"The Lord grant that we may each of us be more awakened to the futility of accepting the Word of God with the mind of men. Many think that because they have the light of truth they are in the reality of of it. No! You may know the whole Bible, and have much light, but there is no growth beyond the measure of the Spirits work in you" J. B. Stoney.
How little we consider the feelings of others. We live mostly for ourselves, few can deny! That includes our thoughts as to how the Father not only see's us but also His emotions toward us, His view of us, His Love for us. Think of your own children and loved ones, if they only knew truly how you care and could take into account the depth of your feelings and apply it to their life, the possibilities for the advancement of their security would likely be very enhanced. Oh if they could only enter our mind and think of themselves with the loving thoughts we have there for them.
In the case of The Father the means for provision of His very thoughts and feelings are available in His Word, but how few really take advantage. Why dear friends do we relegate ourselves to our own self centered limited mind when we have the side of God's thought toward us so available in His Word written expressly to us?
All that we are as Christians comes from one source which is the heart of the Father. We must come to connect His thoughts with our heart, subscribing to the position He has placed us in, not just the benefits which He has provided. Merely being dependent upon the relief we all encounter when saved :otherwise we are not established. Yes granted we are free from death, given a new life of possibilities to gain. But most importantly we now may partake of a new kind of love. The Love of the Father. In other words it is not only His gifts His power, His greatness, or our relief, but it is the direction of His love toward us, shown in the great sacrifice for us of His Son where we may find the divine side of life to live within. The law demands a certain life style and behavior, but the grace side declares the Father's love. We will find that side by viewing His Son just as He does, that is where the interpretation of His love resides, declared in His Word. "To give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ" 2 Cor. 4:6. Could it be more clear where we must seek His thoughts?
Entering into the side of Him which sheds light upon His love toward us, His applying the very image of His Son to us, requires a most important beginning; the disregarding as to identity of the effect of the flesh personality, and replacing it with a vision of our presence in His Son by faith that it is true. "Old things [our natural nature] are passed away; all things [our new nature by faith in Jesus as our life] have become new" 2 Cor.5:17.
The sanctuary we all should be seeking is the knowledge of our place in the Fathers presence. That place of rest will not be found in the mind of the personality of the old nature; so it must be shed or exchanged for the new nature we have in Christ, then rested in as a position we hold by faith in eternity, which defines us in the present. The old nature must be set aside for it is dead in the judgement of God. But for that to take place we must thoroughly be in the new, which requires a awareness of who we are as defined to be by His Word. "As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine, no more can you except you abide [live full time] in Me" John 15:4.
"Our new life is one spirit with Him: a living branch abiding in the True Vine. As we learn to rest upon this fact of our position in Him, abiding becomes our restful attitude" C. A. Coates 1862-1945. But alas until we know the corruption in ourselves, the permanent condition of our old Adam's sin nature, we will not find the enjoyment of the freedom of the new Adam. "But now in Christ Jesus you whom were once far off are made near by the blood of Christ" Eph. 2:13. "Most of us lean it by experience, seeing and feeling the depth's to which the flesh carries us" J. B. Stoney. The modern world of psychology seeks to sooth our condition, and the institutional church experience often provides a diversion. We are lead to service and tradition or become preoccupied with our gifts, thereby covering the approach to relationship which features Him as life: we remain cloaked in the wardrobe of the old nature. The Son's life as ours is only apprehended by awareness of our position in Christ, brought to light by embracing the condition of the weakness of the flesh, and then by faith trusting in its death with Jesus Christ on the Cross, and a new life fully contained in Him. "And I count all things as loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus , My Lord" Phil. 3:8.
"I am the vine, you are the branches. He that abides in Me, and I in Him, the same brings forth much fruit; for without me you can do nothing" John 15:5. We must come to know that the living in Him cannot ever be accomplished in a Christian as a way of life or any personal awareness unless one comes to see himself in the light of the defining Word of God by faith.. In other words; our personal presence upon being self examined must be found to be as a living heavenly member of Jesus Christ's Body , again in Faith.. With no connection, as to our divine life which allows any connection as to identity with the world system or the flesh. My brothers and sisters we must come to be who we are! "The Holy Spirit ministers to our mind of true faith via the Word, and He conditions our heart via our daily experience". In other words our mind may have knowledge of being positioned in Christ but in our natural flesh experiences, the condition of sin, we are held captive. Faith in our role as His children as portrayed by the Word of God is the way out. We must by this knowledge learn to accept that any freedom we have is entirely in Christ Jesus, and that the maintenance of that living union with Him is very distinctly and completely the work of divine power. The Holy Spirit dwells in us precisely for that purpose, and it is only in seeing that, yielding to Him as He works in us, that we may stand in the freedom that Christ has made for us! "Heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ" Rom. 8:17.
There is a principal most Christians miss made clear here. We have no strength our power in ourselves. That is why the natural character, old nature and the flesh must be seen as dead ["put no confidence in the flesh"] for any Christian to have a true realization of a life in union with Jesus Christ. Even those who have a doctrinal awareness of position/identity must turn from any security they might think they posses in the old Adam's intellect/personality. We have been left dependent upon the work of the Lord for any deliverance! We must always have at the forefront of the thought of our Christian lives that it is wholly because we as flesh creatures have been judged and that we have died with Him on the cross, that we are free from sin, "immortality occupies our mortality. This death, performed by His Son by The Fathers design has broken the power sin once had over mankind. "Sin is in the flesh" but we are now new spiritual creatures in Christ. We must find our place, by His Spirit, which is in us as it only purposes to display Jesus Christ. "Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus" Heb. 10:19.
It is precisely by our failure to live the Christian life, the encountering and awareness of worldliness and sin, by which we may recognize progress in gaining His image. By becoming aware of our lack within ourselves we may see that our only choice for a joyful life will arrive via a faith that His life has become ours. "Without faith it is impossible to please God". His Spirit has been working in you to show you have no possibilities toward life in the natural flesh nature. Our only means for acquiring Him as conscious life is to continue to count upon the work of the Cross. John Darby said it like this: "Our growth is wrought out in lives down here; but it is formed up there in fellowship with the Lord Jesus Christ and the Father, where our affections and minds get into condition to be manifested down here".
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