A
wise Sentient BEing declared:
THE
REALITY OF RIGHTEOUSNESS
Part 5
"Righteousness
is one of the most astounding revelations given to man.
Until God’s people understand the basic revelation of God’s
righteousness, and I do not mean just understand it mentally with the mind,
but a revelation deep on the inside of their being, they will always, at most,
be a babe in Christ. You may want to be righteous and holy but you will never
be able to experientially walk in righteousness until you have this
revelation. To walk in righteousness is not just a good teaching. It means
that God’s nature is formed in you and you are living by His life and not
the life of the ego or carnal thinking.
You
must understand that righteousness is not earned, but is imputed to you.
Man will never be any more righteous if he lives to be 199,000 years
old than he is the moment his spirit is quickened in regeneration.
Righteousness is based upon the new creation man in Christ—not on anything
we have done or can do. In Romans chapter 9 and verse 30-33, Paul says, “What
shall we say then? That the
Gentiles, which followed not after righteousness, have attained to
righteousness, even the righteousness which is of faith. But
Israel, which followed after the law of righteousness, hath not attained to
the law of righteousness. Why?
Because they sought it not by faith, but by works of the law.
For they stumbled at that stumbling stone.
As it is written, Behold, I lay in Zion a stumbling stone and rock of
offence: and whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed.
God
says, “My people
are destroyed for lack of knowledge:” Hosea 4:6. Not the
heathen, but “My people.” The
word “destroyed” here means, “cut off”.
God’s people are cut off because of a lack of knowledge.
They do not understand God’s righteousness.
They go about trying to establish righteousness by their conduct. “For
they being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and going about to establish
their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness
of God.” Romans 10:3.
We
have all tried to establish our own righteousness before God by our conduct.
If you have any kind of a sense that you need to do something to make
yourself righteous, you are not submitting yourself to the righteousness of
God. If you feel there is something lacking in your life you need to do to
make yourself acceptable to God, you do not believe the simple word of God. In
our spirit we are a complete and perfect person. When you are living from that
consciousness you do not have to try to be or do anything. A son of God can
only be a son of God. See yourself as a son, and you will begin to function as
a son. We all know God is calling
forth the overcomers. By all means we want to be overcomers. The problem is in
us TRYING TO
BE overcomers rather than realizing we ARE
overcomers. The moment we are born again we are overcomers and nothing can
stop it except our unbelief in what God has said.
“Having
not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God.”
How do we submit ourselves to the righteousness of God?
Very simply – we believe God as Abraham believed.
God said to Abraham, “I’m going
to give you a son,,” and Abraham said, “OK, I believe you.”
It is really that simple. Now
we all know Abraham tried to produce a son by his own efforts and created an
Ishmael, and we have all done the same thing.
Nevertheless, God made him a promise.
He said, “I
am going to make you a father. And
through you, ALL
the families of the earth will be blessed.” Gen 28:14.
Now when God says something like that to either Abraham or to us, that
word does not depend upon our performance.
God is going to do what He is going to do regardless of what you
are going to do, or not do. When
God said to Abraham “Through you, all
the families of the earth will be blessed,” and when He said, “I
am going to give you a son for your inheritance,” there was
nothing Abraham could do to change the word of God.
God
has also given you and me many promises.
Peter says “We are partakers of
the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through
lust,” and we do it by receiving the promises of God.
You remember I shared in Ephesians, Paul said, “According
as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should
be holy and without blame before him in love.” Eph 1:4.
Now that is God’s choice, and it has nothing to do with your
choice. If you can believe it, you can receive it.
You do not have to try to be righteous
and holy and without blame. That is what He has made
us to be in spirit.
In fact, the more you try to be like God, the more you find
yourself in the position of the majority of the Christians of today. Not
submitting themselves to the righteousness of God, they try to produce their
own righteousness. To submit
yourself to the righteousness of God is to realize and stand in the reality of
what God says, “I have made you
righteous.” The
scriptures tell us, “By one man all men
were made righteous.” God does not impute sin; He imputes righteousness. The
Apostle Paul says, “For
they being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and going about to establish
their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness
of God. For Christ is the end of
the law for righteousness to everyone that believes.”
All you need is enough faith to believe what God has said. In your
heart you believe, so why not stand in it and confess it when you know it to
be the truth.
Paul,
in Romans 10:6, talks about a new kind of righteousness. The old kind of
righteousness, in the Old Testament, was a limited righteousness based upon
works or conduct, where as the new kind of righteousness under the new
covenant and in the New Testament is an unlimited righteousness which you
receive according to Romans 10:6-10, “Righteousness
which is of faith speaks on this wise.” Righteousness
is by faith, and faith always speaks. What
does faith speak? Faith speaks
that which God inputs to you through the Word.
Faith always speaks what God says He has given to you.
“The word
is nigh thee, (in verse 8) even in thy mouth, and in thy heart: that is, the
word of faith, which we preach; that if you shalt confess with thy mouth the
Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the
dead, thou shalt be saved.” Christians have been struggling
and trying for two thousand years to be righteous and holy before God, yet
verse 10 tells you how to do it., “For
with the heart man believes unto righteousness.”
When
God quickens your spirit, when you receive Jesus, He quickens your inner-man.
Your inner-man in your new heart believes the Word of God.
The problem is with the carnal mentality.
The problem is with what we call, “sense knowledge”—what we
touch, hear, taste, smell, and see. There are two kinds of knowledge— sense
knowledge and revelation knowledge. Sense knowledge is what the natural carnal
man lives by. Most Christians live by this sense knowledge. Oh, how much
anguish we sometimes experience because we want to experience spiritual things
with our five senses. If you ever learn to live above your feelings it is a
wonderful freedom. Christians suffer so many things such as depression and
condemnation and a myriad of other things because they do not know how to live
above what they feel. “I do not feel righteous so I must not be
righteous.” “I feel so sick all the time, surely healing was not provided
at the cross.” I am so full of lust and bad thoughts, I must not be
saved.” “I do not FEEL like God loves me, so He must not.” This kind of
thinking will never bring you to the place of faith in God. This is why the
Apostle Paul said we must be renewed in the spirit of our mind. In the spirit.
we do not have to have sense knowledge. We just KNOW what God says is true.
A
big one is always trying to feel the presence of God. This is a good desire
and it is wonderful to feel the
presence of the Lord; but if you learn to live above your natural feelings,
you will realize you are ALWAYS in the presence of the Lord. You can never get
away from His presence. David said in Ps 139:7-8
“Whither
shall I go from thy spirit? or whither shall I flee from thy presence? If I
ascend up into heaven, thou art there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou
art there.”
“Revelation knowledge” is what the Word reveals to us.
You do not have to experience it in the sense realm.
You do not have to feel revelation knowledge, you just know it. When
you know it by revelation you begin to speak it; and then you will experience
it. “For with the
heart, man believes unto righteousness.”
With your heart, you believe what God has said to you. God says “He
has made Him to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the
righteousness of God.” 2 Cor 5:21
Righteousness
is imputed or given to you simply by
believing Jesus paid the penalty and took your old nature to the cross and
then imputed to you, in resurrection-life, His righteousness.
Paul’s epistles are a revelation of the realities of redemption.
Righteousness is a basic revelation of Paul’s writings. Paul reveals
to us that righteousness is legally ours.
If something is legally yours, which means you do not have to work for
it, or earn it, you just receive it.
Your
bank account is legally yours. You
withdraw from your account that which is legally yours. Righteousness is
legally ours. Paul also reveals a
new kind of love in his
epistles. Righteousness, first of
all,gives you a right standing in your relationship with God.
That is all righteousness really means.
It means you are in right standing.
You have a right to enter God’s presence, not based upon your
conduct, but based upon your faith and belief in the Word of God which states
you have been forgiven, you have been cleansed, you do not have to do anything
except believe God has made the way for you. Righteousness has been given to
you, which enables you to enter into His presence without any sense of guilt,
shame, inferiority, or any other weakness.
You are in right standing with God, He has made you right through the
blood of Jesus and the cross.
When
you understand righteousness, you also begin to understand the new kind of
love. The greatest thing man has
is human love. But human love is
from the wrong source. Human love
is still from the carnal nature. I can prove this to you.
The nature man received when he partook of the tree of the knowledge of
good and evil was just that—
a nature of good and evil—and
that is the nature of the serpent. He
took into himself the serpent’s seed. Now we know that every seed produces
after its’ own kind. Man partook of the serpentine nature.
Then what happens to human love? It
is the greatest thing man has in human life; but human love very easily turns
to resentment, to bitterness, and to hatred.
Paul reveals to us in his epistles the new
kind of love. We have
not only received the righteousness of God and right standing with Him, but we
have also received the new kind of love.
If you are a Christian,—if you have the life and the nature of God
within you,—you have the new kind of love.
This love, which God has deposited within you, is not subject to
circumstances or conditions, and it
is not a limited love. The
love of God that has been shed abroad in our hearts is an unlimited and an
unconditional love.
In
our natural world, we have become so accustomed to a conditional love. Men and
women experience this all the time in the marriage relationship. Many times,
they are so “in love” —until they get married. Then, if they are not
spiritual, they try to change their mates into what they want.
If they are Christians, they often feel justified in attempting to make
their mates more spiritual. Many have said to me, “I thought my wife or
husband was more spiritual when I married them,” I will admit it can be a
difficult situation when one is more spiritual in a marriage than the other,
but you should never try to change your mate into what you
want. Many try to change
their mates by putting them under the law. “You know you shouldn’t do that
and God cannot bless you as long as you do it.” Many times we try to change
others by making them feel guilty so they will do what we
want. Sometimes after years of trying to change the other person, they finally
give up and decide that if the other person will not change, they cannot love
them anymore. They have fallen out of love with their mates because they
cannot make them into the person they think they should be. There is nothing
spiritual about this kind of love. Many have said to me, “I
know God brought us together and it was His will; but I cannot take this any
longer.” This is a natural, soulish, conditional love that most
of us have experienced. This is the root cause of many divorces. “If I
cannot have what I want and you cannot give me what I need, then the marriage
is over.” The only way a marriage should ever end is by the leading of the
Lord.
There
is a predominant teaching today in some circles about “DOVE MARRIAGES,”
also called “Twin Flames.” I am not against such a teaching, but many have
used it as an excuse to dump their mate in order to “find their dove.”
Some of the more SEEMINGLY spiritual ones will counsel others to divorce their
mate if they feel the mate is not their dove. People who teach this and then
advise others to dump their mate to find their doves
are treading in places they ought not. These people are also
controllers who will manipulate every area of your life if you let them. I am
not saying you should never leave a mate, but you need to make sure God is
leading you and you are not being led by your natural desires or by the
control of another.
Not
too many have experienced an unconditional love in a marriage relationship.
Unconditional love NEVER tries to change the other person. Unconditional love
serves and expects nothing in return. Love just loves regardless of what the
other person does or does not do. This kind of love is the only thing that can
bring lasting change into a relationship. If someone knows you love them
unconditionally, they cannot help but respond to that kind of love. The reason
we try to change another is we do not believe God can do it without our help.
Whenever you try to change another, you are usurping the Holy Spirit. This is
not to say we cannot discuss with one another or give advice or make our wants
known to one another, but we MUST NOT use control and manipulation to get our
own way.
This
is the kind of love the new creation man or woman has. This is a righteous
love which will flow from your being when you begin to experience the
righteousness that has been imputed to you. You were judged at the cross. In
fact, all of creation was judged at the cross, and now righteousness is
imputed to you as a gift from a loving Father. You have the new kind of love
in your spirit, and you cannot judge another.
You can only minister to them the love and grace and forgiveness of
God.
How
many times have you, in your own experience, helped someone?
Perhaps you have met someone on the street or you have worked with
someone who had a need and you began to help this person.
That is wonderful,; but as soon as the person does something to
irritate you or upsets you, if you are operating in human love, immediately
your love will begin to turn to resentment.
The moment you say, “How could
that person do that to me, after what I did for him?” it is the
sign of a little seed of resentment beginning to creep up within you.
How many of us have experienced it?
I have. Yet, the new kind
of love will simply keep loving. God’s
love will pour itself out upon an individual.
Then, when the individual begins to turn against you, there will be no
resentment, and there will be no bitterness.
There will still be the capacity for you to love the person who does
you wrong. Jesus taught
this—did he not? He said, “But
I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them
that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute
you;” Matt 5:44.
Matthew
5, 6, and 7 are not some things that we hopefully someday reach out and can
attain to, but Matthew 5, 6, and 7 are a picture of the Christian life.
The new kind of love that we have is nothing less than God’s life and
nature being manifested in us..
I
want to quote from the Amplified version of the Bible, I Corinthians chapter
13, because this shows you what you have within you.
In verse 4, “Love
endures long and is patient and kind; love never is envious nor boils over
with jealousy, love is not boastful or vainglorious, it does not display
itself haughtily. It is not
conceited, arrogant and inflated with pride; it is not rude, unmannerly, and
does not act unbecomingly. Love,
God’s love in us, does not insist on its own rights or its own way, for it
is not self-seeking; it is not touchy or fretful or resentful; it takes no
account of the evil done to it, It
pays no attention to a suffered wrong. Love
does not rejoice at injustice and unrighteousness, but rejoices when right and
truth prevail. Love bears up
under anything and everything that comes, is ever ready to believe the best of
every person, its hopes are fadeless under all circumstances, and it endures
everything without weakening. Love
never fails, never fades out or becomes obsolete or comes to an end.”
Now that is the new kind
of love Christians have within them. If
you are born again, you have this kind of love. The only reason most
Christians do not experience this love is because they go by sense knowledge
(what they feel in the natural), and not by the reality in their spirit (he
new creation man). When people do
us wrong we get mad and make the wrong choices.
The new kind of love makes the right kind of choices.
By making the right choices, you begin to experience the stirring of
God within your spirit. We
experience the new kind of love by laying aside our desires and serving
others.
To
give you a simple illustration; we sometimes fight over the silliest things to
have our own way. A couple I know
did this constantly for four years. They forever were insisting upon their own
rights and their own ways about a silly little thing,.
He would say, “I do not like
frozen bread.” See, his wife would not allow him to leave a loaf
of bread laying out on the counter. It
had to go in the freezer. I am
telling you the truth, they fought for almost four years over this, both
wanting their own way. He did not
care if he could thaw the bread out in the microwave in 30 seconds, he did not
like it and he did not want it. Oh
well! They laugh about it now,
but these kind of silly little things keep us from experiencing the new kind
of love. It caused him to be
angry with his wife, and her to be upset with her husband.
A simple little thing like that will stop the new kind of love from
operating. Who gives a flip about
frozen or unfrozen bread? Yet
they openly displayed their attitudes. “Well,
what do you care if the bread is on the counter?
What is the big deal,” he would say.
“Yes, what is the big deal?”
The big deal is, if you are not willing to drop whatever it is that is
offending you, it causes the new kind of love to be stopped and dammed up on
the inside of you. It takes just
a little resentment, just a little bit. Just a little thing like, “I
just don’t understand why my wife can’t leave the bread on the counter,”
can create a little bit of resentment.
You cannot have resentment toward anyone and experience the new kind of
love. We have to drop everything
– absolutely everything, to experience this love.
Love
is always willing and ready to minister to the needs of the other person.
It does not matter how they respond.
It is a silly little thing, but it does not matter.
Love is always willing to leave the bread on the counter.
Love is always willing to leave the bread in the freezer.
It is not a matter of who gets their own way.
In a sense, it is, because whoever gives in is the one who really wins
in the long run. The more you
give to the other person, regardless of whether their actions or words are
fair, right, or wrong, the more you are experiencing the mind of Christ.
That is what the new love is all about, gaining and increasing the
deposit of life that is within our being.
A
New Kind of Life
Paul
also reveals to us that we have received a new kind of life, and that life
says, “How can I serve you?”
It is not what I want, it is “What do
you want?” God’s life is a life of a servant.
I have often said that service to God is serving Christ in one another.
We think when we come together in a Church meeting, it is a service.
I believe the way you serve God is to serve
God. I serve you something from
my spirit, something of God. I
serve all of you by meeting your needs. That
is really service to God. That is
what a minister is. Everyone can
be a minister. We can all serve
God. I receive something from God
a revelation, a teaching, or a song— and I simply share it with you.
I am serving to you something that I have received from the Father.
Well, that is what has been given to us—a new kind of life. You see,
the natural life is always wanting to take, but the new kind of life is always
giving. Jesus said, “I am come
that you might have life,” and the word “life” there is the Greek word
“Zoë”, which is simply “God’s
life”. He came to
replace your human life with His life. He
said, “The life that I give you is the
abundant life.”
Why
is it Christians do not experience the abundant life?
It is because they do not believe they have it. If you do not believe
you have it, how can you experience it? In
our experience of God, we first of all are regenerated in our spirit.
We just simply call on the Name of Jesus or reach out to God and our
spirit is made alive and becomes one with His spirit.
Then we hear about the Baptism in the Holy Spirit.
So many of us wait for some kind of an experience and I am not saying
you do not experience anything, but you will simply take God at His word, He
says, “My Father gives the Holy Spirit
to them that ask Him,” and you receive the Holy Spirit just as
you receive Jesus for the new birth. Out of your innermost being flows living
water. The more you begin to
release praises and worship unto God from your inner-man, and the more you
speak God’s words according to His principles, the more you will
experience—even with your senses—the infilling of the Holy Spirit.
You can be filled to overflowing
simply by exercising what you already have within you.
People sit day after day not realizing that bottled up on the inside
they have everything they need. If
they learn how to release their new creation man they will experience it. This
is why we talk so much about learning how to release your spirit, because in
your inner-man, you are one with God. When
you learn how to release your spirit from your innermost being the very
essence of God begins to flow. Your
words then become spirit and life to others.
Jesus came and gave us that new kind of life.
Let
us look at John 14. These things
are so simple, yet they are so profound.
As we, the new creation, begin to get a hold of the reality of what
Jesus has given to us and what we have become by His indwelling, and begin to
get the revelation knowledge of this, it will produce the glorious church that
Jesus is coming in.
In John 14, Jesus says, “Let
not your heart be troubled; ye believe in God, believe also in me.
In my Father’s house are many mansions.”
The word “mansions” should not have been translated “mansions”.
The word there is really “abiding places,” and the word house means
“residence.”, “In
my Father’s residence are many dwelling places.”
I know a lot of people think Jesus went away with a hammer and some
nails and is building mansions in the sky so someday when you die, you can be
where He is. Listen as this
unfolds. “In
my Father’s house are many abiding places.
If it were not so, I would have told you.
I go to prepare a place for you. And
if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto
myself that where I am, there ye may be also.”
Now He went to prepare a place for us, and He says, “I
will come again, so that where I am you may be also.”
Now He is going to tell them later on where He actually is.
“Where I go
you know, and the way you know. Thomas
said unto Him, ‘Lord how can we know?’
(He said,) ‘Lord we don’t know where you go, and how can we know
the way? Jesus said unto him,
‘I am the way, the truth and the life.
No man comes unto the Father but by me.
If ye had known me, ye
should have known my Father also, and from henceforth ye know Him and have
seen Him. Philip said unto him,
‘Lord, show us the Father, and it suffices us’.
Jesus said unto him, ‘Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast
thou not known me, Philip? He
that hath seen me hath seen the Father. And
how say you ‘Show us the Father’?
Believe thou not that I am in the Father?”
Now He is telling you now where He is.
Let us go back to verse 3. “I
go to prepare a place for you, and I will come again and receive you unto
myself that where I am, there you may be.”
Back to verse 10, “Believest
thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me?
The words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself; but the Father
that dwells in me, he doeth the works. Believe
me that I am in the Father, and the Father in me: or else believe me for the
very works’ sake. Verily, I say
unto you, he that believes on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and
greater works than these shall he do because I go unto my Father.
And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that I will do, that the Father
may be glorified in the Son. If
ye love me, you keep my commandments, and I will pray the Father, and he shall
give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever; even the
Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive.”
Verse 18, “I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you.”
The word “comfortless” can also be rendered
“orphans”. He says, “I
am going away but I am not going to leave you an orphan.
I am going away, but I am coming back to you again.
Yet a little while, and the world seeth me no more; but ye see me:
because I live, ye shall live also. At
that day (now what
day is He talking about?), “At
that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you.” His
whole discourse here is talking about a day coming called the “Day of
Pentecost”— not the second coming in the clouds, but right here He is
referring to the day of Pentecost. He
is telling them, “I am going to go away.
I am going to prepare a place for you.
I am going into death. When
I go into death, I am taking every negative thing which is in your life and
every negative thing in this universe into death.
By taking it into death and being raised up then as the head of a new
race, I am preparing a place for you so that where I am in my Father, there
you can be. Just as I live and
dwell and move and have my being in my Father, and my Father is in me, after I
go away into death and resurrect and prepare that place for you, you can enter
into that presence and into that place where I am.
At that day, on the day of Pentecost, I will tell you, when the Spirit
of God enters into you, and then you will be filled both inwardly and
outwardly with the Spirit of God, in that day you will know I am in My Father,
and ye in me, and I in you. He
that hath My commandments and keeps them is he that loves Me.
And he that loves Me shall be loved of My Father, and I will love him,
and will manifest Myself to him.” In
verse 23, “Jesus
said, ‘if a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him,
and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him.”
That word “abode” here is the same word that is
translated “mansions” in verse 14:2.
“In my Father’s house are many mansions.”
The same word is translated “mansions” in one place
and “abode” in the other.
Faith
speaks on this wise: “I have received
the righteousness of God. I know
that not based upon my conduct, but upon the Word of His righteousness, I have
been redeemed from the hand of the enemy.
I stand before my Father God as clean as if I had never sinned.
Jesus is my elder brother. The
same life that flows through the body of Jesus Christ now lives and flows in
me. There is no separation
anymore between me and God.”
See, faith speaks on this wise. This
is the way faith speaks. Sense-knowledge
will look at your experience and say, “But you missed it here, you did this
this past week, so it must mean the Word is not working for you.” Or, “It
certainly cannot apply to you because you did this or that.”
But faith speaks on this wise: “Jesus has made me righteous.
Now when I fall, I do not feel very righteous, but because I believe
what God said, God has made me righteous.”
Jesus said, “If you keep my words,” if you walk in the light as He
is in the light, the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses you from every sin.
He said if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us
our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
So if you will keep His Word – “if
you keep My word, my Father will love him – If a man love me, he will keep
my words, and my Father will love him and we will come unto him and make our
abode with him. He that loves me
not keeps not my sayings and the word which he hears, not mine but the Father
which has sent me, these things have I spoken unto you being yet present with
you, but the comforter which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in
my name, he will teach you all things, and bring all things to your
remembrance whatever I have said unto you.
The comforter, which is the Holy Ghost whom the Father will send in my
name” - This whole chapter is talking about the day of
Pentecost, a day to come very quickly. Jesus
came as the baptizer of the Holy Spirit upon the day of Pentecost, and filled
120 people. Their lives
drastically changed, not just a little bit, but they entered immediately into
the knowledge of the new kind of righteousness, a new kind of love, a new kind
of faith and a new kind of life. Remember
how Peter was changed so drastically on the day of Pentecost? Just a short
time before, he was a mere human. He
loved God with his human love. He
loved Him with all of his heart. He
said, “God I would never, ever betray you.”
Yet he did, because human love cannot measure up.
But on the day of Pentecost, that same Peter stood fearlessly before
thousands without any fear at all, and proclaimed the gospel of Jesus Christ,
because he had a new kind of life, and a new kind of love.
The church needs to get back into the revelation of God’s
righteousness, and God’s love. In
John 15, “I am the
true vine, and my Father is the husbandman.
Every branch in me that bears not fruit he takes away: and every branch
that bears fruit, he purges it, that it may bring forth more fruit.
Now ye are clean through the word, which I have spoken unto you.
Abide in me, and I in you. As
the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine, no more
can ye, except ye abide in me. I
am the vine; ye are the branches. He
that abides in me, and I in him, the same brings forth much fruit.”
Well, how do we abide in Him?
We abide in Jesus by keeping His words.
We abide in Jesus by putting the bread in the freezer and forgetting
the whole mess. I am serious.
Those simple little things affect your life, because anything that
disturbs your rest, or your peace in God needs to be laid aside.
When man comes to the point of laying down everything he wants for
himself, he is then in a position for the love of God to flow freely like a
river from his inner being. The
only thing which stops the love of God is selfishness...carnal thinking – we
think we have rights. Now humanly
speaking, we do have rights. But
divinely speaking, the only right we have is to “Love
one another, as I have loved you,” as Jesus said .
No other right. When the
people of God come into the new kind of love, we change the world.
If we only realize that through the spirit, the new creation man, we
can mortify the carnal thinking then the Son of God will be manifested in us.
I
want more than anything else for Christ to be manifested in my flesh.
But only one life can live in this vessel. Colossians 3 says, “If
ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ
sitteth on the right hand of God. Set
your affection on things above.”
Now affection could be rendered “mind”.
Set your mind on things above. Can
you imagine going around praising God, thinking about the blessings of God
which have been bestowed upon us, and then getting angry about a loaf of bread
being put in the freezer? “Set
your mind on things above, not on things on the earth.
For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God.”
The Word never tells you to crucify your flesh.
The Word always tells you that you are dead with Christ. From that
aspect of an accomplished fact, from that perspective, you live and manifest
Christ. The scriptures tell you Jesus took your old man to the cross.
Jesus took everything of the old negative “self” to the cross.
Then from that consciousness, you mortify the carnal thinking. You
simply turn your mind away from carnal thinking and set it on things in the
heavenly realm where you are seated with Christ.
“For
ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God.
When Christ, who is our life shall appear, then shall ye also appear
with him in glory.”
Col 3:3. Now here is how Christ
appears – this is how we appear with Him in glory: “Mortify therefore your
members which are upon the earth.” Forget
about your petty wants and dislikes, what does it really matter if the bread
stays on the counter or goes in the freezer? If it causes you anger and
resentment, forget it. When we
mortify the carnal thinking, then Christ, who is our life, begins to appear
within us. We all need to get the
vision that the more you lay aside your carnal thinking, the more He lives;
and you will experience the Spirit of God rising up on the inside of you and
taking dominion over your flesh. There is nothing like the feelings of your
spirit taking control of your carnality. There is nothing like it in the
entire world that will give you a sense of satisfaction, a sense of peace and
joy, knowing your spirit is at last beginning to become strong enough to rise
up and take dominion over the works of the flesh.
“Mortify
therefore your members which are upon the earth.” You
do this not by trying, but by being and living in the new creation
man. When you do, then Christ, who is our life, appears.
You see how we have been put to sleep for so long, not realizing the
purpose for mortifying the carnal thinking, because when we realize the
purpose for it,—to put yourself aside—you realize the rewards are not just
future in some heavenly realm somewhere, but the rewards are right now.
How many of us would not want to have Jesus Himself, the life of God,
being manifested within us? Who
would not want the life that knows no defeat and no failure?
Who would not want that life? If you by the spirit mortify your likes,
your dislikes, your ambitions, your attitudes, and your actions and you let go
of your anger, resentment, your bitterness and all those things that keep you
in carnality, there will come a day when sickness and disease will not be able
to stand in your presence. That
means being just like the Apostle Paul, who would sometimes walk by people and
his shadow would heal them, because the Apostle Paul was not just a man.
The Apostle Paul was both man and God - he was both human and divine.
The Apostle Paul was again a replica of the Lord Jesus.
Jesus was a pattern or a prototype, if you will¸ of what man is in the
new creation. He was the real man
God wanted in Adam. He is even
called, “the last Adam and the second man”.
Paul was a picture of a man who was both human and divine.
Paul teaches us that the church is both human and divine.
How else could we do the works of God?
As we read earlier, Jesus said, “He
that believes in me, the works that I do shall he do.”
How could we do the works of God, unless God in us did
the works? Even Jesus said, “Of
mine own self, I cannot do anything.” He
said, “It is not Me that does the works, but it is My Father that dwells
within me.” So then how could
He expect the church to do the works He did, unless they had the same Father
and the same life dwelling within them? Man
is a dwelling, an abiding place for God—man, the dwelling place of God!
Here we sit not doing the works of God, because we do not understand;
we have not had revealed to us what Jesus did.
He finished the work, and we can enter into His finished work. We have
not really accepted and submitted ourselves unto the righteousness of God.
We have tried to attain it by some sort of works, or a kind of conduct,
or by some code of ethics.
When
we begin to understand the righteousness of God, it produces in us the fruit
of righteousness, which is holiness. All
the things we try to attain to by working through the efforts of the flesh,
become spontaneously ours simply by believing what God has said.
For with the heart man believes,
not with works, but with the heart man believes unto righteousness.
“God said it, I believe it.” How
many times have you heard it? “God
said it. I believe it, and that
settles it.” Do you really?
Do you really believe what God says, or do you believe what you
experience? Because if you
believe what you experience rather than what God says, then you will speak
your experience rather than speak what God says.
But, if you believe what God says more than you believe your
experience, then you will speak what God says, and
your experience will line up with what God says.
The Word says He took our sicknesses, our infirmities, our pain, our
griefs, our sorrows, and our sin. He
took everything. When you have a
revelation of it and begin to speak it, your experience will line up with it.
So many Christians say, “Well if everybody was healed at the cross,
how come Christians are sick?” Well
sin was destroyed at the cross too, but Christians are still sinning because
they do not understand. They do
not exercise it, they do not speak faith, rather they speak their experience.
For it is out of the abundance of the heart the man speaks.
Jesus said, “However a man thinks in his heart, so is he.” If you
think you are a sinner and you speak like it, you will always manifest it.
So you have to change the way you think about yourself.
You will not change the way you think about yourself without a
revelation and word from God. It
is then you begin to realize faith speaks on this wise.
This is how faith speaks. “I
am healed. In my spirit, the new creation man, I am whole, sinless, and
complete in Him. I do not care what happens.
I do not care what symptoms my body displays, I am complete and whole.
That is the kind of commitment, and the kind of faith God will honor
every time. Faith speaks what God
says. “Out of the abundance of
the heart the mouth speaks.” For
with the heart man believes unto righteousness. It is so simple, we miss it.
You can simply receive. I am
talking about experientially now, not just a “mind trip”.
But you receive by believing. With
the heart, men believe unto righteousness.
God says I am righteous; therefore I am
My experience might not line up with the Word of God, but I believe the Word
of God more than I believe what I experience.
I know bondage cannot stay in my life because I
believe in the righteousness of God.
I believe the blood of Jesus does what the Word says; it cleanses me
from every sin—big sins, little sins, any kind of sin, and imputes to me the
righteousness of God. Glory to
God!"
Thus ended the declaration of the wise sentient Being.
Namaste
Sirius 8