We are born into a completely new world, which is 100% spiritual. Right now we belong to two worlds. Natural and Spiritual.
Ephesians 1:3-7,NLT- All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ.
4, Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes.
5, God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure.
6, So we praise God for the glorious grace he has poured out on use who belong to his dear Son.
7, He is so rich in kindness and grace that he purchased our freedom with the blood of his Son and forgave our sins.
And I know we’ve discussed this topic many times but God continues bringing me back to it. It’s not we couldn’t receive more clarity, further revelation into the realities of our new world. Our new identity.
And the first thing we’ve got to be clear on is our right standing with Him through Jesus. The moment we give our lives to Jesus, we’re not only new creations, but now heirs of His world.
You see, I love v.6, He made us the accepted in the beloved. Heirs of His world.
And that’s the driving thought behind our new talk “Two Worlds.”
We are born into a completely new world, which is 100% spiritual. Right now we belong to two worlds. Natural and Spiritual.
And even though confined to this natural, according to Jesus, we’re no longer of it. This is why Paul made crazy statements like, “walk in the spirit, not in the flesh.”
Think about it, how often would you say you’re applying spiritual principles in your daily lives? Remember James, “be doers not just hearers.”
God wants us living spirit led lives. Making spirit led decisions about every aspect of our lives. And that starts with being more spiritually minded.
But let’s be honest, most of us, most of the time are more aware of and committed to this natural world than our new world because its just easier, it’s more real to us. It’s what we’re use to.
And this is what I love about Ephesians, it provides clarity. For example, the church is His body, us in Him, Him in us, expressing the fullness of His reality.
Ephesians 1:22-23,NKJV- He put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.
So, if we’re in Him, and Him in us, if we’re His church, His body, the fullness of Him, how much of a reality of this truth are we actually in pursuit of?
Everybody knows Jeremiah 29:11, I know the plans I have for you, plans of a future you hope for, an expected end.
But I want to highlight v.13,
Jeremiah 29:13 NKJV- You will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart.
MSG- When you come looking for Me, you’ll find Me. Yes, when you get serious about finding Me and want it more than anything else, I’ll make sure you won’t be disappointed.
And even though Paul is telling us, because of our new identity, we can actually bring the realities of His world into this natural world;
just like the things of this natural world don’t just happen, neither do the thing of the spirit.
Being successful in our new world isn’t any different than being successful in this world
Listen to what God says in Jeremiah, When you get serious about finding me and want it more than anything else, I’ll make sure you won’t be disappointed.”
This is one of Paul’s key points in this letter in Ephesians. He isn’t praying for God to do a something new, he’s praying the we can see, that we can comprehend what God has already done.
Listen to his prayer in chapter one;
May the eyes of your understanding being enlightened;
That we know what is the hope of His calling,
That we know what the riches of the glory of His inheritance is.
And that we know what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe.
Then the apostle John give further clarity, 1 John our born again nature in this world is just like Christ. Made in His image and likeness.
But we’ve got to recognize, God gave us free will by design. The choice is ours.
1 Thessalonians 5:23,NKJV- Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely; and may your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
SPIRIT
SOUL
BODY
And here’s the deal, when our soul is renewed with God’s word, we believe Him. At that point our soul and spirit are in agreement, causing the body to come in line. Or in the words of James, we become doers of the word.
But when our soul stays in agreement with our body, our human nature, human nature rules, resulting in unbelief. And we find ourselves saying things like, if the power of God was working in my life, I’d see it, feel it, experience it, etc…
We have to understand that according to v.19-20, we have the same power living in our spirits that raised Christ from the dead.
This is why Jesu told us, “rivers of living water will flow out of you”
We need to believe God to show us how to draw from that river, to draw out of the life He’s already given us.
You ready to be stretched a little more?
Ephesians 1:22-23 NKJV- And He put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.
A head doesn’t go anywhere with its body. Example, you see someone’s car and there goes so and so. You don’t say there goes their car.
Don’t forget, last week we cover this faith stretching revelation;
Ephesians 2:4-6,NKJV- God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us,
even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up together,
and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.
Our spirit, our born again nature is in Christ right now. Raised with Him, seated with Him in heavenly places. Not gonna be!!
We have been made alive, delivered. The Holy Spirit quickens our mortal bodies right now.
But understand this, it’s not that we reach some sinless perfection, but the revelation and acknowledgment of our resurrected lives.
Philemon 6,NKJV- That the sharing of your faith may become effective by the acknowledgment of every good thing which is in you in Christ Jesus.
But when we fail to do this, we find ourselves still dominated by our human nature
Ephesians 4, Be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness.
The more we yield to our new man the less we yield to our human nature.
Romans 8:18,NKJV- 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.
Here’s the thing, revealed in us, not to us.
Ephesians 3:8-10,NKJV- To me, who am less than the least of all the saints, this grace was given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ,
and to make all see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the ages has been hidden in God who created all things through Jesus Christ;
to the intent that now the manifold wisdom of God might be made known by the church to the principalities and powers in the heavenly places.
Here’s the deal, everything about this new life in Christ hinges on our faith.
And it’s crucial we understand real faith is our correct, positive response to what God has already done.
Faith doesn’t move God. Faith is the created response, receiving, reaching into the unseen world and appropriating that world.