Pregnant with Child

Pregnant with Child

Revelations 12:1-6
1A great and wondrous sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet and a crown of twelve stars on her head. 2She was pregnant and cried out in pain as she was about to give birth. 3Then another sign appeared in heaven: an enormous red dragon with seven heads and ten horns and seven crowns on his heads. 4His tail swept a third of the stars out of the sky and flung them to the earth. The dragon stood in front of the woman who was about to give birth, so that he might devour her child the moment it was born. 5She gave birth to a son, a male child, who will rule all the nations with an iron scepter. And her child was snatched up to God and to his throne. 6The woman fled into the desert to a place prepared for her by God, where she might be taken care of for 1,260 days.

There are those to whom this passage may seem intimidating and too spiritual to understand, but what would the Lord speak to us through it today? We perceive this woman that is pregnant here to be the Church.
1 Peter 1:23-25 tells us, “Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever. For all flesh [is] as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away: But the word of the Lord endureth for ever. And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you.” This self-same seed of the divine Word of Life has impregnated the Church who is the Bride and the wife of the Lamb. Here she is clothed as the sun, the righteousness and glory of God, sitting in a place of divine dominion and authority, but still obviously in contention and opposition with satan represented in the great red dragon with the dominion and authority that is still his. Here we are at a climatic time in spiritual history very much in keeping with what we saw when Christ Jesus was born in the earth and how Herod, an instrument of satan, tried to destroy this man child by ordering all of the infants and young children of Bethlehem to be put to death.
The purpose of the Church is to bring up and birth a holy offspring; this corresponds with what we read in Romans 8:19-23, “For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God. For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected [the same] in hope, Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. And not only [they], but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, [to wit], the redemption of our body.” In Revelations 2 and 3 where exhortations are given to each of the Churches; at the end of each, a promise is given to him that overcomes. God is looking for a company of overcomers that will grow up into Him who is the head even Christ. Ephesians 4:11-16 tells us the mind and purpose of God concerning the Church and her children, “It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, 12to prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up 13until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.
14Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming. 15Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ. 16From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.”
The word of the Lord to us is that He wants a people of maturity, no longer little children tossed to and fro and moved by every wind of doctrine, but those who know and are established in who they are in Christ. There is a day and time when these mature ones will be revealed in authority and power. The purpose of the enemy is to destroy and devour them, but the purpose of God is that they would be the catalyst that would bring war in heaven where satan will be cast down and Christ’s enemies will be made his footstool. Our calling today is to grow up into Him in all things, to be the overcomers and those who would set creation free as His fullness and authority is revealed in this man child. Is this not what Paul saw when he said in Philippians 3:12-16, “12Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. 13Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, 14I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.
15All of us who are mature should take such a view of things. And if on some point you think differently, that too God will make clear to you. 16Only let us live up to what we have already attained.”

Blessings,
#kent

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Spiritual

Romans 8:5-17
Those who live according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what that nature desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. 6The mind of sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace; 7the sinful mind is hostile to God. It does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so. 8Those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God.
9You, however, are controlled not by the sinful nature but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ. 10But if Christ is in you, your body is dead because of sin, yet your spirit is alive because of righteousness. 11And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit, who lives in you.
12Therefore, brothers, we have an obligation—but it is not to the sinful nature, to live according to it. 13For if you live according to the sinful nature, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live, 14because those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. 15For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship.g And by him we cry, “Abba, Father.” 16The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. 17Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.

Spiritual

Being spiritual is not how mystical, religious or how much you know about God. It is living out in the earth the relationship you have with God in heaven. It is His kingdom come and His will being done in these earthen vessels as it is in heaven through the power of the love and relationship we have with Him. It is when we have lost our identity in His and our desire is only to express Him.
We know that through the Word we are a three-part being, a trichotomy of body, soul and spirit. Before Adam’s fall, he lived out of his spirit where he lived in relationship and communion with God. In the center of that garden was the tree of life. That tree of life we know today as Christ Jesus. As we abide in Him, living in spiritual communion and relationship with Him we are partaking of the Tree if Life, we are living both into and out of Christ. In that place we live out of the direction of the Holy Spirit as we are identified with the new creation man, which is a spiritual man abiding in that original state of communion and relationship with God.
The soul speaks to our mind, will and emotion and our spirit is in the deepest part of our soul. If our soul makes the decision to live independent and self-sufficient of the spirit that has been quickened and made alive in Christ, then we are in effect partaking of that other tree in the garden, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Romans 8 is making the distinction here about which identity we are living out of. The soul woman in us, apart from and unsubmitted to the spirit husband, that is subject to Christ in us, is the sinful nature. It is the soul expressing itself apart from subjection to the Spirit which now abides in our spirit.
The body becomes the vehicle and the instrument of expression to whichever is guiding and ruling it. It has its own cravings and appetites, but these are under the control of the soul, and the soul either is or is not under the control of the spirit. The spirit in us is our connection to the spiritual realm. It is what is made in the likeness of God who is Spirit (John 4:24).
The sinful nature is the soul out of God’s Spirit control. Its ways are death and without the Life that can be imparted into it through our spirit, that is given and submitted to God, it will die.
The Spirit of Christ in us is life. A life that is yielded, receptive and submitted to His Spirit will receive His life into its being. The soul then finds its identity no longer in self -expression, living to it own desires, but it reckons itself dead, nailed to the Cross of Christ. As the soul experiences this death and burial, it also experiences His like resurrection, being quickened and made alive by the Spirit of God. No longer to live in its former identity, subject to the law of sin and death, but made alive in Christ, its new identity, that is might live out of the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus. It is no longer subject to its own or old ways, it is now only subject to Christ. Through the power of that Life, the old life of sin and death is swallowed up in Life through Christ Jesus, that came to abide in us, as we abide in Him. We begin living out of that Tree of Life, which He is, and our soul begins to be like a garden transformed from the one that was overgrown and inhabited by weeds to one that is daily weeded, tended and cared for by the spirit, the renewed Adam in us. We are led by His Spirit as by that same Spirit we put to death the weeds or the former deeds of the flesh. We no longer live in the terror or fear of judgement, but we cry, “Abba, Father” because now that we are led by the Spirit of God in the identity with Christ, we are the sons of God, because we are heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ. If we are willing lose out former self and walk in the same way of suffering that He walked then we also will share in His glory.
A spiritual life then is a life that lives out of the Vine of Christ to whom it is intimately and intricately interwoven into. They are two lives made one. Our identity is now to be the expression, both through the soul and the body of Him who indwells our spirit. We are spiritual because we live by the Spirit and our obligation is no longer to that former state of the soul, but only in obedience and reliance on Him who is our Life. We are now His expression, living for His glory and not our own.

Blessings,
kent

Principles of the World

Galatians 4:8-11
Formerly, when you did not know God, you were slaves to those who by nature are not gods. 9But now that you know God—or rather are known by God—how is it that you are turning back to those weak and miserable principles? Do you wish to be enslaved by them all over again? 10You are observing special days and months and seasons and years! 11I fear for you, that somehow I have wasted my efforts on you.

Principles of the World

Paul says here that formerly, when we did not know God or rather were known by God, we “were slaves to those who by nature are not gods.”  What are these things to which he refers?
In verse 3 Paul clues us in, “So also, when we were children, we were in slavery under the basic principles of the world.”  It means that we came under the law of Moses which showed us our sin and condemnation, but only the promise and shadow of our salvation.  These principles of the world could only keep and maintain us in the bondage of sin and condemnation.  At there best they were only shadows and types of that truth which Paul brought to them in the reality and fulfillment of Christ.  That divine sacrifice of Calvary was the doorway through which we step from the kingdom and the principles of this world into the kingdom and principles of God and life.
Paul says in Romans 8:1-3, “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, 2because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death. 3For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in sinful man, 4in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the sinful nature but according to the Spirit.”  That tells us that never, by returning to former law of Moses, will we be set free from sin.  It, along with all the principles that pertain to this world, were superceded and annulled by the cross of Christ.  He is now the higher law of life and liberty.
There is no more condemnation to the those who are in Christ Jesus.  Take note of the preposition used here.  It not spoken to those who know about Christ, to those who believe on Him or through Him.  The place of no more condemnation is “IN HIM”  That means we live out of Him, not just the knowledge of Him.
Many of us as Christians have struggled with sin all of our lives and still feel the wretched condemnation of it because we still haven’t had a true revelation of who we are IN Christ.  We don’t fully grasp that we have reckoned the old man dead and are alive unto Christ.  It is no longer out of self effort that was governed by this former principle of the world that we live.  We live out of the principle and law of the Spirit of Life that is IN Christ Jesus alone.  He was the law fulfilled IN us.   Now we are dead to the former as we live into the present.  We don’t overcome sin and the principles of this world by trying to be like Jesus.  That is self-effort and self can only perpetuate self.  It can never perpetuate Spirit.  Only Spirit can perpetuate Spirit.  Paul tells us that this is now what we live out of, the Spirit, no longer the flesh.  Romans 8:5-11 goes on to say, “Those who live according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what that nature desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. 6The mind of sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace; 7the sinful mind is hostile to God. It does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so. 8Those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God.
9You, however, are controlled not by the sinful nature but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives IN you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ. 10But if Christ is IN you, your body is dead because of sin, yet your spirit is alive because of righteousness. 11And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living IN you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit, who lives IN you.”  The mind of the Spirit, is the mind of Christ IN us.  It is His Spirit abiding IN us, bringing us into ONENESS and PARTICIPATION IN Him.  We no longer are to operate out of the former us, no matter how good the intent.   We are dead unto self, but alive unto Christ, even as Paul tells the Galatians in Galatians 2:20,  “My old self has been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives IN me. So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”  Only as you live out of who you are IN Christ as a son can you overcome the life you formerly lived as a slave under the principles of this world.

Blessings,
kent

Giving Thanks Always

1 Thessalonians 5:18
give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.

Giving Thanks Always

When I read this scripture I may struggle a little with this concept, because we can all think of circumstances that the last thing we would be is thankful for them.  Except the scripture doesn’t say be thankful for all circumstances, but to give thanks in all of your circumstances.
Why would we want to give thanks when our circumstances are bad and everything is going wrong?
Thankfulness, even in the midst of adverse circumstance, says to God, ” I see beyond the circumstance and I see You Father as the Lord over my circumstance.”  In acknowledging the Lord with thanksgiving you are not looking at the seen, but the unseen.  You are releasing faith into that circumstance to say to God, “Father you are Lord of all”.  Does not God’s word say in Romans 8:28 that, “all things work together for the good of those who love the Lord and are called according to His purpose?”  If our lives are ordered of the Lord then He knows everything that touches them and sometimes what touches us can be pretty traumatic.  When we can give thanks to God even in those things then we are saying, “Yes God, I believe You are big enough and Your love is great enough to bring me through whatever touches my life and those around me.”
Thankfulness may be the last thing that logically comes to mind when faced with extreme circumstances, but God’s wants us to still be able to thank Him in the good and the bad.  Thankfulness and praise are two of the greatest instruments that we have to enter into the presence of Father and to allow Him to cover us in every situation.  Psalms 100:4 exhorts us, “Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name.”  When we are in true thankfulness and praise we are exercising the worship that Father receives; that which emerges in Spirit and in truth.  It is the place of not just speaking words, but expressing an attitude of faith that allows us to abide in the presence of God, even in those hard places.  That faith coming from our thanksgiving releases God to work in the midst of our circumstances, because our eyes are not focused on just what we see; they are focused on Him who is the Lord of our circumstances.
So, God’s will for us who are in Christ Jesus is give thanks always.  It is not that we are thanking Him for the bad or evil that happens, but we are giving thanks that no matter what because our God still sits on the throne and He is still the Lord of what ultimately comes out of it.  Just as our prayer is to be unceasing our thanksgiving is ever to be abounding to the praise of His name.  God is good all of the time and even in every circumstance, so let us never cease to give thanks.  Our God reigns!

Blessings,
kent

Lay down the Law

Lay down the Law

Romans 8:3-4
For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh:
4That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.

Have you ever laid down the law to your household, your children or employees?  Have you demanded that they be and act a certain way?  What is the reaction and response we see to this kind of dominance?  We may obtain obedience and submission out of fear and intimidation, but in their hearts we have only fostered resentment and anger.  No matter how good laws may be, unless we can embrace them in our hearts that they are for our benefit and safety, we are probably going to resent them.  We can see then that laws and rules are only as strong and effective as the people who are willing to follow them.
God gave us laws through Moses that were fundamentals for life, health and righteousness.   It wasn’t that God’s laws weren’t good enough, it was our hearts; which, at some point or another, were in rebellion to the laws of God.  Even if we agreed with the laws of God, embraced them and loved them, at some point or another we have broken them.  The law has served to show us our own weaknesses, the flaws and the cracks in these earthly pots.  Our sin has been our perpetual weakness and flaw in serving God and living up to His standards.  All of us can relate that no matter how much we love God and want to please and serve Him we have all stumbled over sin in our lives.
God says, “Here is the way we are going to fix that.  I will send my only begotten Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, only without sin.  Through His sinless life and because He is the only one qualified to take and pay the penalty for the sins of the whole world, He will take all of your sin upon Himself.  He will pay the price and die the death, so that you may, in exchange have His life and righteousness through faith.
God wants our hearts.  He wants our obedience and submission to His will, but because He gave each of us a will of our own, it is a personal decision that each of us must make.  Will I submit my will to Christ or will I keep it for myself.  If I keep it for myself, I can live and do as I please, but then I have rejected the sacrifice Christ paid for me and then I must pay the price for my own sins.
If I ask Christ into my heart, because I accept and believe what He has done for me, will I not sin anymore?  No, we are not already made perfect, except in our spirit, but we begin down a road of transformation.  The Spirit of God comes within us and alongside us to help in our journey of surrender and submission to Him.  The blood of Jesus ever stands as our fountain of washing and cleansing when we do fail.  His Word is a lamp unto feet and light unto our path to show His ways and the Spirit inside us is the strength and help we need to walk the walk of righteousness.   We are not righteous in our own merit, but we have been clothed upon, through faith, with the garments of righteousness and salvation through the blood of Jesus.
Every day we need to be humbled and submitted before Him as we ask for life, strength and guidance to grow and walk in our new nature and identity.  We identified that old former man of sin as crucified with Christ upon the cross and now our heart, our mind, our focus and our faith is set in Christ, to be conformed to Him in all of our ways.
It is no longer a chore, or burden or a mandate to keep the law that compels us.  It is the love of God in us.  We love Him because He first loved us and gave Himself for us.  We understand that it is only God and His life in us that completes us and helps us to fulfill our destiny and our reason for being.  If we choose to live outside of that, then we only deceive ourselves and choose only the path of death and an unfulfilled destiny that God had for us.
Yes, we become discouraged at all of the times and ways that we still fall so short, but it is important that our eyes and our heart remained fixed on the One who is greater than all of our sins. He is the One who is delivering us out of death into life as we endeavor to walk after the Spirit and no longer after the flesh.  We have laid down the written law of sin and death and we have taken up the law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus.  This law is leading us into the liberty and freedom of all that we have been purposed for in God.  He is the fulfillment of who we are and who and what we are destined to become

Blessings,
kent

Living in a New Dimension

Romans 8:1-17
1Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, 2because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death. 3For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in sinful man, 4in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the sinful nature but according to the Spirit.
5Those who live according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what that nature desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. 6The mind of sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace; 7the sinful mindf is hostile to God. It does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so. 8Those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God.
9You, however, are controlled not by the sinful nature but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ. 10But if Christ is in you, your body is dead because of sin, yet your spirit is alive because of righteousness. 11And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit, who lives in you.
12Therefore, brothers, we have an obligation—but it is not to the sinful nature, to live according to it. 13For if you live according to the sinful nature, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live, 14because those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. 15For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship.  And by him we cry, “Abba, Father.” 16The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. 17Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.

Living in a New Dimension

Romans 8 is perhaps one of the most high velocity and revolutionary chapters in the Word of God because it speaks so powerfully into who we are and who we are not.  So many of us continue to carry with us this “Old Man” mentality.  It is so detrimental to our spiritual walk and the identity of who we are in Christ Jesus.  In the church world there is so much emphasis and how to change the old man and become better.  In the Lord’s eyes the old man no longer exists to the believer in Christ Jesus.  He has been nailed with Jesus to the cross.  He was buried and he passed away in that old law of sin and death.  This is the whole significance of water baptism to help our minds comprehend this reality that old things and old natures have passed away and behold we have been resurrected in Christ into the newness of His life.
Father has brought us into a new dimension, a new realm and a new place.  Things may look much the same outwardly, but now we are to be living out of a new law.  It is just like if we go to outer space, many of the laws that restrict and rule us here, no longer are in effect in that dimension.  In Christ, the law of the Spirit of Life, has set us free from the law of sin and death.
Jesus tells us in John 4 that God is Spirit and they that worship Him must worship in Spirit and in Truth.  This is the reality of where we should now be living.  Yes, we maintain the outward man,  with its weaknesses and flaws, but now we realize that what we could never change from “the outside in”, because of the weakness of our flesh.  We can be transformed from “the inside out” through the power and in-working of the Spirit of Christ in us.  We have to spiritually grasp the paradigm shift that has taken place.  When we do, we will reckon ourselves dead to sin, but alive unto Christ.  Everything that we formally were was hostile to God, nevertheless, God’s grace in Christ has brought us into the place where now we are the friend of God; not only are we the friend of God, but God calls us His sons.  In order for us to walk in this place of sonship we have to be led by the Spirit of God and live out of that law of the Spirit of Life that is in Christ Jesus.  This passage is telling us what that looks like.  The sinful nature of the person we were has to be past tense, because it can’t effectually operate in this dimension and realm.
Yes, we all still deal with our issues.
How do we deal with them?
Romans 8:13 provides us with the key.  “… but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live, 14because those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.”  It is the Spirit of God within you that is empowering you to live a victorious life and overcome the areas of the former realm you are still dealing with.  Remember, that is not who you are or what you are any longer, so don’t let the enemy try and put that identity back on you.  This is what happens so often to so many of us.  We find ourselves living again in the identity of who we were in our former man, rather than who we now are in Christ.  Your identity is paramount to your victory.  You can’t be victorious in something that you think your not.  Where there is no faith, there is no victory.  Faith is not looking at the thing you see, it is looking at the things you can not see, but that God says are true.  Only the faith in His truth can make them a reality to you.  As you walk by the Spirit, out of the power of the Spirit, believing what God says about you, you will find yourself being transformed from glory to glory even into the same likeness as Jesus.  This only follows if Father God has put His DNA in you through His Spirit.  Your spiritual birth should cause you to grow up in His likeness.
Remember who you are, and the law that you now function under.  It is no longer the law of sin and death that leads to your condemnation.  You live under the law of FREEDOM!  The law of the Spirit of Life that has set you free from the law of sin and death.  Don’t allow yourself to be put under that law again as we find the Galatians starting to do as they started yielding to that old mindset and teaching of the law.
Father wants His highest for you.  Get a revelation of who you are and don’t settle for anything less.  You are the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus and His Spirit bears witness with our spirit that we are His children; heirs and joint-heirs with Christ.  Live out of that new dimension of His Spirit Life

Blessings,
kent