In our previous posting we emphasized an amazing truth of which much of the church is unaware—we are all ADDICTED to the forbidden fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil! 
When Adam ate of that fruit in the Garden, the whole human race was dramatically and permanently altered. We, as Adam’s future descendants who were “in him,” moved permanently away from simply trusting that everything God told us was true, right, and unquestioningly obeyed. Instead, in that act of independence we decided to determine each issue independently, for ourselves, with our own “free-will!” .
How can we break this unrecognized, incredibly strong hold this addiction has on each of us as Adam’s descendants? I firmly believe that “For as a man thinks in his heart, so is he” (Proverbs 23:7), and “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are … My thoughts than your thoughts” (Isaiah 55:9). Can we begin to THINK A NEW WAY (GOD’S) that will break this addiction to demanding our “free-will?”
That door was opened to think God’s way at the cross, when God placed all us fallen descendants of Adam in His Son Jesus Christ. Then we died in Him, rose from the dead in Him, ascended to Heaven in Him, and currently reign over the earth in Him from His right hand! That is not some fictitious, “positional truth,” that is simply theological clap-trap that is not “really true.” Is there not a real, invisible, spirit-world, right now, in which we live?
If you are an involved, growing Christian, you know there is! That world is a reality, right now!.
“And do not be conformed to this world (and its ways of thinking and living), but be transformed by the RENEWING OF YOUR MIND (to think and live God’s way in that spirit-world), that you may prove (recognize as genuine) what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God (God’s ways of thinking and living, right now)” (Romans 12:2).
or example, In God’s spirit-world in which all believers live, the Bible tells us serving others is really leading, being last is really being first and dying is really living! Yes, WE CAN think and live in this inside-out, upside-down way, as God is, right now, at work renewing our minds! I believe this renewal involves two factors that will always be present when this renewal occurs. The first factor is:
1. We will recognize that we are as “little children” to our Heavenly Father – He will become to us our “Abba.” (“Daddy”): “And because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying out, “Abba, Father!” (Galatians 4:6). “Abba,” an intimate, compassionate word, was combined with the firmness and decisiveness of the word “father” to form the ideal title for Jewish children to call their fathers—”Abba Father,” This expression, Abba Father, just happens to be the perfect description of all leadership in the Kingdom of God—firmness and compassion!
Jesus tells us that unless we become as “little children” we will “by no means enter the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 18:3). In other words, until we learn to think in that spirit world as if we were little children who always trust our Abba Father, Jesus tells us we are not yet experiencing the freedom, power, love, joy and peace of living in His Kingdom!
But we will! We are ALLon a journey to that Kingdom, the New Jerusalem. We will experience ruling there as we learn to be as 4-year-old, little children who are learning to say “Yes, Daddy!” instead of “Why, Daddy?” in impossible-to-understand situations. We can do so because we know “Daddy’s got it!” At that time, in the spirit-world, we will know that we have entered the Kingdom! A whole new world has opened up.for us!
The second factor present when we learn to live in God’s Kingdom is:
2.We will transparently walk in the light with our associates in our daily lives, and willingly and openly confess our sins to them –
In about 600 B.C. the prophet Jeremiah prophesied the New Covenant that God made with mankind in Jesus Christ, the only reason I can so easily face my sin so honestly today:
“‘But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days,’ says the LORD: ‘I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.
‘No more shall every man teach his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ for they all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them,’ says the LORD. ‘For I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.’” (Jerimiah 31:33, 34).
This is amazing! Brothers and sisters, this is the world in which we live, RIGHT NOW! Not only is my sin ALL FORGIVEN by God, but it is ALL FORGOTTEN by Him as well. Since the cross, sin is irrelevant to God in my relationship with Him! Make no mistake, my continued sin will affect my physical life on the earth, bigtime, but God has amazing plans for His sin-embracing, repentant, little children that seem absolutely impossible to a good-works addict. They are mind-blowing. That is our next posting.
