Proverbs 3:5-7 states. "Trust in the LORD with all our heart; and don't lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will direct your path. Don't be wise in your own eyes; have a deep respect for the LORD and turn away from anything not based on and in His love." When we acknowledge God, we admit the existence and submit ourselves to walk under His authority.

God has given us intense healthy emotions as love, joy, hatred and anger and unless we are using them with His leadings; we end up leaning towards our own understanding and not functioning with the inheritance our Heavenly Father gave us the day we became his son or daughter. Our flesh has a mind and will of its own and we must be able to know the difference between walking in God's Spirit vs. walking in our own understanding. When we walk in our own understanding; we open ourselves up to demonic influence.

When there is a casual relationship with the Holy Ghost, Christianity becomes boring tasks and burdens of meaningless thoughts and acts that have no adventure and thoughts of walking on water. Jesus walked on water and He beckoned Peter to come out of the boat and walk with Him. Peter get out of the boat and walked on water for a while until; he got His eyes and heart off Jesus and the storms of life caused Him to begin to drown. Jesus saved him because Peter dared to believe and was persuaded by Jesus that; he could walk on water and he stepped out of the boat. If Peter would have leaned to his own understanding; he would have never gotten out of the boat in the first place.

When we lean to our own thinking; it seems safer to stay in the boat because; we are not exercising the mind of Christ that we received the day we became born again. It is indeed troubling and at times and I get bewildered at the number of born again believers I meet; that have no clue as to who they are in Christ and they have no vision in knowing that; they should be having signs and wonders following their steps. When we stay ignorant of God's word and unable to hear what the Holy Ghost is saying to God's family; we stay in a condition of living with a survivor mode mentality and never learn how to motor our way around in God's kingdom experiencing His mercy, loving kindness and miraculous power.

Paul describes walking in the Spirit in Romans 14:17 when he says. "For the kingdom of God is not a matter of getting the food and drinks one likes, but instead it is righteousness which brings heart peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.

Peter the Apostle tells us that we were delivered from the consequences of us leaning to our own understanding by Christ when he says this in 1 Peter 1:2 (Amplified) "Christ has delivered us from living in fear, agitating passions and moral conflicts with in our selves." Our first priority; to be delivered from this type of life style; is being continually counseled by the Holy Ghost and walking in obedience to what Jesus said in Matthew 6:33. "Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness (His way of thinking) and all the things that you need; will be added to your life."

Jesus also states in Matthew 5:6, "Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness for they will be filled." Only the Holy Ghost; can give us a revelation of what Righteousness really means. Let's start out with defining Righteousness which brings with it Joy and Peace.

There is no righteousness at work in our lives unless we have the living Spirit of Christ in our being. We were physically born alienated from God's Spirit and our being had no spiritual life. It is only after we have received the mind of Christ after becoming born again that we have the capacity to think in righteous thoughts because; we have the living Christ in us who is our righteousness and we have become a new creature in Christ Jesus.

Our Righteousness is actually the Spiritual Breathe of Christ that is a still small voice with in us that; beckons us to walk in heavenly places with Him and share common interests, goals, experiences, and His views on life. It has nothing to do with us being burdened down with trying to reach up to God for acceptance or trying harder to love Him which brings with it a heavy weight of us judging ourselves that can just wear a person out. God wants us to let go and let Him love us. In turn; we can then love Him back and love ourselves and pass that love on to others.

1 John 17-19 states this. " There is no fear in love dread does not exist, but full-grown (complete, perfect) love turns fear out of doors and expels every trace of terror! For fear brings with it the thought of punishment, and the consequences of that is he who is afraid has not reached the full maturity of love; is not yet grown into love's complete perfection. We love Him, because He first loved us."

Having perfect love does not mean that; if we continue to try harder or act some self righteous way we will eventually mature to have perfect love. When we walk in love it's because; God is love itself and this causes us to already walk in perfection because; He is perfection it self at work in us. When we walk with this understanding with a spiritual witness with in us; it allows God's love to put a hedge around our mind and heart which protects us from fear, confusion and unrest. Unless we are learning how the spiritual kingdom works; we can not block the fiery darts of the devil that comes against our mind and as Christians we operate like a whale out of water.

This fear spirit makes our spiritual ears incapable of hearing what the Holy Ghost is saying to His church and the consequences; we lean towards our own understanding and we make God into our own image. This is what Paul the Apostle calls idolatry which is the worship of self. This whole discourse is us recognizing the deception of the devil's influence in trying to get us to not rightly interpret the word of God with the Holy Ghost's leading. Our whole foundation must be built on Jesus Righteousness because; He is righteous and so are we because; we are in Him and He is in us.

When God's Righteous Spirit does not flow freely in us; there can be no joy and peace operating in our life as God intended.

Now the word righteous in the Greek Concordance is defined as; God seeing us as blameless, free from evil and set apart from the world as His own children Any other belief contrary to righteousness means that you are vulnerable to be lead astray by every wind of doctrine being taught in or out of the body of Christ assemblies and you become as a sheep being lead to be slaughtered. By not identifying with Christ and continuing to lean towards our own understanding; we never become independently strong and deep rooted in our relationship with God and therefore, we do not become inter dependant with our brothers and sisters in Christ. It is as we have fellowship with God and with one another in our righteous state that; we will become healthy whole people.

People who never become independent; live like chameleons changing their views to live in agreement with all others views because; they never learn how to die to self and make a stand for the true word of God. They can't lead, follow or get out of the way. This is indeed sad and grievous after all that Jesus did for us by dying on the cross to deliver us from this kind of mind set.

Paul in Galatians 2:20-21 states this. "I have been crucified with Christ [in Him I have shared His crucifixion]; it is no longer I who live, but Christ (the Messiah) lives in me; and the life I now live in the body I live by faith in a total dependence and complete trust in the Son of God, Who loved me and gave Himself up for me. Therefore, I do not treat God's gracious gift as something of minor importance and defeat its very purpose]; I do not set frustrate and nullify the grace (unmerited favor) of God. For if our righteousness which is our acquittal from guilt comes through observing the ritual of the Law, then Christ (the Savior) died for no purpose and in vain.

Rituals are repetitive behavior and an inflexible stylized and often a continual sequence of actions, for example, repeated hand-washing or our lives focused on the obligation of church assembling and any feelings that we have to measure up and clean up our act and fly right. This represents an uncontrollable persistence of an idea or emotion in the mind which is sometimes associated with a psychiatric disorder.

Anything not connected and reasoned in our mind in God's Righteous Spirit falls into this category. This is where we lean towards our own understanding of God's ways and it brings no true peace, joy and rest in God. It causes us to live with an expectation of God showing up however, you live with the wrong information of His ways. This happens when God's word has not been rightly interpreted through the Holy Ghost and false doctrine has been seeded into our mind and heart.

When we don't operate or fall back from God's grace; as Paul stated in Galatians; it does not mean that; we backslide and go to hell after you have been born again as it is being preached in many assemblies today. It is impossible for a born again believer to become illegitimate after having their heavenly Father's DNA planted in their being the day they had a supernatural miracle take place in them and became born again. Also, there is a ton of gospel being preached that makes a child of God constantly being told and reminded of their faults and shortcomings and being treated as sinners rather then saints. When we nullify God's grace; we fall short of receiving our Father's loving kindness, favor and end up as a crippled child who is not able to have an adventurous life style with the freedom to explore God's kingdom and walk freely in His presence. Could anything in life be more grieves and sad then this.

A born again child of God with a heart to follow God and having feelings of non acceptance and not quit sure what their position or standing is in God their Fathers' eyes.
Paul continues to tell us in Galatians 3:22-27. "But the Scriptures picture all mankind as sinners shut up and imprisoned by sin, so that the inheritance, blessing] which was promised through faith in Jesus Christ might be (released, delivered, and committed to all those who adhere to and trust in and rely on Him.

Now before faith came, we were perpetually guarded under the Law, kept in custody in preparation for the faith that was destined to be revealed unveiled, disclosed, So that the Law served to us as our trainer [our guardian, our guide to Christ, to lead us until Christ came, that we might be justified (declared righteous, put in right standing with God) by and through faith.

But now that the faith has come, we are no longer under a trainer (the guardian of our childhood. In Christ Jesus you are all sons of God through faith. For as many [of you] as were baptized into Christ [into a spiritual union and communion with Christ, the Anointed One, the Messiah, you have put on (clothed yourselves with) Christ."

The miracle of our second birth in Christ not only makes us become a new (creature) creation in Christ as stated in 11 Cor. 5:17 but; it also brings with it the power to no longer reason in wrong and right concepts of working hard to be obedient to rulish standards. When we think like this; it brings with it guilt, condemnation with shame and keeps us forever trying to work harder in our own endeavors for God to accept us. We were born imprisoned with a sin nature and us thinking in right and wrong concepts because; the Ten Commandments made us aware that we were breaking them.

This was God's intension in the first place and having this awareness; we knew that we needed a higher power then ourselves to be set free to experience real joy and peace. This human nature that we were born with was leading us to recognize that; we were being held under the protection of something or somebody's care and we had no power to stop sinning and were in bondage to fleshly habits.

When righteousness is not being preached and taught in the pulpits around the world and a standard of preaching of us being constantly reminded of how we all fall short of God's glory and how we have to do our penance and shape up and fly right; our old nature that Christ died for on the cross is raised from the died and our new life in Christ is muzzled and lays dormant with in us.

Romans 8:1-4 states. "There is now therefore no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh, but after the spirit. For those that are after the spirit; do mind the things of the flesh; however those who are after the Spirit do mind the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually mind is life and peace."

If we are going to walk in the Spirit; we must give up any ideas of having any servitude attitude that we make up for ourselves and we must let go and rest in God our Father‘s love. This idea of us continually repenting and repenting and repenting to the point of repetitive skin peeling of our self becomes a burden that causes one to despair of life it self.

We will describe this attitude in more detail when we cover what Peter said that being; we should not walk in fear, agitating passions and moral conflicts. You are either walking in your flesh; your own reasoning or you are walking in the Power of the Holy Ghost. There can be no straddling of the fence and no compromise. It is as we walk in our righteousness that empowers us to fight the good fight of faith and win.

When a born again believer doesn't know who they are in Christ; they end up fighting people and personalities and denominations because they never really want to admit that the devil is a very real living spirit and if they did admit it; they wouldn't know how to fight his devices because; it's the Holy Ghost that does the fighting as we learn how to get out of the way and rest in God.

If the true gospel of our righteousness is not being taught step by step and precept upon precept as defined by scripture; our spirit walk becomes a haphazard experience with no foundational anchors being planted deep with in our subconscious mind and when the storms of life hit; we run for cover and find solace in our carnal nature (The flesh) and our hope is that; it will save us because; it Novocain's our soulish pain. It is as our soul prospers which gives us the freedom to walk in God's court unafraid. As stated in 111 John 2.

Born again children of God who do not know how to walk in their righteousness are loved by God who is the jealous lover of their soul; and because their soul is sick they need the doctoring of the Holy Ghost to heal them. Just as we have people being healed in their physical body by God, we need to spend more time learning how our soul works because; I believe that there would be less physically sick people if their soul was healthy. This type of illness is called psychosomatic which involves the mind and the body.

Paul the Apostle states this in 1 Thes. 5:23-24. " May the God of peace Himself sanctify you through and through by separating you from profane things, make you pure and wholly consecrated to God; and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved sound and complete and found blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ the Messiah."

Only if we have been persuaded that we are already blameless, free from evil and set apart as God's children; will we feel blameless at His appearing. You can not work at becoming more righteous because; this is what we already are and became the day we were born again from above. When we do not believe what God thinks about us, we are not thinking with the mind of Christ and there is a shadow of shame that dominates our life.

We must finally come to understand the difference between our childish behaviors verses our righteous position in Christ Jesus. Just as we have our parents DNA in us and are being raised to adult hood by loving parents who train a child to become potty trained, learn how to eat and how to walk, so do we have our Heavenly Father's DNA. in us with all of His characteristics as He teaches us to walk up right and unashamed as we have free access to approach His presence with praise and a thankful heart for what He has done and what He is constantly doing for us daily. Our righteous condition flourishes when we walk in obedience to the true word of God under the inspiration of the Holy Ghost and his words only.

There are two principles that need to be understood so we do not lean towards our own understanding and how to walk in our righteous position in Christ Jesus. This is stated in Revelation 12:10-11 by John when he said. "I heard a loud voice in heaven say: "Now have come the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God, and the authority of his Christ. For the accuser of our brothers, who accuses them before our God day and night, has been hurled down. They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony; they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death."

The devil is the accuser of the brethren and our deliverance from leaning towards our own understanding is (1.) We must come to comprehend how our old nature was washed by the blood that Jesus shed on the cross and we became a new creature in Christ and (2.) a continuing confession of what our righteous position in Christ represents in our every day decision making if; we expect our steps to be ordered by the Lord.

Ephesians 5:26-27 says. " So that He might ( Jesus ) sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the Word and that He might present the church to Himself in glorious splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such things [that she might be holy and faultless." The blood of Christ has a cleansing power over our unrighteous thinking that as we meditate on the word of God day and night it removes condemning thoughts because of us leaning towards our own understanding. It's like a person in the physical would vomiting up out of his stomach any substance that is causing him distress of some kind.

The blood that Christ shed on the cross in the Greek is haima: meaning the actual blood of Christ. This is the reason why we must celebrate taking communion when ever we want because; it brings us into remembrance of our new birth in Christ Jesus. By us accepting His sacrifice and becoming born again we have become a kindred member of the family as a brother or sister born into the same family by their parents DNA. We accepting Jesus sacrifice made us become guiltless and innocent in His sight. This is the way God the Father looked at His first born son (Jesus) because Mary was impregnated by the Holy Ghost with God's DNA.

It's as the word of God is being sown in our mind by our meditating on it day and night; that causes our confession to come into agreement with the Holy Ghost's thoughts and we know what physically spoken words to say when we come under attack by negative thoughts in our growing pains of life. God the Father through the Holy Ghost spoke the world into existence by His spoken words. If we are born again sons and daughters of God then our inheritance from Him is for us to just say and do as He did. It is God's Righteous Spirit which gives us a fine tuned judgment as to kingdom living through the Holy Ghost. Trying to put our righteousness into words is like speaking the wisdom of God for eternity with no end because; Jesus is righteousness Him Self in us.

Now by us functioning in our Righteous Spirit in Christ; it brings with it joy. Joy is not us feeling good but; it is a living entity of God that sustains and comforts us in some of the worst trials that come against us and it gives us the strength with eternal optimism to believe and function in what Paul the Apostle stated in Roman 8:28. "All things work together for good for those who love the Lord and are called according to his purposes."

The word called in the Greek is kletos: and it is defined as a person having a vocation or an invitation of the Lord to be anointed and to be a sent one for a particular purpose with His anointing at work with in us. It also means that God the Father looks at His children as Saints and no longer a sinner. Our Joy is totally determined by our perception of our Sainthood verses our reasoning and considering our selves as sinners after becoming born again. The reason most Christians are having a problem defining the difference between being a sinner or a saint is because; they identify their acts of wrong behavior as labeling them as a sinner. This would not be so if the pulpits of the born again churches would truly lift up the cross in a righteous manner of what took place in us when we were transformed from a sinner to a saint.

A born again child of God is not a sinner but a Saint and by them being taught and living through the Righteous Spirit of God; they go through the normal learning patterns as I have stated as a child growing up in a loving family atmosphere. When we do not think with the mind of Christ and flow in our righteous state; we view ourselves as a sinner and the way we view ourselves whether to be a saint or a sinner will determine the quality of life we can have with God. Scripture tells us that all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. We have all sinned because we were born with that nature. However, when we become born again; that nature does not exist anymore.

A sinner from a non-saved view is a person who has a sin-based nature, is a slave to that nature and it produces behavior contrary to God's personality and they in turn are going to hell not because of their behavior; but because they have not accepted Jesus the Son of God's sacrifice on the cross which delivers them from their sin based nature. (Are you hearing me?) From a born again view, these are people erring, missing the mark, losing their allotment and not sharing in a prize. These are two totally opposite views.

When we think of ourselves as being a sinner, there is an underline fear of hell damnation, punishment, judgment and dealing with God's anger. When we govern our lives by this concept and try to obey rules and judge our self, as far as God is concerned; this does not free us from our sin mentality and make us pure in His sight because; we still live with shame. Our feeling of being accepted by God is the real issue that causes our daily struggle in our minds because; we are being tempted to walk in our own understanding of the Christian life.

Living with this sin conscience mentality; a person has no freedom to explore an adventures relationship of friendship and total acceptance from their Heavenly Father. Unless we are grounded in this principle; you can not have the security of truly knowing that your steps are being ordered by the Lord because; the word of God has not been planted with a truly deep meaning in your heart and mind and because of this; we then become the one ordering our own steps.

God's children have His wisdom, anointing and own mind to rightly divide the word of truth and only by us surrendering to His leadings can we fight the constant bombardment of demonic spiritual influences in the day in which we are living. Our optimism and hope with joy can only be sustained as we learn how to walk in God's presence and live by scripture which tells us that; we will be able to recognize the Holy Ghost's voice as He tells us to turn here and not turn there. Our learning to walk in obedience to His leadings is a process of being persuaded though positive and negative experiences that causes a trust to be built up which brings a greater security in our relationship with God.

continued in part 2