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.