2Corinthians 5:17 (Amplified) says, "Therefore, if any person is (ingrafted) in Christ Jesus (the Messiah) he is a new creature (a new creation altogether); the old (previous moral and spiritual condition) has passed away. Behold, the fresh and new has come."
Awhile back, the Lord gave me a revelation, that I entitled "Return to Eden," about the extent of our salvation. The removal of sin needed to be the first thing God had to deal with, because it was Adam's sin that separated mankind (God's intended family) from Him. Sin brought about the spiritual death or separation from God, Who is Life, and plunged mankind into the chaos we're witnessing on earth today.
The Father's heart desired to create a family for Himself. We were created as a people who were on the same level of creation as Himself, for fellowship and share His Love with. When He created mankind, God created him as a spirit being, made in the Likeness and Image of Himself. Since a spirit being is eternal like God, God had a family to Love. When satan came to Eve to tempt her and cause her fall, Adam tried becoming his own redeemer and buy her back, by forfeiting all he had received from his Father.
1Timothy 2:14 (Amplified) says, "And it was not Adam who was deceived, but (the) woman was deceived and deluded and fell into transgression." If Adam wasn't deceived, then he knowing exchanged everything the Father had given him, for his wife. This included his authority and blessing, as well as the dominion God had pronounced upon Adam. From this deception, came the truth of what the Father spoke, "The day you eat of this tree, that day you shall surely die." Genesis 5:5 (Amplified) tells us, "So altogether Adam lived 930 years, and he died." When God said, "That day you shall surely die," Adam died that day.
Adam's death first took place in his spirit, which was separated from God (Who is Life) through the first sin of transgression. This spiritual death was what the Father needed to deal with, and He had to deal with it on the legal terms of His Word. God would have lost everything His heart had created in the way of a family, if He just destroyed everything and started over. Adam and Eve would have been gone forever, as well as the family that was in Adam's loins.
The Father set in motion, from that moment, what was needed to bring Life and unity once again to His family, according to Genesis 3:15 (Amplified) where He tells satan, "And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring, He will bruise and tread your head under foot, and you will life in wait and bruise His heel." God made a clear distinction between the natural seed and the Divine Seed of Mary, Who was to come many years in the future, from that time.
Jesus said in Matthew 3:27,33 (Amplified), "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." Although they looked to be "right on the outside," their spirit (which is what the Lord was speaking of) was still dead in sin and trespasses. Jesus went on in Verse 33 saying, "You serpents! You spawn of vipers! How can you escape the penalty to be suffered in Hell (Gehenna)?"
This is the distinction God spoke about in Genesis 3:15 (Amplified) where He said, "And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her Offspring." "Her Offspring" was to be the new creation, while satan's offspring was the dead spirit which produced only natural man and a continuation in death and sin. As a dead spirit, satan cannot produce life in the spirit, any more than he can produce righteousness by his own style of redemption. He tried bringing worship to himself, by his own religious style of being god over natural man.
Until Jesus came as the First Born from the dead and brought the source of God's Own Life back into the born-again spirit of this new creation man, death ruled from Adam unto Jesus. Jesus is the source of Life and restoration to God, Who is Life. Without man's accepting Jesus and this Door into the new creation, he will remain in death and sin, regardless of the outside traditions of "whitewashing their tombs" of the flesh (that houses the dead man's bones and the corruption from within).
Sadly, this has been difficult for many to accept as Truth. Could our own Jesus suffer spiritual death? Could Jesus actually die and be separated from the Father, suffer all of our penalty, and be born again as a New Creation as the Last Adam? Could He seed an entirely new Genesis Return to Eden, as the First Born of many brethren? It's difficult for many to see Jesus in this "Fullness of Sacrifice."
The extent of God's Love for us, is reflected in the length and depth of what He did, in order to gain His family back to Himself in fullness. We still see ourselves more like we were, rather than what He has birthed us to be. This brings a great injustice to Jesus' Sacrifice, by not seeing Him in the Fullness of the "Offspring" of the woman in Genesis 3:15. This "Offspring" is the Fullness of the Promise of Life. This isn't the natural offspring, but God's Offspring, through a woman who would conceive the promise (by faith in God's Word) and bring forth a New Creation.
Friday, November 4, 2016
Thursday, November 3, 2016
Lesson 116 The New Creation
2Corinthians 5:17 (Amplified) says, "Therefore, if any person is (ingrafted) in Christ Jesus (the Messiah) he is a new creation (a new creature altogether); the old (previous moral and spiritual condition) has passed away. Behold, the fresh and new has come."
As the Body of Christ, we are a species who never existed before in all of creation. We are a spirit being that isn't only spirit, but also are one spirit with God Himself. There were many people in the Old Testament who had the Spirit of God come upon them for a special time and then God's Spirit would lift off from them after their "job" was completed. There was never a person then, that the Spirit of God and the person's spirit were fused together to become one spirit with the Lord.
Jesus was fused with the Holy Spirit at His Baptism in the Jordan River. There was never such a Being before. Jesus was the First Born of many brethren and the First born of the dead. In John 17, Jesus prayed that we would be "made one, even as He and the Father are One." This is the new creation. We were made to be a being who would be led by our fused spirit with God (God and man) and actually be led like Jesus was led, by the Father within us.
Our joined spirit with God, was to be the dominate part of our entire existence and was to be in control of our soul and body. We were no longer to be led by our senses, but by our newly created spirit with God Himself. We were to be raised to a place of dominance over everything on this planet, like it was intended from the beginning. From the fall of Adam until Jesus, man was led only by his senses, because sin separated his spirit from God. Through Jesus, the sin and separation were done away with and we have been created new in Him.
The new creation man wasn't only to receive education, but revelation from God Himself. We've been designed to discern the very mind of Christ, in our spirit. We are to know and understand the very heart and will of the Father, through our spirit that is fused with His. We are no longer bound by only carnal knowledge and what we receive by our senses, but now we can receive unlimited knowledge through the Holy Spirit being infused into our own born-again spirit. That's how Jesus was led by the Spirit and now we have this awesome privilege.
Through the new creation, we've been enabled to know the very will of God and to be empowered, through His Spirit indwelling in us, to set things back in order. Miracles and healings were only God restoring what He intended into order. It was never God's plan for people to be bound by sickness, disease, or demonic control. Jesus was led by the very Spirit of God and listened to His Father, bringing things back to order that God planned from the beginning.
This is the power and privilege of the new creation people. Jesus illustrates how and what this new creation being was equipped and commissioned to do in Mark 16:17-18. Jesus was to bring people into the knowledge of the new birth and restore back to completion, everything that was out of order from what God had created from the beginning. We can now understand better, the way Jesus taught us to pray in the Lord's Prayer.
We're supposed to seek the mind and heart of God for mankind, on a daily basis. When Jesus taught us to pray, "Thy Kingdom come," it wasn't some far reaching thing for "after we go to heaven," but for us now (the new creation that would happen through Jesus' soon approaching Resurrection) to be performed and renewed on earth,through the Holy Spirit's becoming flesh through God's new family.
God's Word would once again, become flesh through His new creation people and God Himself would be able to walk and talk and perform His will on this earth, through us. This was for all the new creation people who were born-again. We were to be a family who would bring God's Person and will into full contact with this planet. It was designed to be with us, like it was with Jesus. It was to be, "Not us, but the Father in us, that was doing the work."
The same Father Who did the works through Jesus, was now in the new creation people (us) to live in us, walk in us. He was to be our God and we were to be His people. Hebrews 13:20-21 (Amplified) says that, "The God of Peace strengthen (complete, perfect) and make you what you ought to be and equip you with everything good that you may carry out His will (while He Himself) works in you and accomplishes that which is pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ (the Messiah) to Whom be the glory forever and ever (to the ages of the ages), Amen (so be it)."
In order to know what "is pleasing in His sight" and what His will is, we only need to observe Jesus and what He did by and through "the Father in Him." The Very Same Father, Who worked through Jesus to do His will, is the Same Father Who wants to work through us, to do His will. God's will has not changed from Jesus to us and is "as it is in Heaven."
As the Body of Christ, we are a species who never existed before in all of creation. We are a spirit being that isn't only spirit, but also are one spirit with God Himself. There were many people in the Old Testament who had the Spirit of God come upon them for a special time and then God's Spirit would lift off from them after their "job" was completed. There was never a person then, that the Spirit of God and the person's spirit were fused together to become one spirit with the Lord.
Jesus was fused with the Holy Spirit at His Baptism in the Jordan River. There was never such a Being before. Jesus was the First Born of many brethren and the First born of the dead. In John 17, Jesus prayed that we would be "made one, even as He and the Father are One." This is the new creation. We were made to be a being who would be led by our fused spirit with God (God and man) and actually be led like Jesus was led, by the Father within us.
Our joined spirit with God, was to be the dominate part of our entire existence and was to be in control of our soul and body. We were no longer to be led by our senses, but by our newly created spirit with God Himself. We were to be raised to a place of dominance over everything on this planet, like it was intended from the beginning. From the fall of Adam until Jesus, man was led only by his senses, because sin separated his spirit from God. Through Jesus, the sin and separation were done away with and we have been created new in Him.
The new creation man wasn't only to receive education, but revelation from God Himself. We've been designed to discern the very mind of Christ, in our spirit. We are to know and understand the very heart and will of the Father, through our spirit that is fused with His. We are no longer bound by only carnal knowledge and what we receive by our senses, but now we can receive unlimited knowledge through the Holy Spirit being infused into our own born-again spirit. That's how Jesus was led by the Spirit and now we have this awesome privilege.
Through the new creation, we've been enabled to know the very will of God and to be empowered, through His Spirit indwelling in us, to set things back in order. Miracles and healings were only God restoring what He intended into order. It was never God's plan for people to be bound by sickness, disease, or demonic control. Jesus was led by the very Spirit of God and listened to His Father, bringing things back to order that God planned from the beginning.
This is the power and privilege of the new creation people. Jesus illustrates how and what this new creation being was equipped and commissioned to do in Mark 16:17-18. Jesus was to bring people into the knowledge of the new birth and restore back to completion, everything that was out of order from what God had created from the beginning. We can now understand better, the way Jesus taught us to pray in the Lord's Prayer.
We're supposed to seek the mind and heart of God for mankind, on a daily basis. When Jesus taught us to pray, "Thy Kingdom come," it wasn't some far reaching thing for "after we go to heaven," but for us now (the new creation that would happen through Jesus' soon approaching Resurrection) to be performed and renewed on earth,through the Holy Spirit's becoming flesh through God's new family.
God's Word would once again, become flesh through His new creation people and God Himself would be able to walk and talk and perform His will on this earth, through us. This was for all the new creation people who were born-again. We were to be a family who would bring God's Person and will into full contact with this planet. It was designed to be with us, like it was with Jesus. It was to be, "Not us, but the Father in us, that was doing the work."
The same Father Who did the works through Jesus, was now in the new creation people (us) to live in us, walk in us. He was to be our God and we were to be His people. Hebrews 13:20-21 (Amplified) says that, "The God of Peace strengthen (complete, perfect) and make you what you ought to be and equip you with everything good that you may carry out His will (while He Himself) works in you and accomplishes that which is pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ (the Messiah) to Whom be the glory forever and ever (to the ages of the ages), Amen (so be it)."
In order to know what "is pleasing in His sight" and what His will is, we only need to observe Jesus and what He did by and through "the Father in Him." The Very Same Father, Who worked through Jesus to do His will, is the Same Father Who wants to work through us, to do His will. God's will has not changed from Jesus to us and is "as it is in Heaven."
Wednesday, November 2, 2016
Lesson 115 The New Creation
2Corinthians 5:17 (Amplified) says, "Therefore, if any person is (ingrafted) in Christ Jesus (the Messiah), he is a new creation (a new creature altogether); the old (previous moral and spiritual condition) has passed away. Behold, the fresh and new has come."
The above scripture seems radical and fanatical to the way of thinking for many in today's Church. We've been trained and taught carnally for so long, that it's difficult for them to see themselves like who they truly are in Christ Jesus and after the new creation and after the Spirit. For centuries, until Jesus came on the scene, the people had remained in the carnal realm and couldn't receive the Truth of the Spiritual teachings He taught.
They couldn't understand the Truth Jesus taught, until the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. These people were still old covenant people and were not born-again yet. The things Jesus taught were so foreign from what they were taught and knew and sounded radical and fanatical to their ears. When the Holy Spirit came and man could actually be born-again of the Spirit of God, things changed.
Because we've been trained in the carnal realm more than in the spiritual realm, many thing still seem over-the-top to many of God's children. We've grossly misunderstood what is means to be a new creation and we've tried patterning our spiritual walk after the things of the old covenant, without realizing the people of the old covenant were not born-again of the Spirit. God had to deal with them from the outside-in, instead of the inside-out, because the old covenant people were still dead in their spirit. This is what Jesus referred to in John 10:10 when He said, "I come that they might have Life."
Those present when He said this, probably thought to themselves, "Don't I already have life?" They didn't know He was speaking about their dead spirit that was separated from God by sin and trespasses. Under the new covenant, we (through Jesus) have been made alive in our spirit and our spirit has been made one with God. This is the new creation that Paul speaks about.
Most of us have never really pursued this relationship to the full extent of what it actually has in store for us. God now deals with us by our new creation, born-again spirit and not by our flesh with rituals and traditions like in the old covenant. We are now to be led and instructed by our spirit, which is alive to God again. Much of our preaching and teachings are directed at our natural man, and not by our new creation man.
We were to be controlled by our spirit and not our flesh, from the beginning. We are a spirit being and our spirit was to be in charge of our earthly body and soul. We were to hear from God in our spirit and to be directed by the Holy Spirit in our lives. When Adam fell and severed communication from the Father, we were left to rely on our carnal nature for instructions on how to live.
After many years of not hearing from God, we set up our own ways of doing thins and functioning in this world. And, because we were only able to function in this world system, we set up a kingdom that was still ruled by satan, instead of by God. We know God as "Father," but the unsaved people know Him only as "God." Jesus told the old covenant people that they were, "Like their father, the devil."
Under this new creation, we are now, no longer ruled by our senses, but by our new creation spirit man (who was made in the Image and Likeness of God). This knowledge has been nearly lost in today's Church. We continue relying on rituals and tradition to appease God. These things have held God's people in bondage and fear, instead of fellowship and liberty in God's family.
We've been in "The time of the Church" for many years, but continue functioning on the religious order of the flesh. In 2Corinthians 5:1-4, Paul says our flesh and blood body is the "house" that our spirit lives in. A house doesn't tell the inhabitants how to live, the inhabitants are to rule the house. How foolish would it be for us to ask our houses how to live, instead of our having dominion over our house? My house provides a place to shelter in after a long day is done, it isn't something that tells me when my day is over.
Can you even imagine your house telling you how to live? Of course not. Why should we ask our natural house (where our new man lives) how we are supposed to live? Our natural body is only a temporary "house" for our spirit to live in, while we're here on earth. It's a servant and not to be in charge. When asked, "How are you feeling today?" Smith Wigglesworth answered, "I never ask Smith Wigglesworth how he feels, I tell him how to feel." This man walked in and was led by his spirit, through the Holy Spirit.
Some might say, "Yes, but he was the famous Smith Wigglesworth." This is true, but he didn't have anything more than what we have. He simply chose to train his senses by his spirit, to only do what the Holy Spirit told him to do. Some categorize Mr. Wigglesworth as a "fanatic for God," but he would only say that he was an obedient son. We haven't been taught how to live in the spirit, but only how to discipline our flesh.
I've found that by a strong spirit, the flesh will not get out of control, but become a servant and house for us to live in until we go home. Carnal sermons make carnal Christians. We must learn to teach the spirit man (the new creation) how to operate and function on the level with our new identity in Christ Jesus. The flesh will always remind you of its weaknesses, while the new creation (your born-again spirit) will reveal to you, its new strength in Christ and your ability in Him.
We've mostly looked at Galatians 6:8 as about "being in sin," but I don't think that's what it's really about. Of course, we aren't to live in sin, but this scripture is about "sowing to the flesh." Not everything the flesh does is sin. I can provide for my family, protect my loved ones, be a witness for Christ, and give food and clothing to the needy. These things in the flesh are not sin. What Paul writes about in the above scripture, has more to do with still living by the flesh or carnal mind (through ritual and traditions) and not living by the Spirit. Verse 8 says, "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."
This can mean that those who will only continue in life without Jesus, will perish in the end. It can also mean that those of us who are born-again and continue only in our "lower nature," will not see the things and have the full Life of God in our earthly walk with Him.
Only our new creation spirit can comprehend the many things the new birth has made available to us. If we only sow to our lower nature, then the higher nature of our new creation cannot be expressed in our lives. When the flesh rules the spirit, we are out of control in our walk with the Father. Jesus was speaking to men of a different class and order when He taught the people. He was teaching Spiritual Truths, that carnal men couldn't imagine. This is no longer true for the believer, but should be opened and illuminated by our spirit to His Truths.
In order to do what we were left her to do for humanity and God's Kingdom, we must learn how to be led by the Spirit of God and break satan's hold on mankind. Government and politics are not weapons for the Church. We can only set people free with the Truth of God's Word. When Jesus said that, "He can only do what the Father says to do," He was simply saying, "I am being led by My Own Spirit, through the Holy Spirit. This is how the new creation man is to learn to walk.
The above scripture seems radical and fanatical to the way of thinking for many in today's Church. We've been trained and taught carnally for so long, that it's difficult for them to see themselves like who they truly are in Christ Jesus and after the new creation and after the Spirit. For centuries, until Jesus came on the scene, the people had remained in the carnal realm and couldn't receive the Truth of the Spiritual teachings He taught.
They couldn't understand the Truth Jesus taught, until the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. These people were still old covenant people and were not born-again yet. The things Jesus taught were so foreign from what they were taught and knew and sounded radical and fanatical to their ears. When the Holy Spirit came and man could actually be born-again of the Spirit of God, things changed.
Because we've been trained in the carnal realm more than in the spiritual realm, many thing still seem over-the-top to many of God's children. We've grossly misunderstood what is means to be a new creation and we've tried patterning our spiritual walk after the things of the old covenant, without realizing the people of the old covenant were not born-again of the Spirit. God had to deal with them from the outside-in, instead of the inside-out, because the old covenant people were still dead in their spirit. This is what Jesus referred to in John 10:10 when He said, "I come that they might have Life."
Those present when He said this, probably thought to themselves, "Don't I already have life?" They didn't know He was speaking about their dead spirit that was separated from God by sin and trespasses. Under the new covenant, we (through Jesus) have been made alive in our spirit and our spirit has been made one with God. This is the new creation that Paul speaks about.
Most of us have never really pursued this relationship to the full extent of what it actually has in store for us. God now deals with us by our new creation, born-again spirit and not by our flesh with rituals and traditions like in the old covenant. We are now to be led and instructed by our spirit, which is alive to God again. Much of our preaching and teachings are directed at our natural man, and not by our new creation man.
We were to be controlled by our spirit and not our flesh, from the beginning. We are a spirit being and our spirit was to be in charge of our earthly body and soul. We were to hear from God in our spirit and to be directed by the Holy Spirit in our lives. When Adam fell and severed communication from the Father, we were left to rely on our carnal nature for instructions on how to live.
After many years of not hearing from God, we set up our own ways of doing thins and functioning in this world. And, because we were only able to function in this world system, we set up a kingdom that was still ruled by satan, instead of by God. We know God as "Father," but the unsaved people know Him only as "God." Jesus told the old covenant people that they were, "Like their father, the devil."
Under this new creation, we are now, no longer ruled by our senses, but by our new creation spirit man (who was made in the Image and Likeness of God). This knowledge has been nearly lost in today's Church. We continue relying on rituals and tradition to appease God. These things have held God's people in bondage and fear, instead of fellowship and liberty in God's family.
We've been in "The time of the Church" for many years, but continue functioning on the religious order of the flesh. In 2Corinthians 5:1-4, Paul says our flesh and blood body is the "house" that our spirit lives in. A house doesn't tell the inhabitants how to live, the inhabitants are to rule the house. How foolish would it be for us to ask our houses how to live, instead of our having dominion over our house? My house provides a place to shelter in after a long day is done, it isn't something that tells me when my day is over.
Can you even imagine your house telling you how to live? Of course not. Why should we ask our natural house (where our new man lives) how we are supposed to live? Our natural body is only a temporary "house" for our spirit to live in, while we're here on earth. It's a servant and not to be in charge. When asked, "How are you feeling today?" Smith Wigglesworth answered, "I never ask Smith Wigglesworth how he feels, I tell him how to feel." This man walked in and was led by his spirit, through the Holy Spirit.
Some might say, "Yes, but he was the famous Smith Wigglesworth." This is true, but he didn't have anything more than what we have. He simply chose to train his senses by his spirit, to only do what the Holy Spirit told him to do. Some categorize Mr. Wigglesworth as a "fanatic for God," but he would only say that he was an obedient son. We haven't been taught how to live in the spirit, but only how to discipline our flesh.
I've found that by a strong spirit, the flesh will not get out of control, but become a servant and house for us to live in until we go home. Carnal sermons make carnal Christians. We must learn to teach the spirit man (the new creation) how to operate and function on the level with our new identity in Christ Jesus. The flesh will always remind you of its weaknesses, while the new creation (your born-again spirit) will reveal to you, its new strength in Christ and your ability in Him.
We've mostly looked at Galatians 6:8 as about "being in sin," but I don't think that's what it's really about. Of course, we aren't to live in sin, but this scripture is about "sowing to the flesh." Not everything the flesh does is sin. I can provide for my family, protect my loved ones, be a witness for Christ, and give food and clothing to the needy. These things in the flesh are not sin. What Paul writes about in the above scripture, has more to do with still living by the flesh or carnal mind (through ritual and traditions) and not living by the Spirit. Verse 8 says, "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."
This can mean that those who will only continue in life without Jesus, will perish in the end. It can also mean that those of us who are born-again and continue only in our "lower nature," will not see the things and have the full Life of God in our earthly walk with Him.
Only our new creation spirit can comprehend the many things the new birth has made available to us. If we only sow to our lower nature, then the higher nature of our new creation cannot be expressed in our lives. When the flesh rules the spirit, we are out of control in our walk with the Father. Jesus was speaking to men of a different class and order when He taught the people. He was teaching Spiritual Truths, that carnal men couldn't imagine. This is no longer true for the believer, but should be opened and illuminated by our spirit to His Truths.
In order to do what we were left her to do for humanity and God's Kingdom, we must learn how to be led by the Spirit of God and break satan's hold on mankind. Government and politics are not weapons for the Church. We can only set people free with the Truth of God's Word. When Jesus said that, "He can only do what the Father says to do," He was simply saying, "I am being led by My Own Spirit, through the Holy Spirit. This is how the new creation man is to learn to walk.
Tuesday, November 1, 2016
Lesson 114 The New Creation
2Corinthians 5:17 (Amplified) says, "Therefore, if any person is (ingrafted) in Christ Jesus (the Messiah) he is a new creation (a new creature altogether); the old (previous moral and spiritual condition) has passed away. Behold, the fresh and new has come."
Most of us have failed to realize how we are completely different from anything or anyone has ever been on this planet. We, the Church, have never understand that as new creation people, we are created to be in Christ Jesus. We're still dealing with the new birth as though it's something meant for the future. We will have a different body to house our new being, but we are even now the new creation of God.
The only way of understanding who we are as new creations, is from the Word of God. No man has ever seen or been (except Jesus) what we've been created to be in God's Kingdom. God created the new creation through Jesus, at His acceptance into the Throne Room of the Father. As the first fruits of a new creation, it only follows that the entire harvest of this fruit is like the First Fruit.
The First Fruit is a Spirit Being, Who has been raised from spiritual death and separation from God, into a new creation that is not only alive to God, but has actually become a dwelling place for God in today's earth. We, as the new creation people, have become the fulfillment of the Feast of Tabernacles, in the sense that God has tabernacled within us by His Spirit.
We've striven to operate in God's Kingdom by the flesh, in tradition and ritual, but it hasn't produced what the Father has created us to be and do in the earth. Romans 8:14 (Amplified) says, "For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God." If you've been born-again, then you are already sons or daughters of God. This scripture is referring to "mature sons and daughters" and because we have very little understanding of the spiritual realm, we don't even know this (in many cases).
Everything in the new creation being, works from the inside-out. Life came into us in our spirit. The new creation is a spirit being, made in the Image of God. God speaks to us by His Spirit, through His Word or some other means. It is only by our spirit, that we can actually commune properly with the Father, whether it comes into our spirit by preaching or reading the Word varies, but the results are still are Spirit.
The Word says that, "The just shall live by faith" and if your are a new creation, then you already are living by faith. It was by faith, you received Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior. Before being saved, we were dead in trespass and sin and now we were made alive in Christ Jesus, by faith in Him we are now living. So, it doesn't matter what others may preach, we (the just) are now living by faith.
Now that we are alive again in our new creation spirit being, all things from God come initially in our spirit and then into our natural body and soul. In order to renew our minds, we must first put God's Word into our spirit and allow our new creation man to have dominion over our carnal way of doing things. Our natural man cannot reach high enough to understand or communicate on the level of our new life.
God says in Proverbs 4:20-23 (Amplified), "My son, attend to My Words; consent and submit to My sayings. Let them not depart from your sight; keep them in the center of your heart. For they are Life to those who find them, healing and health to all their flesh. Keep and guard your heart with all vigilance above all that you guard, for out of it flow the springs of Life." We have read this passage many times, without understanding what it says to our spirit man.
Many would believe that the above passage was Solomon speaking to his children or David speaking to Solomon, but it is really God Who is speaking to His family. God says that "His Words are Life and that "health and healing come from the spirit (the hidden man of the heart)." It's not from the outside, but the inside that our new creation man receives Life. The new creation is where our Life flows from God, into our natural house of flesh. The Holy Spirit says in Verse 23 that, "from out of this new creation, the "heart," flows the "springs of Life." One translation says that "from out of the heart flows, the forces of Life."
Everything within reach of the new creation, comes first into our spirit and is then manifested outwardly into this natural realm of being. Whether it's Life (as in the new birth) or "healing and health" (like Proverbs 4:20-23 says) or any other need or lack in this natural realm of Christianity, it must first come through the spirit, by faith.
Many have separated themselves from the faith message, because much is misunderstood about it. This faith is the same faith in God that brought us into the new creation and will move us into the true Life of our spirit. We have now been created new into this spirit Life and everything we have need of, is in this realm. This abundance of supply is ours in this realm of the new creation family we are part of. We keep looking to this realm for our needs to be met, but even though it might come into this realm, it is first set aside for us in the realm of the new creation.
As we watched the First of the new creation people (Jesus), we see His needs being met in this realm, first in the Spirit. When He needed tax money, the Spirit provided it from the fish's mouth. When He needed bread to feed the multitude, the Spirit provided all that was needed and they had leftovers. The healings, miracles, and everything Jesus did, came from the realm of the Spirit and manifested here in the natural realm.
We've approached the new creation family of God, from the outside instead of the inside. We've stepped into a real of Life, but haven't understood how to walk in it. Every baby (whether natural or spiritual) has to learn how to operate in life as he grows. Babies in the natural, are already human beings and don't have to "try" to be human, but only learn how to live in this realm as humans. As babies in Christ, we don't have to "try" being new creations, because we are already new creations. We only need to learn how to walk in the realm we are created for.
Learning how to walk in this new creation, is derived from seeking the Holy Spirit for instructions and guidance. Since we had never walked in or lived in this new realm, we know very little about it. This doesn't mean we stay ignorant about it, but we must learn and grow, like we did in the natural realm. We've tried operating or functioning in the realm of the spirit through natural means and by natural knowledge acquired from simple, natural means. We've used traditions that never worked and religion that didn't work either, instead of the teachings of the Holy Spirit, Who is the Teacher of this new creation. We can only learn to walk in the Spirit, by the Spirit. The flesh cannot teach the spirit, but only the spirit can teach the flesh.
We can bring the flesh into subjection to the Law of the Spirit of Life which is in Christ Jesus, only by the spirit. Returning to Proverbs 4:20-23, we begin to see the Laws of the Spirit of Life. God's Word is Life and we observe Life, by observing God's Word. Life first came into our spirit by the new birth and is now extended from our spirit into our flesh. This isn't modifying the flesh, but dominating the flesh, with the new creation spirit man.
The only thing that can change the flesh and it's way of controlling, is the new creation spirit that is alive inside the flesh. We've tried bringing the flesh into subjection with rules and traditions, that haven't worked very well. The spirit is now Alive through Jesus and has the ability through growth, to dominate our natural man and control him.
Paul writes about renewing our minds in Romans 12:1-2. The only way to "dedicate your body as a living sacrifice" is to wholly allow your new creation spirit to rule by God's Word. When we fail to allow and teach our spirit to do the Living, our bodies will continue to live, like it did before we were saved. It will continue to yield to natural resources and the natural way of doing things, because this is what it did before and this is all it knows. Our bodies were never taught to take orders from our spirit, but were always in control. Now, the role is to be reversed.
Paul said he "buffets" his body and keeps it under subjection to his spirit. This is done by feeding and drawing strength from the Word and the Holy Spirit, until your spirit is stronger than your flesh. Jesus said in John 6:63, that "My Words are Spirit and Life." We will mature and gain strength in our spirit (so it can dominate the flesh), when we allow the Holy Spirit to instruct us. His instructions come through our spirits and the carnal mind cannot reject them.
We hear from the Father all the time, but our carnal mind rejects His leading, because it cannot understand instructions they're incapable of reasoning out. Our carnal mind works on logic, not faith. It's only your spirit that can operate in faith and faith is what raises us from this natural realm of living.
The carnal minded believer simply "looks up" to step into the Super-natural realm of faith, but it's only the new creation man who can understand and receive the Super-natural things of God. The new creation was created from and for the super-natural. This is natural for the new creation man, while the carnal mind prevents us from operating in this Spirit realm of Life. We will all be taken into that realm someday, but we were meant to function in that realm now.
The Holy Spirit is now teaching the Church to walk in the Super-natural, naturally. When we begin understanding this through the Word of God and His Spirit, then we won't struggle anymore than we struggled to make our natural body walk, talk or do anything we learned to do, because we were born of the natural man. As we learned how to do these things from our birth, they simply became natural to us and we didn't have to think about how to do them. The same is true in the spirit. We will learn to walk naturally Super-natural.
Most of us have failed to realize how we are completely different from anything or anyone has ever been on this planet. We, the Church, have never understand that as new creation people, we are created to be in Christ Jesus. We're still dealing with the new birth as though it's something meant for the future. We will have a different body to house our new being, but we are even now the new creation of God.
The only way of understanding who we are as new creations, is from the Word of God. No man has ever seen or been (except Jesus) what we've been created to be in God's Kingdom. God created the new creation through Jesus, at His acceptance into the Throne Room of the Father. As the first fruits of a new creation, it only follows that the entire harvest of this fruit is like the First Fruit.
The First Fruit is a Spirit Being, Who has been raised from spiritual death and separation from God, into a new creation that is not only alive to God, but has actually become a dwelling place for God in today's earth. We, as the new creation people, have become the fulfillment of the Feast of Tabernacles, in the sense that God has tabernacled within us by His Spirit.
We've striven to operate in God's Kingdom by the flesh, in tradition and ritual, but it hasn't produced what the Father has created us to be and do in the earth. Romans 8:14 (Amplified) says, "For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God." If you've been born-again, then you are already sons or daughters of God. This scripture is referring to "mature sons and daughters" and because we have very little understanding of the spiritual realm, we don't even know this (in many cases).
Everything in the new creation being, works from the inside-out. Life came into us in our spirit. The new creation is a spirit being, made in the Image of God. God speaks to us by His Spirit, through His Word or some other means. It is only by our spirit, that we can actually commune properly with the Father, whether it comes into our spirit by preaching or reading the Word varies, but the results are still are Spirit.
The Word says that, "The just shall live by faith" and if your are a new creation, then you already are living by faith. It was by faith, you received Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior. Before being saved, we were dead in trespass and sin and now we were made alive in Christ Jesus, by faith in Him we are now living. So, it doesn't matter what others may preach, we (the just) are now living by faith.
Now that we are alive again in our new creation spirit being, all things from God come initially in our spirit and then into our natural body and soul. In order to renew our minds, we must first put God's Word into our spirit and allow our new creation man to have dominion over our carnal way of doing things. Our natural man cannot reach high enough to understand or communicate on the level of our new life.
God says in Proverbs 4:20-23 (Amplified), "My son, attend to My Words; consent and submit to My sayings. Let them not depart from your sight; keep them in the center of your heart. For they are Life to those who find them, healing and health to all their flesh. Keep and guard your heart with all vigilance above all that you guard, for out of it flow the springs of Life." We have read this passage many times, without understanding what it says to our spirit man.
Many would believe that the above passage was Solomon speaking to his children or David speaking to Solomon, but it is really God Who is speaking to His family. God says that "His Words are Life and that "health and healing come from the spirit (the hidden man of the heart)." It's not from the outside, but the inside that our new creation man receives Life. The new creation is where our Life flows from God, into our natural house of flesh. The Holy Spirit says in Verse 23 that, "from out of this new creation, the "heart," flows the "springs of Life." One translation says that "from out of the heart flows, the forces of Life."
Everything within reach of the new creation, comes first into our spirit and is then manifested outwardly into this natural realm of being. Whether it's Life (as in the new birth) or "healing and health" (like Proverbs 4:20-23 says) or any other need or lack in this natural realm of Christianity, it must first come through the spirit, by faith.
Many have separated themselves from the faith message, because much is misunderstood about it. This faith is the same faith in God that brought us into the new creation and will move us into the true Life of our spirit. We have now been created new into this spirit Life and everything we have need of, is in this realm. This abundance of supply is ours in this realm of the new creation family we are part of. We keep looking to this realm for our needs to be met, but even though it might come into this realm, it is first set aside for us in the realm of the new creation.
As we watched the First of the new creation people (Jesus), we see His needs being met in this realm, first in the Spirit. When He needed tax money, the Spirit provided it from the fish's mouth. When He needed bread to feed the multitude, the Spirit provided all that was needed and they had leftovers. The healings, miracles, and everything Jesus did, came from the realm of the Spirit and manifested here in the natural realm.
We've approached the new creation family of God, from the outside instead of the inside. We've stepped into a real of Life, but haven't understood how to walk in it. Every baby (whether natural or spiritual) has to learn how to operate in life as he grows. Babies in the natural, are already human beings and don't have to "try" to be human, but only learn how to live in this realm as humans. As babies in Christ, we don't have to "try" being new creations, because we are already new creations. We only need to learn how to walk in the realm we are created for.
Learning how to walk in this new creation, is derived from seeking the Holy Spirit for instructions and guidance. Since we had never walked in or lived in this new realm, we know very little about it. This doesn't mean we stay ignorant about it, but we must learn and grow, like we did in the natural realm. We've tried operating or functioning in the realm of the spirit through natural means and by natural knowledge acquired from simple, natural means. We've used traditions that never worked and religion that didn't work either, instead of the teachings of the Holy Spirit, Who is the Teacher of this new creation. We can only learn to walk in the Spirit, by the Spirit. The flesh cannot teach the spirit, but only the spirit can teach the flesh.
We can bring the flesh into subjection to the Law of the Spirit of Life which is in Christ Jesus, only by the spirit. Returning to Proverbs 4:20-23, we begin to see the Laws of the Spirit of Life. God's Word is Life and we observe Life, by observing God's Word. Life first came into our spirit by the new birth and is now extended from our spirit into our flesh. This isn't modifying the flesh, but dominating the flesh, with the new creation spirit man.
The only thing that can change the flesh and it's way of controlling, is the new creation spirit that is alive inside the flesh. We've tried bringing the flesh into subjection with rules and traditions, that haven't worked very well. The spirit is now Alive through Jesus and has the ability through growth, to dominate our natural man and control him.
Paul writes about renewing our minds in Romans 12:1-2. The only way to "dedicate your body as a living sacrifice" is to wholly allow your new creation spirit to rule by God's Word. When we fail to allow and teach our spirit to do the Living, our bodies will continue to live, like it did before we were saved. It will continue to yield to natural resources and the natural way of doing things, because this is what it did before and this is all it knows. Our bodies were never taught to take orders from our spirit, but were always in control. Now, the role is to be reversed.
Paul said he "buffets" his body and keeps it under subjection to his spirit. This is done by feeding and drawing strength from the Word and the Holy Spirit, until your spirit is stronger than your flesh. Jesus said in John 6:63, that "My Words are Spirit and Life." We will mature and gain strength in our spirit (so it can dominate the flesh), when we allow the Holy Spirit to instruct us. His instructions come through our spirits and the carnal mind cannot reject them.
We hear from the Father all the time, but our carnal mind rejects His leading, because it cannot understand instructions they're incapable of reasoning out. Our carnal mind works on logic, not faith. It's only your spirit that can operate in faith and faith is what raises us from this natural realm of living.
The carnal minded believer simply "looks up" to step into the Super-natural realm of faith, but it's only the new creation man who can understand and receive the Super-natural things of God. The new creation was created from and for the super-natural. This is natural for the new creation man, while the carnal mind prevents us from operating in this Spirit realm of Life. We will all be taken into that realm someday, but we were meant to function in that realm now.
The Holy Spirit is now teaching the Church to walk in the Super-natural, naturally. When we begin understanding this through the Word of God and His Spirit, then we won't struggle anymore than we struggled to make our natural body walk, talk or do anything we learned to do, because we were born of the natural man. As we learned how to do these things from our birth, they simply became natural to us and we didn't have to think about how to do them. The same is true in the spirit. We will learn to walk naturally Super-natural.
Friday, October 28, 2016
Lesson 113 The New Creation
2Corinthians 5:17 (Amplified) says, "Therefore, if any person is (ingrafted) in Christ Jesus (the Messiah) he is a new creation (a new creature altogether); the old (previous moral and spiritual condition) has passed away. Behold, the fresh and new has come."
As the new creation people we've become in Jesus, we have a new family, a new life, a new spirit and a new family. We generate from an entirely different realm than any other creature on this planet. We are no longer "just human," but we are so much more than human. This natural body might still look the same (as it did before my being born-again), but the new creation living in this body is a new creature altogether.
We've allowed the world to determine how much of who we are, to change. The same man who is admired as a deacon in church and is a pillar of the community, would be called a religious fanatic if he prayed in a public place or his workplace. Many people are intimidated by the world and society, which leads to their being reluctant to letting others know they are Christians.
I've seen many Christians run for public office and scarcely bring "religion" into their campaign. Sometimes, they do so because even the Church will attack them, if they are from a different denomination. Many times, the media will label Christians as being "zealots in their beliefs." We are not here to coincide with the world, but to change the world. We've reached a place where we wish to be accepted and praised by both saved and those in the world.
We are not called to be obnoxious and judgmental, but we are called to be new creations altogether. As new creation sons and daughters of God, we are placed in a world that has run out of answers, ideas and help. The world is hungry for leadership and are nearly willing to accept anyone they believe can solve their problems. We have been given the wisdom, ability, power and the Holy Spirit needed to be the answer (through Jesus) to their search. Jesus said that we are, "the light of the world" and we are to be lifted high for the world to see.
The only way for the new creation people to know who we truly are, is from revelation knowledge from the Holy Spirit and God's Word. If we allow the world to set standards for the Church, then we will merge with the world and settle for the world's way of dealing with its problems. Jesus is the Answer for the world today and He Lives In Us. Without His Super-natural influence in this world, nothing will ever change.
We've been fighting among ourselves in America for eighteen months now, over whether we want a Democrat or Republican to run the nation. What good is either party, if they don't know Jesus and if they don't listen (or seek) His council? They will continue to run things by the same standards that led us into this mess to begin with. When the blind lead the blind, they both end up in the ditch. The new creation people, are to lead the world to see God and His answer to their needs. We hear politicians stirring up fear and then telling the people that, "I can fix things. Follow me." These are empty promises without God. We are given the world's ideas about fixing things, instead of God's promise of a new life. If our minds are filled with the same cursing and bitterness of the world, then how can we change it?
The Holy Spirit writes to the Church in Romans 3:13 (Amplified) saying, "Their throat is a yawning grave, they use their tongues to deceive (to mislead and to deal treacherously) the venom of asps is beneath their lips." This hasn't changed the world, only the Church. The world still refuses Jesus and His deliverance. This isn't saying we write them off, but we must know we can't believe the world because nothing has changed with them.
We must not allow ourselves to be controlled and driven by politics and the media, instead of God's Word. The war, segregation, death, fear, destruction, and mess we see all around us, is driven by the lips of the world system. The world system is driven by and under the dominion of the anti-Christ spirit, we hear speaking and boasting against our God. The world ran out of answers when Adam fell in the Garden and it remains answerless, without God's Word. When we lend our voices to those of the world, then we only add to the same problems facing the world. We only know what the media and the friends and family of the politicians, tells us about him or her. Or, we only know what they want us to know about them.
The Church evens preaches political correctness and adherence to ungodly laws, that have already been set into motion. One can no longer simultaneously be politically correct and Biblically correct. The world is determined to reign over the Church of the Lord Jesus. As new creation people who listen to God's Voice and His Spirit, are considered to be "rebels," in the eyes of the world.
Our declarations that, "God's Word is still Higher than the world's words," seem to be out-of-line even in some churches. God's Word isn't only Truth, but it is THE TRUTH. If God said something two-thousand years ago, then He hasn't changed His mind because "it's now 2016." God is not progressive in His Truth, but it is "Forever settled in Heaven." If something was wrong then, then it's still wrong today.
We need to stop looking at the giants and stand on God's Word, then we can enter into the promises of His Word. Are we really believing God's Word or are we just saying we believe in His Word? We should pray for God to send us more Joshua's and Caleb's.
As the new creation people we've become in Jesus, we have a new family, a new life, a new spirit and a new family. We generate from an entirely different realm than any other creature on this planet. We are no longer "just human," but we are so much more than human. This natural body might still look the same (as it did before my being born-again), but the new creation living in this body is a new creature altogether.
We've allowed the world to determine how much of who we are, to change. The same man who is admired as a deacon in church and is a pillar of the community, would be called a religious fanatic if he prayed in a public place or his workplace. Many people are intimidated by the world and society, which leads to their being reluctant to letting others know they are Christians.
I've seen many Christians run for public office and scarcely bring "religion" into their campaign. Sometimes, they do so because even the Church will attack them, if they are from a different denomination. Many times, the media will label Christians as being "zealots in their beliefs." We are not here to coincide with the world, but to change the world. We've reached a place where we wish to be accepted and praised by both saved and those in the world.
We are not called to be obnoxious and judgmental, but we are called to be new creations altogether. As new creation sons and daughters of God, we are placed in a world that has run out of answers, ideas and help. The world is hungry for leadership and are nearly willing to accept anyone they believe can solve their problems. We have been given the wisdom, ability, power and the Holy Spirit needed to be the answer (through Jesus) to their search. Jesus said that we are, "the light of the world" and we are to be lifted high for the world to see.
The only way for the new creation people to know who we truly are, is from revelation knowledge from the Holy Spirit and God's Word. If we allow the world to set standards for the Church, then we will merge with the world and settle for the world's way of dealing with its problems. Jesus is the Answer for the world today and He Lives In Us. Without His Super-natural influence in this world, nothing will ever change.
We've been fighting among ourselves in America for eighteen months now, over whether we want a Democrat or Republican to run the nation. What good is either party, if they don't know Jesus and if they don't listen (or seek) His council? They will continue to run things by the same standards that led us into this mess to begin with. When the blind lead the blind, they both end up in the ditch. The new creation people, are to lead the world to see God and His answer to their needs. We hear politicians stirring up fear and then telling the people that, "I can fix things. Follow me." These are empty promises without God. We are given the world's ideas about fixing things, instead of God's promise of a new life. If our minds are filled with the same cursing and bitterness of the world, then how can we change it?
The Holy Spirit writes to the Church in Romans 3:13 (Amplified) saying, "Their throat is a yawning grave, they use their tongues to deceive (to mislead and to deal treacherously) the venom of asps is beneath their lips." This hasn't changed the world, only the Church. The world still refuses Jesus and His deliverance. This isn't saying we write them off, but we must know we can't believe the world because nothing has changed with them.
We must not allow ourselves to be controlled and driven by politics and the media, instead of God's Word. The war, segregation, death, fear, destruction, and mess we see all around us, is driven by the lips of the world system. The world system is driven by and under the dominion of the anti-Christ spirit, we hear speaking and boasting against our God. The world ran out of answers when Adam fell in the Garden and it remains answerless, without God's Word. When we lend our voices to those of the world, then we only add to the same problems facing the world. We only know what the media and the friends and family of the politicians, tells us about him or her. Or, we only know what they want us to know about them.
The Church evens preaches political correctness and adherence to ungodly laws, that have already been set into motion. One can no longer simultaneously be politically correct and Biblically correct. The world is determined to reign over the Church of the Lord Jesus. As new creation people who listen to God's Voice and His Spirit, are considered to be "rebels," in the eyes of the world.
Our declarations that, "God's Word is still Higher than the world's words," seem to be out-of-line even in some churches. God's Word isn't only Truth, but it is THE TRUTH. If God said something two-thousand years ago, then He hasn't changed His mind because "it's now 2016." God is not progressive in His Truth, but it is "Forever settled in Heaven." If something was wrong then, then it's still wrong today.
We need to stop looking at the giants and stand on God's Word, then we can enter into the promises of His Word. Are we really believing God's Word or are we just saying we believe in His Word? We should pray for God to send us more Joshua's and Caleb's.
Thursday, October 27, 2016
Lesson 112 The New Creation
2Corinthians 5:17 (Amplified) says, "Therefore, if any person is (ingrafted) in Christ Jesus (the Messiah) he is a new creation (a new creature altogether) the old (previous moral and spiritual condition) has passed away. Behold, the fresh and new has come."
In the previous Verse 16, Paul tells us that, "We no longer are to see anyone only as (purely) human and only after the flesh, but after the spirit." This scripture contains many things for not only Christians, but the unsaved world. We see the unsaved as being lost without Jesus and being saved, but we also see them "like their father, the devil." This doesn't mean we dismiss them, but like Jesus did, we are to know them.
Because the unsaved aren't born-again, we know they are not only of this world, but in it. Jesus says this about His followers in John 17:14 (Amplified), "I have given and delivered to them Your Word (Message) and the world has hated them, because they are not of the world (do not belong to the world), just as I am not of the world." We forget sometimes, that this world is directed and governed by an evil and demonic spirit that hates God and His people.
This isn't implying that the people of the world cannot become born-again, but the demonic force behind them can not. Everything about satan is anti-Christ. The world hears only his voice and direction, while we (the Church) are to hear only the Voice of our Shepherd and never a stranger's voice. We find ourselves being led by the worldly voices of politics and hatred, rather than the Voice of our Shepherd, His Voice of direction, His Voice on how to do things.
We are called to love the inhabitants of the world and to bring them out from the world, rather than agreeing with them world. We see how God views the world without His Life and Spirit to direct it, in Romans 3:10-18 (Amplified). We were all part of the world before being born-again and we were all doing the things of the world. Verse 10-18 say, "As it is written, None is righteous, just, and truthful and upright and conscientious, no, not one. All have turned aside, together they have gone wrong and have become unprofitable and worthless, no one does right, not even one. Their throat is a yawning grave; they use their tongues to deceive (to mislead and to deal treacherously. The venom of asps is beneath their lips, their mouth is full of cursing and bitterness, their feet are swift to shed blood, Destruction (as it dashes them to pieces) and misery mark their ways. There is no (reverential) fear of God before their eyes."
When the new creation people, listen to and are led more by the words of the world, instead of the Words of God, then we also become blind to His wisdom. We have been called out of the darkness and are to be the light of the world. The last thing we need to do now, is to back-off from praying and refusing to get involved. The Parable of the Good Samaritan tells about how no on wanted to get involved with helping another (who was different). We haven't been involved for so long now, that we're not even considered important at all. Notice, how few of those running for office now, are catering to the "religious population" for votes.
God told Joshua to "Go in and possess the land that He had given them." If God has given it, then why would we have to "not fear," but go in and possess it from the enemy? The world system and the natural man, do not want anything to change the status quo. They think they can fix it, without God's influence. God says in 2Chronicles 7:14 (Amplified) that, "If My people will humble themselves, turn from their own ways, seek His face, and pray, Then God will hear their prayers and heal their land." It would be difficult not to see it, but our land is very sick and needs to be healed. It became this way, because we (the Church) didn't take a stand for Who we serve, many years ago. And, we have refused to stand for Him, today.
Remember how the lawmakers tried preventing Daniel's praying everyday and passed laws to do so? Remember how God overrode their efforts? Remember how the lawmakers tried killing off God's people, but God used Esther to stop them? Remember how they tried making the Israelites bow to the statue and Jesus joined them in the fire and not one part of their clothing was singed? It only takes a few courageous people to stand up and God will do the rest. We must have more warriors and less cheerleaders, in today's Church. If you will stand and believe God to turn this nation, then I, along with many others, will stand with you. You are not alone. The Lord of Hosts is with you. His Name, "The Lord of Hosts", translates to "The God of Armies." Jesus chose twelve men and changed an entire culture and the world.
In the previous Verse 16, Paul tells us that, "We no longer are to see anyone only as (purely) human and only after the flesh, but after the spirit." This scripture contains many things for not only Christians, but the unsaved world. We see the unsaved as being lost without Jesus and being saved, but we also see them "like their father, the devil." This doesn't mean we dismiss them, but like Jesus did, we are to know them.
Because the unsaved aren't born-again, we know they are not only of this world, but in it. Jesus says this about His followers in John 17:14 (Amplified), "I have given and delivered to them Your Word (Message) and the world has hated them, because they are not of the world (do not belong to the world), just as I am not of the world." We forget sometimes, that this world is directed and governed by an evil and demonic spirit that hates God and His people.
This isn't implying that the people of the world cannot become born-again, but the demonic force behind them can not. Everything about satan is anti-Christ. The world hears only his voice and direction, while we (the Church) are to hear only the Voice of our Shepherd and never a stranger's voice. We find ourselves being led by the worldly voices of politics and hatred, rather than the Voice of our Shepherd, His Voice of direction, His Voice on how to do things.
We are called to love the inhabitants of the world and to bring them out from the world, rather than agreeing with them world. We see how God views the world without His Life and Spirit to direct it, in Romans 3:10-18 (Amplified). We were all part of the world before being born-again and we were all doing the things of the world. Verse 10-18 say, "As it is written, None is righteous, just, and truthful and upright and conscientious, no, not one. All have turned aside, together they have gone wrong and have become unprofitable and worthless, no one does right, not even one. Their throat is a yawning grave; they use their tongues to deceive (to mislead and to deal treacherously. The venom of asps is beneath their lips, their mouth is full of cursing and bitterness, their feet are swift to shed blood, Destruction (as it dashes them to pieces) and misery mark their ways. There is no (reverential) fear of God before their eyes."
When the new creation people, listen to and are led more by the words of the world, instead of the Words of God, then we also become blind to His wisdom. We have been called out of the darkness and are to be the light of the world. The last thing we need to do now, is to back-off from praying and refusing to get involved. The Parable of the Good Samaritan tells about how no on wanted to get involved with helping another (who was different). We haven't been involved for so long now, that we're not even considered important at all. Notice, how few of those running for office now, are catering to the "religious population" for votes.
God told Joshua to "Go in and possess the land that He had given them." If God has given it, then why would we have to "not fear," but go in and possess it from the enemy? The world system and the natural man, do not want anything to change the status quo. They think they can fix it, without God's influence. God says in 2Chronicles 7:14 (Amplified) that, "If My people will humble themselves, turn from their own ways, seek His face, and pray, Then God will hear their prayers and heal their land." It would be difficult not to see it, but our land is very sick and needs to be healed. It became this way, because we (the Church) didn't take a stand for Who we serve, many years ago. And, we have refused to stand for Him, today.
Remember how the lawmakers tried preventing Daniel's praying everyday and passed laws to do so? Remember how God overrode their efforts? Remember how the lawmakers tried killing off God's people, but God used Esther to stop them? Remember how they tried making the Israelites bow to the statue and Jesus joined them in the fire and not one part of their clothing was singed? It only takes a few courageous people to stand up and God will do the rest. We must have more warriors and less cheerleaders, in today's Church. If you will stand and believe God to turn this nation, then I, along with many others, will stand with you. You are not alone. The Lord of Hosts is with you. His Name, "The Lord of Hosts", translates to "The God of Armies." Jesus chose twelve men and changed an entire culture and the world.
Wednesday, October 26, 2016
Lesson 111 The New Creation
2Corinthians 5:17 (Amplified) says, "Therefore, if any person is (ingrafted) in Christ Jesus (the Messiah) he is a new creation (a new creature altogether); the old (previous moral or spiritual condition) has passed. Behold, the fresh and new has come."
Let's read the previous Verse 16, from the revelation Paul received directly from Jesus Christ Himself. Thus, it 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)."
The enemy and the world continue keeping the Church thinking in a carnal way and keeping us divided by race, wealth and denominations. We're so carnally minded, that we do not function in the realm of the spirit. Our nation is currently so divided, that the enemy has a hold on it (one that it never should have had). Politics and religion have been satan's stronghold over America, for years.
Satan continues pointing out our differences, which prevents us to see the Truth. We tend to see ourselves more after the flesh, rather than the spirit. 2Corinthiasn 5:7 (Amplified) says, "For we walk by faith (we regulate our lives and conduct ourselves by our conviction or belief respecting man's relationship to God and divine things, with trust and holy fervor; thus we walk) not by sight or appearance." The first eight Verses of 2Corinthians 5 demonstrate how our natural body is only a "house" that our new creation man lives in while we're on earth. The world stresses seeing the "house" more than seeing who lives in the house.
There are so many sized houses in our small town, which have been designed and painted many various colors. The Church is still more aware of what color or design the house is, instead of being more aware of who lives in it. As long as this is our main focus, we will remain divided. God is the Master Designer and the One Who made all things, so we should learn to accept His designs and be content with them. It would be so boring to live in a place where everything is the same. In DC, there are townhouses and more townhouses, but most people have painted or designed the front of theirs. It would be so difficult to find your townhouse, if they were all the same.
God expects His family to celebrate His making us all unique and to be one with Him. Who really cares what color our house is painted? When I visit someone, I"m not concerned what color their house is or what it even looks like, but with the person who lives in it. Can you imagine trying to hold a conversation with someone's house, instead of the person who resides there? When we continue seeing one another, the way the enemy wishes us to, we are a "house divided" and are ineffective in the spirit. Racism is a tool of the devil that has been used against the Church since its beginning. Peter had a problem in the early Church, because of the gentile (different race or type of people). Acts 10:34 (Amplified) says, "And Peter opened his mouth and said; Most certainly and thoroughly I now perceive and understand that God shows no partiality and is no respecter of persons."
From the beginning of the Church (which is one Body), satan has tried keeping us separated from one another and keeping us from operating as one body. Even in the natural body, if one part doesn't function with the rest of the body, then it won't function properly. When a person has a stroke, part of the body refuse to operate correctly and that hinders the full operation of the remaining body. The person's brain still knows what the parts are supposed to do, but the body doesn't respond correctly.
The Church seems to have experienced a "stroke." Our spirit knows what we're to do and communicates that to the Body, but the Body refuses to do what it's told. Paul speaks about this in 1Corinthians 12:25-27 (Amplified). We've mostly focused on reading about the Gifts of the Spirit, in this scripture. When we allow the enemy to keep us divided, we don't function as a Body, but like a dysfunctional person. In Verses 25-27 we read, "So there should be no division or discord or lack of adaptation (of the parts of the body to each other), but the members all alike should have a mutual interest in and care for one another, And if one member suffers, all the parts (share) the suffering; if one member is honored, all the members (share in) the enjoyment of it. Now you (collectively) are Christ's Body and (individually) you are members of it, each part severally and distinct (each with his own place and function)."
It's difficult for the Body of Christ to do like Christ desires, when we do what the world expects, instead of what Christ expects. We've been set up against one another, by the way the world tells us to see one another. Does it matter what the world thinks about your arm or leg? Does it matter what the world thinks we have been placed in the Body to do? If you are diseased in your natural body, then do you even care what color the house is painted, when that person prays over you and brings your healing? Do you care whether the person who prayed over you is red, black, white, brown or rainbow? We've allowed the world of discrimination to hold back the blessing of our covenant and our relationship as one Body, to operate properly.
When we remain carnally minded and see one another more after the flesh instead of the Spirit, then we have placed limitations on the earthly functions of the Body of Christ. When Jesus said that, "A house divided cannot stand," He also meant the house of flesh that the Spirit lives in. We've become divided and haven't stood like we should, because we are still living in this house of flesh.
When Paul wrote about "not seeing one another after the flesh, but after the Spirit," he was admonishing us to stop dividing ourselves by the way the world tells us to see one another. He says we should see one another through the eyes of the spirit and "walk by faith, not by sight." The enemy is more fearful of our doing this, than anything else. Once the Body of Christ begins functioning as one Body, the whole thing will come together.
Today's America is more focused on our differences, instead of the things we hold in common. Our politicians try dividing us, in order to get votes for themselves and make the parties stronger by the power of division. We, the Church, are not to focus on the divisions the world focuses on, but we're to focus on the unity of the Church that will break down the wall of division. Removing God from our political relationship in America, will only increase the enemy's strategy and shut down the unity of the Church. I am not looking to the politicians to restore unity to America, but I am looking to God. Politics only magnify our differences, but God glorifies our differences to seam together Joseph's Coat of Many Colors to cloth the Body of Christ with, in majesty.
It doesn't matter what color the house is painted, but only who lives in the house. The Church must stop listening to the world's idea of separation and listen to the Holy Spirit, as He brings unity to us. Read 1Corinthians 12 again. Read about the Gifts of the Spirit and ask yourself whether or not it implies to the race, sex or position of those who are in Christ. Or does it imply we're all one people and one Body? Discard the media's rendition and look at the Holy Spirit and the Word of God. Before we can bring healing to the world, we must work on bringing healing to the Body of Christ, the Church.
Offense can only enter in through an unrenewed mind and will bring forth words of destruction to the speaker and the one their intended for. James instructed us to, "Not speak good and evil out of the same mouth." We shouldn't and cannot curse mankind and then bless God with the same tongue. Who is the one controlling our tongue? Is is controlled by the world and it's poison or by the Spirit and His blessing? Words spread poison throughout the entire nation. We must learn to listen to the Spirit, instead of media commentators, politicians, and the world. We must allow the Holy Spirit to speak words of healing into this nation and the world again, through the Body of Christ.
Let's read the previous Verse 16, from the revelation Paul received directly from Jesus Christ Himself. Thus, it 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)."
The enemy and the world continue keeping the Church thinking in a carnal way and keeping us divided by race, wealth and denominations. We're so carnally minded, that we do not function in the realm of the spirit. Our nation is currently so divided, that the enemy has a hold on it (one that it never should have had). Politics and religion have been satan's stronghold over America, for years.
Satan continues pointing out our differences, which prevents us to see the Truth. We tend to see ourselves more after the flesh, rather than the spirit. 2Corinthiasn 5:7 (Amplified) says, "For we walk by faith (we regulate our lives and conduct ourselves by our conviction or belief respecting man's relationship to God and divine things, with trust and holy fervor; thus we walk) not by sight or appearance." The first eight Verses of 2Corinthians 5 demonstrate how our natural body is only a "house" that our new creation man lives in while we're on earth. The world stresses seeing the "house" more than seeing who lives in the house.
There are so many sized houses in our small town, which have been designed and painted many various colors. The Church is still more aware of what color or design the house is, instead of being more aware of who lives in it. As long as this is our main focus, we will remain divided. God is the Master Designer and the One Who made all things, so we should learn to accept His designs and be content with them. It would be so boring to live in a place where everything is the same. In DC, there are townhouses and more townhouses, but most people have painted or designed the front of theirs. It would be so difficult to find your townhouse, if they were all the same.
God expects His family to celebrate His making us all unique and to be one with Him. Who really cares what color our house is painted? When I visit someone, I"m not concerned what color their house is or what it even looks like, but with the person who lives in it. Can you imagine trying to hold a conversation with someone's house, instead of the person who resides there? When we continue seeing one another, the way the enemy wishes us to, we are a "house divided" and are ineffective in the spirit. Racism is a tool of the devil that has been used against the Church since its beginning. Peter had a problem in the early Church, because of the gentile (different race or type of people). Acts 10:34 (Amplified) says, "And Peter opened his mouth and said; Most certainly and thoroughly I now perceive and understand that God shows no partiality and is no respecter of persons."
From the beginning of the Church (which is one Body), satan has tried keeping us separated from one another and keeping us from operating as one body. Even in the natural body, if one part doesn't function with the rest of the body, then it won't function properly. When a person has a stroke, part of the body refuse to operate correctly and that hinders the full operation of the remaining body. The person's brain still knows what the parts are supposed to do, but the body doesn't respond correctly.
The Church seems to have experienced a "stroke." Our spirit knows what we're to do and communicates that to the Body, but the Body refuses to do what it's told. Paul speaks about this in 1Corinthians 12:25-27 (Amplified). We've mostly focused on reading about the Gifts of the Spirit, in this scripture. When we allow the enemy to keep us divided, we don't function as a Body, but like a dysfunctional person. In Verses 25-27 we read, "So there should be no division or discord or lack of adaptation (of the parts of the body to each other), but the members all alike should have a mutual interest in and care for one another, And if one member suffers, all the parts (share) the suffering; if one member is honored, all the members (share in) the enjoyment of it. Now you (collectively) are Christ's Body and (individually) you are members of it, each part severally and distinct (each with his own place and function)."
It's difficult for the Body of Christ to do like Christ desires, when we do what the world expects, instead of what Christ expects. We've been set up against one another, by the way the world tells us to see one another. Does it matter what the world thinks about your arm or leg? Does it matter what the world thinks we have been placed in the Body to do? If you are diseased in your natural body, then do you even care what color the house is painted, when that person prays over you and brings your healing? Do you care whether the person who prayed over you is red, black, white, brown or rainbow? We've allowed the world of discrimination to hold back the blessing of our covenant and our relationship as one Body, to operate properly.
When we remain carnally minded and see one another more after the flesh instead of the Spirit, then we have placed limitations on the earthly functions of the Body of Christ. When Jesus said that, "A house divided cannot stand," He also meant the house of flesh that the Spirit lives in. We've become divided and haven't stood like we should, because we are still living in this house of flesh.
When Paul wrote about "not seeing one another after the flesh, but after the Spirit," he was admonishing us to stop dividing ourselves by the way the world tells us to see one another. He says we should see one another through the eyes of the spirit and "walk by faith, not by sight." The enemy is more fearful of our doing this, than anything else. Once the Body of Christ begins functioning as one Body, the whole thing will come together.
Today's America is more focused on our differences, instead of the things we hold in common. Our politicians try dividing us, in order to get votes for themselves and make the parties stronger by the power of division. We, the Church, are not to focus on the divisions the world focuses on, but we're to focus on the unity of the Church that will break down the wall of division. Removing God from our political relationship in America, will only increase the enemy's strategy and shut down the unity of the Church. I am not looking to the politicians to restore unity to America, but I am looking to God. Politics only magnify our differences, but God glorifies our differences to seam together Joseph's Coat of Many Colors to cloth the Body of Christ with, in majesty.
It doesn't matter what color the house is painted, but only who lives in the house. The Church must stop listening to the world's idea of separation and listen to the Holy Spirit, as He brings unity to us. Read 1Corinthians 12 again. Read about the Gifts of the Spirit and ask yourself whether or not it implies to the race, sex or position of those who are in Christ. Or does it imply we're all one people and one Body? Discard the media's rendition and look at the Holy Spirit and the Word of God. Before we can bring healing to the world, we must work on bringing healing to the Body of Christ, the Church.
Offense can only enter in through an unrenewed mind and will bring forth words of destruction to the speaker and the one their intended for. James instructed us to, "Not speak good and evil out of the same mouth." We shouldn't and cannot curse mankind and then bless God with the same tongue. Who is the one controlling our tongue? Is is controlled by the world and it's poison or by the Spirit and His blessing? Words spread poison throughout the entire nation. We must learn to listen to the Spirit, instead of media commentators, politicians, and the world. We must allow the Holy Spirit to speak words of healing into this nation and the world again, through the Body of Christ.
Friday, October 21, 2016
Lesson 110 The New Creation
2Corinthians 5:17 (Amplified) says, "Therefore, if any person is (ingrafted) in Christ Jesus (the Messiah) he is a new creation (a new creature altogether); the old (previous moral and spiritual condition) has passed away. Behold, the fresh and new has come."
The new creation being is a creature that has never been seen before on this earth and was created in the very Likeness of the First Born from the dead, Jesus. This First Born from the dead, must be that which was dead in spirit (separated from God by His Own Spirit). Jesus raised several people from the dead during His ministry, joining several Old Testaments prophets. This means then, God didn't mean that just the flesh and blood body died, but that the spiritual death was the "real deal."
On the day Adam sinned, the Lord told him that he would die. We know Adam lived for many years after that in the flesh. The death that came to Adam was spiritual death, that separated him from God WHO IS LIFE. Jesus preached in John 3:16 (Amplified) saying, "The thief came not to steal, to kill and destroy, but I came that you might have life." Every person who was present that day was alive in their flesh, but He spoke of them as being dead.
Many of us do not understand the whole concept of "death," the way God sees it. We were already dead in trespass and sin, because "The wages of sin, is dead." Romans 6:7-10 (Amplified) reveals the death that Jesus died, as well as the death that had already claimed us, by Adam, saying, "For when a man dies, he is freed (loosed, delivered) from (the power of) sin (among men). Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him. Because we know that Christ (the Anointed One), being once raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has power over Him. For by the death He died; He died to sin (ending His relation to it) once for all; and the life that He lives, He is living to God (in unbroken fellowship with Him)."
We are still living in our natural body of flesh, but it's not the body that lives, but the spirit within the body. Like all flesh, this body will still die (like it would have before we were saved), but our new creation spirit man is alive again to and in Christ Jesus. The Holy Spirit reveals this very thing to us in 2Corinthians 5:4 (Amplified) saying, "For while we are still in this tent (house), we groan under the burden and sigh deeply (weighted down, depressed, oppressed)-not that we want to put off the body (the clothing of the spirit), but rather that we would be further clothed. So that what is mortal (our dying body) may be swallowed up by life (after the resurrection)."
John understood the difference between the dead body of the flesh and the new body, that is "clothed in the glory of God," Paul spoke about in the above scripture. 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."
The new creation being we've become, is born from spiritual death unto spiritual life, by God's Own Son. This new creation being is living in an earthly body, while we remain on this earth. Once we leave this earth (either by death or Jesus' return), this natural body (the clothing of our spirit while we are here) will be changed into whatever Jesus' body is now in the heavenlies.
In 2Corinthians 5:16 (Amplified) we read that the way we see Jesus now, isn't the way He is, in His glorified body with the Father. Thus, it 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)."
This Man, Who became sin with our sin, died the sinner's death, in order that we who were already dead in spirit, could become alive again in our spirit man and be connected to Life, Who is God. Jesus was the first Man to be born-again from death unto life. He is also the First Born from the dead. This new creation (born-again experience) is more than just being forgiven from our sin. It is the price paid for sin, death suffered by Jesus's death, which was His being separated from God, on our behalf.
Our carnal minds cannot conceive how Jesus was (or ever could be) separated from the Father, but this is exactly what He did for us. Jesus was separated in spiritual death (His Own Spirit within Him), just like your spirit within you, was separated. The Holy Spirit raised Him up out of death, just like He raised us up, by faith in our Substitute and Sacrifice Lamb. When we can begin seeing the whole picture by the Holy Spirit, we can begin understanding the new creation people we have become.
Before our being saved and born-again, we were already a spirit being, because we were made in the Image and Likeness of God, Who is a Spirit. Because of Adam's fall, our spirit was separated from God's Spirit and the God Kind of Life was no longer connecting us to Him. By His being separated and raised up again, Jesus rejoined us to God and Life, just like He told His followers saying, "I have come that you may have Life and have it in abundance." Jesus restored the new creation back to the Father and made us a living, speaking, child of God that didn't exist before His resurrection.
This is why we've never gone from being "just forgiven sinners," into being alive. Death was the verdict and death was what we received through Adam. Life was God's Heart and Life was what we received through Jesus. Now, we're not just spirit people, but a new creation, living spirit people. We're able to speak to our Heavenly Father and fellowship with our Heavenly Father. We are able to come into His Presence again, without even the taint or hint of death in our newly created spirit, because He Himself is intertwined in our very own, living spirit.
We must believe that we actually died in our spirit, in order to understand Life in our spirit. This spiritual death was a legal debt that needed be met and fulfilled by Jesus, so that we might live unto God through Him, the First Born from among the dead. Colossians 1:18 (Amplified) tells us that Jesus is, "The Head of His Body, the Church, the First Born from among the dead."
The new creation being is a creature that has never been seen before on this earth and was created in the very Likeness of the First Born from the dead, Jesus. This First Born from the dead, must be that which was dead in spirit (separated from God by His Own Spirit). Jesus raised several people from the dead during His ministry, joining several Old Testaments prophets. This means then, God didn't mean that just the flesh and blood body died, but that the spiritual death was the "real deal."
On the day Adam sinned, the Lord told him that he would die. We know Adam lived for many years after that in the flesh. The death that came to Adam was spiritual death, that separated him from God WHO IS LIFE. Jesus preached in John 3:16 (Amplified) saying, "The thief came not to steal, to kill and destroy, but I came that you might have life." Every person who was present that day was alive in their flesh, but He spoke of them as being dead.
Many of us do not understand the whole concept of "death," the way God sees it. We were already dead in trespass and sin, because "The wages of sin, is dead." Romans 6:7-10 (Amplified) reveals the death that Jesus died, as well as the death that had already claimed us, by Adam, saying, "For when a man dies, he is freed (loosed, delivered) from (the power of) sin (among men). Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him. Because we know that Christ (the Anointed One), being once raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has power over Him. For by the death He died; He died to sin (ending His relation to it) once for all; and the life that He lives, He is living to God (in unbroken fellowship with Him)."
We are still living in our natural body of flesh, but it's not the body that lives, but the spirit within the body. Like all flesh, this body will still die (like it would have before we were saved), but our new creation spirit man is alive again to and in Christ Jesus. The Holy Spirit reveals this very thing to us in 2Corinthians 5:4 (Amplified) saying, "For while we are still in this tent (house), we groan under the burden and sigh deeply (weighted down, depressed, oppressed)-not that we want to put off the body (the clothing of the spirit), but rather that we would be further clothed. So that what is mortal (our dying body) may be swallowed up by life (after the resurrection)."
John understood the difference between the dead body of the flesh and the new body, that is "clothed in the glory of God," Paul spoke about in the above scripture. 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."
The new creation being we've become, is born from spiritual death unto spiritual life, by God's Own Son. This new creation being is living in an earthly body, while we remain on this earth. Once we leave this earth (either by death or Jesus' return), this natural body (the clothing of our spirit while we are here) will be changed into whatever Jesus' body is now in the heavenlies.
In 2Corinthians 5:16 (Amplified) we read that the way we see Jesus now, isn't the way He is, in His glorified body with the Father. Thus, it 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)."
This Man, Who became sin with our sin, died the sinner's death, in order that we who were already dead in spirit, could become alive again in our spirit man and be connected to Life, Who is God. Jesus was the first Man to be born-again from death unto life. He is also the First Born from the dead. This new creation (born-again experience) is more than just being forgiven from our sin. It is the price paid for sin, death suffered by Jesus's death, which was His being separated from God, on our behalf.
Our carnal minds cannot conceive how Jesus was (or ever could be) separated from the Father, but this is exactly what He did for us. Jesus was separated in spiritual death (His Own Spirit within Him), just like your spirit within you, was separated. The Holy Spirit raised Him up out of death, just like He raised us up, by faith in our Substitute and Sacrifice Lamb. When we can begin seeing the whole picture by the Holy Spirit, we can begin understanding the new creation people we have become.
Before our being saved and born-again, we were already a spirit being, because we were made in the Image and Likeness of God, Who is a Spirit. Because of Adam's fall, our spirit was separated from God's Spirit and the God Kind of Life was no longer connecting us to Him. By His being separated and raised up again, Jesus rejoined us to God and Life, just like He told His followers saying, "I have come that you may have Life and have it in abundance." Jesus restored the new creation back to the Father and made us a living, speaking, child of God that didn't exist before His resurrection.
This is why we've never gone from being "just forgiven sinners," into being alive. Death was the verdict and death was what we received through Adam. Life was God's Heart and Life was what we received through Jesus. Now, we're not just spirit people, but a new creation, living spirit people. We're able to speak to our Heavenly Father and fellowship with our Heavenly Father. We are able to come into His Presence again, without even the taint or hint of death in our newly created spirit, because He Himself is intertwined in our very own, living spirit.
We must believe that we actually died in our spirit, in order to understand Life in our spirit. This spiritual death was a legal debt that needed be met and fulfilled by Jesus, so that we might live unto God through Him, the First Born from among the dead. Colossians 1:18 (Amplified) tells us that Jesus is, "The Head of His Body, the Church, the First Born from among the dead."
Thursday, October 20, 2016
L esson 109 The New Creation
2Corinthians 5:17 (Amplified) says, "Therefore, if any person is (ingrafted) in Christ Jesus (the Messiah) he is a new creation (a new creature altogether); the old (previous and moral conditions) have passed away. Behold, the fresh and new has come."
We've never truly understood the above scripture and have allowed the world to influence our belief of it meaning only that we have been saved. We've built our own little church buildings and have established our own little denominations that dictate what we believe. We are in a super-natural warfare and are using carnal and worldly weapons to fight.
2Corinthians 10:3-4 (Amplified) says, "For though we walk (live) in the flesh, we are not carrying on our warfare according to the flesh and mere human weapons. For the weapons of our warfare are not physical (weapons of flesh and blood), but they are mighty before God for the overthrow and destructions of strongholds." Ephesians 6:12 (Amplified) says, "For we are not wrestling with flesh and blood (contending only with physical opponents) but against the despotisms, against the powers, against (the master spirits who are) the world rulers of this present darkness, against the spirit forces of wickedness in the heavenly (supernatural) sphere."
The Church (We) has been equipped with God's Own armor and ability, in order to overcome the enemy's deception. We've been entering into a spiritual battle, using only flesh and blood weapons. In the natural realm, we can never hope to overthrow a spiritual enemy.
If we had entered WWII with nothing more than flintlock rifles, then we'd surely been defeated and speaking German. We must learn to operate in the super-natural and use the weapons God has so graciously provided us. Several months ago, I compared the similarities between the Church and the military, in a blog. The entire idea of basic training or Boot Camp, is to teach the soldiers how to use their weapons and winningly conduct warfare.
The Church has never majored on this strategy, but instead focuses on "not sinning" and "doing right." Although these are important parts of our walk with God, they are not all that's needed. Many Americans never enter the military or go to war. These Americans depend on those who do keep their country free and to keep the enemy out of their country. This is also true in the Church. Many Christians are never trained in warfare and depend on those who keep the enemy from them and enter the mission fields. When the Army becomes slack and no one else is on the frontline, we get overrun and could not only lose the battle, but the Country.
We've witnessed many ungodly laws passed in America and have seen discrimination against Christ and His followers from lawmakers. This should never have been allowed to happened, but it mostly has happened because we conduct spiritual warfare using carnal weapons.
Make no mistake, the Church is under attack in America, like never before. It's not a matter of our voting for a donkey or elephant, but voting God. Prayer and the super-natural weapons God supplies, are the only things that will work. This isn't just a matter of what we should and shouldn't do, but what we MUST do. The enemy has nearly talked the Church into not fighting back and merely holding on until Jesus comes back. Jesus told us to "occupy" until He returns. "Occupy" is a military term that means to "remain in a certain area and stop the override of an enemy."
Korea is a nation that is still occupied today, even though the war ended long ago. We still have troops there to hold back the dark forces of North Korea. For the most part, the new creation people haven't seen themselves as warriors, but as simply a people who are different from others. We are different, but not because we've stopped drinking and cussing and now attend church. Through Jesus, the Church is the hope of the world. This is why the Father left us here, after we were born-again. Those in the world, have no weapons or authority over the spiritual enemy, who is determined on bringing everything and everyone into his domain.
The weapons or our warfare are not carnal, but super-natural through God. If we do not know how to use them, then we are without the ability to overcome the enemy. Our weapons are the Word of God, the Holy Spirit, the Name and authority in the Name of Jesus, and our prayer language (speaking in tongues) by which we receive instructions from our Commander-in-Chief, Jesus. We also have the power of the Blood of our Covenant Partner, God. Our faith in these weapons is the "shield" we use to stop all of the fiery darts of the enemy. In Ephesians 6:10-18, the Holy Spirit gives us instructions about our armor and ability and on how to use them in our lives. These things are the weapons and armor we apply in warfare.
We've mostly seen ourselves as the Bride of Christ and not as warriors for Him. This is a battle for the captives of the enemy, who have been held in darkness and death for centuries. When the liberating armies entered the Death Camps after WWII, they found people in all states of darkness, death, starvation, and fear. Setting these people free required determination, courage and sacrifice, but it was worth it. Many on the sidelines, protested what was being done, because they didn't understand the necessity of warfare. Warfare and death are the only things our enemy can understand.
God is raising up an army in these last days, who will go forth to deliver and protect those who have no idea of who the enemy is and no idea of how to understand him. Without Jesus, they are helpless to do anything to fight him (even if they wanted to). All these people have are carnal, worldly strength against a spiritual force of evil.
The Super-natural ability of God is the only force that can overcome a spiritual enemy. Without this operating in our lives, Christians are helpless to help anyone. We've been talked into setting down our weapons and were told they were "for another time and another people." We've been deceived into believing that "Tongues have ceased," "miracles have waned" and "God's Word isn't to be taken literally anymore." This is equivalent to our going to war with nothing except the Helmet of Salvation. We supply our armies with body armor and weapons of warfare needed to protect and overcome enemy forces. Wouldn't God at least, do this for His Army?
After spending forty days and night in the wilderness, Jesus stopped the devil using God's Word. Luke 4:14 (Amplified) tells us what happened next, saying, "Jesus went back full of and under the power of the Holy Spirit into Galilee, and the fame of Him spread through the whole region round about." Before this time, if was never recorded that Jesus performed a miracle or that anyone viewed Him as being different from any other man. The Holy Spirit was Who distinguished Him from everyone else on the planet. We have the same Holy Spirit living in us, to do the same thing. Acts 1:8 (Amplified) says, "Jesus said, But you shall receive power (ability, efficiency, and might) when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you shall be My witnesses in Jerusalem, and all Judea and Samaria and to the ends (the very bounds) of the earth." Acts 2:4 (Amplified) says, "And they were all filled (diffused throughout their souls) with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues."
Acts 2:39 (Amplified) tells us, "For the promise (of the Holy Spirit) is to and for you and your children, and to all that are far away (even) to and for as many as the Lord our God invites and bids to come to Himself." Is He still bidding and inviting people to come to Himself? Then, the power and ability of this same Holy Spirit is still here for us today. Nothing has changed as far as God is concerned, it's only we who've changed by what we believe and accept. We are an "invading army of God," to set at liberty all that are bound, and to preach and deliver all that are held captive by the enemy.
We've never truly understood the above scripture and have allowed the world to influence our belief of it meaning only that we have been saved. We've built our own little church buildings and have established our own little denominations that dictate what we believe. We are in a super-natural warfare and are using carnal and worldly weapons to fight.
2Corinthians 10:3-4 (Amplified) says, "For though we walk (live) in the flesh, we are not carrying on our warfare according to the flesh and mere human weapons. For the weapons of our warfare are not physical (weapons of flesh and blood), but they are mighty before God for the overthrow and destructions of strongholds." Ephesians 6:12 (Amplified) says, "For we are not wrestling with flesh and blood (contending only with physical opponents) but against the despotisms, against the powers, against (the master spirits who are) the world rulers of this present darkness, against the spirit forces of wickedness in the heavenly (supernatural) sphere."
The Church (We) has been equipped with God's Own armor and ability, in order to overcome the enemy's deception. We've been entering into a spiritual battle, using only flesh and blood weapons. In the natural realm, we can never hope to overthrow a spiritual enemy.
If we had entered WWII with nothing more than flintlock rifles, then we'd surely been defeated and speaking German. We must learn to operate in the super-natural and use the weapons God has so graciously provided us. Several months ago, I compared the similarities between the Church and the military, in a blog. The entire idea of basic training or Boot Camp, is to teach the soldiers how to use their weapons and winningly conduct warfare.
The Church has never majored on this strategy, but instead focuses on "not sinning" and "doing right." Although these are important parts of our walk with God, they are not all that's needed. Many Americans never enter the military or go to war. These Americans depend on those who do keep their country free and to keep the enemy out of their country. This is also true in the Church. Many Christians are never trained in warfare and depend on those who keep the enemy from them and enter the mission fields. When the Army becomes slack and no one else is on the frontline, we get overrun and could not only lose the battle, but the Country.
We've witnessed many ungodly laws passed in America and have seen discrimination against Christ and His followers from lawmakers. This should never have been allowed to happened, but it mostly has happened because we conduct spiritual warfare using carnal weapons.
Make no mistake, the Church is under attack in America, like never before. It's not a matter of our voting for a donkey or elephant, but voting God. Prayer and the super-natural weapons God supplies, are the only things that will work. This isn't just a matter of what we should and shouldn't do, but what we MUST do. The enemy has nearly talked the Church into not fighting back and merely holding on until Jesus comes back. Jesus told us to "occupy" until He returns. "Occupy" is a military term that means to "remain in a certain area and stop the override of an enemy."
Korea is a nation that is still occupied today, even though the war ended long ago. We still have troops there to hold back the dark forces of North Korea. For the most part, the new creation people haven't seen themselves as warriors, but as simply a people who are different from others. We are different, but not because we've stopped drinking and cussing and now attend church. Through Jesus, the Church is the hope of the world. This is why the Father left us here, after we were born-again. Those in the world, have no weapons or authority over the spiritual enemy, who is determined on bringing everything and everyone into his domain.
The weapons or our warfare are not carnal, but super-natural through God. If we do not know how to use them, then we are without the ability to overcome the enemy. Our weapons are the Word of God, the Holy Spirit, the Name and authority in the Name of Jesus, and our prayer language (speaking in tongues) by which we receive instructions from our Commander-in-Chief, Jesus. We also have the power of the Blood of our Covenant Partner, God. Our faith in these weapons is the "shield" we use to stop all of the fiery darts of the enemy. In Ephesians 6:10-18, the Holy Spirit gives us instructions about our armor and ability and on how to use them in our lives. These things are the weapons and armor we apply in warfare.
We've mostly seen ourselves as the Bride of Christ and not as warriors for Him. This is a battle for the captives of the enemy, who have been held in darkness and death for centuries. When the liberating armies entered the Death Camps after WWII, they found people in all states of darkness, death, starvation, and fear. Setting these people free required determination, courage and sacrifice, but it was worth it. Many on the sidelines, protested what was being done, because they didn't understand the necessity of warfare. Warfare and death are the only things our enemy can understand.
God is raising up an army in these last days, who will go forth to deliver and protect those who have no idea of who the enemy is and no idea of how to understand him. Without Jesus, they are helpless to do anything to fight him (even if they wanted to). All these people have are carnal, worldly strength against a spiritual force of evil.
The Super-natural ability of God is the only force that can overcome a spiritual enemy. Without this operating in our lives, Christians are helpless to help anyone. We've been talked into setting down our weapons and were told they were "for another time and another people." We've been deceived into believing that "Tongues have ceased," "miracles have waned" and "God's Word isn't to be taken literally anymore." This is equivalent to our going to war with nothing except the Helmet of Salvation. We supply our armies with body armor and weapons of warfare needed to protect and overcome enemy forces. Wouldn't God at least, do this for His Army?
After spending forty days and night in the wilderness, Jesus stopped the devil using God's Word. Luke 4:14 (Amplified) tells us what happened next, saying, "Jesus went back full of and under the power of the Holy Spirit into Galilee, and the fame of Him spread through the whole region round about." Before this time, if was never recorded that Jesus performed a miracle or that anyone viewed Him as being different from any other man. The Holy Spirit was Who distinguished Him from everyone else on the planet. We have the same Holy Spirit living in us, to do the same thing. Acts 1:8 (Amplified) says, "Jesus said, But you shall receive power (ability, efficiency, and might) when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you shall be My witnesses in Jerusalem, and all Judea and Samaria and to the ends (the very bounds) of the earth." Acts 2:4 (Amplified) says, "And they were all filled (diffused throughout their souls) with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues."
Acts 2:39 (Amplified) tells us, "For the promise (of the Holy Spirit) is to and for you and your children, and to all that are far away (even) to and for as many as the Lord our God invites and bids to come to Himself." Is He still bidding and inviting people to come to Himself? Then, the power and ability of this same Holy Spirit is still here for us today. Nothing has changed as far as God is concerned, it's only we who've changed by what we believe and accept. We are an "invading army of God," to set at liberty all that are bound, and to preach and deliver all that are held captive by the enemy.
Wednesday, October 19, 2016
Lesson 108 The New Creation
2Corinthians 5:17 (Amplified) says, "Therefore, if any person is (ingrafted) in Christ Jesus (the Messiah) he is a new creation (a new creature altogether) the old (previous moral and spiritual condition) is passed. Behold, the fresh and new has come."
The above scripture has been overlooked by much of today's Church. Even though we read it, we continue seeing ourselves as we were and not as God has made us to be. Ignoring this scripture is saying we don't believe Jesus was enough to actually make us new. We've allowed the enemy to keep us looking at who we were, instead of seeing what the Sacrifice of Jesus has cleansed us from. This id dangerous for the believer, because as long as we walk in that "sense knowledge," we never will enter into the "faith knowledge" of God's Word.
It's true that "All have sinned and fallen short of the Glory of God." This is why God sent Jesus. However, when you receive Jesus as your Sin-Bearer, you've become a new creation. God didn't leave us as sinners, but He created a brand new creature, by the power of the Lamb. We've been schooled to believe we are still sinner and are always holding back from what God has created us to be. With a sin conscience, we can never approach God with faith needed to receive what He created us to be.
The new creation being has been made completely sinless and holy, by the Blood of God's Own Son, Who was slain on our behalf. God's Lamb didn't simply "cover" the sin like in the old covenant, but completely removed it from us. God sees us without sin or blemish, because He Himself has faith in the Sacrifice to create a "new creature altogether." When you accept Jesus, in God's eyes you are created new, like Jesus was when He was raised from the dead. He is the "First Born of many brethren."
Through Him, we were created brand new and a people who never existed before on the earth. We read about the blood of animals covering the sins of the old covenant people and then identify with them. In this new covenant, God doesn't look at a "covering," but a new creation, according to Hebrews 9:14 (Amplified) which says, "How much more surely shall the Blood of Christ, Who by virtue of (His) eternal Spirit (His Own pre-existent, divine personality) has offered Himself as an unblemished Sacrifice to God, purify our consciences from dead works and lifeless observances to serve the (Ever) Living God."
We've spent so much time trying to make ourselves pure, instead of believing (by faith) that Jesus made us pure. Our natural man still wishes to condemn us for our past sins, even though Jesus' Blood completely removed them from both our past and future. This isn't saying it doesn't matter if we sin now, but if we do sin, then the Blood of Jesus is still speaking on our behalf from the Mercy Seat at the Throne of Grace. Even if we sin, and we will, His Blood doesn't need be renewed every year, but still speaks on our behalf. We can come before our Father, in the very Body of Christ and repent (or change our minds), turn from whatever we did wrong, and continue where God has called us to be.
As long as we remain sin conscious, we cannot be in faith to receive what God has for us. This sounds almost like boasting, to the religious mind, but to God's ears it sounds like faith in His Son's Sacrifice. This is what God was speaking about in the above scripture. Jesus' Blood is to purify our conscience from "dead works and lifeless observances." Our trying to cleanse ourselves is dead works and our works to cleanse ourselves are "lifeless observances." There is no Life, outside of god and this is why it is "lifeless observances."
God could have continued with the old covenant and covering the sin, but this always left the people aware of their sin. God wanted a people who were more aware of His Goodness, rather than His punishment. If you are always fearful of doing something wrong, then you cannot focus on doing right. You were never truly clean enough and the only way to stay clean, was by your own works of keeping the Law. This sort of cleanness was based on their own works, instead of God's grace.
We are to acknowledge His grace, even when we know that within ourselves that we don't deserve it. This is faith in Jesus,not ourselves. Hebrews 11:6 (Amplified) says, "But without faith it is impossible to please and be satisfactory to Him. For whoever would come near to God must (necessarily) believe that God exists and that He is the rewarder of those who earnestly seek Him (out)."
If we come to Him in our own efforts to declare ourselves clean by our own works, then He is not pleased and doesn't find our own efforts satisfactory. We would be telling God that we made ourselves clean by our own works, rather than having faith in His works of righteousness. Hebrews 4:11 (Amplified) says, "Let us therefore be zealous and exert ourselves and strive diligently to enter that rest (of God, to know and experience it for ourselves) that no one may fall or perish by the same kind of unbelief and disobedience (into which those in the wilderness fell)."
Those in the wilderness fell, because they wouldn't trust in God, but looked to their own strength instead. Laboring to enter into rest of forgiveness, is one of the greatest measure of our faith in God. This one sin has held back God's people for millennia. We say that we have faith to believe we're saved and going to heaven, but fail to acknowledge that we cannot get to heaven with sin in our lives. The only way to accept this, is by believing in the new creation.
The Word tells us, "Without faith, it is impossible to please God." He's not pleased with our efforts to remove sin from our lives, but He is pleased when we believe that Jesus has removed sin from our lives. It's good for Christians to pray and fast, but not to do so in order to cleanse us from sin. This isn't faith in God's Son, but in ourselves. The instruction of "Labor to enter into His rest" sounds like an oxymoron to the natural man. It takes faith in God, to keep your mind and heart on Jesus in the middle of walking in this world.
1John 1:7-8 (Amplified) tells us, "But if we (really) are living and walking in the Light; as He (Himself) is in the Light, we have (true, unbroken) fellowship with one another, and the Blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses (removes) us from all sin and guilt (keeps us cleansed from sin in all its forms and manifestations)." Verse 8 says, "If we say we have no sin (refusing to admit that we are sinners) we delude and lead ourselves astray) and the Truth (which the Gospel presents) is not in us (does not dwell in our hearts)." Verse 7 speaks to the Christian, while Verse 8 speaks to non-Christians who say, "I am a good person and I am not living in sin." There are those who look to their own lives and way of thinking, without seeing the need to accept Jesus, because they feel like they're alright already. John says these people are "deceiving themselves." He tells the Christian, who by faith in Jesus, have their sins removed forever, not to dwell on the past life, but on their relationship with God.
It is God we have sinned against and He has declared us "clean." Who are we to say it's not so? Paul writes in Romans 3:23-24 (Amplified), "Since all have sinner and are falling short of the honor and glory which God bestows and received. (All) are justified and made upright and in right standing with God, freely and gratuitously by His grace (Hi unmerited favor and mercy) through the redemption which is (provided) in Christ Jesus." The first Adam brought the sin, and the Last Adam (Jesus) removed it. Now, this new creation man has become what the Father intended from the beginning, a family in His house with whom He can have fellowship with, without needing to deal with sin instead of love and family. The sin separating man from God, has been removed and there are no longer barriers between God and man, in Jesus Christ.
The above scripture has been overlooked by much of today's Church. Even though we read it, we continue seeing ourselves as we were and not as God has made us to be. Ignoring this scripture is saying we don't believe Jesus was enough to actually make us new. We've allowed the enemy to keep us looking at who we were, instead of seeing what the Sacrifice of Jesus has cleansed us from. This id dangerous for the believer, because as long as we walk in that "sense knowledge," we never will enter into the "faith knowledge" of God's Word.
It's true that "All have sinned and fallen short of the Glory of God." This is why God sent Jesus. However, when you receive Jesus as your Sin-Bearer, you've become a new creation. God didn't leave us as sinners, but He created a brand new creature, by the power of the Lamb. We've been schooled to believe we are still sinner and are always holding back from what God has created us to be. With a sin conscience, we can never approach God with faith needed to receive what He created us to be.
The new creation being has been made completely sinless and holy, by the Blood of God's Own Son, Who was slain on our behalf. God's Lamb didn't simply "cover" the sin like in the old covenant, but completely removed it from us. God sees us without sin or blemish, because He Himself has faith in the Sacrifice to create a "new creature altogether." When you accept Jesus, in God's eyes you are created new, like Jesus was when He was raised from the dead. He is the "First Born of many brethren."
Through Him, we were created brand new and a people who never existed before on the earth. We read about the blood of animals covering the sins of the old covenant people and then identify with them. In this new covenant, God doesn't look at a "covering," but a new creation, according to Hebrews 9:14 (Amplified) which says, "How much more surely shall the Blood of Christ, Who by virtue of (His) eternal Spirit (His Own pre-existent, divine personality) has offered Himself as an unblemished Sacrifice to God, purify our consciences from dead works and lifeless observances to serve the (Ever) Living God."
We've spent so much time trying to make ourselves pure, instead of believing (by faith) that Jesus made us pure. Our natural man still wishes to condemn us for our past sins, even though Jesus' Blood completely removed them from both our past and future. This isn't saying it doesn't matter if we sin now, but if we do sin, then the Blood of Jesus is still speaking on our behalf from the Mercy Seat at the Throne of Grace. Even if we sin, and we will, His Blood doesn't need be renewed every year, but still speaks on our behalf. We can come before our Father, in the very Body of Christ and repent (or change our minds), turn from whatever we did wrong, and continue where God has called us to be.
As long as we remain sin conscious, we cannot be in faith to receive what God has for us. This sounds almost like boasting, to the religious mind, but to God's ears it sounds like faith in His Son's Sacrifice. This is what God was speaking about in the above scripture. Jesus' Blood is to purify our conscience from "dead works and lifeless observances." Our trying to cleanse ourselves is dead works and our works to cleanse ourselves are "lifeless observances." There is no Life, outside of god and this is why it is "lifeless observances."
God could have continued with the old covenant and covering the sin, but this always left the people aware of their sin. God wanted a people who were more aware of His Goodness, rather than His punishment. If you are always fearful of doing something wrong, then you cannot focus on doing right. You were never truly clean enough and the only way to stay clean, was by your own works of keeping the Law. This sort of cleanness was based on their own works, instead of God's grace.
We are to acknowledge His grace, even when we know that within ourselves that we don't deserve it. This is faith in Jesus,not ourselves. Hebrews 11:6 (Amplified) says, "But without faith it is impossible to please and be satisfactory to Him. For whoever would come near to God must (necessarily) believe that God exists and that He is the rewarder of those who earnestly seek Him (out)."
If we come to Him in our own efforts to declare ourselves clean by our own works, then He is not pleased and doesn't find our own efforts satisfactory. We would be telling God that we made ourselves clean by our own works, rather than having faith in His works of righteousness. Hebrews 4:11 (Amplified) says, "Let us therefore be zealous and exert ourselves and strive diligently to enter that rest (of God, to know and experience it for ourselves) that no one may fall or perish by the same kind of unbelief and disobedience (into which those in the wilderness fell)."
Those in the wilderness fell, because they wouldn't trust in God, but looked to their own strength instead. Laboring to enter into rest of forgiveness, is one of the greatest measure of our faith in God. This one sin has held back God's people for millennia. We say that we have faith to believe we're saved and going to heaven, but fail to acknowledge that we cannot get to heaven with sin in our lives. The only way to accept this, is by believing in the new creation.
The Word tells us, "Without faith, it is impossible to please God." He's not pleased with our efforts to remove sin from our lives, but He is pleased when we believe that Jesus has removed sin from our lives. It's good for Christians to pray and fast, but not to do so in order to cleanse us from sin. This isn't faith in God's Son, but in ourselves. The instruction of "Labor to enter into His rest" sounds like an oxymoron to the natural man. It takes faith in God, to keep your mind and heart on Jesus in the middle of walking in this world.
1John 1:7-8 (Amplified) tells us, "But if we (really) are living and walking in the Light; as He (Himself) is in the Light, we have (true, unbroken) fellowship with one another, and the Blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses (removes) us from all sin and guilt (keeps us cleansed from sin in all its forms and manifestations)." Verse 8 says, "If we say we have no sin (refusing to admit that we are sinners) we delude and lead ourselves astray) and the Truth (which the Gospel presents) is not in us (does not dwell in our hearts)." Verse 7 speaks to the Christian, while Verse 8 speaks to non-Christians who say, "I am a good person and I am not living in sin." There are those who look to their own lives and way of thinking, without seeing the need to accept Jesus, because they feel like they're alright already. John says these people are "deceiving themselves." He tells the Christian, who by faith in Jesus, have their sins removed forever, not to dwell on the past life, but on their relationship with God.
It is God we have sinned against and He has declared us "clean." Who are we to say it's not so? Paul writes in Romans 3:23-24 (Amplified), "Since all have sinner and are falling short of the honor and glory which God bestows and received. (All) are justified and made upright and in right standing with God, freely and gratuitously by His grace (Hi unmerited favor and mercy) through the redemption which is (provided) in Christ Jesus." The first Adam brought the sin, and the Last Adam (Jesus) removed it. Now, this new creation man has become what the Father intended from the beginning, a family in His house with whom He can have fellowship with, without needing to deal with sin instead of love and family. The sin separating man from God, has been removed and there are no longer barriers between God and man, in Jesus Christ.
Tuesday, October 18, 2016
Lesson 107 The New Creation
2Corinthians 5:17 (Amplified) says, "Therefore, if any person is (ingrafted) in Christ Jesus (the Messiah) he is a new creation (a new creature altogether) the old (previous moral and spiritual condition) has passed away. Behold, the fresh and new has come."
There is so very much to learn about the new creation that we haven't been taught throughout the years. We've been trained about what the Church is in the eyes of the world's understanding, but that is much different than what God says. We've been taught a great deal about abstaining from sin and ungodliness (and that is very good).
When we (the Church) allowed the world to determine how we were to be, we made the new creation into religion, instead of relationship. Satan is in control of mankind through his lies and deceit, ruling them through religion for millennia. He knows that mankind was created for worship and has devised the way for that worship to be to himself. Satan has set himself up to be the focus of man's worship, in every religion of the world. He even tried directing the worship of Jesus to himself in the wilderness, by offering Jesus the world. If Jesus had accepted satan's bribe, then He would have fallen under and into the same trap Adam fell under at the beginning.
The Church was never intended to be under any sort of bondage to any god, but a pure bondage, by choice as Paul declared in Romans 1:1 (Amplified) saying, "From Paul, a bond servant to Jesus Christ (the Messiah)." A "bond servant," is one who chooses to be bound to another by an act of free will and choice. This is far different from those who are bound by fear, greed, or any other form of bondage.
Satan has always tried ruling over man by his own design of religion. Don't think that he hasn't tried to rule the Church with the same lie that he rules all religions. He has come into the Church with his own brand of religion and by his own traditions, thus holding back the very power of God from God's people through deceits and lies. He has established a fear of God (not the the respect and reverence kind) in the Church. God's people became afraid that if we don't follow a certain law of religious order, then we should fear punishment.
Romans 8:1-2 (Amplified) says, "Therefore, (there is) now no condemnation (no adjudging guilt of wrong) for those who are in Christ Jesus, who live (and) walk not after the dictates of the flesh, but after the dictates of the Spirit. 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 death." We were to be made free from the Law of sin and death, by being led by our spirit, through the Word (which is Spirit) and the Holy Spirit. We weren't created to be led again by rituals and traditions of men, but by God Himself.
Men began replacing traditions and rituals on the Church and we fell into the same trap satan used to deceive man from the get-go. This led to our not being able to hear from our spirit and our falling back into the dictates of the flesh. The flesh could never live up to the expectations of what God created us to be. Paul commented on this very thing, to the Church in Galatians 3:3 (Amplified) saying, "Are you so foolish and so senseless and so silly? Having begun (your new life spiritually) with the Holy Spirit, are you now reaching perfection (by dependence) on the flesh?"
Paul continued his writings to the Church about traditions and rituals in Galatians 6:7-8 (Amplified) saying, "Do not be deceived and deluded and misled; God will not allow Himself to be sneered at (scorned, disdained, or mocked by mere pretensions or professions, or by His precepts being set aside) (He inevitably deludes himself who attempts to delude God) For whatever a man sows, that and only that is what he will reap. 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."
If you've already made Jesus the Lord of your life, then you already have eternal life, but what we reap from that life is now determined whether we will choose to serve the spirit or flesh. By traditions of the flesh, we can only reap from the flesh and we can reap the things of the new creation man after the Spirit, by serving the Spirit.
Because the new creation man has allowed himself to be made subject to ideas and traditions from the past, we have forfeited many things the Father intended for us to do and enjoy. Satan has still set himself up to receive what he has done as being from God. How many of us in the Church today, are giving god credit for things that satan is doing in our lives? When satan destroys something and we declare that "God did it," then who receives the glory? God? No! He doesn't want that kind of lie perpetrated in His Name.
Religious tradition has demoted the glory of our Heavenly Father into the image of the "thief who comes to steal, kill and destroy." When we say that God did these things, then the proclamation goes to the thief and not to God. Satan, then, sets himself in a place where he is god and accepts all the thanks for our destruction as God.
The simplicity of knowing our God, is to simply watch Jesus in His earthly walk. Jesus said in John 5:19 (Amplified), "I assure you, most solemnly I tell you, the Son is able to do nothing of Himself (of His Own accord) But He is able to do only what He sees the Father doing, for whatever the Father does is what the Son does in the same way (in His turn)." How can we believe that sickness, disease, heartache and corruption come from our Father? They can't, because Jesus healed these things.
Jesus never turned anyone away, who needed help or healing and He never put sickness or disease on anyone either. How did the religious teachings and traditions of the Spirit enter into the hearts and minds of the new creation man who was created by God? Paul gives us the answer in Galatians 3:3 (Amplified) saying, "Are you so foolish and so senseless and so silly? Having begun (your new life spiritually) with the Holy Spirit, are you now reaching perfection (by dependence) on the flesh?" We've all heard the old saying of, "We've heard it so long, that we believe it."
Jesus never taught such foolish things about the new creation man, that we hear being taught today. His idea and description of the new creation is found in John 17:26 (Amplified), where Jesus prayed, "I have made Your Name known to them and revealed Your character and Your Very Self, and I will continue to make You known that the Love which You have bestowed upon Me may be in them (felt in their hearts) and that I (Myself) may be in them." The "character and Very Self" Jesus revealed to us as our Father's, is not the character and self that today's Church sees and hears about. The traditions and flesh have perverted the Image of the Father into one that is wholly different from the way Jesus revealed Him. The deception of the enemy has deceived the new creation, just as surely as it did Adam and Eve in the beginning. We've taken the phrase, "You never know what God will do" and made a religion out of it, instead of watching Jesus reveal what God would do. Jesus said, "When you see Me, you have seen the Father." What part of that is so difficult to comprehend, as to what our Father desires for us?
Romans 8:14 (Amplified) tells us, "For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God." We are to be led by our spirit, not by the flesh and man's ideas of what they think about God. By our own ideas of the carnal mind, we have created a "Father God" Who we don't know or trust (for the most part). It's hard to trust someone who always changes his mind, about how he thinks and does things. This carnal mind-set, allows satan to steal, kill and destroy much of what our Father created for us to be and have. Romans 5:10 (Amplified) says, "For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, it is much more (certain) now that we are reconciled, that we shall be saved (daily delivered from sin's dominion) through His (resurrection) Life."
There is so very much to learn about the new creation that we haven't been taught throughout the years. We've been trained about what the Church is in the eyes of the world's understanding, but that is much different than what God says. We've been taught a great deal about abstaining from sin and ungodliness (and that is very good).
When we (the Church) allowed the world to determine how we were to be, we made the new creation into religion, instead of relationship. Satan is in control of mankind through his lies and deceit, ruling them through religion for millennia. He knows that mankind was created for worship and has devised the way for that worship to be to himself. Satan has set himself up to be the focus of man's worship, in every religion of the world. He even tried directing the worship of Jesus to himself in the wilderness, by offering Jesus the world. If Jesus had accepted satan's bribe, then He would have fallen under and into the same trap Adam fell under at the beginning.
The Church was never intended to be under any sort of bondage to any god, but a pure bondage, by choice as Paul declared in Romans 1:1 (Amplified) saying, "From Paul, a bond servant to Jesus Christ (the Messiah)." A "bond servant," is one who chooses to be bound to another by an act of free will and choice. This is far different from those who are bound by fear, greed, or any other form of bondage.
Satan has always tried ruling over man by his own design of religion. Don't think that he hasn't tried to rule the Church with the same lie that he rules all religions. He has come into the Church with his own brand of religion and by his own traditions, thus holding back the very power of God from God's people through deceits and lies. He has established a fear of God (not the the respect and reverence kind) in the Church. God's people became afraid that if we don't follow a certain law of religious order, then we should fear punishment.
Romans 8:1-2 (Amplified) says, "Therefore, (there is) now no condemnation (no adjudging guilt of wrong) for those who are in Christ Jesus, who live (and) walk not after the dictates of the flesh, but after the dictates of the Spirit. 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 death." We were to be made free from the Law of sin and death, by being led by our spirit, through the Word (which is Spirit) and the Holy Spirit. We weren't created to be led again by rituals and traditions of men, but by God Himself.
Men began replacing traditions and rituals on the Church and we fell into the same trap satan used to deceive man from the get-go. This led to our not being able to hear from our spirit and our falling back into the dictates of the flesh. The flesh could never live up to the expectations of what God created us to be. Paul commented on this very thing, to the Church in Galatians 3:3 (Amplified) saying, "Are you so foolish and so senseless and so silly? Having begun (your new life spiritually) with the Holy Spirit, are you now reaching perfection (by dependence) on the flesh?"
Paul continued his writings to the Church about traditions and rituals in Galatians 6:7-8 (Amplified) saying, "Do not be deceived and deluded and misled; God will not allow Himself to be sneered at (scorned, disdained, or mocked by mere pretensions or professions, or by His precepts being set aside) (He inevitably deludes himself who attempts to delude God) For whatever a man sows, that and only that is what he will reap. 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."
If you've already made Jesus the Lord of your life, then you already have eternal life, but what we reap from that life is now determined whether we will choose to serve the spirit or flesh. By traditions of the flesh, we can only reap from the flesh and we can reap the things of the new creation man after the Spirit, by serving the Spirit.
Because the new creation man has allowed himself to be made subject to ideas and traditions from the past, we have forfeited many things the Father intended for us to do and enjoy. Satan has still set himself up to receive what he has done as being from God. How many of us in the Church today, are giving god credit for things that satan is doing in our lives? When satan destroys something and we declare that "God did it," then who receives the glory? God? No! He doesn't want that kind of lie perpetrated in His Name.
Religious tradition has demoted the glory of our Heavenly Father into the image of the "thief who comes to steal, kill and destroy." When we say that God did these things, then the proclamation goes to the thief and not to God. Satan, then, sets himself in a place where he is god and accepts all the thanks for our destruction as God.
The simplicity of knowing our God, is to simply watch Jesus in His earthly walk. Jesus said in John 5:19 (Amplified), "I assure you, most solemnly I tell you, the Son is able to do nothing of Himself (of His Own accord) But He is able to do only what He sees the Father doing, for whatever the Father does is what the Son does in the same way (in His turn)." How can we believe that sickness, disease, heartache and corruption come from our Father? They can't, because Jesus healed these things.
Jesus never turned anyone away, who needed help or healing and He never put sickness or disease on anyone either. How did the religious teachings and traditions of the Spirit enter into the hearts and minds of the new creation man who was created by God? Paul gives us the answer in Galatians 3:3 (Amplified) saying, "Are you so foolish and so senseless and so silly? Having begun (your new life spiritually) with the Holy Spirit, are you now reaching perfection (by dependence) on the flesh?" We've all heard the old saying of, "We've heard it so long, that we believe it."
Jesus never taught such foolish things about the new creation man, that we hear being taught today. His idea and description of the new creation is found in John 17:26 (Amplified), where Jesus prayed, "I have made Your Name known to them and revealed Your character and Your Very Self, and I will continue to make You known that the Love which You have bestowed upon Me may be in them (felt in their hearts) and that I (Myself) may be in them." The "character and Very Self" Jesus revealed to us as our Father's, is not the character and self that today's Church sees and hears about. The traditions and flesh have perverted the Image of the Father into one that is wholly different from the way Jesus revealed Him. The deception of the enemy has deceived the new creation, just as surely as it did Adam and Eve in the beginning. We've taken the phrase, "You never know what God will do" and made a religion out of it, instead of watching Jesus reveal what God would do. Jesus said, "When you see Me, you have seen the Father." What part of that is so difficult to comprehend, as to what our Father desires for us?
Romans 8:14 (Amplified) tells us, "For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God." We are to be led by our spirit, not by the flesh and man's ideas of what they think about God. By our own ideas of the carnal mind, we have created a "Father God" Who we don't know or trust (for the most part). It's hard to trust someone who always changes his mind, about how he thinks and does things. This carnal mind-set, allows satan to steal, kill and destroy much of what our Father created for us to be and have. Romans 5:10 (Amplified) says, "For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, it is much more (certain) now that we are reconciled, that we shall be saved (daily delivered from sin's dominion) through His (resurrection) Life."
Friday, October 14, 2016
Lesson 106 The New Creation
2Corinthians 5:17 (Amplified) says, "Therefore, if any person is (ingrafted) in Christ Jesus (the Messiah) he is a new creation (a new creature altogether) the old (previous moral and spiritual condition) has passed away. Behold, the fresh and new has come."
Just as surely as the Word of God created the heavens and earth as a new creation, He has spoken the same powerful Word to create a new creation people. 1Peter 1:23 (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."
This is the very same Seed that was spoken into Mary's womb, that created the very first of this new creation family. Luke 1:38 (Amplified) says, "Then Mary said, Behold, I am the hand maiden of the Lord; let it be done to me according to what you have said, And the Angel left her." The KJV says, "Let it be done unto me according to thy word." John 1:14 (Amplified) says, "And the Word (Christ) became flesh (human,incarnate) and tabernacled (fixed His tent of flesh) lived while among us."
We also read in Hebrews 12:23 (Amplified), "And to the Church (assembly) of the first born who are registered (as citizens) in Heaven, and to the God Who is Judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous (the redeemed in Heaven) who have been made perfect." Ephesians 4:22-24 (Amplified) says, "Strip yourselves of your former nature (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. 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."
God's Word can only produce what He said for it to produce. If you've been born-again, then this new nature and new creation is what His Word has created, in His Image (God-like). In Ephesians 4:24 (Amplified) we are instructed to, "Put on the new nature (the regenerate self). This is for the believer to do. Even though you're created a new creation, it is the understanding that comes from a renewed mind and spirit of the individual to understand enough to "put this new creation or new nature on."
The whole armor of God is the new nature of this new creation, according to Ephesians 6:10-17. This is putting on the Lord Jesus Christ in spirit and truth. The Armor of God is given to the new creation, in order to conduct the warfare we have entered into with our Father, to set the captives free. We are warring against an enemy that Jesus has already overcome, but the world is still under the bondage of the evil one.
Our Father left us "clothed in flesh" as men, so we would be able to remain on earth to do His work in the world. Man was given dominion and has been restored, through this new creation, to take back what satan has declared to be his, by Adam's fall. Jesus (the Last Adam) redeemed and restored and bought back the lost dominion of man. And, by His redemption,the new creation has been once again restored dominion.
We've been given the right and authority through Jesus, in this new creation, to speak (or sow) the Seed of the new creation into the fields of the earth. This new Eden, that was to replenish the earth, has been placed in our spirit and in our mouth, for us to sow. The sower sows the Word. We've become sowers of the Incorruptible Seed of the new creation.
We've discovered that this incorruptible seed works for the new birth, but haven't always been sure it works for everything else. The same Seed, Sperm, Word of God that works and produces this new creation will also work to create a healed body, a clean leper, a free person and a new creation being in the mouth of the believer. I believe that there are so many more miracles and healings that aren't recorded in The Acts of the Apostles. These men were sowers of the seed, for all things pertaining to salvation.
Jesus commented about the centurian and his servant who recognized the authority and power of words and dominion, in Luke 7:6-9 (Amplified) saying, "Neither did I consider myself to come to You, But (Just) speak a word, and my servant boy will be healed." Jesus said this about the centurion's faith in Verse 9, "I tell you, not even in (all) Israel have I found such great faith (as this)."
We haven't understood what this servant knew about authority and dominion. He understood from a natural point-of-view, because he was in charge of others. Jesus recognized that the man "perceived" the authority of a word (from the lips of one who knew it's power) was all that was needed to carry out what was said. This centurion recognized the authority of this new creation Man (Jesus),carried over to everything He spoke. Jesus' Words created whatever was needed.
We've used the Word or Seed to lead others into salvation by Christ (create new creation people), but we've failed to understand that this same Word will create anything the Word says for it to be. You can use the Word to creation a new creation and from the same Seed, can create a healed body, a new hand, enough bread and fishes to feed a multitude or anything the Father desires to produce and replenish the earth.
Just as surely as the Word of God created the heavens and earth as a new creation, He has spoken the same powerful Word to create a new creation people. 1Peter 1:23 (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."
This is the very same Seed that was spoken into Mary's womb, that created the very first of this new creation family. Luke 1:38 (Amplified) says, "Then Mary said, Behold, I am the hand maiden of the Lord; let it be done to me according to what you have said, And the Angel left her." The KJV says, "Let it be done unto me according to thy word." John 1:14 (Amplified) says, "And the Word (Christ) became flesh (human,incarnate) and tabernacled (fixed His tent of flesh) lived while among us."
We also read in Hebrews 12:23 (Amplified), "And to the Church (assembly) of the first born who are registered (as citizens) in Heaven, and to the God Who is Judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous (the redeemed in Heaven) who have been made perfect." Ephesians 4:22-24 (Amplified) says, "Strip yourselves of your former nature (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. 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."
God's Word can only produce what He said for it to produce. If you've been born-again, then this new nature and new creation is what His Word has created, in His Image (God-like). In Ephesians 4:24 (Amplified) we are instructed to, "Put on the new nature (the regenerate self). This is for the believer to do. Even though you're created a new creation, it is the understanding that comes from a renewed mind and spirit of the individual to understand enough to "put this new creation or new nature on."
The whole armor of God is the new nature of this new creation, according to Ephesians 6:10-17. This is putting on the Lord Jesus Christ in spirit and truth. The Armor of God is given to the new creation, in order to conduct the warfare we have entered into with our Father, to set the captives free. We are warring against an enemy that Jesus has already overcome, but the world is still under the bondage of the evil one.
Our Father left us "clothed in flesh" as men, so we would be able to remain on earth to do His work in the world. Man was given dominion and has been restored, through this new creation, to take back what satan has declared to be his, by Adam's fall. Jesus (the Last Adam) redeemed and restored and bought back the lost dominion of man. And, by His redemption,the new creation has been once again restored dominion.
We've been given the right and authority through Jesus, in this new creation, to speak (or sow) the Seed of the new creation into the fields of the earth. This new Eden, that was to replenish the earth, has been placed in our spirit and in our mouth, for us to sow. The sower sows the Word. We've become sowers of the Incorruptible Seed of the new creation.
We've discovered that this incorruptible seed works for the new birth, but haven't always been sure it works for everything else. The same Seed, Sperm, Word of God that works and produces this new creation will also work to create a healed body, a clean leper, a free person and a new creation being in the mouth of the believer. I believe that there are so many more miracles and healings that aren't recorded in The Acts of the Apostles. These men were sowers of the seed, for all things pertaining to salvation.
Jesus commented about the centurian and his servant who recognized the authority and power of words and dominion, in Luke 7:6-9 (Amplified) saying, "Neither did I consider myself to come to You, But (Just) speak a word, and my servant boy will be healed." Jesus said this about the centurion's faith in Verse 9, "I tell you, not even in (all) Israel have I found such great faith (as this)."
We haven't understood what this servant knew about authority and dominion. He understood from a natural point-of-view, because he was in charge of others. Jesus recognized that the man "perceived" the authority of a word (from the lips of one who knew it's power) was all that was needed to carry out what was said. This centurion recognized the authority of this new creation Man (Jesus),carried over to everything He spoke. Jesus' Words created whatever was needed.
We've used the Word or Seed to lead others into salvation by Christ (create new creation people), but we've failed to understand that this same Word will create anything the Word says for it to be. You can use the Word to creation a new creation and from the same Seed, can create a healed body, a new hand, enough bread and fishes to feed a multitude or anything the Father desires to produce and replenish the earth.
Thursday, October 13, 2016
Lesson 105 The New Creation
2Corinthians 5:17 (Amplified) says, "Therefore, if any person is (ingrafted) in Christ Jesus (the Messiah) he is a new creation (a new creature altogether); the old (previous moral and spiritual condition) has passed. Behold, the fresh and new has come."
It requires spending time in God's Word with the Holy Spirit, in order to see ourselves the way God sees us. This isn't something we will learn from the world's religions or from things of the past. Today is the day of salvation! We've been living on the history of the Church age and man-made ideas of what and who the Lord's Church truly is. God's ideas about the new creation are entirely different than what we were always taught.
God has been reestablishing His relationship with His family, ever since Adam's fall in the Garden. He had to do this on a legal basis and a scriptural basis, according to the order of God's Word. God couldn't take shortcuts that would undermine the authority of His Word, because doing to would make His Word null and void. "God's Word is exalted even above His Name," according to Psalm 138:2 (Amplified) which says, "I will worship toward Your Holy temple and praise Your Name for Your loving kindness and Your truth and faithfulness; for You have exalted above all else Your Name and Your Word and You have magnified Your Word above all Your Name."
As Christians, we've never really had the fullness of this revealed to us in the truth of God's Word. We've explained away a good portion of His word, as though it had passed away and was no longer of importance in our lives. Jesus said that, "I only do what I hear the Father say." This tells us we should do only what God's Word and will tell us to do. Jesus said in John 3:34 (Amplified), "For since He Whom God has sent speaks the Words of God (proclaims God's Own message). God does not give Him His Spirit sparingly or by measure, but boundless is the gift God makes of His Spirit!"
God and His Word are One and we cannot do anything with power, outside of His Word. When we see the healings and miracles that Jesus did (or anyone else did in the Word), these things were the result of God watching over His Word to perform it. Jeremiah 1:12 (Amplified) says, "Then said the Lord to me, You have seen well, for I am alert and active, watching over My Word to perform it." Mark 16:20 (Amplified) says, "And they went out and preached everywhere, while the Lord kept working with them and confirming the message by the attesting signs and miracles that closely accompanied (it). Amen (so be it)."
When we preach the message of salvation, God confirms His Word by the "signs following" and people get saved. When we preach about healing, God also confirms His Word by healing people. When we preach deliverance, God will confirm His Word and deliver people. He only confirms His Word.
God is not responsible to confirm my words, if they are not His Words. If we preach that these things have passed away, then what is left for Him to confirm? We've allowed the world and religions to determine what we preach and there is very little of God's Word in this preaching, for Him to confirm. How can God possibly confirm messages about His "putting cancer on someone?" He sent His Word to heal and to deliver us from destruction, according to Psalm 107:20 (Amplified) which says, "He sends forth His Word and heals them and rescues them from the pit and destruction."
It's hard to know how we got so far away from speaking His Word, but it did not come from the Holy Spirit. The Church speaks the world's language, instead of God's language. We've put more faith in God's "putting sickness on us," rather than His healing us. Satan has been successful in having the Church focused more on the trials the Apostles endured to bring us God's Word, more than being focused on the Word they fought to establish.
Any time you begin speaking forth the truth of God's Word, you will find satan coming immediately to steal that Word, according to Mark 4:15(Amplified) where Jesus said, "The ones along the path are those who have the Word sown (in their hearts), but when they hear, satan comes at once and (by force) takes away the Message which is sown in them." We sometimes act like God is double-minded in what He does. He will never say one thing, and do another. His Word is true.
We have become double-minded, not Him. We sometimes think that because we're born-again, that everything occurring in our lives is God's will. It's difficult to think we can believe such a foolish notion. The world and satan fought Jesus at every turn. God's will for Jesus was to look at God to deliver Him and to continue doing what Jesus came to do. If any man had cause to doubt what he was doing, because of troubles occurring in His life, then it would be Jesus.
Paul was met by trouble everywhere he went, because he preached the revelation the Lord sent him to preach. The Lord, though, delivered Paul from out of the troubles and confirmed his message by the signs following. Religion and the world, have focused on the trials Paul endured, instead of the message he preached. I've encountered many trials and attacks of the enemy, simply for recounting the message God has given me to preach.
We've witnessed a falling away of the Message about the Baptism of the Holy Spirit, in these last days. It's not that God no longer does this, but that we no longer preach it. He only confirms His Word, by signs following. He doesn't confirm our words. If we preach only what the world says as truth, then God is not obligated to do anything to confirm that message. I believe the fact that anyone receives anything from God today, is simply accidental. Once in awhile, we have a faith accident and actually give God enough Word to confirm in our lives, but then we don't know how to duplicate it. The Church has become so divided on His Word, that we find it difficult to know what He's actually doing or what His will is. The Holy Spirit is revealing the Truth of God's Word to the Church, but the world, along with our unrenewed minds, are lock into years of conditioning and we cannot see the Truth of His Word.
Those of us who dare go against the system, are looked upon like Jesus was by the scribes and Pharisees, when He preached in the Synagogue. They were so locked into the way things were, they couldn't see the way it is. The preachers and teachers aren't the only ones at fault, because we all have a Bible, as well as access to the Author of it, in prayer. Every new creation being has access to the Throne of God's Grace to obtain grace and mercy and revelation at any time.
We've become accustomed to having someone else studying and praying and have disregarded our own responsibility to seek out God. As new creation people, we have the privilege of actually speaking to the Creator Himself, for His instructions. We can do like Jesus did in His earthly ministry and we can hear the Father on our own. I'm not saying that we can't learn from our preachers and teachers, but that we have an "unction from the Holy One to know all things." 1John 1:25 (Amplified) says, "But you have been anointed by (you hold a sacred appointment from, you have been given an unction from) the Holy One; and you know (the truth) or you know all things." Even though they were taught with good intentions, many things have not been God's truth, but as the world teaches. The Holy Spirit is still the Teacher of the new creation.
God is not our problem. He is our Answer. I'll say it again, God is not our problem, but He is our Answer. We've reached the place where we cannot discern whether something is from God or satan. We've been deceived and don't know if we are supposed to submit to God or resist the devil. James said that this double-mindedness would make us "unstable in everything we do or say." Thus, James 1:5-8 (Amplified) tells us, "If any of you is deficient in wisdom, let him ask of the giving God (Who gives) to everyone liberally and ungrudgingly, without reproaching or fault finding, and it (wisdom) will be given him. Only it must be in faith that he asks with no wavering (no hesitation, no doubting) For the one who wavers (hesitates, doubts) is like the billowing surge out at sea that is blown hither and thither and tossed by the wind. For truly, let not such a person imagine that he will receive anything (he asks for) from the Lord."
Notice that James didn't say "God would not give the wisdom, but that the double-minded man would not receive it!" He continues in Verse 8, "(For being as he is) a man of two minds (hesitating, dubious, irresolute) (he is) unstable and unreliable and uncertain about everything (he thinks, feels, decides)."
When we simultaneously face religion and revelation, we can become double-minded very quickly, if we do not walk in faith and the Holy Spirit. When the people of Jesus' time, faced religion and revelation, they chose tradition and made God's Word of no effect in their lives. They had to chose between revelation and tradition, but their double-mindedness made them choose tradition.
Today's Church has established so many traditions that don't line up with God's Word. We can ask God for wisdom or we can remain in the traditions of the past. If we remain double-minded in our asking, then we will not receive the wisdom of revelation and God's Word will not be in any effect in our lives. For those wishing to walk in the Spirit, we must believe that God's Word is still true and man's opinions cannot change one iota of that Word. If ever God existed, then HE STILL IS and we all know that HE NEVER CHANGES.
It requires spending time in God's Word with the Holy Spirit, in order to see ourselves the way God sees us. This isn't something we will learn from the world's religions or from things of the past. Today is the day of salvation! We've been living on the history of the Church age and man-made ideas of what and who the Lord's Church truly is. God's ideas about the new creation are entirely different than what we were always taught.
God has been reestablishing His relationship with His family, ever since Adam's fall in the Garden. He had to do this on a legal basis and a scriptural basis, according to the order of God's Word. God couldn't take shortcuts that would undermine the authority of His Word, because doing to would make His Word null and void. "God's Word is exalted even above His Name," according to Psalm 138:2 (Amplified) which says, "I will worship toward Your Holy temple and praise Your Name for Your loving kindness and Your truth and faithfulness; for You have exalted above all else Your Name and Your Word and You have magnified Your Word above all Your Name."
As Christians, we've never really had the fullness of this revealed to us in the truth of God's Word. We've explained away a good portion of His word, as though it had passed away and was no longer of importance in our lives. Jesus said that, "I only do what I hear the Father say." This tells us we should do only what God's Word and will tell us to do. Jesus said in John 3:34 (Amplified), "For since He Whom God has sent speaks the Words of God (proclaims God's Own message). God does not give Him His Spirit sparingly or by measure, but boundless is the gift God makes of His Spirit!"
God and His Word are One and we cannot do anything with power, outside of His Word. When we see the healings and miracles that Jesus did (or anyone else did in the Word), these things were the result of God watching over His Word to perform it. Jeremiah 1:12 (Amplified) says, "Then said the Lord to me, You have seen well, for I am alert and active, watching over My Word to perform it." Mark 16:20 (Amplified) says, "And they went out and preached everywhere, while the Lord kept working with them and confirming the message by the attesting signs and miracles that closely accompanied (it). Amen (so be it)."
When we preach the message of salvation, God confirms His Word by the "signs following" and people get saved. When we preach about healing, God also confirms His Word by healing people. When we preach deliverance, God will confirm His Word and deliver people. He only confirms His Word.
God is not responsible to confirm my words, if they are not His Words. If we preach that these things have passed away, then what is left for Him to confirm? We've allowed the world and religions to determine what we preach and there is very little of God's Word in this preaching, for Him to confirm. How can God possibly confirm messages about His "putting cancer on someone?" He sent His Word to heal and to deliver us from destruction, according to Psalm 107:20 (Amplified) which says, "He sends forth His Word and heals them and rescues them from the pit and destruction."
It's hard to know how we got so far away from speaking His Word, but it did not come from the Holy Spirit. The Church speaks the world's language, instead of God's language. We've put more faith in God's "putting sickness on us," rather than His healing us. Satan has been successful in having the Church focused more on the trials the Apostles endured to bring us God's Word, more than being focused on the Word they fought to establish.
Any time you begin speaking forth the truth of God's Word, you will find satan coming immediately to steal that Word, according to Mark 4:15(Amplified) where Jesus said, "The ones along the path are those who have the Word sown (in their hearts), but when they hear, satan comes at once and (by force) takes away the Message which is sown in them." We sometimes act like God is double-minded in what He does. He will never say one thing, and do another. His Word is true.
We have become double-minded, not Him. We sometimes think that because we're born-again, that everything occurring in our lives is God's will. It's difficult to think we can believe such a foolish notion. The world and satan fought Jesus at every turn. God's will for Jesus was to look at God to deliver Him and to continue doing what Jesus came to do. If any man had cause to doubt what he was doing, because of troubles occurring in His life, then it would be Jesus.
Paul was met by trouble everywhere he went, because he preached the revelation the Lord sent him to preach. The Lord, though, delivered Paul from out of the troubles and confirmed his message by the signs following. Religion and the world, have focused on the trials Paul endured, instead of the message he preached. I've encountered many trials and attacks of the enemy, simply for recounting the message God has given me to preach.
We've witnessed a falling away of the Message about the Baptism of the Holy Spirit, in these last days. It's not that God no longer does this, but that we no longer preach it. He only confirms His Word, by signs following. He doesn't confirm our words. If we preach only what the world says as truth, then God is not obligated to do anything to confirm that message. I believe the fact that anyone receives anything from God today, is simply accidental. Once in awhile, we have a faith accident and actually give God enough Word to confirm in our lives, but then we don't know how to duplicate it. The Church has become so divided on His Word, that we find it difficult to know what He's actually doing or what His will is. The Holy Spirit is revealing the Truth of God's Word to the Church, but the world, along with our unrenewed minds, are lock into years of conditioning and we cannot see the Truth of His Word.
Those of us who dare go against the system, are looked upon like Jesus was by the scribes and Pharisees, when He preached in the Synagogue. They were so locked into the way things were, they couldn't see the way it is. The preachers and teachers aren't the only ones at fault, because we all have a Bible, as well as access to the Author of it, in prayer. Every new creation being has access to the Throne of God's Grace to obtain grace and mercy and revelation at any time.
We've become accustomed to having someone else studying and praying and have disregarded our own responsibility to seek out God. As new creation people, we have the privilege of actually speaking to the Creator Himself, for His instructions. We can do like Jesus did in His earthly ministry and we can hear the Father on our own. I'm not saying that we can't learn from our preachers and teachers, but that we have an "unction from the Holy One to know all things." 1John 1:25 (Amplified) says, "But you have been anointed by (you hold a sacred appointment from, you have been given an unction from) the Holy One; and you know (the truth) or you know all things." Even though they were taught with good intentions, many things have not been God's truth, but as the world teaches. The Holy Spirit is still the Teacher of the new creation.
God is not our problem. He is our Answer. I'll say it again, God is not our problem, but He is our Answer. We've reached the place where we cannot discern whether something is from God or satan. We've been deceived and don't know if we are supposed to submit to God or resist the devil. James said that this double-mindedness would make us "unstable in everything we do or say." Thus, James 1:5-8 (Amplified) tells us, "If any of you is deficient in wisdom, let him ask of the giving God (Who gives) to everyone liberally and ungrudgingly, without reproaching or fault finding, and it (wisdom) will be given him. Only it must be in faith that he asks with no wavering (no hesitation, no doubting) For the one who wavers (hesitates, doubts) is like the billowing surge out at sea that is blown hither and thither and tossed by the wind. For truly, let not such a person imagine that he will receive anything (he asks for) from the Lord."
Notice that James didn't say "God would not give the wisdom, but that the double-minded man would not receive it!" He continues in Verse 8, "(For being as he is) a man of two minds (hesitating, dubious, irresolute) (he is) unstable and unreliable and uncertain about everything (he thinks, feels, decides)."
When we simultaneously face religion and revelation, we can become double-minded very quickly, if we do not walk in faith and the Holy Spirit. When the people of Jesus' time, faced religion and revelation, they chose tradition and made God's Word of no effect in their lives. They had to chose between revelation and tradition, but their double-mindedness made them choose tradition.
Today's Church has established so many traditions that don't line up with God's Word. We can ask God for wisdom or we can remain in the traditions of the past. If we remain double-minded in our asking, then we will not receive the wisdom of revelation and God's Word will not be in any effect in our lives. For those wishing to walk in the Spirit, we must believe that God's Word is still true and man's opinions cannot change one iota of that Word. If ever God existed, then HE STILL IS and we all know that HE NEVER CHANGES.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)