Oblivion is the eventual of this earthly life. Most will not be remembered long, their existence forgotten over time. All that we are of a practical nature is captured here on earth. And all that we have accomplished in the natural world will eventually be as nothing. "Looking away [from all that would distract] to Jesus" Heb.12:2. No value can be applied to us who occupy the earth, as to a legacy we have left here that we may enjoy or apply in any conscious thought of ourselves at our exit from this sphere; upon taking up residence in our heavenly existence. Its not that there will be nothing someday it just that all that we are now, as seen and having been accomplished in our natural man will simply have no meaning. "Casting all your care upon Him; for He cares for you" 1 Pet. 5:7. Only that which is lived in the aware value/presence of God's Spirit identified with Christ Jesus will survive as life's final explanation. "Stand fast in the liberty with which Christ has made us free" Gal 5:1. Our time here is not given by God for great accomplishments and the improvement of mankind, but to gain a mental cognizant image of a co-existence with our Lord Jesus Christ. But few indeed will give up their need for a confidence in the material world in exchange for freedom in Christ. "In Christ neither circumcision [legal duty material accomplishments] nor uncircumcision [self life, the natural flesh life and worldly comforts] but a new [positioned in Christ] creature" Gal. 6:15.
We must learn to dim down the constant chatter of the external world and come to recognize the reality and the eternal nature of our internal man, the new man we have become positioned in Christ. We may find this habitation [our identity and position] in the place we know best, our mind, by knowledge and faith of this truth. The knowing of our position hidden in Christ is crucial for any true growth and freedom! Yes a promise awaits those in Christ Jesus: but He came that we may know that promise as life here and now in these bodies, by the nurturing of our spirit in knowledge and faith of what he has made us to be. "A workman that needs not be ashamed, rightly dividing the Word of truth" 2Tim. 2:15. What awaits the Christian cannot be imagined, and if it could it would be of little use here: Except to instill a diversion to that which God desires for us to become in our spirit [mental consciousness and awareness] and soul [personality] by faith in the unseen, which shows itself as our only reality in the Fathers view, Him finding us identified in Christ. "Stand fast, therefore in the liberty [identified in Christ] with which Christ has made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke [world, law, duty] of bondage" Gal. 5:1
How is faith made truly meaningful here? So that our spirit may prosper. Forming a new identity at the expense of our natural flesh nature as earthly bound beings. How can we make it count so that it might comfort our soul, secure in the knowledge of our presence in Christ, as heavenly new creatures? "Now we have received the Spirit who is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God" 1 Cor. 2:12 The Word of God contains the answers. We all have read it many times: but perhaps have not taken it to heart. Have not come to learn the meaning; as we have listened with the ear of the old man, who can only hear the natural, self centered narrative. The great inhibitor to our growth as new creatures is our consistent desire to perform by the ego centric nature, that which God through Christ has given to be only apprehended and lived by the Spirit formed renewed mind. Or the God imposed internalized knowledge and apprehension of being infused, positioned and identified with His Spirit. It's like love that waits to be given, it must be first felt, a intangible, which generates the tangible, we must reach out in faith to accept our heavenly citizenship, to receive the gift of the new Man, to take the advantage. "Changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord" 2 Cor. 3:18.
"Now faith is the substance of things hoped for the evidence of things not seen" Heb. 11:1, is perhaps the most common version of this most important verse. The question is; what is the image and message that is formed in our mind when we hear it? First we must keep in mind that this verse and the whole book of Hebrews was written to a people who were steeped in Jewish tradition and formality. The Jewish Christians, much like most of the modern Church, were earth bound in their understanding, experience and personal appraisal. Like many today, they did not know they could obtain a new and heavenly life in the new nature by faith, and gain by that a complete re-defining of themselves.The attempt by the writer [probably Paul] was to turn them from the seen things of this earth to the unseen things of heaven. Requiring a faith that they are present before God in Christ for the explanation of their Christianity, positioned with Him there. That type of faith must become the only thing to be relied upon for any current realized true hope in this life or the next, anything else is a earthly imitation. So faith must take shape, be formed for any advantage to be received. The cultivation of faith is therefore called upon. It is worthy of all our time as an investment to discover the significances of this truth! No Christian life can be considered complete without pursuit of a presence in Christ; by counting in faith the death of our old nature on the cross and a new ascended life in Him. Which we then may live out upon the earth. "That....the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Christ" Eph. 1:17
Many Christians I believe are held back by a weak under productive faith, the human natural Adamic inherent inadequacy, which can only produces a counterfeit of faith's true revelation. We fail to perceive the true message by assigning it to ourselves, our own understanding. Then there is fear. The fear is first formed when we encounter that their is a power beyond words, introduced by the miracle of a new life. Then by that new birth we hopefully see we have been given a mandate for a entirely new personal mental evaluation of ourselves; by the Word's description of just who we have become."Not I but Christ" Gal. 2:20. Yet the revelation of our separation [self definition] from our earthly nature will not take root, "we are not of this world". The bible states the very Spirit of God lives in us and surely He is not of this world! Therefore we are powerful beyond measure; even if not aware, but fearful to give up the world. And become what we were born to be; inheritors of the heavenly, "hid in Christ", brothers of Jesus Himself, priests of God, Children of God. We have entered the very thorn room of God, by the representation of a position we hold in a Man, Jesus Christ. "Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus" Phil.2:5. We have been made specifically to manifest the glory of God, even His thoughts of us.. All accessible only by faith and given by grace. By that glory growing and seen in us others may then see the Father. This is the way the Father has chosen to expose His glory to all of creation! "But we have this treasure in earthen vessels [our mind/bodies] that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us" 2Cor. 4:7. We must seek the truth about ourselves in the Word's revelation first, then step into the light of the life of new creatures we are by faith in the facts absent of fear, to reveal ourselves to a lost world. "For God has not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and love, and of a sound mind" 2 Tim. 1:7.
The words substance and evidence from Heb. 11:1 requires deeper understanding if we are to enter into the life the Father has for us in his revelation of who we are. Substance gives confidence, and the hope for it makes it real, or acts as a test as to its reality. Hope is not yet faith. Faith says I have it. Faith is the reality, the confidence, the substantiation of hope, which is the precursor of our faith. Faith convinces us of things which we are not able to see, hence it is evidence. The Greek word for substance or substantiation means the real nature of things. Which is our actual presence before God as seen positioned/identified with Him. We must know and live this new life by faith. "For it pleased the Father that in Him [Christ] should all fullness [the believers existence] dwell" Col. 1:19.
Understanding this as true gives evidence or conviction of the necessity of faith to please the Father as to our spiritual conduct, or life, for the true believer. Unbelievers do not have hope nor a true spiritual identity in eternal life, they will always live in death with no hope, but we are people of great hope. The proof of the reality of our hope is in the fact of our "regeneration" into the living hope Jesus Christ. "As you have therefore, received Christ Jesus as Lord [He is your life] so walk in Him, rooted and built up in Him" Col.2:17 We may become new creatures in Him by faith now and ultimately we will be transfigured into a body of glory, just like His. Through the assurance of scripture we have hope in many things; first salvation, then eternal life and heaven and on and on it goes! Why not gather a firm faith from scripture of a living existence positioned in Christ? Our God is a God of hope who has given evidence and substance in this gift from His Spirit by sustaining us in a reality which is His Son and presenting Him as life in written Words. All of this can be know and lived, but one must turn away from the world as a source, for it to be applied as the wonderful advantage of Christianity. "Come unto me all that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest" Matt. 11:28.
Abraham is one example of a hope of Faith, which became alive in his sons birth. Our faith is so much more substantiated in the realty of Jesus Christ, the Word of God and by the presence of the Holy Spirit. We can have a even more firm conviction, as we have evidence and proof of God's gift by grace in His Son. Yet hope in things unseen, as with Abraham, is required, as the things seen here on earth are only temporary, while things not seen are eternal. "That I may know Him" Phil. 3:10.
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