"I am learning to set aside in death everything in me which hinders the manifestation of the life of the Lord Jesus Christ".......Just what does that mean? Is this God's desire for all Christians? If so How may we accomplish it?
There is a conventional societal collar being worn by the Christian today. We are held firmly by a self developed natural Adam self conscious tradition. By that development [if succumbed too] we have simply become members of a moral world betterment organization, or worse a self-improvement cult. This is a great restraint upon the spiritual liberation we need to live a life in Christ Jesus. However according to the Word of God; by embracing our own death upon the cross we will find the freedom that He has accomplished for us by His Sons death upon that same Cross.
For the bible tells me so: Paul said of his ministry, "Death working in me works life in you". "For we who live are always delivered unto death for Jesus' sake, that the life of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh". The sake word here is that Jesus Christ might live in you as a conscious reality by your informed acknowledgement of His life replacing yours in the Fathers estimation. Because He died and we co-died with Him as natural Adam men and women: the work of His Cross. As Paul said of the apostles; "So that death works in us, but life in you". Jesus' all encompassing representative death was what he was referring to, as well as their worldly suffering due to their display of Christ as life in their walk.
Again Paul said; "Oh wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from the body of this death"? He was acknowledging his sin nature and his need for deliverance from it. We all must come to realize this as Paul did! Then accept our natural condition as earthly men just like Paul. But the deliverance from the sinful nature, which is our condition as natural men, for us and Paul comes by faith in another's accomplishment and in no other way!
Our Father knows that we are weakness incarnate; that we can do nothing. The trouble is that we do not know it. So He must bring us to the place where we see that we are utterly weak and helpless. His will, will be served, when we come to know everything about the first Adam man [us] must be put to death. Not by our action, but by our faith that we are in fact dead in The Fathers eye's as natural Adam men by Christ's representing us in His own Death.
We hold onto him [the natural first Adam] for dear life. He is all we know, at least until we know of our own death, positioned and identified in Christ. We work and serve, pray and sing, go from one conference or meeting to another all in search of a final reckoning, a sound self satisfied standing. The more we try the greater our weakness is manifest. Romans seven makes this very clear indeed.
"It is God who works in you" We are delivered by death [our own on the cross] so that the Father's will, will be done in us. In other words we are actually delivered and have life by the faith that all that we are as natural Adam men has died with Christ. By acknowledging this true truth we become free from doing the will of ourselves.
The Lord Jesus Christ is to manifest His Resurrected life through and in us, "That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit". Note in this new Christ life we are to live in the Spirit. He is only alive in us consciously as a action, by faith in a Spiritual event and a Spiritual life of faith that we are "Hid in Christ Jesus". No feeling, work or self righteous action on our part will ever accomplish this.
If we could live His Resurrection life by keeping commands, by works, or by experiences it would be forming a god man in the flesh or what the Adam man totally failed at. The world of good behavior, self righteousness, training, overcoming and law keeping cannot form His life in us. It is only by a faith that conducts His "death to us all" and a new creation life by and in His Spirit. So it is also only by a knowledgeable faith that we may say as Paul, speaking of his deliverance from self; "I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord".... that we may have the freedom to live unto Christ Jesus on earth and forever!
Sunday, August 30, 2015
Thursday, August 20, 2015
WHAT MAY COME OUR WAY
"Let us go and get past the elementary stage....advancing steadily toward the completeness....that belongs to spiritual maturity" Heb. 6:1, Amp.
"So many rest content with the thought that their sins are pardoned, and that they are in the path of life, but know nothing of a personal attachment to the risen Lord Jesus Christ as their life, or of faith that lives in the invisible and walks with the Father".
The thought of providence [the visible] and its relationship to faith [the invisible] has been on my mind of late. Thoughts once again inspired by Mr Stoney of long ago.
First however we must establish what faith is. "Faith is us resting on the known mind of the father which He has by His Word communicated and assured that whatever the difficulties in the way of fulfillment, or however great the opposition it, His perfect will for us, will ultimately be established". The continuation of His established will is found or often seen in providence, that which comes our way in life, and of course always by His Word. We may depend on and even trust God's providence seeing Him in the visible, but that is not faith. Yes God is the Lord over providence. However our faith in His presence there is what glorifies and honors Him.
Our faith can never be based upon what is seen. This is the great problem with experiential religion today. For if that were possible then there would be no need to rise above the seen things of this world by faith, as the Word declares we are to do. If His truth and His joy is found in a seen or experienced thing then righteousness would always be in that which the world or we produce. This simply cannot be true, as He has condemned the world and is not of this world. We and He have died to it in Christ and are citizens of the heavenly realm, now a unseen thing only accessible by faith, as to that being our condition and position before God.
So if we go to faith in the invisible as our rock, accepting the agent of providence as its extension, we may then trust that everything that comes our way, despite the confusion or anarchy of so much around in the visible, is from the mind of our God and is indeed divine providence. Therefore faith is the only course to know true godly progress, not in the works we see or do; no matter how moral, biblical or godly. This in my estimation is the only principle [faith] upon which the Christian man or woman of action may live to their selves in Gods path. That is if one wishes to live a life in Jesus Christ consciously.
Our Father has not deserted the earth in His condemnation of it. He keeps it in check by His providence. This is a different thing than faith, which rests on the mind and is found in the will of our Father conducted in us. But they work hand in hand and we may find godly power in the adoption of faith and providence's inevitable path as a valid view of our position as Christians. We may, I believe, gain a sort of control over the future by the acceptance that God is thoroughly in that which comes our way, with faith being our compass.
By His providence and power The Father controls the disorder of the world systems, even in the seeming confusion of providence's fateful path. Our faith however is applied in the undisturbed region of His mind and within His unalterable will, upon our identification in His Son. His will waits and may be seen in that which comes our way in the providence which forms us as receivers of His blessings and conduits of His will.
God has no other choice than this method for our growth and progress. If He left man to himself or by suppression controlled him, then He would effectively be supporting Satan. No He [God] is the only source of ultimate power and He must check it and control it as His wisdom and ultimate purpose require. The Fathers providence brings that which comes our way all in His timing and by His supreme will. We only need wait upon Him in our experience and trust Him in faith.
Nothing can be plainer than that faith is far higher and a more spiritual path than providence or experience. Faith is the the only true path. Faith is to be intelligent and assured....but often the providence of God is mysterious.
It is not that we are to disregard providence...but we are not to surrender faith for it by relying only upon experience. If we are walking in a intelligent informed biblical faith in a persistent way His providence will confirm our path. We may know by this kind of faith that God is always there in what may come our way.
"So many rest content with the thought that their sins are pardoned, and that they are in the path of life, but know nothing of a personal attachment to the risen Lord Jesus Christ as their life, or of faith that lives in the invisible and walks with the Father".
The thought of providence [the visible] and its relationship to faith [the invisible] has been on my mind of late. Thoughts once again inspired by Mr Stoney of long ago.
First however we must establish what faith is. "Faith is us resting on the known mind of the father which He has by His Word communicated and assured that whatever the difficulties in the way of fulfillment, or however great the opposition it, His perfect will for us, will ultimately be established". The continuation of His established will is found or often seen in providence, that which comes our way in life, and of course always by His Word. We may depend on and even trust God's providence seeing Him in the visible, but that is not faith. Yes God is the Lord over providence. However our faith in His presence there is what glorifies and honors Him.
Our faith can never be based upon what is seen. This is the great problem with experiential religion today. For if that were possible then there would be no need to rise above the seen things of this world by faith, as the Word declares we are to do. If His truth and His joy is found in a seen or experienced thing then righteousness would always be in that which the world or we produce. This simply cannot be true, as He has condemned the world and is not of this world. We and He have died to it in Christ and are citizens of the heavenly realm, now a unseen thing only accessible by faith, as to that being our condition and position before God.
So if we go to faith in the invisible as our rock, accepting the agent of providence as its extension, we may then trust that everything that comes our way, despite the confusion or anarchy of so much around in the visible, is from the mind of our God and is indeed divine providence. Therefore faith is the only course to know true godly progress, not in the works we see or do; no matter how moral, biblical or godly. This in my estimation is the only principle [faith] upon which the Christian man or woman of action may live to their selves in Gods path. That is if one wishes to live a life in Jesus Christ consciously.
Our Father has not deserted the earth in His condemnation of it. He keeps it in check by His providence. This is a different thing than faith, which rests on the mind and is found in the will of our Father conducted in us. But they work hand in hand and we may find godly power in the adoption of faith and providence's inevitable path as a valid view of our position as Christians. We may, I believe, gain a sort of control over the future by the acceptance that God is thoroughly in that which comes our way, with faith being our compass.
By His providence and power The Father controls the disorder of the world systems, even in the seeming confusion of providence's fateful path. Our faith however is applied in the undisturbed region of His mind and within His unalterable will, upon our identification in His Son. His will waits and may be seen in that which comes our way in the providence which forms us as receivers of His blessings and conduits of His will.
God has no other choice than this method for our growth and progress. If He left man to himself or by suppression controlled him, then He would effectively be supporting Satan. No He [God] is the only source of ultimate power and He must check it and control it as His wisdom and ultimate purpose require. The Fathers providence brings that which comes our way all in His timing and by His supreme will. We only need wait upon Him in our experience and trust Him in faith.
Nothing can be plainer than that faith is far higher and a more spiritual path than providence or experience. Faith is the the only true path. Faith is to be intelligent and assured....but often the providence of God is mysterious.
It is not that we are to disregard providence...but we are not to surrender faith for it by relying only upon experience. If we are walking in a intelligent informed biblical faith in a persistent way His providence will confirm our path. We may know by this kind of faith that God is always there in what may come our way.
Sunday, August 2, 2015
A CLEAR VIEW
The primary legacy of man has been the obfuscation of God's Word. Obfuscation: the obscuring of intended
meaning in communication, making the message confusing, willfully
ambiguous, or harder to understand.
The natural Adam man constructs his life view according to himself, his interests. He is bound by his nature to do so, there simply is no other choice for him. We Christians are members of the natural Adam family as a condition, therefore we are guilty of carrying on Adams self serving failure also. He went his own way.
We are self centered creatures and cannot escape our own destiny. In this way we are much like a animal. We all see what we see in the frame of reference of what and where we are at the moment we receive the information or stimulus. This is our identification as sinful humans. Its called being self centered. Yes Christians too!
That is why true Christianity is forever and always contrary to the natural inclinations. Christianity requires only and always faith in the actions on another. Faith will not be proved by our feelings or actions, choices or morals as natural men. Within ourselves we do not have the capacity to form a godly or even a good choice, we only like to think we do. As a matter of fact it may take a life time to internalize faiths message, as the Adam man must forge the road of a indeterminate quality of his own faith.
A contemporary and worldly example of the typical Adam mans self serving for us to consider is the current global financial system we have all embraced. It is debt based; all money issued is in the form of a interest bearing note, a debt instrument, including cash produced from those debts. We all know debt must be repaid and we all should know that debt which is used for a non-productive purpose like transfer payments, deficit spending, welfare, wars and a large centralized bureaucracy etc. poses no return and therefore cannot be serviced by any proceeds from it, as this type of debt produces none. It cannot even be paid off, it must ever be expanded to continue to support itself.
This type of money creation has no value added [unlike a loan to build a factory] and is not true capitalism; which means savings or earnings applied. Yet we persist in believing the lie that continued deficit spending and debt expansion will keep us fat and happy. Like a dog if one continues to feed it, it will eat and eat, even to its own destruction. The mathematical law of exponents [how many times a number is multiplied] proves a crushing collapse must come with unlimited debt expansion, as all debt must be serviced and repaid. That is its nature.
You see my friends we only see things from the perspective of that which pleases us best at any given time, even if we lazily and simply absorb another mans opinion on matters of truth or volunteer to be victims of the current system and make it ours; which is most often the case.
I have been thinking a lot lately about how one can know a true truth. There is only one truth about any one thing, at least in essence. There are not many true views of God's word, only one true one. In the case of our relationship with God it is critical that our own perspective [self centered desires] and the absorption of others self serving opinion not get in the way of that truth; a most difficult, perhaps even impossible task. How then shall we proceed?
One might say just read and believe the bible, pray a lot, do good things, don't sin too much.....well OK that's pretty good. But what about the basic dilemma? All of mans questions are answered according to his own self wish perspective. Hardly a bookmark for true truth in that schematic; which is defined as: a drawing showing relationship between two designs. Here it is God's and man's. There is a big difference! Our only job as Christians is to discover what is truly true by the Holy Spirit, or God's design.
That is why dear saints I go on and on about faith. Granted we may have a misplaced faith even a silly faith or a faith in something that's not possible or true like our monetary system. Us continuing on living successfully in a debt based economy and not suffer the pay off call. It would be so easy just to say read this or that bible verse or go to church and then believe and all would be well.
However I think the answer to our issue [Adams dilemma] lies in a specific hope or a need applied. A defining awareness of our weakness and corruption as Adam men. You see one does not seek faith if one does not need it first. That needful condition is the precursor to faith. But knowledge of the truth must then be consistently and aggressively sought. If one truly seeks he will find because the Holy Spirit will provide the truth. God's nature demands it.
Thankfully even a misplaced or erroneous belief is a tool used by a loving God to bring us into the freedom of truth when we finally suffer enough and admit to it's lie or the error of our way. As those in pursuit of a misplaced goal hopefully soon do, bringing need. At least this is true for those whom God knows will finely receive His true truth. Of course eventually all of mankind will. But why wait?
Often the result of a practical path to discovering God leads us down a crooked trail. This is merely a human reality. One day we wake up and discover that the road we were on is not taking us to the place we hoped to be, even though we may be morally correct in many of our life choices. Then despair comes forward, weakness prevails. We question the story we once thought so true. Often having been lead there by well meaning men whom we respect; who suffer our same condition. If one is simply satisfied he has already succumbed to his condition. Our only hope is the Holy Spirit allows pain and suffering to arise.
We then begin to hear something new that our ears formerly could not. We come to see that the problem is in our nature, not merely our understanding alone. We have to move out of the way. We may now enter upon a new road; one of faith that has been made clear in the life and death of another Man, Jesus Christ.... For that exact purpose [us finding our life in Him by faith] God has placed us in His consideration positioned in His Son.
God knows mans condition far better than we. He, by His love for the being or essence of each and every individual predestined to receive Him and all others for that matter, provided a way for us to enjoy Him in a present reality, one of truth, seen only by faith in it [the truth] specifically. His plan was not to remake our Adam man with his sinful condition. Pound it into submission. He simply became us and provided the way for us in Himself. Really the only logical way of satisfaction for a perfect being who is love and by His nature must demand perfection. He could not have possibly used us. We only need the hope of faith in that exact truth to realize it. But we must use our mind to prove it to ourselves!
Now by faith we are asked to exercise our mind, to choose to live our life by His provision of His identity. Learning to recognize our condition, but having faith in our position which is identified by God as in Christ. We the Christian, have been absorbed or placed into Jesus Christ by The Fathers design. Is it possible we can truly believe this as our only true and real form of life? Ask Paul.
The Father is non-material and we have become also non-material or spiritual by being born again. Our life is found in Spirit, not a changed Adam man. This requires faith at the outset, we call that justification. It is all a matter for the mind. The only way to God and eternal life is through the minds door as shown by His Word. Why then do we enter the futility of a discovery according to mans perception and not God's? Because we always will seek the easy path.
His Son identified with us for the purpose of pleasing the Father, that He [The Father] might fellowship with us forever. He [The Son] went to the cross, died and came back in Resurrection all in representation of the Adam man. He Ascended in that same status....a Man in the flesh is now at the right hand of God and His presence there is applied to us. Only faith will see that. No work will do. But then how do we live it now, in our Adam condition?
Can we believe this is true? Can we apply it to ourselves? Is it possible God sees us only in His Son? Can we stop being committed to remaking the Adam man and learn to rest in the position and identification of the New Man Jesus Christ as our inheritance? These are all good and worthy questions we must all at some point ask of ourselves. We must prepare a answer by faith. But first knowledge shows the way. Faith in a truth is the only way to please God. His Word provides the answers.
Hope and need paves the way for the clear view....weakness and failure are the fuel for the journey. The end of ourselves is the beginning of life. Faith applied along the way by His Word as the resting place will provide the sanctuary. There is no other way.
The natural Adam man constructs his life view according to himself, his interests. He is bound by his nature to do so, there simply is no other choice for him. We Christians are members of the natural Adam family as a condition, therefore we are guilty of carrying on Adams self serving failure also. He went his own way.
We are self centered creatures and cannot escape our own destiny. In this way we are much like a animal. We all see what we see in the frame of reference of what and where we are at the moment we receive the information or stimulus. This is our identification as sinful humans. Its called being self centered. Yes Christians too!
That is why true Christianity is forever and always contrary to the natural inclinations. Christianity requires only and always faith in the actions on another. Faith will not be proved by our feelings or actions, choices or morals as natural men. Within ourselves we do not have the capacity to form a godly or even a good choice, we only like to think we do. As a matter of fact it may take a life time to internalize faiths message, as the Adam man must forge the road of a indeterminate quality of his own faith.
A contemporary and worldly example of the typical Adam mans self serving for us to consider is the current global financial system we have all embraced. It is debt based; all money issued is in the form of a interest bearing note, a debt instrument, including cash produced from those debts. We all know debt must be repaid and we all should know that debt which is used for a non-productive purpose like transfer payments, deficit spending, welfare, wars and a large centralized bureaucracy etc. poses no return and therefore cannot be serviced by any proceeds from it, as this type of debt produces none. It cannot even be paid off, it must ever be expanded to continue to support itself.
This type of money creation has no value added [unlike a loan to build a factory] and is not true capitalism; which means savings or earnings applied. Yet we persist in believing the lie that continued deficit spending and debt expansion will keep us fat and happy. Like a dog if one continues to feed it, it will eat and eat, even to its own destruction. The mathematical law of exponents [how many times a number is multiplied] proves a crushing collapse must come with unlimited debt expansion, as all debt must be serviced and repaid. That is its nature.
You see my friends we only see things from the perspective of that which pleases us best at any given time, even if we lazily and simply absorb another mans opinion on matters of truth or volunteer to be victims of the current system and make it ours; which is most often the case.
I have been thinking a lot lately about how one can know a true truth. There is only one truth about any one thing, at least in essence. There are not many true views of God's word, only one true one. In the case of our relationship with God it is critical that our own perspective [self centered desires] and the absorption of others self serving opinion not get in the way of that truth; a most difficult, perhaps even impossible task. How then shall we proceed?
One might say just read and believe the bible, pray a lot, do good things, don't sin too much.....well OK that's pretty good. But what about the basic dilemma? All of mans questions are answered according to his own self wish perspective. Hardly a bookmark for true truth in that schematic; which is defined as: a drawing showing relationship between two designs. Here it is God's and man's. There is a big difference! Our only job as Christians is to discover what is truly true by the Holy Spirit, or God's design.
That is why dear saints I go on and on about faith. Granted we may have a misplaced faith even a silly faith or a faith in something that's not possible or true like our monetary system. Us continuing on living successfully in a debt based economy and not suffer the pay off call. It would be so easy just to say read this or that bible verse or go to church and then believe and all would be well.
However I think the answer to our issue [Adams dilemma] lies in a specific hope or a need applied. A defining awareness of our weakness and corruption as Adam men. You see one does not seek faith if one does not need it first. That needful condition is the precursor to faith. But knowledge of the truth must then be consistently and aggressively sought. If one truly seeks he will find because the Holy Spirit will provide the truth. God's nature demands it.
Thankfully even a misplaced or erroneous belief is a tool used by a loving God to bring us into the freedom of truth when we finally suffer enough and admit to it's lie or the error of our way. As those in pursuit of a misplaced goal hopefully soon do, bringing need. At least this is true for those whom God knows will finely receive His true truth. Of course eventually all of mankind will. But why wait?
Often the result of a practical path to discovering God leads us down a crooked trail. This is merely a human reality. One day we wake up and discover that the road we were on is not taking us to the place we hoped to be, even though we may be morally correct in many of our life choices. Then despair comes forward, weakness prevails. We question the story we once thought so true. Often having been lead there by well meaning men whom we respect; who suffer our same condition. If one is simply satisfied he has already succumbed to his condition. Our only hope is the Holy Spirit allows pain and suffering to arise.
We then begin to hear something new that our ears formerly could not. We come to see that the problem is in our nature, not merely our understanding alone. We have to move out of the way. We may now enter upon a new road; one of faith that has been made clear in the life and death of another Man, Jesus Christ.... For that exact purpose [us finding our life in Him by faith] God has placed us in His consideration positioned in His Son.
God knows mans condition far better than we. He, by His love for the being or essence of each and every individual predestined to receive Him and all others for that matter, provided a way for us to enjoy Him in a present reality, one of truth, seen only by faith in it [the truth] specifically. His plan was not to remake our Adam man with his sinful condition. Pound it into submission. He simply became us and provided the way for us in Himself. Really the only logical way of satisfaction for a perfect being who is love and by His nature must demand perfection. He could not have possibly used us. We only need the hope of faith in that exact truth to realize it. But we must use our mind to prove it to ourselves!
Now by faith we are asked to exercise our mind, to choose to live our life by His provision of His identity. Learning to recognize our condition, but having faith in our position which is identified by God as in Christ. We the Christian, have been absorbed or placed into Jesus Christ by The Fathers design. Is it possible we can truly believe this as our only true and real form of life? Ask Paul.
The Father is non-material and we have become also non-material or spiritual by being born again. Our life is found in Spirit, not a changed Adam man. This requires faith at the outset, we call that justification. It is all a matter for the mind. The only way to God and eternal life is through the minds door as shown by His Word. Why then do we enter the futility of a discovery according to mans perception and not God's? Because we always will seek the easy path.
His Son identified with us for the purpose of pleasing the Father, that He [The Father] might fellowship with us forever. He [The Son] went to the cross, died and came back in Resurrection all in representation of the Adam man. He Ascended in that same status....a Man in the flesh is now at the right hand of God and His presence there is applied to us. Only faith will see that. No work will do. But then how do we live it now, in our Adam condition?
Can we believe this is true? Can we apply it to ourselves? Is it possible God sees us only in His Son? Can we stop being committed to remaking the Adam man and learn to rest in the position and identification of the New Man Jesus Christ as our inheritance? These are all good and worthy questions we must all at some point ask of ourselves. We must prepare a answer by faith. But first knowledge shows the way. Faith in a truth is the only way to please God. His Word provides the answers.
Hope and need paves the way for the clear view....weakness and failure are the fuel for the journey. The end of ourselves is the beginning of life. Faith applied along the way by His Word as the resting place will provide the sanctuary. There is no other way.
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