WBS.201
FUNDAMENTALS OF DISCIPLESHIP
WHO AM I?
– V
The New
Man - 4
John 3:5 Yahushua
answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of
the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of Elohim.
6 That
which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is
spirit.
Much of the writing of the apostle Paul reads like codes of
conduct: things we should do, ways we should behave, things we should not be
doing, etc. We tend to read these things
from a soulish perspective and intellectualize Paul’s words. What Paul is really saying in all of his
epistles is to allow the new man to control the way we live, the way we behave
and think.
For the past few weeks, we have been
discussing the reality of the new man we have become in Messiah. We ARE a new
creation. Old things HAVE passed away.
All things HAVE become new; and all of those new things are of IAUE; and yet,
we cannot see it, taste it, hear it, smell it, or feel it. It is not something we are made aware of by
the physical senses…by the flesh. The problem is, until we are born again, the
physical senses are the only receptacles of information through which we
determine something to be real, and by which we understand the nature of our
reality.
We have spent many lessons discussing our
condition before being born again, that the spirit that animated our bodies
before we came to Messiah was separated from the life and light of IAUE. Our spirit was darkness, and its nature was
no different than the nature of our flesh.
There was no contradiction within us to the nature of the reality of the
world we perceived with our five physical senses. The moment we were born again, the very
instant we became a new creature in Messiah Yahushua, our heart “sensed” life
and light in the new spirit that now animated our bodies. It sensed the righteousness, the purity, the
holiness, the power. It sensed the life
and light of IAUE that now permeated our conscience, where before, there was
just nothing. We illustrated this in
prior posts as living in a duplex where no one lived in the adjoining unit for
the longest time. Then, one evening we
come home from work and there is noise coming through our shared wall. We are aware that something now occupied the
adjoining unit. You could not mistake
it. You could not be unaware of the
change to your existence.
Such is the new birth…the new man. When he is birthed within us, the heart knows
it. When the heart knows it, the mind becomes
aware of it. Once the mind becomes aware
of it; the body, the flesh, begins to war for control of the mind. Until then,
the flesh had no opposition to its lusts and desires.
This is where most believers are thwarted in
their discipleship. The first thing the
flesh attempts to accomplish is to convince you that your mind is still your
boss; that your intellect, your knowledge and wisdom are still the place from
which you should make every decision for your life. “After all, wasn’t it your
mind that chose to embrace Messiah? Wasn’t
that a smart decision? See how wise you
are? The mind is king. The mind is in control.” As long as the flesh can keep your mind, your
soulish man, as the part of you that is in charge of your life, it has a place
of comfort and satisfaction, because the flesh trained that part of you from
birth until the time you were born again.
When Paul instructs the disciples to “put on
the new man,” he is suggesting that the nature of the new animating spirit of
your life can permeate your soulish man and literally adorn your flesh like a
new garment. It does that by renewing
your mind; by replacing your thought processes with the mind of Messiah. When
the soul of man bows to the New Man as the leader of your life, the nature of
the new man adorns your entire life. The New Man is in Messiah, and Messiah is
in the New Man. You have become
one. Sin cannot touch the Master within
us.
Romans 6:9 Knowing that Messiah being
raised from the dead dieth no more; death hath no more dominion over him.
10 For in that he died, he died unto sin once: but in that
he liveth, he liveth unto IAUE.
This is who lives inside of us, now. The spirit of Yahushua, the spirit of him who
died to sin; who seized the keys of Hell and of Death (Revelation 1:18), and who
rose to live unto IAUE; this is who now animates our body.
The flesh only has impulses, desires and
lusts. That is the entirety of the realm
of its ability to influence our lives.
The flesh cannot make a single decision for us. Think about that. The flesh cannot choose. It cannot decide. It only entices us to WANT to choose and
decide. The flesh is little different than being with a friend who suggests you
eat something when you are fasting, or go somewhere that you know you should
not go; or do something you know you should not do. You are able to tell your friend, “No. I am
not going to do that.” When the flesh
attempts to influence you, it is the same thing; only you have become more
intimately acquainted with letting it get away with influencing you to do what
it wants to do; so you have less will power to resist its encouragements.
Fortunately, living in the spirit is not about
will power. In fact, it is quite the
opposite. It is more laying down our
will to allow our life to be directed by the spirit of Yahushua within us; like
the Master demonstrated for us in the Garden before he was beaten and
killed. “Not
my will; but thine be done.” His
soul was not keen on his body being brutalized and tortured, then killed; but
what his soul preferred was not what was important. Even in that circumstance, Yahushua
understood that doing the will of IAUE was the purpose of his being.
Galatians 5:22 But
the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness,
goodness, faith,
23 Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.
24 And they that are Messiah’s have crucified the flesh
with the affections and lusts.
25 If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the
Spirit.
No doubt you have heard many people teach on
the fruit of the Spirit. You may not
have heard someone say that the word “Spirit” should not be capitalized. Walking in the spirit does not mean walking
in the Holy Spirit. It means walking in the
New Man. The New Man is created in the
image of IAUE and in the likeness of His nature. It is perfect; and its nature is in all love,
joy, peace, etc. The fruit of the New Man
is what the world sees when we put on the new man. It also sees that we are a people who are not
ruled by the flesh. In fact the New Man
is dead to the dictates of the flesh.
The affections and lusts of the flesh which war against the soul are not
even taken into consideration by the New Man. The nature of the New Man is such
that the appetites and desires of the flesh are as alien to it as air is to a
fish.
The New Man is powerful. The New Man was created within us through the
exercise of the very same power that IAUE used when He raised Yahushua from the
dead; and it is the same power that is being exercised through the New Man
constantly (Ephesians 1:18-19). Most of
us just never have had anyone to tell us that, before, now. The contemporary Christian church is still
attempting to live through the soul. It
has embraced a religious culture based on the codes of conduct it finds in the
Scriptures; but it does not engage the New Man to be those things naturally in them
and through them. That is why the church
is still steeped in sin and experiencing, for the most part, powerless lives;
and yet, the Scripture declared that Messiah was coming to save his people from
their sin.
Mark 8:35 For whosoever will save his life
(soul) shall lose it; but whosoever shall lose his
life (soul) for my sake and the gospel's,
the same shall save it.
All of the power we could ever need to walk
uprightly before IAUE, and to walk in obedience to His will moment by moment is
already within us in the New Man. All of
the righteousness and holiness for which Christians plead and cry aloud for in
prayer was already within them at the moment they were born of the Spirit.
2 Peter 1:3 According as his
divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and
godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and
virtue:
4 Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious
promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having
escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.
Notice that the only limitation to our walking
in the divine nature is our lack of knowledge of the one who has called us to
it. It is absolutely the Father’s
intention that this be the normal life of the disciples of Yahushua
Messiah. This is the Kingdom of Heaven
within us; and as emissaries of the Kingdom of IAUE, we should be demonstrating
this divine nature at all times. It will
draw men to us to seek the same power that has rescued us from our own sinful
lives.
Who are we?
We are a soul (mind, will and emotions) that is permeated by the New
Man, empowered by the resurrection power of IAUE to do His will. We are caterpillars that have metamorphosed
into butterflies by the power of IAUE.
Unfortunately, most believers still think they are caterpillars. They are still too conscious of who they were
before the NEW MAN was created within them.
They are like the sergeant in our illustration a couple of posts ago who
received a battlefield promotion to Captain.
Even though a commissioned officer now, he still thinks and behaves as
an enlisted man. That, however, is
beneath the dignity of his current status; and it is an insult to the authority
that raised him out of the enlisted ranks to become an officer.
We must acknowledge the reality of the New
Man, and live in the spirit, not in the flesh.
The soul makes the choice to actively respond to the flesh, choosing to
respond to its affections and lusts; or to humbly yield to the spirit and allow
the mind of Messiah to lead us.
Kingdom
heart: a heart that offers no resistance to the
performance of the will of IAUE.
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