IN HIS SIGHT

      No man ever rises higher than his alter, that is, he can only be for Christ here in the measure in which he knows Him where all the glory of the Father rests on Him, 2 Cor. 4:6. Christ Jesus was after all rejected from the earth. Yes its true He sent His Spirit back here to dwell within His believing children.  But we must come to know that this work of the Holy Spirit was not to remind us by our deeds and emotions or developed traditions of who we are, but to empower us to reject the flesh and the world just as He did. And now by that mental process of rejection, and the embracing of faith in Him as the object of our own representation before God we may find ourselves where He is; in faithful spiritual heavenly fellowship with Him. This statement while biblically true is hard to grasp. Why? "For we walk by faith NOT by sight" 2 Cor. 5:7

      Because we are creatures of the earth that's why! We will always seek its supply as that is our nature. That is why Christians are so caught up in mimicking the world and still seem to remain satisfied. This was certainly not God's intention in His Word's inspiration guiding us in the separate life through His new man identity creation we are called too. "That He might make known the riches of His glory on the vessels [us] of mercy Rom. 9:23. So how then may we please Him in this earthly life and Honor His intent for us, as new heavenly/spiritual creatures, fellowshipping with the Father together?

      Again and always,  and as featured in my last blog, its the Cross consideration that leads the way to His life for us here on earth. And the fellowship of His sufferings, being made [finished and complete] conformable unto death" Phil. 3:10. As Paul taught; first we must encounter the active side of His Cross; weakness suffering loss and our natural mans death as a done deed. And also to see no value in this world or its affairs toward a godly sanctification. Then and only then do we enter on the objective side or positional [where He has placed us in His Son], which means the finished work of Christ. Which brings us to the subjective or experiential side, in our realization of just who we have become in Him, held there by faith only for the experience of His new creature life. "Has made us alive together [He the object of life] with Christ" Eph. 2:5. So how may we live His heavenly/spiritual life [all of faith] if we do not know His thoughts of us, our identification made by His Cross and His Resurrection, we included? It's Impossible outside of faith and the mindful apprehension of what He has made us too be. The requirement being need, weakness and rejection of this world and our very nature as earth dwellers.

      Within all beleivers there is a natural consequence of his flesh, his sinful behavior and thoughts, which produces quilt. We all seek to allay it. Guilt is really a painful hunger for harmony.... a need to compensate for one's own sin seeking volition, to restore balance add consistency, to restore and to align one's behavior with his beliefs. God has allowed this for His purpose's, to move us toward Him and the awareness of a new life. Which only the weakness of the Cross can expose. This is the unescapable consequence of the earth dweller in order to find His life within.

      The Christianity we are often exposed too however seems to teach that God's Son became man to repair, rehabilitate and improve the natural Adam man of the earth or the first man. But the Word of God does not in any way teach this. It shows us that the first man [us] was set aside in judgement by a new Man of a new order and that new Man is now according to God His beloved representative Man before Him. He represents us, God's only view of us. Therefore "it is finished" for the first man the earth dweller. As He has said we are "hid in Christ in God. This is our status and the truth which we must learn to grasp in order to honor Him. Few do however as our churches have not taken up the banner of our identification in Christ having replaced it with good works and traditions.

      Most people define themselves through the content of their lives. Whatever they perceive, experience or feel is the content, the self defining reality. Content is what absorbs most Christians attention entirely and that is why many of our churches have become simply works, service and entertainment centers for cultural improvement; as it stimulates man and makes him feel as if he belongs. But it just creates a false identity.

      However we must not be deceived by thinking the human mind can form any idea of any trait of the new Man Christ Jesus by imitation or experiential emotions. No we must look entirely to Him in faith in order to understand the Man of God's pleasure. Who displays us before Him in Glory. He Christ Jesus is the beginning of the new creation and we are seen in Him and only Him. It is not in Adam the worker [the old man] that we are seen but in His beloved Son. To know this requires something spiritual only provided by the loss of reliance upon content. Thus in contents loss of value we create the need for reliance upon Him only.

      What is this new Man then and who are we within Him? We know if we contemplate our life what we are not....acceptapable to Him as our selves. Yes we may learn to repeat words that stimulate emotions. But knowing ourselves as contained wholly within Him is another matter all together. Who we have been made into cannot be learned by any effort of the human mind including scriptural study. Then how do we find what we are in the New Man? It is by association in fellowship with God in a heavenly life faith conception or God's view. The adoption of a renewed mind toward a spirit life of faith with Christ Jesus as the object and nothing else ever! By these thoughts the Holy Spirit may conform us to His image as we grow by His Word with a new identity as example.

      You will receive that which corresponds with Him; as you are with Him in thought. "Having put on the new man" Eph. 4:24. This truth is addressed to the believer who is in conscious union and personal fellowship, in his new position and identity, which is held in Christ Jesus before God, in the heavenlies or the spiritual dimension. In other words our godly existence is found in the mind not in what we do. This biblical identity is seldom taught today, or are we encouraged to seek it, as we are so busy identifying with experience and content, which serves a worldly church in it's quest for cultural change or the enhancement of the earthly Adam man in a enjoyable atmosphere.

      It is only as a individual in weakness will we receive the enlightenment [internal, mindful, Christ identity] needed to live His life. The group dynamic might make one feel he is a part of something bigger than himself, and he is, but it often leaves one in dependence on emotional energy, feelings and developed traditions/works when depended upon. Which does not contribute to spiritual maturity. For the growing spiritual man identified internally in Christ has left his ego behind and is less outward, as he matures in faithful knowledge of who he actually is in the eye's of the Father. "I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which I am apprehended [God's view] of Christ Jesus" Phil. 3:12.