Hi Everyone
Here is last Friday's Bible Study. You can listen to the audio here and the notes are below.
Share it as you are blessed.
Chris
Restored in His Image
We are Already Restored into His Image
We are 3 part beings – Spirit, Soul and Body
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. (NKJV)
Our spirits have been restored into His image, upon the resurrection of our Lord and the coming of the Holy Spirit into us. This is the mark the makes us different from everyone else!
We have been predestined to conform to the image of Jesus!
Romans 8:29 For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. (NKJV)
We are One with Him
1 Corinthians 6:17 But he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with Him. (NKJV)
This is your spirit, who is the REAL you. This is who you became the moment you called upon Jesus as your saviour! As soon as your life ends, this will become clear to you instantly, when you stop seeing with your eyes and seeing in the Spirit.
Romans 8:18 For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. (NKJV)
The reverse happened Adam and Eve when they fell and started seeing with their eyes! This happened when they started to see themselves, not God.
That is why the young man was clothed in the best robe. Not only for others, but the man needed to know himself that he was restored, a son once again.
Then How Come…
The Big Dichotomy - What it says is not what I experience in my life?
While I am a Son of God, I sure don’t feel like or live like it…
Soul Restoration
Our souls, the realm of the mind, emotions and will, need restoration. This is a WIP (Work-In-Progress) this side of Heaven.
Our minds have been and continue to be run by the 5 senses for many years. The flesh has been lusting against the Spirit and quite frankly, the spirit has been a no-contest for many years for many of us.
Galatians 5:17 For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish. (NKJV)
Soul is caught between the Spirit and the Flesh. Which side the soul decides to give focus to decides your victory on earth.
Soul Prosperity
3 John 2 Beloved, I pray that you may prosper in all things and be in health, just as your soul prospers. (NKJV)
Our souls MUST prosper first. The problems outside/after this life have been sealed, taken care of by the blood of Jesus already. Every other problem in life is because our soul is not prospering.
Jesus has made the way for our souls to prosper this side of Heaven, but that part needs our cooperation, our belief as well.
It’s Not Behaviour Modification
It is not about behaviour modification. Behaviour modification is what the world tries to practice. We often see this being attempted in Christian circles as well, because we fail to see the bigger picture.
It can work to a point, but unless one sees clearly why we do what we do, it won’t hold. And if the “why” does not exist or is not clear, the willingness to perform diminishes.
Proverbs 29:18a Where there is no revelation, the people cast off restraint; (NKJV)
Proverbs 29:18a Where there is no vision, the people perish: (KJV)
What motivates me determines everything. I can avoid sin because of a social context, because sin is frowned on, but if that is the extent of my revelation, then I will sin once no one is frowning, once I can get away with it.
When our revelation, your vision, is from the love of God, we see things differently. It is not about what others will/will not approve of. It is about us wanting to live for something better.
See last week’s message on Heaven and eternal rewards.
We Need Hope
The fact that you are here tells me you have a hope for something better.
If you
1. Have everything you (think you) need (no hunger)
2. Have given up and don’t care anymore
Then you wouldn't be here!
Faith Needs Hope
Faith – substance of things HOPED for
Hebrews 11:1 Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. (NKJV)
If you don’t have hope, then you don’t need faith. If you think life as it is will never change, and this is all that there is, then you don’t need faith. But if you hope for something better, then we can see what God’s Word says about it:
Romans 10:17 So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. (NKJV)
Spiritual Warfare 101 - The Battle in the Mind
Whatever problems or trials you are in, whatever God-inspired aspirations you have that aren't met, the battle is in your mind. Every thought that is NOT in line with the Word of God has to go:
2 Corinthians 10:4 For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, 5 casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ, (NKJV)
Every problem we have on earth is a result of an ungodly thought. Not necessarily what the world might call evil or immoral. Just not of God, not of His Word. God’s standards are much higher!
This is what we are doing here – bringing down thinking patterns which are not from the Word of God.
The Soul Rut
Galatians 5:17 For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish. (NKJV)
See/Hear (Saw/Heard) => Think => Meditate/Worry => Believe => Say => Act => Become
What are you allowing into your mind with today? Feed rubbish, get rubbish. What has been fed into your mind in the past? These need to be renewed.
Bad things = not in line with God’s word.
What you sow, you will reap.
Feed yourself with bad things
=> see yourself in dire predicament
=> worry about it
=> believe it will happen
=> say it out of your mouth
=> self-fulfilling prophecy
Too many Christians are trapped in this rut!
What we speak over each other can also deepen ruts. That is why we must know no man after the flesh. (2 Cor 5:16)
Get Out of the Rut!
Break the cycle! Feed yourself with the Word of God.
Imagine the Word in action in your life.
Feed yourself with God’s Word
=> See yourself blessed
=> Meditate on it
=> Believe it
=> Say it out of your mouth
=> Become what the Word says, receive the promise!
This is the transformation process – when we see Christ in us in the Word!
2 Corinthians 3:18 But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord. (NKJV)
Romans 8:31 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things? 33 Who shall bring a charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. 34 Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us. 35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? 36 As it is written: “For Your sake we are killed all day long; We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.” 37 Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. 38 For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, 39 nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. (NKJV)
I am a new man. I can do all things in Christ. My trial, the rut, might be something from my past haunting me, but I can choose to believe in the Word.
James 1:2 My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, 3 knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. (NKJV)
Deuteronomy 30:19 I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants may live; (NKJV)
My past, my present circumstance, my trials and problems, these all do not define who I am. The Word of God does. I am God’s Own Son. I am who the Word says I am.
I choose to believe in the Word, not my trial.
Restoration – A Son’s Privilege
As the title of the Bible study goes, all this was made possible because of the finished work of Jesus
John 19:30 So when Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, “It is finished!” And bowing His head, He gave up His spirit. (NKJV)
We need to keep clearly in the forefront of our minds: it was only because God sent His Son Jesus, who willingly died for us and rose again from the dead, with the completion of it in the coming of the Holy Spirit into His creation again that all that we speak and teach of is true.
1 Corinthians 2:2 For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. (NKJV)
We like Paul, desire to know nothing more than what was accomplished at the cross.
Blessings.
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