Romans 8:3 “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]. God, sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, [God] condemned sin in the flesh [subdued, overcame and deprived it of its power over all who accept that sacrifice.”

Christ willingly stepped out of heaven and put aside His divine nature or deity and took on an earthly fleshly body so He could experience the same inner warfare by taking on the inner struggle of soul verses the spirit with all the frailties of mankind. By him doing this, He took the place of paying for Adams disobedience in the Garden and took his punishment for him. He actually atoned and stood in the gap and made amends for mankind’s corrupted soul and as is it stated in Matt. 8:17 “He Himself took our infirmities and bare our sickness.” The word for frailties in the Greek is astheneia: meaning, feebleness of mind or body.

We have the healing ministry with in the body of Christ very visible to the naked eye. There are many well known ministries that God uses because of their faith that God physically heals miraculously today. But when it comes to the healing of our souls which represents the essence or living entity of the human person which is regarded as immortal, invisible and is made up of our mind, will and emotions with the inner struggle of people searching for their purpose and identity, this healing that is needed has mostly been ignored or has never been ministered to. This takes place because most Christians have never been discipled and do not know how to go into the inner court of the heavenly realm where God the Father sites and allow His love to complete the job that Jesus started at the cross. God wants to interact in all areas of our lives as a Father to meet all our needs and we must trust and let Him do this.

I used earlier an example of a Spiritual encounter I had in my automobile when I became born again. That was the first time I experienced the law of life. I will share two other experiences that my wife and I have encountered over the years and there have been many. These types of encounters should be the norm for all born again believers. I do this in the hope that you who are reading this will get a greater hope to explore your relationship with the Lord and recognize how you can interact with the Holy Ghost. I have over the years attended services where the power of God was so strong that you could feel the Holy Ghost like dew covering your flesh. Even though I am not a name dropper when talking and writing other than talking about Jesus and using His name as reference, my wife and I in 1979 attended a five day Kenny Copland seminar in Detroit at Cobo arena.

We were impressed of the Lord to go there and it was a miracle by God because my business was failing, we had hardly any money but God supplied enough for us to drive there and we got hotel accommodations that we could afford only because as we were standing at the desk there was a cancellation. There were young people who would stay over night at the arena praying and believing God to move on the people during the services. For me and my wife we sensed a hum over the meeting of the presence of God that we could hear outside the arena when we would break for lunch. While we were there a prophesy came forth from the platform that there was a business man and God wanted him to plant as an offering into Copland ministries and if he did by the end of the year God would reward him for being obedient. This word that was spoken was backed up with scripture and verse. Anything not backed up with scripture and an inner witness by the Holy Ghost is never to be acted on.

This took place in November and I thought. “I have enough faith to hold on until the end of the year.” Even though this prophesy stated the end of the year I did not understand that God does not deal and live in time periods as man does. And what was this end of the year trial for me was April of the following year because, God was teaching me how to trust in His provision and not lean towards my own understanding of how to survive in my own strength. The day the prophesy came forth, that morning before we left the hotel, the Lord had already spoken to my wife about an offering and because of her struggle to believe God also, she thought if she left the check book at the hotel room it would give her an excuse to not give.

I was informed of this at the meeting when I asked her where the check book was. I asked her if she thought God would honor what He asked us to do at tomorrows meeting because of us not having the check book and we agreed He would, so the following day we did as the Lord instructed us to do which was to empty our personal and business account and plant it in the ministries. We are not talking about thousands of dollars here but it was all we had with just enough money to get home. When we got home we spent those remaining cold winter months between November and April waiting for God to honor His word by wearing winter coats in the office because the city had taken the gas meter off the building because of none payment and we had no heat in the building. I can remember my wife and me playing anointed Christian music all day and dancing with each other praising and worshipping the Lord in the office.

In April I sold a thirty thousand dollar window job with a ten thousand dollar deposit. When I got back to the office and gave my wife the check there was no gaiety just a calm peace and I heard the voice of God with in me say, “What have you learned through this.” What I had learned was that God is faithful and not a man that can lie. And again He had planted the root of his person deeper with in my soul where the issues of life are formed.

This is the God who stepped out of heaven to have a fellow feeling with our infirmities because He was tested and learned to trust in His heavenly Father as we need to do on the earth. We need to know about the Jesus that is stated in Heb.5:7-9 “In the days of His flesh [Jesus] offered up definite, special petitions [for that which He not only wanted but needed] and supplications with strong crying and tears to Him Who was [always] able to save Him [out] from death, and He was heard because of His reverence toward God [His godly fear, His piety, in that He shrank from the horrors of separation from the bright presence of the Father]. Although He was a Son, He learned [active, special] obedience through what He suffered. [His completed experience] made Him perfectly [equipped], He became the Author and Source of eternal salvation to all those who give heed and obey Him,”

Let me share other encounter I had with the Holy Ghost, who I would remind myself and you that He is easily grieved and very sensitive and can be offended because He will not push His values on any one. In 1968 being a young Christian and attending a Pentecostal church, we had a wonderful family of Christian believers that would gather at my house after Sunday night services some time until three in the morning just eating and sharing the love of the Lord. A good friend of mine to this day Nick, had heard that Katharine Kolman was going to hold a healing service in Youngstown Ohio and there were buses that we could ride with others to get there. I don’t know if you are familiar with her ministry. She was a woman that was very humble and the only thing she wanted to do was love God and minister to every one God’s healing power and I don’t believe she ever realized the impact she had to minister to the entire personality of mankind body and soul. She has since past on to her complete eternal reward.

In those days being a baby Christian, this Pentecostal Church that I started to attend scared me to no end because I was not used to all these tongue talking praying emotional people, that at a drop of a hat would stand up and start praising the Lord. I am not using this definition as a standard for Christian living. Every born again Christian has to learn to be totally comfortable with their own walk with the Lord. Nick and I decided to attend Katharine’s next meeting and while going there on the bus, Nick and I shared our reservations on the reports we heard about what would happen at her meetings. People would just fall down under the power of God and many were healed of what were death ending diseases. They would also just get baptized in the Holy Ghost and begin speaking in unknown tongues. This was all new to Nick and me and as we talked about our hunger for God we had to check this out but, we also had our apprehensions. When we got there the services were just about to start and it was absolutely packed to the gills.

When we were ushered into the hall they were putting rows of folding chairs up in the center isle and we were ushered to the front and Nick and I where seated side by side in the first seat in the middle isle. Nick had related to me that if the power of God fell on the place, he was not going to go down and just hold on to the pew in front of him. My first thought was I didn’t want to be right in front of the pulpit because I was uncomfortable. The thought was no sooner completed in my mind, when the usher came up and moved me to the front of the side isle. This made me more comfortable. Nick was moved out of the center isle of chairs and moved into the first front pew with eight other people.

Katherine Kolman walked on to the platform. Her services were different then most Pentecostal meetings as she always advocated that we don’t want to offend the Holy Ghost. You could sense in the hall an excitement and the atmosphere made you feel weak in the knees. She started coming down off the platform and headed to the right passing Nick’s pew heading towards me. The closer she came the weaker I became and I fell into my seat not being able to stand. The thing that really amazed me was, as she walked towards me and passed Nick who was the first one in the pew, I could see Nick holding on to the pew like a palsied man as she passed and him trying not to fall down under the power of God. As she came to the end of that pew, you could see each person in the pew after Nick falling down like a row of dominos, one after another.

I had never experienced this before other then my born again experience in my car and it scared me and as soon as it scared me, she turned around and walked in the other direction. I have come to believe because of my fear and lack of understanding of the power of God at work with in the Christian community at that time, it was God who made her turn around and head in the other direction because, we need to know how to welcome Him in our lives and not grieve Him through our ignorance of knowing how to respond to His loving presence.

These types of encounters with in the Christian community must become the norm at our services in our fellowship with God and with one another. This is God building His house not man making Him into their image. I will from time to time in this article share as the Lord leads me about other encounters my wife and I have had in the Holy Ghost.

In the Old Testament, God led the children of Israel with a cloud by day and a fire by night to show them how to get to the promise land. Today we have the witness of the Holy Ghost living in our being and a more powerful witness then they had in following God back then. That is why the letter of the law kills but our life in the Holy Ghost can give us these types of life encounters with Him.

Romans 8:4 “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].” We see here that there are righteous law requirements that God intended for us to follow. We must fully come to understand and define with in ourselves that, we are talking about two different mind sets of thinking. We are not talking about living by dead letter mental awareness’s of right and wrong concepts. The unsaved live like this in laws of behavior because they do not have the Holy Ghost living in them. The real tragedy is that a person can be born again and because of not being discipled and knowing how to define the voice of the Holy Ghost with in them, their opportunity of co-operating and working with the life of the Holy Ghost is aborted and His power and presence is ignored and substituted with hype and emotional rhetoric.

In Acts 28:16 Paul states. “I always exercise and discipline myself [mortifying my body, deadening my carnal affections, bodily appetites, and worldly desires, endeavoring in all respects] to have a (clear unshaken, blameless conscience), void of offense toward God and toward men.” Paul’s had an inner struggle of believing that God looked at him as blameless, free from evil intensions and set apart unto the Lord for His purposes in the earth. This is what the Holy Ghost is trying to persuade us to believe and the discipline that we go through in our thought life that gives us a blameless conscience. The only foundation that must be laid in the mind and heart of the born again believer is, our righteous position in Christ Jesus.

This has to be our only basic doctrine of faith as the Holy Ghost teaches us from His spirit to our spirit which makes us identify that, God looks at us the same way He looks at Jesus as, ( blameless, free from evil and set apart unto God to do His bidding.) This is what the word righteousness represents in the Greek Concordance. It is when we allow the feeling of shame and a loathing for ourselves and not coming into agreement with God of how He looks at us that contaminates our conscience and causes us to think in right and wrong concepts.

Our first righteous law requirement is us becoming born again and we have described that already. The second requirement which gives us direction to mature in Christ and how to operate in His kingdom is found in Matt. 6:33. It states, “Seek first the kingdom of God and His Righteousness and all things that you need, will be added to you.” Most Christian believers today are so focused on their behavior that they have no clue of what the kingdom of God represents. How does one seek after something that he doesn’t understand unless it is being taught to them by those who know what it is in their own lives? There is no understanding because it is not being preached and taught in the Christian community as God intended. We have plenty of teaching on self righteous acts that have to be performed to get God’s favor.

The only way we can have the same attitude Paul did, in him having a clear, unshaken blameless conscience is by us knowing how to operate in our thought life with the mind of Christ we received when we became what 11Cor. 5:17 states. “We have become a new creature in Christ because, old things have passed away and we have become new.” When we do not know how to allow the mind of the Holy Ghost to flow through our minds and be in sink with His mind, it is impossible for us to function with a blameless conscience. We must understand that our flesh is a strong entity and has a mind and a will of its own.

As long as the Christian community focuses on their behavior of having me theology, rather then letting God’s Spirit take control of our thought life, nothing changes and the Christian community stays in a struggle of working at becoming perfected rather then, humbly allowing the Holy Ghost to empower our walk with the confidence that, God truly loves us and we can approach Him with transparency with out the fear that He is ashamed of us. When ever we function in this let’s help God out, we end up with a spirit of pride and self sufficiency and Jesus attitude to God the Father for us is, “Father forgive them for they know not what they’re doing.” It is us knowing this kind of forgiving love that allows us to forgive each other so the grace and favor of God flows through the rest of God’s family. For the first ten years of our Christian walk my wife and I attended a Pentecostal church. We realized that God had given us a gift of hospitality and our house was always filled with people from the church and us having fellowship.

We started a bible study and God added people to the group because during the week in the market place that we lived in, we were testifying to people and attempting to lead them to the Lord. It seemed the normal thing to do and we didn’t really know the word of God that well and we were not quite sure how God wanted us to do this. My motivation was from an inner joy and tenacity which was bringing me completeness and feeding my security with in me and it was as if I was being lead by an unknown person that I was beginning to know. The Holy Ghost was witnessing to us and empowering us to share the love of the Lord to people by the experiences we were having with God in our own lives.

As my wife and I were reading the word and meditating on it day and night, we were finding out that our word and steps were being ordered by the Lord. God began to build with in me a drum beat and a fellow feeling with His heart that was beginning to give me an independent mind set that at times came into conflict with some things being taught in the denomination that I was attending and ministering in. Even though my different beliefs were coming into conflict with some of the preaching coming forth, the relationship with the Pastor of the church never became heated in argumentation in any way.

God began to move in signs and wonders and rose up four other elders including myself out of thirty men group that primarily were raised up by the Lord. Each one had his own gift; one was in teaching as mine. One was in evangelism. One was in the ministry to children and organization. And one in the gift of healing where at times the spirit of God would show him x-rays of peoples torsos and define the healing that was needed. We were all baby Christians learning about what kingdom living was all about and the Holy Ghost was building the church and in our ignorance and growing pains God was trying to get all the people in this congregation to work together and love one another.

I wasn’t searching for recognition in a leadership role because my heart was with the people and even though the Pastor required the elders to sit on the platform during services I declined. I began to feel like a mediator between leadership authority and the hurts of the people in the pew. It was through those early days of growth that I began to realize that body of Christ, God’s kids, had become their worst enemies because their righteous position in Christ was not being taught as God intended and they had become slaves and followers of denominational teachings rather then the life of Jesus Christ Himself. The awareness of this conflict drove me to the word because the Spirit of God was being grieved with in me and in those early days of my Christian growth, I couldn’t understand how my interpretation of scripture was so different then what I was hearing from the Pastor of the church I was attending.

One of the most scariest things I was encouraged to do by God and the Pastor was to take over on the first Saturday of the month a ministry at the city mission by me and the fellow who played the organ at our church who I became great friends with and we would minister to the alcoholics that would show up to eat dinner which gave us a chance to share the gospel with them. This was a wondrous experience for a fellow like me growing up as a new Christian as I never thought that I had the gift to preach and teach any one. I could write another whole book on some of those experiences.

At our church services we were being taught by the Holy Ghost how to worship God. We used to tape our services and when we played back one of our many tapes you could hear the heavenly hosts singing along with us in praising God. Now all these things may seem foreign to you, but I believe these things to be the norm for Christians and this is what life in the Holy Ghost brings to the born again believer.

Romans 8:5 “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”. We surly see here two different worlds that we can become captured by and pursue. This word according in the Greek Concordance gives the connotation that there is intensity with passion associated with this word. When we who are born again children of God are ignorant of the true meaning of God’s word, we automatically come into agreement with this accordingly unrighteous flesh thinking which produces unrighteous acts. This takes place because of what we confess out of our mouths as believing to be God’s word when in reality it is the doctrines of men in their ignorance of really understanding the holding power of God. As we stated earlier a Christian has to first hunger and thirst after God’s righteous Spirit and then all other things fall into place.

Jesus was righteous in the sight of God from the day of His birth and so are we who have been born again by His Spirit. God’s kingdom can only come into the world if His children speak prophetic words as the Holy Ghost gives us the utterance to bring this to pass because, we are His ambassadors in the earth. The exact opposite of this is also as true. When we who are righteous born again believers speak from our heart unrighteous statements contrary to God’s word which is what brings the law of life and God’s kingdom into the earth. These un-righteous statements bring death circumstances the same as God’s word brings life. In the beginning in Genesis it said that when God said “Let there be light” that’s what happened. The Holy Ghost is grieved when God’s children are ignorant of His total love and holding power and through their ignorance they curse themselves and it causes them to not function in God’s inheritance which they have in them already.

It is indeed a sad state of affairs when born again believers live in mediocrity, as the unsaved do even though, they have the God of glory and all His characteristics living with in them. I am learning and am continuing to experience God’s love, holding power and stead fast love day by day. Our righteousness that scripture tells us to hunger and thirst after is not a doctrine of dead letter words on a page that brings death. This takes place because we live with a mind set of does and don’ts. Righteousness is the very Spirit and personality of the Holy Ghost that as we are having an on going conversation with Him, He flushes out of our souls our shame and feelings of unworthiness with His breathe or wind, so we can stand in God’s courts behind the veil in the secrete place and handle His presence. Unless our passion for living is being motivated and empowered by the Holy Ghost on an intimate and personal basis, we can spend our lives on the earth involved with menial tasks with goals and physical accomplishments that have nothing to do with God’s eternal purposes and we never come to understand why He birthed us into the earth. My eldest son who is an author in his own right makes the statement, “you can’t live the abundant Christian life by poking at it with a stick.” Scripture tells us that “the kingdom of God suffers violents and the violent take it by force.”

Romans 8:6 “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.” We have two living entities at work in us and God gives us a choice of who we want to follow, the mind of the flesh with its soulish cravings or the mind of Christ who we received the day we made Jesus our Savior. When we learn to submit our lives to the Holy Ghost, we can have a peace in us that passes our own understanding. If there is anything we need today, it’s an inner peace to cope with the chaotic events taking place in the world today.

Now the natural man who is not reasoning with the Holy Ghost can not receive the things of God because his natural mind thinks that God’s ways are foolishness. This is the sin principle which was a living entity controlling Paul’s inner thinking process which made him feel wretched as it controlled mine. Our born again Spirit has to go through a persuading process with the Holy Ghost and be trained to become God imaged. When born again believers sit under legalistic doctrines that empower the natural man rather then the new created Spirit man that became born anew when they became saved, a veil of supernatural blindness clouds over their spiritual perceptions to rightly interpret what the Holy Ghost is saying to His church today.

This is demonically influenced in deed.

This causes us to be misled and once again become burdened down and stay laboring with in ourselves to try and stay saved. By us being deceived like this, we actually tell God that Jesus sacrifice was not enough and we are still incomplete and have to earn our salvation. That’s why these two spiritual influences are so hostile against each other. How can darkness come into agreement with light or how can two walk together less they both agree. As long as the born again church stays in an ignorant condition as to how to discern the spiritual mind of the Holy Ghost, they will continue to fight with denominational differences of mere opinion rather then rightly dividing the word of God. This condition causes God’s kids to be continually penned up in religious endeavors and fleshly carnal living. As born again believers we must make a decision if we have a passionate hunger to grow up in the family to discipline ourselves to not forsake our first love and through our thoughts and action and take the Lord of glory for granted and make His sacrifice of non effect as we follow man made denominational doctrines and never become independent to think for ourselves and walk unashamed before our Commander and Chief.

Romans 8:8 “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.” This verse doesn’t say that God is displeased and He stops accepting us when we are having un-righteous thought patterns which is feeding our shame based nature. When we don’t experience God’s love because of our ignorance of knowing His ways, when He comes knocking on our hearts door, we don’t open it because, we don’t feel that we are being accepted by His person. We are following some standard of mediocrity that the majority of the born again church lives in and think that this is God’s best. God grieves over this and He is not satisfied seeing us opposing ourselves. However, Paul tells us in Rom. 1:17 that the just (those that are innocent and holy) must live by faith. This word just can also be interpreted as those who are righteous. We have stated that righteousness is actually the living presence of the Holy Ghost in us. Faith is also the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen. As long as God’s children are ignorant and do not know how to discern spiritual truth, through the righteous spirit of the Holy Ghost, they will have no invisible substance, vision or hope words of what they can be in Christ and they settle for what we have today, a church with no power, playing politics and not knowing how to lift up the standard of the Lord Jesus Christ. We need to believe scripture where it says, “let the righteous say that they are righteous.”

When born again believers have an expectation of a visitation by God that is only a mirage, the disappointment they experience in their lives is devastating and it only happens because it is being taught with out the interpretation of the Holy Ghost. When believers confess that they are still sinners and not see themselves as saints as God sees them, the consequence of them not being in agreement with what God says, causes them to push away His miraculous favor in their life because of their shame and unworthiness. This grieves the Holy Ghost and He is not satisfied when He sees our shame based nature keeping Him at arms length or more from comforting us.

Romans 8:9 “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] dwells within you [directs and controls 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.].” The born again believer who has the Holy Spirit in them must come to understand that this is a permanent bond like a spiritual umbilical cord that we must acknowledge and come into agreement with to be nourished by God’s Spirit. The Holy Ghost teaches and empowers us to die to our fleshly cravings and fears. We become convinced of our permanent connection and live in a comfortable relationship with the Holy Ghost by submitting to His repetitious reminders and teachings. In turn, this drives the feelings of fear and nobody cares intimidating us and we learn to run to Him for hugs and assurances of His love and rest in His care from our worry.

Our security comes in us confessing and acknowledging this insecurity to Him. Our insecurity continues in us because we feel that the cares of the world are so enormous like the rolling waves of a storm trying to drown us. The unsaved live in survivor mode and their vision of success is in getting their needs met in lavishing up their rewards here on the earth. If it comes to a show down between their surviving verses some one else, the other person dies and they live. This is the basic mentality of the death law. This is what we have to be delivered from and only the Spirit of Christ through the Holy Ghost can empower us to take on the likeness of Jesus Christ because, “He laid down His life for His friends.” We must also follow His lead and lay our lives down for each other. The pressure we live under is feeling obligated to measure up to a standard to love those who only return the favor. It’s you scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours. There is no love life in this what so ever.

We must be sitting under teachings with the influence of this wind and doctrine of the Holy Ghost in our assembling whether in church or in our family gathering in our home settings. The Holy Ghost can not gather with us because we keep His presence and voice out of the mix because we don’t gather in the Lord’s name. Scripture tells us to not forsake the assembling of our selves which is the manner of some people in these last days. Let’s get this right. Our first assembling has to be a personal minute by minute conversation with the Holy Ghost daily with dreams and visions of His leadings. Then when we come together to worship and fellowship whether in the church building or our daily encounters in each of our arenas of life, He will prophetically speak through us to meet the needs of each other.

Our fleshly cravings have extreme power with in us to survive to get our physical and psychological needs met in our lives. We are talking about our hunger for food, bills being paid, recognition and the entity of self pride it its many forms. All of these inner persuasions are the works of the flesh and its dictates. This is the wretched conditions of self that Paul the Apostle had to contend with until he learned how to stay in a perpetual relationship and allow the living presence of the Holy Ghost to keep these fears from taking control over him in any way. Mankind is his own worst enemy and the sooner he realizes it and acknowledges his weaknesses and need for a wisdom and a power greater the his own, the sooner he will “let go and let God”

Romans 8:10 “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]” I ask you is your natural body dead or are you still reasoning with a sin and guilt mentality? The majority of the born again churches of today are still preaching on our behavior and how we have to get sin out of our lives. Our natural body or our mind works at judging ourselves to see if we have cleaned up our act so God can accept us. This causes our natural body to not stay dead as this verse tells us and we can spend our whole life looking under our White Righteous Robe that God put on us the day we became born again. Again this is focusing on the me theology. We need to allow the Holy Ghost to give us a vision and tell us who we are already and stop reasoning with a sin consciences that brings with it feelings of guilty. We are constantly hearing from the Devil and the born again Church “You’re Guilty”

The word imputes means that God gave Himself to all those that have asked Jesus to come into their lives and have become his children. He gave us His nature and characteristics and the fullness of the Godhead, which is the Father, Son and Holy Ghost who now lives with in us. It did not cost us a thing but only a cry for help. Who on this earth has the wealth or prestige to buy God in any form? Can I be any more direct when I ask the question, “Why is man still trying to make God into their own image?” Let me give you a perfect example of the growing pains going on in the body of Christ today. I had been saved about a year and attending a Sunday morning service. We had all the gifts of the Holy Ghost with in the believers of that church however, because our righteous position was not being preached it was hindering the gifts of the Spirit from functioning in our midst. The gift of prophesy came forth through the same people and most of the words were words of encouragement rather then new revelation of God’s intense love for His people. I could number on one hand those that were truly Holy Ghost lead.

This particular Sunday morning a word with tongues and interpretation came forth which stated, “My people you have grown however, you have grow by the measure of mans understanding. Because of this you have become a reproach (your shame has increased in you.) If you are willing and come to me with your hands raised in worship, I will take the old rotted clothes you are wearing off and put on you a white robe of righteousness. As the old clothes come off it will hurt because, they have grow into your skin (make up.)” I thought, I don’t want to live like this if it is true in me, I told God right then and there to give me this righteous robe and I thought this will happen by Monday morning. Well that prophesy is what God has been doing in His body ever since and will continue to do until He comes back to this earth. The body of Christ in far to many areas (meaning if it’s being preached in one place it’s to much) has preached a shame based gospel, where they have thought that this was the right thing to do and all the time the old clothes of the flesh has become more secured in our minds, intellect and emotions.

These are the grave clothes that the Holy Ghost has been trying to remove from the family of God from the time Jesus died on the cross. What we have here is a co-dependent mentality that has robbed God’s children from finding their true identity in the family and they are living in slavery to an obligated life style to codes of conduct that has hindered them living the abundant life God intended. Scripture tells us that, we must put on the Lord Jesus Christ which is like us sinking into a garment.

The Devil in our thought life tries to convince us to look under our righteousness white robe garment and see our faults and failures which cause our shame to increase. The body of Christ in the pulpits of the world, need to stop being the Devil’s advocate by preaching on sin behavior with a condemning attitude and not ministering to the bruised child inside us where the power of God’s love was deposited at the cross. After we become born again, we become saints and are no longer sinners.

Romans 6:4 states, “Are you ignorant of the fact that all who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? We were buried with Him by the baptism into death, so that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glorious [power] of the Father, so we too might [habitually] live and behave in newness of life. For if we have become one with Him by sharing a death like His, we shall also be [one with Him in sharing] His resurrection [by a new life lived for God]. We know that our old un- renewed self was nailed to the cross with Him in order that [our] body [which is the instrument] of sin might be made ineffective and inactive for evil, that we might no longer be the slaves of sin.”

Romans 8:11 “And if the Spirit of Him Who raised up Jesus from the dead dwells in you, [then] He Who raised up Christ Jesus from the dead will also restore to life your mortal (short-lived, perishable) bodies through His Spirit Who dwells in you.” The thought that hits me in this verse is Paul comparing us to Jesus Christ. God is not a respecter of persons and what He has done for Jesus He will do for us. Jesus actually died on that cross and was put into the tomb. His physical body was raised from the dead and He is alive today sitting at the right hand of God the Father making intersession for us in the throne room. We who have been born again have already died and have been raised from the dead the same as Jesus. We haven’t received our new body yet but, we have become born anew inside and will never have to worry about dying and going to hell for eternity. The fear of this happening to us as born again believers should no longer enter the equations of our thinking processes. When the pulpits of America condemn the born again believer, the smelling corpse that was buried with Jesus rises from the grave with its grave clothes.

When we become absent from this earthly body, we will stand in the presence of the Lord. Our total restoration started the day we made Jesus our Savior. Many people believe they will be able to live in God’s kingdom after they physically die. In the New Testament when they asked Jesus how to pray he said. “Thy kingdom come thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” We received God’s nature, power and His kingdom is already in us when we become saved. Where there in no vision in the people of asking God how to operate in His kingdom laws of life now while they are in the earth, scripture tells us God’s people will perish. Remember the new laws of life begin to operate in us when we follow the second law of righteousness as we are discipled in Math. 6:33 which states. “Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all things will be added to you” God’s kingdom can only be felt and understood by His righteous Spirit operating in our minds, heart and emotions. This next statement can not be said enough,

This is the living presence of the Holy Ghost not a Webster’s definition of a word. Most Christian’s thing that righteousness is us reasoning in right and wrong concepts in our own thinking. This can not be any farther then the truth. God’s ways are not our ways and His thoughts are not our thoughts. However, since we now have His mind in us because we are His children, he can give us His thoughts so we can operate in His ways.

Romans 8:12 “so then, brethren, we are debtors, but not to the flesh [we are not obligated to our carnal nature], to live [a life ruled by the standards set up by the dictates] of the flesh.” Unless we are living in Romans 8:11 and we fully understand the difference between flesh teachings verses Holy Ghost leadings, we can not say with a clear understanding and with confidence. “So then brethren, we are not debtors to the flesh or a continuation thought if we do not understand the battle of flesh and Spirit going on with in us in the Spiritual World. A debtor is one who owes something as reasonable service to another and is controlled by it. There are many in the born again family of God that are being held captive in hundreds of ways to the flesh and the spiritual world of the laws of life and death are so intermingled in their minds and hearts that, unless God in His mercy raises up those in the family that are beginning to walk in the freedom of the Holy Ghost and speaking out of their mouths what their righteous position in Christ represents, most Christians will wander in the wilderness and never get into the promise land mentality.

They will go to heaven as cripples never fulfilling their calling. I have to say with great sadness that I have had to make a decision to stop investing in some peoples lives that I have known for years because, they have decided to be wilderness walkers as the three million Israelites did in the Old Testament, who never entered into the promise land of God’s blessings and never totally experienced God’s securing love.

Romans 8:13 “for if you live according to [the dictates of] the flesh, you will surely die. But if through the power of the [Holy] Spirit you are [habitually] putting to death (making extinct, deadening) the [evil] deeds prompted by the body, you shall [really and genuinely] live forever.” Hebrews 6:4-5 states. A born again believer is one who has “Once been enlightened and has consciously tasted the heavenly gift and has become sharers of the Holy Ghost and has felt how good the word of God is and the mighty powers of the age and the world to come.”

This is us living in the very real law of life that we have been ushered into by the Holy Ghost. Unless we are experiencing this living relationship working in our life and it can be easily identified, there is no way you can put to death the dictates of the flesh. The dictates of the flesh is a living entity as the Life of the Holy Ghost is a living entity and this inner struggle going on with in us can only be fought in the spiritual world by the loving power of Christ. Once I realized this, it made me aware how weak and how badly I needed to be discipled and cast my entire care and personality on the mercy and grace daily of the Holy Ghost. God then showed me through scripture that Paul the Apostle had the same problem and he tells us the encounter he had with God showing him how to deal with it is found in 11Cor. 12:7-9. Because of the heavenly spiritual encounters he was having in his life in the power of the Holy Ghost, he defines himself having something called a thorn in his flesh. You may say it’s like having a stone in your shoe bothering you as you walk.

There have been some ridiculous teachings on this verse that has caused the word of God to be mangled and misinterpreted with no meaning because it stops us from understanding how we are to allow the Holy Ghost to navigate us through God’s kingdom. Just to name two false teachings. One being, Paul was going blind and he was having a problem navigating through different passes going from town to town preaching the gospel. The second being, he had some arthritis in his joints and was having a hard time walking. I could forgive these people teaching this stuff very easily because the flesh our natural instinct that is not submitted to the leading of the Holy Ghost, is searching for recognition and approval and reasoning like this has no significant. It’s difficult enough to believe that this idea that we need to be weak to be strong, and we have to ponder these statement with much discernment and Godly wisdom because our natural mind looks at this as being a ridiculous statement that God told Paul he had to accept.

It says we have to be weak and fearful to be able to live and pitch a tent with God to receive His grace and strength. God put Himself in inferior vessels so that His glory could be seen among men. Paul says we have to be well pleased and have pleasure in suffering all these trials too. Now who in their right mind has the power with in them selves to live and conform to this type of life style and be happy about trials? God was trying to tell Paul that there were a lot of grave clothes that he had to take off him so he could live in the living laws of Christ’s life and he had to die to self and his own self righteous nature. Being a Christians is not for wimps and gutless wonders. Let talk about another person in the bible that was having some sever growing pains and was committed to God no matter all the attacks he came under from the Devil, his wife and his personal friends at the church. His name was Job in the Old Testament.

In Job 2:1-12 it states. ““On another day the angels came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan also came with them to present himself before him. And the LORD said to Satan, where have you come from?” Satan answered the LORD, from roaming through the earth and going back and forth in it. Then the LORD said to Satan, Have you considered my servant Job? There is no one on earth like him; he is blameless and upright, a man who fears God and shuns evil. And he still maintains his integrity, though you wanted me to go against him to ruin him without any reason. Skin for skin! Satan replied. A man will give all he has for his own life. But stretch out your hand and strike his flesh and bones, and he will surely curse you to your face. The LORD said to Satan, Very well, then, he is in your hands; but you must spare his life. So Satan went out from the presence of the LORD and afflicted Job with painful sores from the soles of his feet to the top of his head.

Scripture tells us that the Devil is the accuser of the brethren. He always was and he is still doing it today. He will use anybody who is ignorant of God’s love in their own lives and use your mate, family or friends in their ignorance to lay the accusing spirit on you. I am sorry to say condemnation in some form is coming from far too many born again Christian pulpits through out the world. It says God asked Satan where he was going and Satan’s answerer, I am roaming the earth. This is Satan’s domain and he patrols it with his imps daily trying to destroy everything that God made and loves. God was bragging on Job and told Satan that He looked at him as blameless and upright. The same as He looks at us His children from the day we became saved and welcomed into His kingdom.

If we are to understand this verse with the mind of Christ, we can not interpret that it is God doing the inflicting of trials on us as I have heard it preached. We are living in an alien and dangerous land because Satan is the ruler and the prince of the air environment we breathed. This is where he was cast down after he rebelled in heaven. Job’s wife was not committed to God as Job and condemned Him. Job’s understanding of God’s love was also distorted even though he was righteous in God’s sight because, his answer to his wife was “Shall we accept good from God, and not trouble? Isn’t this amazing when even though Job blamed God for doing bad things to him it says, in all this, Job did not sin in what he said.

Job’s understanding was that God was allowing him to have trouble. He was trying to be obedient to God even though he believed that God had inflicted these sores on him. If you read the whole book of Job it will continue to inform you that Job’s friends that came to sympathies with him really came to judge him and told him that he was a sinner and God was punishing him. This was because their concept of God was also distorted. This sounds to me like exactly what’s going on in the born again churches of today, bringing judgment on the people. God saw Job, as blameless and not a sinner even though, Job had a heart after God, but spoke in his own ignorance of how God’s holding power of love worked in his life.

As the story goes on there was a young innocent righteous lad sitting along side listing to this dialogue between Job and his religious friends who were putting judgments on Job. His name was Elihu. The word for Elihu in the Hebrew is eliyuhuw: meaning the God of Him. The prefix el means almighty God. What we had here was an example of a non religious youth who’s freedom to express a loving non condemnation judgment as he sat there listing to these three friends of Job judging him unrighteously.

After Job had debated with his judgmental friends, it states in Job 32:1-32& 33:1-4. I will paraphrase. So these three men stopped answering Job, because he was righteous in his own eyes. But Elihu son of Barakel the Buzite, of the family of Ram, became very angry with Job for justifying himself (in his own eyes in his dialogue with his friends) rather than in God. He was also angry with the three friends, because they had found no way to correct Job‘s false concepts of God’s ways that he believed and they ended up laying condemnation on him. Now Elihu had waited before speaking to Job because they were older than him. But when he saw that the three men had nothing more to say, his anger was aroused.

So Elihu said: I am young in years, and you are old; that is why I was fearful, not daring to tell you what I know. I thought age should speak; advanced years should teach wisdom. However, it is the spirit in a man, the breath of the Almighty, which gives him understanding. It is not only the old who are wise and not only the aged who understands what is right. Therefore I say: listen to me; I too will tell you what I know. I waited while you spoke, I listened to your reasoning; while you were searching for words, and I gave you my full attention. But not one of you has proved Job wrong; none of you has answered his arguments.

This young man is an example of the Joshua generation Christian that God is raising up today to prophesy with God’s judgments and power to set the captive free from his own ignorance of knowing the unconditional love of God. The wisdom that came out of Elihu’s heart is written in the remaining chapters of Job and even though we could right another hundred books on what he said, the point I want to make is, when Elihu ended his dissertation with Job because it was anointed and not judgmental it caused Job’s ears to be open and God was then able to show Job why his trial was necessary, which caused Job to be comforted and make the statement in chapter 42:5-6 when he says, “I had heard of you ( only ) by the hearing of the ear: but now my ( spiritual ) eye sees you. Therefore I detest what I have spoken and I am feeling shame for my self and I repent in dust and ashes.” This repentance or change of heart can only come as God Himself witnesses to your heart what the real truth of your condition is and how he looks at you. Job wanted to put off his misconceived notions about God and scatter his unregenerate self as dust and ashes to the four winds. He wanted a deeper and more powerful walk with God. This attitude was what restored what he had lost in his life and God gave him a double portion of His presence and wealth. God is still the same and He wants this for His children today.

Continued in part four.