Part II

To fully implement the power of purpose and personal destiny for our live, we must take a closer look at the Gospel that Jesus presented in His ministry on Earth.  What really was the good news Jesus preached and how does it correlate with our life mission to re-establish man’s intimacy with God? When most explain the Gospel, it is usually in reference to the good news of salvation, but is that what Jesus really preached? Now stay with me before you rally the entire religious community to organize a town book (article)-burning vigil.  Seriously look into what was the banner message that Jesus proclaimed most often.  A good starting point is Matthew 4:17 where Jesus begins His ministry proclamation by declaring, “Repent, for the kingdom of God has arrived!”  Let’s travel back to Genesis to get a little perspective on this.  God created the Earth with one world on it.  The word “world” in the Greek is the word cosmos.  The meaning of cosmos refers to a pattern or order of arrangement or functioning.  When God created man, His design was for man to live from the inside out. He first breathed life into man to make his spirit alive.  The pattern was God living inside of man’s spirit, man’s spirit communicating to his soul (mind, will, emotions), and man’s soul dictating to his flesh to carry out those commands—living from the inside-out in a divine romance with our Creator.  This pattern or cosmos was abused and broken when Adam sinned by submitting to another order.  Mankind became contaminated and could no longer live in Holy Communion with a Holy God.  I remember a seminar given many years ago by Dr. Robert McGee titled The Search for Significance—illustrating this point very well by mixing a few drops of contaminated water in a glass of purified water. The glass of water then became contaminated and was no longer pure.  Dr. McGee asked if anyone would now want to drink the glass of water, symbolizing how holiness cannot mix with contamination and remain pure.  This is why the Holy Spirit could not dwell within sin-stained man until after Jesus’ blood was shed to purify ours, providing a way for the very Spirit that raised Christ from the dead to live in us.

The Holy Spirit in relation to man is compared to how our nervous system functions in our bodies.  If your biological nervous system stopped working, your body would not just die.  Your blood would continue to run through your veins.  You would still be alive, but dead to your surroundings.  You couldn’t pick up or sense the physical earth around you.  God gave man five senses to pick up the earth, but not to pick up God.  Many people are not convinced there is a God because they have never been able to pick Him up with their natural senses.  We were never created to have true life by living from the outside-in.  We are meant to live from the inside-out, but when Adam sinned, his “nervous system” crashed and he was no longer alive in his spirit.  Yes, he still lived physically, but became dead to God—thus the separation from God.  No more internal connection.  Adam continued living physically, but no longer had spiritual life.  That’s why the Scriptures say, “He that hath the Son, suddenly has life!” (I Jn. 5:12)  We need the Holy Spirit to pick up God; in fact, we can’t even become convicted without the Holy Spirit.   “But I tell you the truth: It is for your good that I am going away.  Unless I go away, the Counselor will not come to you; but if I go, I will send Him to you.  When He comes, He will convict the world of guilt in regard to sin and righteousness and judgment.” (John 16:7-8 NIV)

It is not up to us to come to God when we feel good and ready.  We can only come to God when He draws our spirit and we respond.  “No man comes to God, but by Jesus, and no man comes to Jesus, but by the Spirit.”

Adam and Eve abuse “it” and lost “it”.  Jesus came to restore “it”.  Jesus came to bring back God’s world—His Cosmos, because another cosmos had taken over.  Satan established his own order of living, preying on man’s original desire to be like God on his own terms—taking life from the outside-in.  The enemy enticed man to live from the outside-in, abusing God’s divine order.  Man was therefore condemned to live within the physical limits of the outside-in cosmos of Satan’s order that leads to death. Man’s rule on earth or his dominion was forfeited to Satan to establish his kingdom.  The term kingdom in essence is a king’s domain.  A domain is where the king has influence and power.  God promised to restore His Domain influence on the earth with man.  Therefore, upon Jesus’ inaugural state of the union, He proclaimed, “The Kingdom of God has arrived!”  It is now available for citizenship!  This is the gospel that Jesus preached.  Many preach “ye must be born again..”, but Jesus did not preach this.  Jesus did explain this to Nicodemous in person in response to a question, but this was not the main message—only the beginning to a greater mission.  The consistent Gospel He preached, was “the Kingdom of God…”  The concern today is that so many focus on preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ, but not the Gospel that Jesus Christ preached.  Obviously, we must be born again, but that is only the beginning. We are born again so that we can establish the King’s Cosmos—dominion on earth by restoring the unity of divine romance—living from the inside-out.  God’s Spirit within us producing fruit that will nourish those around us to grow stronger with God’s influence is the life-living, cosmos order of the Kingdom of God which we are commissioned to passionately embrace. The world does not need just an altar-call message; the world needs an altered-life message that offers a new kingdom of hope for true life!  Following God’s order begins in the spirit, by the Spirit.  This is re-generation—re-creating the original Genesis order of life, which takes place through repentance.  This is conversion or transformation, which takes place in the soul.  Salvation is easy.  By faith we are saved.  Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved.  It is instant.  So many well-intentioned Christians spend the majority of their ministry efforts winning spirits, but the Bible says “he that wins souls is wise”.  We are to work out our salvation in our soul.

There are so many people that are “saved”, but not converted.  Meaning, their minds are not set in order.  Romans 12:2 tells us, “be transformed in the renewing of your mind”.  Repentance does not take place in the spirit, but in the soul.  The Psalmist says “the law of the Lord converts the soul”.  Dr. Monroe warns that a born-again spirit with an unconverted soul makes a dangerous person.  You are not what you believe; you are what you think—“as a man thinketh so is he.”  If you don’t get your thinking changed, you won’t do what you believe.  This is why the repentance process of transforming the mind is so critical.  Many times our efforts of repentance is a response to feeling bad for sinning.  At best, that is remorse, not repentance.  Remorse is getting rid of the guilt for a while, so you can sin again.  Our reason for sinning has not been changed.  An accurate translation for repent from the Greek word metanoeō, is “to change your thinking”, not just your believing.  Repentance demands that we must change our pattern of thinking—our cosmos of living.  Why? Because a new Kingdom has arrived!  The problem is that the Kingdom has come and we are living in it, but thinking like the world.  It is no coincidence that Jesus’ first word of his public ministry was “Repent!”  Jesus continued to explain with one of the greatest sermons ever preached, what we call the Be-attitudes.  In essence, Jesus was explaining the “attitudes to be”.  In Matthew 5:17, Jesus says that He did not come to abolish the law, but to fulfill it.  He came to breathe His Spirit into it, giving it life from death.  No longer condemned to die by the external rule of law, but proposing a relationship of spiritual intimacy with God Himself.  For someone to know the spirit behind a law, they need to know what was in the mind of the people who wrote the law.  This is why there are so many debates over the true interpretation of our US Constitution.  Americans are more interested in how they would like to interpret these laws to serve their personal interests rather than identify the true heart and purpose for these laws.  Jesus did not come to do away with the Old Testament law, but to tell us what was meant when it was written.  He explains to us with great detail in Matthew chapter 5 by saying “…you have heard that you should not commit adultery, but I am saying that even if you dwell on being with another man’s wife you have committed adultery, …you have heard that you should not commit murder, but I’m saying that even if you have hatred in your heart, you have committed murder!”  Jesus continues with specific examples to illustrate to us that we are to live from the inside-out, following the pattern of life—the cosmos of the Kingdom of God.  This is the repentance process that allows us to partake in the relationship, responsibilities and rewards of His Kingdom.  King David was called a man after God’s own heart because he knew there was a greater order than what this world had to offer.  Throughout Psalms 119, King David cries out for God’s laws and precepts to change his thinking.  In Psalms 13:2 he pleads..

“How long must I wrestle with my thoughts and every day sorrow in my heart?  How long will my enemy triumph over me?”

The Holy Spirit through the Apostle Paul responds to our battle of the cosmos.
“For I delight in the law of God according to the inward man.  But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.  O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?
I thank God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!  So then, with the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin.”   Romans 7:22-25(NKJV)

 

Your Spiritual DNA: Discovering Your Life Mission” Part III

 

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