I think the great and largely unanswered question for many Christians is: "Are we prepared to accept our union with the crucified and risen Lord, not only as the basis of being received by The Father, but also as the way we walk day by day"? As thoroughly discussed in my last blog the penetrating problem is one of the personality we choose to abide in which influences our walk. Make no mistake it is entirely our choice. This new person we have been made into in Christ is not available, as a aware life choice just by assumption upon our justification: but by patiently desiring and then waiting upon the Lord to undo our old man and install the new in our renewed mind by the Spirit. For this to take place in our being we must become thoroughly familiar with the presence of the old nature in ourselves, the first Adam. The problem is often we do not make ourselves available. We have become comfortable in the old man, he has always been our home. You could say we stand at the wrong station and miss the right train and never know it. Just why is that? Because we do not fully believe the Word of God; as it applies to the death of this flesh life first man; whom we all must deal with each day. Spirit has not become a recognizable identity as to a sustainable condition in the New Adam identity. The new creation has not become a perceived real identification of ourselves in the now. A product of failure to have faith in identity/and positional biblical facts and lack of exposure to this biblical reality. You have not been taught it! We fail to recognize ourselves in Christ. The old man smothers his presence. But fear not! God will have his way with you. One important key to growth is being open to exposure of concepts once foreign to us, thereby expanding potential. We are all being prepared; as is all the earth, including the trees, rocks, animals, and most of all His children: who are the actual living Body of His Son by Spirit. We just must contend, as the assurance road winds its way slowly.
It seems my heart must be broken each day in the process of my formation. I awake many mornings with the regrets of yesterday. Why did I not just say this or that? Why was I so selfish? Am I doomed to look at each yesterday with failure? Often it seems so. But no! The Father has given me this day to start anew. The ground was being prepared by His situational guidance even in my sin and self centered past. The important thing I am grateful for on this new morning is the knowledge that I am being formed by His Spirit to a new degree of maturity each day. By taking my place in the New Man, a conscious union with God. He has made me His in just this way.. Which enables me to approach my heavenly position in awareness and with a new understanding, at least to the degree that I know heaven is my home in the here and now by position. And that eternal life is found in apprehending my spiritual life, which is the only one of value to The Father and is present in Christ, in whom I am seen by God. A Spiritual condition not dependent upon my behavior. If I am in Him by Spirit, identified by His Manhood in heaven, in that He became one like me for just that purpose. I can know I have a sin free representation before The Father. Jesus is the federal figure the Father sees for me! No need for any shame or even regret. His perfection is my new identity. I may take my place above in confidence, in knowing that. This can only be true and must be taken in faith, for The Word says; "God has raised us up together, and made us to sit in heavenly places in Christ Jesus" Eph. 2:6. If my friends this is only a figure of speech to be glossed over as a kind and comforting saying, as it mostly has, then we are relegated to this earth and this world system. If untrue in a spiritual literal sense then the Church and it's flock are not really heavenly as portrayed by The Word. Are these words only a metaphor to take earthly rest in? If so.... The Crucifixion of Christ was to no effect. The bible is not perfectly true, and applicative to our daily life and descriptive of the actual condition which we are in, in Spirit.. We are not seen in Christ by The Father in heaven. And again, if so.... we above all are to be most pitied. The road to assurance would remain blocked by the lies we believed from the world and the truth left uncovered: may it never be!
We will never be fully matured all at once. We start as babies; all be it, many remain through out this life in the crib. The road to assurance is a slow one! Requiring fortitude and faithful determination. Our new spiritual strength is not made by great effort in a hurried way. The growth we gain as to our new transformed life contained in Christ is the result of being nourished in the Word. Remember we do not grow by effort, but by exercise. "Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for Him; fret not" Ps. 37.7. Of course as we merrily row along the stream we will be subjugated to all kinds of interruptions, and have fostered upon us the world's ways, so awareness and vigilance must be taken.
I believe its of no use to explain Spirit, nor will anyone ever truly understand the spiritual life until they come to a firm conviction and understanding of what makes themselves tick in the natural mode. We can never get over ourselves. We must become acquainted with ourselves, as the first Adam is always there. So knowledge as to our status/position mentally and spiritually both of our old nature and of the new Adam we are contained by and in Christ is crucial. Why are we the way we are as natural men? Always ready to sin and made so susceptible to the world's falsehoods and the folly of men. Sigmund Freud, for whom God was a mere delusion, saw in the observance of human behavior and by developing a psychological incite into it, a source for power. By the understanding of the behavioral patterns of men and women he came to the belief they could be controlled. They were predictable. In other words people were like puppets to be molded into whats best for them or suits others. This observance of human nature gave birth to modern psychological teaching and greatly contributed to the secular capitalist system. Which now is dependent to a large extent for self enrichment upon gain at the expense of others, upon the prediction of the patterns of movement as men seek pre- programed comfort and advancement. A far cry from the true capitalistic theory of applied resources for the advancement of collective betterment, with the following action to be from personal enlightened self interests as the result. You could ideally say the best product/result for the best reason. However, the development of a self centered system necessitated, and grew into what we now know as modern merchandising. Having been born by the introduction of Freudian based public relations in the early 1900's. This system has been purposefully used with full knowledge of its roots in the spirit of greed, both by private corporation's and government to control and manage the very lives we now live, including our very own movements and thoughts. And has taken on a bureaucratic life of it's own. No need for conspiracy! The goal of course is to gain wealth and power from this form of mind image production: its a natural for the palpation of the residing power. This predictable propensity of mankind so astutely observed by Freud has also not gone unnoticed by our enemy Satan; look around, you know it's true! Sin's lure is marketed everywhere and consumed greedily by all! We happily sacrifice tomorrow for the good feeling of today. Could this kind of life possibly in any way display the spirit of Christianity? We fashion our lives in the flesh as we are told and too often live there. Now the question? How do we grow in Christ amongst the enemy's custom designed Adamic world system that we call progress and modernism. Even while it surrounds us and lives right inside us; in order to manipulate our very thoughts; by the natural flow of the worlds applied behavior patterns. Which we commonly embrace as a normal life style and have incorporated into our very christian experience.
The real question here is how much do the circumstances of life lived in the first Adam shut out the truth of Spirit? The answer is; "very much indeed"! That is why the Word of God calls us to turn from the mind of the world to the mind of God. "And do not be fashioned according to this age, [world system and influence] but be transformed [a new mind completely]by the renewing of your mind [all new thinking as to who we are] that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and well pleasing and perfect" Rom12.2. My friends, the only way we will see that which is perfect this side of the grave is by looking to Jesus Christ and seeing ourselves with, in and represented by Him. Just as The Father does. If we cannot see that Spiritual truth, then there is little hope for growth and the world will be our guiding influence much of the time; stuck with Satan's system which is a certain place of defeat for a Christian to live. Oh yes it's true we may clap our hands and sing a song, say a Amen and leave the assembly feeling quite good. Only to enter the realm of self upon our departure, never having exited the old man.
Carl Jung, a protegee of Freud, took a different route than Freud. He too believed much of Freud's introspection and analytical theory; however he saw a way out of the slump we were in mentally. Where as Freud called for acceptance of the condition and learning to live with it. Much like our current compromise. Jung called for growth and change once we encounter the self driven mind and were made aware. Taking action by a self analytical approach or a knowledge of who and what we are up against, empowering us. I firmly believe that it is only by the clash of these destructive forces in the inner man will our new creation in Christ appear, for us to appraise and then except as life. A powerful and world shaking force appeared on the earth in Jesus Christ, He clashed with sin and the natural nature, He defeated death, and Satan upon the Cross, for the Father first, then us. A new creation was made by this destructive/creative force in Resurrection, which had never appeared to man before. A man became recognized as God's Son. While we are not God in anyway, we are by the bibles declaration one with Christ in all these events, included by The Fathers will. Becoming the brothers and sisters of Jesus Christ Himself inheriting all that He is as family. And that by the Fathers choice! Now we have a chance to see a clear path, we need no longer be Freudian victims; recovery from what we are in the old nature is available in the Word of God. If we have faith it is true, and care to take the time to learn it's value. Applying The Word's announcement of heavenly presence in Christ as a occupation of our mortality here. We simply must my friends become self defined by that truth for any true victory realized on this side of things. Your slow road of assurance has for you along the way a new revelation. You know longer need to live for yourself: "it is written, man shall not live on bread alone, [things provided by the world] but on every word that proceeds out through the mouth of God" Matt. 4:4. The slow road of assurance is our destiny, let us day by day traverse its reliable way for the ultimate recovery.
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