There is a great heavenly mystery kept secret since the world begin that we must learn of in order to understand who we are in the Church of Jesus Christ on earth. According to Paul as he revealed what he called "my gospel" [Rom. 16:25] this mystery which defines us in God's eyes is a heavenly or spiritual revelation which our whole ministry here is to proceed from. Paul's teachings were not to make us better stewards over the earthly church activities nor were they to build us up in a personal confidence of our status upon the earth as Christians. They were given by God that we might know of ourselves as, individually first and then collectively, separate from the world, and from that mindful knowledge to display to the earth and all the universe just who we are seen as in The Father mind. All to His glory, shown to the principalities and powers in the heavenly realm. All this takes place in the Fathers mind and now by Paul's revelation our mind as well. No action, life style, program or social outreach will suffice or enhance this truth."My speech and my preaching were not with enticing words of man's wisdom" 1 Cor. 2:4
These "resurrection" revelations are given us in grace and result in the manifestation of the wisdom of God being displayed to all powers throughout the universal heavenly kingdom of God, including us here on earth. These revelations are non-earthly in character and have no connection with any form of worship or service we might participate in as to the establishment of them. As the Christian is described by Paul as the circumcision or those who are cut off from the old Adam inheritance and nature and all earthly things by the Cross; in a co-death [too all that is natural] and Resurrection made for us by the representation of another all together Whom we follow by faith alone. "That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of man, but in the power of God" 1 Cor. 2:5.
All that we are made to be in God's sight is to be revealed and lived out by faith only; which also is a mystery [1 Tim. 3:9]. A mystery we must discover and come to know as the fabric of our very spiritual existence. We will not find this faith in knowing doctrines alone, nor will we qualify by our actions. But by the apprehension of our very being which is now found in the revelations reveled by Paul in "his gospel". A gospel to be held in knowledgeable thought as living oracles of God, defining our soul and spirit as seen by the Father, in the making of us into His new creation by Spirit, a heavenly character formed in the Fathers mind as He realizes His Son. All of which and what we are now is contained in Christ Jesus, who is in heaven representing us; therefore the necessity of a objective faith toward the invisibleness of the heavenly/spiritual on our part. Not a subjective faith which only centers upon our own needs as we tend to do. "If any man be in Christ he is a new creation" 2 Cor. 5:17.
The path of faith sets aside the whole system of seen and felt things with its's earthly and repetitive traditions. In other words religion and the improvement of man. It is the greatness of the Lord Jesus Christ which is presented to us by Paul in his gospel, a new way, a unseen way, only known by faith. Yes the effects of Christianity may be seen and even may produce results but if the appeal is to sight and sound we are on the earthly path of religion and not the heavenly things which are eternal and stable. "Looking away [from all things that will distract] to Jesus" Heb. 12:2.
These spiritual truths taught by Paul only are in direct contrast to a earthly method of practice and makes us strangers and pilgrims on the earth. We live outside the camp and now by Spirit and faith through the Fathers thoughts live inside the veil in heaven itself. As to here, we are only passing through."For we walk by faith and not by sight" 2 Cor. 5:7.
Sunday, November 25, 2018
Monday, October 15, 2018
KNOWING THE OFF AND THE ON
It is as we are identified within our own conscious minds with the perfection and acceptance of the Lord Jesus before the Father that we may approach fellowship and worship within the Spirit of the Fathers true intention for us. Few come too our Father with this in mind though. Yes we may worship in joy and love as a experience and be satisfied, but are our thoughts of Him there in heaven representing us Himself and we as new creations wholly within Him? As the word reveled to Paul teaches us to do. "For as many of you who have been baptized into Christ [received the Holy Spirt/ born again] have put on Christ" Gal.3:27. Or do we merely seek blessing for our earthly needs for a momentary enjoyment or self fulfillment and then be on our way to our worldly pursuits?
It is only in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ that we may find our needs meant and the truth of who and what we have become in Him in Spirit as God's new creation. Where then are our thoughts to honor Him and what He has done by taking on our burden and accomplishing reconciliation with the Father in our stead? And by His actions the open door to His Spirit as life; found in personal identification and a awareness or apprehension of the position we hold within Him. A position declared by God but only seen in His Son, which we may consciously abide in by faith. How many Christian have any depth of thought as to what the "Law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus" even means in application to these facts. The truth is we will never know, until we come to the end of ourselves. But just how does that happen?
So much of Christianity today, and really from the beginning, is simply a culturally infused tradition. Todays church narrative is often a social gospel institutionalized in order to build a sense of community among those participating called kingdom building. Yes Jesus is at the center of these works based efforts done in word or symbol and of course love is in the minds and hearts of most Christians in there pursuit of changes and missions. And thankfully God's Grace does abound and His purposes will all be fulfilled no matter.
But where are we as individuals in conscious self introspection of what we have become in Spirit in the person of Christ Himself is really the question Paul has put forward? Are our thoughts in the participation of these traditions and cultural improvement missions of ourselves framed as a worker for Christ in kingdom effort, or of the Lord Jesus and us positioned and identified in Him in heaven, as our identification, as was taught by Paul? "For he that is entered into His rest, he also has ceased from works" Heb. 4:10. Paul was given a new Gospel he was a man who revealed what we truly are in Christ in Spirit, by a direct revelation from God, that stressed the importance of a mature spiritual understanding of our positional spiritual status being the basis for our mission outreaches in order to honor His word. And if so we must know a positional spiritual life as new creations through faith in God's word alone. Just as it has described us in the word, in the Fathers thoughts of us there with Him. Thus we honor Him in mind. "The communion of the Holy Spirt be with you all" 2 Cor. 13:14.
Yes we can know Paul's doctrine of Spirit identification by knowing the word as life in Christ explained; which tells us to; "put off the old man" and to "put on the new man" Eph. 4:22, 4:24. This is not a personal effort accomplished in ourselves by traditional church activities, good moral behavior or even bible study, or urging the saints to be more mission/outreach minded. Nor does it apply to anything we may ever become in the flesh. No all that we are or may become is objectified in Christ Jesus the Son who is in heaven. We must look to Him in subjectification by faith in His word as to His truth defining us made true only in Him. Him as "the new man" now applied to us in representation by the Father: never ourselves as earth creatures, never for good works alone and never for a happy feeling that we may be self satisfied workers in a well organized Christian community that we may develop a mission self-image by our own efforts.
In the creation of Adam God planted a man in total innocence, a man one with His God. That all changed when sin entered his mind though. In redemption however Adams progeny were planted in a entirely new Man, Christ Jesus, who is in heaven. This is the Man Whom we are to put on a heavenly or Spiritual Man. Not by actions or words but by bibical knowledge and a quite faith in the work and identification of another all together. Few Christians are ever taught these bibical facts as their personal identification though. No the effort is mostly confined to making a man on earth better, really in order to please himself.
These efforts often take the form of Cultural programs, out reach, missions and community enhancements, which often overshadow the "Law of life" found only in a personal awareness of His placement of us in a Spiritually conscious position of being in Him, and identification with Him where He is all by faith alone. This is the partaking of His Grace. We in Him, He in us, we where He is; in The Fathers thoughts, in heaven by spirit, in the mind of the Father, a place no sin can enter. A non-material place, but offering great hope for the soul on earth. No effort no action required, secured for eternity in Glory with Him by representation, we merely await the final transition. We only need to rest in His new Spiritual Law of life as we linger. "Set you affections on things above, NOT on things on the earth" Col. 3:2.
The man we put off is the old natured man. The means of off-putting is the recognition by faith and knowledge of our place upon the Cross with Christ Jesus in a co-death with Him. "For we have died [not changed] Col. 3:3. We are and always will be in the old man by condition here as we are in the flesh no mater our spiritual insite. This is the man the Father punished with suffering and death by representation. His Son was the propitiation or substitute for us, because of the Fathers love for His creation He took our place in that death. Therefore by this judicial action wholly in the Son we have been declared dead as natural men by God "For you have died, and your life is hid with Christ in God" Col. 3:3.
We will put Him on as a new creation by the knowledgeable understanding of our Spiritual co-status in His Death and also the Resurrection and Ascension of the Son of God; our participation in the divine nature according to the power of resurrection, all declared by God's word and known to us as position and identification by faith only. "But now in Christ [by spirit in thought ] you who were once far off [in the old man identification] are made near [in the new man] by the blood of Christ" Eph. 2:13. We know this as true and life by the word only and we live it in the mind by faith in the facts only. God's way is not our way we only need believe and have faith in what He has said for freedom to live above all circumstances here. "As is the earthly, such are they also that are earthly; and as heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly" 1 Cor. 15:48. It is the new creature we have become, the new Spiritual life in the Lord Jesus, with its fruit in us by the Holy Spirit, which alone is acceptable to the Father and honors Him, as He has contemplated and defines His own Son, with us in mind, as accepted within His Son, a spiritual position. Which is just as His Son is viewed, with us in mind, as new creations by Spirit, by God as He looks upon Him representing us on His right side. This is Christianity by Position and Spirit under His super abundant Grace.
It is only in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ that we may find our needs meant and the truth of who and what we have become in Him in Spirit as God's new creation. Where then are our thoughts to honor Him and what He has done by taking on our burden and accomplishing reconciliation with the Father in our stead? And by His actions the open door to His Spirit as life; found in personal identification and a awareness or apprehension of the position we hold within Him. A position declared by God but only seen in His Son, which we may consciously abide in by faith. How many Christian have any depth of thought as to what the "Law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus" even means in application to these facts. The truth is we will never know, until we come to the end of ourselves. But just how does that happen?
So much of Christianity today, and really from the beginning, is simply a culturally infused tradition. Todays church narrative is often a social gospel institutionalized in order to build a sense of community among those participating called kingdom building. Yes Jesus is at the center of these works based efforts done in word or symbol and of course love is in the minds and hearts of most Christians in there pursuit of changes and missions. And thankfully God's Grace does abound and His purposes will all be fulfilled no matter.
But where are we as individuals in conscious self introspection of what we have become in Spirit in the person of Christ Himself is really the question Paul has put forward? Are our thoughts in the participation of these traditions and cultural improvement missions of ourselves framed as a worker for Christ in kingdom effort, or of the Lord Jesus and us positioned and identified in Him in heaven, as our identification, as was taught by Paul? "For he that is entered into His rest, he also has ceased from works" Heb. 4:10. Paul was given a new Gospel he was a man who revealed what we truly are in Christ in Spirit, by a direct revelation from God, that stressed the importance of a mature spiritual understanding of our positional spiritual status being the basis for our mission outreaches in order to honor His word. And if so we must know a positional spiritual life as new creations through faith in God's word alone. Just as it has described us in the word, in the Fathers thoughts of us there with Him. Thus we honor Him in mind. "The communion of the Holy Spirt be with you all" 2 Cor. 13:14.
Yes we can know Paul's doctrine of Spirit identification by knowing the word as life in Christ explained; which tells us to; "put off the old man" and to "put on the new man" Eph. 4:22, 4:24. This is not a personal effort accomplished in ourselves by traditional church activities, good moral behavior or even bible study, or urging the saints to be more mission/outreach minded. Nor does it apply to anything we may ever become in the flesh. No all that we are or may become is objectified in Christ Jesus the Son who is in heaven. We must look to Him in subjectification by faith in His word as to His truth defining us made true only in Him. Him as "the new man" now applied to us in representation by the Father: never ourselves as earth creatures, never for good works alone and never for a happy feeling that we may be self satisfied workers in a well organized Christian community that we may develop a mission self-image by our own efforts.
In the creation of Adam God planted a man in total innocence, a man one with His God. That all changed when sin entered his mind though. In redemption however Adams progeny were planted in a entirely new Man, Christ Jesus, who is in heaven. This is the Man Whom we are to put on a heavenly or Spiritual Man. Not by actions or words but by bibical knowledge and a quite faith in the work and identification of another all together. Few Christians are ever taught these bibical facts as their personal identification though. No the effort is mostly confined to making a man on earth better, really in order to please himself.
These efforts often take the form of Cultural programs, out reach, missions and community enhancements, which often overshadow the "Law of life" found only in a personal awareness of His placement of us in a Spiritually conscious position of being in Him, and identification with Him where He is all by faith alone. This is the partaking of His Grace. We in Him, He in us, we where He is; in The Fathers thoughts, in heaven by spirit, in the mind of the Father, a place no sin can enter. A non-material place, but offering great hope for the soul on earth. No effort no action required, secured for eternity in Glory with Him by representation, we merely await the final transition. We only need to rest in His new Spiritual Law of life as we linger. "Set you affections on things above, NOT on things on the earth" Col. 3:2.
The man we put off is the old natured man. The means of off-putting is the recognition by faith and knowledge of our place upon the Cross with Christ Jesus in a co-death with Him. "For we have died [not changed] Col. 3:3. We are and always will be in the old man by condition here as we are in the flesh no mater our spiritual insite. This is the man the Father punished with suffering and death by representation. His Son was the propitiation or substitute for us, because of the Fathers love for His creation He took our place in that death. Therefore by this judicial action wholly in the Son we have been declared dead as natural men by God "For you have died, and your life is hid with Christ in God" Col. 3:3.
We will put Him on as a new creation by the knowledgeable understanding of our Spiritual co-status in His Death and also the Resurrection and Ascension of the Son of God; our participation in the divine nature according to the power of resurrection, all declared by God's word and known to us as position and identification by faith only. "But now in Christ [by spirit in thought ] you who were once far off [in the old man identification] are made near [in the new man] by the blood of Christ" Eph. 2:13. We know this as true and life by the word only and we live it in the mind by faith in the facts only. God's way is not our way we only need believe and have faith in what He has said for freedom to live above all circumstances here. "As is the earthly, such are they also that are earthly; and as heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly" 1 Cor. 15:48. It is the new creature we have become, the new Spiritual life in the Lord Jesus, with its fruit in us by the Holy Spirit, which alone is acceptable to the Father and honors Him, as He has contemplated and defines His own Son, with us in mind, as accepted within His Son, a spiritual position. Which is just as His Son is viewed, with us in mind, as new creations by Spirit, by God as He looks upon Him representing us on His right side. This is Christianity by Position and Spirit under His super abundant Grace.
Sunday, September 9, 2018
BY SPIRIT AND KNOWLEDGE
When the soul of a Christian is truly delivered and made new it does not think of its condition, except to judge itself when it turns back to its sin nature. If one is in fact a new man [internally, spiritually] in Christ, as the Word so clearly declares we are and must be, then we must find a new place of abiding other than our natural Adam self, to face and deal with our own old natural state. A nature which constantly assaults the new by its mere presence. Where then will a man or women who believes find their sanctuary for a consistent walk in what they have been newly made to be by God in Spirit?
The believers life is a new creation, not a change, and the Holy Spirit is the creator of a entirely new creation who must be reckoned with. It is not because we have this new creation life that our bodies are made the temple of God but because the Spirit dwells therein. Thus assigning us to a new position, other than our natural man. As the Father now sees us just as He sees Christ Jesus Himself. Of course He is sovereign always but we are now contained in Him. The light from the Spirit comprises the course and entire work of our occupied bodies and it is His Spirit that illuminates the way. Therefore it is not us but Him that is shown, as we have inherited His [Christ Jesus] position before God in spirit by God's decree. It is too His glory always that we live this new spirit life as we ourselves of ourselves have no power or standing whatsoever. But we now have the Gospel of the glory of Christ in identity before God to live out in faith; and therefore His Spirit is in true function on earth simply by the knowledge of our new position. Our works have no value toward achievement in Spirit.
Few Christian are ever taught that there is more than one gospel or good news to learn of and find a identification in. Of course we know of the good news in regards to Christ's work on earth to bring us salvation taken from the synoptic gospels as a narrative to our self proclamation of salvation. But what do we know of the Gospel of Paul in displaying the heavenly/spiritual quality of life for the church as he declares it in his inspired message he called "my gospel"? Do we even know of the heavenly Pauline teaching of the gospel of the glory of Christ which gives divine life to our conscience while we walk upon the earth?
There are biblically three Gospels that are all important to the believers growth, but seldom acknowledged as to their direct effect upon the believers understanding of just who and what he is before God. The first is the gospel [good news] that most churches today are comfortable with which was and is the Kingdom Gospel offered to the Jews and only the Jews. Jesus said; "the time is fulfilled and the Kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe the Gospel" Mark 1:14,15. The effect of this Gospel presented to the Jews was made clear in the prayer He taught His disciples, the so called Lords prayer [really the disciples prayer], "thy kingdom come thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven". This prayer reflect the state of the soul of the Jews who believed in Him as Messiah and their need for repentance in order to welcome Him their earthly Messiah come to restore Israel to prominence and freedom. A earthly Gospel or good news of a earthly kingdom. They were correct of course in this belief. But He was rejected from the earth by His own thus bringing about a entirely new Gospel.
This rejection brought about a Gospel never before contemplated, one of Spirit or the faith a man holds in his mind alone. The Kingdom Gospel still overshadowed the Spiritual Gospel and often still does. The Kingdom Gospel prevailed as to the understanding of many earthly believers conscience at that time, and to many still today. But His rejection brought about a new Gospel to be reckoned with which is Spiritual only; "It shall come to pass that, whosoever calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved" Acts 2:21. This Gospel still did not present heaven before the soul, nor did it separate men from the earth however if the synoptics [Matt, Mark, Luke] only are held and taught, as a Christian world few, then the earth and a kingdom to be built here including the attempted remaking of men to be like Jesus will be the main thought taught and followed even though we now have the spirit of faith to go and live by. A noble thought perhaps but as history has proved a life impossible to obtain as Adam creatures on earth; even though Grace prevails and the expression of the togetherness in faith, service, and works of believers reflected Gods love for all.
Paul made this all very clear that the Spirit would progressively reveal a entirely new way, in his redefining [making individual private spiritual truth known] of the Gospel as he received it in direct revelation from Jesus Christ Himself. He also made it quit clear the even he could not accomplish [Rom. 6] as a Christian a earthly Gospel life to please God. One in which he saw then, as we surly can now, the failure of man to do anything of value for God in our works of the flesh. As we are not here now to bring things back in order or make Adams sin into a good thing by work and service but to bless God in acknowledgement of His Son and we in Him wholly as new creations.
Paul used the term for the Spirit life referring to it as "my gospel" Rom. 16:25] or "the Gospel of God" [Rom 1:1] "the Gospel of His Son". One cannot read Paul's letters without seeing that this new way is of Spirit only. Rejecting all that is earthly and assigning us to heaven with Christ Jesus, hid in Him with God [Col:3]. A new order of existence now is established by Paul's revelations. Not only are we saved but Christ Jesus lives in us and we in Him, a heavenly calling of the spirit of the mind. "Abide above". Believers must seek out Paul, find their place in Spirit, begin to see our new creation as positioned in heaven and ourselves found as identified by the Father in Christ. This was Paul's Gospel. The earth is lost forever for the Christian, it will not improve, nor will man. We must be formed by God's Spirit ourselves in our conscience by faith, in Paul's reveled truth. And develop a attitude of looking down from God's abode, where we are held forever in Gods thought, and live above the circumstances of this evil worldly life just as Paul taught. By spirit held and afforded in the knowledge of God's Word. All service and church works must proceed from this consciousness in order to truly honor what God has wrought within His Son.
The believers life is a new creation, not a change, and the Holy Spirit is the creator of a entirely new creation who must be reckoned with. It is not because we have this new creation life that our bodies are made the temple of God but because the Spirit dwells therein. Thus assigning us to a new position, other than our natural man. As the Father now sees us just as He sees Christ Jesus Himself. Of course He is sovereign always but we are now contained in Him. The light from the Spirit comprises the course and entire work of our occupied bodies and it is His Spirit that illuminates the way. Therefore it is not us but Him that is shown, as we have inherited His [Christ Jesus] position before God in spirit by God's decree. It is too His glory always that we live this new spirit life as we ourselves of ourselves have no power or standing whatsoever. But we now have the Gospel of the glory of Christ in identity before God to live out in faith; and therefore His Spirit is in true function on earth simply by the knowledge of our new position. Our works have no value toward achievement in Spirit.
Few Christian are ever taught that there is more than one gospel or good news to learn of and find a identification in. Of course we know of the good news in regards to Christ's work on earth to bring us salvation taken from the synoptic gospels as a narrative to our self proclamation of salvation. But what do we know of the Gospel of Paul in displaying the heavenly/spiritual quality of life for the church as he declares it in his inspired message he called "my gospel"? Do we even know of the heavenly Pauline teaching of the gospel of the glory of Christ which gives divine life to our conscience while we walk upon the earth?
There are biblically three Gospels that are all important to the believers growth, but seldom acknowledged as to their direct effect upon the believers understanding of just who and what he is before God. The first is the gospel [good news] that most churches today are comfortable with which was and is the Kingdom Gospel offered to the Jews and only the Jews. Jesus said; "the time is fulfilled and the Kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe the Gospel" Mark 1:14,15. The effect of this Gospel presented to the Jews was made clear in the prayer He taught His disciples, the so called Lords prayer [really the disciples prayer], "thy kingdom come thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven". This prayer reflect the state of the soul of the Jews who believed in Him as Messiah and their need for repentance in order to welcome Him their earthly Messiah come to restore Israel to prominence and freedom. A earthly Gospel or good news of a earthly kingdom. They were correct of course in this belief. But He was rejected from the earth by His own thus bringing about a entirely new Gospel.
This rejection brought about a Gospel never before contemplated, one of Spirit or the faith a man holds in his mind alone. The Kingdom Gospel still overshadowed the Spiritual Gospel and often still does. The Kingdom Gospel prevailed as to the understanding of many earthly believers conscience at that time, and to many still today. But His rejection brought about a new Gospel to be reckoned with which is Spiritual only; "It shall come to pass that, whosoever calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved" Acts 2:21. This Gospel still did not present heaven before the soul, nor did it separate men from the earth however if the synoptics [Matt, Mark, Luke] only are held and taught, as a Christian world few, then the earth and a kingdom to be built here including the attempted remaking of men to be like Jesus will be the main thought taught and followed even though we now have the spirit of faith to go and live by. A noble thought perhaps but as history has proved a life impossible to obtain as Adam creatures on earth; even though Grace prevails and the expression of the togetherness in faith, service, and works of believers reflected Gods love for all.
Paul made this all very clear that the Spirit would progressively reveal a entirely new way, in his redefining [making individual private spiritual truth known] of the Gospel as he received it in direct revelation from Jesus Christ Himself. He also made it quit clear the even he could not accomplish [Rom. 6] as a Christian a earthly Gospel life to please God. One in which he saw then, as we surly can now, the failure of man to do anything of value for God in our works of the flesh. As we are not here now to bring things back in order or make Adams sin into a good thing by work and service but to bless God in acknowledgement of His Son and we in Him wholly as new creations.
Paul used the term for the Spirit life referring to it as "my gospel" Rom. 16:25] or "the Gospel of God" [Rom 1:1] "the Gospel of His Son". One cannot read Paul's letters without seeing that this new way is of Spirit only. Rejecting all that is earthly and assigning us to heaven with Christ Jesus, hid in Him with God [Col:3]. A new order of existence now is established by Paul's revelations. Not only are we saved but Christ Jesus lives in us and we in Him, a heavenly calling of the spirit of the mind. "Abide above". Believers must seek out Paul, find their place in Spirit, begin to see our new creation as positioned in heaven and ourselves found as identified by the Father in Christ. This was Paul's Gospel. The earth is lost forever for the Christian, it will not improve, nor will man. We must be formed by God's Spirit ourselves in our conscience by faith, in Paul's reveled truth. And develop a attitude of looking down from God's abode, where we are held forever in Gods thought, and live above the circumstances of this evil worldly life just as Paul taught. By spirit held and afforded in the knowledge of God's Word. All service and church works must proceed from this consciousness in order to truly honor what God has wrought within His Son.
Friday, May 18, 2018
OUR LIFE OR HIS
Our souls are only secure from the efforts of the enemy and the rudiments of the worlds influence when they are in intelligent apprehension of the fullness of our Lord's divine grace. We must come to know how His Grace affects us by coming to know Him as the object of Grace. Which is in Him, as He Himself is Grace. A Grace taken up and wholly contained in Him in glory. A grace we may truly and fully enjoy and participate in only as we come to understand our position and identification in Christ as faiths object. Him seen in our mind in knowledge, as He occupies our life in Spirit; which is His Grace given to us from His position in heaven by the mind of God as He considers His Son just as He considers us in our new creation being made by Him. As His Son is before Him in a Body in representation of us. He is there in Glory and we in divine Grace in the Fathers sight. We are now conformed to His Son by Spirit. And it is our faith that finds Him Himself as the object for Grace living His life here by faith, in our mortal bodies, as He makes our path by Spirit in heaven and we listen to His voice which defines us anew via His Word. "For we are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus" Eph. 2:10.
Knowing the Word and counting it as true will take us intellectually first to that place of true redemption of our new creation being held in Christ Jesus by His Grace. Then by spirit to His Grace and a eternal life to be lived out here in a conscious awareness. The place He has made for us in Glory before the Father is His Grace, which is also ours now by His actions and His presence before God: He there in Bodily representation of all Christians providing the grace we must have for a internal consciousness of His life becoming our life. A new creation life given to us by God while we are here in the flesh. But how do we access and experience His life which is in heaven while we are here?
The world and the current religious cultural interpretation of the Christian life [works, programs, emotional stimulation] will seek by its very nature to destroy the individuality necessary to know Him in personal/private life experience as our grace in glory before God. A Grace made in Him by God to take us up to Glory into our provided position in spirit. We lose that Grace effect or experance by conforming to the cultures patterns expectations and traditions, or counting on the created rather than the creator. But the grace bestowed upon us as seen in Him in heaven is a life found by knowing His Word in heart felt contemplation of a specific truth as individuals. And is really our true destiny in conforming us to Him. Really to His image in thought. Not at the loss of our individuality but by the gain of His nature and character as our conscious identification in that individuality. In other words we are separated [sanctified] unto and within His Son by Spirit or thought as we in our flesh cannot qualify for holiness no matter our actions on earth. "Having died to that wherein we were held; so that we serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter; Rom. 7:6.
It is as the Lord is in the vision of his soul that His word fully affects the child of God! The traditionalist is thinking how he should act in the group. The contemplator, by the individual realization of the Word, is looking for the life of the Lord within himself. A wholly immaterial existence of thought based upon the Words defining truth. "Not after the law of carnal commandants, but after the power of a endless life" Heb. 716.
Personal salvation is the primary object of the churches efforts as it should be. But it has also become its aim and end with the majority of Christians. Who are caught up in todays programed institutional church environment which stifles growth with its lack of challenge. We have been encouraged by our self centeredness to be attracted to that which seems essential to our own needs and todays church often provides as its plays to the world. We have left aside that which is essential to bring glory to the Lord Jesus Christ individually however; as we are caught up in the experiential group dynamic atmosphere so prevalent today. These are not bad things, and yes His Grace does prevail, they just bring no glory to whom we have been made into in Christ Himself as individuals.
Most are unaware that anything that they can do or experience, with themselves as originator, will never satisfy God. No all that we are, can be, or ever will be, is found in the simple faith of the activity of another, Christ Himself. This is the identity seen by the Father. We are not placed here as workers for Christ improving the world or ourselves, but to contain Christ in our thoughts both morally and as to His character as we view Him as our object of life itself, which ultimately will effect our actions and service. Few are ever taught that simple truth as the institution [community] has become the collective experience of all things Christian, and above all, as with all institutions, the status quo must be preserved.
If the believer proves himself false to the Lord Jesus to the same degree that he has fellowship with the world then todays churches perhaps have some culpability in that. We are to be dead to the world by the declaration of the Word. "As you have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord so walk in Him" Col 2:6. But we are often trapped in a church atmosphere seemly dedicated to the presentation of a emotional and entertaining experience adopting worldly trappings for the saints satisfaction and comfort. As the presentation of a feeling of community is seemingly the paramount goal and not individual intelligent spiritual growth.
The system that God ordained during the law dispensation lasted for fifteen hundred years "carnal ordinances" which could be seen with the eyes and please the natural senses for the godly encouragement of the natural man. But in the new dispensation ushered in upon the death and Resurrection of Christ Jesus we are presented a entirely new way, "one of Spirit" under Grace and the priesthood of every believer, with Jesus being our high Priest in heaven. It is no longer sights and sounds but the eternal, the unseen things discerned only by the eye of faith, based upon a intelligent understanding of the Word of God. Eventually the Temple itself was pulled down and now we live in the age of the individual as the true temple; the Spirit of God in our mortal body by apprehensive objective thought of a truth. We are to not only provide welcoming sanctuary for others in love but also as priority develop a like mind in fellowship of identity in Christ. Mans needs must be set aside to glorify God in what He has made us to be wholly in His Son. "For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God" Rom. 8:14.
The Lord did not come here to affiliate Himself with fallen humanity by the gain of a mutual objective. He did not place Himself in a position to work with mankind to a common end. While here He did not engage in any affiliation, by nature, with either the Adam man or the world, no never! He came to separate man from his old nature, to Cross it out. Then by His Resurrection to regenerate man by a common thought: Himself the object of life and us within that life by a faith that says in sincere objectification and inclusion, that His life is also ours. "Rooted and built up in Him, and established in faith as you have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving. Col. 2:7.
Knowing the Word and counting it as true will take us intellectually first to that place of true redemption of our new creation being held in Christ Jesus by His Grace. Then by spirit to His Grace and a eternal life to be lived out here in a conscious awareness. The place He has made for us in Glory before the Father is His Grace, which is also ours now by His actions and His presence before God: He there in Bodily representation of all Christians providing the grace we must have for a internal consciousness of His life becoming our life. A new creation life given to us by God while we are here in the flesh. But how do we access and experience His life which is in heaven while we are here?
The world and the current religious cultural interpretation of the Christian life [works, programs, emotional stimulation] will seek by its very nature to destroy the individuality necessary to know Him in personal/private life experience as our grace in glory before God. A Grace made in Him by God to take us up to Glory into our provided position in spirit. We lose that Grace effect or experance by conforming to the cultures patterns expectations and traditions, or counting on the created rather than the creator. But the grace bestowed upon us as seen in Him in heaven is a life found by knowing His Word in heart felt contemplation of a specific truth as individuals. And is really our true destiny in conforming us to Him. Really to His image in thought. Not at the loss of our individuality but by the gain of His nature and character as our conscious identification in that individuality. In other words we are separated [sanctified] unto and within His Son by Spirit or thought as we in our flesh cannot qualify for holiness no matter our actions on earth. "Having died to that wherein we were held; so that we serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter; Rom. 7:6.
It is as the Lord is in the vision of his soul that His word fully affects the child of God! The traditionalist is thinking how he should act in the group. The contemplator, by the individual realization of the Word, is looking for the life of the Lord within himself. A wholly immaterial existence of thought based upon the Words defining truth. "Not after the law of carnal commandants, but after the power of a endless life" Heb. 716.
Personal salvation is the primary object of the churches efforts as it should be. But it has also become its aim and end with the majority of Christians. Who are caught up in todays programed institutional church environment which stifles growth with its lack of challenge. We have been encouraged by our self centeredness to be attracted to that which seems essential to our own needs and todays church often provides as its plays to the world. We have left aside that which is essential to bring glory to the Lord Jesus Christ individually however; as we are caught up in the experiential group dynamic atmosphere so prevalent today. These are not bad things, and yes His Grace does prevail, they just bring no glory to whom we have been made into in Christ Himself as individuals.
Most are unaware that anything that they can do or experience, with themselves as originator, will never satisfy God. No all that we are, can be, or ever will be, is found in the simple faith of the activity of another, Christ Himself. This is the identity seen by the Father. We are not placed here as workers for Christ improving the world or ourselves, but to contain Christ in our thoughts both morally and as to His character as we view Him as our object of life itself, which ultimately will effect our actions and service. Few are ever taught that simple truth as the institution [community] has become the collective experience of all things Christian, and above all, as with all institutions, the status quo must be preserved.
If the believer proves himself false to the Lord Jesus to the same degree that he has fellowship with the world then todays churches perhaps have some culpability in that. We are to be dead to the world by the declaration of the Word. "As you have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord so walk in Him" Col 2:6. But we are often trapped in a church atmosphere seemly dedicated to the presentation of a emotional and entertaining experience adopting worldly trappings for the saints satisfaction and comfort. As the presentation of a feeling of community is seemingly the paramount goal and not individual intelligent spiritual growth.
The system that God ordained during the law dispensation lasted for fifteen hundred years "carnal ordinances" which could be seen with the eyes and please the natural senses for the godly encouragement of the natural man. But in the new dispensation ushered in upon the death and Resurrection of Christ Jesus we are presented a entirely new way, "one of Spirit" under Grace and the priesthood of every believer, with Jesus being our high Priest in heaven. It is no longer sights and sounds but the eternal, the unseen things discerned only by the eye of faith, based upon a intelligent understanding of the Word of God. Eventually the Temple itself was pulled down and now we live in the age of the individual as the true temple; the Spirit of God in our mortal body by apprehensive objective thought of a truth. We are to not only provide welcoming sanctuary for others in love but also as priority develop a like mind in fellowship of identity in Christ. Mans needs must be set aside to glorify God in what He has made us to be wholly in His Son. "For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God" Rom. 8:14.
The Lord did not come here to affiliate Himself with fallen humanity by the gain of a mutual objective. He did not place Himself in a position to work with mankind to a common end. While here He did not engage in any affiliation, by nature, with either the Adam man or the world, no never! He came to separate man from his old nature, to Cross it out. Then by His Resurrection to regenerate man by a common thought: Himself the object of life and us within that life by a faith that says in sincere objectification and inclusion, that His life is also ours. "Rooted and built up in Him, and established in faith as you have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving. Col. 2:7.
Monday, April 16, 2018
RECKONING REALITY
Our life as sons and daughters of the living God, with all its consequent dignities and privileges, is entirely independent of us. All of who and what we are in total, as new creation beings, is made for us and completed in the Lord Jesus Christ alone. "And you are complete IN Him who is the head of all principality and power Col. 2:10. His life is made know to us, as our own true life, apprehended in Spirit, by faith in His Word. This truth is found by acquiring biblical knowledge and in no other way. The knowing that we are positioned [in the fathers estimation] in Christ in Heaven, by His Ascension there, in His new Creation Body of flesh, and knowing that the Fathers view which He has of us is seen by Him as He considers His Son alone is the Christians actual divine identity. Anything else or defining quality relating to self we may see in/as our Christian status is simply our own self delusion.
The question we then must ask is; are we alienated from our one true nature, which is the Fathers view, in any way by our own misguided self perceptions? Many do not seem to know what we are to the Father is none other than that of Christ Himself, according to the Word. "But now IN Christ Jesus you who were once far off are made near by the blood of Christ" Eph. 2:13. But unfortunately we are so often occupied and identified by much busyness, works, tradition, active service and emotions, and held back by a lack of biblical knowledge? Perhaps our entrenched occupation with the things of the world has stolen our true identify away from a conscious awareness of who the Word teaches us we actually are within Him, and thus countering us seeing Him as life's object in our own personal identification: The reckoned [counting biblical revelation as true] life which God intended for His children? As Paul said of himself we must also; "I long to know Christ and the power which is in His Resurrection" Phil. 3:10.
The more natural resources in our selves we count upon the less dependent we will be upon Him. We were not placed here as Christian men and women to build a kingdom for Jesus on the earth. Our home is manifested in Spirit as eternal and heavenly; known by believing what He has reveled in His Word. No other effort is required or even of any value to the living God. All service must stem from this thought in order to honor His destiny for us as ones living Christ Jesus' life out while on earth. "Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think anything as of ourselves, but our sufficiency is of God" 2 Cor. 3:5
If the bible studies of our churches taught the doctrine [study] of our spiritual reality as that of position and identification in Christ is also the identity of the saint, much more favored results would come from our service and ministry. The people of God must take up a separated position of spirit via faith in the truth of the Word, as it shows us our new creation life. It is on this ground, who we already are in Christ, that the Holy Spirit shows us our privileges and responsibilities. "And you are complete in Him, who is head of all principality and power" Col. 2:10
The Christian is delivered by Spirit, made possible in righteousness [right standing] only through Christ Jesus. His personal act upon the Cross, His Death, Burial, Resurrection and Ascension are seen and made by the Father to be as our very own; thus are we in Christ or really "unto His being". He not only relieved us of our quilt and sin in representation, found by a one time act of faith on our part, he also holds us in His being Spiritually, as a literal individual reality before the Father; which requires a ongoing pursuit of faithful knowledge to see and live out. We must come to know that for this identification to be known and lived we must always seek knowledge, and then by that knowledge hold ourselves in Him as life by a ongoing attitude of faith in that truth. How then will we be prepared for this new heavenly/spiritual life? "Set you affections on things above" Col. 3:2.
It can only come as we see and know the inadequacy of all of our human efforts. We must know that, by a acknowledged weakness, to ever be able to serve or know Him in any way that might be righteousness, by our own acts, as impossible. This is why the man centered cultural effort of kingdom building and the current emotional simulative effect favored by many falls so short in honoring His desire for us to truly know Him in the way He has provided in His Word. "Seek those things which are above, where Christ sits in the right hand of God" Col. 3:1
We are finite, the object of our conscious reality before God is infinite, contained in Spirit in the Fathers mind; the confidence to live His intended life for us is found in the apprehension of this truth, and its reckoned [counting it as true] application. Many Christian live a unfulfilled life and are miserable because they have given themselves over to self-occupation. They may be God fearing and conscientious but depend upon the worlds resources and have nothing to lift them out of their old Adam nature. Lack of knowledge is always a prominent feature in this man. However even though some may be aware of what the Word says of them many simply have not reached the end of themselves. They are always seeking to have something that will make them feel good happen. And perhaps even unknowingly are captured by a cultural and traditional collective self centered thought. "Let the word of God dwell in you richly" Col. 3:16.
The true spiritual Christian life however is based upon the knowledge we have of the position we hold in God's Son as He presents Himself to the Father in Heaven. Him seen as our existing life in Spirit by God. This is the paramount doctrinal theme set forth in the Pauline Epistles. "You life is hid with Christ in God" Col. 3:3. Knowing His truth from Paul's teaching will establish how we see ourselves identified in our minds apprehension of Paul's inspired words and will open the door to a new creation spiritual life of freedom and joy. But what is it we must reckon first and formost [count as true] before we may grow into our new identity?
It is now our privilege to think of ourselves according to what we are as "being" in the Lord Jesus Christ. And what we have become in and as that spirit being is always maintained by Him. As He is now not only our life in the Fathers eye's but our advocate and very person, as the standard required of a man in the flesh before a perfect God. To have this thought as our defining life however we first must come to know and do something of utmost eternal importance.
We must come to the place where we see intellectually and spiritually that we as men of the earth, in the self centered inheritance of the Adam race, are seen by God as annulled or dead. In other words we cannot be accepted in any way by God in the natural form as Adam men and women. We are only found as accepted in the new creation we have in His sight know by faith. Well what is left we might ask, and how do we overcome our all super invasive internal standards of physical and mental personal domination here in this place? Well what does God say?
Only that we simply reckon or count what He has said about us to be, and has infact made us to be, as true, that's all! What then must we reckon first as the platform of our new creation identification found only in Him? His Death, which is a represented death and our death with Him, which has establish us in spirit. Annulling all that is of the flesh, in God's sight, the old Adam man of the earth is dead "Even so consider [reckon] yourself to be dead to sin [sin is in the flesh], but alive to God IN Christ Jesus" Rom. 6:11.
There are dual truths found upon Calvary's Cross: His death to sin [its power] as Adam men, a judicially required payment, and our death with Him for forgiveness of the sins we will commit. For a complete deliverance from ourselves as sinful earth men. All known and to be known and lived out by a attitude of faith, and in no other way. "Without faith it is impossible to please God" Heb. 11:6. A deliverance found from the vary thing so completely rejected by the Father; our Adam man or natural existence, which is always and only sin. "For if you live according to the flesh you will die [spiritually]; but if by the Spirit [God's mind applied in your identification apprehend] you put to death the deeds [following our natural inclinations toward the thing of the world in self centeredness] of the body, you will live [in the mind of God]" Rom. 8:13. We are identified by God in His death, a dead man cannot sin; its power is broken, so in the spiritual sense, which is the only communion with God we have we are delivered from sin.
We only need a Reckoning reality to enter His Spirtual realm of life identification of our being in Christ positioned in Heaven within Him. A hope to be realized in the new creation body in our mind, a heavenly transformation we all should be waiting for with longing. And while waiting for our tangible new creation bodies in the transformation to come we become likened unto Christ Jesus,' in moral character, through a seeking heart. All while we wait in our flesh and our weakness, including suffering in the flesh, we gather His hope by a intelligent faith. All bringing about a life to now live, one of value and gain, in the Spirit only. All by faith, trusting Him, for what we will be and are now already seen to be by the Father in Christ Jesus. This is the Christian life!
The question we then must ask is; are we alienated from our one true nature, which is the Fathers view, in any way by our own misguided self perceptions? Many do not seem to know what we are to the Father is none other than that of Christ Himself, according to the Word. "But now IN Christ Jesus you who were once far off are made near by the blood of Christ" Eph. 2:13. But unfortunately we are so often occupied and identified by much busyness, works, tradition, active service and emotions, and held back by a lack of biblical knowledge? Perhaps our entrenched occupation with the things of the world has stolen our true identify away from a conscious awareness of who the Word teaches us we actually are within Him, and thus countering us seeing Him as life's object in our own personal identification: The reckoned [counting biblical revelation as true] life which God intended for His children? As Paul said of himself we must also; "I long to know Christ and the power which is in His Resurrection" Phil. 3:10.
The more natural resources in our selves we count upon the less dependent we will be upon Him. We were not placed here as Christian men and women to build a kingdom for Jesus on the earth. Our home is manifested in Spirit as eternal and heavenly; known by believing what He has reveled in His Word. No other effort is required or even of any value to the living God. All service must stem from this thought in order to honor His destiny for us as ones living Christ Jesus' life out while on earth. "Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think anything as of ourselves, but our sufficiency is of God" 2 Cor. 3:5
If the bible studies of our churches taught the doctrine [study] of our spiritual reality as that of position and identification in Christ is also the identity of the saint, much more favored results would come from our service and ministry. The people of God must take up a separated position of spirit via faith in the truth of the Word, as it shows us our new creation life. It is on this ground, who we already are in Christ, that the Holy Spirit shows us our privileges and responsibilities. "And you are complete in Him, who is head of all principality and power" Col. 2:10
The Christian is delivered by Spirit, made possible in righteousness [right standing] only through Christ Jesus. His personal act upon the Cross, His Death, Burial, Resurrection and Ascension are seen and made by the Father to be as our very own; thus are we in Christ or really "unto His being". He not only relieved us of our quilt and sin in representation, found by a one time act of faith on our part, he also holds us in His being Spiritually, as a literal individual reality before the Father; which requires a ongoing pursuit of faithful knowledge to see and live out. We must come to know that for this identification to be known and lived we must always seek knowledge, and then by that knowledge hold ourselves in Him as life by a ongoing attitude of faith in that truth. How then will we be prepared for this new heavenly/spiritual life? "Set you affections on things above" Col. 3:2.
It can only come as we see and know the inadequacy of all of our human efforts. We must know that, by a acknowledged weakness, to ever be able to serve or know Him in any way that might be righteousness, by our own acts, as impossible. This is why the man centered cultural effort of kingdom building and the current emotional simulative effect favored by many falls so short in honoring His desire for us to truly know Him in the way He has provided in His Word. "Seek those things which are above, where Christ sits in the right hand of God" Col. 3:1
We are finite, the object of our conscious reality before God is infinite, contained in Spirit in the Fathers mind; the confidence to live His intended life for us is found in the apprehension of this truth, and its reckoned [counting it as true] application. Many Christian live a unfulfilled life and are miserable because they have given themselves over to self-occupation. They may be God fearing and conscientious but depend upon the worlds resources and have nothing to lift them out of their old Adam nature. Lack of knowledge is always a prominent feature in this man. However even though some may be aware of what the Word says of them many simply have not reached the end of themselves. They are always seeking to have something that will make them feel good happen. And perhaps even unknowingly are captured by a cultural and traditional collective self centered thought. "Let the word of God dwell in you richly" Col. 3:16.
The true spiritual Christian life however is based upon the knowledge we have of the position we hold in God's Son as He presents Himself to the Father in Heaven. Him seen as our existing life in Spirit by God. This is the paramount doctrinal theme set forth in the Pauline Epistles. "You life is hid with Christ in God" Col. 3:3. Knowing His truth from Paul's teaching will establish how we see ourselves identified in our minds apprehension of Paul's inspired words and will open the door to a new creation spiritual life of freedom and joy. But what is it we must reckon first and formost [count as true] before we may grow into our new identity?
It is now our privilege to think of ourselves according to what we are as "being" in the Lord Jesus Christ. And what we have become in and as that spirit being is always maintained by Him. As He is now not only our life in the Fathers eye's but our advocate and very person, as the standard required of a man in the flesh before a perfect God. To have this thought as our defining life however we first must come to know and do something of utmost eternal importance.
We must come to the place where we see intellectually and spiritually that we as men of the earth, in the self centered inheritance of the Adam race, are seen by God as annulled or dead. In other words we cannot be accepted in any way by God in the natural form as Adam men and women. We are only found as accepted in the new creation we have in His sight know by faith. Well what is left we might ask, and how do we overcome our all super invasive internal standards of physical and mental personal domination here in this place? Well what does God say?
Only that we simply reckon or count what He has said about us to be, and has infact made us to be, as true, that's all! What then must we reckon first as the platform of our new creation identification found only in Him? His Death, which is a represented death and our death with Him, which has establish us in spirit. Annulling all that is of the flesh, in God's sight, the old Adam man of the earth is dead "Even so consider [reckon] yourself to be dead to sin [sin is in the flesh], but alive to God IN Christ Jesus" Rom. 6:11.
There are dual truths found upon Calvary's Cross: His death to sin [its power] as Adam men, a judicially required payment, and our death with Him for forgiveness of the sins we will commit. For a complete deliverance from ourselves as sinful earth men. All known and to be known and lived out by a attitude of faith, and in no other way. "Without faith it is impossible to please God" Heb. 11:6. A deliverance found from the vary thing so completely rejected by the Father; our Adam man or natural existence, which is always and only sin. "For if you live according to the flesh you will die [spiritually]; but if by the Spirit [God's mind applied in your identification apprehend] you put to death the deeds [following our natural inclinations toward the thing of the world in self centeredness] of the body, you will live [in the mind of God]" Rom. 8:13. We are identified by God in His death, a dead man cannot sin; its power is broken, so in the spiritual sense, which is the only communion with God we have we are delivered from sin.
We only need a Reckoning reality to enter His Spirtual realm of life identification of our being in Christ positioned in Heaven within Him. A hope to be realized in the new creation body in our mind, a heavenly transformation we all should be waiting for with longing. And while waiting for our tangible new creation bodies in the transformation to come we become likened unto Christ Jesus,' in moral character, through a seeking heart. All while we wait in our flesh and our weakness, including suffering in the flesh, we gather His hope by a intelligent faith. All bringing about a life to now live, one of value and gain, in the Spirit only. All by faith, trusting Him, for what we will be and are now already seen to be by the Father in Christ Jesus. This is the Christian life!
Sunday, March 11, 2018
SEEN IN HIM AS DELIVERED
Our salvation is not only of God and from God, but it is God. " All thing are of God who has reconciled us to Himself by Jesus Christ" 2 Cor. 5:18. It is one thing to know we have our life in the Lord Jesus but it is quite another to be in consistent communion with Him as too that life. Many saints profess to have found pardon and peace in Him, who in reality are feeding upon a variety of things [works, emotions, tradition etc.] which have no connection with Him whatsoever.
The more clearly we enter, by faith, into objective truth by knowing the Word of God and what is true of us as clearly indicated in His Word the nearer we will be to His truth and His intentions for our Christian life. "For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free" Rom. 8:2. We then may begin to know that which we are made to be, according to His Word, in our risen High Priest Christ Jesus the Lord, and the more experiential and practical will be the subjective growth in us. Resulting in a life in which His Spirit will be made more complete in us, by the manifestation and moral character [personal attitude as to our identification held in Christ] of His life in ours.
It is often the conviction of guilt that opens the door to His justification but it is the experiential knowledge of self, its utter unworthiness, and the acknowledgement of His complete representation of our new creation being before the father that brings us a new life; as we can of ourselves never be worthy, nor can we emulate him by our earthly actions and form. A new and living life is only found within our sanctification of separation in knowledge unto His and our co-life with Him as heavenly [spiritual] new creations; made so in us as we abide in [live within] that truth by Spirit in faith. No self effort clears the guilt no self effort effects growth, all must be of Him. Very few Christian seem to know this as they have become reliant upon tradition and emotional experience, assuming they are in God's way by their learned and mimicked behavior.
What must be sought and what must be found is deliverance. A word seldom heard in todays church. Why? Because first the Cross must be taught, its co-effect upon our being. But His death and ours on that tree together is all too difficult to understand for many under the current kingdom building world view. That which we must be delivered from; the world system, the devil and most importantly ourselves must be made know before deliverance freedom reigns.
But then how do we become delivered to His new and heavenly spiritual life of freedom? Victory comes through the reckoning [counting it as true] of faith, not through struggling and striving. Who is responsible for faiths growth in us we might ask? We would quickly answer why it is I. Nothing could be further from the truth! When the standard for the Christian life is low [as it is in this modern time] the responsibility for growth is placed upon the believer. But when it is known that God's standard for us is His Son, all expatiations of maturity must be place in Him. "For it is God which works is us both to will and to do His good pleasure" Phil. 2:13.
In our relationship with the first Adam [our actions and works upon the earth] we have no deliverance at all. As all members of the flesh class of man, the old Adam, are under obligation to furnish personal righteousness before God, as moral beings responsible to Him under the Law. There is no freedom in that position, no deliverance. Paul made that clear in Romans 6 and 7. Our churches today are primarily occupied with programs and works designed to improve this old Adam and his culture. Resulting in much busyness and responsibility toward our own needs and to the worlds systems. Today there is very little teaching that: "It is no longer I that live, but Christ who lives in me" Gal. 2:20.
But our true position as believers is declared by Paul in God's Word to have been perfectly secured in the risen Lord Jesus Christ; our reasonability in the fallen old man having been discharged in our federal head the Lord. "For the death that He died He became, once and for all, dead in relation to sin; but by Him the life which He now lives He is alive in relation to God" Rom. 6:10. He became sin for us at the Cross, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him; Him having taken the old mans nature and declared it a dead thing. We then were taken up by Spirit in representation into His identification before God in Glory; in the Person of the Son. Knowing this by faith and accounting it as our Christian life brings the spiritual knowledge of true deliverance, from which a godly platform of service may be furnished to God's Glory! "In the same way you must also regard yourselves as dead in relation to sin, but as alive in relation to God, because you are in [seen within the represented personhood of Himself] Christ Jesus" Rom. 6:11.
The more clearly we enter, by faith, into objective truth by knowing the Word of God and what is true of us as clearly indicated in His Word the nearer we will be to His truth and His intentions for our Christian life. "For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free" Rom. 8:2. We then may begin to know that which we are made to be, according to His Word, in our risen High Priest Christ Jesus the Lord, and the more experiential and practical will be the subjective growth in us. Resulting in a life in which His Spirit will be made more complete in us, by the manifestation and moral character [personal attitude as to our identification held in Christ] of His life in ours.
It is often the conviction of guilt that opens the door to His justification but it is the experiential knowledge of self, its utter unworthiness, and the acknowledgement of His complete representation of our new creation being before the father that brings us a new life; as we can of ourselves never be worthy, nor can we emulate him by our earthly actions and form. A new and living life is only found within our sanctification of separation in knowledge unto His and our co-life with Him as heavenly [spiritual] new creations; made so in us as we abide in [live within] that truth by Spirit in faith. No self effort clears the guilt no self effort effects growth, all must be of Him. Very few Christian seem to know this as they have become reliant upon tradition and emotional experience, assuming they are in God's way by their learned and mimicked behavior.
What must be sought and what must be found is deliverance. A word seldom heard in todays church. Why? Because first the Cross must be taught, its co-effect upon our being. But His death and ours on that tree together is all too difficult to understand for many under the current kingdom building world view. That which we must be delivered from; the world system, the devil and most importantly ourselves must be made know before deliverance freedom reigns.
But then how do we become delivered to His new and heavenly spiritual life of freedom? Victory comes through the reckoning [counting it as true] of faith, not through struggling and striving. Who is responsible for faiths growth in us we might ask? We would quickly answer why it is I. Nothing could be further from the truth! When the standard for the Christian life is low [as it is in this modern time] the responsibility for growth is placed upon the believer. But when it is known that God's standard for us is His Son, all expatiations of maturity must be place in Him. "For it is God which works is us both to will and to do His good pleasure" Phil. 2:13.
In our relationship with the first Adam [our actions and works upon the earth] we have no deliverance at all. As all members of the flesh class of man, the old Adam, are under obligation to furnish personal righteousness before God, as moral beings responsible to Him under the Law. There is no freedom in that position, no deliverance. Paul made that clear in Romans 6 and 7. Our churches today are primarily occupied with programs and works designed to improve this old Adam and his culture. Resulting in much busyness and responsibility toward our own needs and to the worlds systems. Today there is very little teaching that: "It is no longer I that live, but Christ who lives in me" Gal. 2:20.
But our true position as believers is declared by Paul in God's Word to have been perfectly secured in the risen Lord Jesus Christ; our reasonability in the fallen old man having been discharged in our federal head the Lord. "For the death that He died He became, once and for all, dead in relation to sin; but by Him the life which He now lives He is alive in relation to God" Rom. 6:10. He became sin for us at the Cross, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him; Him having taken the old mans nature and declared it a dead thing. We then were taken up by Spirit in representation into His identification before God in Glory; in the Person of the Son. Knowing this by faith and accounting it as our Christian life brings the spiritual knowledge of true deliverance, from which a godly platform of service may be furnished to God's Glory! "In the same way you must also regard yourselves as dead in relation to sin, but as alive in relation to God, because you are in [seen within the represented personhood of Himself] Christ Jesus" Rom. 6:11.
Sunday, February 18, 2018
IT IS NOT I WHO LIVE
Our approach to scripture is often colored by the innate prejudice we have for our own needs. We tend to read and hear the Word in a slanted manner, with a attitude toward the comfort of the listener. Hear this it says to us; you are saved, you are loved, you are going to heaven, you are busy in church service activities and you are supported in your needs by a God who cares for your comfort in and through life's trials. And yes, thank God, all these things under Grace can and does bear fruit under His divine Grace!
However while His hand of sympathy is extend in His Words and His Love such a approach [based upon our own need and feelings] loses sight of the paramount value of scripture. Which is that of bringing to heart and mind the Lord Jesus and the Holy Spirit as a personal life source; we bound up in glory before the father in a new creation supplied by His Grace, in Him, in His realm, by faith. Knowing Him as our identification in biblical knowledge as the heavenly Church, we seen in Him where He is. "Unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ" Eph. 4:13. We fail to see this because we often read and hear the Word in relation to our needs and ourselves. It must be ever kept in mind that our personal perceptions color all of our questions; but few question their world view or hermeneutic [science of biblical interpretation] let alone think it might need to change to accommodate a different or new view of their Christian nature.
Our own will energy and personal gratification are the great thing in the world, and many saints believe that what is effective in the world can be effective in the things of God. This approach from our own self centeredness requires great strength and hard work. But God has said we are to remain weak even suffer, as summed up when He said through Paul in 2 Cor. 12:9, " My Grace is sufficient for in your weakness He will be made strong". Paul was our example and he said so in a very direct command from the Father. "We ourselves had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not have trust in ourselves, but in God who raises the dead 2 Cor.1:9
There can be no true and intelligent rejection of the self-life without prior preparation by the Holy Spirit and this takes years of processing after the initial revelation of Christ Jesus. We simply cannot arrive in His sphere of spiritual life without self abnegation first. Paul in Romans 6 and 7 and many other places showed us this, by his doctrinarian teachings on the Christian life and self. "Most gladly therefore will I boast [count it a good thing] of my infirmities in order that Christ's power may overshadow me" 2 Cor. 12:9.
We ever in support of self linger over our losses even hold them near. By that process we learn to identify our internal being in the feelings they evoke. But we must rise out of that valley and bury our dead out of sight.; it is a great day when that comes, for then can we be of real value to others. Now we may be under the evolving mantel of God's personal identity and not our own; as new heavenly creatures just as His Word declares. "Yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead" Rom. 6:13 And via our former sufferings we may now have a godly empathy toward others. Thus honoring God in a realization of a new life just as He did, one out of death. Our old man and his old thoughts as to what we are in nature as having value will finely be declared dead. "Having died to that wherein we were held" Rom. 7:6.
We in our acknowledged loss of self [ by faith in His Word] now will be adopting His very identity in heart and action, even sacrificing all the we have perceived ourselves to be in nature and the world to know Him. We find this new life by faith only; evoking a heart that trusts, it is the only way we may experience His true inner joy and His Life. We were in His new creation designed for this life of grace. No longer serving the world we are now searching within ourselves His very identity through a love affair He has offered in His new Grace. After all by His very Words we are betrothed to be His Bride. What a blessed identity! "Let us be glad and rejoice and give Him glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His wife has made herself ready" Rev. 19:7.
"Sinners are not saved until they trust the Savior, and saints are not delivered until they trust the Deliverer". Our tendencies is to focus in on our failures and insufficiencies. This is because we have failed to recognize that our Lord has come into the world not only to pay the price of our worldly sin nature but to give us the true apprehension of its death; He paid the price on the Cross. But by His Spirit He is now regenerating us by the instilling of a renewed [by knowledge of His Word] mind that we may ally ourselves with a new creation under Grace, even Him; His very person and life. The old man is held in a place of death by the same faithful means. According to His divine power He has given us all things that pertain to life and godliness 2 Pet. 1:3.
The defect in our souls is generally the incompleteness of our converted new nature to produce life from a resting faith. We simply become satisfied and accept what is before us in the world, never shedding its control, making providence our guide and not faith. We make our Christian institutions to copy the worldly system so that we may be comfortable in what we have allowed ourselves to remain too be in the world. By this attitude we are agreeing with our sinful condition and desires and dishonoring the Sacrifice of the Lord Jesus. We do not believe and are not taught that what Paul said of himself is God's truth toward our present new creation being. "I have been crucified with Christ, and I myself no longer live" Gal. 2:20. But just what does that mean to us as direction toward a new revelation of the Christian life?
The Word is of course paramount in the conversion of our souls to His new way of life. But simply knowing it does not make it so. No we must have a new day brought by a great loss. That of our very selves . "Being justified [through the death of the old man] freely by His Grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus" Rom. 3:24. The beginning of this new freedom offered us by God is the realization that we are not the possessing entity. As all that we are to the Father is objectified in His Son. When we know this by trusting His Word and not thinking our own thoughts but His, in effect we are giving ouselves to His Mind and a higher level of consciousness becomes activated. This is the "Law of the Spirit of life found in Christ Jesus". With His mind directing our souls conscience we are thinking His thoughts as to our being, made alive in us by the Holy Spirit, and not ourselves. Why would we want to live any other way?
However while His hand of sympathy is extend in His Words and His Love such a approach [based upon our own need and feelings] loses sight of the paramount value of scripture. Which is that of bringing to heart and mind the Lord Jesus and the Holy Spirit as a personal life source; we bound up in glory before the father in a new creation supplied by His Grace, in Him, in His realm, by faith. Knowing Him as our identification in biblical knowledge as the heavenly Church, we seen in Him where He is. "Unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ" Eph. 4:13. We fail to see this because we often read and hear the Word in relation to our needs and ourselves. It must be ever kept in mind that our personal perceptions color all of our questions; but few question their world view or hermeneutic [science of biblical interpretation] let alone think it might need to change to accommodate a different or new view of their Christian nature.
Our own will energy and personal gratification are the great thing in the world, and many saints believe that what is effective in the world can be effective in the things of God. This approach from our own self centeredness requires great strength and hard work. But God has said we are to remain weak even suffer, as summed up when He said through Paul in 2 Cor. 12:9, " My Grace is sufficient for in your weakness He will be made strong". Paul was our example and he said so in a very direct command from the Father. "We ourselves had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not have trust in ourselves, but in God who raises the dead 2 Cor.1:9
There can be no true and intelligent rejection of the self-life without prior preparation by the Holy Spirit and this takes years of processing after the initial revelation of Christ Jesus. We simply cannot arrive in His sphere of spiritual life without self abnegation first. Paul in Romans 6 and 7 and many other places showed us this, by his doctrinarian teachings on the Christian life and self. "Most gladly therefore will I boast [count it a good thing] of my infirmities in order that Christ's power may overshadow me" 2 Cor. 12:9.
We ever in support of self linger over our losses even hold them near. By that process we learn to identify our internal being in the feelings they evoke. But we must rise out of that valley and bury our dead out of sight.; it is a great day when that comes, for then can we be of real value to others. Now we may be under the evolving mantel of God's personal identity and not our own; as new heavenly creatures just as His Word declares. "Yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead" Rom. 6:13 And via our former sufferings we may now have a godly empathy toward others. Thus honoring God in a realization of a new life just as He did, one out of death. Our old man and his old thoughts as to what we are in nature as having value will finely be declared dead. "Having died to that wherein we were held" Rom. 7:6.
We in our acknowledged loss of self [ by faith in His Word] now will be adopting His very identity in heart and action, even sacrificing all the we have perceived ourselves to be in nature and the world to know Him. We find this new life by faith only; evoking a heart that trusts, it is the only way we may experience His true inner joy and His Life. We were in His new creation designed for this life of grace. No longer serving the world we are now searching within ourselves His very identity through a love affair He has offered in His new Grace. After all by His very Words we are betrothed to be His Bride. What a blessed identity! "Let us be glad and rejoice and give Him glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His wife has made herself ready" Rev. 19:7.
"Sinners are not saved until they trust the Savior, and saints are not delivered until they trust the Deliverer". Our tendencies is to focus in on our failures and insufficiencies. This is because we have failed to recognize that our Lord has come into the world not only to pay the price of our worldly sin nature but to give us the true apprehension of its death; He paid the price on the Cross. But by His Spirit He is now regenerating us by the instilling of a renewed [by knowledge of His Word] mind that we may ally ourselves with a new creation under Grace, even Him; His very person and life. The old man is held in a place of death by the same faithful means. According to His divine power He has given us all things that pertain to life and godliness 2 Pet. 1:3.
The defect in our souls is generally the incompleteness of our converted new nature to produce life from a resting faith. We simply become satisfied and accept what is before us in the world, never shedding its control, making providence our guide and not faith. We make our Christian institutions to copy the worldly system so that we may be comfortable in what we have allowed ourselves to remain too be in the world. By this attitude we are agreeing with our sinful condition and desires and dishonoring the Sacrifice of the Lord Jesus. We do not believe and are not taught that what Paul said of himself is God's truth toward our present new creation being. "I have been crucified with Christ, and I myself no longer live" Gal. 2:20. But just what does that mean to us as direction toward a new revelation of the Christian life?
The Word is of course paramount in the conversion of our souls to His new way of life. But simply knowing it does not make it so. No we must have a new day brought by a great loss. That of our very selves . "Being justified [through the death of the old man] freely by His Grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus" Rom. 3:24. The beginning of this new freedom offered us by God is the realization that we are not the possessing entity. As all that we are to the Father is objectified in His Son. When we know this by trusting His Word and not thinking our own thoughts but His, in effect we are giving ouselves to His Mind and a higher level of consciousness becomes activated. This is the "Law of the Spirit of life found in Christ Jesus". With His mind directing our souls conscience we are thinking His thoughts as to our being, made alive in us by the Holy Spirit, and not ourselves. Why would we want to live any other way?
Monday, January 22, 2018
THE CORRESPONDING EFFECT
The whole of our life is made up of two things, our physical existence and it's practices, and our inner being. They both form our identifying qualities within the inner man. Both are affected and controlled by our thoughts and actions as extensions of our formation of a personal identity. The manifestation of the world and its system is displayed in our existence in the flesh as creatures of the earth, and will fully influence our conscience being awareness and identity, if allowed the higher place. In other words our inner life our sense of being or spirit becomes obscured by the circumstances of life; if physical actions inspired by feeling and emotions, traditions and duty make up our defining quality.
The unmanifested or the invisible is to be found in our being by trusting in and knowing His word, which we call spiritual and will also make our thoughts into a living experience, although one of being in spirit as a identity. However unlike the physical actions this spiritual character for the Christian is confined to manifesting awareness or a mental apprehension of our new creation being which is only found in the person of Christ Jesus through faith in apprehension of Him before the Father and ourselves seen within Him, just as the word tells us. Though few think of their Christian lives along such terms. "Having died to that wherein we were held; so that we serve in newness of the spirit, and not in oldness of the letter" Rom. 7:6. So the question then is which of these two are we aligned with consciously, which are we interconnected with, Spirit or mere existence? The existing physical world system and our works attitudes and actions in it, or God, who is Spirit, and can only be accessed and lived out within the Spiritual realm of the mind, made in us by the very mind of God? "Not after the law of a carnal commandment, but after the power of a endless life" Heb. 7:16
These two forces and our awareness of their power to control our defining thoughts are the precursors to the way in which our conscience develops our self identification as Christians. The existing is the natural mans way, it is bound by the ego and law which favors experiences, action, works and feelings, and is fully available to control the Christian who lives in the flesh realm or the old man as identity, really from a lack of awareness of any other way. The being or spiritual is God's way and is formed to include a experience of the mind only. But only within the faith of His Word's, and is therefore spiritual in nature; requiring one to be present in the personal identity of Christ Jesus Himself; by knowing and abiding in God's Word. The results are invisible or of the mind and is the way the Word encourages us to live before we conduct service or works. "According as His divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness" 2 Peter 1:3.. However we must first see clearly the difference, between the being or spirit life and that of merely existing by our proclamations; in order to find the way God has shown His new creation children within the life of His Son. "As you have therefore received [by Spirit] Christ Jesus the Lord so you must walk in Him. " Col. 2:6.
The Word makes clear His way and our walk is by Spirit or being. He has made the spiritual way His way of displaying our life within His Own Will and Mind transferred to ours. Therefore the Spirit life must be the Christians driving force; toward acquiring His [Christ Jesus'] identity by the apprehension of His heavenly/Spiritual life [knowing His mind] as the true Christian life experience. "Mary....sat at Jesus feet, and heard His word. But Martha was encumbered about much serving" Luke 10:39,40.
In order to accommodate our new spiritual apprehension we must have knowledge. The biblical order of life for the saint is founded in facts that apply to him spiritually as seen in faith of their truth. All that we have received in our salvation was in fact manifested physically and Spiritually by another first: His suffering of the Cross, the shedding of His blood both requiring His earthly presence. These are His physical actions that apply to us but in spirit. The Word tell us we are to view ourselves as being in Him by spirit or contemplative thought and apprehension above all. "For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God" Rom. 8;14.
So then we are also dead with Him, risen with Him, and ascended to Glory within Him. We are then made present in heaven, as the thought of us in the Fathers mind. But brought by His mind to us, and applied to us here by His Spirit; all in order to manifest in us by faith the forming of a biblical directed resting, in a new and accepted godly life; "hid with Christ in God" by Spirit. This is God's faithful reckoning toward us, accepting us in His Son as a position; we seen in what He has accomplished Physically and Spiritually. So all is in Spirit that marks us new creation saints before Him. Really our faith in what His Word says literally makes it so as our experience. His will quides us too a new spiritual conscience or a position [we co-sanctified, in His judgment, with Christ Jesus] all found and lived by knowledge. Lived out by faith and know or experienced by His Grace; for the reality in experance of our Christian walk here on earth. "Be filled with the Spirit" Eph. 5:18.
But we must have faith in definite facts for a spirit life that honors the Father. One in which we may live now in reality. Thus requiring a mind that seeks divine identity. We seeing our personhood/being eternally positioned in Christ for our current experience here and now. And not a mere profession of existence that is experienced as comfortable traditions or the seeking of the betterment of man in this world: both while often seen as a worthy Christian attitudes and probably most are done in sincerity of heart, are still simply a way of natural existence [reflects back upon self] and are spiritually lifeless and powerless in the Fathers sight in and of themselves. "For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth to show Himself strong in behalf of those whose heart is perfect toward Him" 2 Chron. 16:9.
Few in the Christian world seem to carry any concept of the vastness and formlessness of the spirit being we have become by belief in Christ Jesus. It seems the main effort is in acquiring that which most empowers our existence in a physical earthly mode. Giving the paramount place to fellowship, tradition and a feeling of corporate support and common goals and works. All these easily become a busy substitute for mindful contemplation of God's Word. While these attitudes can be useful even blessed under grace it is mans way in the world, and not true Christianity in it's self at all. A way most prominent in the religious world, which much of Christianity has become. "But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ" Gal 6:14.
Now we have the emergence of a new church that often embraces culture, man pleasing activities and environmental improvements as godly directed things of Christianity. As exampled in the emphasis upon entertainment, the doing, the form, accomplishment and the place given to the popularity of individuals. This is not a sound path for the pilgrim sojourner who is to be dedicated to a biblical fact based spiritual growth path on earth. No we will be lost to the emergence traditions as have all other worldly mimicking religious groups. Really ego has now taken control over what the world sees in much of the Christian life as proper Christian experience; seen often in their outward manifestation at least. And now many in the church and even the world consider the worlds betterment and the saints comfort the Christians obligation. We have become a accepted tradition, a nice way of life. "The heart is deceitful above all things, and is desperately wicked; who can know it" Jer. 17:9.
Although action is necessary and Christian works are very important in the physical world it is only a secondary manifestation. Spirit is found in things above by contemplating a new faith, one which looks down upon the things of the world in overriding power. Seeing things here of no value as accomplishments toward divine matters. Yes no matter as to how we might display Christian well doing our life in the physical is never the Fathers priority. For His way as life is only and always of Spirit. "Walk not after the flesh [morals and actions of the physical man], but after the Spirit" Rom. 8:4. So then the way of light as the Word encourages even commandes is found in the new creation consciousness of spirit, at least according to His Word. "For you [the old flesh man] have died and you life is hid with Christ in God" Col. 3:3.
Self regard is the product of todays understanding of God's Word and takes precedent: Recently while in conversation with a Pastor I asked; What is the definition of a Christian as to his function on earth? His answer was "We should love the Lord with all our heart, soul and mind and our neighbor as ourselves" [Mark 12:31]. This is the most common response in my experience anyway. However when I asked how are you doing with that? He answered; well I am trying. In God's eye's we must be perfect so mere effort will never do, as God does not grade on the curve, and He demands perfection as His Being [I AM] requires. In actuality this church leaders entire Christian attitude or self defined quality of purpose reflected upon himself; that is to love your neighbor "as yourself ". It all [as yourself] comes back to objectification of mans actions on earth. A often repeated personal definition of Christianity, but really a earthly definition... which applied to man under the Law [and was given under the Law] but never under grace! For we now have a new law, one of; "the Law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus" Rom. 8:2.
Our Lord is of course whom we are to look too in order to define ourselves in this the grace dispensation and not the letter of the old man or our own behavior. And if so we must see Him as He was, a all new creature on earth. He was perfect in all His ways and in His love. He had never to think, and did not think, what the effect for Himself would be of His association with others. He thought entirely of and for others. This also is to be our attitude toward all. Loving you neighbor sounds good, but if its as yourself we have a problem. As we can never escape the attempted control of the ego or old inner man if we follow, as is earthman's inclination, the old Adam life in spirit. As Law was the dispensation the world was under when the command to love your neighbor as yourself was given and grace was not a consideration.
We are told by Paul that we as new creation Christians within Him are now under grace, and are to look as into a mirror; which is made clear in the Word. There seeing ourselves yes but as we gaze at our image we see the Lord, as a moral effect, not for doing but being. We are not the Lord in the glass but His image is there morally [not a example to emulate but a life of being in spirit] as we see our new creation Spirit [Him as our life in glory] living within our conscience; know by His Word in faith. A instilled new conscience founded upon knowledge and faith."The Light of the Glory of God in the face of Christ Jesus" is now our life by the mental image provided by God's very Words. Could there be anything better?
This image is just as we have become anew, as seen in the Son by the Father. We have only this image [the Son] in the view and defining knowledge and personal apprehension of God the Father toward our very being soul and individualism. "We are as He [Christ Jesus] in this world" in His sight made so by His Sons representation in heaven. This is a spiritual biblical fact which changes our walk [our internal perception] by a change of mind, a new awareness and a desire to apprehend a new life, one of spirit. Therefore one of weakness and sacrifice, and a rejection of the world system [just as He was rejected] as having any possible godly value and never looking to ourselves for proof of a Christian life, not kingdom building here. But looking to Him as all defining for the new spiritual/heavenly life we now have and Him as our total object for that new spirit life. "Put on the new man" Eph. 4:24.
When our soul makes this discovery it learns that the deliverance from sin and the world, which we were formally incapable of attaining is neigh. We will see that our very nature as men of the earth has been set aside in death exampled by His Son. We will find that we have deliverance from attainment, the world and the disappointment of our actions. As all that pertains to mans identity before God has been wrought in the Son. For we have been made all new spiritual creatures within Him. His thoughts when followed will led us to be able to grasp that we must see the end to ourselves as Adam men, "dead in Christ" and live as new creatures by His Word. We may now not only believe it but trust Him for a entirely new life of mindful joyous apprehension. That He may make known the riches of His glory on vessels of mercy, which He had prepared beforehand unto glory' Rom. 9:23.
However this so valued deliverance comes only when we have learned of the evil and weakness of the flesh and no longer even look to it as having any possible Godly value what so ever. Now our dominant thought of our life as a Christian must be not that of accomplishment or even morals but of deliverance from the flesh, dead with Christ by the mindful awareness of the Word. A spiritual condition and position. But we must and can only find this deliverance as the result of knowing the position of faith that we rest in glory with Him. A life made equal to His Son, in His sight, living eternally within His Resurrection and Ascension at the Fathers right Hand by the Fathers acknowledgement. "But now that you have been set free from the tyranny of sin, and have become the bondservants of God, you have your reward in being made holy" Rom. 6:22.
Christianity is in God's sight His view of His children as having not only Christ Jesus as savior but we are know to Him just as His Son, as ones first born from the dead and as His inheritance or new men, as brothers and sisters of The Holy one and risen ones, just as His Son. Now we are partakers of Him in His victory over death in a active way but all of faith in a fact know and seen by God Himself as we may live in a heavenly or eternal state even now. "Risen with Him through the faith of the operation of God who has raised Him from the dead" Col. 2:12.
We are risen and entered into the heavenly places or the spiritual world of God with Him by mental aquessance to His truth. He [The Son] is to be seen then, by the Word and in faith, as one who represents us there and is in fact our very life above. Even as He is associated Himself with us in His death unto sin that we may be Judicially pardoned and accepted by The Father for a spirit led life here. Not for works or a reflection of how we should treat others as how we would, in what can only be a self centered way, treat ourselves. But now we have a life as seen in His life; to apprehend, and live with no expectations, just as He did. The corresponding moral effect then will be: "changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord".
The unmanifested or the invisible is to be found in our being by trusting in and knowing His word, which we call spiritual and will also make our thoughts into a living experience, although one of being in spirit as a identity. However unlike the physical actions this spiritual character for the Christian is confined to manifesting awareness or a mental apprehension of our new creation being which is only found in the person of Christ Jesus through faith in apprehension of Him before the Father and ourselves seen within Him, just as the word tells us. Though few think of their Christian lives along such terms. "Having died to that wherein we were held; so that we serve in newness of the spirit, and not in oldness of the letter" Rom. 7:6. So the question then is which of these two are we aligned with consciously, which are we interconnected with, Spirit or mere existence? The existing physical world system and our works attitudes and actions in it, or God, who is Spirit, and can only be accessed and lived out within the Spiritual realm of the mind, made in us by the very mind of God? "Not after the law of a carnal commandment, but after the power of a endless life" Heb. 7:16
These two forces and our awareness of their power to control our defining thoughts are the precursors to the way in which our conscience develops our self identification as Christians. The existing is the natural mans way, it is bound by the ego and law which favors experiences, action, works and feelings, and is fully available to control the Christian who lives in the flesh realm or the old man as identity, really from a lack of awareness of any other way. The being or spiritual is God's way and is formed to include a experience of the mind only. But only within the faith of His Word's, and is therefore spiritual in nature; requiring one to be present in the personal identity of Christ Jesus Himself; by knowing and abiding in God's Word. The results are invisible or of the mind and is the way the Word encourages us to live before we conduct service or works. "According as His divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness" 2 Peter 1:3.. However we must first see clearly the difference, between the being or spirit life and that of merely existing by our proclamations; in order to find the way God has shown His new creation children within the life of His Son. "As you have therefore received [by Spirit] Christ Jesus the Lord so you must walk in Him. " Col. 2:6.
The Word makes clear His way and our walk is by Spirit or being. He has made the spiritual way His way of displaying our life within His Own Will and Mind transferred to ours. Therefore the Spirit life must be the Christians driving force; toward acquiring His [Christ Jesus'] identity by the apprehension of His heavenly/Spiritual life [knowing His mind] as the true Christian life experience. "Mary....sat at Jesus feet, and heard His word. But Martha was encumbered about much serving" Luke 10:39,40.
In order to accommodate our new spiritual apprehension we must have knowledge. The biblical order of life for the saint is founded in facts that apply to him spiritually as seen in faith of their truth. All that we have received in our salvation was in fact manifested physically and Spiritually by another first: His suffering of the Cross, the shedding of His blood both requiring His earthly presence. These are His physical actions that apply to us but in spirit. The Word tell us we are to view ourselves as being in Him by spirit or contemplative thought and apprehension above all. "For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God" Rom. 8;14.
So then we are also dead with Him, risen with Him, and ascended to Glory within Him. We are then made present in heaven, as the thought of us in the Fathers mind. But brought by His mind to us, and applied to us here by His Spirit; all in order to manifest in us by faith the forming of a biblical directed resting, in a new and accepted godly life; "hid with Christ in God" by Spirit. This is God's faithful reckoning toward us, accepting us in His Son as a position; we seen in what He has accomplished Physically and Spiritually. So all is in Spirit that marks us new creation saints before Him. Really our faith in what His Word says literally makes it so as our experience. His will quides us too a new spiritual conscience or a position [we co-sanctified, in His judgment, with Christ Jesus] all found and lived by knowledge. Lived out by faith and know or experienced by His Grace; for the reality in experance of our Christian walk here on earth. "Be filled with the Spirit" Eph. 5:18.
But we must have faith in definite facts for a spirit life that honors the Father. One in which we may live now in reality. Thus requiring a mind that seeks divine identity. We seeing our personhood/being eternally positioned in Christ for our current experience here and now. And not a mere profession of existence that is experienced as comfortable traditions or the seeking of the betterment of man in this world: both while often seen as a worthy Christian attitudes and probably most are done in sincerity of heart, are still simply a way of natural existence [reflects back upon self] and are spiritually lifeless and powerless in the Fathers sight in and of themselves. "For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth to show Himself strong in behalf of those whose heart is perfect toward Him" 2 Chron. 16:9.
Few in the Christian world seem to carry any concept of the vastness and formlessness of the spirit being we have become by belief in Christ Jesus. It seems the main effort is in acquiring that which most empowers our existence in a physical earthly mode. Giving the paramount place to fellowship, tradition and a feeling of corporate support and common goals and works. All these easily become a busy substitute for mindful contemplation of God's Word. While these attitudes can be useful even blessed under grace it is mans way in the world, and not true Christianity in it's self at all. A way most prominent in the religious world, which much of Christianity has become. "But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ" Gal 6:14.
Now we have the emergence of a new church that often embraces culture, man pleasing activities and environmental improvements as godly directed things of Christianity. As exampled in the emphasis upon entertainment, the doing, the form, accomplishment and the place given to the popularity of individuals. This is not a sound path for the pilgrim sojourner who is to be dedicated to a biblical fact based spiritual growth path on earth. No we will be lost to the emergence traditions as have all other worldly mimicking religious groups. Really ego has now taken control over what the world sees in much of the Christian life as proper Christian experience; seen often in their outward manifestation at least. And now many in the church and even the world consider the worlds betterment and the saints comfort the Christians obligation. We have become a accepted tradition, a nice way of life. "The heart is deceitful above all things, and is desperately wicked; who can know it" Jer. 17:9.
Although action is necessary and Christian works are very important in the physical world it is only a secondary manifestation. Spirit is found in things above by contemplating a new faith, one which looks down upon the things of the world in overriding power. Seeing things here of no value as accomplishments toward divine matters. Yes no matter as to how we might display Christian well doing our life in the physical is never the Fathers priority. For His way as life is only and always of Spirit. "Walk not after the flesh [morals and actions of the physical man], but after the Spirit" Rom. 8:4. So then the way of light as the Word encourages even commandes is found in the new creation consciousness of spirit, at least according to His Word. "For you [the old flesh man] have died and you life is hid with Christ in God" Col. 3:3.
Self regard is the product of todays understanding of God's Word and takes precedent: Recently while in conversation with a Pastor I asked; What is the definition of a Christian as to his function on earth? His answer was "We should love the Lord with all our heart, soul and mind and our neighbor as ourselves" [Mark 12:31]. This is the most common response in my experience anyway. However when I asked how are you doing with that? He answered; well I am trying. In God's eye's we must be perfect so mere effort will never do, as God does not grade on the curve, and He demands perfection as His Being [I AM] requires. In actuality this church leaders entire Christian attitude or self defined quality of purpose reflected upon himself; that is to love your neighbor "as yourself ". It all [as yourself] comes back to objectification of mans actions on earth. A often repeated personal definition of Christianity, but really a earthly definition... which applied to man under the Law [and was given under the Law] but never under grace! For we now have a new law, one of; "the Law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus" Rom. 8:2.
Our Lord is of course whom we are to look too in order to define ourselves in this the grace dispensation and not the letter of the old man or our own behavior. And if so we must see Him as He was, a all new creature on earth. He was perfect in all His ways and in His love. He had never to think, and did not think, what the effect for Himself would be of His association with others. He thought entirely of and for others. This also is to be our attitude toward all. Loving you neighbor sounds good, but if its as yourself we have a problem. As we can never escape the attempted control of the ego or old inner man if we follow, as is earthman's inclination, the old Adam life in spirit. As Law was the dispensation the world was under when the command to love your neighbor as yourself was given and grace was not a consideration.
We are told by Paul that we as new creation Christians within Him are now under grace, and are to look as into a mirror; which is made clear in the Word. There seeing ourselves yes but as we gaze at our image we see the Lord, as a moral effect, not for doing but being. We are not the Lord in the glass but His image is there morally [not a example to emulate but a life of being in spirit] as we see our new creation Spirit [Him as our life in glory] living within our conscience; know by His Word in faith. A instilled new conscience founded upon knowledge and faith."The Light of the Glory of God in the face of Christ Jesus" is now our life by the mental image provided by God's very Words. Could there be anything better?
This image is just as we have become anew, as seen in the Son by the Father. We have only this image [the Son] in the view and defining knowledge and personal apprehension of God the Father toward our very being soul and individualism. "We are as He [Christ Jesus] in this world" in His sight made so by His Sons representation in heaven. This is a spiritual biblical fact which changes our walk [our internal perception] by a change of mind, a new awareness and a desire to apprehend a new life, one of spirit. Therefore one of weakness and sacrifice, and a rejection of the world system [just as He was rejected] as having any possible godly value and never looking to ourselves for proof of a Christian life, not kingdom building here. But looking to Him as all defining for the new spiritual/heavenly life we now have and Him as our total object for that new spirit life. "Put on the new man" Eph. 4:24.
When our soul makes this discovery it learns that the deliverance from sin and the world, which we were formally incapable of attaining is neigh. We will see that our very nature as men of the earth has been set aside in death exampled by His Son. We will find that we have deliverance from attainment, the world and the disappointment of our actions. As all that pertains to mans identity before God has been wrought in the Son. For we have been made all new spiritual creatures within Him. His thoughts when followed will led us to be able to grasp that we must see the end to ourselves as Adam men, "dead in Christ" and live as new creatures by His Word. We may now not only believe it but trust Him for a entirely new life of mindful joyous apprehension. That He may make known the riches of His glory on vessels of mercy, which He had prepared beforehand unto glory' Rom. 9:23.
However this so valued deliverance comes only when we have learned of the evil and weakness of the flesh and no longer even look to it as having any possible Godly value what so ever. Now our dominant thought of our life as a Christian must be not that of accomplishment or even morals but of deliverance from the flesh, dead with Christ by the mindful awareness of the Word. A spiritual condition and position. But we must and can only find this deliverance as the result of knowing the position of faith that we rest in glory with Him. A life made equal to His Son, in His sight, living eternally within His Resurrection and Ascension at the Fathers right Hand by the Fathers acknowledgement. "But now that you have been set free from the tyranny of sin, and have become the bondservants of God, you have your reward in being made holy" Rom. 6:22.
Christianity is in God's sight His view of His children as having not only Christ Jesus as savior but we are know to Him just as His Son, as ones first born from the dead and as His inheritance or new men, as brothers and sisters of The Holy one and risen ones, just as His Son. Now we are partakers of Him in His victory over death in a active way but all of faith in a fact know and seen by God Himself as we may live in a heavenly or eternal state even now. "Risen with Him through the faith of the operation of God who has raised Him from the dead" Col. 2:12.
We are risen and entered into the heavenly places or the spiritual world of God with Him by mental aquessance to His truth. He [The Son] is to be seen then, by the Word and in faith, as one who represents us there and is in fact our very life above. Even as He is associated Himself with us in His death unto sin that we may be Judicially pardoned and accepted by The Father for a spirit led life here. Not for works or a reflection of how we should treat others as how we would, in what can only be a self centered way, treat ourselves. But now we have a life as seen in His life; to apprehend, and live with no expectations, just as He did. The corresponding moral effect then will be: "changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord".
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