Before we receive eternal life, our spirit is in darkness. This makes it impossible for us to understand the Bible, which is revelation truth.
1 Corinthians 2: 14 But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.
Ezekiel 11:19 And I will give them one heart[a new heart] (the feelings, the will and intellect) and I will put a new spirit within them; and I will take the stony [unnaturally hardened] heart out of their flesh (body), and will give them a heart of flesh [sensitive and responsive to the touch of their God].
He is speaking of the new creation.
He will give them a new spirit (born again),
He says, “I will give them one heart.” This suggests that a new kind of love is coming that will make them one as a body of people.
Jesus said, “That they may be one, even as we are one” (John 17:22).
By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.” (John 13:35)
In Ezekiel 36:26, we read, “A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you.” Here is the prophecy of a new creation.
He is going to take the stony heart of selfishness out of them and give them His own heart of love.
In the next verse, He says, “I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes.”
There will not only be a new creation, but His indwelling is promised.
We can hear Jesus saying, “the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you.” (John 14:17).
1 Peter 3:4 says, “rather let it be the hidden person of the heart, with the incorruptible beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is very precious in the sight of God.”
Here we are given a title for the new spirit. It is called the “hidden man of the heart.”
The body is the home of the five Physical senses, or the five servants of the person. All the knowledge that the reasoning faculties ever get comes through the five senses, or the five servants of the brain.
But when we are baptized in the Spirit, the Holy Spirit makes our body his home. Now we can listen to His voice, instead of the voice of the five physical senses.
The human brain would lie dormant, inactive, if the five senses did not function.
It would be good to note here that all of the knowledge that is taught in our colleges, universities, and technical schools has come to the natural man through these five physical senses.
The only way that the natural man can obtain knowledge, or an education, is through these five servants, or senses of the physical body.
Romans 7:22 says, “For I delight in the law of God after the inward(from inside) man.” Here this hidden man is called the “inward man.” In either case, the hidden man is the man.
The personality of the inner man is sometimes affected by the outer man.
2 Corinthians 4: 16 Therefore we do not lose heart. Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward (from inside) man is being renewed day by day.
Ephesians 3: 16 that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner (inside) man.
The outward, or the visible man, is the one whom you greet on the street.
The inward man is the one who gives this outer man either their attractiveness or their repulsiveness.
God deals with the inward man instead of the outer man.
God is not dealing with the old man who has been crucified, he is dealing with the qualities of the divine nature, he is dealing with your righteousness, wisdom, all the fruit of the Spirit, all those divine qualities the Lord wants to become to you in your walk with God on the earth.
Spiritual things are unveiled to this hidden man of the heart, our spirit and then they flow into our mind (understanding) so that we can interpret what the Holy Spirit is saying.
When we are born again our spirit become the spirit of Christ. And then when we are baptized in “The Holy Spirit” he makes His home in body, so that now we have two spirit’s in us. But the flesh (that union of our soul and body that acts independently of the Lord) “when I am talking about the flesh in this CONTEXT, I am talking about all our natural abilities” must be transformed (living by a new life source) as it comes in agreement with our newborn spirit. Our flesh in this CONTEXT must be sanctified.
Sin consciousness comes from this unrenewed soul, our conscience is a function of our soul and must be cleansed and renewed.
Most of the time our spirit (Christ) not the Holy Spirit, convicts the believer of sin, conviction is different from guilt, shame, condemnation. It is convincing, which we agree with, because there is a yes in the new birth of our spirit.
The hidden man is the part of us that is recreated, receives eternal life, and becomes a new creation.
2 Corinthians 5:17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.
The reconciliation it speaks of in the next verse is between this hidden man of the heart and the Father God.
18 Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation.
He never speaks of a reconciliation between God and the mind or reasoning faculties. It is always a reconciliation of the spirit.
Let us think of man as being in God’s class. He is a spirit. He is an eternal spirit. He is capable of receiving the nature of God. He is capable of loving God. He can become a son of God.
You understand that he was created in the image and the likeness of God—that is, spiritual likeness.
He lost that image in the fall, but it is restored in the new creation.
Our being conformed to the image of Jesus Christ is talking about our soul, it is our primary destiny, the transformation of our soul, and something we should be working with the Holy Spirit every day.
Redemption is a very remarkable term used many times in the Pauline revelation. For instance, in the first chapter of Ephesians it occurs, in one form or another, eleven or twelve times.
Take this as an illustration: Ephesians 1:7 says, “In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace”.
Notice the first two words, “In whom,” “in Christ,” or “in him.”
John 15:5 that helped me: “I am the vine; you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.”
The branch is a part of the vine; the vine is a part of the branch.
The two are one.
In Ephesians 1:6, Paul says we are “to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved.”
Ephesians 2:6 tells us that we “and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.”
We are seated with Jesus, the beloved One, at the right hand of the Father.
Ephesians 2:6–7 uses these words, “And raised us up with him, and made us to sit with him in the heavenly places, in Christ Jesus: that in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus”.
Ephesians 2:10 tells us, “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.”
You see, this occurred before the resurrection of Jesus. When this happened in the time realm, it became an eternal event, it was a reality in the realm of the spirit, before it was manifested upon the earth.
When Christ was resurrected, the Father said, “This day have I begotten thee” (Acts 13:33).
In the mind of justice, the entire body of Christ was resurrected.
This becomes a reality in us the moment we accept Jesus as our Savior and confess Him as our Lord.
Our spirit was instantly saved, our soul is being saved or transformed, and our body is yet to be saved or glorified.
We then receive eternal life, the nature of the Father. This makes us new creations.
Now come back to the Scripture from 2 Corinthians, where we find the proof of it:
So, if anyone be in Christ, there is a new creation; the old things have passed away; behold all things have become new: and all things are of the God who has reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ and given to us the ministry of that reconciliation. (2 Corinthians 5:17–18 DBY)
Romans 6:4 says, “We were buried therefore with him through baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we also might walk in newness of life” (ASV).
Notice the next verses:
For if we have become united with him in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection; knowing this, that our old man was crucified with him, that the body of sin might be done away, that so we should no longer be in bondage to sin. (Romans 6:5–6 ASV)
Note the tense. Our old man was crucified.
For he that hath died is justified from sin. But if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him. (Romans 6:7–8 ASV)
Darby’s translation throws much light on this:
Are you ignorant that we, as many as have been baptized unto Christ Jesus, have been baptized unto his death?
We have been buried therefore with him by baptism unto death, in order that, even as Christ has been raised up from among the dead by the glory of the Father, so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we are become identified with him in the likeness of his death, so also, we shall be of his resurrection; knowing this, that our old man has been crucified with him, that the body of sin might be annulled, that we should no longer serve sin. For he that has died is justified from sin. Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him. (Romans 6:3–8 DBY)
When you look at the original manuscript it literally says- verse 5 For if have been together with, planted together in the likeness of his death certainly we also shall be (future tense) his resurrection.
We are his resurrection, God already see’s us in heaven with a glorified body, this has to do with our legal redemption, the things that have already happened in the realm of the spirit.
Notice carefully that the part of us that was that was born again and instantly made new was the hidden man of the heart, our newborn spirit.
Colossians 3:9–10 says, “Seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds; and have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him.”
This verse is in the past tense dealing with the legal aspect of our redemption, in other words in heaven YHVH sees this as an accomplished fact, even though we may be in the process of it here on earth.
That is why I need to put all these scriptures dealing with the legal and the vital aspects of redemption, together so that we can get a clearer picture.
That is why we have to have a bible with the strong numbers, I have only found one verse where he translated one word wrong in a verse in his numbering system, because I have The complete word study new testament in hard cover where the editor goes into more detail in his dictionary of key words in which he says this word was translated wrong.
Unfortunately, all the interlinear bibles I have are keyed to the strong numbers. And my Greek New Testaments are not helping me, plus I found two different bibles that use a different Greek manuscript for the book of revelation than the king James does.
But I have the Holy Spirit dwelling in me, otherwise I would be helpless in teaching the Bible, which seems to me to be the hardest job there is, it would probably be easier to be the president of the United States, if that was my calling.
In the beginning of our constitution, we at least had a couple men that were called to that position. But I don’t think any of them were baptized with the Holy Spirit, at least Abraham Lincoin consulted with Charles Finney, but I think it was through manipulation of congress men.
Abraham Lincoln initiated the end of slavery with the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863, which declared slaves in Confederate-held territory free. While it did not immediately free all slaves, it authorized the enlistment of Black soldiers and shifted the Civil War’s purpose to abolition. Slavery was legally and permanently abolished nationwide by the 13th Amendment in 1865, which Lincoln supported.
Notice that the old man was put off Colossians 3:9”, crucified with Christ.
When Christ arose from the dead, a new self arose with Him.
That new self is the human spirit, which is better translated as divine, the divine spirit.
`Now the physical body, which is the home of the five senses, must be brought into conformity with Christ, who is the head of the body.
This brings us to Romans 12:1–2:
“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. 2 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”.
This body is the home, or dwelling place, of the Holy Spirit.
Our newborn spirit wishes to communicate its newfound joy to those around it.
Hidden away in the human body, our spirit has no way of communication but through the five senses.
Therefore, the first thing that must be done after one is born again is to bring these five senses into subjection to our spirit and the Word. When this is done, the mind will be renewed.
Although you are born again, you still possess the same mind and body that had been under the dominion of the adversary.
This is the reason that it is so important to renew the mind and bring it into harmony with the newborn spirit.
You must bring it into subjection to this new self that has come into being.
The trouble with the majority of believers is that their minds have never been renewed.
The mind will never be renewed until they begin to practice love. We need to love other people with God’s love so that they may to experience it.