WHAT IN THE WORLD IS THE WORLD ?

      To the serious and thoughtful Christian, the question should come up often and earnestly-what is the world? What is it from which we Christians are to keep ourselves unspotted? 

       There are three senses in which the word world can be used in a Biblical understanding as applying to the Christians identity and life; literally, it means the order or system according to which human affairs are managed on the earth. The earth itself is called the world, because it is the platform on which the world-system operates, and the people who live according to this world-system, absent a divine identity, are called the world and are of the world.

       Contrarily those who are redeemed by having faith in a salvation given by Grace coming from a Man who the Bible teaches was God upon earth. A Man Who came specifically to die in representation, judicially, of all mankind and the world. He fulfilled God's perfect order of the justification of the Adam man of flesh by His death which was inclusive of all mankind of the flesh inheritance who believed Him. In God's sight we are now as flesh creatures in identity before God dead!. Thereby canceling out "Sin" which is "in the flesh", and He put to death all that is flesh in the sight of God,and all that we in this flesh [our condition] as Adam men are. By believing this we are now made to be distinct in a new creation of spirit [our position before God], in God's View. Separate and distinct from those of the world. Our life now may consist as taking sides with a rejected Christ by our new identity, against the world which has crucified Him. "Now you are light in the world" Eph. 5:8. A very humble position indeed.

      
      We are now to be marked as men of a heavenly race, blameless and harmless, the sons of God without rebuke in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom we are too shine as lights in this evil world. Being predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things after the counsel of His own will" Eph. 1:11. This is the great mission of God's children and nothing more is needed but to know this as our positional in Christ identity; all else will follow as Jesus lives His very life through us, we only need to rest in that in faith. But if this is true how can we truthfully/practically view ourselves in such a divine light? And just how will we be enabled to fulfill with any degree of confidence what the reveled mind of God expresses to us in the Word; as to the true nature, position and identity, of the child of God? "Walk as children of light" Eph. 5:8.

       The answer is we must come to know who we really are as ones in Christ, as I touched on in my last blog. The Christian is told he should love his neighbor as himself, however this command was given while followers of Christ Jesus were under the law, prior to the Cross.  But now after the Cross we have a new law/command, that of "the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus". It is not now, by this Law, given in Grace, through death, how we ourselves wish to be treated, or by what we wish for ourselves, or what we may accomplish that we may direct good toward others in outreach. No now by this new Law we sacrifice our very selves as Adam men of the flesh, as the Lord in Heaven is our identity and is now our life. "He [the Father] has chosen us in Him [the Son] before the foundation of the world" Eph. 1:4.

       If this is true then, in God's view of our life, as defined in His minds conscious thought of us via His word, and we being under the dispensation of grace now: under which He teaches us that Christianity looks for having no self, as His law of life and Spirit  cannot be  based in a inner identity outside of His own. "But now in Christ Jesus you who were once far off are made near by the Blood of Christ" Eph. 2:13. There is no value going forward toward God in ourselves as workers for Christ alone. Our thoughts or actions are of no value as Adam men to The Father. "If any man be in Christ he is a new creation" 2 Cor. 5:17. There is also no value in our redemption quality but Christ Jesus Himself. We as Adam men of flesh have not been changed. No we are made new in His sight as ones of spirit."Walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit" Rom. 8:4.

       If we have His mind, by reckoning in faith His Word, we then are giving up ourselves too His declaration of who we are in His Son. As Christ Jesus made us new in representation by His work upon the cross and in His Resurrection, now we are made in spirit in God's mind as: "He Himself [the Father] through Jesus Christ, accomplishing through you what is pleasing to Him" Heb. 13:21. This God's great and loving work was done by God so that His Son might live His own life through us in the new man we have become. Thus making us all new. "Put on the new man" Eph. 4:24. We are God's new creation seen by Him in His Son, as we are now as individual spirits know to the Father in perfect identity as; "hid in Christ with God". The world system simply does not and cannot recognize this, as perhaps far too many Christians may not also.

      If we are to walk on this earth as Christian and that walk is to improve mankind by service, that a man might fulfill God's desire by works on this earth in any way, then we have a problem with our understanding of scripture. "If you, then, be risen with Christ, seek those things above, where Christ sits at the right hand of God" Col. 3:1. The Word teaches us in Paul's letters that we can enter God's very mind to find our true place, which is of Spirit. We then may see that God directs us within to become a living creature in Spirit of the narrative of God's plan for our new identity; as set forth there for all to read and rest in faith within. "For you died [co-death with Christ] and you life [spirit of the new creation seen in Christ] is hid with Christ with God'. Col.3:3. It is only our cultural predisposition toward the World system that holds us back from understanding and therefore being what we truly are meant to be, as a daily experience in consciousness, acknowledging our new position and identity. If this is true then what is it that will open our mind to His Spirit to our new conscious identity? To know ourselves just as God does, that we may be of service by and in spirit as; "The carnal mind [the flesh mind of the soul] is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God neither can be" Rom. 8:7.

      It is we in ourselves guided by the Holy Spirit, by His gift of faith, that we may begin to see that as our sense of our moral distance from the Father deepens and we acknowledge our weakness, it is then that we become conscious of our nearness to Him. We can only know our nearness, and thus the utter failure of the flesh, as we grow in awareness of the Words of His mind, as written in His Word; declaring His Mind to us. We will find this new mind only by the division and study of God's biblical doctrines. Which if neglected will serve to keep us united with the very world that Christ Jesus died unto on our behalf. What a loss, to loose a conscious awareness of the very life of Christ Jesus, living His Life through us. My prayer is we always strive to grow into the knowledge of our true beings and come to know that the Fathers only sees us in the light and love of His Son at His right side. In His Eye's we are there now with/in Him in Heaven. And may we desire to grow into knowing that we ourselves and all that is in and of the world, in God's mind, is annulled, done and dead, and of no consequence toward us "as eternal beings" what so ever. As the world and all its accomplishments here on earth is indeed a dead thing in the Fathers thoughts! "And the peace of God, which passes all understanding, shall guard your hearts and your thoughts in Christ Jesus" Phil. 4:7. 

      

JUST WHO ARE YOU?

      There is no greater hinderance to progress in spiritual growth than a religious system: the personal work of God in the inner man, in order to bring us to a intelligent understanding of our position in His Son is hampered by our tendency to substitute emotion, moral improvement, cultural change and planed activity for spiritual progress. This worldly course now permeates our current christian culture and institutions, and is the result of the saints being what the Bible calls"dull of hearing": not knowing, by the word of God, the new creation truth of what we have become positionally in Christ, and not knowing how that applies to our life in the here and now as Christians. A truth which was revealed clearly in the Word by Paul to be our exact condition; in this the present dispensation of God's administration of Grace. "Being justified freely by grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus" Rom. 3:24. Often we conduct ourselves in a approved and culturally accepted Christian like fashion but mature spiritual growth is sacrificed for feelings and traditions, which please the crowd but are really worldly in nature.

      In our modern culture we are constantly seeking a place in this world where we feel satisfied and are improvement bound. Therefore what is provided is a atmosphere which will please man to that end. However this is not Christianity. Moving from one place of worship to another in order to find a certain feeling, good music, eloquent words or a pleasing setting is mans self-centered personality at work for his own pleasure or comfort. History is clear, the church on earth as a organized institution, has often failed for the most part to produce saints who have a personal understanding of the new creation they are shown to be in the bible. "I have been crucified with Christ, and I myself no longer live" Gal 2:20. Not knowing the truth of a life defined as "in Christ", as their life's faithful commitment by knowledge and in faith. Little encouragement is offered the saints to become spiritually/biblically mature in their new creation "hid in Christ" self identity as Christians, which the bible clearly defines, by their local church. Why?

      The believer having received " the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus" in reconciliation [being saved] comes under the moral influence of a new "law", one of Spirit under Grace. This new life we now have always works in direction of self judgment as we must come to see that under His redemption and righteousness our new life is applied to us by God through His Son alone, not our own feelings of completeness, accomplishment or even feelings of godly fellowship or bible knowledge: His life provides a signifyingly and often overlooked result; simply His Spirit in us as our life's definition. We may now know what and who we are in God's mind and that our own vision of personal self worth has no value toward God. " I certainly do count everything as loss compared with the  priceless privilege of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord" Phil. 3:8.
     
      By His Spirit with biblical knowledge and in faith we now we have a source for a new identification; by a mental acquiescence to that truth. Yes we may now know His thoughts. Which can be known to us by a doctrine revealed by Paul, which taught that when we are needful enough His Spirit will open up a all new divine life in us as individuals, a new identification for our Christian life. " For as the suffering of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also abounds by Christ" 2 Cor. 1:5. We now by this new life, in faith and knowledge may have a heavenly source of overriding satisfaction and strength, for the true Christian experience. No longer are we mere men of the earth building a kingdom here by works, we are now partakers of a divine life in His glorious kingdom of Spirit; seen by faith, lived by intelligent mature identification as ones living actively in a knowingly sanctified life in spirit, for as He is in Heaven we are now like Him on earth. But we must know such a life in our new creation spiritual existence is seen by God entirely in another Person only. Then how can we know it as a experience?

     The very first principal of knowing Christ Jesus as life in Spirit is to need too beyond any other thing. In other words we must find Him "as life" in our weakness. As knowing Him as mere men in work, service or determination we cannot ever measure up to His divine life, or really even know it. Even though, thank God, we really do have His life: in spiritual identification and position before , a God who definiens all things by the actions of His Son, under His divine Grace for all eternity. Its just that few seem to know Him as a positional reality; as their defined existence before God in the present as a mindful  experience. "And you are compete in Him, Who is the head of all principality and power" Col. 2:10. We therefore in order to find our true self in spirit must find deliverance from what we are as earthly men and women; in our consciousness definition of who we are in order to see in ourselves as having His life now, in a new conscious awareness of our Christianity! All made possible by His Grace, now we may begin acquiring a new self identification from His Word; to possess His spiritual life in experience here and now. But how? " Blessed are they that seek Him with a whole heart " Ps. 119:2.

      Delivered is a word seldom heard in todays churches, but the bible is clear we are to know deliverance from our very nature, the one we inherited from the first Adam. " It is no longer I that live, but Christ lives [as a defining self reality] in me" Gal.2:20. We may do this in only one way; by reckoning by faith the old Adam man as dead, not gone as we still sin, but see ourselves dead in the natural and to the flesh, in God's sight. All done by faith in the Word only, as this is God's reckoned and Word revealed view of His saints. "Crucified with Him" Rom. 6:6. We are not seen by Him for, heavenly spiritual purposes, as natural men and women, but only in the Person of His Son. As He sees us only in the nature [God became flesh] of the second Adam Christ Jesus, our new inheritance. A new Man in the flesh, Who died and then overcame death on our behalf! "Put on the new Man" Eph. 4:24. If this is true then where is our new life now to be found in that experience?

      The saint in proportion as he counts himself dead to sin [delivered] and alive to God [sanctified within Christ] enjoys fellowship with Him; by knowing his position of oneness in Spirit with Christ Jesus: just as we are seen in the Son by the Father; this is knowing God's mind regarding us His children. "For we worship God in spirit [mindful understanding], and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confident in the flesh [works, traditions, emotions] " Phil 3;3. By taking on a knowledgeable biblical faith in spiritual intelligence we may now live above the circumstances here and even our human sin nature. "Not that we are sufficient of ourselves [works traditions emotions] to think anything as of ourselves, but our sufficiency [we saints as seen in the Son] is of God". This is the exercise of the virtue that the believer gains by knowing his position in Gods sight, one of a life lived being counted as dead in the natural, in our minds eye as well as God's, but resin with Christ in the spiritual to a new life.

      This is the new life the Holy Spirit is communicating to all believers via the Word. "You have put off the old man with his deeds [works, traditions, emotions] Col. 3:9. The Spirit does this by exposing our natural inclinations to sin, reminding us what it is like to be unlike Christ and then by Grace He leads us too a biblical faith by/of Paul's explicit teaching of this positional/identification growth truth. "Set you affections on things above [heavenly/spiritual reality], NOT on thing on the earth" Col. 3:2. We can know deliverance from ourselves and a new Spirit life, as is His intent, making us free indeed. To have this [His life] we simply must above all wish for deliverance from the old nature, and find ourselves entered into the new by a spirit; which desires more than anything else that which the Holy Spirit has already provided. His Spirit is awaiting, our allowing ourselves to grow into His identification before God. How? By knowing His word on the subject: That His heavenly life may become our own in thought, and then deed. We may know this truth as life in experience, only by biblical knowledge which must be always growing and be carried out by a active faith in what the Word through Paul has shown us regarding these facts of the true and divine Christian life. "Having therefore, boldness [by knowledge] to enter unto the holiest [Gods spiritual/heavenly intention toward us] by the blood of Christ" Heb. 10:19. Have you discovered who you are yet?