Notice the following two passages:
Notice the following two passages:
You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness. (Ephesians 4:22-24)
Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator. (Colossians 3:9,10)
In order to proceed with the change from our old personality to the new, we must consider ourselves to be dead with Christ on the cross.
The following procedure must be accomplished by the wisdom and power of the Spirit of God.
For if you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live. (Romans 8:13)
To live "according to the flesh" is to practice the life of the average American person. Our gods then would be money, sexual indulgence, and entertainment. We would restrict ourselves to eating, sleeping, working, playing, and reproducing. This is the life of a trained animal, such as a horse.
This is the way of spiritual death. The idea that such a church-goer would be raptured to Paradise and live in a mansion is pure fantasy. The law of the Kingdom of God is that we reap what we sow. If we thus sow to our fleshly nature we will reap a corrupt body in the Day of Resurrection.
Divine grace and mercy never interfere with the Kingdom law of sowing and reaping. They will, however, forgive us and help us turn from our wickedness and begin to sow righteous behavior so we will reap eternal life in our body and not corruption.
Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. Whoever sows to please their flesh, from the flesh will reap destruction; whoever sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life. (Galatians 6:7,8)
The Lord advised us that if we choose to be a disciple of His, a Christian, we must turn away from the ways of the world, deny ourselves, carry our cross of deferred gratification, place our treasures in Heaven, and follow and obey Him at all times in every circumstance.
You might think that no one is actually living in this manner. If that were so, which it is not, then no one would be ready to go with the Lord Jesus when He appears.
If we are praying and reading our Bible each day, gathering together on a regular basis with fervent believers, looking to Jesus continually to see if we are where we should be, and if we are doing what we should be doing, the Spirit of God will point out to us any behavior of ours that is not in the image of God.
We then are to confess to the Lord that specific behavior and ask Jesus to help us never to do that again—not for eternity.
Those who live in this manner, confessing and forsaking their sins, are putting off the old adamic self and putting on the new self which continually is being renewed in the image of God.
Such is the only true Christian life, the only life that leads to the change in the body when the Lord appears, and to being carried up with all prepared believers to the staging area in the air. We then will be with Jesus as He descends to install His Kingdom, the doing of God's will, on the earth.
We become a life-giving spirit by putting off the old personality with its unclean practices and putting on the new personality that is being created in the image of God. Included in our transformation is that of looking to the Lord Jesus for every decision we make in thinking, speaking, and acting.
The new personality will be filled with the Spirit of God until it is a life-giving spirit, just as is true of the Lord Jesus Christ, although not as great in authority and power as He.
We may not realize it, but most of the people of history and on the earth at the present time are spiritually dead because of the disobedience of Adam and Eve.
When a young man asked the Lord Jesus if he could return to his city and bury his father, Jesus responded by saying, "Let the dead bury their dead."
This may sound cruel, but the truth is, the young man's relatives actually were spiritually dead. However, if the young man continued to follow the Lord Jesus, he eventually would become a life-giving spirit and could then, in this present world or possibly in the world to come, assist his father and his relatives.
God sent the Lord Jesus, the Tree of Life, into the world so He could bring eternal life to the dead of mankind. Now we are to be made branches of the Tree of Life so we can bring eternal life all who will receive us. This is why we were called to be members of the Body of Christ, of the eternal Tabernacle of God.
And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "Look! God's dwelling place [His Tabernacle] is now among the people [of the nations], and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. (Revelation 21:3)
God's Throne is to be created in us, and the living Water of the Spirit of God always flows from that Throne. Such is the spiritual fulfillment of the Jewish feast of Tabernacles.
The Jewish people quoted from the twelfth chapter of the Book of Isaiah during the feast of Tabernacles.
On the last and greatest day of the festival [of Tabernacles], Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, "Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them." (John 7:37,38)
This reminds us of what the Lord said to the Samaritan woman:
Jesus answered, "Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life." (John 4:13)
In order to become filled with the Spirit of God to the extent that we can serve mankind as a life-giving spirit, we must pass through three judgments.
The first judgment is to the ankles. This is separation from the ways of the world.
As the man went eastward with a measuring line in his hand, he measured off a thousand cubits and then led me through water that was ankle-deep. (Ezekiel 47:3)
The second judgment is to the knees. This refers to removing from us all the sins of the flesh. Notice that the water of the Spirit keeps affecting more of our personality.
He measured off another thousand cubits and led me through water that was knee-deep. (Ezekiel 47:4)
Water to the knees symbolizes our walk in the world.
The third judgment is to the waist. This is death to our self-will, our personality, our personal strength.
We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers and sisters, about the troubles we experienced in the province of Asia. We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired of life itself. Indeed, we felt we had received the sentence of death. But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead. (II Corinthians 1:8,9)
He measured off another thousand and led me through water that was up to the waist. (Ezekiel 47:4)
Now we are filled with the Spirit and are able to serve as a life-giving spirit.
He measured off another thousand, but now it was a river that I could not cross, because the water had risen and was deep enough to swim in—a river that no one could cross. (Ezekiel 47:5)
We return now to our starting point. We have not received this Divine blessing so we might be more spiritual than other people but so we can bring eternal Life, the resurrection Life of the Lord Jesus Christ, to those in need.
The "great number of trees" are portraying the faithful believers who have passed through judgment and now are trees of life growing out from the one Tree of Life, the Lord Jesus.
He asked me, "Son of man, do you see this?" Then he led me back to the bank of the river. When I arrived there, I saw a great number of trees on each side of the river. (Ezekiel 47:6,7)
The members of the Body of Christ now are ready to minister Life to the dead sea of mankind.
He said to me, "This water flows toward the eastern region and goes down into the Arabah, where it enters the Dead Sea. When it empties into the sea, the salty water there becomes fresh. (Ezekiel 47:8)
This same illustration of the life-giving spirits ministering to the saved people of the nations, can be seen in the Book of Revelation.
Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb down the middle of the great street of the city. On each side of the river stood the tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations. (Revelation 22:1,2)
I am not certain that it always is made clear to us of the Christian churches that we are being prepared to bring eternal life to a dead mankind. I am not speaking now of preaching the Gospel to people, as important as that is.
Rather there is something more than this. God wants to make us life-giving spirits so we actually can give eternal life to people, as the Spirit of God leads us.
What is eternal life? It certainly is more than eternal existence. The people who have been sent to the Lake of Fire will be there for eternity, according to the Scriptures.
Eternal life is the very Life of God that issues through the Lord Jesus and will issue through us when we have been made a new creation in the image of God.
For just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, even so the Son gives life to whom he is pleased to give it. (John 5:21)
Eternal life results in eternal righteousness, love, joy, and peace. Everything any mentally healthy person would desire is brought to us in eternal life. And it will heal those who are mentally or physically ill.
It is the Life that raised the Lord Jesus from the dead and will raise us up from the deadness of our original nature.
The twelfth chapter of the Book of Isaiah was chanted during the Jewish feast of Tabernacles. This chapter is the testimony of a person who has been filled with the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. He or she has become a life-giving spirit.
Isaiah, Chapter Twelve
In that day you will say: "I will praise you, Lord. Although you were angry with me, your anger has turned away and you have comforted me.
"That day" is the time when the Lord alone is exalted in our life. We will praise the Lord even though He was angry with us for a season while sin and self-will were being removed from us.
We have stayed faithful to God during our time of suffering, and now He is comforting us.
Surely God is my salvation; I will trust and not be afraid. The Lord, the Lord himself, is my strength and my defense [song]; he has become my salvation."
There is a time when God is saving us from various afflictions. If we remain faithful during our tribulations, we discover that something has changed in our experience. From this time forward, God Himself has become our salvation.
I liken it to God coming over to our side of the net, to use a figure from the game of volley ball.
We are attacked viciously by Satan and the other forces of darkness. We are pushed down past the limits of our faith. Now we rely on trust. We just trust that what we have believed is true, even though we may not be living in joyful victory at this point.
Because we trust God and His Word we do not permit ourselves to be occupied by fear.
Our goal is to move to the place where the Lord Himself is our Strength. It is not that He merely gives us strength, He Himself becomes our Strength. But this change will take place only as we make Christ our Life by giving to Him for His approval every decision we make.
We must set aside our own life that Christ may be our Life. Then the Lord is our strength because the "our" now includes the Lord Jesus.
Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. (John 14:19)
"For me to live is Christ," the Apostle Paul stated.
Next Part Such is our goal if we are wise!