Made Fresh & New!

I have often wondered what it means when the Bible speaks about being a new creation in Christ Jesus.  If it is true that I was made new, then why do I feel just the same?  I know a lot of Christians who ask these same questions where they feel they live the same mundane life void of power.  When I learned the truth, it changed the way I started to think about myself.  

2 Cor 5:17 AMPC - Therefore if any person is [ingrafted] in Christ (the Messiah) he is a new creation (a new creature altogether); the old [previous moral and spiritual condition] has passed away. Behold, the fresh and new has come!

This scripture says that I am now a new creation in Christ Jesus and that the old has become fresh and new.  This sounds like a radical change.  Surely if it was that radical, should’t I have sensed a difference?  The thing is that the change was not in my body where I could see it, nor in my soul where I could sense it.  The change was on the inside.  It was a change of nature - I became a brand new creation.

When Adam and Eve sinned, their spirits that were alive and connected to God for daily wisdom and constant communion, died and instead of being able to communicate with God, the soul took over and started to take its cue from the natural world through the 5 senses.  The soul started to rule through rebellion with - “I can do this myself, the way I want to, without God’s help” - being the dominant train of thought.      

But now, with the new birth, our spirits became alive and were reconnected again to God.  This caused a change in nature - what was old, became new.  I am no longer a natural being, I am now a spiritual being - a new creation.  It is literally a change from night to day - from death to life.

You still have not addressed why I am not sensing a difference - I hear you ask.  If the change was so drastic, then why is everything still pretty much the same?  

The change was on the inside, in your spirit man.  Just like the only way you can see your own face by looking in a mirror, the only way you can see what your recreated spirit man is like, is by looking in the mirror of the Word of God.

Once you see in the Word of God who you now are in Christ Jesus, it changes how you see yourself.  The world out here still very much reflects the old nature and so it has to become an intentional constant renewal of the mind through the Word - a daily reminder that you are no longer a mere mortal, normal man.   

Here is an example of this:

We are three parts - spirit, soul and body.  Each of these parts experience things differently:

I eat ice cream.  My body experiences it as pleasure.  How long does the pleasure last?  Depends on who you are and how long it takes you to eat an ice cream.  Some gobble it down while others can make a whole extended meal out of it.  That is how long pleasure lasts.  It is fleeting at best.

The soul experiences happiness, something that affects the emotions.  How long does happiness last?  I think we all have experienced that it doesn’t pitch a tent to stay. How long then?  Depends - how long is a song?  A romantic song, or one that reminds you of happy times can affect your emotions and make you happy for an hour a day or longer, but it is still fleeting until your soul gets taken over by another emotion which could be sadness, anger, distress…  Happiness like all other emotions is soulish and fleeting.  

Your spirit functions in a different realm - the dominant spiritual realm - where you cannot see what is happening and where it takes faith to recognize that there is more.  I want to call it the “all things are possible to him who believes” realm.  Once you learn to live there, it starts to minister life and peace to you because you can choose to no longer be affected by the things that are fleeting and that bring only fear and torment.  

Your spirit doesn't experience pleasure or happiness, but rather joy. Joy is not an emotion; joy is a power - it is a fruit of the Spirit of God living on the inside of you.  Christians don’t have any excuse to ever be without joy because it is a choice away.  All you need to do is to tap into the joy that is in you.  So, whenever something difficult is happening, instead of getting yourself in a totally overwhelmed state, you can decide to release the joy that is resident in your spirit and let it dictate the outcome of the situation.  Joy is very powerful.  It is strength and when released, can even strengthen a weak body.  

Neh 8:10 NLT - And Nehemiah continued, “Go and celebrate with a feast of rich foods and sweet drinks and share gifts of food with people who have nothing prepared. This is a sacred day before our Lord. Don’t be dejected and sad, for the joy of the Lord is your strength!”

I used pleasure, happiness and joy as an example, but I wanted to illustrate that we can choose to live and focus on what is seen in this physical realm, or not.  We can look at the bad circumstances until it forms a picture on the inside of impending doom where this is terminal and will never get better and no one can help.  You release the bad thought by speaking it with your mouth and then the bad end is seconds away from a knock on the door.   

Rom 8:6 NKJV - For to be carnally (fleshly) minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.

Or… Or.. Or, you can start to live out of the New Creation realities of who you are in Christ and what that means.  When you were born again, your spirit man was made alive with the life of God with His Spirit now living in you.  Resident inside your renewed spirit man is the fruit of the Spirit as well as all the other great and precious promises that are already yours in Christ.  The power that raised Christ from the dead, healing, prosperity, blessing, authority.. It is all already there. 

Col 2:9 NKJV - 9 For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily; 10 and you are complete in Him, who is the head of all principality and power.

The fullness of the Godhead - not a little sample or a baby version, but the fullness of the Godhead now lives in you.  You don't have to grow into it, but you have to get a revelation of what is there.  Once you have the revelation, it might take you a while to increase in boldness to use your faith and confidence until you can walk and live in all of the fullness of it.    

What this means is that you no longer have to beg God to do something for you, not knowing if He would or what it would take to get Him to be willing.  No, He already gave you everything you need.  He deposited it into your spirit from where you now release it into your body and your life by faith.

Eph 1:3 NKJV - Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, 

But, I don’t have enough faith I hear you say… not true.  He gave you His faith.  It is already in you:

Gal 2:20 KJV - I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.

If this is true, then why are we living such powerless lives?  Because this is not being preached.  I can count on one hand minus some fingers how many people I know who actually live in the reality of these truths.  Most people get tripped up by their daily realities, living from the 5 senses as if that is all there is.  If I can see it with my eyes, then it has to be true and the only reality.  This is limited thinking at best and so very far below what God wants for us.  We need to get to the point where our finances don’t tell us if we have enough.  The Word says that my God supplies all my need (Phil 4:19) and that is my reality.  I don’t look to my body to see how I feel.  I look to the Word in 1 Pet 2:24 that by His stripes I was healed.  That is a superior reality.  Believing these truths, holding onto them and speaking them over my situation will make them manifest in this physical world so they can be seen and felt.

The Bible says in John 8:32 that we will know the truth and the truth shall set us free.  The two scriptures below shows that our Christian living become more and more effective as we learn what we already got on the inside through the knowledge of who we are in Him:

Philemon 1:6 AMP - I pray that the sharing of your faith may become effective and powerful because of your accurate knowledge of every good thing which is ours in Christ.

2 Pet 1:3 AMPC - For His divine power has bestowed upon us all things that [are requisite and suited] to life and godliness, through the full, [personal] knowledge of Him Who called us by and to His own glory and excellence (virtue).

I have not been in this situation, but if you knew you had a few hours to live, what would you pray for your family?  If you were a Christian, you would probably pray and ask God that He would save those who are not saved, heal and bless your loved ones and do a new thing in their lives.  Won’t you?  The Apostle Paul was in that situation.  He knew He was going to be martyred and that he didn’t have many days left.  He had many spiritual children that he would leave behind and instead of praying like I suggested above, that the Lord will do a new thing and pour out His blessings on them, he prayed and asked the Lord to SHOW THEM WHAT HE HAS ALREADY DONE FOR THEM.  That they would get a revelation of what was already theirs in Christ Jesus because of the New Creation reality.  Paul prayed three such prayers.  They can be found in Col 1:9-12, Eph 3:14-19 and then there is this one: 

Eph 1:16-21 AMPC - 16 I do not cease to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers. 17 [For I always pray to] the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, that He may grant you a spirit of wisdom and revelation [of insight into mysteries and secrets] in the [deep and intimate] knowledge of Him, 18 By having the eyes of your heart flooded with light, so that you can know and understand the hope to which He has called you, and how rich is His glorious inheritance in the saints (His set-apart ones), 19 And [so that you can know and understand] what is the immeasurable and unlimited and surpassing greatness of His power in and for us who believe, as demonstrated in the working of His mighty strength, 20 Which He exerted in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His [own] right hand in the heavenly [places], 21 Far above all rule and authority and power and dominion and every name that is named [above every title that can be conferred], not only in this age and in this world, but also in the age and the world which are to come.

I mentioned before that the only way to see who you now are in the spirit is by looking in the mirror of the Word.  I felt the Lord say to bring a little hand mirror into the blog to show you a little glimpse of who you are in the spirit.  I hope this will leave you hungry for more so you can get into your own full-sized mirror and let the Lord show you who you are in Christ.  Here is a little taste:

2 Cor 2:14 - Because I am in Christ, I always triumph.

1 Corinthians 1:30 - Because I am in Christ, I have wisdom.  I always know what to do.

1 Peter 2:24 - I am healed by His stripes.

1 Peter 5:7 - Because He cares for me, I can cast all my cares on Him.

Phil 4:19 - Because I am in Christ, He shall supply all my needs according to His riches.

2 Corinthians 3:17 - I live free from bondage.

Romans 8:1 - I live free from condemnation.

Romans 5:17 - I reign in life!

Take time to read through the Epistles in the Bible.  They are the letters written to the Church by Paul and others and are the books from Romans to Jude.  In them are the New Creation realities of who we now are in Christ. 

Perhaps you say.. it is all good and well but I have heard so many wrong teachings, how do I get my mind renewed?  If you had a glass of milk and you wanted it replaced by clean water, what would you do?  The quick fix would be to pour it out and fill the glass with clean water.  But, if you were unable to pour it out at once, then you place the glass with the milk under the tap and you open it.  The clean water running into the glass will, over time, displace the milk until all that's left is clean water.  You do the exact same thing in the spirit.  You start by reading the Word regularly by faith, asking the Lord to show you the New Creation realities.  The revelation will build gradually until one day you realize that the old thinking is gone and you are starting to think differently, that you are no longer confined to only what is perceived by the 5 senses.  Once you realize that, you know you are on your way…

Also, don’t be too proud to say you don’t know it all.  Be open to learn from those who were called and anointed by God to preach these truths.  But, let the Holy Spirit and peace lead you in who to listen to and always, always make sure you can find what is preached in the Word for yourself.

I hear you ask if I am living this myself?  I am not yet living in the fullness of all the blessings of the New Creation realities, but like one preacher says “I haven’t arrived, but at least I have left.  I am daily renewing my mind to these truths and so I am well on my way there.”

I pray Paul’s prayers often over myself, asking that the Lord will give me a spirit of wisdom and revelation of who I am in Christ.  That I will live in the fulness of what is on the inside of me, no longer asking and begging, but releasing by faith what is already mine in Christ as I am a partaker of His divine nature.  This gives the Lord great joy as He sees His children believing His Word enough to step out into the truth of it.

If you believe what I have shared here, it will change the way you pray.  You will no longer pray asking and begging, but rather: “Teach me Father, give me daily revelation of who I am in You and what You have already given to me and done for me through the death, burial and resurrection of Chirst Jesus”.

I want to encourage you to start praying those prayers in Ephesians and Colossians and then spend time in the Word so the Lord can reveal truths to you personally.  Doing this will change your life. 

I can’t take credit for what I wrote in this blog post as it is truths I have heard from other teachers over the years. The Lord has graciously turned those messages into personal Rhema and revelation for me.  Ask the Lord to give you your own Rhema and fresh revelation so it can change your life too.  

Until next time..

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