Lesson 14 THE YEAR OF UNDERSTANDING - Original Intent

     In 1Corinthians 15:45 (Amplified) Paul, by revelation, reveals the First Adam and the Last Adam, Jesus.  The First Adam never had to do the ministry of the Last Adam, because nothing was out of place, at the beginning of man on this earth.  The Curse only came, after Adam transgressed in the Garden.  Prior to Adam's fall, the Blessing and Spirit of God was working through and for Adam.  We see the results of the Curse working at an alarming rate on the earth, during the Last Adam, Jesus' ministry.
     Jesus stated in Luke 4:18-19 (Amplified), "The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He has anointed Me (the Anointed One, the Messiah), to preach the Good News (the Gospel) to the poor; He has sent Me to announce release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to send forth as delivered to those who are oppressed, who are down trodden, bruised, crushed and broken down by calamity. To proclaim the accepted and acceptable year of the Lord, the day when salvation and the free favors of God profusely abound (Isaiah 61:1-2)."
     Before the First Adam transgressed, there was no need to preach or to deliver from bondage, because there was only the Blessing and not the Curse upon the earth.  The Curse came about only after Adam's fall, which wasn't God's Original Intent for His family.  God's Plan never changed concerning His family.
     The Last Adam, Jesus came to restore the family that was and is the heart of the Father, back to Him.  During His earthly ministry, Jesus only spoke, lived and demonstrated the Blessing and the Original Intent of God's Plan, for His children.  Jesus restored those who had succumbed to the Curse and were sick, lame, dumb, blind, under the spirits of darkness, leprous, or were in any way other than God's Original Intent.  Jesus restored the Blessing to those people.  Through Jesus, this extended beyond just the Chosen people and now encompassed even the Gentiles.  This was God's Original Intent from the beginning.  We are all called to be His Chosen people!
     We lost the purpose and intent of God's heart for us, because we never looked beyond the flesh and fallen nature of man.  Today, we deal with such things as death, sickness, hardship, and hunger, but these were never God's Original Intent for His family.  We've been conned into believing and accepting these things as being "God's teaching us something with these things."  This might be the greatest lie, satan ever sold to the Church.  And we bought it.  Genesis 1-2 never says that God brought all these terrible things into being, but Genesis 1:31 (Amplified) tells us that all things were "very good."  Thus, it says, "And God saw everything that He had made, and behold, it was very good (suitable, pleasant), and He approved it completely. And there was evening and there was morning, a sixth day."
     Notice that God didn't make sickness, disease, death and all the other things we attribute to His idea of what man was to have or be.  We've read about the scriptures, by the deception satan brought through the First Adam and have nearly forgotten the redemptive ministry of the Last Adam.  Jesus taught us to pray in Matthew 6:10-13 (Amplified) saying, "Your Kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in Heaven."  I don't know whether or not you believe there are sick, blind or lame people in Heaven, but I don't.  In Verse 13 Jesus goes on praying, Lead (bring us) not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one."
     We've missed the entire purpose of this prayer, thinking that whatever happens on earth, "Must be God's will."  John 8:19 (Amplified) says, "Then they said to [Jesus], Where is this Father of Yours? Jesus answered, You know My Father as little as you know Me. If you knew Me, you would know My Father also."  Is it that we really don't know Jesus, that we've mixed up our ideas about God?  Or, are we still so carnally minded that we try separating God from Jesus, as being two separate entities?  We continue believing God deals with the us (the new covenant people), like He dealt with the old covenant people.  We've failed to understand that through Jesus, we've been returned to the Original Intent God had for His family and that God now deals with us by His Spirit, just like He did with the Last Adam, Jesus Christ.
     We've seemingly accepted the lie that says, "Whatever happens to us in our lives, must be God's will for us and that He allows it to happen, in order to teach us something."  Just prior to His Ascension, Jesus told His followers in John 14:26, that, "He would send the Holy Spirit to teach us."  2Timothy 3:16 tells us that, "God Word is there to teach and correct us."  Paul tells us in Ephesians 4:11-14 (Amplified) that God sends the five-fold ministry for "The perfecting and full equipping of His saints to do the work of ministering to the building up of the Church."  Jesus told the people in John 15:3 that they were "Cleansed already by the Words and teachings."  I never used blindness, cancer, sickness, to educate and teach my family.
     When we cannot distinguish our Heavenly Father from our enemy, we cannot withstand the enemy's attacks.  1Peter 5:8-9 (Amplified) describes the devil as being "our adversary" and instructs us to "withstand him."  If we don't know whether it's God testing us or the devil trying to deliver us, then we're double-minded.
     Hebrews 1:1-3 (Amplified) tells us that Jesus is always the "Sole Expression of the Glory of God (the Light-Being, the Out-raying or Radiance of the Divine), and He is the Perfect Imprint and very Image of God's nature."  Jesus said that, "When you see Me, you have seen the Father."  Can you imagine Jesus putting sickness on someone, in order to teach and train them?  Can you see Jesus leaving sickness to remain on someone, until that person learns their lesson?  Why then, would you believe that God would do that?  It's hard for God to Bless us, when we trust more in the Curse, than in the Blessing.  

Lesson 13 THE YEAR OF UNDERSTANDING - Original Intent

     Proverbs 4:7 (Amplified) says, "The beginning of Wisdom is, get Wisdom (skillful and Godly Wisdom). For skillful and Godly Wisdom is the principal thing; And with all you have gotten get understanding (discernment, comprehension, and interpretation)."
     Godly Wisdom isn't the same as the world's or man's interpretation.  It requires the Holy Spirit for man to understand the Word of God, according to what Jesus said in John 6:63 (Amplified), where He says, "It is the Spirit Who gives Life (He is the Life-Giver), the flesh conveys no benefit whatever (there is no profit in it). The Words (Truths) that I have been speaking to you are Spirit and Life."
     When "Spirit Words" are spoken and received by natural ears, they become religious laws based on what man thinks those Words mean.  Jesus said in the above scripture that, "The Words I speak are Spirit and Life."  The Law was established because man had not Spiritual understanding of Spiritual things, which meant that man could only walk by the letter of the Law.  We are born-again people, who have the Holy Spirit to teach and reveal God's Word to us.  Misunderstanding of God's Word comes when man uses his natural wisdom, instead of God's Wisdom.  This is why the Super-natural things of God have been lost over the years.  Man needed to make sense to the natural, carnal minds of men.
     We must understand God's heart and mind, in order to understand His purpose and intent for mankind.  The current state of man was never God's Original Intent, when He created man at the beginning.  We've only seen two men who walked in God's Original Intent.  The first was Adam before his fall in the Garden and the second is Jesus, after Adam's fall.  Many of the Apostles and disciples learned the principals of God's heart, from Jesus.  We've looked upon these people as being "special," not thinking they walked returned to God's True Plan for us.
     Jesus' entire ministry was to return God's family (us), back to God's Original Intent.  Jesus performed miracles and healings, in order to restore God's will in Heaven to God's will on earth.  God never willed that His children would be tormented and devoured by disease and sickness.  If it was God's will that His children be sick, then Jesus wouldn't have restored them.  In John 6:38 (Amplified) Jesus says, "For I have come down from Heaven not to do My Own will and purpose, but to do the will and purpose of Him Who sent Me."  Jesus came to give us Life, through the new birth, but healing and deliverance are also God's will for mankind.  One doesn't need to be healed, in order to be saved or go to Heaven. 
     We don't know how long Adam lived on this earth before the fall and we don't know how God provided and cared for Adam, during this time.  We sometimes read Genesis 1&2, thinking that God created man and then Adam disobeyed God the very next day, bringing about the fall of mankind.  The entire time that Adam walked with God before the fall, was really God's Original Intent and purpose for mankind.  I don't believe that Adam and Eve were ever in need, during the time before Adam's transgression.  The Curse never came, until Adam's fall.  Until that time, there was no sickness, disease, trials or want.  Even the earth had a controlled environment, that was under God's Blessing.
     Rain never came down, until "God opened the fountains of the great deep and the flood gates and the windows of Heaven," according to Genesis 7:11.  It had never rained, before this time.  Genesis 2:5-6 (Amplified) says, "When no plant of the field was yet in the earth and no herb of the field had yet sprung up, for the Lord God had not yet caused it to rain upon the earth and there was no man to till the ground. But there went up a mist (fog, vapor) from the land and watered the whole surface of the ground."  This controlled environment kept Adam and Eve in comfort and safety, from the elements.  Their Father, God, provided their food, water, clothing and shelter.  I think that the entire earth was actually the Garden of Eden and it wasn't just a small portion of the earth.  God put them in the center of His delight.

Lesson 12 THE YEAR OF UNDERSTANDING - Original Intent

     Genesis 1:26-27,29 (Amplified) tells us, "God said, Let Us (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) make mankind in Our Image (after Our Likeness), and let them have complete authority over the fish of the sea, the birds of the aid, the (tame) beasts, and over all of the earth, and over everything that creeps upon the earth. So God created man in His Own Image, in the Image and Likeness of God He created him: male and female He created them."
     Verse 29 continues, "And God Blessed them."  God's Blessing was His Original Intent for His for mankind, His family.  We have very little insight into how God's family lived on the earth, before Adam's fall in the Garden.  We aren't told how long Adam and Eve were on this earth, before the fall.  Only two chapters in Genesis deal with how things were between the Father and His family.
     The next time we see man in close relationship with the Father, is Jesus.  After Jesus' Ascension, we only are given insight into how the Church functioned and is to function.  We're given instructions about how to live, now that we've been restored to God's Original Intent.
     The Last Adam, Jesus, was responsible to bring about the new creation or new birth, and restore mankind back to God's Original Intent.  Satan set out to reduce mankind back to what he had held humans in, by usurping the authority God gave mankind, from the beginning of the Church (God's family, the Body of Christ).  We have been taught by man's ideas of what the new creation was supposed to be and have been given man-made laws, in order to function accordingly.  Religion points out the obvious sins of the flesh and instructs us to avoid them.  Little has been taught or revealed by religion, on how to walk in the Spirit.
     Trying to tame the flesh by the flesh, has mostly been a futile attempt of external willpower, instead of internal and God's Power.  When looking at Jesus' earthly walk, we see how the first Adam was to walk and bring forth God's offspring.  Jesus healed the sick and performed many miracles, but the first Adam wouldn't have needed healing or miracles, to keep things in order.
     Jesus brought things back to what God's Original Intent from the beginning.  Jesus taught us to pray in Matthew 6:9-10 (Amplified) saying, "Our Father, Who is in Heaven, Hallowed (kept holy) be Your Name. Your Kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in Heaven."  Jesus was bringing mankind back to God's Original Intent, when He healed people, cleansed the lepers, opened blind eyes and raised people from the dead.  God never intended His family to be sick, blind, diseased or have need for healing or deliverance.  Jesus only restored mankind, to what he lost in the Garden.  If Adam hadn't of transgressed in the Garden, then there would never have been sickness or disease on the earth.
     Many of us have come to accept and believe that, "This is just how life is."  It might be how life is, but it's not how life is supposed to be, according to God's Original Intent.  God's family was supposed to be in dominion, authority, fully supplied and Blessed, in everything God made and provided for them.  God was to be able to walk with His family, provide for His family, teach and train up His family, in peace and perfect fellowship.
     Jesus' entire ministry was bringing mankind back to God's Original Intent, when making mankind.  God made man in His Image and Likeness, according to the above scripture.  In John 4:24 (Amplified), Jesus said, "God is a Spirit (a Spiritual Being) and those who worship Him must worship Him in Spirit and Truth (reality)."  The part of you that was born-again and became a new creation, is your spirit.  Now that our spirit has been restored to God's Original Intent, our newly created spirit man is to rule over the flesh and the senses, just like it did in Jesus and the first Adam.  I'm certain that the first Adam walked with the Father for eons of years, before satan deceived Even and Adam succumbed to sin.  We have no recorded history of how God and His family walked, but we can be sure they walked in harmony and perfect fellowship.
     I don't believe that Adam ever lacked or had a need, before his fall in the Garden.  We see some of the struggles that Jesus, Paul and Peter endured for the sake of the Gospel they were speaking forth.  The reason for these struggles, was to keep mankind under satan's bondage.  We don't read about any struggle that Adam and Even h ad, before they believed satan's lie in the Garden.
     Satan usurped the authority God gave Adam over the earth and put mankind into captivity and bondage.  Satan was determined to keep mankind in his bondage, by the same deception.  Paul taught the Revelation that he had been given, so satan placed trials and struggles on Paul, trying to quiet Paul.  As far as we know, Paul was the only man on earth, who had been given this Revelation from God.
     Paul's preaching this Revelation to mankind, would restore the dominion and authority satan stole from Adam and place it back into the hands of God's new creation family.  Satan had to stop the Good News of salvation and redemption from being shared, in order to maintain all he'd gained by deceiving Adam and Eve.  Satan needed to stop those who preached the Gospel, before too many were born-again and the Gospel was too big to stop.
     The enemy tries to stop the Gospel now, by blinding the eyes and minds of the Church to the fullness of what the new creation really is.  Matthew 28:18 (Amplified) reads, "Jesus approached and breaking the silence, said to them, All authority (all power of rule) in Heaven and on earth has been given to Me."  The Last Adam, Jesus has restored back to God, what the first Adam was to have done, which is "bring sons into glory."  In order to know what this power of rule is, you must first understand what Jesus has truly done.  He has brought us back to God's Original Intent, as His Own family.     

Lesson 11 THE YEAR OF UNDERSTANDING - Original Intent

     God's Word records the Original Intent He had for His family from the beginning.  God created the heavens and the earth, in order to make a home for His family.  If there were no people on the planet, then there would be no purpose for these.  When God spoke the things in order and established all the fish of the sea and trees for fruit and food, He was making provision for His family.
     Expecting parents prepare a nursery space for their babies and God did this too, preparing the earth.  Then, on the sixth day, God brought forth His family and placed them into the place He prepared for them.  Adam and Eve never lacked for anything, because their Heavenly Father watched over them and provided for them.  God made Adam and Eve to have dominion over all He had made for them.
     God made the rest of His creation was made for His Own purposes and for mankind.  At that time, mankind had access to God's Kingdom and God simultaneously had access to man's.  Angels were able to visit both realms at God's command.  Man and God walked together in both realms.  Adam and Eve were created spirit beings to begin with and God formed a physical body from the earthly elements, so they could inhabit the natural, physical home He prepared for them.  They could produce and inhabit this planet, as God's Own family.
     The angels and other creatures that were already in God's domain, weren't on the same level or class as the Father, so He made man "just a little lower than God and crowned him with glory and honor," according to Psalm 8:4-6 (Amplified).  Genesis 5:1-2 (Amplified) tells us, "This is the book (the written record, the history of the generations of the offspring of Adam). When God created man, He made him in the Likeness of God. He created them male and female and Blessed them and named them both Adam (man) at the time they were created."
     God made them in "the Image and Likeness of God," which means they were created first in the spirit and then given natural bodies, so they could inhabit this earth.  John 4:24 (Amplified) says, "God is a Spirit (a Spiritual Being), and those who worship Him must worship Him in Spirit and Truth (reality)."  The True Image of God in you, is your new creation spirit-man made in His Likeness and Image.
     Paul writes in 2Corinthians 5:17 (Amplified), "Therefore, if any person is ingrafted in Christ (the Messiah), he is a new creation (a new creature altogether); the old (previous moral and Spiritual condition) has passed away. Behold, the fresh and new has come."  The part of you that is made in God's Image and Likeness, is your new creation person who has God's Life inside it.  The earth born body we inherited from the first Adam, is still dead in trespass and sin, but the new creation man is once again alive unto God.
     Paul refers to our physical body as a "house," that our new creation man lives in while we're on this earth, in 2Corinthians 5:1-6.  We've spent more time focusing on our outside or house, instead of focusing on the spirit who lives inside it.  We've spent much of our Christian walk, trying to keep our house from falling apart while we're in it, instead of training our new creation man to heed the Voice of the Holy Spirit Who lives in us.  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 manifest, we shall as God's children, resemble and be like Him, for we shall see Him just as He really is."
     In order to feed and mature the part of you, that is in His Likeness and Image, you must feed on God's Word.  Then, we will "grow thereby."  1Peter 2:2 (Amplified) says, "Like newborn babies, you should crave (thirst for, earnestly desire), the pure unadulterated Spiritual milk (God's Word) that you may be nurtured and grow unto completed salvation."  Jesus tells His followers in John 6:63 (Amplified), "It is the Spirit Who gives Life (He is the Life-Giver); the flesh conveys no benefit whatever (there is no profit in it). "The Words (Truths) that I have been speaking to you are Spirit and Life."
     We struggling with our Christianity, trying to subdue the flesh.  The very strength we need to do so, though, must come by God's Word in our spirit.  We've diluted the Spiritual nourishment into a natural thing, derived from man's ideas and translations, which leaves the new creation man a baby.  Jesus tells us in Matthew 4:4 (Amplified), "It has been written, Man shall not live and be upheld and sustained by bread along, but by every Word that comes forth from the mouth of God."  Jesus said in John 6:33,35 (Amplified), "For the Bread of God is He Who comes down out of Heaven and gives Life to the world."
     Jesus declares in Verse 35, "I AM THE BREAD OF LIFE."

Lesson 10 THE YEAR OF UNDERSTANDING - Original Intent

     We've heard many things taught about Grace, but we continue overlooking the Power of it's Truth.  John 1:17 (Amplified) says, "For while the Law was given through Moses, Grace (unearned, undeserved favor) and Spiritual Blessing and Truth came through Jesus Christ."
     Galatians 3:14 (Amplified) says, "To the end that through their receiving Christ Jesus, the Blessing Promised to Abraham might come upon the Gentiles, so that we through faith might all receive the realization of the Promise of the Holy Spirit."  Just prior to His Ascension, Jesus told His followers in Acts 1:8 (Amplified), "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."
     This Promise of the Holy Spirit was an act of Grace and Truth, for all who would trust and believe in Jesus Christ and His Word.  This was the Promise God made to Abraham, that was yet to be fulfilled. Speaking in tongues and fire accompanied this event in Acts 2:1-4 and many still see these as the totality of receiving the Holy Spirit, but this was and isn't wasn't the Father intended it to be.  Jude 1:20 (Amplified) says this about the speaking of tongues, "But you, beloved, build yourselves up founded on your most holy faith, make progress, rise high like an edifice higher and higher praying in the Holy Spirit."
     God restored a language, in and by the Holy Spirit, which put us back into a place where God's family had direct access to Him and the hidden mysteries of His will and intent for us.  Paul writes in 1Corinthians 14:2,4 (Amplified), "One who speaks in an unknown tongue speaks not to men but to God, for no one understands or catches his meaning because in the Holy Spirit he utters secrets truths and hidden things not obvious to the understanding."  Many have failed to differentiate between the ministry Gift of Tongues and Interpretations to the congregation and the personal language of the individual to the Father.
     In Verse 4, Paul writes about the individual who seeks and prays to God on his/her own and the individual God uses to speak through, to the people.  Thus, he writes, "He who speaks in a strange tongue edifies and improves himself."  Jude 1:20 said, "But he who prophesies (interpreting the Divine will and purpose and teaching) with inspiration edifies and improves the Church and promotes growth in Christian Wisdom, piety, holiness and happiness."
     Every believer who has received the Holy Spirit in Grace and Truth, has a language of the Spirit, in our spirit, that is in direct contact with our Heavenly Father.  Since you're born-again into the Spirit realm, there's also the language of the Spirit.  Paul tells the Church in Corinth that, "There's a language from God to the people, which is to be used as a ministerial tool, to edify the people."  The Holy Spirit uses another individual, to interpret what the Father is saying and doing to and for the people.  God isn't speaking to the people through the individual speaking in tongues, but the individual is speaking to the Father, by the Holy Spirit.
     Most people who are born in France, will learn to speak French, while those born in Germany, usually learn to speak German.  So it is, that when you are born in the Spirit, you will speak spirit or the language of your new creation being.  Speaking in tongues isn't the end of your quest for the Spirit, but is the beginning.  This new language has made it possible for you to receive insight, Wisdom, and the answers to "secret Truths and hidden mysteries, which are not obvious to your own understanding."  In other words, this language speaks directly to God.  There are so many things God's children need to know, that are revealed to us, when we pray in the Spirit.  This Revelation Knowledge is only received by and through, the Holy Spirit.  1Corinthians 14:2 (Amplified) says, "He utters secret Truths and hidden mysteries not obvious to the understanding."  Man's wisdom cannot interpret God's hidden Wisdom and His secret Truths."
     God made the Promise of the Spirit, to and through Abraham, which was about the coming of Jesus and the restoring of God's children back to Him.  We've been brought back to what God intended His family to be from the first.  Your being born-again, didn't only mean that you'd go to Heaven after dying.  It meant that Heaven would be restored to you and God could now become to us, what He always intended, which is family.  We are spirit and not just flesh.  God's Grace has granted us access into His "secret place."
     Psalm 91:1 (Amplified) says, "He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High shall remain stable and fixed under the Shadow of the Almighty Whose Power no foe can withstand."  In Ephesians 3:3-5,32 (Amplified) Paul writes, "And that the Mystery (secret) was made known to me and I was allowed to comprehend it by direct Revelation as I already briefly wrote you. When you read this you can understand my insight into the Mystery of Christ. This Mystery was never disclosed to human beings in past generations as it has now been revealed to His holy Apostles (consecrated messengers) and prophets, by the Holy Spirit."
     Jesus is the Secret Place, that the above Psalm speaks about.  Paul continues writing to the Church of Ephesus in Verse 32, where he explains the relationship of a husband and wife becoming one.  Thus, he writes, "This mystery is very great, but I speak concerning the relationship of Christ and the Church."  1Corinthians 2:7 (Amplified) says, "But rather what we are setting forth is a Wisdom of God once hidden from the human understanding and now revealed to us by God, that Wisdom which God devised and decreed before the ages for our glorification to lift us into the Glory of His Presence."  This is God's Original Intent for His family and is now a Truth by Grace.

Lesson 9 THE YEAR OF UNDERSTANDING - Original Intent

     The power of Grace and the Promise, brings us back to God's Original Intent for His family.  There was only one law, in the beginning of man, and that was "Do not eat from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil."  Adam and Eve failed to observe that one law, which resulted in the entire earth and the entirety of mankind being separated from God, Who is Life.  Their one sin, resulted in man's being separated from God, Who is Life and having the Curse of that law falling on mankind.
     Romans 8:19 (Amplified) says, "For even the whole creation (all nature), waits expectantly and longs earnestly for God's sons to be made known (waits for the reveling, the disclosing) of their sonship."  Adam traded his inheritance for his wife Eve, which resulted with the Blessing God placed on His children to be revered and a curse effected on all creation and mankind.  Adam was actually born again, but from Life to death.  Spiritual death set in on all who was to be born into the earth, as well as the rest of God's creation.
     God made a Promise and Blessing on man from the beginning and by His Grace, He is still fulfilling His Promise.  The Blessing God pronounced on Adam, was continued all the way to us, through Jesus.  Grace came before law and it continues by faith in God's Promises, today.  Genesis 6:8,18 (Amplified) tells us that, "Noah found Grace (favor), in the eyes of the Lord."  The promise and Blessing was continued through Noah, according to Verse 18.  The covenant of Promise was extended to Abraham in  Genesis 12:2-3 (Amplified), where God says, "And I will make of you a great nation, and I will Bless you with abundant increase of favors and make your name famous and distinguished and you will be a Blessing, dispersing good to others. And I will Bless those who Bless you (who confer prosperity or happiness upon you), and curse him who curses or uses insolent language toward you; in you will all the families and kindred of the earth be Blessed, and by you they will Bless themselves."
     The Blessing and Grace that was then for Abraham, is the same Blessing that God pronounced on Adam from the beginning.  God gave this Blessing and Promise on "Abraham and his Seed," according to Genesis 17:7 (Amplified) where God tells Abraham, "And I will establish My covenant between Me and you and your descendants after you throughout their generations for an Everlasting, solemn pledge to be a God to you and to your posterity after you."
     Genesis 22:2, 16-18 (Amplified) tells us that when Abraham's son was born, "God said, Take now your son (your only son Isaac), whom you love, and go to the region of Morrah; and offer him there as a burnt offering upon one of the mountains of which I will tell you."  Verse 3 tells us that, because of the covenant he had made with God, Abraham rose up early and along with two young men servants and Isaac, he took wood and begin his trip to the mountain God showed him.
     In Verses 16-18, God tells Abraham, "I have sworn by Myself says the Lord, that since you have done this and have not withheld from Me or begrudged giving Me your son ( your only son), In Blessing I will Bless you and in multiplying I will multiply your descendants like the stars of the Heavens and like the sand on the seashore. And your Seed (Heir), will possess the gates of His enemies. And in your Seed (Christ), shall all the nations of the earth be Blessed and by Him Bless themselves, because you heard and obeyed My Voice."
     God deliberately put Himself on behalf of His Promise, saying, "If only a man would not hold back his only son on behalf of the covenant, then I could do no less, on My behalf of the covenant."  The Seed of Promise as Jesus and the Promise and covenant God made, would flow to all who would put faith in that Promise and become heirs of this Promise, by faith in God's Grace and covenant.  God made the Promise and Blessing in the beginning and now His Grace is made sufficient for all our needs, through the Seed, Jesus, Who is God's Only Begotten Son.
     When God extended His Promise to all of Abraham's Seed, God committed Himself to raise up His Son, as Abraham's Seed and also all who by faith, received His Grace and accepted His Promise.  Galatians 3:13-14 (Amplified) says, "Christ purchased our freedom, redeeming us from the Curse (doom of the Law and it's condemnation), by Himself becoming a Curse for us, for it is written in the scriptures, Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree (is crucified), To the end that through their receiving Christ Jesus, the Blessing Promised to Abraham might come upon the Gentiles, so that we through faith, might all receive the realization of the Promise of the Holy Spirit."
     The Promise of the Holy Spirit was Life coming again, that was lost in the Garden by Adam.  This Promise restored Life and son-ship and right standing with the Father again, as well as the Power of God again. 
     We've lost sight of all that Grace is about.  By Grace, God made man in the beginning.  All God had Promise man was simply by faith in His Grace.  Now, all the things He Promised man, is again being offered by faith in His Grace, through Jesus.  God's Word tells us that, "By Grace we are saved through faith, and that not of ourselves, but it is the Gift of God."
     God spoke many, many years ago, bout the "unclaimed riches of His Grace."  He told me, "My Grace has provided much more than My children's faith has received."  God was angered in the Wilderness, because of the Isralite's unbelief, limited Him and stopped the riches of His Grace.  Hebrews 4:12 (Amplified) says, "Let us therefore by zealous and exert ourselves and strive diligently to enter that Rest of God, to know and experience it for ourselves, that no one may fail or perish by the same kind of unbelief and disobedience into which those in the Wilderness fell."
     God only requires us to have faith in His Grace and Promise, so that His Grace will bring to pass all that His Promise has declared to do.  Today, we hear many say, "These things are passed away and are for another time," but God says in Hebrews 4: 9-10 (Amplified), "So then, there is still awaiting a full and complete Sabbath-Rest reserved for the true people of God. For he who has once entered God's Rest also has ceased from the weariness and pain of human labors just as God rested from those labors peculiarly His Own."
     We, by faith, have accepted His Promise of Salvation in Jesus, through Grace.  God made Good on His Promise and restored us back to His Original Intent and started mankind all over, as from the first.  Everything God told Adam, is now ours through Jesus and even more.  Romans 1:17 (Amplified) says, "For in the Gospel, a Righteousness which God ascribes is revealed, both springing from faith and leading to faith, disclosed by the way of faith that arouses to more faith. As it is written, The man who through faith is just and upright shall live and shall live by faith."
     We were once dead in trespass and sin and were without hope, without covenant and without God in this world, but now by faith, we're made alive in Christ Jesus and have been declared Righteous before God, because of His Grace and our faith in His Grace.  We are now living by faith.  The Truth of the Gospel is simply trusting God and His Promises  by simple faith in His integrity.
     

Lesson 8 THE YEAR OF UNDERSTANDING - Original Intent

     What was the Father's Original Intent for His family, when He created them and brought them to live in the earth?  Did He intend for us to suffer sickness, death or a Curse that covered the earth and mankind?  Was this really what the Father planned for His Own family?  We've never really seen how things were supposed to be, when God made man and set him into this world.
     There was no Curse or death, in the beginning.  Man's spirit was eternal and his body was immortal.  Man was created in God's Own Image and Likeness, which is a Spirit, according to John 4:24 (Amplified) which says, "God is a Spirit (a Spiritual Being), and those who worship Him must worship Him in Spirit and Truth (reality)."  The part of you that is in God's Image and Likeness, is your spirit-man.  This is the eternal family of God in the earth, as well as the heavens.
     The division and warring that is occurring in mankind on earth, is happening because we don't know who we are and why that's so important.  Paul writes in 2Corinthians 5:4 (Amplified), "For while we are still in this tent (body), we groan under the burden and sigh deeply. Not that we want to put off this 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."
     The mortal body was fashioned not in mortality, but is immortal like our resurrected body will be.  The mortality of our body was brought about, through Adam's transgression and continues until today.  Paul tells us to look to the spirit-man withing, to determine our true identity, in 2Corinthians 5:16 (Amplified) where he writes, "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."
     We've lived under the Curse for so long, that we believe "That's just how things are."  Jesus bore the Curse and has given us the new creation life that has joined us back to our Father.  In order to truly understand what Jesus has done, we must read what Paul writes in Romans 12:2 (Amplified).  Thus, he writes, "Do not be conformed to this world (this age), fashioned after and adapted to it's external -superficial customs, but be transformed (changed) by the entire renewal of your mind by its new ideals and its new attitude---."
     We can only renew our mind by God's Word and His Holy Spirit and know our true identity.  The only place to find Truth, is in God's Word.  We've determined that the things we're witnessing around us, are God's Plan for His family.  If you read Genesis 1-2, then you'll discover God's Original Intent for His family was that they would be Blessed and have dominion over everything on this earth.  Adam sold our dominion and life to God's eternal enemy, causing death and calamity came on mankind.
     Many have misunderstood Jesus' Sacrifice and that in Him, this new creation man/woman was restored back to God's Original Intent.  Through Him, we were made alive, according to John 10:10 (Amplified) where Jesus said, "The thief comes only in order to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have and enjoy Life, and have it in abundance (to the full, til it overflows)."  Surely, those who heard Jesus say this, believed they were already alive.  The Truth is, that they and we  were spiritually dead and separated from God and without Life in Him.
     In Ephesians 2:12 (Amplified), Paul paints a picture of man who's without Jesus, which is strong and True, saying, "Remember, that you were at the time separated, living apart from Christ, excluded from all part in Him, utterly estranged and outlawed from the rights of Israel as a nation, and strangers with no share in the sacred compacts of the Messianic Promise, with no knowledge of or rights in God's agreements (His covenants); And you had no hope, no Promise; you were in the world without God."
     Ephesians 2:5 (Amplified) says, "Even when we were dead, slain by our own shortcomings and our trespasses,  He made us alive together in fellowship and in union with Christ; He gave us the very Life of Christ Himself, the same new Life with which He quickened Him."  It's difficult for us to understand spiritual death, because we've associated life by our natural bodies and not from a Spiritual standpoint.  Even though the body is alive, our spirit-man was dead in sin and was separated from God, WHO IS LIFE.
     The spirit is eternal, so it didn't die, like we think of dying.  It was cut-off from God, by Adam's transgression and was sold over to death, by separation from God Himself.  Satan became the father of this world and he ruled by death, fear, and destruction, until Jesus.  The new birth, was from death to Life, from satan back to God.  Our Heavenly Father and the Holy Spirit have made us alive to Him and placed us back into God's family, as sons and daughters.  We've been born-again from death to Life and we're now back to God's Original Intent.
     It's been difficult of our new identity, is for us to learn how to live in the spirit once again.  We've only witnessed a very few people who've ever done this, in a flesh and blood body.  One person was Adam (before the fall) and the other was Jesus Christ.  Paul, along with other of the Apostles, learned some things about walking in the spirit, but most believers have fallen back into the works of the flesh, walking as mere natural men/women again.
     Through the Holy Spirit, God is training us up and teaching us to be the way He created us to be.  There's more of the Super-natural Life of the Father, being manifested through today's Church.  Understanding is coming of age to many in the Body of Christ.  Many consider that believing we are more than just forgiven sinners, is "extreme."
     Righteousness is simply part of our inheritance in Christ Jesus, to this new creation body of believers.  Understanding righteousness or being in right standing with God is this:  through the new birth, we're new creations who've been restored to God's Original Intent and through Jesus, we now have the right again, to stand in God's Presence.  The first step in seeing ourselves like the Father sees us (instead of the way we've been taught to see ourselves) is to do like Paul instructs in 2Corinthians 5:16, "Seeing no man only after the flesh, but after the spirit."  Believing what God says about you, more than what man says about you, will change everything.

Lesson 7 THE YEAR OF UNDERSTANDING - Original Intent

     We've heard and believed so many things, that aren't the Truth of and about God and His intent for us today.  Much of what we've read and heard, are about fallen man.  We've never seen anyone who truly walks freely in the fullness of Life, other than Jesus and Paul (and a few others).
     We've heard many teachings about faith and how it works in our lives, but it's been difficult for most to connect to faith.  Much of what we know about our Heavenly Father, comes by second hand knowledge, instead of knowing Him firsthand.  Having a personal relationship with the Father, is the most important things in a believer's life.  We feel the strong Presence of God, when worshiping with God's family in church service.  This same Presence though, is available in your personal relationship with God and will grow as you talk and listen to His Voice.
     Most of us only see Adam after his fall from God's Grace and union with the Father.  No one knows how long Adam walked with God in fellowship, before satan could deceive him.  Adam's close relationship with the Father was total faith in his Father's revealing, training and maturing the relationship with one another.  Adam trust his Father in absolute faith, to show him, care for him and protect him in everything God created him to be.  No one had to tell Adam what they thought about his Father, because Adam knew him.
     The Last Adam, Jesus, was also in close fellowship with the Father, during His earthly ministry.  Jesus knew the very heart of God, for Himself.  Many of those around Jesus, couldn't understand the way Jesus walked in God, because this wasn't what others told them about God.  We can relate to others telling us that Jesus is our Savior, but do we seek Him for yourself as Lord, after you're saved?  Many hold differing opinions about our Heavenly Father, but most of those are based on someone else's account of Him.
     There are so many different doctrines and opinions, within God's family, the Church, telling us "Who our Father really is."  We claim to worship the Same Father, but we hold so many different opinions of Who He is.  Some see the Father as being strict and harsh, while others view Him as being permissive and lax about sin and life itself.  Some Christians believe that God is a hard Taskmaster, while others believe He allows almost anything.
     Many still don't realize the difference between how God dealt with mankind in the old and how He deals with those of us in the new covenant today.  Many believe Jesus and God are Separate Beings, but Jesus said, "When you have seen Me, you have seen the Father."  We see how Jesus never failed to heal people.  Jesus never allowed the sick to remain sick, so the sickness could teach them something, but we think God does this.  Jesus said that, "He could only do what the Father said to do."
     God's Blessing coming on the old covenant people, depended upon their ability to perform things the Law prescribed, but today, God's Blessing depends on our faith in the things Jesus endured to receive it.  We keep trying to help the Father in deliverance and salvation, instead of putting faith in the complete work of Jesus.  We're only required to put faith in His Word and His Grace will fulfill His Word.
     Romans 4:10 (Amplified) says, "Therefore, inheriting the Promise is the outcome of faith and depends entirely on faith, in order that it might be given as an act of Grace (unmerited favor) to make it stable and valid and guaranteed to all his (Abraham's) descendants. Not only to the devotees and adherents of the Law, but also to those who share the faith of Abraham who is thus the father of us all."  The Gentiles had no covenant with God at all, because the Law of Moses was given to and through Moses, for the Hebrew people.  The Promise was made to Abraham, concerning the Holy Spirit, by faith in God's Word.  Galatians 3:14 (Amplified) says, "To the end that through their receiving Christ Jesus, the Blessing Promised to Abraham might come upon the Gentiles, so that we through faith might all receive the realization of the Promise of the Holy Spirit."
     We've so misunderstood the Promise of the Holy Spirit.  Some believe it only refers to speaking in new tongues, while others believe it's the ability to lay hands on the sick.  Those who know the very Presence of God, understand that His Life in us has returned us to His Original Intent.  When we were born-again by the Holy Spirit, it placed us back to Eden and the Original Intent God had for His family from the beginning.  There was no Law, no sacrifices, no Bible in the beginning of man in the beginning of Genesis.  There was only Grace, Love and God's Spirit and Presence in man's life.  All of man's training, wisdom and knowledge, came by the Spirit of God Who continuously lived in man's presence.  Man's life was God's Life.  Man's training derived from the Holy Spirit and evil wasn't part of man's life.
     God never taught man the difference between Good and evil and Blessing and calamity.  There was no need for him to know this, because the Father's heart only intended man to be Blessed and Good.  Genesis 3:22 (Amplified) says, "And the Lord God said, Behold, the man has become like one of Us (the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit), to know how to distinguish between Good and evil and Blessing and calamity; and now, lest he put forth his hand and take also from the Tree of Life and eat, and live forever---."
     God left the rest of the above sentence unsaid, because the thought of mankind in the state of curse forever, was too horrible for Him to even think on.  God had no choice but to put mankind out of the Garden of Eden, until He could get Jesus into the world, pay the penalty for Adam's sin and bring about the Promise of the Holy Spirit or make man to be born-again.  Without these things, man would have lived in the fallen state, without God in his life, for eternity.
     The Promise of the Holy Spirit was to bring mankind back to what God intended from the beginning, where man would be united by and in God's Spirit forever.  God first made man in His Image, so man was an eternal spirit.  God formed man's body from the earthly elements, but he was to be immortal.  When Adam transgress, he was separated from the Life of God, his spirit was still eternal.  If Adam had been left to satan's plan, he would have taken from the Tree of Life and even his earthly body would have remained immortal for eternity.  He would have been eternally foul, diseased, with satan ruling his flesh and blood body.  Despite what happened to it, Adam's body wouldn't have died and this was too horrible for God to speak that in the above scripture.
     Hollywood's nightmarish zombie movies couldn't compare to the real thing that could have happened, if God hadn't removed Adam and Eve from Eden.  God was still full of Grace and mercy, even when the Curse came at Adam's fall, so He began a Sacrifice of Blood, in order to atone for sin.  Sin demanded death and the death of an animal could at least provide a small payment for sin.  The only thing that could pay the price for man's sin, was another man's death.  That man needed to be without sin, but none could meet that requirement, so the continual sacrifice of goats and bulls, temporarily covered sin.
     This is why, even though you're born-again and are alive unto God, your body is still dead in trespass and sin.  God reckons your mortal body, to still be dead and your spirit alive unto Him.  Jesus provided healing by His stripes and although the residue of death is still in your body, He has provided healing for the time you're living in that body.  We will be given new bodies at the Resurrection.  We will be returned back to God's Original Intent and will be immune from sickness and disease for all eternity.
     The Blessing God pronounced on man from the first, is still available to all who will by faith, accept His Promise.  His Promise to justify, proclaim Righteous and give a new life life, through faith in Jesus, is just as valid as His Promise to forgive our sins.  If one part of His Promise is True, then all of God's Promises are True.  God's Word tells us that, "Faith comes by hearing," so until it's preached in Truth and anointing, the faith of God's people will remain tethered.
     We continue thinking God will deal with us, the way He dealt with those who weren't born-again in the old covenant.  The new covenant is based on simple faith in God's Grace and Truth, to His family.  We're God's children and He doesn't deal with us by our dead flesh, but by our new and living spirit, like the First and Last Adam were led.  While Adam lived in the Garden, he was led by his spirit and not his flesh.  Satan couldn't penetrate the Truth of his spirit, so he attacked Adam's senses and untried flesh.
     From the very beginning of man, God's provision and the authority He bestowed upon man, was then and still is, by Grace.  We've been brought back to God's Original Intent, living again by faith in God's unmerited favor and Love.  We've misunderstood the Power of God's Love, because of man's teachings we're received.  We confess that, "God Loves us," but we still expect bad things at His hands.  Read Galatians 5:6 (Amplified) carefully.  Thus, it says, "For if we are in Christ Jesus, neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith activated and energized and expressed and working through Love."
     Our faith is in His Love and trust in His Promise.  We're to do good works, but not in order to gain God's Grace, but because of His Grace.  We do works of righteousness, not be become righteous, but because we are Righteous, by His Grace.  This might sound like a "play on words," but it's the motive of the heart that makes what we do acceptable or not, to God.  Romans 14:23 (Amplified) says, "But the man who has doubts (misgivings and an uneasy conscience) about eating and then eats perhaps because of you, stands condemned before God because he is not true to his convictions and does not act from faith, whatever does not originate from faith is sin (whatever is done without a conviction of it's approval by God is sinful)."  
     
     

Lesson 6 THE YEAR OF UNDERSTANDING - Original Intent

     Genesis 1:27-28,11 (Amplified) says, "So God created man in His Own Image (in the Image and Likeness of God He created him); male and female He created them. And God Blessed them and said to them; Be fruitful (multiply), and fill the earth, and subdue it, using all it's vast resources in the service of God and man; and have dominion over the fish of the sea, the birds of the air, and over every living creature that moves upon the earth."
     This is and was, God's Original Intent for His children, in Heaven and earth.  In Verse 11, God spoke a Spiritual Law that is still very much in effect today.  Thus, it tells us, "And God said, Let the earth put forth tender vegetation; plants yielding seed and fruit trees yielding fruit whose seed is in itself, each according to its kind upon the earth. And it was so."
     Acorns today, still always produce Oak trees and a kernel of corn will always produce corn.  This Law of "seed in itself" and "after its kind," is still very much as true, as it was when God said it.  When Adam transgressed in the Garden, God never deviated from His Original Intent for His children.  In the Spirit realm, God's Word is the Seed that created all things.  We're His Seed, by His Word and are restored back to His Original Intent, according to 1Peter 1:23 (Amplified) which 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."  God's Word is the Seed, by which we were born or created, from the Original Intent.
     John 1:1,14 (Amplified) says, "In the beginning (before all time), was the Word (Christ), and the Word was with God, and the Word was God Himself. He (Christ, the Word or Seed), was present originally with God."  Verse 14 continues saying, "And the Word (Seed, Christ), became flesh (human, incarnate), and tabernacled (fixed His tent of flesh), lived awhile among us."  The Spirit of God and the "tent of flesh," is and was, God's Original Intent.
     We're now living in a tent or house of flesh and have been restored to God's Original Intent.  Paul was inspired by the Holy Spirit to write in 2Corinthians 5:16-17 (Amplified), "Consequently, from now on we estimate and regard no one from a purely human point of view (in terms of natural standards of value). No, even though we once did estimate Christ from a human viewpoint and as a man, YET NOW  we have such knowledge of Him that we know Him no longer in terms of the flesh Therefore if any person is ingrafted in Christ (the Messiah, Seed) 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."
     Remember that "Everything produces after kind, according to Genesis 1:11.  One can't grow a Palm tree from an acorn, nor can one grow a rose, from the seed of an Iris.  Everything produces after it's seed.  We were born-again from the Very Seed of God and we're in His Likeness and Image again, according to His Original Intent from the beginning.  We though, have done like Paul warned us not to do and have seen ourselves more after the flesh, than the Spirit.  The seed of the flesh is still that of fallen man, but the Seed of God is the new creation man of the Spirit.
     We're living in this tent or house of flesh, but our true identity now comes from the Incorruptible Seed or Word of God.  The "real" you is like God and His Image and Likeness.  A house might have termites, but that doesn't mean that the person living in that house, has termites as well.  Remember what Paul said, "We no longer know and estimate even Jesus, after the flesh, but after the Spirit."
     Most of us think about or "see" Jesus more after the four Gospels, more than His exalted place as Lord over all.  The dominion mankind lost at the First Adam's fall, has been restored by the Last Adam, through the Seed of Promise, Who is Jesus Christ.  Even the old body or house we live in, will come back into the Power of the Seed, Who created it from the beginning of God's Original Intent.
     1Corinthians 15:53-54 (Amplified) tells us, "For this perishable part of us must put on the imperishable nature, and this mortal part of us, this nature that is capable of dying, must put on immortality, freedom from death. And when this perishable puts on the imperishable and this which that was capable of dying puts on freedom from death, then shall be fulfilled the scripture that says, Death is swallowed up (utterly vanquished) forever in and unto victory."  This was and is, God's Original Intent.
     We are God's children who have been born-again by the Incorruptible Seed and our natural, mortal bodies will be restored back to God's Original Intent, from the beginning before time.  You are now like Him, by the Word or Seed of God.  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."  Remember Paul's statement in 2Corinthians 5:18, where he said that, "We have such knowledge of Him that we know Him no longer as a Man, but as He really is."  The Lord from the Kingdom, Who is clothed in Glory.
     Just before ascending to the Father, Jesus prayed in John 17:21-22 (Amplified), "That they all may be one, just as You Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be one in Us; so that the world may believe and be convinced that You have sent Me. I have given to them the Glory and honor which You have given Me, that they may be one even as We are One."  This is God's Original Intent from the very first, until now.  Psalm 8:4-6 (Amplified) says, "What is man that You are mindful of him, and the son of earth born man that You care for him? Yet You have made him but a little lower than God, and You have crowned him with Glory and Honor. You have made him to have dominion over the works of Your hands; You have put all things under his feet."
     Through Jesus, God has restored us back to His Original Intent, like man was in the first place.  we've been trained to look more at our house of flesh, instead of the new being that lives inside it.  We're always reminded of our house needing maintenance, instead of the new creation man/woman who is crowned with the Glory and honor of Jesus Himself.
     We hear many teachings about faith and what it can do in our lives.  When you put faith in what Jesus has said and done for us, then all the rest is easy.  We seldom or ever though, see ourselves like the Father sees us.  We still struggle with the flesh and forget that we are not only human.  We don't have a problem with faith, but "the lack thereof."  Hebrews 4:1-2 (Amplified) says, "Therefore, while the Promise of entering His Rest still holds and is offered today, let us be afraid to distrust it, lest any of you should think he has come too late and has come short of reaching it. For indeed we have had the glad tidings (Gospel of God), proclaimed to us just as truly as they (the Israelites of old) did when the Good News of deliverance from bondage came to them; but the Message they heard did not benefit them, because it was not mixed with faith, with the leaning of the entire Personality of God in absolute trust and confidence in His Power and Wisdom and Goodness by those who heard it, neither were they united in faith with the ones, Joshua and Caleb who heard and did believe."
     Some today, believe Joshua and Caleb were "fanatics," for what they believed, but they were the ones God exalted.  God never intended His children to be mocked, starved, sick and bound to anyone, but He created man to live in the exalted state of Glory and honor, through Jesus.  The mention of "rest," in Hebrews 4:8-9 (Amplified) wasn't referring to the Israelites entering into Canaan, because if Joshua had given the people rest, then God wouldn't speak about another day in Verse 9 saying, "So then, there is still awaiting a full and complete Sabbath-rest reserved for the true people of God."
     When will we move from the glory which was fading from Moses, to the Glory and honor that Jesus has given to us who believe?  When will we mix faith with what we have heard, if we are hearing it?  The rest that God is now speaking about, isn't for when we die and get to Heaven, but for while we are here on earth, if we have heard the Words of deliverance and son-ship.  We need to learn by trusting in the Righteousness that He has imparted to us, in our new creation Seed that produced after it's kind.
     We need to "see ourselves and Jesus by the Spirit and not by the flesh any longer," like Paul instructed in 2Corinthians 5:16.  Righteousness simply means that through the new birth, we've been returned to God's Original Intent and we have the right to come into His Presence as the First and Last Adam did.  We've been crowned with Glory and honor, like God's Intent was from the beginning.
     When God decided to have a family, He never deviated from that Plan or commitment.  Neither you or I, are an afterthought or mistakes.  We've been born-again, into what was always the heart of our Loving Father.  God sees you perfect by His Grace, faith and Love, because He sees you in your spirit and not your flesh.  When we finally understand what really happened when we were born-again, we will see who we truly are in Christ.  
     We must get understanding and see more of Jesus, instead of the nature of fallen man, in ourselves.  We're not fallen men, but we've been raised up together and seated together with Christ Jesus, in Heavenly places.     
            

Lesson 5 THE YEAR OF UNDERSTANDING - Original Intent

     Paul writes about a faith that grows and matures into sons of God in Romans 1:17 (Amplified) saying, "For in the Gospel, a righteousness which God ascribes is revealed, both springing from faith and leading to faith (disclosed through the way of faith, that arouses to more faith). As it is written, The man who through faith is just and upright shall live and shall live by faith."
     Most of us don't understand the depth of the above scripture, which tells us that those of us who are born-again are already living by faith.  Jesus came so that we who were unsaved and dead in trespass and sin, would have Life, according to John 10:10.  If we received Jesus and Life through Him, by faith, then we are now living in faith.  Romans 1:17 tells us that this faith, gave you Life and will also grow into mature faith, so we can mature from baby Christians into adult ones.  1Peter 2:2 (Amplified) says, "Like newborn babies you should crave (thirst for, earnestly desire) pure unadulterated Spiritual mil of the Word, that by it you may be nurtured and grow into completed salvation."
     The world and everything in it, is out to stop your growth in faith in Jesus and keep you a newborn baby Christian.  Growing in faith, requires a stand against the world of darkness and satan's control in the lives of God's Own family.  So many things that are to be received by faith, have fallen to unbelief in today's Church.  Many say, "I don't think Christians need to know all that, to get to Heaven" or "Those things have passed away."  These are just excuses though, for our not trusting God in His Promises.
     We've all read the Promises of God for us, through Jesus in Isaiah 52,53 & 54.  These scriptures speak about our deliverance from sin, sickness, disease and the restoration back to Righteousness with God.  Many refuse to acknowledge healing and safety through Jesus, like these aren't important.  If it meant enough to Jesus that He was willing to die and take our punishment for it, then it should be important enough to us that we're willing to fight for it.  Anything important enough to die for, should be important enough to fight for, in our daily lives.
     1Timothy 6:12 (Amplified) says, "Fight the Good fight of the faith; lay hold of the Eternal Life to which you were summoned and for which you confessed the Good confession of faith before many witnesses."  The very faith that you used to receive salvation, is the same faith of God for healing, deliverance, peace with God and even righteousness, but you must fight the Good fight for the faith.  If there was nothing to be gained by going from faith to faith, then the enemy wouldn't work so hard fighting against it.  Remember, Ephesians 6:12 (Amplified) which 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 the present darkness, against the spirit forces of wickedness, in the heavenly supernatural sphere."
     It's only by fighting the Good fight of faith, that we can obtain the Promises of God for us, in Jesus.  If faith worked to remove sin in our new lives, then why don't we fight the same Good fight for the rest of what Jesus died to give us?  Jesus asked in Mark 2:9-10 (Amplified), "Which is easier? to say to the paralyzed man 'Your sins are forgiven and put away,' or to say, "Rise, take up your sleeping pad or mat and start walking about and keep walking?' But that you may know positively and beyond doubt that the Son of Man has the right and authority and power on earth to forgive sins-He said to the paralyzed man, I say to you, arise, pick up and carry your sleeping pad or mat, and be going on home. And he arose at once and picked up the sleeping mat and went out before them all."
     Today, we seem to believe that Jesus can forgive sin, but He can't heal.  The people Jesus was standing before, believed He could heal, but that He couldn't forgive sin.  Which was easier?  Forgiving sin or healing the man?  They both represented the same thing to Jesus.  Forgiving sin broke the power that held the man in captivity.  Sin and sickness both come from the same source, who is the ruler of darkness in this present age...the devil.
     The Same Lamb Who died as our sin Offering, is the Same Lamb Who was accepted as our Sacrifice for healing.  Jesus bore our infirmities and bore our disease and by His stripes we are made whole and healed, according to Isaiah 53:3-5.  We seemingly believe that Jesus can forgive sin, but He no longer heals.  The Same Jesus Who died on the cross, is the Same Jesus who bore the Curse of the Law, the healing of our body, soul, and spirit, our separation from God and our eternal punishment.  If one part of the scripture is True, then all of it is True.  Jesus cannot be divided into portions of doctrine.  He is an All Encompassing, one time for all time, Offering to the Father.
     When we reject part of Jesus' Sacrifice, we are dishonoring the Blood that bought and paid for our new birth and reinstated relationship with the Father.  This is the Good fight of faith.  Jesus gave "The Parable of the Sower," in Mark 4.  He said that the "Seed" was God's Word, which was to be planted in men's hearts (their spirit man), which Jesus called "the soil."  Mark 4:14,17 (Amplified) go on saying, "Satan comes at once and by force takes away the Message which is sown in them, When trouble or persecution arises on account of the Word."  Notice that Jesus tells us in these scriptures that, the enemy came to steal, kill and destroy, by taking away the Word or Seed that was sown.
     It's much easier to dig up an acorn, than it is to dig up an Oak Tree.  It's easier to bring trouble and force upon the hearer to the Word, while it's still a Seed, than it is to allow the Seed to grow roots and strength, and then try taking it by force from the hearer.  I've heard Christians say, "I tried that healing thing and it didn't work."  We must learn to fight and contend for the faith and the Truth.  The trials we've been attributing to "God is testing us," are the enemy's trying to take away the Seed that was sown in our hearts, by force.  These trials come for the Word's sake.
     One can't grow a harvest, without seed.  The Seeds of healing will never produce your healing, if the enemy comes to take or dig up the Seed, before it takes root in your heart.  We've misunderstood the True Heart of our Father, to where we don't trust Him with much else than going to Heaven when we die.  The Truth is that the Father wants to be with us, while we're still living on this earth.  No one in Heaven needs to see or experience God's healing and mercy, because they already in His Presence.  It's here on earth, where God needs His people to believe and manifest His Presence.
     Jesus said in His Parable of Mark 4:19 (Amplified), "The cares and the anxieties of the world chokes out the Word (or Seed) and it becomes fruitless."  The enemy uses these distractions to stop the Seed of God's Word from producing the manifestation of God's Presence in this ungodly world.  Satan will see to it that you don't have time to read God's Word or pray or go to Church or even give thought to God moving in your life.  God instructed Adam, "Tend the garden," which is his heart or spirit.  Proverbs 4:23 (Amplified) says, "Keep and guard your heart with all vigilance and above all that you guard, for out of it flow the Springs of Life."
     God said in Proverbs 4:20-22 (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." 

Lesson 4 THE YEAR OF UNDERSTANDING - Original Intent

     Proverbs 4:7 (Amplified) says, "The beginning of Wisdom is, get Wisdom, skillful and Godly Wisdom! For skillful and Godly Wisdom is the principal thing. And with all you have gotten, get understanding (discernment, comprehension, and interpretation)."
     Mankind has had Wisdom in our midst for centuries, through God's Word.  Proverbs 1:20-21 (Amplified) tells us that, "Wisdom cries aloud in the street, she raises her voice in the markets: she cries at the head of the noisy intersections, in the chief gathering places, at the entrance of the city gates she speaks."
     God has made Wisdom available to all men in abundance.  We received Wisdom, when we received Jesus as our Lord and Savior.  1Corinthians 1:30 (Amplified) says, "But it is from Him (God) that you have your life in Christ Jesus, Whom God made our Wisdom from God, revealed to us a knowledge of the Divine Plan of salvation previously hidden, manifesting itself as our Righteousness thus making us upright and putting us in right standing with God, and our Consecration, making us pure and holy, and our Redemption, providing our Ransom from Eternal penalty for sin."
     Jesus is the Wisdom of God and He is our Wisdom, so why aren't we walking in what Jesus made available to us?  I truly believe it's because we lack understanding.  Man has placed his own understanding into God's Wisdom for centuries and have
.fashioned religions.  Wisdom and understanding were to reveal the Original intent God had for His children, to mankind.  The Original Intent is found in chapters 1 & 2 of Genesis.  Jesus is the Living Proof of what God's Original Intent was for all of His children.
     Through Jesus, we witness what God's Intent and His purpose was when He created the First Adam and Eve.  God gave birth to a being who was to rule with the Father, by and through his spirit,  along with ruling the natural kingdom through his natural body.  God and His children were to have unbroken fellowship and it was to be God and Sons ruling together.  Man was made just like his Father and was to have complete dominion over the earth and everything in it.
     We've somehow been deceived into thinking that God's family is much less than "family."  The sense of unworthiness and condemnation has diminished the Perfect Work of Jesus, until it seems like Jesus wasn't really enough to bring us back to God's Original Intent for His children.  God knows that your previous condition wasn't all your fault.  You were born in sin.  From the time of Adam, sin became your nature from birth.  It wasn't just something you did, but was your spiritual nature from birth.  This wasn't God's Intent for His family and there was nothing you could do about it, so God took it upon Himself to bring about restoration to His children.
     It wasn't just that we were sinners, but sin was born in us from Adam, until now.  By His Wisdom, God was "calling out in the streets" to turn us back to Him and bring us home to Him.  We didn't know we were lost, because were born in the darkness and living in darkness.  We believed that this was "just how things were" and there was "nothing we could do about it."  Everyone around us was in the same boat.  While some turned to the call of Wisdom and accepted Jesus, we still lacked understanding of what really took place in our lives.
     When we encountered a Holy God, we still didn't see the Perfect salcation of what had taken place, when we were born-again.  How could a Holy God ever see us as being pure and holy, after seeing who we once were.  After seeing Him, we became more conscience of how far we had fallen and we couldn't imagine being right in God's eyes again.  Once again-GET UNDERSTANDING!  We've heard many things over the years, about the Potter and the vessels He makes from men.  The Potter has the ability to put the vessels back on the wheel and remove all the cracks and blemishes it holds.  He can make the vessel perfect once more.
     We've been taught more from man's ideas, instead of by God.  God meant it when saying, "I make all things new."  We're not just forgiven, we are new creations in Christ Jesus and "old things are passed away and all things are made new and all things are of God," according to 2Corinthians 5:17-21 (Amplified).  We continue seeing ourelves as "fallen," but God sees us lifted up and seated with Jesus.  The Potter placed us back on the wheel and has perfected us, as though there was never a spot or wrinkle, in our new being.  In Jesus, one can't tell there was ever a blemish in us.
     We've heard sermons that have left us feeling like God only pitied us and that we're not worth His time.  We were left feeling like we had to beg and cry, in order to gain God's attention.  The truth is, we were always on God's mind.  From the moment Adam transgressed in the Garden, the Plan of Redemption was already at work, on our behalf.
    God's Original Intent was to have family and fellowship and joy at being able to teach and raise His children, just like any good father would do today.  God's great delight was teaching His son Adam, to name all the beasts of the field and watch Adam do the things he was born to do.  God was to walk with him in the Spirit and watch Adam grow into the man, God created him to be.  When God made Eve, so she and Adam could produce God's Own offspring, who would bring Him joy and pleasure, as family.
     Man was never created or formed, to be without God and His Holy Spirit, anymore than the Last Adam, Jesus was ever to be without them.  When we see Jesus in His earthly walk, we can see how the First Adam was to have functioned on earth.  The great difference being that Jesus spent His time healing and teaching about the Father, when the First Adam wouldn't have needed to do this.  There wouldn't have been sickness or disease, if the children of the First Adam had known the Father firsthand.
     The only thing God's children were to ever have known throughout their lives, was God's Presence and His Provision.  God and His family were to walk and talk together, both in the Heavens and earth simultaneously.  God could walk here on earth with Adam and Eve and they could walk with God in His place of Abode.  They were one.  Adam and Eve could see and be seen by angels.  Adam and Eve could also see the Spirit realm.
      Through his relationship with the Father, all things were perpetually open and available to him.  God's Original Intent for mankind, didn't include suffering, death, sickness, hunger or any of the thing we suffer today.  By Jesus, God has redeemed and restored us back to the Original Intent, but we've never understood this plan at all.
     In Jesus, we're able to talk and walk and be in perfect fellowship with our Heavenly Father, just like Jesus did.  Jesus bore the Curse and penalty for Adam's transgression, bringing us back to God, not just in Heaven, but also here on earth.  We've become new creations, born-again and able to walk and live like Jesus did, like God intended from before the foundation of the world.
     God dealt with man in the old covenant, differently than He does under the new covenant.  Man wasn't born-again under the Law and the old covenant, because Jesus hadn't yet come, so he was still dead in his spirit and not alive unto God.  John 10:10 tells us that, "Jesus came to give us Life."  Every person hearing Jesus say this, was already alive, but Jesus was speaking about the deadness of their spirits that had died in Adam.  God warned Adam that, "The day you eat of this tree, you shall surely die."  Adam lived over 900 years after transgressing, in his flesh, but his spirit died that day.  God's Word says, "The wages of sin is death."  The wages of Adam's sin was death, death in his spirit and separation from God.  We're now alive to God and He is alive to us.  We need to return to His Original Intent for His family.                  \

Lesson 3 THE YEAR OF UNDERSTANDING

     Proverbs 4:5-7 (Amplified) says, "Get skillful and Godly Wisdom, get understanding, discernment, comprehension, and interpretation; do not forget and do not turn back from the Words of My mouth, The beginning of Wisdom is, get Wisdom, skillful and Godly Wisdom! For skillful and Godly Wisdom is the principal thing. And with all you have gotten, get understanding, discernment, comprehension and interpretation."
     The Hebrew word for "understanding," according to The Strong's Concordance #995, #998 is "Biyn, bene-to separate mentally or distinguish i.e. understand-attend-consider, be cunning, diligently direct, discern, eloquent, feel, inform, instruct, have intelligence, know, look well to, mark, perceive, be prudent, regard, skill, skillful, teach, think, cause, make to, get, give, have, understanding, view, deal wisely."  #998 adds, "Understanding, knowledge, meaning perfectly understanding, Wisdom."
     Colossi ans 1:9 (Amplified) says, "For this reason we also from the day we heard of it, have not ceased to pray and make special request for you, asking that you may be filled with the full, deep and clear knowledge of His will in all Spiritual Wisdom, in comprehensive insight into the ways and purposes of God and in UNDERSTANDING AND DISCERNMENT OF SPIRITUAL THINGS."
     Isaiah 55:8-9 (Amplified) says, "For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways, says the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts."  Isaiah 1:18 (Amplified) says, "Come now, and let us reason together, says the Lord. Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall be like wool."
     God has invited us here, to "Come and reason together with Him."  He also tells us that His thoughts and His ways are "higher than our thoughts and ways."  God's intent is that we, through understanding, will come up to His way of thinking and doing and have understanding of Spiritual things."  Paul prayed in Colossi ans 1:9 (Amplified) that we would "Have and be filled with the full, deep, clear knowledge of His will in all Spiritual Wisdom."
     1Corinthians 1:30 (Amplified) says, "But it is from Him, God, that you have your Life in Christ Jesus, Whom God made our Wisdom from God, revealed to us a knowledge of the Divine Plan of salvation previously hidden, manifesting itself as our Righteousness, thus making us upright and putting us in right standing with God, and our Redemption, providing our Ransom from eternal penalty for sin."
     Many in today's Church have no understanding of our being righteous in God's eyes.  Even though God's Word plainly reveals Jesus as our Righteousness, we continue seeing ourselves as "None are righteous, no not one."  We know that we're not sinners any longer, but we don't understand Righteousness.  I'm not saying that Christian don't still sin, but we've been "made free from the Law of Sin and of Death, by the Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus," according to Romans 8:2.
     Sin had separated mankind from God, by Adam's transgression in the Garden of Eden.  Spiritual and physical death were the result of that sin and came upon all mankind.  Jesus paid for sin by His Blood Sacrifice, so that Life could now be administered back to our spirit.  Through our new birth, we were made righteous, in our new creation being.  So long as the sin remained, both Spiritual and physical death dominated us.
     Many don't understand our right place with the Father now and almost stubbornly insist on having the Father deal with us, like He deals with those who weren't new creation people, which is by our flesh, "Not being sensitive enough in our spirit to receive correction by His Word, according to 2Timothy 3:16. 
     The new creation man/woman is created once again in his/her spirit and to walk, live, understand and be guided by and corrected by our born-again spirit, which is made in God's Image and Likeness once again, like Adam was before sin separated him from his Father.  This sin has now been paid for and through Jesus, we've been restored back to our original state of being, which is a Living spirit."  We live in a physical body, but our true identity is spirit, like our Father Who is a Spirit.
     This is why understanding Spiritual things is so important for believers.  Without understanding, we continue seeing our own reflection in the mirror, instead of seeing ourselves as through the perfect Law of Liberty in Christ Jesus.  James 1:22-25 (Amplified) says, "But be doers of the Word, obey the Message, and not merely listeners to it, betraying yourselves into deception by reasoning contrary to the Truth. For he thoughtfully observes himself, and then goes off and promptly forgets what he was like. But he who looks carefully into the faultless Law, the Law of Liberty, and is faithful to it and perseveres in looking into it, being not a heedless listener who forgets, but an active doer who obeys, he shall be Blessed in his doing, his life of obedience." 
     Paul writes in 2Corinthians 3:17-18 (Amplified), "Now the Lord is THE SPIRIT, and where the SPIRIT OF THE LORD IS, there is Liberty (emancipation from bondage, freedom). And all of us, as with unveiled face, because we continue to behold in the Word of God, as in a mirror the Glory of the Lord, are constantly being transfigured into His Very Own Image in ever increasing splendor and from one degree of Glory to another, for this comes from the Lord Who is the Spirit."
     The Word of God is a mirror, that now reflects who we have become in Jesus and not who we were, when we were dead in trespass and sin.  When we don't have understanding of Spiritual things, we will still see ourselves from the outside and as mere men and women of the flesh.  In Jesus, this isn't true any longer.  We are a spirit, a new creation person who is still clothed in a flesh and blood body, but the real us is the one reflected to us, by the Word of God as in a mirror, the faultless Law of Liberty.  James says that we look into the mirror and forget what we look like.  Understanding comes by the Spirit of God and His ways and His thoughts are higher than ours.  We must think His way, about ourselves, because He paid an Awesome Price for us.  See yourself as valued by Him and accept what He has done. 

Lesson 2 THE YEAR OF UNDERSTANDING

     Daniel 12:3-4,12 (Amplified) says, "And the teachers and those who are wise shall shine like the brightness of the firmament, and those who turn many to righteousness (to uprightness and right standing with God), shall give forth light like the stars forever and ever. But you, O Daniel, shut up the Words and seal the Book until the time of the End. Then many shall run to and fro and search anxiously through the Book and knowledge of God's purposes as revealed by His prophets shall be increased and become great."
     The angel goes onto to say this about the End time people in Verse 12, saying, "Many shall purify themselves and make themselves white and be tried, smelted and refined, but the wicked shall do wickedly, and none of the wicked shall understand, but the teachers and those who are wise shall understand."
     God's prophets have spoken about "the time of the End," from the very first.  Everyone can see that Time approaching, but not many will acknowledge it's proximity.  Just as sure as this earth and it's inhabitants were created, so shall be a time of making all things new and the Time of the End.  We've struggled for centuries, with the scriptures concerning the End Time and have tried understanding it by our own understanding, to no avail.  We've fostered many theories and given many sermons about this time, but most of it has been wrong.
     The above Word given to Daniel, was that, "The teachers and those who are wise shall understand."  In the day of the Church, we're hearing things that are far more revealing, than what we heard only 30-40 years ago.  Some find it difficult to accept these teachings, because they're so more revealing than what we've heard before.  The deeper understanding of what God is now doing, is hard for many to accept as "Truth."
     You might be wondering about the Last Days, I've been referring to, so let's turn to Acts 2:16-17 (Amplified), where Peter began speaking to those around him on the Day of Pentecost, saying, "But instead, this is the beginning of what was spoken through the prophet Joel: And it shall come to pass in the Last Days, God declares, that I will pour out of My Spirit upon all mankind, and your sons and daughters shall prophesy, telling forth the Divine counsels and your young men shall see visions (Divinely granted appearances), and your old men shall dream Divinely suggested dreams."  The beginning of the Last Days began two-thousand years ago, on the Day of Pentecost.  We're now in the Last Minutes of these Last Days.
     It's essential for the believer to have understanding of the scriptures, in this time.  There are many things we've learned that aren't true.   There are many things, that we refuse to believe are true, but they are indeed true.  Some man-made doctrines are based on religious ideas and have nothing to do with what the Father says.  I believe that "all that are wise enough" will realize we don't know it all and come into a place of understanding and faith, like we've never been before.
     The Church has meant well, choosing to believe things we do, but there's so much more to what God's doing in these Last Days.  We must allow Him to reveal it to us though.  We must accept some things we previously rejected and reject some things we previously embraced.  Most of the Church have, by faith, accepted Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior and this will never change.  The Church might need to rethink some things more clearly.
     People in the time of Jesus, were so sure of what they believed and refused to hear what Jesus was saying.  My prayer for these Last Days is for God's people to become more wise in our understanding, than those in Jesus' time.  Many are offended by teachings that aren't congruent with their church doctrine and won't listen to the Revelation of certain of God's Promises.  Some have chosen to believe, but others believe "these things have passed away and aren't for today's Church."  The time of miracles, healing and Revelation knowledge is at hand and those who are wise in God's Word will weigh and judge by His Spirit, to believe or reject.  The angel told Daniel, "The teachers and those who are wise shall understand."
     Sadly, many of God's children have spent very little time seeking God in His Word.  We've allowed others to seek and we go by what they tell us God's Word says, instead of learning and seeking on our own.  The time is now here that, "many shall run to and fro and search anxiously through the Book, and knowledge of God's purpose as revealed through His prophets shall be increased and become great," Daniel 12:4 (Amplified).
     The Holy Spirit knows all things and is the One Who Jesus said would be "our Teacher, Comforter and Guide."  It's imperative that every believer learns to hear the Voice of the Holy Spirit.  These are great days of Revelation, but are also great days of deception.  If we don't know God's Word or the Voice of His Spirit, then we're open to the world's idea of Truth.
     Paul writes in 1Thessolonians 5:2-3, 4-5 (Amplified), "For you yourselves know perfectly well that the Day of the Return of the Lord will come as unexpectedly and suddenly as a thief in the night. When people are saying, all is well and secure, and, there is peace and safety, then in a moment, unforeseen destruction, ruin and death will come upon them as suddenly as labor pains come upon a woman with child; and they shall by no means escape, for there will be no escape."
     If God says there will be an end, then there will be an end!  Paul went on in Verses 4-5, saying, "But you are not in given up to the power of darkness, brethren, for that Day to overtake you by surprise like a thief. For you are all sons of Light and sons of the Day, we do not belong either to the night or darkness."
     It should be evident to God's people, that we're already in this Last Time before Jesus returns for His people.  Spend time in God's Word and in His Presence, to receive understanding and guidance in this Day and hour.  God has a Plan and purpose for your life and it's time for us to discover what His individual Plan for our life is.  We need to know God's Plan for our individual lives, not the pastor's life, but our life.  You're a laborer in the field of harvest and that harvest is already white and ripe.  God has someone in this field of harvest, who is waiting just for you to bring into His family.
    

Lesson 1 THE YEAR OF UNDERSTANDING

     Proverbs 4:7 (Amplified) tells us, "The beginning of Wisdom is, get Wisdom, skillful Godly Wisdom! For skillful and Godly Wisdom is the principal thing. And with all you have gotten, get understanding (discernment, comprehension, and interpretation)."
     Proverbs 2:7-8 (Amplified) says, "God hides away sound and Godly Wisdom and stores it for the righteous (those who are upright and in right standing with Him). He is a shield to those who walk uprightly and in integrity that He may guard the paths of justice; Yes, He preserves the ways of His saints."
     Proverbs 29:18 (Amplified) says, "Where there is no vision (no redemptive Revelation of God), the people perish; but he who keeps the Law of God, which includes that of man, Blessed (happy, fortunate and enviable) is he."
     So much has been lost to us, over the many years since Jesus walked this earth, that we've settled into a place of not knowing the vision and Revelation that our redemption in Jesus holds.  God's Word tells us that "His people perish, because of this."  We've been lost in darkness, where our identity in Jesus is concerned.  The Revelation of righteousness has been obscured from us and have struggled under the burden of man's ideas of redemption, losing sight of who we actually are in Christ Jesus.
     The enemy has been given an upper hand over our Spiritual and natural lives.  We've accepted the fact that when bad things happen in our lives, then "It must be God's will," because we've never made a stand at the vision of our redemption.  We've put off our redemption and place with the Lord, for until we leave this planet in physical death.
     The Church has lacked the Revelation of righteousness, even though "The Son has made us free."  We've read the Word of God, but haven't had Revelation of it in our spirit, so we've been held in bondage by the enemy.  Our carnal minds have held us in the same place we were in, before Jesus set us free.  Our sense of unworthiness and condemnation has ruled over our acknowledgment of salvation and redemption, in our lives.  We continue to feel like we must do works, in order to make us worthy for God to work in our lives.  We've lost the Revelation of Grace and have limited it to being only for being saved and going to Heaven when we die.
     Without Revelation, Grace has become only a religious word, instead of a Truth in our daily lives.  Many Christians struggle with the Truth, that God sees them as being made new and without sin, in Christ.  We try making up for who we used to be, instead of accepting who God has made us to be in Christ Jesus.  We read the Words, but fail to see the Truth of what God really said.
     We believe that God deals with those of us who are alive in spirit and the new covenant, like He dealt with those in the old covenant.  We've failed to see that God deals with, corrects and directs us by His Word and His Spirit.  We still see Him as dealing with us from the flesh, instead of in the spirit.  We've yielded ourselves to accepting directions from the outside, instead of our born-again spirit man.
     The old covenant people were under the Law and received righteousness by works of the Law.  They weren't born-again and were still dead in their spirits.  God couldn't lead and direct them from the inside, new creation being.  He could only deal with them by their flesh and the Law.  That's why Proverbs 29:18 (Amplified) says, "Where there is no vision (no redemptive Revelation of God), the people perish."  Those who have accepted fleshly ways of correction, have ignored the prompting of God's Word and the Holy Spirit, which is and was, given to us to follow our Lord.
     2Timothy 3:16 (Amplified) tells us how the Word is to guide, correct, discipline and bring us into the place of maturity in Jesus, saying, "Every scripture is God-breathed (given by His Inspiration) and is profitable for instruction, for reproof and conviction of sin, for correction of error and discipline in obedience and for training in righteousness (in holy living, in conformity to God's will in thought, purpose and action) So that the man of God may be complete and be proficient, well-fitted and thoroughly equipped for every good work."
     Proverbs 25:28 (Amplified) is God's Wisdom to us and says, "He who has no rule over his own spirit, is like a city that is broken down and without walls."  When we expect to be corrected by our outer man, instead of from within our new creation man, we become defenseless against the enemy.  God could have simply left us like the old covenant people were, covered by the blood of goats and bulls, but He didn't and now, because of Jesus, we are no longer subject to the things of the old man, but of the new man.
     God doesn't have to deal with our flesh any longer, but through our born-again spirit.  Proverbs 20:27 (Amplified) says, "The spirit of man (that factor in human personality which proceeds immediately from God), is the Lamp of the Lord, searching all his innermost parts."  1Corinthians 2:13 (Amplified) says, "And we are setting these Truths forth in Words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Holy Spirit, combining and interpreting Spiritual Truths with Spiritual language to those who possess the Holy Spirit."
     The Father's entire Plan has never changed from the Book of Genesis, where He brought forth children in His Own Image and Likeness.  It took Jesus and His Sacrifice on Calvary, to redeem and restore His children back to and eternal spirit, in His Likeness.  God doesn't have to speak to us, like He did to those in the old covenant.  He speaks to us by His Word and His Spirit, according to Hebrews 1:1-2 (Amplified) which says, "In many separate Revelations, each of which set forth a portion of the Truth, and in different ways, God spoke of old to our forefathers in and by the prophets. But, in the Last of these Days He has spoken unto us in the Person of a Son, Whom He appointed Heir and Lawful Owner of all things, also by and through Whom He created the worlds and the reaches of space and the ages of time. He made (produced, built, operated and arranged them in order)."
     The old covenant prophets brought forth a Word from God, that was actually meant in it's fullness for us, in this new creation.  Some of them did walk in the fullness, but most didn't.  Only the fullness of the new man could see into the Revelation of the Coming Redeemer and Savior.  The old covenant prophets and people couldn't understand the Spiritual application, like we can today.  In these Last Days before the Coming of our Lord, the Holy Spirit is bringing the lost Revelation back to those who will yield their spirits to God's Word.
     Daniel 12:3-4 (Amplified) says, "And the teachers and to those who are wise shall shine like the brightness of the firmament, and those who turn many to righteousness (to uprightness and right standing with God), shall give forth light like the stars forever and ever. But you, O Daniel, shut up the Words and seal the Book until the time of the End. Then many shall run to and fro and search anxiously through the Book, and knowledge of God's purposes as revealed by His prophets shall be increased and become great."
     This is the greatest time for the Kingdom of God and His people on earth, as the Holy Spirit brings into light, the understanding and the Revelation of Truth to God's children.  The very Greatness of God is about to be shown to the whole world, like never before.  Ephesians 3:10-11 (Amplified) says,
"The purpose is, that through the Church the complicated, many-sided Wisdom of God in all its infinite variety and innumerable aspects might now be made known to the angelic rulers and authorities, principalities and powers in the Heavenly sphere. This is in accordance with the terms of the Eternal and timeless purpose which He has realized and carried into effect in the Person of Christ Jesus our Lord."