God Wants to Establish in us a New Nature, and Not Refine And Discipline The old nature which is the Human Nature.
Do you feel sometimes as if you are in over your head in your walk with God, that sometimes your actions don’t quite measure up to the faith you know is in your spirit? You see, the problem we face is that we forget that God wants to establish a new nature, not refine and discipline the old.
Romans Chapter 8: 1 There is, then, now no condemnation to those in Christ Jesus, who walk not according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit; 2for the law of the Spirit of the life in Christ Jesus did set me free from the law of the sin and of the death; 3for what the law was not able to do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God, His own Son having sent in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, did condemn the sin in the flesh, 4that the righteousness of the law may be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. 5For those who are according to the flesh, the things of the flesh do mind; and those according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit; 6for the mind of the flesh is death, and the mind of the Spirit—life and peace; 7because the mind of the flesh is enmity to God, for to the law of God it doth not subject itself, 8for neither is it able; and those who are in the flesh are not able to please God. 9And ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God doth dwell in you; and if any one hath not the Spirit of Christ—this one is not His.
10 And if Christ is in you, the body, indeed, is dead because of sin, and the Spirit is life because of righteousness, 11and if the Spirit of Him who did raise up Jesus out of the dead doth dwell in you, He who did raise up the Christ out of the dead shall quicken also your dying bodies, through His Spirit dwelling in you. 12So, then, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh; 13for if according to the flesh ye do live, ye are about to die; and if, by the Spirit, the deeds of the body ye put to death, ye shall live; 14for as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are the sons of God; 15for ye did not receive a spirit of bondage again for fear, but ye did receive a spirit of adoption in which we cry, ‘Abba—Father.’ 16The Spirit himself doth testify with our spirit, that we are children of God.
17 And if children, also heirs, heirs, indeed, of God, and heirs together of Christ—if, indeed, we suffer together, that we may also be glorified together.
As you go along in your walk, you must cope with the fact that there are two different natures in you, the flesh and the spirit. To be flesh-minded is death because that is the condemned nature, your body is dead because of sin. The soul that sins shall die. The flesh-mind is not subject to the law of God and neither indeed can it be (Romans 8:6–7).
The flesh is that union of soul and body that acts independently of the Lord. The word flesh is also used for the human body. The flesh desires one thing and our spirit another. The root of the word mind means inclination or purpose. The inclination of the flesh desires one thing, and the Spirit of God working in our spirit desires another.
The word condemnation means an adverse sentence or verdict. We have the sentence of death in our body. The soul that sinneth shall die.
But if the Spirit (our Heavenly Father) that raised Jesus from the dead dwells (occupies us as a house) in us, He will also quicken (make alive with the life of another) our mortal bodies by the Spirit that inhabits us.
This is talking about being spiritually minded, being spiritually mature, being a fully grown son where we are led by the Spirit and have a walk with Him, which means it is no longer us who live but Christ who lives in us.
THERE IS A PROGRESSION OF GOD DWELLING IN US.
1- The Holy Spirit overshadows us and impregnates our spirit with the seed of God, this is talking about being born from above (the Passover experience) Jesus the Word is in our spirit is seed form. God commands light to shine in our spirit.
We see this when Jesus was raised from the dead, but had not yet ascended to the Father, but breathed into His disciples spirit the Holy Spirit-John 20:22.
Our spirit is now holy or divine, in is no longer a human spirit, which is the old man. But our spirit is a new creation, a new species, the only spirit in all of God’s creation that has the D.N.A of God inside of it. Christ in us the hope of glory.
We have received a new nature and have become related to God by nature, just like a human baby is the offspring of his natural father.
Just like when we are born a human being we are born a baby. When our spirit is born from above it is a baby spirit and needs the milk of the Word to grow. Our spirit needs to be feed the word of God which causes it to grow. Just like a natural baby needs the milk of its mother for its body to grow.
When our spirit entered our body our soul was created. And as our body grows our soul begins to develop from the outside in. our soul is our (individuality) and it begins to develop through 1- nature (the D.N.A of our natural parents, our generational line) 2-nurture (this has to do which how we are raised, what kind of parents we have, do we have a mother and father, or a single parent. Are we adopted? What are our parents like, do they show us love or not? What kind of character do they have? Do we have older brothers and sisters and how do they treat us? What is the rest of our family like, cousins, uncles, aunts, grandparents? What kind of school do we go to and what are our teachers like? What kind of friends do we grow up with and how do they influence up. Nurture has to do with how we are raised from a baby to an adult. 3-Trama (this has to do with living in a fallen world. Are our parents saved? Where are we born on the earth? Do we live in poverty? Are we healthy? Do we have enough food to eat? By living in a fallen world in which the days are getting darker we are going to experience some kind of trauma.
Nature, nurture and trauma develop our soul from the outside in, and our soul then begins to govern our life.
The new birth of our spirit is the seed of God which is incorruptible being conceived in our spirit. Our spirit then becomes conscious of God and desires the things of God because the Spirit of Christ, which is the living Word is now inside of our spirit, it is Christ in us the hope of glory.
Before we were born from above our spirit was not conscious of God, so we did naturally what our soul and flesh desired. But when we get saved we are now in a sense two people, spirit and soul -flesh. Our spirit desires one thing and our soul another, so that we are unable to do what our spirit desires because of a civil war inside.
But we still have only one spirit in us, the spirit of Christ. We need another Spirit in us the Holy Spirit, we need to be baptized with the Spirit so that we can join our spirit to the Spirit of the Lord and the result will be power, to overcome the flesh.
2-The Holy Spirit comes upon us and fills us spirit, soul and body. This is called the baptism of the Holy Spirit (The experience of Pentecost). We now have two spirits in us, The Holy Spirit and the spirit of Christ, which is our spirit. This is why Paul asked some disciples,”did you receive the Holy Spirit since you believed-Acts 19:2. The Holy Spirit comes into us to seal us and is now able to pray or talk through us giving our spirit utterance; she also has 9 gifts to impart to us, to minister to the church, but especially the world. We are no longer an orphan spirit but have a mother to comfort us until it is time to turn us over to the Father who declares “this is my son in whom I am we’ll pleased” and we now have a share in the family’s business.
3-The Father comes to dwell within us, because up until this time, we are incompatible with the Father because of things in our soul which are offensive to Him. (This is the experience of Tabernacles) where we come under an open heaven, receive the fullness of the Spirit, have a face to face relationship with God, experience heavenly encounters.
But if you walk in the Spirit you are not under the Law (Galatians 5:18). What comes out of the flesh is very much under the Law. What comes out of the new nature is spiritual and no one can judge it (I Corinthians 2:14–15).
People can become very, very religious and still be just refining the human nature. They go to church and play the piano, or sing, or preach, and say, “These are good works.” But the question is, were those works born out of a discipline of the human nature or did they come forth because of the anointing flowing from the new nature? There is a difference between “dead works” and “living works”; and you can’t tell the difference until you see the nature from which they spring.
God Looks At The Nature Rather Than At The Individual Actions
That is why Hebrews speaks of living works and dead works (Hebrews 6:1; 9:14; 10:24). You can’t tell the difference until you see the spirit that’s behind them or the nature within the person that’s behind them.
God is more concerned in looking at the nature that is behind the thing. God looks at the nature rather than at the individual actions. There is no way to calibrate and say how bad or how good a thing is. Instead you should ask, “Where did it come from? What originated it? What nature sponsored it?”
Let’s not judge people’s actions but let’s try to discern the nature that is prevalent or expressed in them. That is our concern.
I am leading to something that will help you. I don’t want you to judge or condemn yourself according to your stumblings. I want you to constantly look for that new nature to take over. If something comes up from the flesh, crucify it, put off the old man.
Don’t Be Leaf Inspectors, Get To The Root
People look around and think, “Oh, look at this—how the carnal tree is growing leaves!”—and they go out and pick off all the leaves. That is foolish, because what you need to do is get down to the root of the tree of carnality—the flesh—and destroy that, because those leaves will grow back again.
If that old tree is a healthy tree with a root right down into sin it is going to produce the same fruit again, the same leaves. Don’t say, “I’m going to do better. Let’s pull the old fruit off and hang a lot of nice beautiful apples on the tree.” That is not making it fruitful either.
You have to make the tree good and its fruit good, or let the tree be evil and its fruit evil (Matthew 7:16–20; 12:33). This is what God is trying to teach us right now.
John the Baptist said the axe is laid by the side of the tree, we have to pick it up and use it. Mat 3:10
You will have less self-condemnation when you look at the nature producing an action. If it is the flesh, lay the axe of faith to the root. Don’t wipe yourself out over the fact that a few of those leaves are growing. And don’t spend all of your time running around trying to pull off the leaves. Spend your time cultivating the new nature. The new nature is the only thing that pleases God anyway.
Getting Down To Cause And Effect: The Nature And Its Expression
God doesn’t say, “I’m going to come and look at you and see what kind of a carnal Christian you are. If you are a carnal Christian and you have a lot of leaves, I will condemn you; but if you are a diligent, religious little carnal Christian, and you have pulled all the leaves off, then I won’t condemn you.” God is not going to look at the leaves! He is going to look at the root.
And if the root is carnal, He is going to say, “This one can’t move on in God.” But if you get His nature growing in you, I think He balances it out, saying, “Look what I am doing in that life. Much of this is dead because I am doing the work of the cross in this one. Much is coming alive to God; this one is growing in grace and in knowledge” (II Peter 3:18). And He encourages you.
You can make an unbeliever out of yourself because of an isolated incident—an upcropping of the old nature. Instead, you really should look at the fact that you have been walking with God and there is a lot of good fruit in your life. Just say, “I want to get at the root of the old. I don’t have to have this cropping up all the time. I’m going to be clean and I’m going to be holy before the Lord.” In other words, you are getting down to cause and effect: the nature and its expression.
Think Differently About Sin; Think Of Sin As A Nature
I’ve noticed this about the persecution—the devil is such a religious spirit that he will find one flaw, or one thing that can be misinterpreted, and forget about all of the other things and condemn a person over it.
Jesus was a friend of sinners (Luke 7:34). The common people heard Him gladly (Mark 12:37, KJV). Harlots came repenting and crying at His feet, washing the dust of the road from His dirty feet. And the Pharisees came in saying, “If He was a prophet He would know what kind of a woman that was; He would be able to discern that” (Luke 7:37–39). See how they would pick at something?
We need to think differently about sin. I don’t want you to think about the actions of the sin nature and the balances people use to weigh them. I want you to think of sin as a nature. I want you to think of righteousness as a nature. Both are states of being.
Our Evaluation Of Actions Must Be By The Spirit
Our evaluation of actions must be by the Spirit. God may anoint you to be an instrument of judgment; but if He has not, then you’d better not judge lest you be judged (Matthew 7:1).
But a prophet can come on the scene like Elijah and say, “If I’m a man of God, let fire devour these fifty” (II Kings 1:10). If an action comes from a wrong spirit and a wrong nature, it is wickedness. God says, “You have usurped My prerogative.” But if an action comes from an obedience to God out of the new nature He has created, it is entirely a different picture.
We do not have to worry about what we are doing. We have to worry about what is behind what we are doing! The new nature reveals the Lord; the old nature only reveals itself!
When you get into this level you realize how wrong it is to have some movement to join. We don’t join a religious movement; we become the fullness of Christ in the earth.
The Point Is To Become A New Creature In God
You have to get this thing moving in your spirit. It is not a matter of getting discouraged with yourself. It is not a matter of how you did this or that wrong. David said, “In sin did my mother conceive me; I was born and shapen in iniquity” (Psalm 51:5).
We were condemned already, dead in trespasses and sins (Ephesians 2:1). Jesus didn’t come into the world to condemn the world (John 3:17)—it was already condemned. The point is to become a new creature in God. And if we have a new nature, then let’s think of it accordingly and get away from being a slave to phony religious judgments on actions and thoughts and ideas.
If an action is wrong it is because it came from the wrong nature. Get down to the root of it and say, “Christ died for me and I am crucified with Christ. The life I now live I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me. I’m not going to live any other life but the life of God in me (Galatians 2:20). I am a new creature” (II Corinthians 5:17). Once you grasp this concept, you will be surprised at how easy it is to be an overcomer.
This gives you your Bible. It opens your Bible up to you. Read Colossians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians: all of these books are built around the fact that it is the new nature. Read I Corinthians, first and second chapters; all of that is something that is coming alive. Read Romans 8. You look at it differently when you look at it this way—this is basic foundational teaching. It will change your whole attitude the rest of your life. And don’t ever slip back into the other.
“We Claim Our Deliverance From A Spirit Of Fear”
We want to be free from intimidation. I’m claiming a deliverance from it. I want to be free to move in what God wants me to move in .
How shall we claim a deliverance from a spirit of fear? Let’s go back to the Scriptures. God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power, and love, and a disciplined mind—or a sound mind (II Timothy 1:7). Let’s forget about the spirit of intimidation, and let’s go to the positive side. We will get into that and we will know our authority; we will know the power, the love, the disciplined mind.
You will be just as afraid as you will let your mind accept. You will have just as much fear as you lack love—because perfect love casts out fear (I John 4:18). Let’s get on the positive side and just wipe the other one out.
The Love That Casts Out All Fear
How many of you have the fear of man and worry about people’s opinions?
This spirit of fear is not going to be a problem because we are going to throw it out by the power, the love that casts out all fear, the disciplined mind that refuses to see anything else except the greatness of God, the commissions of God, the love of God, and sets about with a real faith and power to do that thing.
We want more than not to be afraid; we want to be bold! We want to be filled with the Spirit of God in a boldness, and this we take in the name of the Lord.
This Spirit Of Fear Is A Tormenting Spirit
This spirit of fear is a tormenting spirit, because it accuses you and wipes you out. After a while, the least little slight or hit, and you are wiped out. That intimidation is there. And you are afraid to minister good, positive, loving words that God gives you, or you are just afraid that you will not be able to do it.
We want to get rid of it. But how does it happen? Love casts out that fear! You have a disciplined mind that says, “I am a chosen vessel of the Lord to do this thing that God says, to speak His Word, and I have the power, the love, and the disciplined mind! This is the end of fear. Fear cannot survive in this climate.”
Filled With Boldness And The Holy Spirit
We want to be filled with the Holy Spirit and speak the Word with boldness (Acts 4:31). In the book of Acts they were filled with boldness and the Holy Spirit. That boldness has to be a spiritual impartation to the new nature that just kicks out the fear of the old nature.
There is so much misunderstanding and misinterpretation of one another, because fear distorts your judgment. You don’t see what the other person is in truth and what he is trying to do for you, because the distortion is there. You don’t trust it. Your fear makes you mistrust. Fear is the opposite of faith, isn’t it? We ought to bless one another, because if nothing else was ever done, the world would change by just doing this one thing.