WHAT IN THE WORLD IS THE WORLD ?

      To the serious and thoughtful Christian, the question should come up often and earnestly-what is the world? What is it from which we Christians are to keep ourselves unspotted? 

       There are three senses in which the word world can be used in a Biblical understanding as applying to the Christians identity and life; literally, it means the order or system according to which human affairs are managed on the earth. The earth itself is called the world, because it is the platform on which the world-system operates, and the people who live according to this world-system, absent a divine identity, are called the world and are of the world.

       Contrarily those who are redeemed by having faith in a salvation given by Grace coming from a Man who the Bible teaches was God upon earth. A Man Who came specifically to die in representation, judicially, of all mankind and the world. He fulfilled God's perfect order of the justification of the Adam man of flesh by His death which was inclusive of all mankind of the flesh inheritance who believed Him. In God's sight we are now as flesh creatures in identity before God dead!. Thereby canceling out "Sin" which is "in the flesh", and He put to death all that is flesh in the sight of God,and all that we in this flesh [our condition] as Adam men are. By believing this we are now made to be distinct in a new creation of spirit [our position before God], in God's View. Separate and distinct from those of the world. Our life now may consist as taking sides with a rejected Christ by our new identity, against the world which has crucified Him. "Now you are light in the world" Eph. 5:8. A very humble position indeed.

      
      We are now to be marked as men of a heavenly race, blameless and harmless, the sons of God without rebuke in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom we are too shine as lights in this evil world. Being predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things after the counsel of His own will" Eph. 1:11. This is the great mission of God's children and nothing more is needed but to know this as our positional in Christ identity; all else will follow as Jesus lives His very life through us, we only need to rest in that in faith. But if this is true how can we truthfully/practically view ourselves in such a divine light? And just how will we be enabled to fulfill with any degree of confidence what the reveled mind of God expresses to us in the Word; as to the true nature, position and identity, of the child of God? "Walk as children of light" Eph. 5:8.

       The answer is we must come to know who we really are as ones in Christ, as I touched on in my last blog. The Christian is told he should love his neighbor as himself, however this command was given while followers of Christ Jesus were under the law, prior to the Cross.  But now after the Cross we have a new law/command, that of "the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus". It is not now, by this Law, given in Grace, through death, how we ourselves wish to be treated, or by what we wish for ourselves, or what we may accomplish that we may direct good toward others in outreach. No now by this new Law we sacrifice our very selves as Adam men of the flesh, as the Lord in Heaven is our identity and is now our life. "He [the Father] has chosen us in Him [the Son] before the foundation of the world" Eph. 1:4.

       If this is true then, in God's view of our life, as defined in His minds conscious thought of us via His word, and we being under the dispensation of grace now: under which He teaches us that Christianity looks for having no self, as His law of life and Spirit  cannot be  based in a inner identity outside of His own. "But now in Christ Jesus you who were once far off are made near by the Blood of Christ" Eph. 2:13. There is no value going forward toward God in ourselves as workers for Christ alone. Our thoughts or actions are of no value as Adam men to The Father. "If any man be in Christ he is a new creation" 2 Cor. 5:17. There is also no value in our redemption quality but Christ Jesus Himself. We as Adam men of flesh have not been changed. No we are made new in His sight as ones of spirit."Walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit" Rom. 8:4.

       If we have His mind, by reckoning in faith His Word, we then are giving up ourselves too His declaration of who we are in His Son. As Christ Jesus made us new in representation by His work upon the cross and in His Resurrection, now we are made in spirit in God's mind as: "He Himself [the Father] through Jesus Christ, accomplishing through you what is pleasing to Him" Heb. 13:21. This God's great and loving work was done by God so that His Son might live His own life through us in the new man we have become. Thus making us all new. "Put on the new man" Eph. 4:24. We are God's new creation seen by Him in His Son, as we are now as individual spirits know to the Father in perfect identity as; "hid in Christ with God". The world system simply does not and cannot recognize this, as perhaps far too many Christians may not also.

      If we are to walk on this earth as Christian and that walk is to improve mankind by service, that a man might fulfill God's desire by works on this earth in any way, then we have a problem with our understanding of scripture. "If you, then, be risen with Christ, seek those things above, where Christ sits at the right hand of God" Col. 3:1. The Word teaches us in Paul's letters that we can enter God's very mind to find our true place, which is of Spirit. We then may see that God directs us within to become a living creature in Spirit of the narrative of God's plan for our new identity; as set forth there for all to read and rest in faith within. "For you died [co-death with Christ] and you life [spirit of the new creation seen in Christ] is hid with Christ with God'. Col.3:3. It is only our cultural predisposition toward the World system that holds us back from understanding and therefore being what we truly are meant to be, as a daily experience in consciousness, acknowledging our new position and identity. If this is true then what is it that will open our mind to His Spirit to our new conscious identity? To know ourselves just as God does, that we may be of service by and in spirit as; "The carnal mind [the flesh mind of the soul] is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God neither can be" Rom. 8:7.

      It is we in ourselves guided by the Holy Spirit, by His gift of faith, that we may begin to see that as our sense of our moral distance from the Father deepens and we acknowledge our weakness, it is then that we become conscious of our nearness to Him. We can only know our nearness, and thus the utter failure of the flesh, as we grow in awareness of the Words of His mind, as written in His Word; declaring His Mind to us. We will find this new mind only by the division and study of God's biblical doctrines. Which if neglected will serve to keep us united with the very world that Christ Jesus died unto on our behalf. What a loss, to loose a conscious awareness of the very life of Christ Jesus, living His Life through us. My prayer is we always strive to grow into the knowledge of our true beings and come to know that the Fathers only sees us in the light and love of His Son at His right side. In His Eye's we are there now with/in Him in Heaven. And may we desire to grow into knowing that we ourselves and all that is in and of the world, in God's mind, is annulled, done and dead, and of no consequence toward us "as eternal beings" what so ever. As the world and all its accomplishments here on earth is indeed a dead thing in the Fathers thoughts! "And the peace of God, which passes all understanding, shall guard your hearts and your thoughts in Christ Jesus" Phil. 4:7. 

      

JUST WHO ARE YOU?

      There is no greater hinderance to progress in spiritual growth than a religious system: the personal work of God in the inner man, in order to bring us to a intelligent understanding of our position in His Son is hampered by our tendency to substitute emotion, moral improvement, cultural change and planed activity for spiritual progress. This worldly course now permeates our current christian culture and institutions, and is the result of the saints being what the Bible calls"dull of hearing": not knowing, by the word of God, the new creation truth of what we have become positionally in Christ, and not knowing how that applies to our life in the here and now as Christians. A truth which was revealed clearly in the Word by Paul to be our exact condition; in this the present dispensation of God's administration of Grace. "Being justified freely by grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus" Rom. 3:24. Often we conduct ourselves in a approved and culturally accepted Christian like fashion but mature spiritual growth is sacrificed for feelings and traditions, which please the crowd but are really worldly in nature.

      In our modern culture we are constantly seeking a place in this world where we feel satisfied and are improvement bound. Therefore what is provided is a atmosphere which will please man to that end. However this is not Christianity. Moving from one place of worship to another in order to find a certain feeling, good music, eloquent words or a pleasing setting is mans self-centered personality at work for his own pleasure or comfort. History is clear, the church on earth as a organized institution, has often failed for the most part to produce saints who have a personal understanding of the new creation they are shown to be in the bible. "I have been crucified with Christ, and I myself no longer live" Gal 2:20. Not knowing the truth of a life defined as "in Christ", as their life's faithful commitment by knowledge and in faith. Little encouragement is offered the saints to become spiritually/biblically mature in their new creation "hid in Christ" self identity as Christians, which the bible clearly defines, by their local church. Why?

      The believer having received " the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus" in reconciliation [being saved] comes under the moral influence of a new "law", one of Spirit under Grace. This new life we now have always works in direction of self judgment as we must come to see that under His redemption and righteousness our new life is applied to us by God through His Son alone, not our own feelings of completeness, accomplishment or even feelings of godly fellowship or bible knowledge: His life provides a signifyingly and often overlooked result; simply His Spirit in us as our life's definition. We may now know what and who we are in God's mind and that our own vision of personal self worth has no value toward God. " I certainly do count everything as loss compared with the  priceless privilege of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord" Phil. 3:8.
     
      By His Spirit with biblical knowledge and in faith we now we have a source for a new identification; by a mental acquiescence to that truth. Yes we may now know His thoughts. Which can be known to us by a doctrine revealed by Paul, which taught that when we are needful enough His Spirit will open up a all new divine life in us as individuals, a new identification for our Christian life. " For as the suffering of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also abounds by Christ" 2 Cor. 1:5. We now by this new life, in faith and knowledge may have a heavenly source of overriding satisfaction and strength, for the true Christian experience. No longer are we mere men of the earth building a kingdom here by works, we are now partakers of a divine life in His glorious kingdom of Spirit; seen by faith, lived by intelligent mature identification as ones living actively in a knowingly sanctified life in spirit, for as He is in Heaven we are now like Him on earth. But we must know such a life in our new creation spiritual existence is seen by God entirely in another Person only. Then how can we know it as a experience?

     The very first principal of knowing Christ Jesus as life in Spirit is to need too beyond any other thing. In other words we must find Him "as life" in our weakness. As knowing Him as mere men in work, service or determination we cannot ever measure up to His divine life, or really even know it. Even though, thank God, we really do have His life: in spiritual identification and position before , a God who definiens all things by the actions of His Son, under His divine Grace for all eternity. Its just that few seem to know Him as a positional reality; as their defined existence before God in the present as a mindful  experience. "And you are compete in Him, Who is the head of all principality and power" Col. 2:10. We therefore in order to find our true self in spirit must find deliverance from what we are as earthly men and women; in our consciousness definition of who we are in order to see in ourselves as having His life now, in a new conscious awareness of our Christianity! All made possible by His Grace, now we may begin acquiring a new self identification from His Word; to possess His spiritual life in experience here and now. But how? " Blessed are they that seek Him with a whole heart " Ps. 119:2.

      Delivered is a word seldom heard in todays churches, but the bible is clear we are to know deliverance from our very nature, the one we inherited from the first Adam. " It is no longer I that live, but Christ lives [as a defining self reality] in me" Gal.2:20. We may do this in only one way; by reckoning by faith the old Adam man as dead, not gone as we still sin, but see ourselves dead in the natural and to the flesh, in God's sight. All done by faith in the Word only, as this is God's reckoned and Word revealed view of His saints. "Crucified with Him" Rom. 6:6. We are not seen by Him for, heavenly spiritual purposes, as natural men and women, but only in the Person of His Son. As He sees us only in the nature [God became flesh] of the second Adam Christ Jesus, our new inheritance. A new Man in the flesh, Who died and then overcame death on our behalf! "Put on the new Man" Eph. 4:24. If this is true then where is our new life now to be found in that experience?

      The saint in proportion as he counts himself dead to sin [delivered] and alive to God [sanctified within Christ] enjoys fellowship with Him; by knowing his position of oneness in Spirit with Christ Jesus: just as we are seen in the Son by the Father; this is knowing God's mind regarding us His children. "For we worship God in spirit [mindful understanding], and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confident in the flesh [works, traditions, emotions] " Phil 3;3. By taking on a knowledgeable biblical faith in spiritual intelligence we may now live above the circumstances here and even our human sin nature. "Not that we are sufficient of ourselves [works traditions emotions] to think anything as of ourselves, but our sufficiency [we saints as seen in the Son] is of God". This is the exercise of the virtue that the believer gains by knowing his position in Gods sight, one of a life lived being counted as dead in the natural, in our minds eye as well as God's, but resin with Christ in the spiritual to a new life.

      This is the new life the Holy Spirit is communicating to all believers via the Word. "You have put off the old man with his deeds [works, traditions, emotions] Col. 3:9. The Spirit does this by exposing our natural inclinations to sin, reminding us what it is like to be unlike Christ and then by Grace He leads us too a biblical faith by/of Paul's explicit teaching of this positional/identification growth truth. "Set you affections on things above [heavenly/spiritual reality], NOT on thing on the earth" Col. 3:2. We can know deliverance from ourselves and a new Spirit life, as is His intent, making us free indeed. To have this [His life] we simply must above all wish for deliverance from the old nature, and find ourselves entered into the new by a spirit; which desires more than anything else that which the Holy Spirit has already provided. His Spirit is awaiting, our allowing ourselves to grow into His identification before God. How? By knowing His word on the subject: That His heavenly life may become our own in thought, and then deed. We may know this truth as life in experience, only by biblical knowledge which must be always growing and be carried out by a active faith in what the Word through Paul has shown us regarding these facts of the true and divine Christian life. "Having therefore, boldness [by knowledge] to enter unto the holiest [Gods spiritual/heavenly intention toward us] by the blood of Christ" Heb. 10:19. Have you discovered who you are yet?

JUST PASSING THROUGH

      There is a great heavenly mystery kept secret since the world begin that we must learn of in order to understand who we are in the Church of Jesus Christ on earth. According to Paul as he revealed what he called "my gospel" [Rom. 16:25] this mystery which defines us in God's eyes is a heavenly or spiritual revelation which our whole ministry here is to proceed from. Paul's teachings were not to make us better stewards over the earthly church activities nor were they to build us up in a personal confidence of our status upon the earth as Christians. They were given by God that we might know of ourselves as, individually first and then collectively, separate from the world, and from that mindful knowledge to display to the earth and all the universe just who we are seen as in The Father mind. All to His glory, shown to the principalities and powers in the heavenly realm. All this takes place in the Fathers mind and now by Paul's revelation our mind as well. No action, life style, program or social outreach will suffice or enhance this truth."My speech and my preaching were not with enticing words of man's wisdom" 1 Cor. 2:4

      These "resurrection" revelations are given us in grace and result in the manifestation of the wisdom of God being displayed to all powers throughout the universal heavenly kingdom of God, including us here on earth. These revelations are non-earthly in character and have no connection with any form of worship or service we might participate in as to the establishment of them. As the Christian is described by Paul as the circumcision or those who are cut off from the old Adam inheritance and nature and all earthly things by the Cross; in a co-death [too all that is natural] and Resurrection made for us by the representation of another all together Whom we follow by faith alone. "That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of man, but in the power of God" 1 Cor. 2:5.

      All that we are made to be in God's sight is to be revealed and lived out by faith only; which also is a mystery [1 Tim. 3:9]. A mystery we must discover and come to know as the fabric of our very spiritual existence. We will not find this faith in knowing doctrines alone, nor will we qualify by our actions. But by the apprehension of our very being which is now found in the revelations reveled by Paul in "his gospel". A gospel to be held in knowledgeable thought as living oracles of God, defining our soul and spirit as seen by the Father, in the making of us into His new creation by Spirit, a heavenly character formed in the Fathers mind as He realizes His Son. All of which and what we are now is contained in Christ Jesus, who is in heaven representing us; therefore the necessity of a objective faith toward the invisibleness of the heavenly/spiritual on our part. Not a subjective faith which only centers upon our own needs as we tend to do. "If any man be in Christ he is a new creation" 2 Cor. 5:17.

      The path of faith sets aside the whole system of seen and felt things with its's earthly and repetitive traditions. In other words religion and the improvement of man. It is the greatness of the Lord Jesus Christ which is presented to us by Paul in his gospel, a new way, a unseen way, only known by faith. Yes the effects of Christianity may be seen and even may produce results but if the appeal is to sight and sound we are on the earthly path of religion and not the heavenly things which are eternal and stable. "Looking away [from all things that will distract] to Jesus" Heb. 12:2.

      These spiritual truths taught by Paul only are in direct contrast to a earthly method of practice and makes us strangers and pilgrims on the earth. We live outside the camp and now by Spirit and faith through the Fathers thoughts live inside the veil in heaven itself. As to here, we are only passing through."For we walk by faith and not by sight" 2 Cor. 5:7.

KNOWING THE OFF AND THE ON

      It is as we are identified within our own conscious minds with the perfection and acceptance of the Lord Jesus before the Father that we may approach fellowship and worship within the Spirit of the Fathers true intention for us. Few come too our Father with this in mind though. Yes we may worship in joy and love as a experience and be satisfied, but are our thoughts of Him there in heaven representing us Himself and we as new creations wholly within Him? As the word reveled to Paul teaches us to do. "For as many of you who have been baptized into Christ [received the Holy Spirt/ born again] have put on Christ" Gal.3:27. Or do we merely seek blessing for our earthly needs for a momentary enjoyment or self fulfillment and then be on our way to our worldly pursuits?

      It is only in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ that we may find our needs meant and the truth of who and what we have become in Him in Spirit as God's new creation. Where then are our thoughts to honor Him and what He has done by taking on our burden and accomplishing reconciliation with the Father in our stead? And by His actions the open door to His Spirit as life; found in personal identification and a awareness or apprehension of the position we hold within Him. A position declared by God but only seen in His Son, which we may consciously abide in by faith. How many Christian have any depth of thought as to what the "Law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus" even means in application to these facts. The truth is we will never know, until we come to the end of ourselves. But just how does that happen?

      So much of Christianity today, and really from the beginning, is simply a culturally infused tradition. Todays church narrative is often a social gospel institutionalized in order to build a sense of community among those participating called kingdom building. Yes Jesus is at the center of these works based efforts done in word or symbol and of course love is in the minds and hearts of most Christians in there pursuit of changes and missions. And thankfully God's Grace does abound and His purposes will all be fulfilled no matter.

       But where are we as individuals in conscious self introspection of what we have become in Spirit in the person of Christ Himself is really the question Paul has put forward? Are our thoughts in the participation of these traditions and cultural improvement missions of ourselves framed as a worker for Christ in kingdom effort, or of the Lord Jesus and us positioned and identified in Him in heaven, as our identification, as was taught by Paul? "For he that is entered into His rest, he also has ceased from works" Heb. 4:10. Paul was given a new Gospel he was a man who revealed what we truly are in Christ in Spirit, by a direct revelation from God, that stressed the importance of a mature spiritual understanding of our positional spiritual status being the basis for our mission outreaches in order to honor His word. And if so we must know a positional spiritual life as new creations through faith in God's word alone. Just as it has described us in the word, in the Fathers thoughts of us there with Him. Thus we honor Him in mind. "The communion of the Holy Spirt be with you all" 2 Cor. 13:14.

      Yes we can know Paul's doctrine of Spirit identification by knowing the word as life in Christ explained; which tells us to; "put off the old man" and to "put on the new man" Eph. 4:22, 4:24. This is not a personal effort accomplished in ourselves by traditional church activities, good moral behavior or even bible study, or urging the saints to be more mission/outreach minded. Nor does it apply to anything we may ever become in the flesh. No all that we are or may become is objectified in Christ Jesus the Son who is in heaven. We must look to Him in subjectification by faith in His word as to His truth defining us made true only in Him. Him as "the new man" now applied to us in representation by the Father: never ourselves as earth creatures, never for good works alone and never for a happy feeling that we may be self satisfied workers in a well organized Christian community that we may develop a mission self-image by our own efforts.

      In the creation of Adam God planted a man in total innocence, a man one with His God. That all changed when sin entered his mind though. In redemption however Adams progeny were planted in a entirely new Man, Christ Jesus, who is in heaven. This is the Man Whom we are to put on a heavenly or Spiritual Man. Not by actions or words but by bibical knowledge and a quite faith in the work and identification of another all together. Few Christians are ever taught these bibical facts as their personal identification though. No the effort is mostly confined to making a man on earth better, really in order to please himself.

       These efforts often take the form of Cultural programs, out reach, missions and community enhancements, which often overshadow the "Law of life" found only in a personal awareness of His placement of us in a Spiritually conscious position of being in Him, and identification with Him where He is all by faith alone. This is the partaking of His Grace. We in Him, He in us, we where He is; in The Fathers thoughts, in heaven by spirit, in the mind of the Father, a place no sin can enter. A non-material place, but offering great hope for the soul on earth. No effort no action required, secured for eternity in Glory with Him by representation, we merely await the final transition. We only need to rest in His new Spiritual Law of life as we linger. "Set you affections on things above, NOT on things on the earth" Col. 3:2.

      The man we put off is the old natured man. The means of off-putting is the recognition by faith and knowledge of our place upon the Cross with Christ Jesus in a co-death with Him. "For we have died [not changed] Col. 3:3. We are and always will be in the old man by condition here as we are in the flesh no mater our spiritual insite. This is the man the Father punished with suffering and death by representation. His Son was the propitiation or substitute for us, because of the Fathers love for His creation He took our place in that death.  Therefore by this judicial action wholly in the Son we have been declared dead as natural men by God "For you have died, and your life is hid with Christ in God" Col. 3:3.

      We will put Him on as a new creation by the knowledgeable understanding of our Spiritual co-status in His Death and also the Resurrection and Ascension of the Son of God; our participation in the divine nature according to the power of resurrection, all declared by God's word and known to us as position and identification by faith only. "But now in Christ [by spirit in thought ] you who were once far off [in the old man identification] are made near [in the new man] by the blood of Christ" Eph. 2:13. We know this as true and life by the word only and we live it in the mind by faith in the facts only. God's way is not our way we only need believe and have faith in what He has said for freedom to live above all circumstances here. "As is the earthly, such are they also that are earthly; and as heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly" 1 Cor. 15:48. It is the new creature we have become, the new Spiritual life in the Lord Jesus, with its fruit in us by the Holy Spirit, which alone is acceptable to the Father and honors Him, as He has contemplated and defines His own Son, with us in mind, as accepted within His Son, a spiritual position. Which is just as His Son is viewed, with us in mind, as new creations by Spirit, by God as He looks upon Him representing us on His right side. This is Christianity by Position and Spirit under His super abundant Grace.

BY SPIRIT AND KNOWLEDGE

      When the soul of a Christian is truly delivered and made new it does not think of its condition, except to judge itself when it turns back to its sin nature. If one is in fact a new man [internally, spiritually] in Christ, as the Word so clearly declares we are and must be, then we must find a new place of abiding other than our natural Adam self, to face and deal with our own old natural state. A nature which constantly assaults the new by its mere presence. Where then will a man or women who believes find their sanctuary for a consistent walk in what they have been newly made to be by God in Spirit?

      The believers life is a new creation, not a change, and the Holy Spirit is the creator of a entirely new creation who must be reckoned with. It is not because we have this new creation life that our bodies are made the temple of God but because the Spirit dwells therein. Thus assigning us to a new position, other than our natural man. As the Father now sees us just as He sees Christ Jesus Himself. Of course He is sovereign always but we are now contained in Him. The light from the Spirit comprises the course and entire work of our occupied bodies and it is His Spirit that illuminates the way. Therefore it is not us but Him that is shown, as we have inherited His [Christ Jesus] position before God in spirit by God's decree. It is too His glory always that we live this new spirit life as we ourselves of ourselves have no power or standing whatsoever. But we now have the Gospel of the glory of Christ in identity before God to live out in faith; and therefore His Spirit is in true function on earth simply by the knowledge of our new position. Our works have no value toward achievement in Spirit.

      Few Christian are ever taught that there is more than one gospel or good news to learn of and find a identification in. Of course we know of the good news in regards to Christ's work on earth to bring us salvation taken from the synoptic gospels as a narrative to our self proclamation of salvation. But what do we know of the Gospel of Paul in displaying the heavenly/spiritual quality of life for the church as he declares it in his inspired message he called "my gospel"? Do we even know of the heavenly Pauline teaching of the gospel of the glory of Christ which gives divine life to our conscience while we walk upon the earth?

      There are biblically three Gospels that are all important to the believers growth, but seldom acknowledged as to their direct effect upon the believers understanding of just who and what he is before God. The first is the gospel [good news] that most churches today are comfortable with which was and is the Kingdom Gospel offered to the Jews and only the Jews. Jesus said; "the time is fulfilled and the Kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe the Gospel"  Mark 1:14,15. The effect of this Gospel presented to the Jews was made clear in the prayer He taught His disciples, the so called Lords prayer [really the disciples prayer], "thy kingdom come thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven". This prayer reflect the state of the soul of the Jews who believed in Him as Messiah and their need for repentance in order to welcome Him their earthly Messiah come to restore Israel to prominence and freedom. A earthly Gospel or good news of a earthly kingdom. They were correct of course in this belief. But He was rejected from the earth by His own thus bringing about a entirely new Gospel.

      This rejection brought about a Gospel never before contemplated, one of Spirit or the faith a man holds in his mind alone. The Kingdom Gospel still overshadowed the Spiritual Gospel and often still does. The Kingdom Gospel prevailed as to the understanding of many earthly believers conscience at that time, and to many still today. But His rejection brought about a new Gospel to be reckoned with which is Spiritual only; "It shall come to pass that, whosoever calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved" Acts 2:21. This Gospel still did not present heaven before the soul, nor did it separate men from the earth however if the synoptics [Matt, Mark, Luke] only are held and taught, as a Christian world few, then the earth and a kingdom to be built here including the attempted remaking of men to be like Jesus will be the main thought taught and followed even though we now have the spirit of faith to go and live by. A noble thought perhaps but as history has proved a life impossible to obtain as Adam creatures on earth; even though Grace prevails and the expression of the togetherness in faith, service, and works of believers reflected Gods love for all.

      Paul made this all very clear that the Spirit would progressively reveal a entirely new way, in his redefining [making individual private spiritual truth known] of the Gospel as he received it in direct revelation from Jesus Christ Himself. He also made it quit clear the even he could not accomplish [Rom. 6] as a Christian a earthly Gospel life to please God. One in which he saw then, as we surly can now, the failure of man to do anything of value for God in our works of the flesh. As we are not here now to bring things back in order or make Adams sin into a good thing by work and service but to bless God in acknowledgement of His Son and we in Him wholly as new creations.

      Paul used the term for the Spirit life referring to it as "my gospel" Rom. 16:25] or "the Gospel of God" [Rom 1:1] "the Gospel of His Son". One cannot read Paul's letters without seeing that this new way is of Spirit only. Rejecting all that is earthly and assigning us to heaven with Christ Jesus, hid in Him with God [Col:3]. A new order of existence now is established by Paul's revelations. Not only are we saved but Christ Jesus lives in us and we in Him, a heavenly calling of the spirit of the mind. "Abide above".  Believers must seek out Paul, find their place in Spirit, begin to see our new creation as positioned in heaven and ourselves found as identified by the Father in Christ. This was Paul's Gospel. The earth is lost forever for the Christian, it will not improve, nor will man. We must be formed by God's Spirit ourselves in our conscience by faith, in Paul's reveled truth. And develop a attitude of looking down from God's abode, where we are held forever in Gods thought, and live above the circumstances of this evil worldly life just as Paul taught. By spirit held and afforded in the knowledge of God's Word. All service and church works must proceed from this consciousness in order to truly honor what God has wrought within His Son.

OUR LIFE OR HIS

      Our souls are only secure from the efforts of the enemy and the rudiments of the worlds influence when they are in intelligent apprehension of the fullness of our Lord's divine grace. We must come to know how His Grace affects us by coming to know Him as the object of Grace.  Which is in Him, as He Himself is Grace. A Grace taken up and wholly contained in Him in glory. A grace we may truly and fully enjoy and participate in only as we come to understand our position and identification in Christ as faiths object. Him seen in our mind in knowledge, as He occupies our life in Spirit; which is His Grace given to us from His position in heaven by the mind of God as He considers His Son just as He considers us in our new creation being made by Him. As His Son is before Him in a Body in representation of us. He is there in Glory and we in divine Grace in the Fathers sight. We are now conformed to His Son by Spirit. And it is our faith that finds Him Himself as the object for Grace  living His life here by faith, in our mortal bodies, as He makes our path by Spirit in heaven and we listen to His voice which defines us anew via His Word. "For we are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus" Eph. 2:10.

     Knowing the Word and counting it as true will take us intellectually first to that place of true redemption of our new creation being held in Christ Jesus by His Grace. Then by spirit to His Grace and a eternal life to be lived out here in a conscious awareness. The place He has made for us in Glory before the Father is His Grace, which is also ours now by His actions and His presence before God: He there in Bodily representation of all Christians providing the grace we must have for a internal consciousness of His life becoming our life. A new creation life given to us by God while we are here in the flesh. But how do we access and experience His life which is in heaven while we are here?

      The world and the current religious cultural interpretation of the Christian life [works, programs, emotional stimulation] will seek by its very nature to destroy the individuality necessary to know Him in personal/private life experience as our grace in glory before God. A Grace made in Him by God to take us up to Glory into our provided position in spirit. We lose that Grace effect or experance by conforming to the cultures patterns expectations and traditions, or counting on the created rather than the creator. But the grace bestowed upon us as seen in Him in heaven is a life found by knowing His Word in heart felt contemplation of a specific truth as individuals. And is really our true destiny in conforming us to Him. Really to His image in thought. Not at the loss of our individuality but by the gain of His nature and character as our conscious identification in that individuality. In other words we are separated [sanctified] unto and within His Son by Spirit or thought as we in our flesh cannot qualify for holiness no matter our actions on earth. "Having died to that wherein we were held; so that we serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter; Rom. 7:6.

      It is as the Lord is in the vision of his soul that His word fully affects the child of God! The traditionalist is thinking how he should act in the group. The contemplator, by the individual realization of the Word, is looking for the life of the Lord within himself. A wholly immaterial existence of thought based upon the Words defining truth. "Not after the law of carnal commandants, but after the power of a endless life" Heb. 716.

      Personal salvation is the primary object of the churches efforts as it should be. But it has also become its aim and end with the majority of Christians. Who are caught up in todays programed institutional church environment which stifles growth with its lack of challenge. We have been encouraged by our self centeredness to be attracted to that which seems essential to our own needs and todays church often provides as its plays to the world. We have left aside that which is essential to bring glory to the Lord Jesus Christ individually however; as we are caught up in the experiential group dynamic atmosphere so prevalent today. These are not bad things, and yes His Grace does prevail, they just bring no glory to whom we have been made into in Christ Himself as individuals.

      Most are unaware that anything that they can do or experience, with themselves as originator, will never satisfy God. No all that we are, can be, or ever will be, is found in the simple faith of the activity of another, Christ Himself. This is the identity seen by the Father. We are not placed here as workers for Christ improving the world or ourselves, but to contain Christ in our thoughts both morally and as to His character as we view Him as our object of life itself, which ultimately will effect our actions and service. Few are ever taught that simple truth as the institution [community] has become the collective experience of all things Christian, and above all, as with all institutions, the status quo must be preserved.

      If the believer proves himself false to the Lord Jesus to the same degree that he has fellowship with the world then todays churches perhaps have some culpability in that. We are to be dead to the world by the declaration of the Word. "As you have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord so walk in Him" Col 2:6. But we are often trapped in a church atmosphere seemly dedicated to the presentation of a emotional and entertaining experience adopting worldly trappings for the saints satisfaction and comfort. As the presentation of a feeling of community is seemingly the paramount goal and not individual intelligent spiritual growth.

      The system that God ordained during the law dispensation lasted for fifteen hundred years "carnal ordinances" which could be seen with the eyes and please the natural senses for the godly encouragement of the natural man. But in the new dispensation ushered in upon the death and Resurrection of Christ Jesus we are presented a entirely new way, "one of Spirit" under Grace and the priesthood of every believer, with Jesus being our high Priest in heaven. It is no longer sights and sounds but the eternal, the unseen things discerned only by the eye of faith, based upon a intelligent understanding of the Word of God. Eventually the Temple itself was pulled down and now we live in the age of the individual as the true temple; the Spirit of God in our mortal body by apprehensive objective thought of a truth. We are to not only provide welcoming sanctuary for others in love but also as priority develop a like mind in fellowship of identity in Christ. Mans needs must be set aside to glorify God in what He has made us to be wholly in His Son. "For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God" Rom. 8:14.

      The Lord did not come here to affiliate Himself with fallen humanity by the gain of a mutual objective. He did not place Himself in a position to work with mankind to a common end. While here He did not engage in any affiliation, by nature, with either the Adam man or the world, no never! He came to separate man from his old nature, to Cross it out. Then by His Resurrection to regenerate man by a common thought: Himself the object of life and us within that life by a faith that says in sincere objectification and inclusion, that His life is also ours. "Rooted and built up in Him, and established in faith as you have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving. Col. 2:7.

RECKONING REALITY

      Our life as sons and daughters of the living God, with all its consequent dignities and privileges, is entirely independent of us. All of who and what we are in total, as new creation beings, is made for us and completed in the Lord Jesus Christ alone. "And you are complete IN Him who is the head of all principality and power Col. 2:10. His life is made know to us, as our own true life, apprehended in Spirit, by faith in His Word. This truth is found by acquiring biblical knowledge and in no other way. The knowing that we are positioned [in the fathers estimation] in Christ in Heaven, by His Ascension there, in His new Creation Body of flesh, and knowing that the Fathers view which He has of us is seen by Him as He considers His Son alone is the Christians actual divine identity. Anything else or defining quality relating to self we may see in/as our Christian status is simply our own self delusion.

     The question we then must ask is; are we alienated from our one true nature, which is the Fathers view, in any way by our own misguided self perceptions? Many do not seem to know what we are to the Father is none other than that of Christ Himself, according to the Word. "But now IN Christ Jesus you who were once far off are made near by the blood of Christ" Eph. 2:13.  But unfortunately we are so often occupied and identified by much busyness, works, tradition, active service and emotions, and held back by a lack of biblical knowledge?  Perhaps our entrenched occupation with the things of the world has stolen our true identify away from a conscious awareness of who the Word teaches us we actually are within Him, and thus countering us seeing Him as life's object in our own personal identification: The reckoned [counting biblical revelation as true] life which God intended for His children? As Paul said of himself we must also; "I long to know Christ and the power which is in His Resurrection" Phil. 3:10.

      The more natural resources in our selves we count upon the less dependent we will be upon Him. We were not placed here as Christian men and women to build a kingdom for Jesus on the earth. Our home is manifested in Spirit as eternal and heavenly; known by believing what He has reveled in His Word. No other effort is required or even of any value to the living God. All service must stem from this thought in order to honor His destiny for us as ones living Christ Jesus' life out while on earth. "Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think anything as of ourselves, but our sufficiency is of God" 2 Cor. 3:5

      If the bible studies of our churches taught the doctrine [study] of our spiritual reality as that of position and identification in Christ is also the identity of the saint, much more favored results would come from our service and ministry. The people of God must take up a separated position of spirit via faith in the truth of the Word, as it shows us our new creation life. It is on this ground, who we already are in Christ, that the Holy Spirit shows us our privileges and responsibilities. "And you are complete in Him, who is head of all principality and power" Col. 2:10

      The Christian is delivered by Spirit, made possible in righteousness [right standing] only through Christ Jesus. His personal act upon the Cross, His Death, Burial, Resurrection and Ascension are seen and made by the Father to be as our very own; thus are we in Christ or really "unto His being". He not only relieved us of our quilt and sin in representation, found by a one time act of faith on our part, he also holds us in His being Spiritually, as a literal individual reality before the Father; which requires a ongoing pursuit of faithful knowledge to see and live out. We must come to know that for this identification to be known and lived we must always seek knowledge, and then by that knowledge hold ourselves in Him as life by a ongoing attitude of faith in that truth. How then will we be prepared for this new heavenly/spiritual life? "Set you affections on things above" Col. 3:2.

      It can only come as we see and know the inadequacy of all of our human efforts. We must know that, by a acknowledged weakness, to ever be able to serve or know Him in any way that might be righteousness, by our own acts, as impossible. This is why the man centered cultural effort of kingdom building and the current emotional simulative effect favored by many falls so short in honoring His desire for us to truly know Him in the way He has provided in His Word. "Seek those things which are above, where Christ sits in the right hand of God" Col. 3:1

      We are finite, the object of our conscious reality before God is infinite, contained in Spirit in the Fathers mind; the confidence to live His intended life for us is found in the apprehension of this truth, and its reckoned [counting it as true] application. Many Christian live a unfulfilled life and are miserable because they have given themselves over to self-occupation. They may be God fearing and conscientious but depend upon the worlds resources and have nothing to lift them out of their old Adam nature. Lack of knowledge is always a prominent feature in this man. However even though some may be aware of what the Word says of them many simply have not reached the end of themselves. They are always seeking to have something that will make them feel good happen. And perhaps even unknowingly are captured by a cultural and traditional collective self centered thought. "Let the word of God dwell in you richly" Col. 3:16.

      The true spiritual Christian life however is based upon the knowledge we have of the position we hold in God's Son as He presents Himself to the Father in Heaven. Him seen as our existing life in Spirit by God. This is the paramount doctrinal theme set forth in the Pauline Epistles. "You life is hid with Christ in God" Col. 3:3. Knowing His truth from Paul's teaching will establish how we see ourselves identified in our minds apprehension of Paul's inspired words and will open the door to a new creation spiritual life of freedom and joy. But what is it we must reckon first and formost [count as true] before we may grow into our new identity?

      It is now our privilege to think of ourselves according to what we are as "being" in the Lord Jesus Christ. And what we have become in and as that spirit being is always maintained by Him. As He is now not only our life in the Fathers eye's but our advocate and very person, as the standard required of a man in the flesh before a perfect God. To have this thought as our defining life however we first must come to know and do something of utmost eternal importance.

      We must come to the place where we see intellectually and spiritually that we as men of the earth, in the self centered inheritance of the Adam race, are seen by God as annulled or dead. In other words we cannot be accepted in any way by God in the natural form as Adam men and women. We are only found as accepted in the new creation we have in His sight know by faith. Well what is left we might ask, and how do we overcome our all super invasive internal standards of physical and mental personal domination here in this place? Well what does God say?

      Only that we simply reckon or count what He has said about us to be, and has infact made us to be, as true, that's all! What then must we reckon first as the platform of our new creation identification found only in Him? His Death, which is a represented death and our death with Him, which has establish us in spirit. Annulling all that is of the flesh, in God's sight, the old Adam man of the earth is dead "Even so consider [reckon] yourself to be dead to sin [sin is in the flesh], but alive to God IN Christ Jesus" Rom. 6:11.

      There are dual truths found upon Calvary's Cross: His death to sin [its power] as Adam men, a judicially required payment, and our death with Him for forgiveness of the sins we will commit. For a complete deliverance from ourselves as sinful earth men. All known and to be known and lived out by a attitude of faith, and in no other way. "Without faith it is impossible to please God" Heb. 11:6. A deliverance found from the vary thing so completely rejected by the Father; our Adam man or natural existence, which is always and only sin. "For if you live according to the flesh you will die [spiritually]; but if by the Spirit [God's mind applied in your identification apprehend] you put to death the deeds [following our natural inclinations toward the thing of the world in self centeredness] of the body, you will live [in the mind of God]" Rom. 8:13. We are identified by God in His death, a dead man cannot sin; its power is broken, so in the spiritual sense, which is the only communion with God we have we are delivered from sin.

      We only need a Reckoning reality to enter His Spirtual realm of life identification of our being in Christ positioned in Heaven within Him. A hope to be realized in the new creation body in our mind, a heavenly transformation we all should be waiting for with longing. And while waiting for our tangible new creation bodies in the transformation to come we become likened unto Christ Jesus,' in moral character, through a seeking heart. All while we wait in our flesh and our weakness, including suffering in the flesh, we gather His hope by a intelligent faith. All bringing about a life to now live, one of value and gain, in the Spirit only. All by faith, trusting Him, for what we will be and are now already seen to be by the Father in Christ Jesus. This is the Christian life!