RECEIVING A GLIMPSE OF THE RESURRECTION LIFE BEFORE WE DIE PART 6

TEEN TREE OF LIFE
Receiving A Glimpse Of
The Resurrection Life Before We Die
Part 6
December 8, 2019

Before you begin, ask yourself a very important question: Do you believe that Jesus Christ died on The Cross for all of your sins? If you answered yes, you will need to be sure that you are filled with The Holy Spirit. How do you do this? You name your sins to God The Father in His Son’s Name. This is called Rebound. As a Christian, you must rebound any time you sin. This is taught in 1JOHN 1:9: If we confess [name] our sins [directly to God], He [God] is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Now, if you have never believed that Jesus Christ died on The Cross for all of your sins, all you have to do is say to yourself that you believe in Him and you are saved! The Bible verse which teaches us this is ACTS 16:31: “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved.”

We established last week that as believers who aspire to Spiritual maturity, our goal needs to be to think like The Lord Jesus Christ. This is called The Mind of Christ and we can only reach this goal through our daily intake of Bible doctrine and by operating in the Pre-Designed Plan of God by being Filled with The Holy Spirit applying His Word. When we do this, we are functioning with Divine viewpoint (the thinking of God) in every facet of our lives. The apostle Paul wrote: For who has known the mind of the Lord, that he will instruct Him? But we have the mind of Christ. (1CO 2:16) Look at this translation of 1CO 2:14-16 in The Message Bible: The unspiritual self, just as it is by nature, can’t receive the gifts of God’s Spirit. There’s no capacity for them. They seem like so much silliness. Spirit can be known only by spirit—God’s Spirit and our spirits in open communion. [This is being Filled with The Holy Spirit] Spiritually alive, we have access to everything God’s Spirit is doing, and can’t be judged by unspiritual critics. Isaiah’s question, “Is there anyone around who knows God’s Spirit, anyone who knows what he is doing?” has been answered: Christ knows, and we have Christ’s Spirit. Christ’s Spirit enables us to, not only have The Mind of Christ, but also to have the Resurrection Life!

If we keep on living the Spiritual life by staying in God’s Pre-Designed Plan, we’ll keep on reaping more and more of what Paul taught in these verses – the Resurrection Life.  It all really begins at Spiritual Self-Esteem. Spiritual Self-Esteem is the believer’s dependence on what has been provided to us through God’s Logistical Grace.

Logistical grace is defined as the Divine planning, Divine support, Divine provision, and Divine blessing, given by God to every Church-Age believer in order to be able to execute His Pre-Designed Plan. Logistical grace includes everything that you would need to fulfill His Plan. It includes food, water, clothes, shelter, air to breathe, a Bible, a pastor-teacher, etc. Logistical grace is a free gift, given out of God’s Grace. It is a gift which comes from His Justice.

Spiritual Self-Esteem is the foundation for the stability of your Christian life. It’s the first stage of spiritual adulthood and begins with a series of changes which occur in your life. First, you have tranquility and begin to relax in your soul.  Next is stability of your mental attitude, including never feeling threatened by others and avoiding excessive ambition and competition. You’ll also experience composure and self-assurance; this comes from the correct and accurate application of Bible doctrine to your life. Eventually you’ll experience Grace-Orientation which includes giving other people in your life the benefit of the doubt. The idea here is you’re treating others with the grace with which God treated you.

Another change you’ll see is you’ll have Doctrinal-Orientation. You’ll become more focused on God’s Word. Your focus has to be based on genuine humility, objectivity, teachability, and spiritual common sense. Doctrinal-Orientation is God’s truth circulating in your souls for offensive and defensive action in your Christian walk. This means you’ll see yourself applying God’s Word in your dealings with the trials of everyday life.

As you mature spiritually, you’ll notice yourself making good decisions from a position of strength. This position of strength includes motivation from personal love for God the Father along with Divine viewpoint thinking. You’ll also experience personal control of your life. You’ll develop a Personal Sense of Destiny, which includes solving the problems you face daily. You’ll also see yourself having self-confidence from knowing God’s Word and applying metabolized doctrine to your experiences.

All these characteristics improve and become stronger at the next two stages of spiritual growth: spiritual autonomy and spiritual maturity.  In spiritual autonomy the believer has become spiritually self-sustained having maximum love for God and impersonal, unconditional love for all mankind.

Now let’s look at the supergrace life which the point at which a believer reaches maximum glorification of Jesus Christ. Supergrace is mentioned in JAM 4:6: But He gives a greater grace. Therefore, it says, “God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble.” At supergrace, the normal function of the Royal Priesthood and the production of Divine good begin. So, when a believer reaches spiritual maturity and goes on to supergrace (which is what the apostle Paul was after), then he will have the privilege of experiencing the ultimate spiritual life – Resurrection Life.

And you know what? Our Lord and Savior didn’t teach that if we believe in Him that only when we die, will we have eternal life.  He prophesied that we could have this life now! Look at what He said in  JOH 5:24 (The Message Bible): “It’s urgent that you listen carefully to this: Anyone here who believes what I am saying right now and aligns himself with the Father, who has in fact put me in charge, has at this very moment the real, lasting life and is no longer condemned to be an outsider. This person has taken a giant step from the world of the dead to the world of the living.”

If we only realized the magnitude of God’s desires for our lives, we would relax and enjoy every day, living one day at a time.  If we lived like this, we wouldn’t have any doubts about the thoroughness of the work of God the Holy Spirit in our lives.

As you grown spiritually, you will slowly come to accept that whatever God does in your life is just and fair.  You’ll realize that, whether it’s an attack from the kingdom of darkness; or simply your own natural weakness exposed; or if it’s unjust treatment from others – whatever is happening is justified.  You will come to the realization that you’re being prepared for something that He has put before you to make you grown and to bless you.

Before Paul died he made a great statement about this principle in 1TI 6:11-12(The Message Bible): Run for your life from all this. Pursue a righteous life—a life of wonder, faith, love, steadiness, courtesy. Run hard and fast in the faith. Seize the eternal life, the life you were called to, the life you so fervently embraced in the presence of so many witnesses.