Duality of Christ & Our Identity as Sons of God

[Crossfire]

It amazes me how many Christians are unable to comprehend the duality of Christ and it explains why the modern church (especially in America) looks and acts no differently than the world because they have no idea what means to live a life of surrender to the workings of the Holy Spirit in and through us.

After Marry was visited by an Angel, he told her that she would be the one who would give birth to the Messiah, the Holy Spirit descended upon her and she became impregnated by the Holy Spirit. We often times fail to understand this process because we naturally think of procreation in terms of male and female, with the male providing the seed and the female providing the egg resulting in a life who's body / soul / spirit is completely independent from both the male and female. That was not the case when Marry became impregnated with Jesus. You see, the Holy Spirit did not provide the seed, the Holy Spirit Himself was the seed.

By all means was Jesus human in every way. He had a mind and a soul all of His own. He felt emotions and temptations as any human would. However, what made Jesus different is that he was born with a measure of the omnipresent Holy Spirit already inside of Him. He was spiritually connected to the Father in heaven from day one. Jesus was both 100% human and 100% divine simultaneously.

Now here's where you and I come in. When a Christian is born again, that same Spirit which resided in Jesus, who both taught and empowered Jesus to live out the will of the Father on here earth, now resides in you. Whether you realize it or not, you are Christ-like because you too are now spiritually connected to the Father in heaven just as Jesus was during his days here on earth. Scripture refers to Jesus as 'the first born of many brethren' and if you are indeed born again, you are one of the brethren.

In ending, my question to you is this: Are you going to believe what Jesus Himself and the authors of scripture say about the brethren, our identity in Christ as children of the Most High and given authority by our risen Lord and Savior through the inhabitation of the Christ's own divinity (Holy Spirit)? Or, are you going to listen to the doctrines of men which say you are nothing and will never be more than a sinner saved by grace predestined to live the rest of your life enslaved by sin which is nothing more than a lie from hell created so that you will never understand your divine potential here on earth?

The choice is yours.... __________________

 

[Crossfire]

Here's a previous post that I made a few weeks ago that should help people understand how the relationship between man & the indwelling Holy Spirit works:

Many today like to refer to the current church age that we now live in as the 'dispensation of grace' and rightfully so however, what most fail to recognize is the manner in which we, as believers, are allowed to partake of that grace.

You see, Jesus sacrificed himself on the cross that you and I might once again be restored to right relationship and fellowship with God. When we are saved, the very righteousness of Christ is imputed to us so that we too can partake of that very righteousness. But what does it mean to be in right relationship and fellowship with God? And, just what is the righteousness of Christ and how do we partake of it?

Jesus himself answers this question in John 14: 16-27:

"... And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever— the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you. I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. Whoever has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me. The one who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love them and show myself to them.”

Then Judas (not Judas Iscariot) said, “But, Lord, why do you intend to show yourself to us and not to the world?”

Jesus replied, “Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them. Anyone who does not love me will not obey my teaching. These words you hear are not my own; they belong to the Father who sent me.

“All this I have spoken while still with you. But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid."

Right relationship and fellowship with the Father [God] occurs immediately upon salvation when we each receive a measure of His Holy Spirit for "God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth” (John 4:24). It is through the Holy Spirit which God allows us to be partakers of both the mind (1 Cor 2:16) and righteousness (Galatians 5:5, Romans 8:10) of Christ as well as every promise that God intends for believers. The Holy Spirit is the divine nature of Christ (2 Peter 1:4) in you and our hope of glory (Romans 5:1-5).

It is through the Holy Spirit that we have access to the all the good things of God (Luke 11:13), both spiritual gifts (1 Cor. 12, Hebrews 2:4) and spiritual fruit - which are the divine attributes / evidence of His indwelling presence: "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit." (Gal. 5:22-24)

Throughout scripture the Holy Spirit is often referred to by other names such as the Spirit of God (Gen. 1:2, 1 John 4:2), Spirit of Wisdom (Eph. 1:17), Spirit of Knowledge (Isaiah 11:2), Spirit of Grace (Heb. 10:29), Spirit of Righteousness (Rom. 4:17), Spirit of Holiness (Rom. 1:4), Spirit of Obedience and Sanctification (1 Peter 1:2), the list goes on.

So why all of this talk of the Holy Spirit? Because we, as believers, have access to each and every one of these divine attributes of the Holy Spirit if we choose to abide in the Holy Spirit and not walk according to the flesh (Romans 8). In fact, God, in His faithfulness, has promised to make an escape for us when faced with temptation (1 Cor. 10:13) for His strength is made perfect in our weaknesses (2 Cor. 12:9). Since we have already established scripturally that God grants all good gifts through His indwelling Spirit, then it makes perfect sense that His escape is also found through His Spirit, all we need to do is learn how to abide in His Spirit (Presence) on a consistant basis throughout each day thus learning to both trust and lean on His divine strength and wisdom, that we might live fully in the promises of God for salvation. Let it be the desire of our hearts to live according to Proverbs 3:5-6 so that we might learn to...

"Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight."

Let's put aside our pet doctrines of compromise which make allowances for sin, for it is both our selfishness and carelessness which grieve the Holy Spirit (Eph. 5:25-32) placing distance between us and the reality of walking in the fullness of faith through His Spirit!

 

[Crossfire]

Here's a post that I made concerning how many new Christians start strong in the faith however, find themselves in a world of mess once they are indoctrinated into people who embrace bad doctrine:


2 Corinthians 5: 17 - "Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new!"

Ezekiel 36:26 - "I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh."

Romans 12:2 - "Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is — his good, pleasing and perfect will."

I can't begin to count the number of people that I have met personally who were instantaneously delivered from drug addiction, alcohol addiction, sex / pornography addiction, anger issues, bitterness, unforgiveness, (the list goes on) immediately upon salvation and have remained delivered to this day. I've also met several who were delivered and remained delivered for many months, years even, yet fell back into their old lifestyle because they got tied up in a church with very poor doctrine and were somehow hurt / scarred emotionally, or they fell back because they placed more value and put more faith in that church and it's doctrine than they did in God Himself.

Why is it that when many are first saved, their heart burns with a passion to know God more intimately which seemingly over-powers and delivers them from their sinful lifestyles yet, once that person is indoctrinated into "the Church", that passion begins to dwindle and all of the things they used to gladly do to spend time with God (pray, bible study, worship during our personal time) seemingly become a chore?

Why is it that the American church looks no different than the world?

Why is it that the modern church looks nothing like the church found in the Bible?

Each answer is simple and the same. It is because as we are indoctrinated into the majority of today's churches, we are introduced to doctrines of compromise. We no longer value God as the first love of our hearts and have replaced Him with the idols of Spiritually dead religion and doctrines which make allowances for sin thus we believe we can embrace the lusts of this world and still be saved. We believe that we can freely embrace those things which are an abomination to God, that the indwelling Holy Spirit will simply ignore our sinfulness and willful ignorance of scripture, so that we can somehow enjoy the promises and evidences of God's Spirit without ever actually abiding / walking in God's presence. All of which are a lie from the depths of hell.

Unfortunately many in the church today, due to doctrines of compromise, neither know how nor desire to rid themselves of sinful tendencies which do indeed drive a wedge between themselves and God.

You see, while it is impossible for any person to earn salvation through good works, the Apostle Paul clearly states that those who are truly regenerated by the indwelling Christ [Holy Spirit] will produce good works as a result [side effect] of our salvation (Ephesians 2:8-10).

In Romans 8:5-13 Paul also states that those who walk according to the Spirit need not fulfill the lusts [desires] of the flesh and that our sin actually grieves the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 4:30) because we have chosen our own selfish desires over the escape from temptation that God has prepared for us through his Spirit (1st Corinthians 10:13) which is the power of His divine Presence.

All good gifts from the Father are given to us through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. The Apostle Paul refers to the Holy Spirit in many ways throughout his epistles. According to Paul the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Grace, the Spirit of Holiness, the Spirit of Righteousness, the Spirit of Sanctification, the Spirit of Obedience, I could go on....

The Apostle Paul teaches us that we are to abide in the Holy Spirit for he who walks according to the Spirit need not give in to the desires of the flesh. The Holy Spirit is very the righteousness of Christ now residing in us. It is through the Holy Spirit that believers are enabled to partake of and enjoy all of the promises of God.

Keeping this in mind, I believe that a back-slidden heart is not the result bad works [sin] but rather bad works [sin] is a result of a back-slidden heart that has willingly wandered away from the presence of God in pursuit of our own selfish desires. Thus, when we are convicted by the Holy Spirit to repent we need to understand that while we should repent of our bad works, we are only scratching the surface. We should also repent of our wandering affections [idolatry] and wrong ideas that lay at the root of the problem, the notion that God has somehow failed to meet our need [faithlessness] when in truth He already has through the cross or the wrong idea that we can somehow be saved in our sins and are given a license to sin when nothing is further from scriptural truth.

What we also need to understand is that Holiness is not so much a learned behavior in the kingdom of God as it is a shared behavior. Believers can not live holy lives in and of there own strength. It is an absolute impossibility, one that I know all too well. Personal Holiness can only be achieved through the empowerment of the Holy Spirit, empowerment that can not be obtained unless we walk / abide in the Holy Spirit. Also, we will not abide in His presence until we learn to value His presence and we can not value His presence until we have experienced His presence.

Like it or not, sin is the evidence of the absence of God's presence is your life (Romans 8 , 1 John 3).
That is the very essence of sanctification for the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of sanctification (Romans 14: 16).

This is why repentance is so important because repentance is not the work of any man but the result (fruit) of the Holy Spirit at work in man. Jesus Himself taught that that we will be able to identify authentic Christians from the counterfeit ones according to their fruit (Matthew 7:15-20). For anyone to teach that repentance is unnecessary or that sanctification is somehow optional in the life of a believer is to teach that one should ignore the work of the Holy Spirit in their lives. Paul warned us that there would come a time when 'believers' would no longer endure sound doctrine (2 Timothy 4:3) and that these people would have a form of Godliness but deny the power there of (2 Timothy 3:5).