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Be Renewed! By Pastor Bill Taylor A publication of My Father's House, inc. Volume 8/Issue 9 Prophecy: I look around Christendom today and I see so many people who claim to have My Spirit because they go to church or perhaps they have been baptized and they may even have a certificate that says so and yet it is not the Holy Spirit. I tell you, right here in this place, you have My Holy Spirit. My Holy Spirit is a person. Jesus said, “I must leave so I can send the Holy Spirit, your Teacher; the One who will guide you into all truth.” And right here in this place you have learned to know My Spirit and I am teaching you more of Him so you will not grieve Him. So you will let Him wash you and renew your mind and you can be one with Me. But when I look throughout Christendom, they are not one with Me. They are not in unity with Me and they don’t know Me because they grieve and they reject My Holy Spirit. But not so in this place. So therefore, because you have been receiving of My Spirit, I am pouring out My Spirit in such a great and awesome way that you will hardly be able to believe your eyes and even now He is already here. And I tell you My children: take hold of Him by faith. He wants to be your friend. He will guide you. He will lead you. He will keep you in unity with Me. Give Him much space in your life. Let Him wash you through the water of the word. Talk to Him and He will lead you and He will strengthen you and He will reveal Me more and more to you; for He is My Spirit and My presence in you and with you, saith the Lord. (Prophecy delivered at "My Father's House") But when the kindness and the love of God our Savior toward man appeared, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit, (Titus 3:4-5) The spiritual world is a mystery to men and many of the things which God has forbidden to His people such as participating with familiar spirits, mediums and such as that is because the spiritual realm is a very dangerous place apart from Christ. Essentially human beings are blind to what goes on in the spiritual realm. They don’t know when they are being deceived and when they’re not. They don’t know what’s up, down or sideways; they have no bearings, no compass and so it’s a very, very perilous place for humans to get into if they do not have a sure and proper guidance. And much of what we are learning here in God’s true church has to do with discerning Christ who is the Spirit we can trust. The New Covenant is a Spiritual Covenant, and if we are to be able to function in the spiritual realm, we must be able to discern correctly God’s Spirit from the devil’s. New age people talk about spirit guides but our only Spirit guide must be the Holy Spirit. We have a Spirit guide and He is the only one that’s fit to guide; He’s the Spirit of our Lord Jesus Christ. He’s the only One who really knows His way around in this spiritual realm and the only One that is trustworthy to guide us. And in some ways all the things that we are learning of Christ are pertaining to His Spirit. We’ve been studying the promises of God and most important of all the promises is that we can have the Spirit of Christ in us and be led by the Holy Spirit. And so it is very important to us to be able to take hold of the reality of what it is to be led by the Spirit; the reality of what it is to know Jesus Christ within us. And in all of these things there are Scriptures that explain them and God gives us many indications as to what is going on and yet in many ways we see through a glass darkly. I’m looking right now at the places where the word “renewed” is used in the scripture because it has such an important relationship to our salvation that we actually are being “renewed” in the Spirit of our mind. There is nothing mysterious about the Greek or the Hebrew words concerning renewal. Both of them pretty well mean to rebuild, to refurbish. But what we are looking at here is that when we are born again there is a cleansing work that is done to our human spirit and there is an impartation of the Spirit of Christ to us which makes us a new creation. And this starts us on a path of renewal which principally affects the spirit of our minds. The heart of man can be looked at somewhat as a blackboard and that whatever you are exposed to and you do not resist can be written on that board and change your heart; transform your heart. And that fallen man has been corrupted in his heart by sin and that evil company corrupts good manners. And that when men hang around evil men they get corrupted even more so. And the heart can easily be deceived and if you hang around deceivers your heart gets very corrupted by deception and that in order to be fit for the kingdom of heaven there has to be a cleansing of the human heart and a renewing of the human spirit. And that the washing of regeneration is the initial work of the cleansing and the tearing out of the sin damaged heart and corrupted portions of the spirit. But the renewal of the Holy Spirit is, in a sense, the rebuilding of the mind and personality now in accordance with Christ and in accordance with the truth of the Word of God. If evil company corrupts good manners then what would keeping company with the Holy Spirit and Godly Spiritual people do for you? It would cause you to have good manners; it would cause you to become improved and to continually improve as you associate with the Holy Spirit and Spiritual people. So that your spirit is affected by the spirits you associate with. And the great promise of the New Covenant is that you can have a continual association with the Holy Spirit because if you have faith He will come in and live with you. And that continual association with God will cause you to become perfected so that what was a very marred vessel, as the potter had to remake that vessel that was marred in his hands, can be rebuilt into a very beautiful vessel because of the renewing of the Holy Spirit. So not by works of righteousness that we have done but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit. Again, understanding that we do good works because of Christ and His Holy Spirit in us but the work that God does we can’t do because He is the one who shapes us; (we can’t do that) we are not creators of ourselves. But the work that He does is done through His mercy through the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Spirit. Now there is a very special verse in the Old Testament that applies to this. Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me, (Ps 51:10) There are two major portions of the study of the spirit. One is the Holy Spirit of God and His effect and work on men in the earth and the other is the spirit of man. And both studies are needful because the inner actions, the inner workings of God requires the Holy Spirit to work upon man’s spirit. And again when David says, renew a steadfast spirit within me, he is speaking about the failure of his spirit, the human spirit in David to stay faithful. And how that was exposed through the sin with Bathsheba and now he is asking God to correct what’s wrong in him. And God is able to do that; to renew and put back a faithful spirit in him. “Create in me a clean heart.” So the heart, the human spirit is like a vessel that can be renewed, changed, transformed and made better. It’s something like a computer that needs a program. And you can take an old program out and put a better program in and the spirit of man is like that. Therefore we do not lose heart. Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day. (2Cor 4:16) The inward man is the spirit of man and concerning the Christian, even though his flesh is growing old, God is able to keep the inward man vital and alive. Of course, in order to obtain this renewing you must put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, (Eph 4:22-23) Now even though you are born again and are a new creation you still have the consciousness of who you were and what you were. And you still retain the memories and ways that your old man does things. So to be “saved” the change in your spirit, in your heart, must have its proper effect on your mind. True salvation consists of a change in your heart and in your spirit as in; “Then I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within them, and take the stony heart out of their flesh, and give them a heart of flesh, that they may walk in My statutes and keep My judgments and do them; and they shall be My people, and I will be their God.” (Ezek 11:19-20) “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.” (Ezek 36:26) “But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD: I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.” (Jer 31:33) God will put His Spirit in you to fear the Lord so you will not depart from His statutes – that’s a steadfast spirit. And in the Old Testament prophecies the promise of putting a new spirit in you is always connected to the fact that when you have the new spirit you will be obedient to God and keep His statutes. “I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them.” (Ezek 36:27) So the New Covenant people who have the Spirit must be an obedient people. Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. (Ps 51:10) And the idea here is I wasn’t obedient so cleanse me and put something in me that makes me obedient and keeps me obedient – a steadfast spirit. Thus the work of salvation is a washing of regeneration and renewing. And when you have a clean heart because of the “washing” the Holy Spirit will be able to renew you along the lines of what is acceptable to God. Then in the New Covenant believer God’s Holy Spirit will be the controlling influence on your behavior. For it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure. (Phil 2:13) And so your behavior will become acceptable to God. As your spirit is renewed, your behavior, the way you think and the way you feel about things will be conformed to Christ by the Holy Spirit working in you. The Holy Spirit will guide you into all truth; He will teach you all things. (John 14:26; 16:13) But before the Holy Spirit became your Teacher, the world was your teacher and that’s described in that you put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, (Eph 4:22) And although your heart is regenerated and the Holy Spirit is now in you to help you to learn how to do right you still have to take the steps to change your thinking and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, (vs 23) so that your thinking does not agree anymore with the old ways because you still have these memories and patterns of thinking and patterns of behavior that were ingrained before when the world was your teacher. But now the Lord is your Teacher and you have to let Him cleanse your mind. And the cleansing of the mind is a process. Because if your mind was just wiped clean you would be like an infant or an amnesiac and you would have to be taught everything over; how to talk, how to walk, how to read and write. God can regenerate your heart instantaneously but He has to let you little by little renew what is in your mind. When the nation of Israel goes into the promised land, the Lord says “I will not drive out your enemies all at once but I will drive them out little by little as you take the land lest the wild beasts take over.” And it’s not just the wild beasts. Have you ever noticed how quickly a vacant lot that is not cared for becomes a forest? In a matter of a few years, what was just grass becomes bushes and trees. If you want to put a garden in that vacant lot it isn’t too difficult to plow up grass but when you have a forest, it can be a grievous job to clear it. So it is a blessing of God in a sense to allow the enemy to stay in the land and keep the grass cut until it’s time for the people of God to take over. Thus God didn’t drive the enemies out all at once because by the time the Jews would get to some of these places, the land would be full of lions and bears and big trees and such as that, and it would be a dangerous and rough job to clear it. Similarly God doesn’t want your mind to be totally blank even though many of the things you are doing you may be doing them in the old way, at least they are getting done up until the time He can change you by giving you a better way of doing it. So the regeneration of the spirit is an instantaneous thing, but the renewing of the mind is a process. The heart is instantly washed clean by the blood of Jesus, but the mind is little by little renewed by the word of God. And both washings must take place in order to make you worthy to enter into Heaven. And the fact that you began the process by having your heart washed, has to continue in your taking hold of the promise of the Holy Spirit by faith to renew your mind. And what more shall I say? For the time would fail me to tell of Gideon and Barak and Samson and Jephthah, also of David and Samuel and the prophets: who through faith subdued kingdoms, worked righteousness, obtained promises... (Heb 11:32-33) And the most important promise of the New Covenant is the promise of the Holy Spirit, which of course rests upon the promised cleansing of sin. Now there was some measure of the cleansing of sin under the Old Covenant but it was not sufficient. For the law, having a shadow of the good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with these same sacrifices, which they offer continually year by year, make those who approach perfect. For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and goats could take away sins. (Heb 10:1,4) It was symbolic for the present time in which both gifts and sacrifices are offered which cannot make him who performed the service perfect in regard to the conscience – concerned only with foods and drinks, various washings, and fleshly ordinances imposed until the time of reformation. (Heb 9:9-10) But under the New Covenant we have better promises. But now He has obtained a more excellent ministry, inasmuch as He is also Mediator of a better covenant, which was established on better promises. (Heb 8:6) And in the word better promises we have a better cleansing, a perfect cleansing. For if the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of a heifer, sprinkling the unclean, sanctifies for the purifying of the flesh, how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? (Heb 9:13-14) So under the New Covenant the blood of Jesus has made us perfect, and we should have no consciousness of sin, (see our previous publication “Cleansed.”) The Holy Spirit could not enter the temple until it had been cleansed by blood. And being cleansed by the blood of Jesus purges your temple. “And according to the law almost all things are purified with blood, and without shedding of blood there is no remission.” (Heb 9:22) The blood cleanses your heart and opens up a door by which you can be filled with the Holy Spirit and renew your mind. But notice that the promise that the Holy Spirit is given to you has to be taken hold of by faith. So when you have people in churches that are not even teaching them about the promise of the Holy Spirit or the purpose of the Holy Spirit, they have no faith for it. So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. (Rom 10:17) And likewise not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration (water baptism) and renewing of the Holy Spirit, (Titus 3:5) There will be no washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit unless you have faith to believe you receive it. (Mark 11:24) Moreover, brethren, I declare to you the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received and in which you stand, by which also you are saved, if you hold fast that word which I preached to you-- unless you believed in vain. (1Cor 15:1-2) Because you obtain the promise through faith. And so you must apply your faith in the direction of saying “Jesus, You promised to send me the Holy Spirit to be my teacher and I believe God has washed me in your blood and regenerated me in baptism and I have been born again but now my mind needs to be renewed. I need to have my mind washed through the washing of the word.” So the beginning of the cleansing takes place in the heart but the process continues in the cleansing of the mind. As in Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her, that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word, (Eph. 5:25-26) So God’s word is cleaning the mind and causing you to think in a godly and a righteous way. And when people are not appreciative of God’s word there’s not going to be any cleansing going on. And when God called us to come to church six and seven days a week here, what do you think Jesus had in mind for us? Cleansing! Jesus is saying, “If you will obey Me and come to church everyday, I will be able to wash you, cleanse you and sanctify your mind more quickly and perfectly than if you only come once or twice a week. So those who obey will be blessed with a better sanctification and those who disobey will not. Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap. For he who sows to his flesh will of the flesh reap corruption, but he who sows to the Spirit will of the Spirit reap everlasting life. (Gal 6:7-8) But this I say: He who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. (2Cor 9:6) So by faith and obedience to Christ and coming to church daily you are allowing Him to do what He desires to do. That He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish. (Eph 5:27) And you should also be having faith for Him to do that. But of course, nobody gets washed when they’re asleep in church. If you want Him to make you perfect you have to cooperate, and be awake, and be diligent, and believe for it and let Him do it and ask Him to do it and give Him opportunity to do it. And the people who don’t like to come to church very much, they don’t really want to be cleansed. If they had taken hold of even an iota of what Jesus wants to do in them they would be here. They would grab hold of Christ’s promise by faith and get into it because this is the greatest blessing you can have is to be transformed into Christ and be made fit for heaven; cleansed and renewed in your mind. And be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness. (Eph.4:23-24) So concerning the regenerated man, his new spirit is created in righteousness and holiness by a supernatural work of God. Then what’s left to do? Renew the mind. Because even though the new Spirit man is created in true righteousness and holiness, if you don’t go on to renew the mind you can be forever lost. For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened (convicted of the truth and brought to repentance) have tasted the heavenly gift (been regenerated and have received the gift of Christ living in them) and have become partakers of the Holy Spirit, (baptized in the Spirit) have tasted the good word of God (which is what renews the mind) and the powers of the age to come, (supernatural gifts of the Holy Spirit) if they fall away, it’s impossible to renew them again to repentance, since they crucify again for themselves the Son of God, and put Him to open shame. (Heb 6:4-6) So you can’t be born again twice – under these circumstances you can’t be renewed twice. The new man is the Son of God and you must put on the new man and keep Him on. So the New Man is in you, but how and where do you put Him on? You put Him on in your mind. You must be renewed in the spirit of your mind, (Eph 4:23) until you have the mind of the New Man. And as you do this you will increasingly behave like Jesus as you increasingly think like Jesus. “Have this mind in you which was in Christ Jesus.” (Phil 2:5) It’s one thing to have Christ in your heart, it’s another thing to have His mind. The heart inspires but the mind fulfills. And you can see that all of the Scriptures that pertain to having the mind of Christ require you to pursue it. Whereas, having been regenerated in the heart required you to repent and be baptized in faith for God to regenerate you, to put the new man in you. But now that He’s in you, He has to rule in you and He can only rule in you if you let Him have control of your mind and to do that you must let Him renew your mind. So after regeneration the battle then becomes a mind battle; casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing every thought into captivity to Christ. (2Cor 10:5) So God continues in the working out of our salvation in our mind after we have been regenerated in our heart. (Phil 2:12-13) In most churches today the people aren’t even regenerated. The churches have lost the meaning of baptism – “Those who believe and are baptized will be saved.” (Mark 16:16) Most believers haven’t been baptized with any faith to be regenerated. not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit, (Titus 3:5) Buried with Him in baptism, in which you also were raised with Him through faith in the working (power) of God, who raised Him from the dead. (Col 2:12) So without a true baptism these so-called believers have not even taken the first step of salvation. But to those who have been regenerated the battle becomes a mind battle. And the battle is won by your faith for Jesus to wash you in His word and renew your mind. And to be in a living faith you must take steps of faith by giving Him the opportunity to renew you; which means being in a place where there is real Spiritual preaching and teaching going on and reading your Bible daily and praying often and having regular Bible studies with godly people. And all of this will help advance you in putting on the mind of Christ. Now again Hebrews warns us strongly that even when your eyes have been opened to the realities of God, even when you’ve been enlightened and you have tasted the heavenly gift of Christ; and that even when you’ve become a partaker of the Holy Spirit; and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come (the gifts of the Holy Spirit) yet even with all of this if because of your carnal unrenewed mind you fall away because your carnal mind wants to go back to the worldly things; then you will be forever lost – there will be no second chance at renewal to repentance under those circumstances. (Heb 6:4-6) Because when you do this you crucify the newly regenerated Christ in you. For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. (Rom 8:6) If you don’t let Christ renew you and take control of your mind and bring your thoughts into captivity, and make you Spiritually minded then your mind will side with the flesh and kill Christ again. And this time the Christ you’re killing is the one in you and this is the new man created in true righteousness and holiness and when you kill the Christ in you, you have just committed spiritual suicide. You have no possibility of being saved because the Savior has come to you personally to save you and you have personally killed Him – you’ve killed your personal Savior. And this is a very, very sobering thought that you can do this. And a frightening number of so-called believers today have done this. There’s an appalling amount of crucified Christ instead of crucified flesh in the churches today. The flesh should be crucified and instead it’s Christ that’s being crucified in the believers. And the churches ought to fear and tremble for what they have been doing. Now, putting on the new man means changing the way you think and trusting the Lord to teach you how to think right. And looking at how many Scriptures talk about being of the same mind; (Phil 2:2) being renewed in the spirit of your mind; (Eph 4:23) have this mind in you which is in Christ Jesus; (Phil 2:5) if any of you think otherwise, God will show you even this. (Phil 3:15) It’s the thought life that has to be brought into conformity to Christ and this is a process and it takes time to do it and that’s what the church is here for, that’s what the prophets, evangelist, pastors and teachers are here for until you grow up into the fullness of the Son of Man; to the image of Christ; to the perfect man. (Eph 4:11-15) And this growth takes place in the mind, until your mind is brought into complete conformity and every thought you think is captive to Christ. It’s an awesome thing, the work that God can do on the human spirit if you will let Him. And how much of the Scriptures are pointed in that direction; letting God perfect us in the spirit of our mind; bring us into a complete conformity to Christ. And because if we’ve been properly baptized we’ve already been regenerated, the most pertinent promises that affect our progress in Christianity right now concern our faith for the Lord to finish the work and perfect us. And the flash of light that we are looking at immediately has to do with humility of mind; it has to do with making sure that the spirit of man is humble so that the Spirit of God can guide. And that is a doctrine that runs all the way through the Old Testament right up through the New Testament. What stops you from being led by the Spirit is having a strong opinionated, prideful spirit of your own. And what allows you to be transformed by the renewing of your mind is having a humble spirit that does not trust in your own understanding but looks to God. (Prov 3:5) And how necessary it is to have that. And that the doctrine of having a humble spirit in you is not only New Testament; it begins in the Old Testament and has always been associated with godliness because even though today a humble spirit means you will look to the Holy Spirit to guide you, in the Old Testament, a humble spirit meant you would look to God’s word, God’s priest, or God’s prophet to guide and it still had the effect of saving you to the degree that salvation was available under the Old Covenant. And those who are not humbled are always found fighting against what God is doing; rising up and arguing with what God is doing; or ignoring what God is doing and doing it their own way. But the ones who have humility are looking for a better way and are willingly receiving God’s way. So how very important humility is to having your mind renewed. Nobody who is proud, haughty, opinionated, conceited, full of themselves, full of their own ideas will be able to receive the renewed mind. And to be saved it’s needful to actually put on the new man and be renewed in the spirit of your mind. You must put on Christ’s behavior. So Ephesians tells you to put on the new man (Eph 4:24) and then goes into the behavior that is consistent with being in the new man – such as “put away lying” (vs 25) “Be angry but not unto sin.” (vs 26) Most “Christians” today think that salvation is found in a couple of verses that say, “believe in Jesus and you will be saved” and they do not understand that these verses that say believe in Jesus mean that you must believe in such a way that you actually put on Christ. The true believer believes what Jesus says, what the apostles say and the true believer will be believing he needs to be renewed in the spirit of his mind. He will be believing Jesus expects him to put on the new man that’s created in true righteousness and godliness. He will be believing that his spirit has to behave in a way that is consistent with the Spirit of Christ. He believes that Christ must be formed in him. That what is happening is his human spirit has been regenerated and his personality is now being molded into the image of Christ and it has the proper start in the new heart of desiring righteousness; of being born of God and alive to God, but now Christ’s Spirit has to invade your mind and take over your mind or you, your soul, your consciousness will be lost. And so in the mind, in the place where decisions are made, you must have faith to put Christ on; to put Christ so thoroughly into your consciousness, your being, that He’s in complete control of your behavior. And of course it is His Spirit and His Word that will control your behavior and it’s His Spirit and His Word that has to be put on in the mind so you can make Christ-like decisions; casting down imaginations! Bringing every thought into captivity to Christ; every thought that would cause you to make a decision in a different way than Jesus would. (2Cor 10:5) This has to be done. And you have to cooperate in this. You have to have faith for it. You have to desire it. You have to pursue it. And then you must have the sense to understand that you can’t truthfully claim Jesus is in you, in the sense of being in control of your mind, when your behavior is not like Jesus. Because that is completely contradictory and absolutely impossible. For example, if you are a liar, and Jesus is truth, He can’t be in the part of you that’s lying. And this takes you to “the one who’s born of God can’t sin.” (1John 3:9) Well, you say “I’m born again and I sin.” But John says the one that is sinning in you is the old man. And he’s not the one that is born of God. The old man can’t do anything but sin and you have to put him off. And if you don’t put him off and if you start cooperating with him he will kill the new man. He will crucify Christ. So it’s a battle to see who will have control of your soul; the new man or the old. Now Jesus has the power to overcome the old man but not against your will. You have to side with Him in this because if you decide you want to please the old man, you want to go back to the old man’s way the Bible says, “they could have gone back if they wanted to” (Heb 11:15) So you must decide “I’m not going back, I’m going forward and I’m going to let Jesus take this land till I have no-one but Jesus living in me” (Gal 2:20) And we can judge your progress in this by your behavior, because the Spirit of Christ won’t do things which are of the flesh: put away lying; be angry but don’t sin; don’t steal but work with your hands to have something to give to him who has need; don’t let corrupt words come out of your mouth. (Eph 4:25-29) Anytime lying, stealing, corrupt communications are going on it is a sure indication that the old man is still in control of your mind. And you are not abiding in Christ. And that is sin and it has to be repented of and you have to call upon the Lord to cleanse you. You have to confess your sins and Jesus is faithful and just to forgive your sins and cleanse you of what makes you sin – cleanse you from all unrighteousness. (1John 1:9) And you have to want that cleansing and ask for that cleansing, to get cleansed. And don’t make the fatal mistake of thinking “Because I am born again, I’ll automatically go to Heaven.” Beloved, your mind is part of your soul and your soul is your consciousness and if your mind isn’t fit to go to heaven the Spirit will return to God and your soul will go to hell. Your soul is not your spirit. Your soul is your consciousness. And you had better get your soul connected and conformed to Jesus. Do not lie to one another since you have put off the old man with his deeds. (Col 3:9) Now in Ephesians it says, put off the old man (vs 22) and don’t lie, (vs 25) but here in Colossians it says because you have put off the old man, don’t lie. So this tells us that you put off the old man by not behaving like him anymore. And that having put him off – don’t put him back on but keep him off by not behaving like him. When you go back to lying, you put the old man on again. So, Do not lie to one another, since you have put off the old man with his deeds, and have put on the new man who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of Him who created him, (Col 3:9-10) So you are renewed in knowledge which, of course, resides in the mind and you are renewed according to the image of Christ. But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord. (2Cor 3:18) For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. (Rom 8:29) How can you be renewed in knowledge according to the image of Christ unless you are having Christ revealed to you? Unless you are seeing the way He thinks? Unless you are learning of Him? So again, this process of putting on the new man and being renewed in knowledge according to the image of Him who created you means giving God access to show you how Jesus thinks, how He feels about things, how He acts. And this is a ministry of the Word of God – as anointed men of God preach and teach you to see Christ, to see what is in His mind and heart – this is the ministry of the Word to the church through the apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers. (Eph 4:11-13) A scripture that relates to this is when Saul was made king and Samuel instructed Saul and the people in the ways of royalty, (1Sam 10:25) and how we are being made kings but we must be instructed in the ways of Christ. And Saul had the kingship taken away from him because he didn’t behave properly. So Samuel’s instruction may have been good but Saul’s obedience was not. But David has an everlasting kingdom because he learned and obeyed. And that is also the way with us. Being conformed to Christ is not automatic; you are required to be diligent in seeking and pursuing the things that pertain to the renewing of your mind and being conformed to the image of Christ. But also for this very reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness, to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love. For if these things are yours and abound, you will be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. (2Pet 1:5-8) Pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, gentleness. (1Tim 6:11) Anybody who desires to be renewed according to the image of Christ has to be participating in such things as would allow God to do that in them and when God called us at “My Father’s House” to have church six and seven days a week, He was bidding us into a very high participation in His process of conforming us to the image of Christ. And those who have resisted and fought against this haven’t any idea what God is seeking to do in us and they are not going to participate in it; they have no sense whatsoever of what God’s will is for them either, because it’s not God’s will for Him to do this in us and not in them. It’s His will to do this for all the true believers but He will not force them. They have a will of their own. And without humility they will not obey. They have their own proud ideas of how they are going to be saved and what they have to do to be saved and they won’t listen to God when He tells them to do something contrary to what they feel like doing. They stumble, being disobedient to the word. (1Pet 2:8)
I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. (Rom 12:1-2) Notice the purpose of presenting your bodies a living sacrifice is that you may be transformed by the renewing of your mind. And that when God asked us to come to church every day, we could only fulfill this scripture by being a living sacrifice, giving up our evenings for God and believing that was our reasonable service. And because we’ve obeyed God, He has been able to work mightily in us to conform us to Christ – so that even our children are learning to know Him and being led by His Spirit in extraordinary ways. With true Christians what God asks for, He gets, because our bodies are a living sacrifice. And because we obey, we get the reward of being “His own special people.” (1Pet 2:9) Yet so often we meet “believers” who when we tell them what God is doing in us here with everyday church – they blurt out, “God doesn’t expect that of you!” And what we see is a people who will not present their bodies a living sacrifice. They won’t obey God. And because we will obey they think we are crazy. Such people have no idea what the word of God means; “present your bodies a living sacrifice” or what Jesus expects of His followers; “Pick up your cross and follow Me.” They are absolute fools; going to church but having it man’s way. They haven’t even learned the greatest commandment: “to love the Lord with all your heart.” They haven’t even learned the first step of being a Christian; make Jesus Lord; present your body a living sacrifice. And they claim they’re saved? They are not saved. If they were saved they would have NO argument with anything that God asks of them including martyrdom itself because our bodies are a living sacrifice; because we live for Him who died for us; because He gave His body completely for us so we give ours for Him. Has the church of the martyrs, who gave their lives for Christ, degenerated into a people who can’t even give up their evenings to obey Him? “To present our bodies a living sacrifice” means anything He asks of us we do and it is only reasonable that we do it because He is our God and our Savior and He has given Himself for us. And we will not be conformed to this world. (See our previous publication “Hearing of Faith/Daily”) Now everything we have looked at has to do with the methods by which we are to be conformed to Christ through the renewing of the mind. And to not be conformed to the world would mean cut off every opportunity to allow the world to fill you with its lies, its philosophies, its imaginations, its conceits and its false moralities; its propaganda. Because what makes you like the world is thinking like the world. The world has resisted Jesus and yet the world ought to be run by Jesus! So any opinion the world has on how to run the world is wrong right off the bat because they haven’t come to Christ; they haven’t asked Him how to run it. As a believer I don’t care what their opinion is because they don’t care what Jesus’ opinion is. That means they are disqualified to have an opinion that any believer would even listen to. And that includes all the other things in the world too; the sports, the clothing styles, all of their prideful opinions concerning what good is. They have rejected Jesus so their opinions mean nothing. If they don’t speak according to this word, what light do they have? (Isa 8:20) None! What is chaff to the wheat? (Jer 23:28) So why would I want to expose myself to the thinking of the world? Why would I want to read their philosophies? Why would I care to hear their opinions when they are all fools, every last one of them? “There is none righteous, no not one; There is none who understands; There is none who seeks after God. They have all turned aside; They have together become unprofitable; There is none who does good, no not one.” “Their throat is an open tomb; with their tongues they practice deceit,” The poison of asps is under their lips;” “Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness.” “Their feet are swift to shed blood; Destruction and misery are in their ways; and the way of peace they have not known.” “There is no fear of God before their eyes.” (Rom 3:10-18) For your hands are defiled with blood, and your fingers with iniquity; your lips have spoken lies, your tongue has muttered perversity. No one calls for justice, nor does any plead for truth. They trust in empty words and speak lies; they conceive evil and bring forth iniquity. They hatch vipers' eggs and weave the spider's web; he who eats of their eggs dies, and from that which is crushed a viper breaks out. (Isa 59:3-5) That is God’s opinion of unregenerated man. And God is always right. So, what value, what use do I have to associate or listen to opinions of people like that? Now, there’s none who seeks after God; no not one. And its the leftovers of that kind of thinking when we were unregenerated worldly people that have to be washed out of our minds so that our minds can be renewed according to the Word of God. We must seek after God. And there is another aspect of this which Jesus speaks about where He says, “I have chosen you out of the world.” (John 15:19) We are not of the world anymore if we are real Christians. And if we are of the world, we are not real Christians. And John says, “Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.” (1John 2:15) So, again, a defining characteristic that shows who is a real Christian or not has to do with whether we are in the world or not. And those who are of the world, have the spirit of the world, hear the world; even though they profess to believe in Jesus these are not Christians because to be a Christian, Jesus has to choose you out of the world. “If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.” (John 15:19) But God forbid that I should boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. (Gal 6:14) For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, (Phil 3:20) But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, (Eph 2:4-6) If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. (Col 3:1-3) So to be a real Christian means having removed your hearts and affections totally out of the world, and then renewing your mind to be set on the things of God and not of the world. And where ever you see “believers” that are wrapped up in the world and loving the things of the world, listening to the opinions of the world; if their interests are in the world they are not Christians. If they were ever regenerated they have or are crucifying the Christ in them because of their affections for the world. The world is what crucified Jesus, and those who are of the world, who love the world will crucify Him again. They crucify the inner Christ. So, you can tell whether people belong to Christ according to what the Scriptures say about the people who really have Christ in them. These true believers are chosen out of the world and they do not have any respect for, or love of, or interest in the world’s opinions about things. How can we respect the opinions of somebody who has rejected Christ? And that is what the world has done. They have rejected Christ and they have rejected God. Whatever lip service they give to God is insincere, a deception. Even if they claim to believe, they worship an imitation god, a false god, it’s a self-pleasing god that they have created to give them a sense of salvation while they pursue their own worldly interests. It’s idolatry. It’s not Christ. It’s not His word. It’s not His Truth. So, to “Be transformed by the renewing of the mind” (Rom12:2) begins with – “Do not be conformed to the world” or I have no use for the world’s ideas anymore. I’m a sojourner here. We trust in God to supply our needs here. We have no use for the world’s interests or their opinions. Neither their respect nor disrespect affects me. To do a good job as a mechanic is a godly thing. To learn how to do your job well and build a good product is a godly thing. That isn’t what we mean by not being in the world. Not being in the world means you do not share their opinions or affections; you do not share their wisdom. I am sure Jesus was a competent carpenter. But that doesn’t make Him a part of the world. Be not conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may demonstrate the good and acceptable will of God, And much of the problem we have with the so-called Christians around us, is they have corrupted the churches, they have corrupted the gospel, they have corrupted their behavior as Christians because nobody has demonstrated to them what God’s good and perfect and acceptable will is. And at “My Father’s House” we are here to do that. God has called us here to show them what Christians ought to be. We’re here to show them what God’s kind of Christianity is. And if we present our bodies a living sacrifice, we’ll do it. Coming to church seven days a week is presenting your bodies a living sacrifice. Having Home School for our children is presenting your bodies a living sacrifice. Having Bible studies daily with your children is presenting your bodies a living sacrifice. Serving in ministries at the nursing homes and the prisons is presenting your bodies as a living sacrifice. When you are giving yourself completely as a sacrifice to God and you are turning away from any interests or opinions of the world and you are letting your mind be renewed and putting on the new man and being washed in the water of the word then because of your sacrifice God will use you to show the others what they should have been, by showing them what you are. Bless the Lord. Prophecy: In the days of My Son Jesus, they said of Him “No Man ever spoke like this Man.” And the word that was said of Him is that He opened His mouth in parables and He made known things that were kept secret from the foundations of the earth. But in this day, in this church, those around you are beginning to say, “No church ever spoke like this church. And at “My Father’s House” God has opened up secrets that were kept from the foundations of the earth and we have never seen it like this before.” And many will see and they will realize Christ is here. And they will speak of this church the way they spoke of Christ because this is the church of the true Christ. And as He is so is His true church in this world. And what is spoken of Him will be spoken of you; for you are My people and I have put My Words in your mouth and you speak the words of Christ, saith the Lord. Prophecy: It’s a sad thing that in this day and in this age that the people around you who claim to be My people, act just as the people in My Son’s day who falsely claimed to be My people. They, again, think the victory of the church is to overcome this political world and to become a great power; to be something notable in this world so all the world will admire them, yet they have no consideration of My kingdom and of what I desire. They have no real desire to glorify Me; only to glorify themselves. Just as the Jews in that day built a grand temple to glorify themselves and wanted the Romans to be gone and wanted themselves to be something great in the eyes of everyone without wanting to do My will. And they hate and abhor the people who tell them My will; who tell them what I desire; who show them their sin; who show them their wickedness; just as they hated My Son. But I say to you that just as I raised up My Son and His apostles and they did My will and accomplished My purpose and brought forth My church, I have raised you up in this day and in this age in a time where the “Christian” peoples are just the same as the Jews in that day. But I have raised you up to be a special people who show forth My Glory and who show what I desire – My commandments and what I am pleased with. And My Son asked of Me that He would be in you as I am in Him that you may be perfect in one that all the world may know that I have loved Him. And everything that My Son has asked I have heard and I have answered and I will answer in you. For I shall form Christ in you perfectly and I shall make you one perfectly with Me and with My true church. And I shall glorify you and show forth through you My good and acceptable and perfect will and the glory of My Son. And all the world will know that as I have loved Him so I have loved you saith the Lord. Prophecy: The victory that you are entering into is larger than any would imagine. I’m telling you your enemies and adversaries and those who’ve spoken against you will be ashamed and confounded when they see the mighty work I do. And right here in this place there will not be room enough to contain the children of promise who will come to you. At the prisons the meeting rooms will not be big enough to hold the children of promise that will come to you; and I will restore what the enemy has taken and I will shame him in front of your face. And you will see the shame upon him as you will see the redness in his face when he knows and he sees that I have blessed you and that he was the one who did not know Me. For the victory that I have in store for My children is going to glorify My name; it’s going to glorify My word; it’s going to glorify My Son; it’s going to glorify My Spirit. And all those who have rejected My truth, My word, My Spirit, and My name and sought to worship Me their own way will be shamed utterly and completely, saith the Lord, when they see the great work that I do in you. (Prophecies delivered at “My Father’s House”)
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