanding this wisdom takes the Holy Spirit to teach us. Without His teaching, we simply take the interpret the Spiritual Word of God with our own intellect and then we miss what He said. We do like the scribes and pharisees did and make traditions from the outside, without having it wash us from the inside first. This is why so much of God's Word has lost power in the eyes of the world, it no longer has been identified with the super-natural and has been reduced to mere words.
Saturday, May 7, 2016
Friday, May 6, 2016
Lesson 41 The New Creation
2Corinthians 5:16-17 (Amplified) says, "Consequently, from now on we estimate and regard no one from a (purely) human point of view (in terms of natural standards of value). (No) even though we once did estimate Christ from a human viewpoint and as a Man, yet now (we have such knowledge of Him that) we know Him no longer (in terms of the flesh). Therefore if any person is (ingrafted) in Christ (the Messiah) he is a new creation (a new creature altogether); the old (previous moral and spiritual condition) has passed away. Behold, the fresh and new has come."
This scripture doesn't say, "Behold, it will come," but that it has come. We've put off the reality of who we are now in Christ Jesus, until somewhere in the future or when we get to heaven. We've overlooked the promise of the new creation, by continuing to view ourselves and others after the natural man of the flesh. The new creation cannot be seen with the natural eye, only with the eyes of the spirit in the Word of God. We're continually being brought back to the same realm with the unsaved, because we're only seeing with the eyes of the world.
Paul said in 2Corinthians 10:3-5 (Amplified), "For though we walk (live) in the flesh, we do not carry out our warfare according to the flesh, and using mere human weapons." We are still living in this flesh body (or house), but the real you is the one living inside the house. When driving down the street and pass a friend or family member's house, you say, "That's where so-and-so lives." You don't say that the house is them, but say that's where they live. When you received Jesus as our Lord and Savior, the real you was created at that exact moment. Your body became the house that the new creation resides in.
That's why Paul said in 2Corinthians 5:16 that we now "Know longer know man after the flesh, but after the spirit." We've been conditioned by the world's way of thinking to see only with our eyes and not our spirit. Some Christians seem ashamed of being called sons of God. I'm honored to be called God's Son and I believe it honors Him to proclaim it. I wouldn't like my sons or daughters to speak about me, the way some speak about our Heavenly Father.
God has declared that He made us to be in right standing with Him, by our union with Jesus, but some people still don't believe it as true. We are so trained to see ourselves the way the world sees us, that we actually allow their way of seeing us to affect how we see ourselves.
We are born again by a super-natural Seed, which is the Word of God, the very same Word that was made flesh and walked among us. We were born again of the same Seed that brought forth a new creation into the family of God. We've been so intimidated by the flesh, that we have denied the new creation nearly altogether. You are now the righteousness or in right standing with God. It's not our flesh (or house), but our new creature (the spirit), that has been made once again in the Image and Likeness of God.
When I look at a Christian, I can't see his salvation with my eyes. You might say, "I don't drink or cuss of dress inappropriately any longer, so you know I'm saved. I know unsaved people who are moral in their conduct and dress, but still aren't new creations because of these things. We've been trying to show the world the glory and holiness of God, by our conduct and not our spirit. It's God's presence in our spirit, that reveals Him to the world.
It is right that we "buffet the flesh," like Paul says, and keep it under control. But, that isn't what reveals Jesus to the world. People of other gods abstain from certain food and beverages, in order to reveal their gods, but it doesn't change who they are. Healing, life and discipline all come from the inside out and not from the outside in. Should Christians lead moral and clean lives? Of course, we should, but we should do so by our spirit and not from the behavior modification of the flesh. Galatians 5:16 (Amplified) says, "But I say, walk and live (habitually) in the Holy Spirit (responsive to and controlled and guided by the Spirit) then you will certainly not gratify the cravings and desires of the flesh (of human nature without God)."
The above scripture doesn't mean that we don't have God, but that we don't recognize Him enough to allow our new creation to live and control the flesh through Him. We become born again and then conduct the same warfare with the flesh, just like the world does. Paul wrote to the Church in Rome about this very thing happening in his own life. We erroneously dwel on his struggle, rather than his words of victory. We determined that there was no way out for Paul, but that's not what he said. Listen, to what he said about his struggling with his flesh.
Paul was wpaking about his weakness to "Go back under law and rituals." He was raised under the Law and taught by the Law that living under the Law was the way to stay in right standing with God. The pull of rituals was stronger on Paul, at that point, than his new creation man and faith in righteousness through Christ Jesus.
Paul had depended upon the Law and it's rituals all of his life, in order to maintain a right relationship with God. Now, Paul was "fighting the good fight of faith" to walk in the Spirit of the Word, more than the desires of "fleshly" religion. Like Paul, we are born into a new creature of the covenant of promise, but are drawn back into the "fleshly" way of worship and religion. We've always heard that's the way it should be and have been taught by our culture for our entire lives to do so.
The struggle Paul was having was in this area of his life and not with hidden sins or dirty thing, like some have determined. Paul speaks about his fight to abstain from the Law and walk by the Spirit in Romans 7:15-25 (Amplified) saying in Verse 22, "For I endorse and delight in the Law of God in my inner self (with my new nature)." In his spirit, Paul wished to walk in the Laws of the new birth. Verse 23 goes on, "But I discern in my bodily members (in the sensitive appetites and wills of the flesh) a different law (rule of action) at war against the law of my mind (my reason) and making me a prisoner to the law of sin that dwells within my bodily organs (in the sensitive appetites and wills of the flesh)."
The warfare plaguing Paul was the desire of his fleshly, human way of serving God by the Law of the flesh (rituals, sacrifice, feast days, washing of hands, and works of the flesh) and using these things to subjugate the flesh to the spirit. Paul struggled with not relying on these things to be in right standing with God, instead of walking in what the Lord showed him about the new covenant and Jesus being the Final Sacrifice. Once Paul finished his discourse about this struggle and how he was delivered from his dilemna, he declared in Verse 25, "Who will deliver me from this man that I am? O, thank God! (He will) through Jesus Christ (the Anointed One) our Lord! So then indeed I, of myself with the mind and heart, serve the Law of God, but with my flesh the Law of sin."
Paul also spoke about how other believers endured the same warfare. He spoke of food, drink, ceremonies and religious training and summed everything in Romans 14:23 (Amplified) saying, "But the man who has doubts (misgivings, and uneasy conscience) about eating, and then eats, (perhaps because of you) stands condemned (before God) because he is not true to his convictions and he does not act from faith. For whatever does not originate and proceed from faith is sin (whatever is done without a conviction of its approval by God is sinful)."
Paul did not say that a covenant man (old covenant convert) should eat things that are unclean under the Law. But, if the man eats of it now, without knowledge of what Paul had been preaching, it would convict and make him feel unrighteous, because he didn't have faith in the new revelation of the Spirit realm in which he was born again.
In religious circles, we've been taught things that matter not in our new creation with God. But, when we violate one of these religious laws, without the knowledge of our liberty in Christ, we are still brought under condemnation and believe we've sinned. There are things from the new covenant that have been called "sin," in today's Christian venues. Many are afraid to accept or step out into these things, because they believe it's not pleasing and acceptable to God.
We wish to please God and be acceptable to Him, but our flesh still holds to religious traditions, because our faith in the new covennat hasn't grown yet into the new creation God has made us to be. Paul said in Romans 7:25 (Amplified), "Who can set him free from this condemnation of the flesh and release him into the liberty of the Spirit?" Only Jesus, and faith in who He has made us to be rather than faith in who we once were, can liberate us. For years, we've allowed the world to determine who or what we are as Christians. We've been afraid to "go too far," lest they would fail to recognize us. For this reason, we've been held in bondage by religious tradition and haven't been free to express the super-natural being God has made us to be.
Many consider it sacriligious to say we're righteous. The flesh refused to accept this truth and has kept us under guilt's burden. Our prayers have been tainted with our unbelief and it's become difficult to put faith in our prayers. The flesh, which was ruled by sin and death, still holds supremacy over our new spirit and will not allow us to rise above our past. This is now a fight between the desire of our spirit (which is to serve God completely) and our lower life (our natural man) which desires to maintain control over the new creation (spirit).
It requires a renewed mind, the mind of the Spirit which promotes faith in the Word, to walk with god in Spirit and Truth and maintain dominance over the flesh. Remember, "Greater is He Who is in youm, than he who is in the world!"
This scripture doesn't say, "Behold, it will come," but that it has come. We've put off the reality of who we are now in Christ Jesus, until somewhere in the future or when we get to heaven. We've overlooked the promise of the new creation, by continuing to view ourselves and others after the natural man of the flesh. The new creation cannot be seen with the natural eye, only with the eyes of the spirit in the Word of God. We're continually being brought back to the same realm with the unsaved, because we're only seeing with the eyes of the world.
Paul said in 2Corinthians 10:3-5 (Amplified), "For though we walk (live) in the flesh, we do not carry out our warfare according to the flesh, and using mere human weapons." We are still living in this flesh body (or house), but the real you is the one living inside the house. When driving down the street and pass a friend or family member's house, you say, "That's where so-and-so lives." You don't say that the house is them, but say that's where they live. When you received Jesus as our Lord and Savior, the real you was created at that exact moment. Your body became the house that the new creation resides in.
That's why Paul said in 2Corinthians 5:16 that we now "Know longer know man after the flesh, but after the spirit." We've been conditioned by the world's way of thinking to see only with our eyes and not our spirit. Some Christians seem ashamed of being called sons of God. I'm honored to be called God's Son and I believe it honors Him to proclaim it. I wouldn't like my sons or daughters to speak about me, the way some speak about our Heavenly Father.
God has declared that He made us to be in right standing with Him, by our union with Jesus, but some people still don't believe it as true. We are so trained to see ourselves the way the world sees us, that we actually allow their way of seeing us to affect how we see ourselves.
We are born again by a super-natural Seed, which is the Word of God, the very same Word that was made flesh and walked among us. We were born again of the same Seed that brought forth a new creation into the family of God. We've been so intimidated by the flesh, that we have denied the new creation nearly altogether. You are now the righteousness or in right standing with God. It's not our flesh (or house), but our new creature (the spirit), that has been made once again in the Image and Likeness of God.
When I look at a Christian, I can't see his salvation with my eyes. You might say, "I don't drink or cuss of dress inappropriately any longer, so you know I'm saved. I know unsaved people who are moral in their conduct and dress, but still aren't new creations because of these things. We've been trying to show the world the glory and holiness of God, by our conduct and not our spirit. It's God's presence in our spirit, that reveals Him to the world.
It is right that we "buffet the flesh," like Paul says, and keep it under control. But, that isn't what reveals Jesus to the world. People of other gods abstain from certain food and beverages, in order to reveal their gods, but it doesn't change who they are. Healing, life and discipline all come from the inside out and not from the outside in. Should Christians lead moral and clean lives? Of course, we should, but we should do so by our spirit and not from the behavior modification of the flesh. Galatians 5:16 (Amplified) says, "But I say, walk and live (habitually) in the Holy Spirit (responsive to and controlled and guided by the Spirit) then you will certainly not gratify the cravings and desires of the flesh (of human nature without God)."
The above scripture doesn't mean that we don't have God, but that we don't recognize Him enough to allow our new creation to live and control the flesh through Him. We become born again and then conduct the same warfare with the flesh, just like the world does. Paul wrote to the Church in Rome about this very thing happening in his own life. We erroneously dwel on his struggle, rather than his words of victory. We determined that there was no way out for Paul, but that's not what he said. Listen, to what he said about his struggling with his flesh.
Paul was wpaking about his weakness to "Go back under law and rituals." He was raised under the Law and taught by the Law that living under the Law was the way to stay in right standing with God. The pull of rituals was stronger on Paul, at that point, than his new creation man and faith in righteousness through Christ Jesus.
Paul had depended upon the Law and it's rituals all of his life, in order to maintain a right relationship with God. Now, Paul was "fighting the good fight of faith" to walk in the Spirit of the Word, more than the desires of "fleshly" religion. Like Paul, we are born into a new creature of the covenant of promise, but are drawn back into the "fleshly" way of worship and religion. We've always heard that's the way it should be and have been taught by our culture for our entire lives to do so.
The struggle Paul was having was in this area of his life and not with hidden sins or dirty thing, like some have determined. Paul speaks about his fight to abstain from the Law and walk by the Spirit in Romans 7:15-25 (Amplified) saying in Verse 22, "For I endorse and delight in the Law of God in my inner self (with my new nature)." In his spirit, Paul wished to walk in the Laws of the new birth. Verse 23 goes on, "But I discern in my bodily members (in the sensitive appetites and wills of the flesh) a different law (rule of action) at war against the law of my mind (my reason) and making me a prisoner to the law of sin that dwells within my bodily organs (in the sensitive appetites and wills of the flesh)."
The warfare plaguing Paul was the desire of his fleshly, human way of serving God by the Law of the flesh (rituals, sacrifice, feast days, washing of hands, and works of the flesh) and using these things to subjugate the flesh to the spirit. Paul struggled with not relying on these things to be in right standing with God, instead of walking in what the Lord showed him about the new covenant and Jesus being the Final Sacrifice. Once Paul finished his discourse about this struggle and how he was delivered from his dilemna, he declared in Verse 25, "Who will deliver me from this man that I am? O, thank God! (He will) through Jesus Christ (the Anointed One) our Lord! So then indeed I, of myself with the mind and heart, serve the Law of God, but with my flesh the Law of sin."
Paul also spoke about how other believers endured the same warfare. He spoke of food, drink, ceremonies and religious training and summed everything in Romans 14:23 (Amplified) saying, "But the man who has doubts (misgivings, and uneasy conscience) about eating, and then eats, (perhaps because of you) stands condemned (before God) because he is not true to his convictions and he does not act from faith. For whatever does not originate and proceed from faith is sin (whatever is done without a conviction of its approval by God is sinful)."
Paul did not say that a covenant man (old covenant convert) should eat things that are unclean under the Law. But, if the man eats of it now, without knowledge of what Paul had been preaching, it would convict and make him feel unrighteous, because he didn't have faith in the new revelation of the Spirit realm in which he was born again.
In religious circles, we've been taught things that matter not in our new creation with God. But, when we violate one of these religious laws, without the knowledge of our liberty in Christ, we are still brought under condemnation and believe we've sinned. There are things from the new covenant that have been called "sin," in today's Christian venues. Many are afraid to accept or step out into these things, because they believe it's not pleasing and acceptable to God.
We wish to please God and be acceptable to Him, but our flesh still holds to religious traditions, because our faith in the new covennat hasn't grown yet into the new creation God has made us to be. Paul said in Romans 7:25 (Amplified), "Who can set him free from this condemnation of the flesh and release him into the liberty of the Spirit?" Only Jesus, and faith in who He has made us to be rather than faith in who we once were, can liberate us. For years, we've allowed the world to determine who or what we are as Christians. We've been afraid to "go too far," lest they would fail to recognize us. For this reason, we've been held in bondage by religious tradition and haven't been free to express the super-natural being God has made us to be.
Many consider it sacriligious to say we're righteous. The flesh refused to accept this truth and has kept us under guilt's burden. Our prayers have been tainted with our unbelief and it's become difficult to put faith in our prayers. The flesh, which was ruled by sin and death, still holds supremacy over our new spirit and will not allow us to rise above our past. This is now a fight between the desire of our spirit (which is to serve God completely) and our lower life (our natural man) which desires to maintain control over the new creation (spirit).
It requires a renewed mind, the mind of the Spirit which promotes faith in the Word, to walk with god in Spirit and Truth and maintain dominance over the flesh. Remember, "Greater is He Who is in youm, than he who is in the world!"
Thursday, April 28, 2016
Lesson 40 The New Creation
2Corinthians 5 Verses 16-17 is the scripture I have based this New Creation teaching on. It's important we read and understand this scripture, as well as many others, but especially in these last days. We must let the Holy Spirit's revelation bring the Church into the reality of who we are now, in Christ Jesus.
For hundreds of years, we have remained a carnal Church and have tried walking in faith, without having a basis for anything to put faith in. We've been taught and led to believe that most super-natural things of God were for some other generation of Christians. Or, we've been taught that they are for only a certain few of His children, but these things are not true. We have never really seen ourselves as God sees us or have had much understanding of the new creation people that we have become through Jesus.
Let's examine some scriptures about our spirit man (which we have become by faith in Jesus) and see where our real Life and ability come from. We can never hope to walk in the super-natural being we have become, unless we know who we are now. Many Christians believe that we will become a new creation, when we go to heaven. Truthfully, God sees those of us who have accepted Jesus Christ as our Lord as having died, when Jesus died. As far as our entering heaven, God Himself has now entered into us. The waiting period is over and eternity has now become our dwelling place with and in Him.
2Corinthians 10:3-5(Amplified) tells us why we're not walking in what God has made us to be in Christ Jesus. Thus, it says, "For though we walk (live) in the flesh [we are still living in this flesh and blood body] we are not carrying on our warfare according to the flesh, and using mere human weapons." We live in flesh and blood houses, but the ones who live in these houses are not flesh, but spirit. My house doesn't tell me what to do, I am the master over my house.
Verses 4 says, "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." It's only by knowing who we really are and understanding this truth, we will break the strongholds of satan in our live, our schools and our nations. Verse 5 goes on, "(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 obedience of Christ (the Messiah, the Anointed One)."
We must learn to distinguish the very differences between what is the carnal mind and what is the Mind of Christ. We can only do this by allowing the Holy Spirit to reveal the truth of God's Word to us, instead of carnal people. Ephesian 4:22-24 (Amplified) says, "Strip yourselves of your former nature (the carnal man) put off and discard your old (unrenewed self) which characterized your previous manner of life and becomes corrupt through lusts and desires that spring from delusion." We have allowed the flesh to delude us into believing that spiritual things have passed away. Verses 23-24 go on, "And be constantly renewed in the spirit of your mind (having a fresh mental and spiritual attitude). And put on the new nature (the regenerate self) created in God's Image (God like) in true righteousness and holiness."
We are to renew our way of thinking and learn to think about ourselves the way God sees us as new creations through Christ, instead of seeing ourselves like we were before. We must allow our new man (our spirit), who is now in God's Image again, to be what we see. We've been trying to make our flesh submit by putting outside pressure on it, instead of bringing the power in our new man to bear from within.
We see the contrast between the carnal Christian and the Spiritual Christian in Galatians 5:15-16 (Amplified) which says, "But if you bite and devour one another (in partisan strife) be careful that you (and your whole fellowship) are not consumed by one another. But I say, walk and live (habitually) in the Holy Spirit (responsive to and controlled and guided by the Spirit) then you will certainly not gratify the cravings and desires of the flesh (of human nature without God)."
Instead of constantly fighting the flesh, we must feed our new man on the Word and the Truth of the Word and then, our new man will become strong enough to control the flesh. Fight over. Paul gives us a very clear picture of the flesh and Spirit minded persons in Christ in Galatians 6:7-8 (Amplified) saying, "Be not deceived and deluded and misled; God will not allow Himself to be sneered at (scorned, disdained, or mocked, by mere pretentious or professions or by His precepts being set aside). (He inevitably deludes himself who attempts to delude God) For whatever a man sows, that and that only is what he will reap."
We hear this scripture usually in reference to offerings, but Paul is saying that, "Fleshly things will not bring forth the plan of God in our lives and He cannot bless what isn't His." Paul goes on in Verse 8 saying to those who have ears to hear, "For he who sows to his own flesh (lower nature, sensuality) will from the flesh reap decay and ruin and destruction; but he who sows to the Spirit, will from the Spirit reap eternal life."
We already have eternal life given when we received Jesus, so what is Paul really saying to the Church? He is saying that if we continue in the same things we did before becoming new creations in Christ, then we will continue receiving the same things we did before our salvation. These scriptures are not talking about such things as cussing and drinking, but about living the new life in the flesh and not the spirit. Our flesh can only produce decay and corruption in our lives. It is only knowing how to sow the Spirit that will manifest the eternal life that we now have.
Everything in our new creation life is in the spirit realm. As new creation people, we now have access to the Heavenly realm and everything required to meet our needs. This might seem like fantasy to some people, but if you stop and think about it, then you will see how everything we now see as material things on this planet came from the Spirit realm in the beginning. Why does it seem so far fetched to believe God can and does bring things from His presence and Spirit, into our lives here on earth.
Jesus spoke about the new life that was to come at His resurrection in Matthew 6:33 (Amplified), but they failed to understand what He was saying as Truth, because they were mere men. Jesus told the people not to worry about what to wear, eat or where to live, saying, "But seek (aim at and strive after) first of all His Kingdom and His righteousness (His way of doing and being right) and then all these things taken together will be given you besides."
God has a way of "doing and being" right. His way in in the Spirit realm, but Jesus said it would produce here in this realm saying, "If the people would only seek His way first, then their needs would be met." We've somehow believed that the spirit realm is some sort of "Neverland." Everything in this universe arrived from the unseen realm of the Spirit of God. God is still capable of bringing the things we need into this realm, but we must first sow to the Spirit, in order to reap from the Spirit.
You are a spirit, made in God's very Image and Likeness. You have everything you will ever need to make your life here blessed and to bless others from that blessing, already within you. First, though, we must know that the blessing comes from the Spirit and is made manifest in the natural, by faith in Him.
For hundreds of years, we have remained a carnal Church and have tried walking in faith, without having a basis for anything to put faith in. We've been taught and led to believe that most super-natural things of God were for some other generation of Christians. Or, we've been taught that they are for only a certain few of His children, but these things are not true. We have never really seen ourselves as God sees us or have had much understanding of the new creation people that we have become through Jesus.
Let's examine some scriptures about our spirit man (which we have become by faith in Jesus) and see where our real Life and ability come from. We can never hope to walk in the super-natural being we have become, unless we know who we are now. Many Christians believe that we will become a new creation, when we go to heaven. Truthfully, God sees those of us who have accepted Jesus Christ as our Lord as having died, when Jesus died. As far as our entering heaven, God Himself has now entered into us. The waiting period is over and eternity has now become our dwelling place with and in Him.
2Corinthians 10:3-5(Amplified) tells us why we're not walking in what God has made us to be in Christ Jesus. Thus, it says, "For though we walk (live) in the flesh [we are still living in this flesh and blood body] we are not carrying on our warfare according to the flesh, and using mere human weapons." We live in flesh and blood houses, but the ones who live in these houses are not flesh, but spirit. My house doesn't tell me what to do, I am the master over my house.
Verses 4 says, "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." It's only by knowing who we really are and understanding this truth, we will break the strongholds of satan in our live, our schools and our nations. Verse 5 goes on, "(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 obedience of Christ (the Messiah, the Anointed One)."
We must learn to distinguish the very differences between what is the carnal mind and what is the Mind of Christ. We can only do this by allowing the Holy Spirit to reveal the truth of God's Word to us, instead of carnal people. Ephesian 4:22-24 (Amplified) says, "Strip yourselves of your former nature (the carnal man) put off and discard your old (unrenewed self) which characterized your previous manner of life and becomes corrupt through lusts and desires that spring from delusion." We have allowed the flesh to delude us into believing that spiritual things have passed away. Verses 23-24 go on, "And be constantly renewed in the spirit of your mind (having a fresh mental and spiritual attitude). And put on the new nature (the regenerate self) created in God's Image (God like) in true righteousness and holiness."
We are to renew our way of thinking and learn to think about ourselves the way God sees us as new creations through Christ, instead of seeing ourselves like we were before. We must allow our new man (our spirit), who is now in God's Image again, to be what we see. We've been trying to make our flesh submit by putting outside pressure on it, instead of bringing the power in our new man to bear from within.
We see the contrast between the carnal Christian and the Spiritual Christian in Galatians 5:15-16 (Amplified) which says, "But if you bite and devour one another (in partisan strife) be careful that you (and your whole fellowship) are not consumed by one another. But I say, walk and live (habitually) in the Holy Spirit (responsive to and controlled and guided by the Spirit) then you will certainly not gratify the cravings and desires of the flesh (of human nature without God)."
Instead of constantly fighting the flesh, we must feed our new man on the Word and the Truth of the Word and then, our new man will become strong enough to control the flesh. Fight over. Paul gives us a very clear picture of the flesh and Spirit minded persons in Christ in Galatians 6:7-8 (Amplified) saying, "Be not deceived and deluded and misled; God will not allow Himself to be sneered at (scorned, disdained, or mocked, by mere pretentious or professions or by His precepts being set aside). (He inevitably deludes himself who attempts to delude God) For whatever a man sows, that and that only is what he will reap."
We hear this scripture usually in reference to offerings, but Paul is saying that, "Fleshly things will not bring forth the plan of God in our lives and He cannot bless what isn't His." Paul goes on in Verse 8 saying to those who have ears to hear, "For he who sows to his own flesh (lower nature, sensuality) will from the flesh reap decay and ruin and destruction; but he who sows to the Spirit, will from the Spirit reap eternal life."
We already have eternal life given when we received Jesus, so what is Paul really saying to the Church? He is saying that if we continue in the same things we did before becoming new creations in Christ, then we will continue receiving the same things we did before our salvation. These scriptures are not talking about such things as cussing and drinking, but about living the new life in the flesh and not the spirit. Our flesh can only produce decay and corruption in our lives. It is only knowing how to sow the Spirit that will manifest the eternal life that we now have.
Everything in our new creation life is in the spirit realm. As new creation people, we now have access to the Heavenly realm and everything required to meet our needs. This might seem like fantasy to some people, but if you stop and think about it, then you will see how everything we now see as material things on this planet came from the Spirit realm in the beginning. Why does it seem so far fetched to believe God can and does bring things from His presence and Spirit, into our lives here on earth.
Jesus spoke about the new life that was to come at His resurrection in Matthew 6:33 (Amplified), but they failed to understand what He was saying as Truth, because they were mere men. Jesus told the people not to worry about what to wear, eat or where to live, saying, "But seek (aim at and strive after) first of all His Kingdom and His righteousness (His way of doing and being right) and then all these things taken together will be given you besides."
God has a way of "doing and being" right. His way in in the Spirit realm, but Jesus said it would produce here in this realm saying, "If the people would only seek His way first, then their needs would be met." We've somehow believed that the spirit realm is some sort of "Neverland." Everything in this universe arrived from the unseen realm of the Spirit of God. God is still capable of bringing the things we need into this realm, but we must first sow to the Spirit, in order to reap from the Spirit.
You are a spirit, made in God's very Image and Likeness. You have everything you will ever need to make your life here blessed and to bless others from that blessing, already within you. First, though, we must know that the blessing comes from the Spirit and is made manifest in the natural, by faith in Him.
Tuesday, April 26, 2016
Lesson 39 The New Creation
2Corinthians 5:16-17 (Amplified) says, "Consequently, from now on we estimate and regard no one from a (purely) human point of view (in terms of natural standards of value). (No) even though we once did estimate Christ form a human viewpoint and as a Man, yet now (we have such knowledge of Him that) we know Him no longer (in terms of the flesh)." Verse 17 goes on, "Therefore if any person is (ingrafted) in Christ (the Messiah) he is a new creation (a new creature altogether); the old (previous moral and spiritual condition) has passed away. Behold, the fresh and new has come."
As believers, we aren't going to become new creatures or a new creation, because we have already become this new creation. Our flesh and blood body (natural body) will be changed, but our new body (the new creation body) of our born again spirit, is already eternal and now is alive and in the very Image of Jesus Himself. This new birth didn't affect the way we look on the outside, but from within (the real you). Paul said in 2Corinthians 5:16 (Amplified) that, "We now have such knowledge of Jesus, that we no longer just know Him as a Man (from merely a human viewpoint) but now we (through the Spirit of God) as the glorified Christ, the One Who is the firstborn, Head of the Church and the firstborn of many brethren."
What has not happened in the family of God yet, is that we begin understanding this isn't for "someday, when we get to heaven," but we begin to understand that this has already come to pass when we were born again. 1Peter 2:2 (Amplified) says, "Like newborn babies you should crave (thirst for, earnestly desire) the pure (unadulterated) spiritual milk (the Word), that by it you may be nurtured and grow into (completed) salvation."
2Peter 1:3-10 (Amplified) says, "For His divine power has bestowed upon us all things that (are requisite and suited) to life and godliness, through the (full, personal) knowledge of Him Who called us by and to His Own glory and excellence (virtue). By means of these He has bestowed on us His precious and exceedingly great promises, so that through them you may escape (by flight) from the moral decay (rottenness and corruption) that is in the world because of covetousness (lust and greed) and become sharers (partakers) of the divine nature. For this very reason, adding your diligence (to the divine promises), employ every effort in exercising your faith to develop virtue (excellence, resolution, Christian energy) and in exercising virtue, (develop) self control and in (exercising) self-control (develop) steadfastness (patience, endurance) and in (exercising) steadfastness (develop) godliness (piety)." Verses 7-8 says, "And in (exercising) godliness (develop) brotherly affection, and in (exercising) brotherly affection (develop) Christian love. For as these qualities are yours and increasingly abound in you, they will keep (you) from being idle or unfruitful unto the (full personal) knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ (the Messiah, the Anointed One)."
Notice how Peter said that these qualities are ours and increasingly abound in us. these are the character and nature of the new creation people and are already within our new spirit. Peter goes on in Verse 9-10 saying, "For whoever lacks these qualities is blind (spiritually) short sighted, seeing only what is new to him, and has become oblivious (to the fact) that he was cleansed from his old sins. Because of this, brethren, be all the more solicitous and eager to make sure (to ratify, to strengthen, to make steadfast) your calling and election, for if you do this, you will never stumble or fall."
I'm sure we would all like to be in such a place with our Heavenly Father, that we "will never stumble or fall." To make this happen though, we must first realize who we are and not who we once were. We must know that we are now a new creation and not are going to be new creations someday, when we get to heaven. Our house or the body we live in, will change its appearance, but the new creation we now are is eternal in Christ. We must now develop our new being into maturity by the Word and by what we received by the grace of salvation. Peter said that, "As babies, we need to feed on the Word, as a baby feed on milk, in order to grow. A baby doesn't need to be born again, but to grow and mature. It must be fed in order to bring to full grow or as 1Peter 2:2 says, "Grow into completed salvation."
There has never been anything wrong with the new creation, we were born "perfect" in the eyes of the Father. What holds back the heirs of God, is that we've never fed on anything but milk. We continued trying to control the flesh by man made tools, instead of teaching and raising our new man by the Word. A veal calf has the same muscles as a grass calf, but there is no strength in the muscles of a veal calf to make it stable. A baby Christian who only lives on the milk of the Word, and not the meat of the Word, is like that veal calf. He has all the same muscles, but has now power or strength.
In order to grow into the maturity of the new creation, we must dare to believe that we are what God has made us to be in Christ Jesus. 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."
I don't know what my body (house) will look like at the resurrection, but my spirit (the new creation man) will not change, but grow. Your spirit man is already in God's Image and there is no need to change it, only the outer man or our earthly body will change into glory.
As we "Grow from faith to faith in the Word." we develop those attributes of our Heavenly Father, People spoke about in 2Peter 1:3-10 (Amplified) saying, "These things are the very character and virtue of a mature Christian, or a grown up child of God." This is what the world and the heavens are awaiting, for the manifestation of the sons of God. They're not waiting for the coming of the sons of God, because they are already here.
When Jesus was manifest, the creation changed. When His disciples were manifested, the world changed. Through the revealing of the new creation, the sons will now be manifested and once again, things will change. "The harvest is great, the laborers are few," but this is about the change throughout the earth.
All of our ability comes from the Seed from which we have been born again. We must begin to know that it's not our ability that God needs, but our availability that He is after. We must do what God says and the world will once again see there is a God of heaven and earth. The knowledge of who we are now in the spirit of the new birth, is the most powerful revelation the Holy Spirit can bring us into, in these last days.
Galatians 5:16 (Amplified) says, "But I say, walk and live (habitually) in the Holy Spirit (responsive to and controlled and guided by the Spirit); then you will certainly no gratify the cravings and desires of the flesh (of the human nature without God)." Instead of continuing to fight the flesh, we should be feeding the spirit and our personal warfare will end, allowing us to go deeper into things of God. Hebrews 6:3 (Amplified) says, "If indeed God permits, we will (now) proceed (to advanced teaching)."
As believers, we aren't going to become new creatures or a new creation, because we have already become this new creation. Our flesh and blood body (natural body) will be changed, but our new body (the new creation body) of our born again spirit, is already eternal and now is alive and in the very Image of Jesus Himself. This new birth didn't affect the way we look on the outside, but from within (the real you). Paul said in 2Corinthians 5:16 (Amplified) that, "We now have such knowledge of Jesus, that we no longer just know Him as a Man (from merely a human viewpoint) but now we (through the Spirit of God) as the glorified Christ, the One Who is the firstborn, Head of the Church and the firstborn of many brethren."
What has not happened in the family of God yet, is that we begin understanding this isn't for "someday, when we get to heaven," but we begin to understand that this has already come to pass when we were born again. 1Peter 2:2 (Amplified) says, "Like newborn babies you should crave (thirst for, earnestly desire) the pure (unadulterated) spiritual milk (the Word), that by it you may be nurtured and grow into (completed) salvation."
2Peter 1:3-10 (Amplified) says, "For His divine power has bestowed upon us all things that (are requisite and suited) to life and godliness, through the (full, personal) knowledge of Him Who called us by and to His Own glory and excellence (virtue). By means of these He has bestowed on us His precious and exceedingly great promises, so that through them you may escape (by flight) from the moral decay (rottenness and corruption) that is in the world because of covetousness (lust and greed) and become sharers (partakers) of the divine nature. For this very reason, adding your diligence (to the divine promises), employ every effort in exercising your faith to develop virtue (excellence, resolution, Christian energy) and in exercising virtue, (develop) self control and in (exercising) self-control (develop) steadfastness (patience, endurance) and in (exercising) steadfastness (develop) godliness (piety)." Verses 7-8 says, "And in (exercising) godliness (develop) brotherly affection, and in (exercising) brotherly affection (develop) Christian love. For as these qualities are yours and increasingly abound in you, they will keep (you) from being idle or unfruitful unto the (full personal) knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ (the Messiah, the Anointed One)."
Notice how Peter said that these qualities are ours and increasingly abound in us. these are the character and nature of the new creation people and are already within our new spirit. Peter goes on in Verse 9-10 saying, "For whoever lacks these qualities is blind (spiritually) short sighted, seeing only what is new to him, and has become oblivious (to the fact) that he was cleansed from his old sins. Because of this, brethren, be all the more solicitous and eager to make sure (to ratify, to strengthen, to make steadfast) your calling and election, for if you do this, you will never stumble or fall."
I'm sure we would all like to be in such a place with our Heavenly Father, that we "will never stumble or fall." To make this happen though, we must first realize who we are and not who we once were. We must know that we are now a new creation and not are going to be new creations someday, when we get to heaven. Our house or the body we live in, will change its appearance, but the new creation we now are is eternal in Christ. We must now develop our new being into maturity by the Word and by what we received by the grace of salvation. Peter said that, "As babies, we need to feed on the Word, as a baby feed on milk, in order to grow. A baby doesn't need to be born again, but to grow and mature. It must be fed in order to bring to full grow or as 1Peter 2:2 says, "Grow into completed salvation."
There has never been anything wrong with the new creation, we were born "perfect" in the eyes of the Father. What holds back the heirs of God, is that we've never fed on anything but milk. We continued trying to control the flesh by man made tools, instead of teaching and raising our new man by the Word. A veal calf has the same muscles as a grass calf, but there is no strength in the muscles of a veal calf to make it stable. A baby Christian who only lives on the milk of the Word, and not the meat of the Word, is like that veal calf. He has all the same muscles, but has now power or strength.
In order to grow into the maturity of the new creation, we must dare to believe that we are what God has made us to be in Christ Jesus. 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."
I don't know what my body (house) will look like at the resurrection, but my spirit (the new creation man) will not change, but grow. Your spirit man is already in God's Image and there is no need to change it, only the outer man or our earthly body will change into glory.
As we "Grow from faith to faith in the Word." we develop those attributes of our Heavenly Father, People spoke about in 2Peter 1:3-10 (Amplified) saying, "These things are the very character and virtue of a mature Christian, or a grown up child of God." This is what the world and the heavens are awaiting, for the manifestation of the sons of God. They're not waiting for the coming of the sons of God, because they are already here.
When Jesus was manifest, the creation changed. When His disciples were manifested, the world changed. Through the revealing of the new creation, the sons will now be manifested and once again, things will change. "The harvest is great, the laborers are few," but this is about the change throughout the earth.
All of our ability comes from the Seed from which we have been born again. We must begin to know that it's not our ability that God needs, but our availability that He is after. We must do what God says and the world will once again see there is a God of heaven and earth. The knowledge of who we are now in the spirit of the new birth, is the most powerful revelation the Holy Spirit can bring us into, in these last days.
Galatians 5:16 (Amplified) says, "But I say, walk and live (habitually) in the Holy Spirit (responsive to and controlled and guided by the Spirit); then you will certainly no gratify the cravings and desires of the flesh (of the human nature without God)." Instead of continuing to fight the flesh, we should be feeding the spirit and our personal warfare will end, allowing us to go deeper into things of God. Hebrews 6:3 (Amplified) says, "If indeed God permits, we will (now) proceed (to advanced teaching)."
Monday, April 25, 2016
Lesson 38 The New Creation
In 2Corinthians 5:16-17 we've learned that we've become new creations in Christ Jesus. Many of us know that and even declare that this is true, but we continue living as mere men on this earth. It almost seems like we're not expecting to really be born again, until after we die. We clean up our act and go to church, but we act like the new birth stops at this.
Romans 8:29 (Amplified) says we've been born again and are to be like Jesus. Thus, it says, "For those whom He fore knew (of whom He was aware and loved beforehand) He also destined from the beginning (fore ordaining them) to be molded into the Image of His Son (and share inwardly His Likeness) that He might become the firstborn among many brethren."
According to the above scripture, we "bear inwardly (our spirit man) the very Image of Jesus Himself." We are not Jesus, but we are like Him in this new creation. Just as you bear the likeness, image and attributes of your earthly father, we bear the like, image and attributes of our Heavenly Father (just like Jesus did). Jesus referred to Himself as, "The Son of God" in John 5:23. In John 5:27 (Amplified) Jesus referred to Himself as the son of man, saying, "And He (God) has given Him authority and granted Him power to execute (exercise, practice) judgment because He is a son of man (very man)."
Why is this important? God said in genesis 1:26 (Amplified), "Let Us (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) make mankind in Our Image, after Our Likeness, and let them have complete authority over the fish of the sea, the birds of the air, the (tame) beasts, and over all the earth, and over everything that creeps on the earth."
When Jesus, Who was always the Son of God, took upon Himself the form of man, He took back man's authority over the earth and restored it back to God's new creation. Through Jesus, we have once again become what man was to be before the Adam's fall in the Garden of Eden. John 3:3-6 (Amplified) says, "Jesus answered him, I assure you, most solemnly I tell you, that unless a person is born again (anew, from above) he cannot ever see (know, be acquainted with and experienced) the Kingdom of God. Nicodemus said to Him; How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter his mother's womb again and be born?" Verses 5-6 go on, "Jesus answered, I assure you, most solemnly I tell you, unless a man is born of water and (even) the Spirit; he cannot (ever) enter the Kingdom of God. What is born of (from) the flesh is flesh (of the physical is physical); and what is born of the Spirit if Spirit."
We are all familiar with the above verses and quote them, but we don't understand that they are true now and not just for when we go to heaven. The Father intended His children to enter into His legacy and have authority upon the earth once more. God never intended for the devil to be "god of this world," but for His Own children to have dominion. Through Jesus, we who were born of the flesh (natural man) had our dominion given over to an outlaw spirit. Now, satan became the god of this world by using man's God-given authority.
Jesus made a point to declare that "God has given Him authority and granted Him power to execute (exercise, practice) judgment because He is a Son of man (very man)," in John 5:2 (Amplified). Through our new birth, we have been delivered from the bondage of fallen man and have been restored back into the God-given authority He gave to man in the beginning. Through being born again in Christ Jesus, we have been born on High and brought into right standing with God as His children, just like Jesus Who was the Firstborn among many brethren. Romans 8:29 (Amplified) tells us, "Be molded into the Image of His Son (and share inwardly His Likeness." Jesus became Man to share outwardly our Image in the flesh. Now He, Who was inwardly Spirit, can become like the first Adam was intended to be, a natural (flesh and blood) man, with a living God like spirit living and dominating the earth from within himself. Jesus became a natural man, in a natural earth, living a perfect fellowship and walking with God. Adam was supposed to be like Jesus was in the earth, living by, listening to, and doing God's will and purpose in the earth.
Through our new birth, we have been restored into the Image God had for His children in the beginning. As we took on the attributes of our earthly fathers, so too, we took upon ourselves the attributes of our Heavenly Father. 1Peter 1:23-25 (Amplified_ says, "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. For all flesh (mankind) is like grass, and its glory (honor), like (the) flower of grass, the grass withers and the flower drops off, But the Word of the Lord (this seed, sperm, divine instructions the Gospel) endures forever. And this Word is the Good News which was preached to you."
Paul goes on to say in Romans 8:30 (Amplified), "And those whom He thus fore ordained, He also called, and those whom He called, He also justified (acquitted, made righteous, putting them in right standing with Himself) And those whom He justified, He also glorified (raising them to a heavenly dignity and condition or state of being)."
This is why Jesus is not ashamed to call us "brethren." Hebrews 2:10-11 (Amplified) says, "For it was an act worthy (of God) and fitting (to the divine nature) that He for Whose sake and by Whom all things have their existence, in bringing many sons into glory, should make the pioneer of the salvation perfect (should bring to maturity the human experience necessary to be perfectly equipped for His office as High Priest) through suffering. For both He Who sanctifies (making men holy) and those who are sanctified all have one (Father). For this reason He is not ashamed to call them brethren."
Denying the fact we are "like Him" now, is saying we don't believe Jesus' Sacrifice was not enough to make us like Him and we are still sinners. We have been made a new creation and that means exactly what is says, a new creation. We weren't just patched up and puttied over, but we were made to look new and we are new. We are once again in the Image and Likeness of God, just like He desired in His heart from before the foundations of the world. It was always in the father's heart to have family and children to love and fellowship with. When Adam fell, it broke the family and the fellowship between God and man. Jesus came in the weakness of the flesh, but the power of the Spirit and His union with the Father, overcame the weakness of the flesh and restored man back into position of ruler over the earth and everything in it, according to Genesis 1:26.
Jesus redeemed us back into the rightful position the Father made for us in the beginning. He took back the authority that satan suckered Adam out of, and as a man filled with God Jesus reclaimed everything that was and now is once again ours. He gave it to us through the new birth. We are flesh and blood, earthly men filled with God's Own Spirit, as Adam was and Jesus was on earth. Romans 8:17 (Amplified) says, "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)."
The "suffering" we endure, is for His Name's sake. John 15:18 (Amplified) says, "If the world hates you, know that it hated Me before it hated you."
Romans 8:29 (Amplified) says we've been born again and are to be like Jesus. Thus, it says, "For those whom He fore knew (of whom He was aware and loved beforehand) He also destined from the beginning (fore ordaining them) to be molded into the Image of His Son (and share inwardly His Likeness) that He might become the firstborn among many brethren."
According to the above scripture, we "bear inwardly (our spirit man) the very Image of Jesus Himself." We are not Jesus, but we are like Him in this new creation. Just as you bear the likeness, image and attributes of your earthly father, we bear the like, image and attributes of our Heavenly Father (just like Jesus did). Jesus referred to Himself as, "The Son of God" in John 5:23. In John 5:27 (Amplified) Jesus referred to Himself as the son of man, saying, "And He (God) has given Him authority and granted Him power to execute (exercise, practice) judgment because He is a son of man (very man)."
Why is this important? God said in genesis 1:26 (Amplified), "Let Us (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) make mankind in Our Image, after Our Likeness, and let them have complete authority over the fish of the sea, the birds of the air, the (tame) beasts, and over all the earth, and over everything that creeps on the earth."
When Jesus, Who was always the Son of God, took upon Himself the form of man, He took back man's authority over the earth and restored it back to God's new creation. Through Jesus, we have once again become what man was to be before the Adam's fall in the Garden of Eden. John 3:3-6 (Amplified) says, "Jesus answered him, I assure you, most solemnly I tell you, that unless a person is born again (anew, from above) he cannot ever see (know, be acquainted with and experienced) the Kingdom of God. Nicodemus said to Him; How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter his mother's womb again and be born?" Verses 5-6 go on, "Jesus answered, I assure you, most solemnly I tell you, unless a man is born of water and (even) the Spirit; he cannot (ever) enter the Kingdom of God. What is born of (from) the flesh is flesh (of the physical is physical); and what is born of the Spirit if Spirit."
We are all familiar with the above verses and quote them, but we don't understand that they are true now and not just for when we go to heaven. The Father intended His children to enter into His legacy and have authority upon the earth once more. God never intended for the devil to be "god of this world," but for His Own children to have dominion. Through Jesus, we who were born of the flesh (natural man) had our dominion given over to an outlaw spirit. Now, satan became the god of this world by using man's God-given authority.
Jesus made a point to declare that "God has given Him authority and granted Him power to execute (exercise, practice) judgment because He is a Son of man (very man)," in John 5:2 (Amplified). Through our new birth, we have been delivered from the bondage of fallen man and have been restored back into the God-given authority He gave to man in the beginning. Through being born again in Christ Jesus, we have been born on High and brought into right standing with God as His children, just like Jesus Who was the Firstborn among many brethren. Romans 8:29 (Amplified) tells us, "Be molded into the Image of His Son (and share inwardly His Likeness." Jesus became Man to share outwardly our Image in the flesh. Now He, Who was inwardly Spirit, can become like the first Adam was intended to be, a natural (flesh and blood) man, with a living God like spirit living and dominating the earth from within himself. Jesus became a natural man, in a natural earth, living a perfect fellowship and walking with God. Adam was supposed to be like Jesus was in the earth, living by, listening to, and doing God's will and purpose in the earth.
Through our new birth, we have been restored into the Image God had for His children in the beginning. As we took on the attributes of our earthly fathers, so too, we took upon ourselves the attributes of our Heavenly Father. 1Peter 1:23-25 (Amplified_ says, "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. For all flesh (mankind) is like grass, and its glory (honor), like (the) flower of grass, the grass withers and the flower drops off, But the Word of the Lord (this seed, sperm, divine instructions the Gospel) endures forever. And this Word is the Good News which was preached to you."
Paul goes on to say in Romans 8:30 (Amplified), "And those whom He thus fore ordained, He also called, and those whom He called, He also justified (acquitted, made righteous, putting them in right standing with Himself) And those whom He justified, He also glorified (raising them to a heavenly dignity and condition or state of being)."
This is why Jesus is not ashamed to call us "brethren." Hebrews 2:10-11 (Amplified) says, "For it was an act worthy (of God) and fitting (to the divine nature) that He for Whose sake and by Whom all things have their existence, in bringing many sons into glory, should make the pioneer of the salvation perfect (should bring to maturity the human experience necessary to be perfectly equipped for His office as High Priest) through suffering. For both He Who sanctifies (making men holy) and those who are sanctified all have one (Father). For this reason He is not ashamed to call them brethren."
Denying the fact we are "like Him" now, is saying we don't believe Jesus' Sacrifice was not enough to make us like Him and we are still sinners. We have been made a new creation and that means exactly what is says, a new creation. We weren't just patched up and puttied over, but we were made to look new and we are new. We are once again in the Image and Likeness of God, just like He desired in His heart from before the foundations of the world. It was always in the father's heart to have family and children to love and fellowship with. When Adam fell, it broke the family and the fellowship between God and man. Jesus came in the weakness of the flesh, but the power of the Spirit and His union with the Father, overcame the weakness of the flesh and restored man back into position of ruler over the earth and everything in it, according to Genesis 1:26.
Jesus redeemed us back into the rightful position the Father made for us in the beginning. He took back the authority that satan suckered Adam out of, and as a man filled with God Jesus reclaimed everything that was and now is once again ours. He gave it to us through the new birth. We are flesh and blood, earthly men filled with God's Own Spirit, as Adam was and Jesus was on earth. Romans 8:17 (Amplified) says, "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)."
The "suffering" we endure, is for His Name's sake. John 15:18 (Amplified) says, "If the world hates you, know that it hated Me before it hated you."
Friday, April 22, 2016
Lesson 37 The New Creation
2Corinthians 5:10-17 (Amplified) says, "Consequently, from now on we estimate and regard no one from a (purely) human point of view (in terms of natural standards of value). (No) even though we once did estimate Christ from a human viewpoint and as a Man, yet now (we have such knowledge of Him that) we know Him no longer (in terms of the flesh). Therefore if any person is (ingrafted) in Christ (the Messiah) he is a new creation (a new creature altogether); the old (previous moral and spiritual condition) has passed away, behold, the fresh and new has come."
1Corinthians 2:9-15 (Amplified) says, "But, on the contrary, as the scripture says, What eye has not seen and ear has not heard and has not entered into the heart of man (all that) God has prepared (made 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)." Verse 10-12 go on, Yet to us God has unveiled and revealed them b 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 councils and things hidden and beyond man's scrutiny) For what person perceives (knows and understands) what passes through a man's thoughts except the man's own spirit withing him? Just so no one discerns (comes to know and comprehend) the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. Now we have not revealed the spirit (that belongs to the world), but the Holy Spirit Who is from God, (given to us) that we might realize and comprehend and appreciate the gifts (of divine favor and blessing so freely and lavishly) bestowed on us." Verses 13-16 say, "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 man, nonspiritual man does not accept or welcome or admit into his heart the gifts and teachings and revelations of the Spirit of God, for they are fully (meaningless nonsence) to him; and he is incapable of knowing them (of progressively recognizing, understanding, and becoming better acquainted with them) because they are spiritually discerned and estimated and appreciated. But the spiritual man tries all things (he examines, investigates, inquires into, questions, and discerns all things), yet is himself to be put on trial and judged by no one (he can read the meanings of everything, but no one can properly discern or appraise or get an insight into Him) For who has known or understood the mind (the counsels and purposes) of the Lord so as to guide and instruct Him and give Him knowledge? But we have the mind of Christ (the Messiah) and do hold the thoughts (feelings and purposes) of His heart."
The above scripture tells us that without the Holy spirit, man doesn't know and cannot know the thoughts and the purposes of what God has prepared for those who love Him. 1Corinthians 2:9 (Amplified) says, "Man's wisdom and understanding of what God has done on our behalf, is simply limited to education and not revelation." Man builds great libraries and writes countless teachings on the religious aspect of God, but very little comes from the "revelation of the Spirit of God."
Without revelation into our spirit by the Holy Spirit, we cannot know the mind of God or the heart of God. We read the historical, sequential things written in the Bible, and relate them to stories and not truth. Carnal Christians are still debating over the flood, the Exodus, and even the existence of King David. They look at it from only a human viewpoint and say it is impossible.
When they eliminate the super-natural God from it, man cannot explain or even accept the Bible as "truth." I've tried watching television programs about the Bible and almost always, they result in my getting upset. It's impossible to explain the plagues of Egypt or such other things as the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah by man's natural standards. These simply can't be explained by man's own wisdom.
Many in today's Church reject the super-natural things of God, because we won't allow them to be Spiritually discerned. The power of God is ever present to do what He says, but we continue trying to harness God's power by our own standards. I find miracles in God's Word that are done by the hands of men, but only by his allowing the Word to guide those hands.
In Luke 9, we find where Jesus blessed and broke the loaves and fishes and then distributed a handful to each disciple. No one had more than a handful to give the multitude. As each disciple went into the groups seated, each must have wondered whether his handful would be enough. As the disciple passed the bread to the first person, who passed onto the next person, his handful of bread and fish didn't diminish. The disciples actually "worked" the miracle, by allowing the Spirit to multiply what they had. They must have been astonished when they returned to Jesus, holding more in their hands than when they began.
We read about the wedding feast in John 2, where Jesus instructed the servants to "Fill the pots with water and then dip out from the pot to the wedding manager," in Verses 9-10. When the manager drank of the water, he discovered it was "good wine." Those who filled the pots, knew that they only filled the pots with water. I imagine they were more surprised than anyone there.
These miracles only support what Jesus said in Mark 11:22 (Amplified) saying, "Have faith in God (constantly)" and that's what brought the miracles. The super-natural power and presence of God, needs no help, only faith in what He says to do. In John 5:30 (Amplified) Jesus says, "I am able to do nothing from Myself (independently, of My Own accord, but only as I am taught by God and as I get His orders)."
Some time ago, God called me into the ministry, saying, "Son, I don't need your ability, I only need your availability. I have all the ability I need." It seems like everything is coming to the super-natural, except the things of God. We see countless T.V. shows featuring the super-natural. Many are quick to believe these foolish things, but then fail to believe the things concerning God. It's like we've stopped believing God could do anything else after He created the heavens and earth. We have limited God to only what we can see, hear, feel, smell and touch in this natural realm.
We've been born-again to be able to "Hear with our spirit, what the Spirit of God is saying to us," just like Jesus did. 1Peter 1:23-25 (Amplified) says, "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. For all flesh (mankind) is like grass, and all its glory (honor) like (the) flower of grass. The grass withers and the flower drops off, But the Word of the Lord (divine instruction, the Gospel) endues forever; And this Word is the Good News which has been preached to you."
This "seed" of God is ever lasting and ever living. This is what "birthed" us into the very Likeness and Image of God, once again. We're not merely natural men who have been forgiven, but we're new creations who have no past at all. We've been born again into the super-natural, in order to do the super-natural. We're not simply mere men any longer, but a new creation people.
We don't have to do the super-natural, but only let the Father Who is in us, do what He wants to do. We must simply have faith enough to take the handful of bread and fishes to give to the multitude. We don't have to "heal the sick," but must only lay hands on them and let Him do His will in them. We don't even need to "make" the wine, but just pour the water into the pots. He will take care of the rest! Ephesians 1:11 (Amplified) says, "In Him we also were made (God's) heritage (portion) and we obtained an inheritance; for we had been foreordained (chosen and appointed beforehand) in accordance with His purpose, Who works out everything in agreement with the counsel and design of His (Own) will."
We don't seem fully aware of the place where we've been born into, through Jesus. When our Heavenly Father planned and created everything we now see, it was for us. He wanted His children, those in His class of being, to fellowship and walk with. There was so much love in Him that He needed someone to share it with and to walk with. He made us to walk in two realms simultaneously, for His pleasure and ours as well. He created (made) man in His Own Image, according to Genesis 1:27 (Amplified) which says, "Male and female created He them." Jesus said in John 4:24 (Amplified) that, "God is a Spirit (a Spiritual being) and those who worship Him must worship Him in Spirit and in Truth (reality)."
After creating man in the spirit realm, God formed a body from the "dust of the earth" for this spirit man to live in and contact the natural realm. God mandated in Genesis 1:28 (Amplified) to, "Be fruitful and multiply, and to fill the earth, and subdue it (using all its vast resources in the service of God and man)." God gave man the privilege of siring His Own family and God was able to walk with His man by the spirit of man. God would teach His children by their spirit and allow them to have dominion over the works of His hands.
When Adam fell and separated man from the Spirit of God (internally), man had to learn how to walk in his natural state of being. God was only able to contact His family from the outside and could no longer walk with them by their spirit. As God set up the Means and Way (Jesus' Sacrifice) to bring His children back to Him in the full, He set up the blood covenant through the blood of bulls and goats, to illustrate that death had been Paid by Blood. The "wages of sin is death," so an animal needed to die as payment for the penalty of sin, until God could bring Jesus into the earth.
Romans 6:5 (Amplified) says, "For if we have become one with Him by sharing a death like His, we also shall be (one with Him in sharing) His resurrection (by a new life lived for God)." Paul goes on in Verse 11 saying, "Even so consider yourselves also dead to sin and your relation to it broken, but alive to God (living in unbroken fellowship with Him) in Christ Jesus." God has done through the new creation, what He began in the beginning. He now has a family of people He can talk with, walk with, and fellowship with Him again in the spirit realm. He can enter into the natural realm, through us, and direct the natural man again by His Spirit.
The natural man still doesn't understand that God directs us through our spirit and not in our flesh. This is why we cannot understand the super-natural things of God. We're still trying to make sense of spiritual things by our intellect (or senses).
1Corinthians 2:9-15 (Amplified) says, "But, on the contrary, as the scripture says, What eye has not seen and ear has not heard and has not entered into the heart of man (all that) God has prepared (made 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)." Verse 10-12 go on, Yet to us God has unveiled and revealed them b 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 councils and things hidden and beyond man's scrutiny) For what person perceives (knows and understands) what passes through a man's thoughts except the man's own spirit withing him? Just so no one discerns (comes to know and comprehend) the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. Now we have not revealed the spirit (that belongs to the world), but the Holy Spirit Who is from God, (given to us) that we might realize and comprehend and appreciate the gifts (of divine favor and blessing so freely and lavishly) bestowed on us." Verses 13-16 say, "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 man, nonspiritual man does not accept or welcome or admit into his heart the gifts and teachings and revelations of the Spirit of God, for they are fully (meaningless nonsence) to him; and he is incapable of knowing them (of progressively recognizing, understanding, and becoming better acquainted with them) because they are spiritually discerned and estimated and appreciated. But the spiritual man tries all things (he examines, investigates, inquires into, questions, and discerns all things), yet is himself to be put on trial and judged by no one (he can read the meanings of everything, but no one can properly discern or appraise or get an insight into Him) For who has known or understood the mind (the counsels and purposes) of the Lord so as to guide and instruct Him and give Him knowledge? But we have the mind of Christ (the Messiah) and do hold the thoughts (feelings and purposes) of His heart."
The above scripture tells us that without the Holy spirit, man doesn't know and cannot know the thoughts and the purposes of what God has prepared for those who love Him. 1Corinthians 2:9 (Amplified) says, "Man's wisdom and understanding of what God has done on our behalf, is simply limited to education and not revelation." Man builds great libraries and writes countless teachings on the religious aspect of God, but very little comes from the "revelation of the Spirit of God."
Without revelation into our spirit by the Holy Spirit, we cannot know the mind of God or the heart of God. We read the historical, sequential things written in the Bible, and relate them to stories and not truth. Carnal Christians are still debating over the flood, the Exodus, and even the existence of King David. They look at it from only a human viewpoint and say it is impossible.
When they eliminate the super-natural God from it, man cannot explain or even accept the Bible as "truth." I've tried watching television programs about the Bible and almost always, they result in my getting upset. It's impossible to explain the plagues of Egypt or such other things as the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah by man's natural standards. These simply can't be explained by man's own wisdom.
Many in today's Church reject the super-natural things of God, because we won't allow them to be Spiritually discerned. The power of God is ever present to do what He says, but we continue trying to harness God's power by our own standards. I find miracles in God's Word that are done by the hands of men, but only by his allowing the Word to guide those hands.
In Luke 9, we find where Jesus blessed and broke the loaves and fishes and then distributed a handful to each disciple. No one had more than a handful to give the multitude. As each disciple went into the groups seated, each must have wondered whether his handful would be enough. As the disciple passed the bread to the first person, who passed onto the next person, his handful of bread and fish didn't diminish. The disciples actually "worked" the miracle, by allowing the Spirit to multiply what they had. They must have been astonished when they returned to Jesus, holding more in their hands than when they began.
We read about the wedding feast in John 2, where Jesus instructed the servants to "Fill the pots with water and then dip out from the pot to the wedding manager," in Verses 9-10. When the manager drank of the water, he discovered it was "good wine." Those who filled the pots, knew that they only filled the pots with water. I imagine they were more surprised than anyone there.
These miracles only support what Jesus said in Mark 11:22 (Amplified) saying, "Have faith in God (constantly)" and that's what brought the miracles. The super-natural power and presence of God, needs no help, only faith in what He says to do. In John 5:30 (Amplified) Jesus says, "I am able to do nothing from Myself (independently, of My Own accord, but only as I am taught by God and as I get His orders)."
Some time ago, God called me into the ministry, saying, "Son, I don't need your ability, I only need your availability. I have all the ability I need." It seems like everything is coming to the super-natural, except the things of God. We see countless T.V. shows featuring the super-natural. Many are quick to believe these foolish things, but then fail to believe the things concerning God. It's like we've stopped believing God could do anything else after He created the heavens and earth. We have limited God to only what we can see, hear, feel, smell and touch in this natural realm.
We've been born-again to be able to "Hear with our spirit, what the Spirit of God is saying to us," just like Jesus did. 1Peter 1:23-25 (Amplified) says, "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. For all flesh (mankind) is like grass, and all its glory (honor) like (the) flower of grass. The grass withers and the flower drops off, But the Word of the Lord (divine instruction, the Gospel) endues forever; And this Word is the Good News which has been preached to you."
This "seed" of God is ever lasting and ever living. This is what "birthed" us into the very Likeness and Image of God, once again. We're not merely natural men who have been forgiven, but we're new creations who have no past at all. We've been born again into the super-natural, in order to do the super-natural. We're not simply mere men any longer, but a new creation people.
We don't have to do the super-natural, but only let the Father Who is in us, do what He wants to do. We must simply have faith enough to take the handful of bread and fishes to give to the multitude. We don't have to "heal the sick," but must only lay hands on them and let Him do His will in them. We don't even need to "make" the wine, but just pour the water into the pots. He will take care of the rest! Ephesians 1:11 (Amplified) says, "In Him we also were made (God's) heritage (portion) and we obtained an inheritance; for we had been foreordained (chosen and appointed beforehand) in accordance with His purpose, Who works out everything in agreement with the counsel and design of His (Own) will."
We don't seem fully aware of the place where we've been born into, through Jesus. When our Heavenly Father planned and created everything we now see, it was for us. He wanted His children, those in His class of being, to fellowship and walk with. There was so much love in Him that He needed someone to share it with and to walk with. He made us to walk in two realms simultaneously, for His pleasure and ours as well. He created (made) man in His Own Image, according to Genesis 1:27 (Amplified) which says, "Male and female created He them." Jesus said in John 4:24 (Amplified) that, "God is a Spirit (a Spiritual being) and those who worship Him must worship Him in Spirit and in Truth (reality)."
After creating man in the spirit realm, God formed a body from the "dust of the earth" for this spirit man to live in and contact the natural realm. God mandated in Genesis 1:28 (Amplified) to, "Be fruitful and multiply, and to fill the earth, and subdue it (using all its vast resources in the service of God and man)." God gave man the privilege of siring His Own family and God was able to walk with His man by the spirit of man. God would teach His children by their spirit and allow them to have dominion over the works of His hands.
When Adam fell and separated man from the Spirit of God (internally), man had to learn how to walk in his natural state of being. God was only able to contact His family from the outside and could no longer walk with them by their spirit. As God set up the Means and Way (Jesus' Sacrifice) to bring His children back to Him in the full, He set up the blood covenant through the blood of bulls and goats, to illustrate that death had been Paid by Blood. The "wages of sin is death," so an animal needed to die as payment for the penalty of sin, until God could bring Jesus into the earth.
Romans 6:5 (Amplified) says, "For if we have become one with Him by sharing a death like His, we also shall be (one with Him in sharing) His resurrection (by a new life lived for God)." Paul goes on in Verse 11 saying, "Even so consider yourselves also dead to sin and your relation to it broken, but alive to God (living in unbroken fellowship with Him) in Christ Jesus." God has done through the new creation, what He began in the beginning. He now has a family of people He can talk with, walk with, and fellowship with Him again in the spirit realm. He can enter into the natural realm, through us, and direct the natural man again by His Spirit.
The natural man still doesn't understand that God directs us through our spirit and not in our flesh. This is why we cannot understand the super-natural things of God. We're still trying to make sense of spiritual things by our intellect (or senses).
Thursday, April 21, 2016
Lesson 36 The New Creation
Jesus said in Mark 11:22 (Amplified), "Have faith in God (constantly)."
Romans 10:17 (Amplified) says, "So faith comes by hearing (what is told); and what is heard comes by the preaching (of the message that comes from the lips) of Christ (the Messiah Himself)."
Much of what we're "hearing" today, is not the "Message that came from the lips of Christ, the Messiah Himself." Since what Jesus preached isn't being preached today, faith in what He preached isn't being constantly received.
It's time we begin to "Look unto Jesus, the Author and the Finisher of our faith," like we're instructed in Hebrews 12:2 (Amplified) which says, "Looking away (from all that will distract) to Jesus, Who is the Leader and the Source of our faith (giving the first incentive for our belief) and is also its Finisher (bringing it to maturity and perfection). He, for the joy (of obtaining the prize) that was set before Him, endured the cross, despising and ignoring the shame, and is NOW seated at the right hand of the throne of God."
Jesus gave us the "first incentive for our belief or faith." Without Him, we had no faith to continue in this world. Our problem has been that we haven't heard the Word preached, so we could not put faith into it. We've stopped preaching the Kingdom and began preaching the "someday syndrome." Hebrews 11:1 (Amplified) says, "Now faith is the assurance (the confirmation, the title deed) of the things (we) hope for, being proof of things (we) do not see (the spirit realm) and the conviction of their reality (faith perceiving as real fact what is not yet revealed to the senses)."
We haven't taught much from God's Word about educating and trusting the spirit realm. We've determined that whatever occurs in our lives is God's will for us. Because "faith comes by hearing," some have a difficult time believing we've been made and declared righteous by God. We've been taught by the carnal minded for so long, we have neglected the truth of the Spirit.
Having faith in God, is having faith in His Word. Romans 10:17 KJV says, "Faith in God comes by hearing God's Word." We haven't always heard God's Word and that's resulted in our having no faith in what God has done. Many sermons we've heard were centered on what someone else has said, instead of what God has said. Man's ideas of what God says, is not the same as what He said. It makes little difference to me whether you believe I am righteous, but when God says I am righteous, then I am.
Without righteousness, I can never have faith in my relationship with my Heavenly Father. I could never approach Him with confidence and assurance and have confidence that He will hear me if I am not in right standing with Him. Isaiah 54:14 (Amplified) speaks about the "Time of the Church" saying, "You shall establish yourself in righteousness (rightness, in conformity with God's will and order); you shall be far from even the thought of oppression or destruction, for you shall not fear, and from terror; for it shall not come near you."
These are spiritual things that must come into your spirit to be believed. Your carnal mind cannot conceive what the Spirit has already done through Jesus. Your carnal mind has been programmed by the world and the god of this world and will never allow you to walk out from under the condemnation of your old man. When God said you were a "new creation," He meant exactly that. You're not some kind of "urban renewal" project, you are a new creation. God doesn't remember who you were and He wishes that you would forget that too.
Through faith in the Risen Christ, we've been "born from above" and are new creations. We are a people who didn't even exist on this planet, before Jesus' resurrection. Colossians 2:14-15 (Amplified) tells us, "Jesus, Having cancelled and blotted out and wiped away the hand-writing of the note (bond) with its legal decrees and demands which was in force and stood against us (hostile to us). This (note with its regulations, decrees, and demands) He set aside and cleared completely out of our way by nailing it to (His) cross. (God) disarmed the principalities and powers that were ranged against us and made a bold display and public example of them, in triumphing over them in Him (Jesus) and in (the cross)."
This Word hasn't been preached enough for us to put faith in what God said about our old lives. We continue wanting to put condemnation on the people about their shortcomings. Remember though, it's not what you think about you, but what God thinks about you, that brings you faith. If you asked many in the Church whether or not they were saved, then all would probably say they are saved. If they were asked whether they were forgiven, then probably not very many would say they were forgiven. If asked if they were going to heaven, then all would probably agree they were. How do you know this, I would ask? Because "Faith comes by hearing."
We've heard this portion of the salvation message long enough to put faith in it. However, some haven't been delivered from the condemnation of the old life of sin, because that part of the Word hasn't been preached much either. Without hearing the Word preached, we can't have faith for much of what God has done or said concerning us. Many still are unsure about their old sin problem was totally dealt with b Jesus' Sacrifice.
Jesus spoke to the people about the "Sower and the soil (or heart)" in Mark 23:23-25 (Amplified) saying, "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 (ears to hear) will more be given; and from him who has nothing, even what he has will be taken away (by force)."
When you "hear" the Word of the Kingdom and believe it, then more revelation will come. When you hear the Word of the Kingdom and reject it, then "satan will come immediately to take (by force) that which was sown." We've witnessed so much happening in the last few decades, that it seems like the whole world is in chaos. We've removed God from our schools, our government, the battlefields, out workplace and from many of our churches. The power of God's Word has been watered down and made insignificant in our lives. Many in the Church are told to "Just hang on until Jesus comes."
The spiritual aspect of God's Word seems to be of no effect in our lives today. We've allowed men to remove the truth from the eyes and heart of our nation. Many of us look at those running for the Highest Office of our Land and feel like it's a national embarrassment. The Church was supposed to be the Light of the world but instead, we have become the devil's whipping post.
John 6:28-29,38 (Amplified) tells us that Jesus' followers asked, "What are we to do, that we may (habitually) be working the works of God (what are we to do to carry out what God requires)? Jesus replied; This is the work (service) that God asks of you; that you believe in the One Whom He has sent (that you cleave to, trust in, rely on) and have faith in His Messenger." Jesus goes on in Verse 38 saying, "For I have come down from heaven not to do My Own will and purpose but to do the will and purpose of Him Who sent Me."
If we're truly a new creation who are born again by God's Own Spirit, then we must be "super-natural" beings. If this is true, and it is, then why is it seen as "strange" to teach the super-natural things of God to His children? Why is it that we speak of the super-natural people as being "spooky?" Do you think that Jesus was spooky? What about Paul or Peter or James or John? Why then, would it be spooky to the rest of God's family? We are created in His Likeness and Image and He is not spooky.
Perhaps the super-natural things of God spook some of us because we're afraid to fail in it. You cannot teach someone how to heal the sick, we must only trust in the One Who is in us to do the work. This is where faith comes into play, for the believer. Jesus said many times that, "It's not Me, but the Father in Me, Who is doing the work." He said in John 10:37-38 (Amplified), "If I am not doing the works (performing the deeds) of My Father, then do no believe Me (do not adhere to Me and trust Me and rely on Me). But if I do them, even though you do not believe Me or have faith in Me, (at least) believe the works and have faith in what I do, in order that you may know and understand (clearly) that the Father is in Me, and I am in the Father (One with Him)."
We don't do the works, but only believe that the Father in us will do them for His Own sake. We've been preaching about our Heavenly Father and His power, but the world needs to "see Him." The world is not walking in faith, but walks by sight. Jesus said, "If you can't believe what I say, at least believe in what I am doing."
The world needs to see the presence of God, in these last days. We need to "believe" as much in miracles, as we believe in the cancellation of our sin. We need to put faith in God's ability to heal, as much as in His ability to forgive. He is, after all, the Same God. Because it hasn't been preached, we haven't heard. And, because we haven't heard, we haven't believed. Because we haven't believed, we haven't allowed God to do the mighty works that set Him apart from all other gods. Are we really so doubtful of the One we serve, that we think He can't do these things any longer? Has the One Who spoke this planet and universe into existence, become so weak or old that He can't move in our lives any longer?
2Peter 1:2-4 (Amplified) says, "May grace (God's favor) and peace (which is perfect well-being, all necessary goods, all spiritual prosperity, and freedom from fears and agitating passions and moral conflict) be multiplied to you in (full, personal, precise, and correct) knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. For His divine power has bestowed upon us all things that (are requisite and suited) to life and godliness, through the (full, personal) knowledge of Him Who called us by and to His Own glory and excellence (virtue) By means of these He has bestowed on us His precious and exceedingly great promises."
Romans 10:17 (Amplified) says, "So faith comes by hearing (what is told); and what is heard comes by the preaching (of the message that comes from the lips) of Christ (the Messiah Himself)."
Much of what we're "hearing" today, is not the "Message that came from the lips of Christ, the Messiah Himself." Since what Jesus preached isn't being preached today, faith in what He preached isn't being constantly received.
It's time we begin to "Look unto Jesus, the Author and the Finisher of our faith," like we're instructed in Hebrews 12:2 (Amplified) which says, "Looking away (from all that will distract) to Jesus, Who is the Leader and the Source of our faith (giving the first incentive for our belief) and is also its Finisher (bringing it to maturity and perfection). He, for the joy (of obtaining the prize) that was set before Him, endured the cross, despising and ignoring the shame, and is NOW seated at the right hand of the throne of God."
Jesus gave us the "first incentive for our belief or faith." Without Him, we had no faith to continue in this world. Our problem has been that we haven't heard the Word preached, so we could not put faith into it. We've stopped preaching the Kingdom and began preaching the "someday syndrome." Hebrews 11:1 (Amplified) says, "Now faith is the assurance (the confirmation, the title deed) of the things (we) hope for, being proof of things (we) do not see (the spirit realm) and the conviction of their reality (faith perceiving as real fact what is not yet revealed to the senses)."
We haven't taught much from God's Word about educating and trusting the spirit realm. We've determined that whatever occurs in our lives is God's will for us. Because "faith comes by hearing," some have a difficult time believing we've been made and declared righteous by God. We've been taught by the carnal minded for so long, we have neglected the truth of the Spirit.
Having faith in God, is having faith in His Word. Romans 10:17 KJV says, "Faith in God comes by hearing God's Word." We haven't always heard God's Word and that's resulted in our having no faith in what God has done. Many sermons we've heard were centered on what someone else has said, instead of what God has said. Man's ideas of what God says, is not the same as what He said. It makes little difference to me whether you believe I am righteous, but when God says I am righteous, then I am.
Without righteousness, I can never have faith in my relationship with my Heavenly Father. I could never approach Him with confidence and assurance and have confidence that He will hear me if I am not in right standing with Him. Isaiah 54:14 (Amplified) speaks about the "Time of the Church" saying, "You shall establish yourself in righteousness (rightness, in conformity with God's will and order); you shall be far from even the thought of oppression or destruction, for you shall not fear, and from terror; for it shall not come near you."
These are spiritual things that must come into your spirit to be believed. Your carnal mind cannot conceive what the Spirit has already done through Jesus. Your carnal mind has been programmed by the world and the god of this world and will never allow you to walk out from under the condemnation of your old man. When God said you were a "new creation," He meant exactly that. You're not some kind of "urban renewal" project, you are a new creation. God doesn't remember who you were and He wishes that you would forget that too.
Through faith in the Risen Christ, we've been "born from above" and are new creations. We are a people who didn't even exist on this planet, before Jesus' resurrection. Colossians 2:14-15 (Amplified) tells us, "Jesus, Having cancelled and blotted out and wiped away the hand-writing of the note (bond) with its legal decrees and demands which was in force and stood against us (hostile to us). This (note with its regulations, decrees, and demands) He set aside and cleared completely out of our way by nailing it to (His) cross. (God) disarmed the principalities and powers that were ranged against us and made a bold display and public example of them, in triumphing over them in Him (Jesus) and in (the cross)."
This Word hasn't been preached enough for us to put faith in what God said about our old lives. We continue wanting to put condemnation on the people about their shortcomings. Remember though, it's not what you think about you, but what God thinks about you, that brings you faith. If you asked many in the Church whether or not they were saved, then all would probably say they are saved. If they were asked whether they were forgiven, then probably not very many would say they were forgiven. If asked if they were going to heaven, then all would probably agree they were. How do you know this, I would ask? Because "Faith comes by hearing."
We've heard this portion of the salvation message long enough to put faith in it. However, some haven't been delivered from the condemnation of the old life of sin, because that part of the Word hasn't been preached much either. Without hearing the Word preached, we can't have faith for much of what God has done or said concerning us. Many still are unsure about their old sin problem was totally dealt with b Jesus' Sacrifice.
Jesus spoke to the people about the "Sower and the soil (or heart)" in Mark 23:23-25 (Amplified) saying, "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 (ears to hear) will more be given; and from him who has nothing, even what he has will be taken away (by force)."
When you "hear" the Word of the Kingdom and believe it, then more revelation will come. When you hear the Word of the Kingdom and reject it, then "satan will come immediately to take (by force) that which was sown." We've witnessed so much happening in the last few decades, that it seems like the whole world is in chaos. We've removed God from our schools, our government, the battlefields, out workplace and from many of our churches. The power of God's Word has been watered down and made insignificant in our lives. Many in the Church are told to "Just hang on until Jesus comes."
The spiritual aspect of God's Word seems to be of no effect in our lives today. We've allowed men to remove the truth from the eyes and heart of our nation. Many of us look at those running for the Highest Office of our Land and feel like it's a national embarrassment. The Church was supposed to be the Light of the world but instead, we have become the devil's whipping post.
John 6:28-29,38 (Amplified) tells us that Jesus' followers asked, "What are we to do, that we may (habitually) be working the works of God (what are we to do to carry out what God requires)? Jesus replied; This is the work (service) that God asks of you; that you believe in the One Whom He has sent (that you cleave to, trust in, rely on) and have faith in His Messenger." Jesus goes on in Verse 38 saying, "For I have come down from heaven not to do My Own will and purpose but to do the will and purpose of Him Who sent Me."
If we're truly a new creation who are born again by God's Own Spirit, then we must be "super-natural" beings. If this is true, and it is, then why is it seen as "strange" to teach the super-natural things of God to His children? Why is it that we speak of the super-natural people as being "spooky?" Do you think that Jesus was spooky? What about Paul or Peter or James or John? Why then, would it be spooky to the rest of God's family? We are created in His Likeness and Image and He is not spooky.
Perhaps the super-natural things of God spook some of us because we're afraid to fail in it. You cannot teach someone how to heal the sick, we must only trust in the One Who is in us to do the work. This is where faith comes into play, for the believer. Jesus said many times that, "It's not Me, but the Father in Me, Who is doing the work." He said in John 10:37-38 (Amplified), "If I am not doing the works (performing the deeds) of My Father, then do no believe Me (do not adhere to Me and trust Me and rely on Me). But if I do them, even though you do not believe Me or have faith in Me, (at least) believe the works and have faith in what I do, in order that you may know and understand (clearly) that the Father is in Me, and I am in the Father (One with Him)."
We don't do the works, but only believe that the Father in us will do them for His Own sake. We've been preaching about our Heavenly Father and His power, but the world needs to "see Him." The world is not walking in faith, but walks by sight. Jesus said, "If you can't believe what I say, at least believe in what I am doing."
The world needs to see the presence of God, in these last days. We need to "believe" as much in miracles, as we believe in the cancellation of our sin. We need to put faith in God's ability to heal, as much as in His ability to forgive. He is, after all, the Same God. Because it hasn't been preached, we haven't heard. And, because we haven't heard, we haven't believed. Because we haven't believed, we haven't allowed God to do the mighty works that set Him apart from all other gods. Are we really so doubtful of the One we serve, that we think He can't do these things any longer? Has the One Who spoke this planet and universe into existence, become so weak or old that He can't move in our lives any longer?
2Peter 1:2-4 (Amplified) says, "May grace (God's favor) and peace (which is perfect well-being, all necessary goods, all spiritual prosperity, and freedom from fears and agitating passions and moral conflict) be multiplied to you in (full, personal, precise, and correct) knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. For His divine power has bestowed upon us all things that (are requisite and suited) to life and godliness, through the (full, personal) knowledge of Him Who called us by and to His Own glory and excellence (virtue) By means of these He has bestowed on us His precious and exceedingly great promises."
Wednesday, April 20, 2016
Lesson 35 The New Creation
Because of the teachings taught to us over the years, we somehow seem to not think of ourselves as "spirit" while we're in this flesh and blood body. And, until we begin seeing ourselves as new creatures, we will never truly educate our new born again spirit that is alive within this house of flesh. We've educated the carnal mind with the knowledge of the world. The education of the carnal man, through schooling and college, is necessary to dwell here on earth. We've educated the soulish part of man with philosophy and entertainment. We've disciplined the body with exercise and endurance. But, we have failed to educate the new creation that lives in this body.
We've been taught and accepted that it is all to be done "on the other side," Heaven. Few Christians really view themselves as spirit people who are living in a dead, flesh body. We spend most of our time trying to deal with the flesh and not really educating and building up our new creation man of the Spirit. If we realize all that the spirit realm has for us not just when we die, but now, then we can receive what Jesus came to restore by Life, into our own lives.
Philippians 3:18-21 (Amplified) says, "For there are many, of whom I have often told you and now tell you even with tears, who walk (live) as enemies of the cross of Christ (the Anointed One) They are doomed and their fate is eternal misery (perdition) their god is their stomach (their appetites, their sensuality) and they glory in their shame, siding with earthly things and being of their party." Verses 20-21 continue, "But we are citizens of the state (common wealth, homeland) which is in Heaven, and from it also we earnestly and patiently await (the coming of) the Lord Jesus Christ (the Messiah) as Savior Who will transform and fashion anew the body of our humiliation to conform to and be like the body of His glory and majesty, by exiting that power which enables Him to subject everything to Himself."
Those verses didn't say that we wouldn't have our citizenship when we get to heaven, but that we are now citizens of the "common-wealth, homeland, which is Heaven." As citizens of this common-wealth, we are to conduct our lives accordingly. We are already citizens of heaven and the things of the Spirit have once again become our source and Life. We aren't supposed to wait until we get to heaven to have our needs met, but learn to bring the things of our "common-wealth and homeland" into being in this world.
We've been born again into the Kingdom of the Spirit of God and everything we can see, feel, touch, smell or hear in this natural world, come from the realm of the unseen Homeland and common-wealth of God's Kingdom. There was a time when everything we see was in the realm of the unseen, in heaven. The spirit (unseen) and the natural realm (things now seen), were not separated at one time, but were once all in the same realm.
When God created all that we now see, He created it from the realm of the unseen rHe saiealm of the Spirit, according to Genesis 1:27 (Amplified) which says, "So God created man in His Own Image, in the Image and Likeness of God He created him; male and female, He created them."
God crated the natural world from the Spirit world and we have spirit man walking in the natural things that came from the Spirit. Genesis 2:7 (Amplified) says that God took the spirit man (made in His Image) and formed a natural body from the realm of the natural, dust of the earth. Thus, man became a living being. The dust body had no life until the Spirit was "breathed" into it.
Through the new creation experience with God, we now have the ability to walk in both realms simultaneously. We are to "receive" our needs met from the realm of the Spirit and manifested in the realm of the natural. Our citizenship is now in Heaven. Jesus said we are "In this world, but not of it." Everything the world or natural, come from the Spirit or unseen realm of God.
We have laid up in the Heavenly realm, everything that is needed for Life and Godliness. Jesus said to, "Seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness and all of these things shall be added unto us." We do this in order to have the unseen realm of the Spirit, added to the seen things of this natural realm.
I don't wish for people to become foolish and leap into something they don't understand, but I do want them to reach into the Kingdom of the heavenlies and appropriate what the Father has prepared for us there. Jesus taught us to pray that, "Thy will be done on earth as it is in heave." God's will has not changed. All of the things we were taught God used to teach us (like making us sick or taking someone's life) are not certainly "God's will in heaven."
If all we witness occurring on earth is God's will, then we're going to have an awful time in Heaven. I don't believe that there will be hospitals, prisons, graveyards, starving children, heartache, disease, homelessness or wars in Heaven, but we persist in saying these things are God's will. In order to appropriate God's will here on earth, we must first enter into the realm of God, which is the spirit realm.
Jesus reached into the spirit realm and fed a multitude with enough bread and fish required. There was always enough in Heaven to care for the entire multitude, but in their fallen state, they couldn't gain access to it. Even the miracles and healings that toke place in Jesus' ministry came from the Heavenly realm of God's will. Jesus said over and over again that, "It is not Me, but the Father in Me, Who is doing the work." He said in John 5:30 (Amplified), "I am able to do nothing from Myself (independently, of My Own accord-but only as I Am taught by God and as I get His orders)."
We've been taught and accepted that it is all to be done "on the other side," Heaven. Few Christians really view themselves as spirit people who are living in a dead, flesh body. We spend most of our time trying to deal with the flesh and not really educating and building up our new creation man of the Spirit. If we realize all that the spirit realm has for us not just when we die, but now, then we can receive what Jesus came to restore by Life, into our own lives.
Philippians 3:18-21 (Amplified) says, "For there are many, of whom I have often told you and now tell you even with tears, who walk (live) as enemies of the cross of Christ (the Anointed One) They are doomed and their fate is eternal misery (perdition) their god is their stomach (their appetites, their sensuality) and they glory in their shame, siding with earthly things and being of their party." Verses 20-21 continue, "But we are citizens of the state (common wealth, homeland) which is in Heaven, and from it also we earnestly and patiently await (the coming of) the Lord Jesus Christ (the Messiah) as Savior Who will transform and fashion anew the body of our humiliation to conform to and be like the body of His glory and majesty, by exiting that power which enables Him to subject everything to Himself."
Those verses didn't say that we wouldn't have our citizenship when we get to heaven, but that we are now citizens of the "common-wealth, homeland, which is Heaven." As citizens of this common-wealth, we are to conduct our lives accordingly. We are already citizens of heaven and the things of the Spirit have once again become our source and Life. We aren't supposed to wait until we get to heaven to have our needs met, but learn to bring the things of our "common-wealth and homeland" into being in this world.
We've been born again into the Kingdom of the Spirit of God and everything we can see, feel, touch, smell or hear in this natural world, come from the realm of the unseen Homeland and common-wealth of God's Kingdom. There was a time when everything we see was in the realm of the unseen, in heaven. The spirit (unseen) and the natural realm (things now seen), were not separated at one time, but were once all in the same realm.
When God created all that we now see, He created it from the realm of the unseen rHe saiealm of the Spirit, according to Genesis 1:27 (Amplified) which says, "So God created man in His Own Image, in the Image and Likeness of God He created him; male and female, He created them."
God crated the natural world from the Spirit world and we have spirit man walking in the natural things that came from the Spirit. Genesis 2:7 (Amplified) says that God took the spirit man (made in His Image) and formed a natural body from the realm of the natural, dust of the earth. Thus, man became a living being. The dust body had no life until the Spirit was "breathed" into it.
Through the new creation experience with God, we now have the ability to walk in both realms simultaneously. We are to "receive" our needs met from the realm of the Spirit and manifested in the realm of the natural. Our citizenship is now in Heaven. Jesus said we are "In this world, but not of it." Everything the world or natural, come from the Spirit or unseen realm of God.
We have laid up in the Heavenly realm, everything that is needed for Life and Godliness. Jesus said to, "Seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness and all of these things shall be added unto us." We do this in order to have the unseen realm of the Spirit, added to the seen things of this natural realm.
I don't wish for people to become foolish and leap into something they don't understand, but I do want them to reach into the Kingdom of the heavenlies and appropriate what the Father has prepared for us there. Jesus taught us to pray that, "Thy will be done on earth as it is in heave." God's will has not changed. All of the things we were taught God used to teach us (like making us sick or taking someone's life) are not certainly "God's will in heaven."
If all we witness occurring on earth is God's will, then we're going to have an awful time in Heaven. I don't believe that there will be hospitals, prisons, graveyards, starving children, heartache, disease, homelessness or wars in Heaven, but we persist in saying these things are God's will. In order to appropriate God's will here on earth, we must first enter into the realm of God, which is the spirit realm.
Jesus reached into the spirit realm and fed a multitude with enough bread and fish required. There was always enough in Heaven to care for the entire multitude, but in their fallen state, they couldn't gain access to it. Even the miracles and healings that toke place in Jesus' ministry came from the Heavenly realm of God's will. Jesus said over and over again that, "It is not Me, but the Father in Me, Who is doing the work." He said in John 5:30 (Amplified), "I am able to do nothing from Myself (independently, of My Own accord-but only as I Am taught by God and as I get His orders)."
Monday, April 18, 2016
Lesson 34 The New Creation
2Corinthians 16-17 has been the scripture we've been basing these teachings on. These two verses of scripture give much truth and revelation concerning who we are now in Christ Jesus. It's difficult to imagine a Christian who doesn't believe his/her loved one (who died in Christ) is in heaven with the Lord. We might disagree on many things, but should not on this point. The old familiar phrase of "They are in a far better place," is the hope and faith that we all should share.
Paul said many things that shed much light about our being new creations in 2Corinthians 5:16-17 (Amplified) saying, "Consequently, from now on we estimate and regard no one from a (purely) human point of view (in terms of natural standards of value). (No) even though we once did estimate Christ from a human viewpoint and as a Man, yet now (we have such knowledge of Him that) we know Him no longer (in terms of the flesh)."
This scripture tells us there is now revealed to the Church (by the Holy Spirit), a new and full revelation of Christ as He is now. We know Christ as more than just the Man Who died for us, but as the Lord Who has been raised for us. We seem to have no trouble with knowing the Man, but struggle with knowing the Risen Christ. We seem to struggle with identifying with the Risen Christ, more so than the Man Who is Christ. This is because we still identify more with our old carnal self (the sinner), rather than the new creation who is now righteous. The flesh, with its pride and ignorance has used false humility to keep us from seeing who we are, by clinging to who we once were.
We have no problem believing our spirit goes to heaven when we die, but we have somehow failed to deal with our spirit, while we are in this mortal body. We didn't become a spirit when we died, but we became a spirit when we were born. We've always been a spirit being, even when we were unsaved. Jesus said in John 4:24 (Amplified) that, "God is a Spirit (a Spirit Being) and those that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth (reality)."
Genesis 1:27 (Amplified) says, "So God created man in His Own Image, in the Image and Likeness of God He created him; male and female He created them." This leaves no doubt that we and spirit beings just like our God. When Adam transgressed in the Garden, we didn't stop being spirit beings, but we lost contact with God, Who was and is the Life of our spirit, according to John 6:63 (Amplified) which says, "It is the Spirit Who gives Life (He is the Life-Giver); the flesh conveys no benefit whatever (there is no profit in it). The Words (truths) that I have been speaking to you are Spirit and Life."
When Adam was cut off from the Life in God by his transgression, he didn't cease being a spirit, but now, he had become a "dead spirit" that was disconnected from the Life Giver, Who is the Spirit of God. Being born again doesn't mean you just became a spirit, but that the "dead spirit" that resides in your flesh and blood body, was now made to be alive again unto God Who is the Life-giver, by the Holy Spirit.
John 3:5-6 (Amplified) says, "Jesus answered, I assure you, most solemnly I tell you, unless a man is born of water and (even) the Spirit, he cannot (ever) enter the Kingdom of God. What is born of (from) the flesh is flesh (of the physical is physical); and what is born of the Spirit is Spirit."
For some reason (that only God knows, I guess), we hardly ever think of ourselves as spirit, until after we die physically. What the Holy Spirit is trying to reveal to us, is that we're not only spirit beings, but now we a living spirits, by the Life-Giver Who is the Holy Spirit Himself.
By being born again, by the new birth, we have become new creations who are after the Likeness and Image of Jesus Christ. The new birth gave life into a spirit that had been dead unto God, until Jesus died and rose again to pay the price needed to restore Life into our once dead spirit.
Many have had a problem dealing with "spiritual death," throughout the years. This might be because of not being taught correctly or from not really wanting to know the difference. A dead spirit doesn't mean "non existence," as some would believe, but means "cut off" from the Life Giver. When Adam sinned in the Garden, he didn't cease to be, but the day he listened to the voice of satan, he sinned and died. Genesis 5:5 tells us that Adam lived for 930 years.
What did God mean when he forbid Adam's eating of the Tree of Knowledge in the Garden? Genesis 2:16-17 (Amplified) says, "And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, you may freely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and blessing and calamity you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die." Yet, we see how Adam lived 930 years after that day. Did he died that day, as God said, or did he not die? He died spiritually and his spirit was cut off from the Life Giver, Who gave life to his spirit. Once he was separated from God's Spirit, all life began to cease in his body as well and now, even the flesh was doomed to death and disease. Adam was still a spirit, but was without the Life of God to draw from.
Romans 8:2 (Amplified) says, "For the Law of the Spirit of Life (which is) in Christ Jesus (the Law of our new being) has freed me from the Law of sin and of death." We can now understand more of what 2Corinthians 5:17 (Amplified) means to us now. Thus, is says, "Therefore is any person is (ingrafted) in Christ (the Messiah) he is a new creation (a new creation altogether); the old (previous moral and spiritual condition) has passed away, Behold, the fresh and new has come."
Through faith in Jesus as our Sin Bearer, believing He died as we did as "spirit" because of sin or separation from God and believing we became alive again because He rose again to the Father in righteousness and justification for us. We are made alive with Him unto God, Who has given us Life in our new creation spirit. We are now connected to Life, wisdom, the realm of Heave, the Kingdom of God Himself, eternal life in and with Him, our inheritance as family and so much more.
All of these things came to pass when we were made a new creation in Christ Jesus. The cemeteries hold the "house of flesh" our spirits reside in while on earth and the living spirit has gone to Heaven, with God. We must concentrate, then, on who we are now and not on only who we will be when we die.
Paul said many things that shed much light about our being new creations in 2Corinthians 5:16-17 (Amplified) saying, "Consequently, from now on we estimate and regard no one from a (purely) human point of view (in terms of natural standards of value). (No) even though we once did estimate Christ from a human viewpoint and as a Man, yet now (we have such knowledge of Him that) we know Him no longer (in terms of the flesh)."
This scripture tells us there is now revealed to the Church (by the Holy Spirit), a new and full revelation of Christ as He is now. We know Christ as more than just the Man Who died for us, but as the Lord Who has been raised for us. We seem to have no trouble with knowing the Man, but struggle with knowing the Risen Christ. We seem to struggle with identifying with the Risen Christ, more so than the Man Who is Christ. This is because we still identify more with our old carnal self (the sinner), rather than the new creation who is now righteous. The flesh, with its pride and ignorance has used false humility to keep us from seeing who we are, by clinging to who we once were.
We have no problem believing our spirit goes to heaven when we die, but we have somehow failed to deal with our spirit, while we are in this mortal body. We didn't become a spirit when we died, but we became a spirit when we were born. We've always been a spirit being, even when we were unsaved. Jesus said in John 4:24 (Amplified) that, "God is a Spirit (a Spirit Being) and those that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth (reality)."
Genesis 1:27 (Amplified) says, "So God created man in His Own Image, in the Image and Likeness of God He created him; male and female He created them." This leaves no doubt that we and spirit beings just like our God. When Adam transgressed in the Garden, we didn't stop being spirit beings, but we lost contact with God, Who was and is the Life of our spirit, according to John 6:63 (Amplified) which says, "It is the Spirit Who gives Life (He is the Life-Giver); the flesh conveys no benefit whatever (there is no profit in it). The Words (truths) that I have been speaking to you are Spirit and Life."
When Adam was cut off from the Life in God by his transgression, he didn't cease being a spirit, but now, he had become a "dead spirit" that was disconnected from the Life Giver, Who is the Spirit of God. Being born again doesn't mean you just became a spirit, but that the "dead spirit" that resides in your flesh and blood body, was now made to be alive again unto God Who is the Life-giver, by the Holy Spirit.
John 3:5-6 (Amplified) says, "Jesus answered, I assure you, most solemnly I tell you, unless a man is born of water and (even) the Spirit, he cannot (ever) enter the Kingdom of God. What is born of (from) the flesh is flesh (of the physical is physical); and what is born of the Spirit is Spirit."
For some reason (that only God knows, I guess), we hardly ever think of ourselves as spirit, until after we die physically. What the Holy Spirit is trying to reveal to us, is that we're not only spirit beings, but now we a living spirits, by the Life-Giver Who is the Holy Spirit Himself.
By being born again, by the new birth, we have become new creations who are after the Likeness and Image of Jesus Christ. The new birth gave life into a spirit that had been dead unto God, until Jesus died and rose again to pay the price needed to restore Life into our once dead spirit.
Many have had a problem dealing with "spiritual death," throughout the years. This might be because of not being taught correctly or from not really wanting to know the difference. A dead spirit doesn't mean "non existence," as some would believe, but means "cut off" from the Life Giver. When Adam sinned in the Garden, he didn't cease to be, but the day he listened to the voice of satan, he sinned and died. Genesis 5:5 tells us that Adam lived for 930 years.
What did God mean when he forbid Adam's eating of the Tree of Knowledge in the Garden? Genesis 2:16-17 (Amplified) says, "And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, you may freely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and blessing and calamity you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die." Yet, we see how Adam lived 930 years after that day. Did he died that day, as God said, or did he not die? He died spiritually and his spirit was cut off from the Life Giver, Who gave life to his spirit. Once he was separated from God's Spirit, all life began to cease in his body as well and now, even the flesh was doomed to death and disease. Adam was still a spirit, but was without the Life of God to draw from.
Romans 8:2 (Amplified) says, "For the Law of the Spirit of Life (which is) in Christ Jesus (the Law of our new being) has freed me from the Law of sin and of death." We can now understand more of what 2Corinthians 5:17 (Amplified) means to us now. Thus, is says, "Therefore is any person is (ingrafted) in Christ (the Messiah) he is a new creation (a new creation altogether); the old (previous moral and spiritual condition) has passed away, Behold, the fresh and new has come."
Through faith in Jesus as our Sin Bearer, believing He died as we did as "spirit" because of sin or separation from God and believing we became alive again because He rose again to the Father in righteousness and justification for us. We are made alive with Him unto God, Who has given us Life in our new creation spirit. We are now connected to Life, wisdom, the realm of Heave, the Kingdom of God Himself, eternal life in and with Him, our inheritance as family and so much more.
All of these things came to pass when we were made a new creation in Christ Jesus. The cemeteries hold the "house of flesh" our spirits reside in while on earth and the living spirit has gone to Heaven, with God. We must concentrate, then, on who we are now and not on only who we will be when we die.
Friday, April 15, 2016
Lesson 33 The New Creation
Proverbs 4:20-22 (Amplified) says, "My Son; attend to My Words; consent and submit to My sayings. Let them not depart from your sight; keep them in the center of your heart for they are life to those who find them, healing and health to their flesh."
The new creation that we've now become, has dominion in the Spirit and also in the natural realm. Through the new birth, we've once again become alive to God in the Spirit. We now can operate as He intended man to operate in the First Creation. Man walked in the Spirit with the Father, according to Genesis 3:8 (Amplified) which says, "And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day (in the Spirit)."
We now, once again through Jesus in this new creation reality, are alive in our spirit, to hear the voice of God, just like Jesus did. He doesn't lead us by our senses and intellect, He leads us by our spirit. 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 innermost parts." The only avenue to truly hearing or knowing God, is by your spirit.
There are things in God's Word we've come to know by our intellect, but this is just intellectually knowing them. We're intelligent enough to read and understand the Words, but they haven't become Life and Healing by Revelation. Remember, "the spirit of the man is the Lamp of the Lord." It's when the Word is revealed to your spirit, that the power of the Word is released into the rest of your being.
The old covenant people knew what the Word said, but they had no revelation of what it really meant to them. Jesus asked in John 7:28-29 (Amplified), "Do you know Me and do you know where I Am from? I have not come on My Own accord and as self-appointed, but the One Who sent Me is true (real, genuine, steadfast) and Him you do not know. I know Him (Myself) because I come from His (very) presence, and it was He (personally) Who sent Me."
Without the Holy Spirit's giving life to God's Word, we simply read it with our intellect, while educating our senses to understand the Words, but not the spirit. Jesus said in John 6:63 (Amplified), "It is the Spirit Who gives life (He is the Life-Giver) the flesh conveys no benefit whatever (there is no profit in it) The Words that I have been speaking to you are Spirit and Life." It doesn't matter how much we think we know about the Word, without the Holy Spirit's revealing the Life within them, they are simply of "no benefit."
We've come up with many things by reading the Word of God, yet we have so many different interpretations of what it really says. The Holy Spirit is the only One Who can convey the truth of the Word to us, and then only into our spirit. We can educate the natural man to a fault and still know know what the Spirit is saying to us. This is why it's so very important to understand that we've already become a new creation in Christ.
Somehow, we've thought that most things we read in the Word are only for a future time. God is already in the future and has already raised us up into what we would call the future. If you're born again, the you are now, already a new creation. This isn't something you are going to be, but something you already are. Through Jesus, we've become a new creation who is made in the very Likeness and Image of our Father. We've been created into the class of being of the living spirit, who will walk, know, respond to and hear the Spirit of God in our own spirit man.
We've viewed men and women who have done great and mighty things through God, as being "special." True! Some were called for certain things like the five-fold ministry, but they were all people who heard God and were led by His Spirit into awesome things. We refer to Smith Wigglesworth as "The Apostle of Father," and I'm sure he was. He started by hearings God's Voice and obeying it, then later became the great man we all read about. We've somehow been led to believe it's a lottery and that our number didn't come up. If we will only seek Him out, like hunting for "Silver and Gold, and will spend time allowing the Holy Spirit to lead us, then we can "make ourselves a vessel to be used by the Master." 2Timothy 2:21 (Amplified) says, "So whoever cleanses himself (from what is ignoble and unclean, who separates himself from contact with contaminating and corrupting influences) will (then himself) be a vessel set apart and useful for honorable and noble purposes, consecrated and profitable to the Master, fit and ready for any good work."
There has always been those who will deny the super-natural things of God. Some will poison others saying, "those things have passed away and are not for today," or that, "those things are of the devil." These are things that will "corrupt and contaminated" your faith and your ability to actually hear the Voice of God for yourself. If you truly believe that all of the super-natural things of God have "passed away," then you will never seek the Spirit of God, in order to pursue those things in your life.
We are new creation who've already become a super-natural being. Walking in the super-natural is natural to Him. We're called to walk here in this realm, walking naturally super-natural. Jesus walked naturally super-natural and made it look simple. He was never concerned wondering "Will it work?" He simply said that, "He didn't come to do His will, but the will of Him Who had sent Him." In John 5:30 (Amplified) Jesus said, "I am able to do nothing from Myself (independently, of My Own accord-but only as I am taught by God and as I get His orders); Even as I hear, I judge (I decide as I am bidden to decide, as the voice comes to Me, so I give a decision), and My judgment is right ( just, righteous) because I do not seek or consult My Own will (I have no desire to do what is pleasing to Myself, My Own aim, My Own purpose) but only the will and pleasure of the Father Who sent Me."
We spend so much time trying to decide whether something is the Father's will. Jesus did everything He did because He "heard and obeyed" the will of the Father. If it was the Father's will to heal when Jesus was here as a Man, then has the Father's will changed since then? We're always wondering, "maybe it is God's will to make me sick" or "God makes me sick as a way of teaching me things."
To know Jesus is to know the Father. He said that, "The Father and He were One" and "everything He did was the Father's will." In John 6:38 (Amplified) Jesus said, "For I have come down from heaven not to do My Own will and purpose but to do the will and purpose of Him Who sent Me." Why do we continue arguing and dividing ourselves over things the Holy Spirit has already revealed to us, by Jesus and His ministry?
Are there people who do not get healed today? Of course, but is that really God's will being done or is is a lack of understanding what God's will truly is? Are there people who have passed away or who are alive today, who weren't saved or are not saved? Yes, there are. Is this also "God's will?" 2Peter 3:9 (Amplified) says, "The Lord does not delay and is not tardy or slow about what He promises, according to some people's conception of slowness, but He is long-suffering (extraordinarily patient) toward you, not desiring that any should perish, but that all should turn to repentance."
It is God's will, then, that "none should perish, but that all should turn to repentance." Still, though, that not "all men are saved." Why? Because it's not God's will? Or, is it because some choose to do their own will? Our job, as new creation people, resides in the "will" of His love and His Spirit. Like Jesus, we're to know the will of God, not as men have portrayed it to us, but as God's Spirit has portrayed to us. We've decide in our own selves that it's not His will to heal some people, or in some case, not to save them either. We've decided that His will only exists for some and not for others.
We've allowed men to determine what God's will and purpose is, instead of asking or knowing what His will is. A young lady approached me in tears, because she "didn't wish to go to hell." I responded by assuring her that she could easily solve that and told her the way of salvation. She'd been told in some fellow-ship, that God had chosen some for perdition and that she was one of them. She was told that her fate was sealed and she could never be saved. Acts 16:30-31 (Amplified) says, "And he brought them out (of the dungeon) and said, Men, what is necessary for me to do that I might be saved? And they answered him, Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ (give up yourself to Him, take yourself out of your own keeping and entrust yourself into His keeping) and you will be saved (and this applied both to) you and your household as well."
Men's ideas would have left this young woman tormented and fearful, but God's idea was that she have salvation and peace with Him. Men have contrived so many things from the Bible that are not the will of the Father. Jesus taught us to pray "Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven." If sickness, disease, pain, fear, cancer, death, hunger, homelessness and bondage is God's will in heaven, then we're all in for a sorry time when we get to heaven. Hebrews 2 (Amplified) says, "He (Jesus) 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 mighty Word of power."
When you watch the ministry of Jesus, you will know the will of God. He is unchangeable. This erases all doubt and fear of not knowing how to pray and releases faith in His Word for the lost and sick. Remember, there will always be some who will not believe, even Jesus ran into some of these. But, there are also those who want to know, "What must I do to be saved?" Please, don't tell them they must never cut their hair or do certain things that are "after the customs of men." Tell them they must only believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, because all who call upon His Name will be saved.
The new creation that we've now become, has dominion in the Spirit and also in the natural realm. Through the new birth, we've once again become alive to God in the Spirit. We now can operate as He intended man to operate in the First Creation. Man walked in the Spirit with the Father, according to Genesis 3:8 (Amplified) which says, "And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day (in the Spirit)."
We now, once again through Jesus in this new creation reality, are alive in our spirit, to hear the voice of God, just like Jesus did. He doesn't lead us by our senses and intellect, He leads us by our spirit. 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 innermost parts." The only avenue to truly hearing or knowing God, is by your spirit.
There are things in God's Word we've come to know by our intellect, but this is just intellectually knowing them. We're intelligent enough to read and understand the Words, but they haven't become Life and Healing by Revelation. Remember, "the spirit of the man is the Lamp of the Lord." It's when the Word is revealed to your spirit, that the power of the Word is released into the rest of your being.
The old covenant people knew what the Word said, but they had no revelation of what it really meant to them. Jesus asked in John 7:28-29 (Amplified), "Do you know Me and do you know where I Am from? I have not come on My Own accord and as self-appointed, but the One Who sent Me is true (real, genuine, steadfast) and Him you do not know. I know Him (Myself) because I come from His (very) presence, and it was He (personally) Who sent Me."
Without the Holy Spirit's giving life to God's Word, we simply read it with our intellect, while educating our senses to understand the Words, but not the spirit. Jesus said in John 6:63 (Amplified), "It is the Spirit Who gives life (He is the Life-Giver) the flesh conveys no benefit whatever (there is no profit in it) The Words that I have been speaking to you are Spirit and Life." It doesn't matter how much we think we know about the Word, without the Holy Spirit's revealing the Life within them, they are simply of "no benefit."
We've come up with many things by reading the Word of God, yet we have so many different interpretations of what it really says. The Holy Spirit is the only One Who can convey the truth of the Word to us, and then only into our spirit. We can educate the natural man to a fault and still know know what the Spirit is saying to us. This is why it's so very important to understand that we've already become a new creation in Christ.
Somehow, we've thought that most things we read in the Word are only for a future time. God is already in the future and has already raised us up into what we would call the future. If you're born again, the you are now, already a new creation. This isn't something you are going to be, but something you already are. Through Jesus, we've become a new creation who is made in the very Likeness and Image of our Father. We've been created into the class of being of the living spirit, who will walk, know, respond to and hear the Spirit of God in our own spirit man.
We've viewed men and women who have done great and mighty things through God, as being "special." True! Some were called for certain things like the five-fold ministry, but they were all people who heard God and were led by His Spirit into awesome things. We refer to Smith Wigglesworth as "The Apostle of Father," and I'm sure he was. He started by hearings God's Voice and obeying it, then later became the great man we all read about. We've somehow been led to believe it's a lottery and that our number didn't come up. If we will only seek Him out, like hunting for "Silver and Gold, and will spend time allowing the Holy Spirit to lead us, then we can "make ourselves a vessel to be used by the Master." 2Timothy 2:21 (Amplified) says, "So whoever cleanses himself (from what is ignoble and unclean, who separates himself from contact with contaminating and corrupting influences) will (then himself) be a vessel set apart and useful for honorable and noble purposes, consecrated and profitable to the Master, fit and ready for any good work."
There has always been those who will deny the super-natural things of God. Some will poison others saying, "those things have passed away and are not for today," or that, "those things are of the devil." These are things that will "corrupt and contaminated" your faith and your ability to actually hear the Voice of God for yourself. If you truly believe that all of the super-natural things of God have "passed away," then you will never seek the Spirit of God, in order to pursue those things in your life.
We are new creation who've already become a super-natural being. Walking in the super-natural is natural to Him. We're called to walk here in this realm, walking naturally super-natural. Jesus walked naturally super-natural and made it look simple. He was never concerned wondering "Will it work?" He simply said that, "He didn't come to do His will, but the will of Him Who had sent Him." In John 5:30 (Amplified) Jesus said, "I am able to do nothing from Myself (independently, of My Own accord-but only as I am taught by God and as I get His orders); Even as I hear, I judge (I decide as I am bidden to decide, as the voice comes to Me, so I give a decision), and My judgment is right ( just, righteous) because I do not seek or consult My Own will (I have no desire to do what is pleasing to Myself, My Own aim, My Own purpose) but only the will and pleasure of the Father Who sent Me."
We spend so much time trying to decide whether something is the Father's will. Jesus did everything He did because He "heard and obeyed" the will of the Father. If it was the Father's will to heal when Jesus was here as a Man, then has the Father's will changed since then? We're always wondering, "maybe it is God's will to make me sick" or "God makes me sick as a way of teaching me things."
To know Jesus is to know the Father. He said that, "The Father and He were One" and "everything He did was the Father's will." In John 6:38 (Amplified) Jesus said, "For I have come down from heaven not to do My Own will and purpose but to do the will and purpose of Him Who sent Me." Why do we continue arguing and dividing ourselves over things the Holy Spirit has already revealed to us, by Jesus and His ministry?
Are there people who do not get healed today? Of course, but is that really God's will being done or is is a lack of understanding what God's will truly is? Are there people who have passed away or who are alive today, who weren't saved or are not saved? Yes, there are. Is this also "God's will?" 2Peter 3:9 (Amplified) says, "The Lord does not delay and is not tardy or slow about what He promises, according to some people's conception of slowness, but He is long-suffering (extraordinarily patient) toward you, not desiring that any should perish, but that all should turn to repentance."
It is God's will, then, that "none should perish, but that all should turn to repentance." Still, though, that not "all men are saved." Why? Because it's not God's will? Or, is it because some choose to do their own will? Our job, as new creation people, resides in the "will" of His love and His Spirit. Like Jesus, we're to know the will of God, not as men have portrayed it to us, but as God's Spirit has portrayed to us. We've decide in our own selves that it's not His will to heal some people, or in some case, not to save them either. We've decided that His will only exists for some and not for others.
We've allowed men to determine what God's will and purpose is, instead of asking or knowing what His will is. A young lady approached me in tears, because she "didn't wish to go to hell." I responded by assuring her that she could easily solve that and told her the way of salvation. She'd been told in some fellow-ship, that God had chosen some for perdition and that she was one of them. She was told that her fate was sealed and she could never be saved. Acts 16:30-31 (Amplified) says, "And he brought them out (of the dungeon) and said, Men, what is necessary for me to do that I might be saved? And they answered him, Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ (give up yourself to Him, take yourself out of your own keeping and entrust yourself into His keeping) and you will be saved (and this applied both to) you and your household as well."
Men's ideas would have left this young woman tormented and fearful, but God's idea was that she have salvation and peace with Him. Men have contrived so many things from the Bible that are not the will of the Father. Jesus taught us to pray "Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven." If sickness, disease, pain, fear, cancer, death, hunger, homelessness and bondage is God's will in heaven, then we're all in for a sorry time when we get to heaven. Hebrews 2 (Amplified) says, "He (Jesus) 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 mighty Word of power."
When you watch the ministry of Jesus, you will know the will of God. He is unchangeable. This erases all doubt and fear of not knowing how to pray and releases faith in His Word for the lost and sick. Remember, there will always be some who will not believe, even Jesus ran into some of these. But, there are also those who want to know, "What must I do to be saved?" Please, don't tell them they must never cut their hair or do certain things that are "after the customs of men." Tell them they must only believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, because all who call upon His Name will be saved.
Wednesday, April 13, 2016
Lesson 32 The New Creation
1Corinthians 5:16-17 (Amplified) states that we, "No longer know any man (including Jesus) only after the flesh, but after the Spirit." It says that now, through Jesus and the new birth, we are a new creation. Notice, it doesn't say we are only forgiven, but that we are a new creation.
We obviously still live in this flesh and blood body, but now because of Jesus, God has reckoned this flesh and blood body to be dead with Jesus on the cross and alive to God through the resurrection. If the body is dead because of the crucifixion and the Spirit is alive unto God, then it makes it obvious that God will deal with and contact us by our new creation spirit man. God is Life and doesn't spend much time talking to dead people.
We've long depended on our five senses (the flesh) to contact and fellowship with our Heavenly Father. Many have been disappointed over and over again, because "this faith thing" doesn't work. God deals now with our new creation, the born again spirit of man. There are times when His presence is so strong in our spirit, that we can feel it in our flesh, but it comes first into our spirit.
God is a Spirit, according to John 4:24 (Amplified) which says, "God is a Spirit (a Spiritual Being) and those who worship Him must worship Him in spirit and truth (reality)." Clearly, truth is reality. Jesus said in John 6:63 (Amplified) "It is the Spirit Who gives life (He is the Life-Giver); the flesh conveys no benefit whatever (there is no profit in it). The Words (truths) that I have been speaking to you are Spirit and Life."
Some might sigh and say, "We've already read these scriptures." Let's take all these things together now and let God reveal what we can learn from these simple truths to us. We learned first that God is a Spirit and secondly, the Words of the Bible (the Word of God) is also spirit. The third thing we learned is that this Spirit Word is also alive. John 3:5-6 (Amplified) says, "Jesus answered, I assure you, most solemnly I tell you, unless a man is born of water and (even) the Spirit, he cannot (ever) enter the Kingdom of God. What is born of (from) the flesh is flesh (of the physical is physical); and what is born of the Spirit is Spirit."
Until we begin to understand that God leads by His Spirit, (in Word, in revelation, in truth), then we will miss the mark of where we wish to be with Him. Romans 8:14 (Amplified) says, "For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God." We can be born again by the Spirit and taught by the doctrines of men, never maturing into true son-ship and into true fellowship with our Father. When my wife and I had our first baby boy, he was my son from the moment he was born. Even though I enjoyed holding him and loving him, I had very little fellowship with him. While he was an infant, I couldn't take him hunting, fishing, horseback riding or hold conversations with him, because he was a baby. I loved my son, but I couldn't enjoy the things I held in my heart for him.
As my son began growing and maturing into a young man, we had (and still enjoy) a great and loving relationship. He has learned for himself the love of fishing, hunting, horseback riding, 1957 Chevrolets and love his own family. We now have an unbroken fellowship by his growing into a mature son, instead of just being my baby boy.
We will never be any more of a new creation, than we are already. What we can do and are expected to do, is to mature in this new life. Let's read Romans 8:10-11 (Amplified) which says, "But if Christ lives in you, (then although) your (natural) body is dead by reason of sin and guilt, the spirit is alive because of (the) righteousness (that He imputes to you) And if the Spirit of Him Who raised up Jesus from the dead dwells in you, (then) He Who raised up Christ from the dead will also restore to life your mortal (short-lived, perishable) bodies through His Spirit Who dwells in you."
Hebrews 5:13-14 (Amplified) says, "For everyone who continues to feed on milk is obviously inexperienced and unskilled in the doctrine of righteousness (of conformity to the divine will in purpose, thought, and action) for he is a mere infant (not able to talk yet) 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 Word of God (truth), when fed into your spirit, will bring even the life that is in the Word to bear on the flesh and train it to respond to the Spirit, by use and practice. Romans 8:11 refers to the "raised and glorified" body that died in the natural, but I also believe it's talking about the Life of the Spirit bringing healing and dominion and discipline to the natural body, while we are still here. Galatians 5:16 (Amplified)says, "But I say, walk and live (habitually) in the Holy Spirit (responsive to and controlled and guided by the Spirit); then you will certainly not gratify the cravings and desires of the flesh (of human nature without God0."
If we allow the Word to become Spirit to us and allow the Holy Spirit to reveal Himself to us by the Spirit of the Word, then it will allow the Life of the Spirit to permeate and heal and bring life to our natural bodies too. Proverbs 4:20-22 (Amplified) says, "My son; attend to My Words; consent and submit to My sayings; Let them not depart from your sight; keep them in the center of your heart for they are life to those who find them, healing and health to their flesh."
The new creation that we've become has dominion in the Spirit, as well as the natural realm. Through the new birth, we have once again become alive to God, in the Spirit. We can now operate like God intended man to operate in the first creation. Man walked in the Spirit with the Father, according to Genesis 3:8 (Amplified) which says, "And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the Garden [of Eden] in the cool of the day (in the Spirit)."
Through Jesus, in the new creation reality, are alive in our spirit and can hear the voice of God like Jesus did. He doesn't lead us by our intellect or senses, but He leads us by our spirit. Proverbs 20:27 (Amplified) says, "The spirit of man (that factor in human personality which proceeds immediately from God) is the lamp of the Lord, searching all his innermost parts." The only way to truly hear or know God, is by your spirit.
We've learned these truths in God's Word by our intellect, but this is only intellectually knowing. We're intelligent enough to read and understand the words, but they haven't become life and healing by revelation. Remember, the spirit of the man is "the lamp of the Lord." When the Word is revealed to your spirit, that releases it's power into the remainder of your being.
The old covenant people knew what the Word said, but they had no revelation of what it truly meant for them. Jesus said in John 7:28-29 (Amplified), "Do you know Me? and do you know where I Am from? I have not come on My Own accord and as self-appointed, but the One Who sent Me is true (real, genuine, steadfast) and Him you do not know. I know Him (Myself) because I came from His (very) presence, and it was He (personally) Who sent Me."
Without the Holy Spirit giving life to the Word of God, we simply read it with out intellect and only educate the senses to understand the words, but not the Spirit. Jesus said in John 6:63 (Amplified) "It is the Spirit Who gives life (He is the Life-Giver) the flesh conveys no benefit whatever (there is no profit in it) The Words (Truths) that I have been speaking to you are Spirit and Life." It doesn't matter how much we think we know about the Word, without the Holy Spirit revealing the Life within it. They are simply words of no benefit, but are only for the flesh without His revealing the Truth in them.
We obviously still live in this flesh and blood body, but now because of Jesus, God has reckoned this flesh and blood body to be dead with Jesus on the cross and alive to God through the resurrection. If the body is dead because of the crucifixion and the Spirit is alive unto God, then it makes it obvious that God will deal with and contact us by our new creation spirit man. God is Life and doesn't spend much time talking to dead people.
We've long depended on our five senses (the flesh) to contact and fellowship with our Heavenly Father. Many have been disappointed over and over again, because "this faith thing" doesn't work. God deals now with our new creation, the born again spirit of man. There are times when His presence is so strong in our spirit, that we can feel it in our flesh, but it comes first into our spirit.
God is a Spirit, according to John 4:24 (Amplified) which says, "God is a Spirit (a Spiritual Being) and those who worship Him must worship Him in spirit and truth (reality)." Clearly, truth is reality. Jesus said in John 6:63 (Amplified) "It is the Spirit Who gives life (He is the Life-Giver); the flesh conveys no benefit whatever (there is no profit in it). The Words (truths) that I have been speaking to you are Spirit and Life."
Some might sigh and say, "We've already read these scriptures." Let's take all these things together now and let God reveal what we can learn from these simple truths to us. We learned first that God is a Spirit and secondly, the Words of the Bible (the Word of God) is also spirit. The third thing we learned is that this Spirit Word is also alive. John 3:5-6 (Amplified) says, "Jesus answered, I assure you, most solemnly I tell you, unless a man is born of water and (even) the Spirit, he cannot (ever) enter the Kingdom of God. What is born of (from) the flesh is flesh (of the physical is physical); and what is born of the Spirit is Spirit."
Until we begin to understand that God leads by His Spirit, (in Word, in revelation, in truth), then we will miss the mark of where we wish to be with Him. Romans 8:14 (Amplified) says, "For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God." We can be born again by the Spirit and taught by the doctrines of men, never maturing into true son-ship and into true fellowship with our Father. When my wife and I had our first baby boy, he was my son from the moment he was born. Even though I enjoyed holding him and loving him, I had very little fellowship with him. While he was an infant, I couldn't take him hunting, fishing, horseback riding or hold conversations with him, because he was a baby. I loved my son, but I couldn't enjoy the things I held in my heart for him.
As my son began growing and maturing into a young man, we had (and still enjoy) a great and loving relationship. He has learned for himself the love of fishing, hunting, horseback riding, 1957 Chevrolets and love his own family. We now have an unbroken fellowship by his growing into a mature son, instead of just being my baby boy.
We will never be any more of a new creation, than we are already. What we can do and are expected to do, is to mature in this new life. Let's read Romans 8:10-11 (Amplified) which says, "But if Christ lives in you, (then although) your (natural) body is dead by reason of sin and guilt, the spirit is alive because of (the) righteousness (that He imputes to you) And if the Spirit of Him Who raised up Jesus from the dead dwells in you, (then) He Who raised up Christ from the dead will also restore to life your mortal (short-lived, perishable) bodies through His Spirit Who dwells in you."
Hebrews 5:13-14 (Amplified) says, "For everyone who continues to feed on milk is obviously inexperienced and unskilled in the doctrine of righteousness (of conformity to the divine will in purpose, thought, and action) for he is a mere infant (not able to talk yet) 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 Word of God (truth), when fed into your spirit, will bring even the life that is in the Word to bear on the flesh and train it to respond to the Spirit, by use and practice. Romans 8:11 refers to the "raised and glorified" body that died in the natural, but I also believe it's talking about the Life of the Spirit bringing healing and dominion and discipline to the natural body, while we are still here. Galatians 5:16 (Amplified)says, "But I say, walk and live (habitually) in the Holy Spirit (responsive to and controlled and guided by the Spirit); then you will certainly not gratify the cravings and desires of the flesh (of human nature without God0."
If we allow the Word to become Spirit to us and allow the Holy Spirit to reveal Himself to us by the Spirit of the Word, then it will allow the Life of the Spirit to permeate and heal and bring life to our natural bodies too. Proverbs 4:20-22 (Amplified) says, "My son; attend to My Words; consent and submit to My sayings; Let them not depart from your sight; keep them in the center of your heart for they are life to those who find them, healing and health to their flesh."
The new creation that we've become has dominion in the Spirit, as well as the natural realm. Through the new birth, we have once again become alive to God, in the Spirit. We can now operate like God intended man to operate in the first creation. Man walked in the Spirit with the Father, according to Genesis 3:8 (Amplified) which says, "And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the Garden [of Eden] in the cool of the day (in the Spirit)."
Through Jesus, in the new creation reality, are alive in our spirit and can hear the voice of God like Jesus did. He doesn't lead us by our intellect or senses, but He leads us by our spirit. Proverbs 20:27 (Amplified) says, "The spirit of man (that factor in human personality which proceeds immediately from God) is the lamp of the Lord, searching all his innermost parts." The only way to truly hear or know God, is by your spirit.
We've learned these truths in God's Word by our intellect, but this is only intellectually knowing. We're intelligent enough to read and understand the words, but they haven't become life and healing by revelation. Remember, the spirit of the man is "the lamp of the Lord." When the Word is revealed to your spirit, that releases it's power into the remainder of your being.
The old covenant people knew what the Word said, but they had no revelation of what it truly meant for them. Jesus said in John 7:28-29 (Amplified), "Do you know Me? and do you know where I Am from? I have not come on My Own accord and as self-appointed, but the One Who sent Me is true (real, genuine, steadfast) and Him you do not know. I know Him (Myself) because I came from His (very) presence, and it was He (personally) Who sent Me."
Without the Holy Spirit giving life to the Word of God, we simply read it with out intellect and only educate the senses to understand the words, but not the Spirit. Jesus said in John 6:63 (Amplified) "It is the Spirit Who gives life (He is the Life-Giver) the flesh conveys no benefit whatever (there is no profit in it) The Words (Truths) that I have been speaking to you are Spirit and Life." It doesn't matter how much we think we know about the Word, without the Holy Spirit revealing the Life within it. They are simply words of no benefit, but are only for the flesh without His revealing the Truth in them.
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