THE ATTATUDE OF DEATH

                                   God's life is in you, you just cannot see it unless you die.    

      We all have a hard time with death. It is very unsettling to a species that knows life only as material and physical action as its basis and it's experience for existence.  It seems no matter how we deal with death, i.e. worldly diversion, intellectualism, philosophy. Even in the entertaining of a hope of a continuance of the life that we know in heaven we will still struggle.

     We are left unsettled by deaths inevitable encroachment. The truth is as humans we only know what we know and expect what we have known, anything beyond this place and time is simply a hope. As a matter of fact the moment we form a descriptive thought in the Adam natural man's conditioned mind we fall victim to the flesh, men that we are we process all through the senses. The ego and self always prevail. In other words we always opt for the material, the established way. We are a species made for the earth. Everything within, including our inner life conscious conception, is marked by that fact. A fact which must be taken into account if we wish to really know God. "but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat of it; for in the day that you eat of it you will surely die."

     The fact of mans fall and certain death [spiritual and physical] is why the Father had to make the self acknowledged announcement of the recognition of the death of our natural man, the man who fears death, so paramount for us to enter His life. We must escape the old and dead man of sin. The man we know so well who we count upon to explain life's experience, the earthly man. .It seems he must find his way to God through deaths door by God's design. Why has God made this image of the death of what we are here in the natural the necessary vision of our inner mans conscience for the discovery of life. A spiritual destiny by God's making which He has declared vital to know Him: really a divine revelation we must possess to enter His new creation life? "Hid in Christ in God".

     Our own obsvered acceptance of death unto all that is within the natural man contemplated and counted as true is the foremost thought He has put forward for our finding and then abiding in the true spirit of the Christian life. Which is really the life of His Son. All for our growth into the peace He has made for us in the new creation life we have in Him. A life entered and dependent upon our understanding of what God has called us to be in spirit. The Spirit life He has recreated us in when we were born anew: made and reveled by knowing of and then living out in awareness the death of the Adam man of the earth. It seems now God demands by His very nature, as expressed in His Word, that we knowingly adopt by faith His own thoughts of us. That is seeing [reckoning] first the Adam man as dead, annulled, non-existent, just as he is in the Fathers Mind. "That I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His suffering being made conformable to His death Phil 3:10.

      And thus a command is given for the spiritual man to adopt a new life definition. First and foremost of death to the man in the world. To focus upon his own death as a earth creature or a non-presence in the divine. Just as seen in God's concept of the failed Adam man. And thus entering the door of His redemption as created new for the living out of the new spiritual creation life in thought; now on earth and forever. He has made this spiritual concept available, and only to be apprehended in His Spirit, within our mind, guided by the reality of faith. In other words there is no provable earthly action we may take to reflect or justify, gain approval toward, what we have become spiritually made to be, as ones now beheld by Him within His Son Christ Jesus. A position of grace. His true recognition of His creatures in the identification of their life in His Son. But first death must come. "Has made us alive together with Christ" Eph. 2:5.

     A life God has made for us in spirit and which we now occupy in what really is another dimension. One of spiritual form. A life which exists entirely in His minds perception and now ours by His Word, via His Spirit. Not the empowering of a reformed activated Adam for works purposes here for His pleasure. No we are actually objectified before God now and perceived in another Man, Christ Jesus. And we are inclusively alive spiritually in His person. By His Spirit it is His life that operates in us subjectively, or so says the Word of God. As Paul taught; "I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which I am apprehended in Christ Jesus" Phil3:12.

      That is we seek God's concept of ourselves, we learn it from the bible and it is made available to us through faith in what He has said. So it is not beyond our ability to know or even to experience what He has made us to be newly. But again first must come the realization of our own self centered ego's necessary death. A death found in knowledge of His Word and only known by faith; for God's objective truth to be our Christian subjective motivation, as a perception of our true life! How may we accomplish that or better how is that accomplished in us? We might even go so far as to learn what the bible actually says about deaths benefit as realized in us and in the eyes of our God for guidance. "Rooted and built up in Him and established" Col. 2:7

     Perhaps we may by the Word then come to believe in the bible doctrine of reckoning [believing/contemplating as truth] upon the death of the Adam man, the man God cannot except. Just as taught by Paul. Was Paul's teaching given simply to empower the Adam conditioned man to carry on a kingdom work on the earth so he might display God, by being a good worker and a moral paragon here? Or was it given so we might honor God by trusting Him for a complete new internal self awareness, one of spirit? The reality of our new existence is grounded only by trust that the old nature is dead before God, not only judicially, but also absent from His mind. So no improvement of this man is necessary for His pleasure. But how do we change our mind about who we are coming to know ourselves as? Ones "hid in Christ".

      A new and Spirit induced internal mental acquisition so vital. Which is acquired by the contemplation of a new truth as taught by Paul. That in doing so we may experience the joy and freedom of a conscience that is convinced by faith and faith only that what He says of us is true. That is we are one in Spirit with His Son. His heavenly new creation formed in His mind. We enter His life by allowing ourselves to simply be [rest in] what He has made us to be in His thoughts. No action on our part is required. What we are and are to be is un-manifested as to any practical reality we live in now. But how do we discover and live in the new reality we are in the Fathers vision of us?

      The work and life of God in the Christian is yielded to and empowered as the Cross with our co-crucifixion and death of the Adam nature with Christ Jesus is taken as a actual truth applied to us. That He and therefore we died to sin, the flesh and the world. Yes this fact must become the attitude of our heart and mind as a life producing reality. "Oh retched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from this body of death?" Rom. 7:24.

     It really is all in the attitude, which is all that we have after all, being of a earthy condition. Our minds perception changed to His mind's perception being the only pathway to Him. We cannot live His new life out in any activity no matter how sincere! Or even form a mental image to rely upon. He has only left us with faith and knowledge to work out our salvation. "I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord" Rom. 7:25.

     The great sacrifice of God's Son did not change us as to condition, but it did place us in a new spiritual position. One requiring faith to please Him. Biblically/spiritually we are now seen in Him by Him only where He is. A concept we may approach by faith. The faith which is God's reality made to be formed in us. A concept that will bring us to a all new perception of life. We only need risk the loss of everything we have built in our programed Adam conscience to gain it."What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ".

     The peace that comes with this knowledge is contained in a Spirit developed new conscience awerness, a mental position influenced and based upon intelligently and faithfully accepting God's concept of oneself as a all new creation being in spirit. For that to happen the old nature, the fleshly concept of ourselves, the dead Adam personality, must die in attitude. Be seen without value as to condition or position before God. Come to be seen as a instrument in itself incapable of pleasing God. This new attitude of death of the old being is the entrance to faith's essence of the reality of the new Spirit life living through us. Or His true life within us! All else while benefiting under Grace is simply works, law and self, which can never please God."Walk in [dependence upon] the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill [live a earthly life in concept] the lust of the flesh" Gal. 5:16.

      So if a new life within the identity of His Son is our hearts desire. And is motivated by our love toward God, combined with a great need, then we must seek death by the application and acceptance of our Adam mans complete devaluation in God's view as His word declares. We then may enter His estimation of ourselves by objectifying our Lord as life just as the Father has done toward us as inheritors of His life. In doing so we will acquire and experience unbridled liberty. Really what the bible declares is a heavenly life lived in our current mortal bodies. Living in the presence or now of a spiritual life. Made available by a mental attitude of death to the man who is in the world. Really what is the discounting of Adam's efforts and his consciences of sin, guilt and works or any righteousness toward God by his own natural abilities. "That you might be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding" Col. 1:9.

      Many would exclaim this seems so hard or what does this mean to me? What will I be? What will I be like? How will I feel? Really what's in it for me asks the Adam condition man? After all we really are all concerned even consumed with our life here as men. We just want to be happy, it is only natural. However these are not the questions or attitude that will lead us from glory to glory in His honor. These are the questions of a man enclosed and captured in the natural Adam condition. Not the new spiritual and free man who has arrived at God's destination in his apprehension of a new life of spirit/identification by attitude, patiently contemplating and resting in the new identity we have been made into in His mind. "I press toward the make for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus" Phil. 3:14.

      What then must we do to receive so great a gift? We must find death before death find us. The death we seek is the death of the ego or the self. A mental effort not of thought or reason, but of resting in a fact, a reality of Spirit. We only need be what He has made us, all else is death. No action is required! We of this age have been thoroughly conditioned to be self centered, materially oriented, or literal in our expectations and group experience is our place of safety to work this out. A worldly pattern of a formation of acceptance. The place we find comfort with others who are like us. Which often only serves to bolster our Adam condition and is thus detracting from the Life of Christ living through us as God's ideal. Humble yourself therefore under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time" 1 Pet. 5:6.

      The writer of the Gospel of position/identification/heavenly life "Paul" had no such intention for his charge. He wasn't even capable of it, at least spiritually speaking. The life philosophy or world view of the man who God assigned to explain Christianity, Paul the Apostle, was motivated by ancient Greek thought instilled in his mind by God's design. He was devoted and internally dependent upon a spiritual observation of life in His evaluation of Gods' revelation to him of the position of His Body. A mystery never before conceived of, even by God's chosen people. "Heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ" Rom. 8:17.

      They [the Jews]were after all a a earthly religious people by God's intention. We however are not, if the bible is true. So a separation from the old earthly Jewish way must prevail. Spirit and the invisible, a life eternal, is now reveled. Showing the new spiritual direction toward what Paul termed a heavenly position and a internally livable condition for all [the Church] those who inherit God's life in spirit. To be lived out individually as a rested in perception and then applied to the Body of Christ in action from that positional spiritual advantage. "Of Him are you in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us....sanctification" 1 Cor. 1:30.

     This does not mean Paul's view was philosophically obscure or not real or would not bear results on earth. No of course not! Christ Jesus life is living through us Here in a practical way also. But first must come from within a formed image driven by faith in the immaterial reality of a new creation life. This is God's creative power at work changing [conforming] us. Which is now given to us as partakers of His life and stewards of His creation; the Body of His Son on earth. Applied to us is the nature of God seen in His Son just as conceived [all in Him] throughout eternity past, and in heaven and now is cast upon the earth within us all by His Spirit. We are now completely new creatures; begun, formed and made in Him. It is thus we are joint heirs of eternal life within His Son. "God has chosen you from the beginning to salvation through sanctification [separation] of the Spirit and belief of the truth" 2 Thess. 2:13.

     Why on earth do we now think what God has done for us in heaven should be displayed into what amounts to temple building or becoming kingdom earth dwellers for Jesus on earth while ignoring His Spirit in applying His identification to our existence? Where is our internal visions origin from we must ask? Remember the world, its systems, the developed culture we are all so instilled within and devoted to, the life we all emulate in condition, is under the auspiciousness of Satan.

     Yes he has been crushed, but the Adam man among all Christians remains fully capable of sin and even great evil in going his own way. The spirit of the enemies' deception remains and continues to influence our cultural and Christian world view. We so easily fall its victim. The spirit of the prince of the power of the air wishes for us to stay in the flesh conflict position and identification here so we will not glorify our true God. This is how he empties our spirit on the ground.

     Paul struggled with his own nature as we but was rescued from that death trap, not be thinking through what he must do, or how he would be effected in His natural condition. Or even worrying about how to go about encouraging others to grow a material organization on earth. NO! His message was not too reason it out, develop a intellect toward what might be accomplished on the earth. He did not seek to think through things in a effort to establish something to be materially represented, a earthly goal.

     Paul made no effort to display Gods glory here in establishment of a perceived orthodoxy or any methodology. Yes those things will come in a material world no matter what. And yes they are covered by grace and may even be done with good intention toward God. But under what vision were they built, heaven or earths? We will miss His true glory if we find our satisfaction in accomplishment here. As we can so easily observe, nothing survives on this plane of existence.

     The question is, is it through the old Adam or the New Man, by Spirit or Law and works? Our is it by resting like Paul, trusting in the unseen, the promise and hope of the invisible by faith? Pure trust in what God had given him by the Holy Spirit. All in dependence, even unto physical death, upon the life work and finality of the accomplishment of Someone else toward God in his stead. Thereby trusting faithfully in the incorporation of his [Paul's and ours] being unto [has entered into life with] another Man, Christ Jesus; inclusively represented where He is. Just as the bible states and leaving us only with faith's means for experience. "For we walk by faith not by sight" 2 Cor. 5:7.

     We are to do the same as Paul, take the same attitude of death of the old nature by faith just as Paul. In order to embrace a concept by faith of a spiritual and heavenly life. Nothing more nothing less. We simply accept it, not attempt to form it or construct it in our mind. Especially we are not to think about this process toward any felt or materially matriculated experiential value. Which would only serve to take us back to the man who is dead to God; all that is the Adam mans condition.  No we simply are now newly what He has made us to be in Spirit and nothing more. We have been saved and are to rest in the attitude of the death of the old so that we might live unto His Spiritual new life, now and forever! What is your attitude?