The Faith Walk Before the l all, man had perfect fellowship with God. He lived in the realm of the spirit, but when he committed High Treason, was driven learn the presence of God, he became dependent upon his senses for his protection and life. His spirit became the slave of his senses. However, for many generations you can see the spirits influence upon the mind. This is seen in the architecture before and after the flood. They have uncovered live cities built one upon the other in Mesopotamia. and the last one discovered, which ryas evidently built before the flood, shows the finest type of architecture. Anthropology proves beyond the shadow of a doubt, that the farther back we go in Babylonia and Egypt, the higher is the state of civilization. When the senses gained the supremacy, man lost all real knowledge of spiritual things. Senses absolutely controlled man at the time of the first Covenant with Abraham. Abraham was evidently the only one of his age who had any spiritual discernment. He believed Gods Word in the face of the testimony of his senses. Abrahams faith is the true type of the faith of a believer today. When Jesus came all men lived in the realm of the senses. if you will read carefully the four Gospels you will notice that they had only Sense Knowledge faith. They believed what they could see, hear and feel. Their spirit had no place in their daily life. Until the believer recognizes the two kinds of faith. He will never be able to enjoy his privileges in Christ. You remember Thomas as the outstanding exponent of Sense Knowledge faith. After the Resurrection, before he met Jesus, he said to those who had seen the Risen One, I will not believe until I can put my finger into the wounds in His hands and my hand into Firs side. John 20:25. Jesus suddenly appeared to him and said, Thomas, reach hither thy fingers, and see my hands, and reach hither thy hand and put it into my, side, and be not faithless but believing. Thomas fell at His feet and cried, My Lord, and My God. Jesus said, `Because thou bast seen bast thou believed? In this marginal rendering that I have given you there are tears mixed with reproof. Cant you hear the pathos in Jesus voice when He said, Having seen, hast thou believed? Oh, it is so hard for the Sense Knowledge folk to believe! Everywhere they are struggling and praying and crying for faith, but faith does not come that way. Faith comes by getting acquainted with the lather through the Word. Not in studying the Word alone, but by actually living the Word; doing the Word; practicing the Word, and letting the Word live in us. In John 6 the multitude said, Show us a sign that we may believe. Jesus said, This generation seeketh a sign. That generation did not seek a sign any more than our generation does. Let any man be advertised to speak who has spectacular manifestations, and he will fill the house. Why? Because this generation does not believe the Word, but it does believe in signs and wonders, something that thrills the senses. On the day of Pentecost a new era began. We call it the Dispensation of the Holy Spirit. That is only half the truth. It is the Dispensation of the recreated human spirit. The part of man that is recreated is his spirit. The sense-ruled mind is renewed by the Holy Spirit through the Word, so that the renewed mind can have fellowship with the recreated human spirit. The cultivation of our spirits comes through our giving this spirit right of way in our daily walk. You remember that Jesus said, quoting from Deuteronomy, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out from the mouth of God. Gods Word is inspired by the holy Spirit, and it is the food of the recreated human spirit. As we meditate in the Word, and become doers of the Word, our spirits slowly but surely gain the ascendancy over our sense-ruled mind. You remember that in the sixth chapter of Romans the Spirit says, Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey the desires thereof. Rom. 6:12-13. Sin reigns in the senses. There is nothing wrong with the physical body, the wrongness lies in the senses gaining control of our bodies and causing us to do the things we should not do. Our spirits are brought into subjection to the senses when the members of our bodies (governed by the senses) gain control. Your conscience is the voice of your human spirit, or the recreated spirit. As the spirit is educated in the Word, the conscience (or voice becomes more and more authoritative. I have come to believe that if one fellowships with the Word, under the illumination of the Holy Spirit, that after a bit the human spirit can become a perfect guide. What we have called the hunch is simply our spirit speaking to us. The mind of the spirit is in fellowship with God. The Word is the food and life of the spirit. If we wall: in love, the spirit has perfect freedom to guide us. You understand that faith and love both come from the recreated human spirit. Faith grows as eye practice love. As we practice love the Father becomes more and more real to us. The Word becomes more and more precious. Its hidden assets are revealed to us. I Cor. 2:12 declares, But we received not the spirit of the world (that is the spirit of the natural man( but the spirit which is from God, that we might know the things that are freely given us of God. Our spirits, that have received their life from God, are able to know the things of God: while the natural minds, dominated by the senses, are unable to know the things that are freely given to us in the Redemptive work of Christ. The natural man cannot understand the expression in Christ or ;what it means, but the God-taught. recreated spirit grasps it with eager joy. We can see now that the greatest need of the present day church is the renewing of the minds of the believers, and of the education and development of the recreated spirit. The average Christian today is carnal, or sense ruled. They are babes in Christ. They walk after the manner of men, or the senses. They have never learned the way of love. They are full of talk, but they are not doers of the Word. Their wisdom is the wisdom of natural men. They are ever striving, but never arriving. There is only one way to help these people, and that is to tea, h them how to take their place in Christ, to become doers of the Word, and not hearers only. THE HIDDEN MAN Kindly share this post
Posted on: Thu, 23 Oct 2014 17:00:01 +0000