Link to a Great Message!

I'm providing a link here to Joel Osteen's website for a message titled "Emptying Out  the Negative."  I'll give credit for this post to one of my daughters who sent me the link via text, saying only, "Wow!"  And I have to agree, it's a "Wow" message.  It's on point, simply put, and extremely practical though dealing with the effects of life's most devastating  issues such as: hurts, pains, loss, grief, offenses, anything that effects us negatively.  This is what Joel says  what God will replace these with as we empty out the old and trust Him:

As you empty out the negative in your life, God can fill your life with good things. He’ll give you beauty for ashes, joy for mourning, and you will have peace in the midst of any storm.

The only thing I will add would be to remember to ask God to show you anything that's hidden away that you may not be aware of at this time.   You may be surprised at what He might bring up.

I also apologize to anyone who reads this who does not speak English since the message at the link which follows is in English only.

                            https://www.joelosteen.com/Pages/WatchOnline.aspx

Though you can only watch the video for a donation, if you click on the screen you can hear the audio without cost. Be sure on the page beneath the video screen, message number 696  Emptying Out the Negative is highlighted. 

P. S.
Not sure why most of this post is highlighted.  I tried to change it a number of time, but alas! couldn't.  The message is what's important.  I can live with how it looks.

Repost: Jesus, the One

This was originally posted Saturday, December 27, 2014

   

In my previous posts I've written mostly about the schism which occurred within man when he was separated from the perfection of his unity with God and the unity within himself because of that divine connection.  It has already been established, in my point of view, that this separation entered man when the Adam fell out of fellowship with his Creator when he followed satan’s voice instead of God’s. You can read more about that in the archived March 22, 2014 post, Three Lives? Revisited.  But now, I’d like to close out 2014 with the answer God provided for man to be restored to such a wondrous position with Himself.  

   

One thing caused the separation, and only one thing can restore it, and it all has to begin at that point.  Just as the separation occurred at once in one life-changing event though the effects of the downfall increased with time, so does the restoration occur with one life-changing event increasing over time as we receive understanding and begin cooperating with Him in the process.  It’s our choice, just as it was Adam’s choice to follow a strange voice.

What is the One Thing?  The Word says concerning Jesus: the fullness of the Godhead dwelt in Him bodily and we are complete In Him.  It is Jesus Himself, The Volunteer who provided the way to bring us back into Unity with The Father.  Is this oversimplifying the process? Perhaps a bit, but as we know every journey must begin somewhere and that’s usually with a choice.  After all, the great fall of man came with one man’s choice and the reality of it became mankind's journey into the increasing darkness of it.  Our adversary hides himself in that darkness because that's what he is-Darkness-and it's what he has used successfully to keep man from the Light of Truth.  

The choice to receive and follow the One who made the way for the restoration of our perfect unity with Him has to begin somewhere, and the true beginning came at the birth of Jesus when He offered forgiveness and the full benefit of sonship to anyone who would receive it (because the work was as good as finished when He was born into the earth taking on the form of man).  And the great part of this is that it’s our choice and all we have to do to begin a new life journey is to believe and receive His offer!  We are not forced to follow His way, but He graciously provided it so man could be restored to even a greater place than the first Adam enjoyed in his beginning.  God fully intended him to grow in understanding in all things--growing into maturity of who he was really created to be--a living, breathing, powerful son of the Living God including the benefits, rights, authority and responsibility associated with such an exalted position.   

 If you read Psalm 8 you’ll discover that even the angels desired to know more about man.  They wanted to know who this created being was that God Himself visited him!  After all, their understanding  was limited to what they knew, that all of His created beings came to Him.  They had never seen God Himself go any where at anytime to seek out anyone before--much less spend time with them enjoying their company!  I mean really, what a deal! That understanding makes the following scripture concerning God's relationship with Jesus very enlightening! 

 ...God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power: who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with him. (my emphasis)  

How interesting!  The person God sent to restore mankind's oneness with Him enjoyed the Presence of the Father with Him!  Sounds kind of like Adam's relationship with God in the Garden of Eden.  Though Adam failed when temptation came, the Last Adam didn't.  Jesus spoke a number of times, about only doing what He saw the Father do, and only saying what He heard the Father say thereby successfully living out what Adam failed to do.  See these confirming scriptures in John 5:19-20 and verse 30; John 8:28; John 12:49.  And the following is very telling, but seldom quoted with  the answer Jesus gave the scribe who asked what was the first (and greatest) commandment.  Mark 12:29 follows:

And Jesus answered him, The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord: (my emphasis) 

Most of us are familiar with the rest of the answer, but seeing it all in context is quite revealing.  Mark 12:28-32 follows: 

28 And one of the scribes came, and having heard them reasoning together, and perceiving that he had answered them well, asked him, Which is the first commandment of all? 29 And Jesus answered him, The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord 30 And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment. 31 And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these. 32 And the scribe said unto him, Well, Master, thou hast said the truth: for there is one God; and there is none other but he:

Looking at these scriptures in the light of the subject at hand puts things in even greater perspective.  The LORD God is ONE even though He is Three in One-Father, Son and Holy Spirit-and there is no schism in Him, in Them, in what they think, say or do.  Jesus clearly explained that He was one with the Father in thought and deed in John 17:21-23 and desired also that we would be one in them so it must be possible. 

That God desires us to be one with Him and has provided the way to restore the heritage of sonship to us is truly mind boggling to consider!  To say it takes time to mature in the wholeness offered to us is a complete understatement, but none-the-less true!   To perhaps say it better, I'll borrow a popular phrase from a character in Toy Story: It will take "infinity and beyond!", but we have that kind of time with God if we'll just choose to start the journey while we're still here having the right and privilege to do so.

There's so much more to say about this and I hope to be able to share more in later posts.  Hopefully, it won't take as long as it did to start on this one.  I trust He will lead us all into that higher and better way of sharing in His way of seeing, speaking, doing and living, while keeping us within the realms of His grace and truth leaving behind all harshness and religiosity.  

Living "a higher and better way" reminds me of what my mother use to say when waking us in the mornings, "Rise and shine!"  Funny though, how that  expression is from the Word in Isaiah.  Since Jesus is the Light of the World, and His promise to us is that if we follow Him we won't walk in darkness, it makes me all the more want to "Rise and shine!"  So, I'll close with that Truth in the Word which we all can receive by faith from Him.  

 Isaiah 60:1-2  kjv

Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee. 2 For, behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people: but the Lord shall arise upon thee, and *his glory shall be seen upon thee.  (emphasis, mine) 

 * His glory is His Presence with us!  And in the light of what we've been looking into in this post, it means so much more. 

Second Closing: I just had to add this.  My favorite movie clip of  all time...sometimes people are not too happy with  the way our light shines! 

                    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jOehCtqJq7I 

Taking Receipt and Certifying

As I've shared in an earlier blog or two concerning the need  "to take receipt" of the fact that when we  receive Jesus Christ into our lives, we are born again in our spirit man and become a new creation or new creature.  The following scripture statement declares this truth very plainly.

         Galatians 6:15King James Version (KJV)

For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature.

So once again, we are confronted with a choice to receive this truth whether we feel it's true intellectually or not.  I've chosen to believe it is true, and because I believe it is, it has become a foundation to receive greater release from issues I've struggled with from time to time.  It has given me the freedom to receive what the Word of God says about who I am now without as much opposition because rather than trusting in the soul area, I can trust the truth that flows from my renewed spirit where my spirit has access to commune with the Spirit of God.  This is the source from which true revelation flows, and the Word of God keeps us safe because everything we hear must align itself with the written Word. 

I'd like to add  at this point, that God does not force us to believe anything, nor does He overturn our choice, our will.  We always have the right to choose! What a gift that is!  

John the Baptist, said to his disciples concerning Jesus:

John 3:33      *New King James Version (NKJV)

He who has received His testimony has certified that God is true.

And by choosing to believe what God says rather than what we've experienced, or have been taught, or maybe even haven't been taught, we can also certify God is true when we decide to receive His testimony- in other words, believe what He says is the truth.   In our everyday world only an expert on a given subject can certify that an object, painting, work of art, legal document is "the real thing".   I find it so amazing, and just like God as I've come to know Him, to allow anyone who would-any man woman or child-to  have the power within themselves to  certify God is true, that He's the Real Thing!  Is this Good News, or what?  I think so; I believe I'll take receipt of that!

* Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Three Lives? Revisited, again...

Three Lives? Revisited, again...

This is a topic which I found quite intriguing when I first discovered the information myself, and it made quite an impact on my thinking and greatly influenced my point of view.  I hope you'll enjoy it, and maybe even find it beneficial.

Three Lives?

I Led 3 Lives  was a television series in the 1950's  loosely based on an American guy who joined the communist party for the FBI and assumed the role of a counterspy- thus the three lives, U.S. citizen, communist and counterspy.  Though I was a child I remember the series and watched it a few times, but  recall very little about it.   It was very much a show for grown-ups, and I was much more interested in  watching  Hopalong Cassidy-loved his white horse and, of course, his good-guy white hat. Oh, I digressed, but the thought of it made me happy...so back to the trail.

None-the-less, even as a child I found the title and the thought of leading 3 lives very intriguing and mysterious.  Considering this I find it no surprise that several years ago while reading Derek Prince's book War in Heaven, I came across a  statement which very much appealed to me, and have thought much about it since.  In order to arrive at the destination I desire, a little background information is in order, so I'll share some interesting facts from his book that will help clarify my basic premise.

 In referring to Genesis 2:7 Mr. Prince shared that the word "life" is plural!  This discovery truly captivated me!  I wondered how this new understanding might broaden the meaning of the intent of its use in this particular verse, and further, how it might bring greater enlightenment regarding how we were created by God and how He intended for us to function.  After all, He didn't change His plan.  His original plan is still His plan. 

Check out the verse I'm referring to and see for yourself.  The following is as it reads in the King James Version and just about all versions  I've seen. 

 And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.

Now look at the difference when you add the word 'life" in its plural form .

 And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of lives; and man became a living soul. 

It's truly fascinating!  Not only does this suggest the character and functionality of God in three persons,  but also man whom He created in His Image--all of this in the opening account of creation.  What a foundation He laid, but before I can go on, it's also necessary to take a look at another plural word in Genesis 1:1.

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth

The word is "God".  In the original language the word used is Elohim, and as Mr. Prince explained, though we in the U.S. add the letter "s" to  change the form of a word to plural,  in Hebrew it is normal to add "im" to change a word to the plural form.  It's pronounced  "eem",  thus  Elohim, the first mention of God  referring to Himself in the plural.  Another interesting fact is that verbs in Hebrew can either be singular or plural and must match the form of the words to which they are connected.   A plural word such as Elohim normally would be matched with a plural form of the verb, but such is not the case in this instance.  Mr. Prince writes that the word "created" is singular in form indicating that in God there is both plurality and singularity or unity. 

As Christians we've known God to be a Triune Being but to find it to have been so clearly stated in the very first words of the Bible in the creation account was quite an amazing discovery!  Very interesting indeed!  There is so much more information, knowledge and revelation available to us than we can begin to imagine!  In this same book author Prince goes on to share some very interesting information concerning what may have happened  in the earth between  Genesis 1:1 and  Genesis 1:2 to which  a number of  Bible scholars subscribe, though not pertinent to the subject at hand.

Now that the foundation is laid, I'll get to my point: God created us in His Image and Likeness.  We all, to some extent, have gathered that if we've been a Christian for any length of time or have been associated with Christians, but I'd like to expand on it.  Since God is 3 in 1 and has both plurality and unity within Himself,  and He breathed the breath of lives into man, when He did so, man became a living soul with both plurality and unity within himself just like God.  Now isn't that a wonderful fact, especially since God's purpose for man has never changed.  As I said before, His original plan is still His plan though it was delayed for a time.  While  Man enjoyed unbroken fellowship with his Creator, his unity within himself as well as his continuous life source remained unbroken.   Though they, man and woman, were made to be fully functional  living spirits, they were also fully functional living souls who lived in a fully functional living body without schism fully operating as one whole person.

We know Satan entered in to cause separation and we also know he was successful.  His plan was to separate man from God and steal the ruling authority God had given man when He blessed them, but the way he so subtly chose to do this was to present them with something which would first divide them within themselves.  He needed to  confuse and change the natural order in which they were created by God to operate to accomplish this.  This is clearly demonstrated in Genesis 3:6 when after listening to a strange voice and seeing that the forbidden fruit was good for food, pleasant to the eye and desirable to make one wise, the woman being deceived, gave in to temptation, and apart from her spirit and God's influence, she chose to eat.  She gave some to the man who was with her  and he also chose to eat.   By this act of disobedience they put their spirits in subjection to the sensual desires of their souls departing from God and the laws He had established to  govern spiritual creatures such as themselves-those created in the God class but little g's instead of capital  "G's" (See John 10:34-36,  Psalm 82:6, *Psalm 8:5).  And the rest is history.

Though the fall of man was great,  we as men have had little understanding  how greatly we all have been  affected by the lower nature we inherited because of it.   The segregation of our spirit, soul and body  because of our separation from God  and His design has been devastating.  However, The Very Good and Great News is this truth found in Romans 5:17.

17 For if by one man’s offence death reigned by one; much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ.

The purpose of all I've written is to share a little about the separation of our 3 lives that we have in one which are often at odds with each other.  At times we might follow our spirit, sometimes we might follow our emotions, and other times we might just follow our appetites depending on our circumstances or how we might feel at the moment.  I know I mentioned several times that God's plan for man is still His original plan, however,  the deceiver's plan is still his original plan, to divide and conquer, to separate man from his Creator and to keep man from the reunification of his "three lives".  So I'll end this first installment of  "3 Lives"  with the following scripture which Jesus Himself  said so very plainly...then I'll surely  want to do a little "Happy Dance" for getting this far on this particular subject!

John 10:10

10 The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.

And to get an even clearer picture of this scripture, you might want to check it out in the Amplified Version at the following link:

       http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John%2010:10&version=AMP

* The word for "angels" in Psalm 8:5 in the original language is Elohim.

A New Song

Here's a new song I want to share.  He, The Holy Spirit,  gave it to me this morning, and I thought you might want to sing it, too!   It's very powerful in its simplicity:

                            The Living Word is alive in me,

                            making me whole and setting me free!

Perhaps it will mean even more if you look at it in light of Colossians 2:13-14, *NKJV

13 And you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses, 14 having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.  (my emphasis)    

Since He is alive, and He made us alive with Him, and now dwells in us who have received Him, we can most definitely receive our "certificate of debt" having been paid in full by Him when it was nailed to the cross.  And how was it nailed to the cross?  Because HE was nailed to the cross!  According to II Corinthians 5:21 He who didn't sin was made to be sin for us and it was by this act, our sin was nailed to the cross when HE was nailed to it!  This really happened!  He really did bear it all for us to the extent that it no longer exists, so we could be free from the curse, including everything that came with it.  You can read more about this in Deuteronomy 28 where the Blessing and the curse are described, and in the new testament, where Galatians 3:13-14 tells us Jesus bore the curse so we could receive the blessing.  

We who have received Him by faith can indeed take receipt of the benefits of what He accomplished!  Wow, and yay God!  He continuously works with us and in us in order to enable us to experience personally the benefits of The Blessing!

He, The Word was made flesh for us, He was made to be sin for us and now, He lives for us!!!  We can be recipients of it when we choose to start receiving what He says He did and who He says He made us to be, and what He says we can have through faith. The little song He spoke to me this morning is not only a reminder of what He did and who He is, but when we receive it and say the same thing He says, the power for it to bring itself to pass is released in us!  This really is Good News!

I'll close this for now, leaving you with  this link if you'd like to read more of the powerful word in Colossians 2 on which much of this post is based.

 *NKJV

Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Implications of Taking Receipt: The New Creation

Continuing on the subject of Taking Receipt of having been born again, is also understanding the need to take receipt of having become a new creation.  It's been the same for me in this area as it had been in the former: knowing it was true, but not taking full ownership in a deeply personal way.  Kind of makes that old saying about someone wanting to have their cake and eat it, too, sound so foolish!  It always irritated me to hear someone say that.  Why wouldn't a person want to eat their cake, when in fact that is the purpose of having the cake in the first place? Owning the cake, seeing how delicious it looks, smelling the  aroma, anticipating having that first bite, then another.... this is receiving the cake on a deeply personal level.  If you have it and never taste it,  boy, what a loss!   It's the same thing in whether or not we lay hold of and enjoy the truth concerning the benefits of having become a new creation.

Psalm 34:8-9  (this so fits here):

8 O taste and see that the Lord is good: blessed is the man that trusteth in him.9 O fear the Lord, ye his saints: for there is no want to them that fear him.         (The whole Psalm is really good. To read it, click here. You might want to check out The Message version, too, if you go to the site, it's great!)

 So how do we take receipt and taste His Goodness in a practical way?  We start by receiving it by faith just because God said it.  It is only the beginning, but in every adventure we have to start  somewhere, and since faith is the currency of heaven, that's how we begin to exchange what we have for what He says we can have-actually what He's already provided. We've just been so limited by our own humanity-by generational issues, sorrow, loss, lack, pain, sickness-by what we've experienced in this life that's so contrary to what His desire for us is.  Our mind really does need to be renewed to who He made us to be in the new creation we became when we first invited Him into our hearts.  Our spirit man really was born again, translated from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light in Christ Jesus in that transaction we made with Him in by faith!

It is so.  Now our minds need to be renewed to the language of the new kingdom we've been translated into.  If we moved to another country here on earth, we'd need to learn the native language in order to be prosperous there.  It's no different in this instance.  God says His thoughts and His ways are higher than ours (Isaiah 55:8-9) and we need to learn and understand His language.  He's not only given us His written Word, He's given His Spirit to teach us  (John 14:26) that new way of speaking and thinking.

There's so much more that could be said about this, but the most important thing is personally coming into agreement with what God brought to pass in us when we received Him.  Knowing that the old man really died and was done away with at the cross of Jesus and when we accepted Him that benefit was added to us-the old is gone, the new has come and receiving this basic truth, tasting it, enjoying it will begin to transform us as we go.  Yes, and it is simply because God says it, we agree with it and are transformed by it because the Word of God has the power in it to bring itself to pass.  What a wonderful truth to rest in!  

And I can tell you this, even when we don't feel or see any changes, and we continue- just believing the truth no matter what-one day we will become aware that there has been change, and not because we were striving to bring it to pass.   It's called GRACE!  Woohoo!  This really makes me excited because most of my life I was a striver.  I was going to get the job done somehow no matter what it took.  My motto had been,  just let me rest a little and regain a little strength and stamina and I'll be ready to jump back in and "get 'er done."  That's country folk's talk for, "completing the task at hand. "  


This journey of discovery and change,  healing and rest isn't always easy,  but the benefits far outweigh the difficulty.  I can attest to the fact that receiving His way of seeing and doing is so much better than anything we could come up with on our own!  I'll end this with one of my all time favorite verses since I discovered how it reads in The Message...and I've used it a number of times in this blog, but you can't get too much of a good, calorie-free taste of Goodness!  So here it is:

Matthew 11:27-30The Message (MSG)

27 Jesus resumed talking to the people, but now tenderly. “The Father has given me all these things to do and say. This is a unique Father-Son operation, coming out of Father and Son intimacies and knowledge. No one knows the Son the way the Father does, nor the Father the way the Son does. But I’m not keeping it to myself; I’m ready to go over it line by line with anyone willing to listen.

28-30 “Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.” (my emphasis)

Taking Receipt....

I'm interested in pursuing the topic of Jesus restoring oneness even as the Father, Son and Spirit are One though three distinct entities if you will.   We also were created in three parts--spirit, soul and body.   I wrote in an earlier post concerning man's creation where God breathed in Adam the breath of life, which in the Hebrew the word for breath is in the plural form. Therefore it would be rendered more correctly "the breath of lives".  It is very interesting indeed!  I shared this information more clearly in the post Three Lives? Revisited  (scroll down to) March 22, 2014. 

Since Jesus came to "destroy the works of the devil" (I John 3:8)  it stands to reason that our individual need to be restored to oneness within ourselves would necessarily be of great import since man was created to live in perfect unity within himself and with God.

Until Ish and Isha-Hebrew for man and the one taken from his side-listened to another and followed him there was no schism anywhere. What a disaster that was!  Their oneness with God, creation and within was totally disrupted and they found themselves absolutely naked within and without and were barred from the Garden.  And by the way, that's when Adam changed Isha's name to Eve (Genesis 3:20).  He first called her, simply, Woman in Genesis 2:23.  

And here's an interesting bit of information: The reason they didn't know they were naked was because they weren't!  They were clothed with God's Glory-spiritual clothing for the spiritual beings they were created to be-the same clothing as God.  They became naked when they lost their oneness with their Father, losing the Glory that was naturally theirs as sons of God.  These two immortal spirits were now clothed only with fallen, naked flesh as everyone thereafter. 

Since God gave man authority under His LORDship to rule over the earth, only a man could get back what the enemy stole.  That's why Jesus came, and indeed as I mentioned earlier, He came to (utterly) destroy the works of the devil.  And He did accomplish that thoroughly.  This takes me back to the subject I want to share more about: since Jesus did all this, and we know it's true, why are we NOT walking in more of the wholeness, power and authority He died to restore to us while satisfying  the Father's heart, will and desire for us, His children, the Church.  Afterall the word church  in the Greek means called out ones, a governing body!  Sounds like He even restored what Adam and Eve lost concerning authority doesn't it?

Though we are seeing  greater numbers of people and ministries than ever before operating on a higher level of  spiritual maturity and authority, it is not so for the Church at large.  Many of us are just not satisfied at our seeming inability to break through issues we've been believing and trusting for, and perhaps struggling with for quite some time.  It has been an enigma, a many faceted enigma, but God is revealing more in this day and hour than ever before about such mysteries and exposing enemy tactics formed to hinder us from our high calling in Christ Jesus.  I've been one of those who seems to have been stalemated in a number of areas, and I'd like to share what God showed me about the main issue which caused me to still have some issues with them.

My mother would occasionally use an expression in calling out an individual by name saying something like, "Sally was slow, but she was old."  That gave Sally an excuse for being slow, but there was none  for a healthy younger person with plenty of energy to perform the task at hand.  The church is older, and we've been slow for a number of reasons, but it's time to get our youth restored and move up into our high places. My Goodness,  don't we all want to go there and remain!? 

This recent revelation, I believe, is one  the Church at large also has to receive in order to make a huge breakthrough into greater maturity, oneness and as overcomers who walk in the victory He provided for us.  

At this point, I'd like to share a little about the difference between revelation and information, because it was information that kept me from a personal working knowledge of a great basic truth.  It's not that I or most Christians don't have some knowledge of this particular truth and accept it as a fact, but often this knowledge has to become much more greatly received and understood on a personal level.  Simply put, information is a head knowledge of a truth while revelation is a heart knowledge of it-with the heart being the same as the spirit.   The following verse points to what I'm speaking about here.

1 Corinthians 2:11-12(KJV)

11 For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God. 12 Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God.

As does the following:

          Hebrews 4:12-13(KJV)

12 For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.

God knows how much true understanding we have, and as we continue to look to Him for the answers we need, He is faithful to show us in what area we need greater understanding.  So it is when He "opens" an area we are enabled to see it as we never have before.   This is revelation.  It starts with our spirit and then affects our understanding....it's not just information any longer, but truth which develops in us as we receive it and allow it to work in our lives.

This is part of the process of being restored to our individual oneness with Him as He teaches us to see and receive His truth--His way of seeing and understanding.   This is so amazing to me!  I'm hardly ever greatly surprised any longer when He shows me an area where my understanding has been so limited by my humanity...but I'm always thankful and truly amazed and humbled. 

So what did the Spirit open up to me that changed everything?  He said I needed to  "Take receipt of having been born again."  Oh my,  when He said it to me,  the Light came on and I understood!  I had no idea of how much being born again had been a general truth to me.  I agreed with the Word that it was so, but had never fully laid hold of it on a deep personal level.  

I hope to share more about the reality of it in later entries,  but you don't have to wait if you haven't fully "taken receipt" yourself.   God is right there where you are, and He's ready!  He'll begin to open up your understanding in a greater way even as He did when He joined the two on the road to Emmaus!  (Luke 24:13-35)  Just ask Him and see for yourself!