Paul tells us in Romans 8:1-2, "Therefore, there is now no condemnation (no adjudging
guilty of wrong) for those who are in Christ Jesus, who live and walk not after the dictates of the flesh, but after the dictates
of the Spirit. 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." The key of understanding these verses lies in the fact
that; a person must be in Christ Jesus. Or the Greek interpretation is (in as much as we are in Christ Jesus.) Religious observances
and denominational laws have nothing to do with Christianity. You are either in Christ Jesus or you are not. The fact that
Christ lives in you by the miracle working power of the Holy Ghost is what qualifies you for not being under condemnation.
That needs to be taught by all those who are called to nurture the body of Christ. The majority are counting on an expectation
of God showing up on the wrong information.
Once you have become born again by
God's Spirit our continual revelation and allowing the Holy Ghost to daily confirm and strength our understanding of this
fact; gives us a strong discerning spirit of the devil's condemning accusations that we have failed or that; God may be
displeased with us and changed his mind in being a loving Father to his children. This is compounded when in the pulpits of
the world the born again and religious church talk about sin in the contexts that; the Holy Ghost convicts a person as telling
them that; ( they are guilty) other than Godly wisdom which is stated in James 3:17-18.
James
says this. "Godly wisdom from above is first of all pure and not defiled; (something that has become defiled makes God's
temple that we are; no longer accommodating and our fellowship with God is disturbed.) Then; it is peace-loving, courteous
considerate and gentle. It is willing to yield to reason, full of compassion and good fruits; it is wholehearted and straightforward,
impartial and allows somebody to function without restraints. God's wisdom makes us free from doubts, which causes a person
to be, double minded and insincere.
And what we reap by knowing our righteous
position in Christ Jesus is us being able to conform to God's will in thought and deed because; the out come of the seed
that is sown in our heart in peace is by those who work for and make peace in themselves and in others. Experiencing God's
peace; brings agreement and harmony between individuals, without confusion and our mind stays peaceful free from fears and
agitating passions and moral conflicts." With out Holy Ghost discernment at work; the only thing left is the spirit of
fear which causes agitating passions and moral conflicts.
God our Father always
welcomes His children's undisciplined life styles and is patient and kind and wants us to know that He loves to change
His kids dippers that was why Jesus stepped our of heaven and become a human being so God could relate to His kids bondages
and convince them that; he truly cares and not is as a man who lies. He is not like the god's of mythology who throw lighting
bolt down from the heavens. Even the Apostles who followed Jesus wanted to throw down fire from heaven on people they were
judging and Jesus had to rebuke them and remind then that; he came to save the world not condemn it.
Unless a child of God knows what their righteousness position in Christ represents and are experiencing a
gentle and loving relationship with the Lord; they will never be convinced to reach for greater heights in Christ Jesus. A
condemnation spirit causes fears of one thing or another and it reaps strife which causes agitating passions and moral conflicts.
A child of God must be able to recognize the difference between these to entities (the Holy Ghost at work in our thought life
verses the devil's accusations.) The pulpits around the world need to stop being law givers and start being loving parents
changing dippers and having a fellow feeling for the growing pains and maturing going on in God's family.
This can only happens as we allow God to love us which gives us the patience and grace to deal with
some of God's kids who are living with low self esteem and anger at conditions they find them self in and have truly become
their worst enemy and are sinning against them self and destroying the temple that God lives in by not experiencing the total
loving Spirit of the Lord.
The definition of sin in the Greek means, a person
is erring in his perspective of how God sees him and in turn; it is causing him to miss the mark of his high status and calling
and not functioning in his allotted inheritance given to him by God the Father and not sharing in a prize. A person who thinks
in these terms of judging him self may love the Lord with all of their heart however, in their desire to walk in obedience
to God's commands, they have the idea that, they have to pull themselves up by their own boot straps to qualify for God's
affection and work harder at trying to be obedient.
Their understanding of God‘s
laws have been so in grafted into their heart and mind that; their awareness of being a law breaker is what dominates their
thinking rather then learning about their righteous state in Christ Jesus. This law breaking mentality is people still being
on the milk of God's word and they need to go grow up and experience God's holding power and then; they will be able
to define the difference between condemnation verses discernment.
God made laws
only for us to realize that we were breaking them and by knowing them; it gives us no power to obey them. It should have made
us realize that; we needed a higher power then our own to keep them in the first place. Most Christians I believe live with
the philosophy that God our Father loves to give spankings to His children. The condemnation spirit is like a sadist who says;
"beat me beat me beat me because: I deserve it and it makes me know that you still thinking about me." Have you
really ever taken seriously the devil's devices and how insidious he is to pervert every thing he can? If we are serious
about maturing; we must make a commitment to put away our childish ways and submit to the Holy Ghost's leadings by discerning
His thoughts. You tell me what you focus your attentions on all day and from scripture; I will tell you where the longings
of your heart are leading you.
Let me say this one more time before we go on.
The Holy Ghost is in the convincing mode with God's children and not in the convicting mode as I have heard it being preached
for years in different pulpits in one form or another.
Now I have in two other
articles on the web site used this example of the growing pains we go through to find our identity in Christ Jesus and it
seems appropriate to me and not wanting to be repetitious; we must understand that; there is thinking and time tables of life
we go through defined through scripture.
The bible is pact full of the growing
pains of God's children and how they became over comers by the principle of the blood of the Lamb of God (Jesus sacrifice)
and their maturing awareness as they learn and confess their freedom in Christ Jesus. We stated this principle earlier. I
can use many examples however the one I will use; God gave me to let me know that He wanted to be a loving Father to me.
In Luke 15:11-32 we have the perfect example of a person attempting to grow up and find his identity
through a thinking process and the consequences of that thinking. This is described in the parable of the prodigal son. This
parable is really about two sons. Both lived at home with their father until the younger son decided that he wanted to leave
the nest and strike out on his own.
The younger boy asked his father for his
inheritance and because his father loved him, he gave him and his older brother their share at the same time. There were no
conditions on the father's love for his boys by them having to earn their inheritance. As I said earlier as a child of
God we already have our inheritance and we must have a free will choice what to do with it.
The older boy stayed at home where the younger boy struck out on his own to find his identity and purpose
for life. Therefore, the young son came out from the physical watchful eye and counsel of his father's voice and it says
he wandered into a foreign land that he was not familiar with.
This world is
the devil's domain and he rules it with a condemning spirit. This is a foreign land to us and not our permanent home.
We are kingdom people and we are to walk in heavenly places with Christ Jesus now while in our physical body. It's the
spiritual world of the kingdom of God.
For us who are born again; the kingdom
of God is already in us and we need to function under kingdom rules. There is a totally different interpretation of kingdom
rules in comparison to what is being taught in the majority of our born again churches today. The younger son in this process
of searching for his own identity got involved with people with different ideas then he had heard at home and after a period
or season of time, there was a famine in the land.
This word famine means; there
became a lack of fulfillment in this boy's life. Because of his poor decision-making causing him to be squandering his
inheritance given to him from his loving father; he ended up in a pigpen or field eating the food of the pigs because of the
addicted life style that had control of him. This took place because; he was ignorant of knowing how to use his inheritance
given to him from his father and he created A SELF IMPOSED IMPRISONMENT WITH IN HIM SELF BY LIVING IN DENIAL AND GUILT.
Verse 15-16 says he joined himself to a citizen of that country and the citizen sent him into his
field to feed swine and he would fain or he was (reluctantly willing) to fill his belly with the husks that the swine eat
and no man was willing to help him. (No man in his own understanding can help us when we are in this condition, only the Holy
Spirit can who is our teacher and rescuer of our addicted and childish life styles.)
A
pig or swine does not discriminate and will eat anything. If we want to mature; we must watch what comes in our ear and eye
gate so; we don't plant false doctrines in our heart where the issues of life are formed and in turn it causes us to become
co-dependent on some thing other then God's holding power and it stops us from becoming what God intended for his children
in us becoming a king and priest in his service. (This is indeed a serious condition that we must recognize and deal with
and it can no longer be ignored.)
Let's define some of these terms I have underlined and look at this as a condition
of our soul which represents our mind will and emotions which defines our thoughts and reasoning power that controls our feelings.
Again; James defined our growing when he said this. "It is as our soul prospers that; we have true maturity in Christ."
This word fain in the Greek is epistamai: It means; to put your mind upon and
be aquatinted with new ideas. The word belly is koilia: It means heart or womb or what the bible defines where the issues
of life are formed. The word husks; is heras: meaning, in a dilemma of choosing between two different alternatives. This is
a process that, we all go through as we become free to make willing choices with out being coerced or manipulated which causes
us to be delivered from a spirit of guilt and condemnation.
This is a painful
and joyful process at times because; it is delivering and changing us into the independent growth stage of our being. This
is God delivering us from some things and growing us up to experience new adventures with him. This is what brings us great
hope and joy and at times fear and anger of the unknown as we are being changed into the likeness of Christ.
This
is the NORMAL healthy process of growth and we are not to be afraid of it.
Jesus
was trying to make the people he was talking to realize and identify with their process of growing up. There is no word in
the bible, Greek or otherwise to define this term prodigal. This term prodigal is what the writers of the bible came up with,
to define and explain this parable and you will only find the word Prodigal in the margin of the bible. Cont in part 4
