Category Archives: Kingdom

led renewed overcome

Led, Renewed & Overcoming

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We tackled Romans 8 this week in all of its complexity and glory.

In chapter 7 Paul leaves the christian with a palpable awareness of our divided hearts. Once we have come to Christ in faith and allegiance to His Lordship our spirits are recreated in the image of God our Father and Maker. We are no longer spiritually dead. No longer beings of utter darkness, we are now alive to God in the spirit, children of light.

However there remains the law of sin and death actively at work in our flesh nature, warring for dominant influence over our souls. This lower nature or lower life as Jesus put it, attempts to lead us into actions which are in high rebellion against the God we love. So it is that Paul asked the question – “Who will deliver me from this death-ridden body?” He closes that thought with the answer, “Jesus Christ our LORD”.

We are left with our higher nature serving God, but our lower nature, the law of sin & death.

Chapter 8 is nearly all about the mind, which is where this war is fought.

The Spirit encourages the believer to set their minds on spiritual things and be led by the inward promptings of the Holy Spirit.

Though we are predestined to bear the image of Jesus Christ, the means of bringing this about is suffering in the flesh. We must put to death the deeds of the body, that we might live and that death is realized in suffering.

In the end though, not anything or anyone external to ourselves can remove us from the love of God or the victory we will realize in Him!

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Sin Mind Believer

Sin & the mind of the believer

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There is a vast difference between God’s children and the devil’s.

According to Jesus, when a child of the devil sins they are simply walking in agreement with their own spiritually dead nature. They WANT to do the will of their father the devil.

A child of God on the other hand has experienced a literal, spiritual rebirth.

They once were dead and now they are alive, they were darkness and now they are light in the Lord. Old things have passed away now EVERYTHING is of God. The seed of Jesus remains in them and so as John says, “They CANNOT sin, because they have been born of God”.

Contrary to what most commentators will tell you this does not mean they cannot sin as they once did (which is also true), but that from their new nature – BECAUSE of the seed of Christ within them – IF they sin, it is no longer coming from WHO THEY ARE as a reborn spirit but from their flesh and mind alone.

Galatians tells us that the flesh exercises strong desire against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh. These are strongly opposing forces which makes it hard for a Christian to do what is right.

The decision to side with their flesh or with the influence of the Holy Spirit upon their spirit is made in the mind. THAT is why we are focused on the renewing of the mind in this series.

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Conform transform Metamorphoo

Don’t conform, Transform!

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Since bearing fruit unto the likness of Christ is the paramount thrust of the Gospel, we’ve turned our attention to the means by which this is accomplished.

Transformation begins by renewing the Mind. So we spent time in Romans 12:1-2 and James 1.

These two passages opent he door to our understanding of how transformation takes place in the life of a child of God to take ojn the likeness of Christ.

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Fruit mind

It’s always been about the fruit!

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“The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few”… a statement of Jesus most often quoted out of context as evangelistic.

In reality Jesus was talking about the lost sheep of the house of Israel. These people were already in covenant with God, but were wandering as sheep without a shepherd. The message of John the Baptist until the resurrection of Jesus was to prepare themselves and change their minds regarding the King and the Kingdom – because it was NEAR!

What was Jesus looking for in response to the message He and His disciples taught? Faith! Specifically faith in their Messiah! But they missed their opportunity.

Nowunder the New Covenant God has turned to the Gentiles as His living witnesses. The primary lesson being that regardless of the covenant, the harvest God is looking for is the fruit of faith and a changed life.

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Nearsighted forgetful

Don’t be a Nearsighted & Forgetful Christian

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As we turned our attention away from scriptures which press the need to bear fruit and the persecution it will elicit from the world, we started examining 2 Peter 1. In this chapter we are told that fruit production is the result of collaboration between us and the Spirit of God. That fruit does not just happen. It requires genuine effort and sustaining power. Each progression in the process outlined by Peter reveals that each is dependent upon the other and that if we have all of these things AND we are increasing in them – we will NOT be fruitless!

However, if we are fruitless it is because we do NOT have these things which proves that we are nearsighted and have forgotten that we have been forgiven our sins.

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