As I think back on many of the sermons I have heard in Church the word justification comes to mind. Praise God that through our Saviour Jesus Christ we are. I was truthfully told for many years how Jesus has done it all, thank God. We cannot out sin God's grace as Paul said. By my justification I could know I was sanctified [separated] by the Cross of Christ into salvation, and what a wonderful thing to realize! Many of these sermons comforted me, to know that in the long run I would go to heaven. I was safe and sound in that; but somehow that wasn't enough to give complete satisfaction. I was told over and over everything would be OK just keep the faith; but I needed sanctification with a capital S. The conviction of guilt and the weight of the world still prevailed, with what for me, was a unbearable weight. No I needed experiential knowledge, something which would enliven my faith; which to be quiet frank had become routine. I became bound up in a life style of Church/bible study and a hour or two a week of good old fashioned uplifting worship/entertainment, which begun to claim my faith, not a bad thing, but much more was needed to complete me! How could I find the prize, the upward calling and live above my quilt and sin and rise above this evil world? Not by my performance, that had already been proved worthless. No evidently I as a self centered man could not fill the void, someone else must do it for me. I must have a new experiential knowledge, but was incapable in myself .
The experiential knowledge it turned out I needed was firstly of myself. In order to live in the Sanctification provided by another as experience. I had to discover that the man I meet each morning was not in any way worthy of the sacrifice of our Lord, and what was worse he would always be me. Then I was lucky enough to come to understand that if by faith I could see myself [identification] in another, who was in fact perfect before God, and that somehow I could come to apply that as experiential at least in thought; then I might have a chance here. For that I needed a firm object to rely upon. I began to learn this object of my life had to become Jesus Christ as my self defining reality. My subjective personality centered on self was not capable of even maintaining a simple faith adequately. Along with my brother Paul I was a indeed a wretched man, who learned by weakness he "could do all things through Christ."
The Lord has been impressing upon me lately this new experiential knowledge. I have found it in my own weakness, "in our weakness He is made strong" which has proved true for me. I find that even in my doubt and despair as to the reality of this faith I have endeavored to live in, He is there. I have not been able to overcome myself and become a spiritual giant, my self effort is all to no avail! It is the spirit that is sanctified says 2 Thess. 2;13 not myself the man. I in my flesh am irrecoverable fallen. Knowing this has served to strengthen me in spirit. There is now seen more clearly in myself a old and new creation that I can known of by His word. It is through the troubles of the old man that the path opens to the new, by making me weak. Any effort to strengthen the self life by moral determination or positive self talk has proved fruitless; as the spirit is absolutely separate from the flesh. The spirit must become the driving force if I am to serve the living God, in Christ. The spirit must occupy this mortality. That is our task my Christian friends, "the upward calling of God in Christ Jesus" all other things will burn, and really have no value; let us rest our thoughts on the life in the Spirit, not the flesh. We will find that new existence waiting for us in Jesus Christ the recovered object of our life. We just have to leave ourselves alone, reckoned as dead just like the bible says!
For The sake of understanding the two natures it might help to confront them. If one were to come upon Dr Jekyll [the fictional split personality character in literature] while he was in the Mr Hyde manifestation and ask him: How dear Sir is Dr Jekyll? Mr Hyde might respond; how should I know I hardly know the man. This is the same case for the natural man when presented the position of the personality we have in Christ as a spiritual man, as true doctrine. That's why the Bible tells us in no uncertain terms to count the natural man as dead. Oh he is alive in deed, and always ready to refuse the spiritual mans manifestation; except unlike Mr Hyde we need to know him and consider him as dead. Our job is to believe the word in faith that this old man, the natural man, is indeed dead, by the action of Jesus Christ. And in fact our second personality, the spiritual man was made alive at Christ's Resurrection and is now the identification God holds of us, and the identity we must come to hold of ourselves. Take a self evaluation my friends. Is your life time spent occupied with self centered things? Are you seeking to serve Christ by a moral behavior or a good deed/works path? Is you Christian existence primarily made up of a few hours a week as a dutiful attendee? If you said yes to these questions then like Mr Hyde, you would too turn away when asked of the welfare of the spiritual man in you. In fact you would be turning away from the very life God holds dearest for you in the sacrifice of the object of His love, His Son!
The truth of the spiritual man will only be reveled by the acknowledgement of the natural mans death, shown to you by the Holy Spirit. Being born again is only the beginning. To be a true active aware organic member of Christ's Body requires the supreme sacrifice of the self! "Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh" 2 Cor 4:11. This life of Jesus we may carry is not in the emulation of His good works while on earth, but the practice of our presence in His place of glory in heaven; which we may occupy in our mind. This is a mature faith: He is manifest in our life to the extent we identify ourselves dead to the world in thought and deny any value to our human nature for the purpose of pleasing God in our salvation. We must come to see our selves as positioned in Him in glory! Conversely He is made un- alive to the extent we align ourselves with the natural-self and the affairs of this world. Few will venture there even though the Word could not be more clear; as they are attached to worldly things and its affairs, in fact blinded by them. Heaven bound perhaps, but walking dead men, unaware that a active conscious aware eternal life begins on this earth. Yes the spirit is made alive by the grace of God for all who believe, but they turn away from a experiential knowledge. They dwell in the subjective, living in the provocative place provide by Satan in this world and their own natural self centered nature. This carnal Christian is not a bad man, or a unsaved man, and certainly not without hope; if I am any example at least. He simply is one who has not allowed the need to die to self to be his calling. He for the most part remains unchallenged by the Church. The contemporary life style, the victimization we have volunteered for in our desperate search for security in this world has put a protective supporting wall around the self that many other past generations did not have; they were honed by weakness and suffering, which of course no one wishes upon themselves. Never the less, it is need which most often opens the door to the spiritual place we hold in Christ, and you can be sure need will come. By need a new desire, then growth begins......on to spiritual maturity, always seen and found in weakness. Yes He has truly done it all! So let us my friends stop trying in the self mode and embrace His provision, and let Him provide the experiential knowledge we will find in our own death and weakness: which is so desperately needed to live in the life and identity of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
Saturday, February 22, 2014
Saturday, February 15, 2014
DEAD TO THE WORLD
The other day while at a social function I was engaged in a conversation which involved my past, in which by my silence I allowed myself to be seen in a light which displayed my earlier life as much more meritorious than it really was. I immediately felt shame, and was aware that I was allowing a lie to become alive in the minds eye of my friends. However my ego was more powerful than my spirit in this instance and even though I realized at the time that I was making myself alive to the world by my silence, my self centered personality prevailed.
Our natural man has great power and will never leave us in this earthly life, I know this only too well. Humility is a virtue and a godly humility is truly a beautiful thing. I can see by my own inner man that I have a long way to go. I do however see even more so by my weakness the all important need to be a spiritual man in a actively sought awareness of my identity as one who stands before The Father seen in The Son by my faith to prevail as my source; something I did not know was a necessary ingredient in the Christian life not too many years ago. In fact I did not know that my very place before The Father was one of perfection; as I was seen in His Son. If that is true I am indeed dead to the world in His thoughts of me. Therefore by this, a reveled biblical truth given to me by God by faith in His Word, it becomes incumbent upon me to learn who I am in my own thoughts of myself, and what it means when God declares me as no longer alive to the flesh or dead to the world. By this knowledge perhaps one day I will live the life that God has willed in His Son for me.
The Christian today finds himself in a interesting dilemma it seem to me. We have two choices in this life. The first is to live our Christian life in a mostly self centered way, such as simply Church members, going along to get along, a part of a institution. This life I think of as Christendom: a moral value system offering a road map to a hoped for happy trail, and a socially rewarding experience which is thought of by its members and seen by the world as a good and fruitful life. They are accomplishing good thing for the community and building up the congregation by programs, functions and a busy works oriented agenda. However if we think deeply on this Christian experience we can come to perhaps a new realization: this type of church life is really mostly for our own pleasure and sense of belonging, and that it is in not a unique life of positional awareness, of a faith which is alive in the person of Jesus Christ as the object of our life. After all this type of good Christian experience composed of service, social activities and works etc. is not exclusive to the Christian, but can be attained by many other moral and socially aware people of the non-believing world. By that measure then we are not much difference from what the world has taught and is. The second Christian life possible has a thought in the for front of all its actions and Church activities which goes like this; we are, "Heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ--sharing His inheritance [Death and Resurrection and heavenly position] with Him; only we must share His suffering [dead to the world by the cross] if we are to share His glory" Rom. 8:17, Amp. Can you see the difference? " If we are to share His Glory" should give pause in our self evaluation of the Christian experience, if the second is to be the paramount place we are coming from in the Christian life? Would it not redefine all our actions? So what does it mean and how do we apply this true godly inheritance to ourselves? Becoming the Christian the bible calls for; one dead to the world and alive in Christ.
Don't get me wrong my friends. I am all for many of the good works of the church life. I know many in the pews are sincere in there quest to by all that they can be for Jesus and the planners and functionaries behind the scenes are intent on maintaining the flock as their best Christian effort. But after 30 plus years on both sides of the church activities I found that something was missing. I have since come to know that blank space was in not knowing who I really was in Christ; that in fact by faith in Him, I was truly dead to the world.
"But may it never be mine to boast of anything but the Cross of Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me and I to the world!" Gal. 6:14. Attempting to define what is worldly or the world and then making rules and goals is not what the Father wants of us. All that is not of The Father is the world. To acquire knowledge of the interpretation of our being as non-worldly creatures therefore must entail a subjective mind set toward the object, Jesus Christ. I think the most vital truth to be seen in our object is our co-crucifixion with Christ and requires a personal private desire to explore The Word on our own to realize it. This is where we will learn to understand the Cross. The Cross has effectually cut off the connection between the believer and the world, the Resurrection has brought us into a new place. The world judged the Lord and found Him deserving death, but in the Resurrection we see the Fathers judgment. C. H. Mackintosh said; "Man gave the very lowest God gave the very highest place; and in as much as the believer is called into full fellowship with the father in his thoughts about the Son he is enabled to turn the tables upon the world, and look upon it as a crucified thing."By this statement and Paul's declaration we see then it is in our thoughts and faith in His Word where the answer dwells. We all know when Jesus died it was unto the very thing that could not be accepted by the Father; the natural self centered man or the flesh. If the believer is on the Cross [Jesus' death is ours] in His thoughts as to relationship with the world he is separated from the world which is on another cross all together and is a dead thing! We prove ourselves false to the Lord Jesus Christ to the same degree we have fellowship, as a mental concept of ourselves, with the world.
My friends its all in the attitude! By the Word of God we are dead to the world. He was rejected and so were we. By His Resurrection He was accepted into heaven and so then also us. He, Jesus Christ, represents us in a spiritual living reality, who and what we are to the only mind that matters,The Fathers! This is the way; we must adjust our mind to a heavenly reality, seeing ourselves as new creatures, radically different than those of the world. The deeper our fellowship with The Father, the more we see our very presence before Him in faith, and then the more we will become aware of what is worldly and just who we are as ones who have overcome it in Christ Jesus. The revelation of who we are is reveled by The Holy Spirit, so the more that we are able to drink in this revelation the more we are made better to judge the world and not be a part of it. We will become new men and women....a gradual process. We will be able to absorb suffering on the path to fellowship with the living God and gain from it.. We will acquire a new sense of ourselves as strangers to this place and step into the true roll we were destined to become, organic members of His Body, living out His very life in ours on earth by the power of His Spirit. By learning from His Word just who we are as heavenly creatures absorbed in Christ as the defining reality of our presence before The Father, we will walk in power and remain aloof from the world and worldliness. Dead to the world.
On a personal note, I just have to say thank you for helping me grow. Writing this blog has meant a great deal to me. I know these concept when first encountered are hard to understand [at least they were for me] but after two and a half years of a nose to the grindstone effort I now see it was always right there before my eye's....not that I've arrived. I just had to get out of God's way! There is no requirement, you need not be a serious academic bible student or even a super faithful bible reader, but read it you must. There are no doctrines you must absorb as absolute to qualify. Really only one book is necessary, The Bible of course. Mostly we need a desire to become what we know we are not.....dead to the world, that's where the Christ life starts....The Father will do the rest. So good people, don't rack your brains, I did that for you, just pray to He who holds the key, and rest in His provision! Oh and please read my blog, and maybe even forward it to others whom you think might gain from learning to consider themselves dead to the world.
Our natural man has great power and will never leave us in this earthly life, I know this only too well. Humility is a virtue and a godly humility is truly a beautiful thing. I can see by my own inner man that I have a long way to go. I do however see even more so by my weakness the all important need to be a spiritual man in a actively sought awareness of my identity as one who stands before The Father seen in The Son by my faith to prevail as my source; something I did not know was a necessary ingredient in the Christian life not too many years ago. In fact I did not know that my very place before The Father was one of perfection; as I was seen in His Son. If that is true I am indeed dead to the world in His thoughts of me. Therefore by this, a reveled biblical truth given to me by God by faith in His Word, it becomes incumbent upon me to learn who I am in my own thoughts of myself, and what it means when God declares me as no longer alive to the flesh or dead to the world. By this knowledge perhaps one day I will live the life that God has willed in His Son for me.
The Christian today finds himself in a interesting dilemma it seem to me. We have two choices in this life. The first is to live our Christian life in a mostly self centered way, such as simply Church members, going along to get along, a part of a institution. This life I think of as Christendom: a moral value system offering a road map to a hoped for happy trail, and a socially rewarding experience which is thought of by its members and seen by the world as a good and fruitful life. They are accomplishing good thing for the community and building up the congregation by programs, functions and a busy works oriented agenda. However if we think deeply on this Christian experience we can come to perhaps a new realization: this type of church life is really mostly for our own pleasure and sense of belonging, and that it is in not a unique life of positional awareness, of a faith which is alive in the person of Jesus Christ as the object of our life. After all this type of good Christian experience composed of service, social activities and works etc. is not exclusive to the Christian, but can be attained by many other moral and socially aware people of the non-believing world. By that measure then we are not much difference from what the world has taught and is. The second Christian life possible has a thought in the for front of all its actions and Church activities which goes like this; we are, "Heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ--sharing His inheritance [Death and Resurrection and heavenly position] with Him; only we must share His suffering [dead to the world by the cross] if we are to share His glory" Rom. 8:17, Amp. Can you see the difference? " If we are to share His Glory" should give pause in our self evaluation of the Christian experience, if the second is to be the paramount place we are coming from in the Christian life? Would it not redefine all our actions? So what does it mean and how do we apply this true godly inheritance to ourselves? Becoming the Christian the bible calls for; one dead to the world and alive in Christ.
Don't get me wrong my friends. I am all for many of the good works of the church life. I know many in the pews are sincere in there quest to by all that they can be for Jesus and the planners and functionaries behind the scenes are intent on maintaining the flock as their best Christian effort. But after 30 plus years on both sides of the church activities I found that something was missing. I have since come to know that blank space was in not knowing who I really was in Christ; that in fact by faith in Him, I was truly dead to the world.
"But may it never be mine to boast of anything but the Cross of Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me and I to the world!" Gal. 6:14. Attempting to define what is worldly or the world and then making rules and goals is not what the Father wants of us. All that is not of The Father is the world. To acquire knowledge of the interpretation of our being as non-worldly creatures therefore must entail a subjective mind set toward the object, Jesus Christ. I think the most vital truth to be seen in our object is our co-crucifixion with Christ and requires a personal private desire to explore The Word on our own to realize it. This is where we will learn to understand the Cross. The Cross has effectually cut off the connection between the believer and the world, the Resurrection has brought us into a new place. The world judged the Lord and found Him deserving death, but in the Resurrection we see the Fathers judgment. C. H. Mackintosh said; "Man gave the very lowest God gave the very highest place; and in as much as the believer is called into full fellowship with the father in his thoughts about the Son he is enabled to turn the tables upon the world, and look upon it as a crucified thing."By this statement and Paul's declaration we see then it is in our thoughts and faith in His Word where the answer dwells. We all know when Jesus died it was unto the very thing that could not be accepted by the Father; the natural self centered man or the flesh. If the believer is on the Cross [Jesus' death is ours] in His thoughts as to relationship with the world he is separated from the world which is on another cross all together and is a dead thing! We prove ourselves false to the Lord Jesus Christ to the same degree we have fellowship, as a mental concept of ourselves, with the world.
My friends its all in the attitude! By the Word of God we are dead to the world. He was rejected and so were we. By His Resurrection He was accepted into heaven and so then also us. He, Jesus Christ, represents us in a spiritual living reality, who and what we are to the only mind that matters,The Fathers! This is the way; we must adjust our mind to a heavenly reality, seeing ourselves as new creatures, radically different than those of the world. The deeper our fellowship with The Father, the more we see our very presence before Him in faith, and then the more we will become aware of what is worldly and just who we are as ones who have overcome it in Christ Jesus. The revelation of who we are is reveled by The Holy Spirit, so the more that we are able to drink in this revelation the more we are made better to judge the world and not be a part of it. We will become new men and women....a gradual process. We will be able to absorb suffering on the path to fellowship with the living God and gain from it.. We will acquire a new sense of ourselves as strangers to this place and step into the true roll we were destined to become, organic members of His Body, living out His very life in ours on earth by the power of His Spirit. By learning from His Word just who we are as heavenly creatures absorbed in Christ as the defining reality of our presence before The Father, we will walk in power and remain aloof from the world and worldliness. Dead to the world.
On a personal note, I just have to say thank you for helping me grow. Writing this blog has meant a great deal to me. I know these concept when first encountered are hard to understand [at least they were for me] but after two and a half years of a nose to the grindstone effort I now see it was always right there before my eye's....not that I've arrived. I just had to get out of God's way! There is no requirement, you need not be a serious academic bible student or even a super faithful bible reader, but read it you must. There are no doctrines you must absorb as absolute to qualify. Really only one book is necessary, The Bible of course. Mostly we need a desire to become what we know we are not.....dead to the world, that's where the Christ life starts....The Father will do the rest. So good people, don't rack your brains, I did that for you, just pray to He who holds the key, and rest in His provision! Oh and please read my blog, and maybe even forward it to others whom you think might gain from learning to consider themselves dead to the world.
Saturday, February 8, 2014
SEEN FOR YOURSELF
"Man has no life from which the Father could expect anything, and so He gave a new life in His Son, that He may produce it." I thought this statement written by a old saint, W. J Hocking, from long ago summed up who we are as Christians quite well. We just must come to realize that it is God who provides us with a identity; and it is His Son. I have noticed that just in the last few weeks my readership has fallen of dramatically, perhaps its due to my poor writing style, but I suspect its simply that my blog victims are tired of being reminded that only a completely new life will due, and they are not perhaps prepared to change from the comfort zone they rest in, in this world. I will still trudge forward on the happy road of destiny; as I see in my self no good thing and I know from experience that if left to my own devises I will fall into the sin and complacency of that old life from which The Father expects nothing, nor can He as it is dead. I once lived with no knowledge that there was another life which could make me joyfully alive in Christ. Now however I have been made aware and oh how miserable I would be if I fell back.
"Not as though I had already attained....but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus" Phil. 3:12. This was Paul's story and is mine also! In order however to understand what it means we must have biblical contextual knowledge [as with most all scripture] and this is where the crux of the problem is for many Christians, in my humble opinion anyway. Each book of the bible has a theme. The book of Philippians was the experiencing of Christ, taking Christ as our living pattern goal, power and secret, not finding Him in earthly works accomplishments, but as mind soul and heart, Him as the object of our person hood. Paul had not attained all that he could or would like to in his minds concept of his life in Christ, so he moved forward. What was he moving toward? A apprehension. But of what? Evidently that which He was, as he says; he was already apprehended [made to be] by Jesus. What does this mean? Before we can know this we must first know ourselves. A shocking revelation if we are to be honest! We must fully realize our sin nature and need, and know that in our flesh we cannot please God, nor does He expect us to. He died judicially on the cross to do away with that part of us, and that for His own pleasure, [not our relief] because of His love: He made us into new creatures apprehended by Him, seen and defined in His Son only, not by our actions. I hope this makes some sense to you happy leftover blog friends! Its vitally important to know this truth if you expect to ever grow to spiritual maturity. Lets explore more and discover how we may be seen for ourselves in the loving grace of The Father.
To apprehend or be apprehended of, is to gain, grasp or seize the truth of the new nature brought by Christ to our mind by the Holy Spirit, in the new birth. This calls for a striving onto maturity in the spirit, a taking on of the likeness in our personal definition of ourselves of Christ Himself: this is called being "conformed to the image of Christ." We must experience our sufficiency in Christ; completely casting aside the earthly version of our old nature as to who we are. However we still need to see ourselves for what we were and capable of knowing how little we can become conformed to Him in the old nature. As we are made aware of our weakness in the flesh, thoroughly coming to know our need, and the insufficiency of self effort to be conformed to His image; we then will look to the grasping of our sufficiency in Jesus Christ and Him crucified as our only hope in this life to acquire His image. He was Resurrected and Ascended to Heaven, so that we may obtain His image in a conscious way as new creatures, with Him as the object of who and what we are now by our own reckoning, the knowledge of His Spirit having been joined with ours as He became alive from the dead to show this new life is ours and that we also are alive from the dead for He died unto all that we were in the flesh. We are now new creatures with a new life to be lived on this earth in Christ Jesus! Identified in Christ. This is a biblical positional fact rendered in our regeneration by God's Spirit interacting with ours because our need brought us to a place of desperation for a hope, and that hope was provided by the Son of God, Jesus Christ. To Him be the power and glory forever! May God keep us from a worldly perception of ourselves; which is defined as all that is not of The Father. This new life of ours is reveled by The Son and brought to us by The Holy Spirit. It comes by the taking on of the Divine nature in a conscious awareness, as God's will for us. We then will open our eyes to the vastly more joyful and all encompassing existence we may find in a contemplative positional awareness of a life provided by the occupation of the mingled Spirit of the living God with ours. We will then become entirely new men and women by choosing to believe and live in faith of this new truth seen in ourselves by faith in His Word, that tells us that we are one with Him..
I think the word appropriation would be appropriate for us to consider here. We in the west have developed a mind set and a culture by which we tend to define words and ideas by their capacity to form action and material or accomplishment and merit, with a strong emphasis on information [books books and more books] and intellectual pursuit. I have been hanging with a group of late who hale from the east, The Local Church, which was started by Watchman Nee, the writer of the very well accepted Christan book The Normal Christian Life. They, because of their acceptance of what some see as a more mystical concept of the believer to be seen as having not only the opportunity to appropriate the gift of God as being one in the spirit with Him, through scriptural knowledge and study. But they also easily except a mystical union as our very condition, not held back by a ridged intellectual, doctrinal approach. We in fact are one with God: a metaphysical reality, which is contained in our physical presence [the mind] which we occupy on earth in our persons, a self contained spiritual God/man position, if you will. They sometimes use this term god-men to describe the Christian; which many in conservative Christian circles have a very difficult time with and I must confess I once did also. But lets not jump on the self righteous band wagon without noting the all important need for contextual consideration and perhaps even we may be helped by learning or at least be open to a more mystical/heart felt approach to such scriptures as: " Eph. 4:6 "One God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all" or John 17:22-23 "that they may be one, even as we are one; I in them, and You in Me that they may be perfected into one". I quote these verses in part to show God's announcement to us that we are to become a living spiritual part of Him, we have become the very life of Jesus, He lived through us, as our mind matures to this truth, in these bodies on this earth. We have had the divine nature imparted and are partakers of His Spirit or He might be described as mingled with our spirit, hence the term god-men. This cannot be denied as scriptural truth, I firmly believe. But it can only be understood and most importantly lived only by having faith in what is seen by some as a mystical concept of our being; as no man can explain how this takes place in practical terms, hence mystical. Now that wasn't do hard was it? It is simply left for us to appropriate this spiritual reality as a self aware defined spiritual life; and then we may better be seen in our own mind for ourselves, who we truly are!
My friends the very thing that Paul was striving toward and what the organized Church has been trying to provide, much of the time by works, has been ours all along, we needed only look to our mind's understanding. We are apprehended in Christ or laid hold of, contained in, The Son of God. We as Paul must pursue it, gain it, grasp it, take possession of it. Really its all been laid out for us, this discovery of a new life, in Romans Six, Seven and Eight. As William R. Newell said, and can be found expanded upon in his great book Romans verse by verse: "These chapters are the great master key to spiritual life and liberty." "These, God's revelation to us present the Cross as unlocking the door to understanding." "Our death to sin was completed at Calvary in chapter Six". "Our struggles to produce that which God has already accomplished is found in chapter Seven." "By Chapter Eight we find that the Holy Spirit will produce in our experience what God completed for us on the Cross and in Christ our life." There will be a path cleared to the open door of a reckoning [counting as true] that we are actually delivered from the sin nature, "dead to sin", our old self. In our everyday life by the cross, we are free from sin's reign the moment we end our own self effort, "Yield yourself unto God, as those that are alive from the dead" Rom. 6:13. This is the perfection Paul sought in Phi.3:12, which was already his, and is ours also, it just needs to be laid hold of; it is there waiting for us. My good and faithful friends in Christ Jesus, may we together grasp the truth of a oneness in Him, and thereby be who we are, and were always meant to be, seen for yourself.
"Not as though I had already attained....but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus" Phil. 3:12. This was Paul's story and is mine also! In order however to understand what it means we must have biblical contextual knowledge [as with most all scripture] and this is where the crux of the problem is for many Christians, in my humble opinion anyway. Each book of the bible has a theme. The book of Philippians was the experiencing of Christ, taking Christ as our living pattern goal, power and secret, not finding Him in earthly works accomplishments, but as mind soul and heart, Him as the object of our person hood. Paul had not attained all that he could or would like to in his minds concept of his life in Christ, so he moved forward. What was he moving toward? A apprehension. But of what? Evidently that which He was, as he says; he was already apprehended [made to be] by Jesus. What does this mean? Before we can know this we must first know ourselves. A shocking revelation if we are to be honest! We must fully realize our sin nature and need, and know that in our flesh we cannot please God, nor does He expect us to. He died judicially on the cross to do away with that part of us, and that for His own pleasure, [not our relief] because of His love: He made us into new creatures apprehended by Him, seen and defined in His Son only, not by our actions. I hope this makes some sense to you happy leftover blog friends! Its vitally important to know this truth if you expect to ever grow to spiritual maturity. Lets explore more and discover how we may be seen for ourselves in the loving grace of The Father.
To apprehend or be apprehended of, is to gain, grasp or seize the truth of the new nature brought by Christ to our mind by the Holy Spirit, in the new birth. This calls for a striving onto maturity in the spirit, a taking on of the likeness in our personal definition of ourselves of Christ Himself: this is called being "conformed to the image of Christ." We must experience our sufficiency in Christ; completely casting aside the earthly version of our old nature as to who we are. However we still need to see ourselves for what we were and capable of knowing how little we can become conformed to Him in the old nature. As we are made aware of our weakness in the flesh, thoroughly coming to know our need, and the insufficiency of self effort to be conformed to His image; we then will look to the grasping of our sufficiency in Jesus Christ and Him crucified as our only hope in this life to acquire His image. He was Resurrected and Ascended to Heaven, so that we may obtain His image in a conscious way as new creatures, with Him as the object of who and what we are now by our own reckoning, the knowledge of His Spirit having been joined with ours as He became alive from the dead to show this new life is ours and that we also are alive from the dead for He died unto all that we were in the flesh. We are now new creatures with a new life to be lived on this earth in Christ Jesus! Identified in Christ. This is a biblical positional fact rendered in our regeneration by God's Spirit interacting with ours because our need brought us to a place of desperation for a hope, and that hope was provided by the Son of God, Jesus Christ. To Him be the power and glory forever! May God keep us from a worldly perception of ourselves; which is defined as all that is not of The Father. This new life of ours is reveled by The Son and brought to us by The Holy Spirit. It comes by the taking on of the Divine nature in a conscious awareness, as God's will for us. We then will open our eyes to the vastly more joyful and all encompassing existence we may find in a contemplative positional awareness of a life provided by the occupation of the mingled Spirit of the living God with ours. We will then become entirely new men and women by choosing to believe and live in faith of this new truth seen in ourselves by faith in His Word, that tells us that we are one with Him..
I think the word appropriation would be appropriate for us to consider here. We in the west have developed a mind set and a culture by which we tend to define words and ideas by their capacity to form action and material or accomplishment and merit, with a strong emphasis on information [books books and more books] and intellectual pursuit. I have been hanging with a group of late who hale from the east, The Local Church, which was started by Watchman Nee, the writer of the very well accepted Christan book The Normal Christian Life. They, because of their acceptance of what some see as a more mystical concept of the believer to be seen as having not only the opportunity to appropriate the gift of God as being one in the spirit with Him, through scriptural knowledge and study. But they also easily except a mystical union as our very condition, not held back by a ridged intellectual, doctrinal approach. We in fact are one with God: a metaphysical reality, which is contained in our physical presence [the mind] which we occupy on earth in our persons, a self contained spiritual God/man position, if you will. They sometimes use this term god-men to describe the Christian; which many in conservative Christian circles have a very difficult time with and I must confess I once did also. But lets not jump on the self righteous band wagon without noting the all important need for contextual consideration and perhaps even we may be helped by learning or at least be open to a more mystical/heart felt approach to such scriptures as: " Eph. 4:6 "One God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all" or John 17:22-23 "that they may be one, even as we are one; I in them, and You in Me that they may be perfected into one". I quote these verses in part to show God's announcement to us that we are to become a living spiritual part of Him, we have become the very life of Jesus, He lived through us, as our mind matures to this truth, in these bodies on this earth. We have had the divine nature imparted and are partakers of His Spirit or He might be described as mingled with our spirit, hence the term god-men. This cannot be denied as scriptural truth, I firmly believe. But it can only be understood and most importantly lived only by having faith in what is seen by some as a mystical concept of our being; as no man can explain how this takes place in practical terms, hence mystical. Now that wasn't do hard was it? It is simply left for us to appropriate this spiritual reality as a self aware defined spiritual life; and then we may better be seen in our own mind for ourselves, who we truly are!
My friends the very thing that Paul was striving toward and what the organized Church has been trying to provide, much of the time by works, has been ours all along, we needed only look to our mind's understanding. We are apprehended in Christ or laid hold of, contained in, The Son of God. We as Paul must pursue it, gain it, grasp it, take possession of it. Really its all been laid out for us, this discovery of a new life, in Romans Six, Seven and Eight. As William R. Newell said, and can be found expanded upon in his great book Romans verse by verse: "These chapters are the great master key to spiritual life and liberty." "These, God's revelation to us present the Cross as unlocking the door to understanding." "Our death to sin was completed at Calvary in chapter Six". "Our struggles to produce that which God has already accomplished is found in chapter Seven." "By Chapter Eight we find that the Holy Spirit will produce in our experience what God completed for us on the Cross and in Christ our life." There will be a path cleared to the open door of a reckoning [counting as true] that we are actually delivered from the sin nature, "dead to sin", our old self. In our everyday life by the cross, we are free from sin's reign the moment we end our own self effort, "Yield yourself unto God, as those that are alive from the dead" Rom. 6:13. This is the perfection Paul sought in Phi.3:12, which was already his, and is ours also, it just needs to be laid hold of; it is there waiting for us. My good and faithful friends in Christ Jesus, may we together grasp the truth of a oneness in Him, and thereby be who we are, and were always meant to be, seen for yourself.
Saturday, February 1, 2014
WHO IN THE WORLD ARE WE
I remember once meeting a man at work [I was a barber] and when I asked what he did he replied; I'm in fire insurance. For the longest time I thought he was a insurance agent, until one day he wrote me a check and his name had Reverend before it. Prior to that day I had no idea he was a Catholic priest. For some reason that has left a impact on me. I've often thought, whats the primary motivation behind being born again for many, and if its only fire insurance[their own relief] then all that we are, at least in this world, has perhaps not changed much by the experience. We are just the lucky ones saved from hell fire. I know that is not the case for many Christians, but never the less something as powerful and life changing as the new birth, which has eternal consequence and is imparted by The God of the universes and necessitated Him becoming a man and dieing in our place on the cross for us lowly sinful individuals must carry with it a life image changing potential; which could if reflected upon give us a opportunity to form a completely new definition of ourselves in our minds eye; and by that image we hold of our new being [present in Christ], we might therefor focus in on a great and most important question. Who in the world are we?
The Word of God declares, "the carnal mind' as a enemy of God and carnal is who we were as normal earth dwellers once, but all that changed in God's mind at least, when His Son became our representative in death to the flesh or the carnal nature on the cross and did away with it as having any value in His sight what so ever. Even though that is fact in the spirit and in the economy of God, we all know we are still capable of continuing on a life here in a carnal or self centered most sinful modality. In the above bible reference The Lord refers to our mind or how we contemplate ourselves. I would be so bold as to put forward that our Christian defined life must be much more than merely being saved; but a complete change as to character, a new realization of a new nature in our newly created Holy Spirit influenced mind and a acceptance of the definition of our presence before God as one who now is so completely defined by his presence in The Son, that we see that Christianity becomes true repentance to all that we were in the flesh and we establish a new personality with the acceptance that all of God's righteous judgment has fallen upon our old nature, the end of any hope for the natural man, no possibility of betterment of the carnal human man. There has been a new announcement as to our presence on this earth a new life and experience beckons us in the body we occupy. We have been granted a opportunity to gain a active new living present nature from God, defined as spirit, no longer simply "not hell bound", but truly born again in open and realized mentally current changed status; forming a whole new life realized in the new nature given us by our heavenly presence in Jesus Christ now defining the personality of who we are in this world, a new spiritual nature of biblical proportions! To me that's a very exciting prospect and quite a relief to a failing sinner such as me, who remains subject to the delusion of the natural carnal mind, as do all humans.
Under the terms of our new life, as defined by God's Word, being born again is much more than a experience, as wonderful as it may be, but a abnegation: which is defined as; the act of renouncing or rejection of all that we were in the flesh, "we are new creatures in Christ Jesus", "we are no longer of this world", " our life is hidden in Christ"..........and on and on, we are described as "citizens of heaven", the church itself as heavenly, "strangers and sojourners in this world". Are these descriptions of us by God Himself, not to be taken literately as to a real spiritual condition we may inhabit and understand as reality now? Why do we have so little power to go beyond the traditional description of our Christian experience as that assigned us by the institutional church? Why do we succumb to victim hood, subjecting ourselves to the often unfulfilled life of being members of what for many has become merely an organization called the church, not engaging boldly in all that the bible describes of us as individual organic members of The Body of Christ? Why do our psychological fears and personal hang ups and compulsive repetitive behaviors so dominate our life? My friends, we might not be hell bound, but there, at least for me, must be more! Why is this road to new self discovery ["we are not in the flesh, but in the spirit"] so hard for us to define? Why are we so weak as to so often allow our born again souls to languish in the world system of The father of lies himself?
Just who is this liar that seems to have so much influence on us and the Church? The bible refers to Him as "the prince of the power of the air". I never knew what that meant so I always simply skipped over it. I have come to learn since that "the air" here refers to the best effort by the bible translators to describe his influence on the system where we breath and live, also called the first heaven. In other words he is prince and a primary influence of our world social/financial/political system on this planet and wishes to control our access to spiritual growth and to crush our faith. He is a spirit, so he can influence the thought life of humans. It seems to me it is incumbent upon us to know what he might be trying to get us to do and why. One attempt he is constantly making in this the first heaven, is blinding us to our actual heavenly status: the Spirit of Christ who is in heaven lives in us and has made us alive in Him in the presence of The Father. The prince of the air would much prefer to keep us second class citizens languishing in worldly self effort, without personal power to live out the truth of our spiritual presences in Christ, realized by faith. The second heavenly place referred to in the bible is the outer atmosphere where the planets are. The third is where God dwells in Glory and by the way, where the bible claims we do also; as citizens of the third heaven. God made this clear when He said: "They are enemies of the cross of Christ....who mind [think on] earthly [where the prince influences] things" Phil. 3:18,19. What are we to do then as new creatures residing spiritually in heaven with and in Jesus giving no space to the lie? The bible says: "If you then be risen [to heaven, made alive, born again] ....set your affections [the same as your mind in the former verse] on things above [Gods dwelling, Heaven], not on thing on the earth" Col.3:2. My good and faithful friends who I know love Jesus, could it be more clear that our mind/spirit must be changed to see our presence in the Third Heaven as our home a spiritual dwelling, not only in the by and by, but here and now. Or are we to suffer the consequences of giving much of our very short amount of time on this earth to the diverting lie of Satan? After all he really only needs to bother with the Christian, all others are already his!!
Well then lets try to solve the problem by defining just who in the world we are: " He that is joined to the Lord is one spirit" 1 Cor. 6:17. " Wherefore if any man is in Christ he is a new creature" 2 Cor. 5 16-17. The term "in Christ" is used by Paul 164 times in his writings, this strongly indicates Paul's intimate experience of inner union with the Lord. If Paul was so blessed why then would not we be also? We have a feature just like Paul called a spirit, that is a biblical fact that no Christian would deny. Yes its hard to explain what spirit is: we know God is a Spirit and immaterial so that might help. The fact is, having a physical/mental image of spirit is unnecessary, that's why God gave us the gift of faith as the only way to please Him, and His Word to describe the details "study to show yourselves approved". He also presented His Son to mankind, which effectively displayed God Himself, who as the bible says is a Spirit. Jesus Christ was Resurrected to the third Heaven and Stephen saw Him there as The Son of Man, in other words in human form, yet we know He is Spirit. All this should go a long way in insuring us that we are not just ordinary victims of the world system, but in fact we are told by God that "He that is joined to the Lord is one spirit" 1 Cor. 6:17 or positioned in Christ as a practical experience in this body we live in now. My friends lets not try to figure this out. Lets just believe the truth, these truths are for us to learn to become aware that we are transformed into the image of Christ. We are to experience this metamorphism in the spirit. This is not a mere metaphysical change only but is meant to be practical and experiential in our mortal body's. He has given us the ability to be entirely new, no longer subjects of the lie and the world. It is up to us to recognize the power bestowed upon us by The living God, to be like his Son, in the same image, and with the same power to overcome the world. He is "The life giving Spirit" and now in this place at this time, He is alive in us. From now on friends there is no excuse; when you step out into this world you now know the answer to the riddle of the ages: just who in the world you are. The Question is will you take the advantage, casting off the weight of the encumbrances of a self centered life for the freedom and peace of the life of Jesus Christ in whose body you live and breathe.
The Word of God declares, "the carnal mind' as a enemy of God and carnal is who we were as normal earth dwellers once, but all that changed in God's mind at least, when His Son became our representative in death to the flesh or the carnal nature on the cross and did away with it as having any value in His sight what so ever. Even though that is fact in the spirit and in the economy of God, we all know we are still capable of continuing on a life here in a carnal or self centered most sinful modality. In the above bible reference The Lord refers to our mind or how we contemplate ourselves. I would be so bold as to put forward that our Christian defined life must be much more than merely being saved; but a complete change as to character, a new realization of a new nature in our newly created Holy Spirit influenced mind and a acceptance of the definition of our presence before God as one who now is so completely defined by his presence in The Son, that we see that Christianity becomes true repentance to all that we were in the flesh and we establish a new personality with the acceptance that all of God's righteous judgment has fallen upon our old nature, the end of any hope for the natural man, no possibility of betterment of the carnal human man. There has been a new announcement as to our presence on this earth a new life and experience beckons us in the body we occupy. We have been granted a opportunity to gain a active new living present nature from God, defined as spirit, no longer simply "not hell bound", but truly born again in open and realized mentally current changed status; forming a whole new life realized in the new nature given us by our heavenly presence in Jesus Christ now defining the personality of who we are in this world, a new spiritual nature of biblical proportions! To me that's a very exciting prospect and quite a relief to a failing sinner such as me, who remains subject to the delusion of the natural carnal mind, as do all humans.
Under the terms of our new life, as defined by God's Word, being born again is much more than a experience, as wonderful as it may be, but a abnegation: which is defined as; the act of renouncing or rejection of all that we were in the flesh, "we are new creatures in Christ Jesus", "we are no longer of this world", " our life is hidden in Christ"..........and on and on, we are described as "citizens of heaven", the church itself as heavenly, "strangers and sojourners in this world". Are these descriptions of us by God Himself, not to be taken literately as to a real spiritual condition we may inhabit and understand as reality now? Why do we have so little power to go beyond the traditional description of our Christian experience as that assigned us by the institutional church? Why do we succumb to victim hood, subjecting ourselves to the often unfulfilled life of being members of what for many has become merely an organization called the church, not engaging boldly in all that the bible describes of us as individual organic members of The Body of Christ? Why do our psychological fears and personal hang ups and compulsive repetitive behaviors so dominate our life? My friends, we might not be hell bound, but there, at least for me, must be more! Why is this road to new self discovery ["we are not in the flesh, but in the spirit"] so hard for us to define? Why are we so weak as to so often allow our born again souls to languish in the world system of The father of lies himself?
Just who is this liar that seems to have so much influence on us and the Church? The bible refers to Him as "the prince of the power of the air". I never knew what that meant so I always simply skipped over it. I have come to learn since that "the air" here refers to the best effort by the bible translators to describe his influence on the system where we breath and live, also called the first heaven. In other words he is prince and a primary influence of our world social/financial/political system on this planet and wishes to control our access to spiritual growth and to crush our faith. He is a spirit, so he can influence the thought life of humans. It seems to me it is incumbent upon us to know what he might be trying to get us to do and why. One attempt he is constantly making in this the first heaven, is blinding us to our actual heavenly status: the Spirit of Christ who is in heaven lives in us and has made us alive in Him in the presence of The Father. The prince of the air would much prefer to keep us second class citizens languishing in worldly self effort, without personal power to live out the truth of our spiritual presences in Christ, realized by faith. The second heavenly place referred to in the bible is the outer atmosphere where the planets are. The third is where God dwells in Glory and by the way, where the bible claims we do also; as citizens of the third heaven. God made this clear when He said: "They are enemies of the cross of Christ....who mind [think on] earthly [where the prince influences] things" Phil. 3:18,19. What are we to do then as new creatures residing spiritually in heaven with and in Jesus giving no space to the lie? The bible says: "If you then be risen [to heaven, made alive, born again] ....set your affections [the same as your mind in the former verse] on things above [Gods dwelling, Heaven], not on thing on the earth" Col.3:2. My good and faithful friends who I know love Jesus, could it be more clear that our mind/spirit must be changed to see our presence in the Third Heaven as our home a spiritual dwelling, not only in the by and by, but here and now. Or are we to suffer the consequences of giving much of our very short amount of time on this earth to the diverting lie of Satan? After all he really only needs to bother with the Christian, all others are already his!!
Well then lets try to solve the problem by defining just who in the world we are: " He that is joined to the Lord is one spirit" 1 Cor. 6:17. " Wherefore if any man is in Christ he is a new creature" 2 Cor. 5 16-17. The term "in Christ" is used by Paul 164 times in his writings, this strongly indicates Paul's intimate experience of inner union with the Lord. If Paul was so blessed why then would not we be also? We have a feature just like Paul called a spirit, that is a biblical fact that no Christian would deny. Yes its hard to explain what spirit is: we know God is a Spirit and immaterial so that might help. The fact is, having a physical/mental image of spirit is unnecessary, that's why God gave us the gift of faith as the only way to please Him, and His Word to describe the details "study to show yourselves approved". He also presented His Son to mankind, which effectively displayed God Himself, who as the bible says is a Spirit. Jesus Christ was Resurrected to the third Heaven and Stephen saw Him there as The Son of Man, in other words in human form, yet we know He is Spirit. All this should go a long way in insuring us that we are not just ordinary victims of the world system, but in fact we are told by God that "He that is joined to the Lord is one spirit" 1 Cor. 6:17 or positioned in Christ as a practical experience in this body we live in now. My friends lets not try to figure this out. Lets just believe the truth, these truths are for us to learn to become aware that we are transformed into the image of Christ. We are to experience this metamorphism in the spirit. This is not a mere metaphysical change only but is meant to be practical and experiential in our mortal body's. He has given us the ability to be entirely new, no longer subjects of the lie and the world. It is up to us to recognize the power bestowed upon us by The living God, to be like his Son, in the same image, and with the same power to overcome the world. He is "The life giving Spirit" and now in this place at this time, He is alive in us. From now on friends there is no excuse; when you step out into this world you now know the answer to the riddle of the ages: just who in the world you are. The Question is will you take the advantage, casting off the weight of the encumbrances of a self centered life for the freedom and peace of the life of Jesus Christ in whose body you live and breathe.
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