The Committed Life

Now here is the point of being delivered from the sin principle. Let’s discuss the meaning of the three gifts that the prodigal’s father’ gave his son on his return. Unless the earthly fathers of this present world are living in a healthy loving relationship with God their Father; they will not be able to pass down to their children these same three gifts. This word for robe in the Greek is stole: meaning a long robe that represents dignity. It also represents a supernatural strength and a power that enables and keeps us free from worldly entanglements. It’s our righteousness position in Christ that we should be living in.

The word for shoe is hupodeo: meaning bound to or in submission and hidden. Scripture says we are to be hidden in Christ or our security must be in Christ. The ring he put on his finger represents a covenant of an eternal bound relationship that cannot be broken no matter what ever transpires between a father and son. The camaraderie might have been broken but the blood relationship could never be terminated.

Our robe of righteousness that we received when we became born again is a garment that scripture tells us is the very presence and nature of Jesus Christ. Scripture defines this as we slipping into a garment. To the natural mind this makes no sense and it should tell us that we must walk in the Spirit dimension that can not be seen with the physical eye and can not be reasoned with our natural mind.

The Apostle Paul states this in Romans 8:2-10 “For the law of the Spirit of life [which is] in Christ Jesus [the law of our new being has freed me from the law of sin and of death. For God has done what the Law could not do, [its power] being weakened by the flesh the entire nature of man without the Holy Spirit. Sending His own Son in the guise of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, [God] condemned sin in the flesh [ subdued, overcame, deprived it of its power over all who accept that sacrifice], So that the righteous and just requirement of the Law might be fully met in us who live and move not in the ways of the flesh but in the ways of the Spirit [our lives governed not by the standards and according to the dictates of the flesh, but controlled by the Holy Spirit].

For those who are according to the flesh and are controlled by its unholy desires set their minds on and pursue those things which gratify the flesh, but those who are according to the Spirit and are controlled by the desires of the Spirit set their minds on and seek those things which gratify the [Holy] Spirit. Now the mind of the flesh [which is sense and reason without the Holy Spirit] is death [death that comprises all the miseries arising from sin, both here and hereafter]. But the mind of the [Holy] Spirit is life and [soul] peace [both now and forever. That is because the mind of the flesh [with its carnal thoughts and purposes] is hostile to God, for it does not submit itself to God’s Law; indeed it cannot.

So then those who are living the life of the flesh catering to the appetites and impulses of their carnal nature cannot please or satisfy God, or be acceptable to Him. But you are not living the life of the flesh; you are living the life of the Spirit, if the Holy Spirit of God really lives within you and is directing and controlling you. But if anyone does not possess the [Holy] Spirit of Christ, he is none of His he does not belong to Christ, is not truly a child of God. But if Christ lives in you, then although your natural body is dead by reason of sin and guilt, the spirit is alive because of the righteousness that He imputes to you”

When we became born again; God attributed or imputed His very nature to us as He did for Jesus His first born son. Think and pause for a moment so the Holy Ghost can witness to you this fact in case you never heard it before or do not have the understanding of what I have said; down deep with in your subconscious mind. What I have said is the core and bases of what our Christian faith is built on and it must be a firm foundation of understanding in us if we are really determined to reach our potential in God’s scheme of things.

Our flesh and our spirit are controlled by two different entities. People who do not have the Holy Ghost can only live in their flesh. They make their decisions and plans for their lives according to their own thinking. They can not have their steps being ordered by the Lord because the life of God with all of His characteristics do not live in them. If a person is truly born again from above and has had this supernatural miracle; they are the only ones who are capable of walking in the spirit. The spirit world is very real and it is the Holy Ghost that teaches us how to navigate in God’s kingdom of the spirit world.

When one has the sin principle alive and active in their lives; they are not cooperating with the Holy Ghost’s reasoning in their thought life even though they could be God’s children because; they have never been explained their position in Christ. There is a mentality with in the born again assemblies of constantly pointing out all of our wrongs that are in our lives and we stay in a constant mentality of repairing ourselves. When we do this; we are walking in the flesh not in the spirit.

In 1 John 2:27 John tells us. “But as for you, the anointing the sacred appointment, the unction which you received from Him abides [permanently] in you; so then you have no need that anyone should instruct you. But just as His anointing teaches you concerning everything and is true and is no falsehood, so you must abide in live in, never depart from) Him being rooted in Him, knit to Him], just as His anointing has taught you to do.”

There are some of you who are reading this that might be asking; “does that mean that I don’t have to submit to any authority and just do what ever I want.” No that is not what I am saying. I have found in my walk with the Lord that; when I am persuaded and have been able to identify God’s voice through the Holy Ghost; He uses God’s word as a mirror to judge all things that I encounter in my life. This type of relationship must be active and constantly going on even in our sleeping moments with Him using dreams in the night time hours. We are to submit to God’s authority first and then not be afraid of all the people and things God brings into our arena of life to help us learn how to be humble and practice asking the Holy Ghost what He is trying to tell us through our going in and going outs. The flesh is such a powerful entity that only with the anointing of the wisdom of God at work in our mind and heart will we be able to identify what is of God or what is of the devil’s influence.

We have people in the pulpits of the world today that are very gifted and charismatic people. We have spectacular choir groups and dressed up stages where millions of dollars have been spent in scenery to lure people into the churches to help finance their causes. As Delilah beguiled Samson in the Old Testament so the entity of the sin principle wants to beguile God’s children from their appointed tasks in the Lord.

In I Sam. 16:7 God told Samuel “But the Lord said to Samuel, Look not on Saul the king’s outward appearance and at the height of his stature, for I have rejected him. For the Lord sees not as man sees; for man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the hear.” As a born again child of God; He wants and has equipped His children to discern the subtleties of the enemy and no longer be naive and take our salvation for granted and not know that; we are in a fight for ourselves and humanity.

Paul the Apostle says this in Col. 2:6-10. “Since you have received Christ, [even] Jesus the Lord, so walk and regulate your lives and conduct yourselves in union with and conformity to Him. Have your roots of your being firmly and deeply planted in Him, fixed and founded in Him, being continually built up in Him, becoming increasingly more confirmed and established in the faith, just as you were taught, and abounding and overflowing in it with thanksgiving. See to it that no one carries you off as spoil or makes you yourselves captive by his so-called philosophy and intellectualism and vain deceit (idle fancies and plain nonsense), following human tradition (men’s ideas of the material rather than the spiritual world), just crude notions following the rudimentary and elemental teachings of the universe and disregarding [the teachings of] Christ the Messiah.

For in Him the whole fullness of Deity the Godhead continues to dwell in bodily form giving complete expression of the divine nature. And you are in Him, made full and having come to fullness of life in Christ you too are filled with the Godhead—Father, Son and Holy Spirit—and reach full spiritual stature].

And He is the Head of all rule and authority of every angelic principality and power.”

It must come to pass if we are really going to grow up and mature in God’s kingdom and learn how to give expression to the Holy Ghost’s leadings; we must stop leaning to our own understanding. I have over the years with family and friends and people I meet every day endeavored to reason with them and make them aware that even though they love the Lord; they are not in love with the Lord. Now these are born again believers. My wife tells me at time that I am the eternal optimist. However I am at a loss as to some people that I meet as them not having a clue of how God’s kingdom works and the sin principle that is operating in their lives has caused a sever bondage of years of anguish and going around the same mountain of trials over and over and over and over.

These articles that I put on our web site gives purpose for my life and is God ordained. It is the born again believer functioning in his or her call with passion and tenacity that defeats the sin principle in ones life. The sin principle will constantly try to rear its ugly head and try to stop us with feeling shame and get us to the place of not liking ourselves. This is what self center ness means and not being Christ centered.

The Apostle John says this in 1 John 4: 9-15. “In this the love of God was shown to us as far as we are concerned: in that God sent His Son, the only begotten or unique [Son], into the world so that we might live through Him. In this is love: not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the (atoning sacrifice) for our sins. Beloved, if God loved us so [very much], we also ought to love one another. No man has at any time [yet] seen God. But if we love one another, God abides (lives and remains) in us and His love (which is essentially His) is brought to its full maturity, runs its full course and is perfected in us! By this we come to understand that; we (live and remain) in him and him in us: because He has given imparted to us of His Holy Spirit.

Now besides this; we ourselves have seen have deliberately and steadfastly contemplated and bear witness that the Father has sent the Son as the Savior of the world. Anyone who confesses acknowledges, that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides (lives, makes His home) in him and he [abides, lives, makes his home] in God.

We must have a commitment here of having a deliberate and highly focused decision to seek God with every thing with in us if; we are going to live with a continuous witness from with in us that we are God’s children and not get insensitive to the Holy Ghost’s leadings. There is no doctrine that says that once we had our first encounter of acknowledging our need for Jesus to forgive our sins and come into our lives to break the curse of the sin principle off of our lives that; now we can go back to building a life of accolades and riches and have no need to mature in the spiritual world of God our Father. It is to be our continuing life style of acknowledging our need to sit at the Lord’s Table and nourish our selves from the Tree of Life.

The way we continually acknowledge God in our life is to follow Proverbs 3:6 which tells us. “To acknowledge God in all our ways, and if we would, He would direct our paths.” Let’s define this word acknowledge from the Hebrew Concordance.

The first definition is “familiar friend.”

Jesus must be a familiar friend, be well known to us and we must have an intimate relationship with Him. We must think very highly of Him and apply ourselves to walk with Him.

The second definition is “advice.”

We must seek His counsel on all of our decision-making, and His opinion on our line of conduct in our relationships with each other.

The third definition is “diligent.”

We must not become lazy in our daily walk with Him. It must not become an obligation or chore, but a joyful and delightful experience with passion and excitement.

The fourth definition is “discovery.”

There is created in us a revelation of a person showing us a way of reasoning that supersedes our own human thoughts. We in turn become totally fixed on a hunger for something we cannot find in our everyday experiences of life.

The fifth definition is “endure with.” As this process takes place, we must allow ourselves to become pliable, teachable, and submitted to changing our thoughts to GOD’S thoughts. As we experience His grace, (unmerited favor), this is what will empower us and allow this attitude to take place.

The sixth definition is “awareness”

There will become a conscious knowing and growing encounter with a person you cannot see with your physical eye. The spirit in us becomes assertive and active, and it begins to direct our lives. We begin to seek and hunger after this relationship with this person morning, noon and night.

This is what must take place if the sin principle is to longer have control and operating in our life. This is what allows God to let His loving presence cause us to focus on walking in the reverential fear of God and become addicted to his presence. David the King said. “ Goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life because I have made a free will choice to live in the presence of the Lord ” When the sin principle is at work in the believer, they can not use their free will to make choices. Our freedom in God is to let go and let God weave His righteous spirit through us as He did for Adam and Eve before they ate from the Tree of the Knowledge of good and evil.

I have found more and more everyday that God’s yoke is easy because I am learning to let Him carry it. He’s stronger then I am and I am learning to trust and put my life in his hands. It is time for the body of Christ to rest from their laboring, get their eyes off of themselves and learn how to seek God’s face and not beg for their worldly supply from Him so they can stay afloat and not go under. I am learning to be thankful in all things and how to make melody in my heart to Him because; HE IS THE BEST AND CAN BE TRUSTED.