Bible Study: One With Me, Never to Forsake Me

One With Me, Never to Forsake Me

You can download the audio here. If you want to access all the recent audio files, click here.

Enjoy the Bible Study and be blessed!

Chris

Who are you?  What drives your identity?  Identity – you are who you think you are.  As a man thinks so is he.

Proverbs 23:7a For as he thinks in his heart, so is he. (NKJV)

Proverbs 4:23 Guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life. (NLT)

This teaching has to be a reality in our lives.  This is either true or false.  It has to go beyond a mental assent.  The reality of this truth goes on forever into eternity.

1. God IS With Us

Matthew 1:23 “Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel,” which is translated, “God with us.” (NKJV)

This was His choice.  He could have chosen to plain just give up on us and He would have all the right to.

John 14:16 And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever— 17 the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you. 18 I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you. (NKJV)

This is the result of what Jesus did for us, the end result of Christ being here on earth – not to teach us good morals, not even to just die for our sins, but that the Holy Spirit would be with us FOREVER. God did not leave us as orphans, but kept His promise to come to us. This happened at the Pentecost.

2 Corinthians 13:5 Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Do you not know yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you are disqualified. (NKJV)

Only those disqualified (not saved) don't have Jesus.

More Verses!

Matthew 28:18 And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen. (NKJV)

After giving us the great commission, He promised the He would be with us always, even to the end of the age.  Those there hearing Him aren't around anymore, so it must be valid for us too!

1 John 4:15 Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. (NKJV)

John 14:20 At that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you. (NKJV)

John 17:26 And I have declared to them Your name, and will declare it, that the love with which You loved Me may be in them, and I in them.” (NKJV)

2. He Lives In Us Forever

1 Thessalonians 5:9 For God did not appoint us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, 10 who died for us, that whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with Him. (NKJV)

Even if you doze off…Acts 9:34

1 Corinthians 6:19 Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? (NKJV)

Our bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit. The temple of God (us) cannot have agreement with idols.

2 Corinthians 6:16 And what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For you are the temple of the living God. As God has said: “I will dwell in them And walk among them. I will be their God, And they shall be My people.” (NKJV)

Unequally yoked – use kingdom principles – like fighting in a war; who will be your buddy, your riflemate in war?

Hebrews 13:5 Let your conduct be without covetousness; be content with such things as you have. For He Himself has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” (NKJV)

He is ALWAYS with us, even if we have fallen and sinned.  He is not shocked when we sin.  He has already paid for it, but He wants to make us whole that we might be like Him again, made in His image.

More Verses!

Ephesians 4:30 And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. (NKJV)

Sealed for the Day of Redemption (that's why we can grieve Him – He won’t leave us!).

2 Corinthians 1:21 Now He who establishes us with you in Christ and has anointed us is God, 22 who also has sealed us and given us the Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee. (NKJV)

We have been SEALED with the Holy Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee that all His promises are "Yes" and in Him Amen to His glory!

Ephesians 1:13 In Him you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, 14 who is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, to the praise of His glory. (NKJV)

Because of our belief in Him, we are sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise. He is the guarantee of our inheritance.

3. He Has Chosen to be ONE With Us

1 Corinthians 6:17 But he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with Him. (NKJV)

Our spirit and His spirit are one, just like Jesus and the Father are one.  When we see the truth of this, our lives start to change like it says in 2 Cor 3:18.

Ephesians 2:14 For He Himself is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of separation, 15 having abolished in His flesh the enmity, that is, the law of commandments contained in ordinances, so as to create in Himself one new man from the two, thus making peace, (NKJV)

Jesus made Him and each of us into one!

Ephesians 5:31 “For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” 32 This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the church. (NKJV)

Two shall be one, as in husband and wife. Christ is such so with His Church.

4. Why Did He Go Through All That Trouble?

Because You are Of Worth to Him 

John 3:16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. (NKJV)

It’s called love.  Not what teenagers do in the park.  It’s considering someone else of worth higher than oneself.

For What Reason?

Galatians 2:20 I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me. (NKJV)

For you to be free from yourself, free from your sin nature.  When you are free from your sin nature, only your God nature is left!  Dead to the flesh, alive in Christ.  He wants to make you whole, make you back into His glorious image, restore you to what you were supposed to be. He wants to fill you with His fullness, that you might shine for Him, but it needs your cooperation to come to know His love.

Ephesians 3:19 to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. (NKJV)

So the World May Know

John 17:20 “I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word; 21 that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me. 22 And the glory which You gave Me I have given them, that they may be one just as We are one: 23 I in them, and You in Me; that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that You have sent Me, and have loved them as You have loved Me. (NKJV)

Jesus prays for the unity of His disciples to come, the church that with Him in us, we might be united with Him as one as He and the Father are one.

More Verses

Colossians 1:27 To them God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles: which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. (NKJV)

Christ IN us, the hope of glory.

Colossians 3:3 For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. 4 When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory. (NKJV)

Our lives are hidden in Christ. He IS OUR LIFE and when He appears we will too, in glory.

1 John 4:12 No one has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God abides in us, and His love has been perfected in us. 13 By this we know that we abide in Him, and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit. (NKJV)

5. The Take Away

God is with us. His goodness and blessings are ours.

God sees us worthy and saved us to be like Him.

He wants our lives to be lived in the Spirit.

Live this way, dead to self. It is truly fulfilling!

Bible Study - Made New Creations – Spirit Beings

Made New Creations – Spirit Beings

You can download the audio here. If you want to access all the recent audio files, click here.

Enjoy the Bible Study and be blessed!

1 The Spiritual Realm is the Reality

Would you trust your sight more or your hearing more? “If I see it, I will believe it.” Not “If I hear it I will believe it.” Seeing things in the spiritual should be even more important, for we walk by faith and not by sight!

If you were blind from birth, and suddenly could see, it would be a lot easier to discern where you are going.

Colossians 3:2 Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. 3 For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. 4 When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory. (NKJV)

2 Corinthians 4:16 Therefore we do not lose heart. Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day. 17 For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, 18 while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal. (NKJV)

We need to be more aware of the things your eyes don’t see, and be more in tune with the things of the spirit.

1 John 2:15 Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16 For all that is in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not of the Father but is of the world. 17 And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever. (NKJV)

The Spirit Realm is the Real Realm.  This world is passing.  Those who love the world show that the Father is not in them. We are not like that.  Lust - cravings - of the flesh, cravings of the eyes, pride in human accomplishments, they are of this world.

Legalism – pride of life.

This world will disappear, but he who does the will of God, to believe in Him, abides forever.

Romans 8:18 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. 19 For the earnest expectation of the creation eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of God. (NKJV)

2 God is in the Spirit Realm

John 4:23 But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. 24 God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.” (NKJV)

God is Spirit and we cannot relate with Him in fallen flesh. We need to be in the spirit, based on His truths.

Romans 8:8 So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God. (NKJV)

3 We ARE in the Spirit Realm – The New Creation

Genesis 2:16 And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; 17 but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” (NKJV) 

Adam’s did not die physically immediately – His spirit died when he disobeyed.  “Dying you will die”.  His body died later.

John 3:5 Jesus answered, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. 6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. (NKJV)

We were all born with our spirits dead, hence the HOLE IN THE HEART syndrome. And we cannot enter the kingdom of God.

GOOD NEWS – We are already spirit beings, having been made alive by the Spirit of the Lord when we were born again!  This is the New Creation!

2 Corinthians 5:17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. (NKJV)

Spirit was renewed when we were born again.  People not saved have no spirit and walk in the futility of their minds (Eph 4:17-19)

1 Peter 1:23 having been born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the word of God which lives and abides forever, (NKJV)

This is what “born again” means. Born again by the Word of God, now INCORRUPTIBLE, lives and abides forever.

John 17:3 And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent. (NKJV)

This is when I was born again, not at birth. Eternal life is already in me.  Eternal life is knowing God and Jesus Christ!

Ephesians 1:3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, (NKJV)

Everything in the spirit realm is ours today.  We just don’t see it in its entirety, but we must learn more and more!

Galatians 5:17 For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish. (NKJV)

Caught in the middle always is the soul, the seat of your will.  In areas where you don’t know the truth, the Spirit pleads “No contest” and the flesh has a walkover.  Only truth you know sets you free.

4 Window to the Spirit Realm – Believing the Word

John 6:29 Jesus answered and said to them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He sent.” (NKJV)

Believe in His LOVE. Believe that He had already made the way for you to be restored into His image, believe that He came to make you whole and to reign in this life.  His IS the way, as we come to know Him, these happen.

When we catch a fuller glimpse of this love in the spirit realm, nothing matters! We float over all things in His love (like a teenage girl in love for the first time!).

John 6:63 It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life. (NKJV)

John 1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. 4 In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. 5 And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it. (NKJV)

The word we believe in is not static, is not printed on paper.  It is alive.  It is the very Son of God Himself embodied in it.  That’s why He is the Way, the Truth and the Life, that’s why He is the Bread of life.

Our relationship with the Lord through His word is our window into the Spirit realm. His truths set us free.

John 8:31 Then Jesus said to those Jews who believed Him, “If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed. 32 And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” (NKJV)

The Word has to be more real to us than this world today.  The guidance that comes from the Word has to be real.

John 5:39 You search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life; and these are they which testify of Me. 40 But you are not willing to come to Me that you may have life. (NKJV)

We must have the Word through Christ.  We must read the Word in the knowledge of His love.

5 Spiritual Truths Vs “Reality”

The war is fought in the spirit realm not the flesh realm.  We need to have our thoughts moulded by the Word – our thoughts have to be in obedience to Christ and His Word.

2 Corinthians 10:3 For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh. 4 For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, 5 casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ, (NKJV)

We illuminate darkness with the Light of the Gospel, telling people that Jesus loves them, of the finished work of the cross.

6 The Take-Away

• God exists in the spirit realm
• He saved us making our spirits alive
• We need to get into the Word, knowing God’s love for us
• As our thoughts are subject to Christ and His Word, we see the spirit realm

Bible Study - Knowing God:He Has Made Us His Children

Hi All

Notes are below.  Click to download the audio - the download button is on the top right corner of the Dropbox page!

If you want to access all the recent audio files, click here.

Blessings!

Chris 

Yes we all start off as children of God.  Ultimately, our goal is to grow up into Sons.  Sons have the likeness of the father in character, are molded into His image, enjoy liberties that children don’t have and take a share of the inheritance.

Sons are ones who take on responsibilities and know the father’s business.

No such thing as status quo for a Christian.

1. Once Slaves

John 8:33 They answered Him, “We are Abraham’s descendants, and have never been in bondage to anyone. How can You say, ‘You will be made free’?” 34 Jesus answered them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, whoever commits sin is a slave of sin. 35 And a slave does not abide in the house forever, but a son abides forever. (NKJV)

The Jews thought that their heritage guaranteed them salvation, which Jesus said was not true.  Unless our sins are washed away, we continue to be slaves. Slaves don’t abide in the house with the Master. Only children do.

Ephesians 4:17 This I say, therefore, and testify in the Lord, that you should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk, in the futility of their mind, 18 having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart; 19 who, being past feeling, have given themselves over to lewdness, to work all uncleanness with greediness. (NKJV)

Slave mentality – slaves don’t have a choice. Once we didn't have a choice. Our lives were completely guided by the futility of our minds.  As it were, we made our decisions without a key sense, like blind men. Bible talks about the blindness of their heart.

Our hearts were meant to be guided by God’s Spirit in us.

We were hell bound, no choice, living a life that was meaningless and futile.

John 8:36 Therefore if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed. (NKJV)

Thank God He set us free to be guided by Him, to live a meaningful life!

2. He Made Us His Children!

Galatians 4:4 But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, 5 to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons. 6 And because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying out, “Abba, Father!” 7 Therefore you are no longer a slave but a son, and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ. (NKJV)

Because of the finished work of Jesus, because of His exchange with us, taking our place, we became sons through belief. We are no longer slaves.  

John 1:12 But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: (NKJV)

We became children. That’s just the beginning of the journey.  Children must grow up.

3. But If Kids Don’t Grow…

Some characteristics you see where Christians don't grow:

1 Corinthians 3:1 And I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual people but as to carnal, as to babes in Christ. 2 I fed you with milk and not with solid food; for until now you were not able to receive it, and even now you are still not able; 3 for you are still carnal. For where there are envy, strife, and divisions among you, are you not carnal and behaving like mere men? (NKJV)

Not able to understand the deeper things of God. Pervasive envy, strife, division in the ranks. No difference from unbelievers. Can’t tell us from those outside.

James 3:16 For where envy and self-seeking exist, confusion and every evil thing are there. (NKJV)

Key feature of such people is self-seeking.  Like babies.

Untruth:  The world teaches self-love, self-esteem, self-actualization. It is all self-ish!  Focus should be on God.

Hebrews 5:12 For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the first principles of the oracles of God; and you have come to need milk and not solid food. 13 For everyone who partakes only of milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe. (NKJV)

Unskilled in the Word of Righteousness.

4. Healthy, Growing Christians

John 13:34 A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. 35 By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.” (NKJV)

1 John 4:19 We love because he first loved us. (NIV)

Grow in love, especially for the brethren.  

John 17:20 “I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word; 21 that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me. (NKJV)

Grow in unity with brethren 

5. Eat Right and Grow

Grow in Love - Not your love, but His love for you

Ephesians 3:17 that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, 18 may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height— 19 to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. (NKJV)

Come to know Him, come to know what love really is.  What we call love is deeply perverted with all sorts of notions, so much of self, that when we start to realize His love for us, we get blown away.

Acts 20:32 “So now, brethren, I commend you to God and to the word of His grace, which is able to build you up and give you an inheritance among all those who are sanctified. (NKJV)

The Word of Grace – the word that speaks of God’s unsearchable goodness to us.

6. The Heavenly Diet

Deuteronomy 11:18 “Therefore you shall lay up these words of mine in your heart and in your soul, and bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. 19 You shall teach them to your children, speaking of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. 20 And you shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates, 21 that your days and the days of your children may be multiplied in the land of which the Lord swore to your fathers to give them, like the days of the heavens above the earth. (NKJV)

Psalm 1:2 But his delight is in the law of the Lord, And in His law he meditates day and night. (NKJV)

Psalm 119: 105 Your word is a lamp to my feet And a light to my path. (NKJV)

Proverbs 7: 1 My son, keep my words, And treasure my commands within you. (NKJV)

John 1: 1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. (NKJV)

God and His Word are inseparable and are manifested in Jesus our Lord.  Our reading of the Word must be from the view of a relationship with Him, His love.

Matthew 24:35 Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will by no means pass away. (NKJV)

Luke 4:4 But Jesus answered him, saying, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God.’ ” (NKJV)

We should “eat” God’s Word more than we eat meals.  Jesus is the bread of life, not the supplement!

Colossians 3:16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. (NKJV)

7. When I Grow Up…

Philippians 3:12 Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. (NKJV)

This side of heaven, we never finish growing up!

Galatians 4:7 Therefore you are no longer a slave but a son, and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ. (NKJV)

We are blessed.  The blessings will manifest as we grow.  Some may ask if it is material wealth and some are preaching that but those who ask such are not mature. Jesus did promise that our needs will be met, that we can be stewards of the kingdom.

We start to realize more and more who He has already made us to be in the spirit, that we are righteous, holy, one with Him, filled with His glory.  When we start to behold all these in the Word, scripture says:

2 Corinthians 3:18 But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord. (NKJV)

All the things that are in the spirit we start to possess, the glory of the Lord manifested in our lives. We start to enjoy an increasingly deep, rich and intimate relationship with the One who created all things, God Himself.

Jesus did not promise that we would not face trials, but that we would be overcomers in this life, that we would reign.

Like a tree, like in the sower and the soil, we start to bear fruit:

Galatians 5:22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law. (NKJV)

These are the greatest blessings you could live in. Start to lay hold of the blessings that are in your spirit.

John 8:31 Then Jesus said to those Jews who believed Him, “If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed. 32 And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” (NKJV)

Heir/inheritance. Freedom from bondage.

8. Grow to be a Son

Slaves	Sons
No relationship with Master	Intimate with Father
Cannot be like Master	Will grow to be like Father
Under law, get what they deserve	Enjoy Father’s love, rich blessings
Live in fear, don’t know God’s love	Live by faith, know God’s love
Are bound	Are truly free
No inheritance	Great inheritance
Don’t know Master’s business	Busy with Father’s business
Meaningless, deceived/defeated lives	Purposeful, overcoming lives

9. The Take-Away

• We were once slaves
• We have been saved to become God’s children
• We can’t stay as kids or we miss the whole point!
• Growth is marked by Christ-likeness, love, unity, fruit of the Spirit
• We grow by knowing God, His love as revealed in the Word
• The Word shows us who He has made us to be already
• We will be blessed as our relationship with Him deepens
• We will change and the fruits will show

Bible Study - Knowing God:The New You

Hi All

Notes are below.  Audio is here: Click to download it to your computer!

You can also access the whole load of Friday Night Bible Study audio files.

Blessings!

Chris 

The New You

This requires imagination. Let’s take a journey together to picture a few things.

1. Made in God’s Image…

Genesis 1:26a Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; (NKJV)

Do you think God looks like you?

I believe Jesus looked fairly ordinary. Already, His birth was lower than ordinary

Isaiah 53:2 For He shall grow up before Him as a tender plant, And as a root out of dry ground. He has no form or comeliness; And when we see Him, There is no beauty that we should desire Him. (NKJV)

[Thanks Lois for highlighting this!]

2. It was a Spiritual Likeness.

John 4:24 God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.” (NKJV)

God is Spirit.  Our association with Him is in the Spirit realm.  Those who have no spirit, who are not born again, cannot have any association with Him.

This flesh we have is dying, corrupted and corrupting.

Romans 8:13 For if you live according to the flesh you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. (NKJV)

When the sense that is the basis of judgment is changed, suddenly, the criteria of judgment are also changed.

Miss Universe judged by a panel of blind judges would result in VERY different winners.

Sometimes hard to tell my daughters apart on the phone!  

Try to imagine what the person looks like by hearing a voice on the phone.

The dissociation between spirit and flesh discernment is even more extreme. Spirit and flesh have nothing to do with each other.

Galatians 3:3 Are you so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are you now being made perfect by the flesh? (NKJV)

3. This Spiritual likeness was Lost

Before the fall, Adam and Eve were really in the likeness of God.

Genesis 2:16 And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; 17 but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” (NKJV)

We know that he did not die when he ate the fruit.  It was a spiritual death first, followed by a physical one eventually.

Romans 5:12 Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned— (NKJV)

4. This Spiritual Likeness was Restored by Jesus

Jesus came to restore, to bring us back to our original state. In this state, God had a perfect relationship with Man.

2 Corinthians 5:17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. (NKJV)

Colossians 1:13 He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, (NKJV)

1 Corinthians 15:54 So when this corruptible has put on incorruption, and this mortal has put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written: “Death is swallowed up in victory.” (NKJV)

5. He has put His Glory is in Us

John 17:22 And the glory which You gave Me I have given them, that they may be one just as We are one: (NKJV)

Colossians 1:27 To them God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles: which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. (NKJV)

This is a promise for the New Testament saint.  His WILL is to make known the riches of His glory, which is in us, manifested by the presence of Christ.

6. We Cannot See it with Physical Eyes (5 senses)

Everything the world tries to change is in the realm of the 5 senses.

Galatians 3:3 Are you so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are you now being made perfect by the flesh? (NKJV)

Walk by faith not by sight

2 Corinthians 5:7 For we walk by faith, not by sight. (NKJV)

7. Seeing in the Spirit

We need to do this

John 6:63 It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life. (NKJV)

Only the words of the Bible are life.  This is our sense into the reality of the Spirit world.  We will be blind to the degree we don’t know the Word.

Romans  10:17 So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. (NKJV)

This sense of faith gets increasingly sharp with our knowledge of the Word.

Romans 12:1 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. 2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. (NKJV)

Ephesians 4: 17 This I say, therefore, and testify in the Lord, that you should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk, in the futility of their mind, 18 having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart; 19 who, being past feeling, have given themselves over to lewdness, to work all uncleanness with greediness. 20 But you have not so learned Christ, 21 if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught by Him, as the truth is in Jesus: 22 that you put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, 23 and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, 24 and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness. (NKJV)

8. Observe the Mirror, Become Like the Image

You are who the word says you are. You become what you believe in the Word.

2 Corinthians 3:18 But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord. (NKJV)

What you see described about you in the Word is much more accurate than what you perceive with your five senses.  What that says is the REAL you.

9. Don’t Trust What You See

Including yourself – MUST see yourself in the spirit!

2 Corinthians 5:16a Therefore, from now on, we regard no one according to the flesh. 

Get familiar and used to who you really are in the spirit.

10. This is Who You Are

If you are born again, you are made in His image for real!

Colossians 1:21 And you, who once were alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now He has reconciled 22 in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy, and blameless, and above reproach in His sight— (NKJV)

2 Corinthians 5:21 For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. (NKJV)

We are righteous, holy and blameless! Ridiculous? It’s called love.

It’s called the Gospel, the Good news!

As we begin to take these in, renewing our minds with it, we will start to live more and more victorious Christian lives.

11. The Take Away

• Our spirits were made in God’s Image the day we accepted Jesus and got saved.
• We cannot see this renewed image in our 5 senses as it is in the spiritual realm
• The spirit realm is more important than the physical realm
• We access this realm through the Word of God
• When we focus on the Word of God’s grace, we believe and we receive the victory