The writing of this blog has been somewhat of a roller coaster of emotion and frustration. As I sit in my condo alone and contemplate the changes in my life this exercise has brought: I am truly grateful to The Lord for the opportunity; but when I attempt to access its impact on those I care most about I sometimes lose heart. For the most part they just don't seem to get it. I was warned this would happen, and I know you, my readers, have seen my frustration in past blog rants. Its just I wish with all my heart some might see the benefit, and take advantage of the path to the freedom of a positionally aware Christ life and not be plagued by the same old recurring life drama issues, as the drivers of their life. However as I've said more than once I write this blog for my benefit. By putting to paper my thoughts on the subjects and in the research that goes into it I gain immensely. As I look back at my own beginnings of awareness as to the possibility of living in active participation of the new creation we are meant to be by faith; I see it was only by great need that I was brought into recognition that the normal life I was leading in my flesh as a Christian would, and never could, bring fulfillment, nor give me a true faith assurance I was pleasing God in my faith walk. Then I came to know by that very neediness, a failure of my natural man, and then came a new self awareness, that my nature now is new, by the actions of another, and had been changed to that of Jesus Christ's in spirit and I could have a living mental/spiritual knowledge of that by expanding my faith, reveled to me by The Holy Spirit. That new man talked about in The Word is me, and I can know this by accepting the biblical God ordained fact that a change of my mental perceptual residence here on this earth to a spiritual residence in heaven is possible by faith. The bible declares heaven a life in Christ as my current residence, and a incite to that as living truth can be accomplished in me as a individual man: by a mental concept which I was exposed to in the bible for so many years, but never was able to apply as life. I guess it was only natural.
Paul said in 1 Cor. 15:46, "that which is spiritual is not first, but the natural, then the spiritual" referring to the first Adam as a natural man and then Jesus, the second Adam as bringing into the believers life the spiritual. In 15:48 he refers to the saint that is earthly [Adam] and the one who is heavenly [positional in Christ] in their awareness, and in 15:45 he writes of the first man being natural and the last Adam [Christ] being a life giving spirit. I use these verses to point out there are options available to the Christian to live his life, pointed out by Paul. I chose the natural man for many years, not the spiritual. My friends it comes down to this..........What is your motivation? Is it the things and affairs of the world? Is it your own fear of the future; personal demons/charter defects/personality/disorders, past life traumas, or worldly ambition which are the principle defining influence of you life? If that describes you, then you are living in Adam's defeat, the old natural man, not in the spiritual life God has given to you in His Son, available to us all. Are you taking the word of God as true when it says: "He died for all, that they that live [us] should not now live UNTO themselves, but live UNTO him who died for them, and rose again" 2 Cor. 5:15. Special attention should be spent in looking at the word that God used here twice to define this verse, UNTO. The writers of the English translation of the bible used this word to show best the original meaning or how this verse was to be applied in its usage: which is, unto; a regular recurrence of thought, a mental image contained within a specified unit of time [our life] to behave in a way by that knowledge that is independent, not following the the usual rules or way of life. In other words, are we living for and unto ourselves the natural as we conceive of ourselves, or unto Him the spiritual, as our defined life? Please my brothers and sisters take a moment to decide the defining influence of your personal expression as a human Christian. Will it be Him, His life, a divine expression by your faith in Him as the reality of your life, or yours which is only natural?
There is a saying that goes like this: the only power tyrants have is that relinquished by their victims! The tyrant in the land is the natural Adamic nature; it robs the Christian of the rights he has inherited by the death of the Son of God. The sin nature of man was and is volitional and always with us and is in fact furnished up to mankind by the father of lies. However the all important recognition of the truth of the duality of the Christian nature that of Christ the imposed second new man, who must be recognized to live in the spirit, gives us a chance for redemption from the trap of the attempted usurper, of God's power; power given by grace in The Son for all. Why then if this new nature is accessible to all saints do we so persist in weakness, defeat and worldliness, so often aping the world in all its folly? At least one answer to that question will be found in a history book. There have been many efforts by various Christians to establish a church that closely parallels the original for good reason, and most probably have failed. Why? The answer I think lies in our perceptive qualities or how we come to be influenced by our intellectual environment, and then how that defines our own membership in the Body of Christ, by the standards we were taught. The institutional or government church which arrived under the auspiciousness of the Roman Empire thoroughly corrupted the original message of individual fellowship with Jesus Christ, not that there weren't many who believed in a sincere manner despite the Roman church, they just had more and more limited access to biblical factual truth as the years went by. We all know the results were the so called dark ages, which lead to the enlightenment and the reformation or break off from the Roman church and the founding of Protestantism. Please take note my friends: all the early Protestant Church fathers were once Roman Catholic or highly influenced by that institution as their interpretive mindset, so the Churches and many of the doctrines they established or attempted to clarify, while a real breath of fresh air comparatively in many cases, still were far from the original as to biblical presentation of the individuals life hidden in Christ; a heavenly priority, as taught by Paul, as a major emphasis. This naturally brought us a formalized, morality, a standardized duty bound Church. Yes there were many bright lights, but the legacy of legality still haunts the hallways of the inner man of our defined Christian personality; which is still held by confining traditions of the old ways in the old Adam nature in many of today's Church members.They simply do not know the freedom of their presence in the new nature of Christ by faith as true of them, a sad loss indeed!
This early Reformed Church shined a bright light on the biblical truth of salvation by faith [justification] which had been neglected by the Roman church, who replaced justification by church power, law and works, over the individuals heavenly approach. But the new Reformed Church then still held onto the duty and works, or legality as a foremost mark of the Christian, thereby reducing the new road for mankind provided by Christ, to that of only the natural mans explanation of our Christianity. The power of the law and works were done away with on the Cross. The reformers abandoned the individuals freedom, which was given by Christ on the Cross; the spiritual nature for the Christian, which was supplied by The Lord, to be cultivated in the mind, by the Christian, in the coming to realize his new life in the new man a second nature in Christ, in heaven, lived in the here and now, by The Word of Truth, by faith.The neglect of this teaching by the Reformers hampers the Church's freedom to this day, as to the understanding of what it means to live UNTO Jesus Christ. Most of Christianity remains in the trap imposed upon them, with no functional understanding of the duality of man [first Adam, last Adam] and the place of freedom from the firsts tyranny they might find by submitting all their moment by moment being to the truth of their heavenly position in Jesus Christ. That loss shows in the all too often Christian Church alignment with the things of this world, the individual Christian simply living out their daily Christian experience in the flesh or natural, as a daily expression and preoccupation of their life. Many just do not know the difference, Its only natural.
I think it comes down to this my friends. Is our tendency, when confronted by life difficulties to run to and fro to make it better; in other words putting the natural formula first. Do we just want to feel better again? Or do we rest in confidence that the issues that plaque us can be used to glorify our Father the spiritual way, that all our circumstances are God ordained and have purpose for His glory; seeking with all our faith's effort the knowledge of our heavenly position despite the issues and circumstances that surround us? This second way is quite simply the biblical way. We will use the same tools, scripture readings, bible study, fellowship etc. except in the spiritual path we have foremost in our thought the occupation and object of our life the Lord Jesus Christ and our presences in Him in heaven by faith as life; His representative death, burial and Resurrection and its direct personal application to us. In other words by our minds understanding we come to know all of our natural man has been, as the bible claims crucified; this is a mental/spiritual exercise, the Church and its failure to adequately teach this truth as a paramount doctrine must be set aside as to dependence, it has not filled the task, we must reach out in our own self spiritual motivation for individual freedom in Christ! We the Christian have been made fit to be present in heaven before The Father by Jesus, now in this existence in this world; this is who we are as Christians, that is a eternal untouched truth, which has entirely for our spiritual/mental/faith purposes eliminated the natural man in God's personal view of us. We have been replaced in God's thought's by His Son, in The Fathers economy, and are no longer only natural in His judgement; we just need to believe it! I don't get it you say? The answer is: positional truth, a life of freedom from the tyranny of the natural, is acquired the same way you got your salvation, by "faith" in those biblical facts taught by the apostle Paul and others so long ago. Look for them, coming soon in a black book near you! "Its only natural".
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