Spiritual Circumcision

[Gideon]

1 hour ago, angels4u said:

On our own, we can't do anything good but our victory is in Jesus the finisher of our faith .

Philippians 4:13 

13 I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.

Hi again. This is absolutely true.  And we can do all things trough Him who strengthens us, as we believe it. 

Here is my concern. We are told to examine ourselves whether we be in the faith. We start out by believing Jesus died for our sins and receive new life. The old us died. Right then. It may not look dead. But just like a snake that has its head cut off, movement does not indicate life. Why? Because God changes us from the inside out, not the outside in! We ARE dead and our life is hid with Christ in God!

And God, who is always responsive to faith, and only faith, asks us to believe this amazing truth. The old us does not need to die. I wasted 38 years trying to kill that sucker, lol, and got nowhere. The only good thing that came out of it was that I finally “got”that I could not do it. And it was at that moment I was finally prepared to take the next step of faith God has for each one of us. I believed that I died with Christ. I believe He not only was resurrected , I was too, totally new.

Now understand. I didn’t look so new. I was no fruit-filled orchard. But the weeds were totally gone. My battle to try to change me came to a much needed end. I admitted defeat in my efforts to transform me. His standard was too high, too hard. Why did it take me 38 years to realize it? An oversized ego did not help. Stubbornness either. I would have been much easier to simply lower the standard and rest content with positional holiness, but something kept me from doing that, so misery was my best friend for most of my adult life. Again, I was the poster boy for Romans 7. Wretched. 

So when we read the scripture  that you shared.... “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me”.... it is true, but only as we really believe it. We cannot sit back in our barkoloungers quoting that amazing verse, thinking it will all work out great. It will, but only as we believe it with all of our hearts. 

We get saved by faith, we shed our old carnal nature by faith, we  become new by faith and we are grown as new natured people into His likeness by faith. We do not grow from being old natured carnal believers to new ones from the outside in, working on one sin after another till at the end we are pure. It simply does not work.

Of necessity, we MUST understand and acknowledge (reckon) the purity that is inside us right now, at our core, no matter how messed up our outer appearance looks. LOL. Remember it is  God’s responsibity to grow that small but pure new nature inside us outward, and He finally does it, now that He is no longer with us, but IN us. 

Blessings, 

Gideon

 

 

[WordSword]

God is always "working" in the believer "to desire and do of His good pleasure" (Phil 2:13). If this is not eventually seen in one professing Christianity, it's highly improbable that He is not in him, because He works this in everyone born again!

[angels4u]

9 minutes ago, Gideon said:

Hi again. This is absolutely true.  And we can do all things trough Him who strengthens us, as we believe it. 

Here is my concern. We are told to examine ourselves whether we be in the faith. We start out by believing Jesus died for our sins and receive new life. The old us died. Right then. It may not look dead. But just like a snake that has its head cut off, movement does not indicate life. Why? Because God changes us from the inside out, not the outside in! We ARE dead and our life is hid with Christ in God!

And God, who is always responsive to faith, and only faith, asks us to believe this amazing truth. The old us does not need to die. I wasted 38 years trying to kill that sucker, lol, and got nowhere. The only good thing that came out of it was that I finally “got”that I could not do it. And it was at that moment I was finally prepared to take the next step of faith God has for each one of us. I believed that I died with Christ. I believe He not only was resurrected , I was too, totally new.

Now understand. I didn’t look so new. I was no fruit-filled orchard. But the weeds were totally gone. My battle to try to change me came to a much needed end. I admitted defeat in my efforts to transform me. His standard was too high, too hard. Why did it take me 38 years to realize it? An oversized ego did not help. Stubbornness either. I would have been much easier to simply lower the standard and rest content with positional holiness, but something kept me from doing that, so misery was my best friend for most of my adult life. Again, I was the poster boy for Romans 7. Wretched. 

So when we read the scripture  that you shared.... “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me”.... it is true, but only as we really believe it. We cannot sit back in our barkoloungers quoting that amazing verse, thinking it will all work out great. It will, but only as we believe it with all of our hearts. 

We get saved by faith, we shed our old carnal nature by faith, we  become new by faith and we are grown as new natured people into His likeness by faith. We do not grow from being old natured carnal believers to new ones from the outside in, working on one sin after another till at the end we are pure. It simply does not work.

Of necessity, we MUST understand and acknowledge (reckon) the purity that is inside us right now, at our core, no matter how messed up our outer appearance looks. LOL. Remember it is  God’s responsibity to grow that small but pure new nature inside us outward, and He finally does it, now that He is no longer with us, but IN us. 

Blessings, 

Gideon

 

 

13

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And God, who is always responsive to faith, and only faith, asks us to believe this amazing truth. The old us does not need to die. I wasted 38 years trying to kill that sucker, lol, and got nowhere. The only good thing that came out of it was that I finally “got”that I could not do it. And it was at that moment I was finally prepared to take the next step of faith God has for each one of us. I believed that I died with Christ. I believe He not only was resurrected , I was too, totally new.

Could it have been that you never died to your sins the first 38 years of your life because you did not surrender to God and did not made Him Lord over your life?

Could it be that the moment you realized you couldn't do it on your own you put your faith in God and became a born again believer?  When we become born again believers, God will seal us with His Holy Spirit and He will change us from the inside out , gives us different desires to follow Him,I remember how He changed me a little at the time and looking back now,He has changed me completely as I feel not home in this world anymore, my citizenship  is heaven where I desire to be but in the meantime,I have a job to do and that is to bring the good news to a lost world. God will change us a little bit every day and we sometimes don't even notice the change in yourself. My husband tells me sometimes that I walk with my head in the clouds LOL .  So ,it depends ,we might hear the word but not really hear it ,it has to penetrate our heart.

[Not me]

1 hour ago, angels4u said:

How can we abide by our own strength?

We can do all things though God who strenghten me

“He (God) gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak…. But those who wait on the LORD shall renew their strength“ Isaiah 40:28-31

Philippians 4:13 

13 I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.

“How can we abide in Him in our strength”? 

We cant! But blesssed be God He has made a way. 

And the proof of that way is “you shall bare much fruit” Joy, peace, love, the fruit of the Spirit. Victory over the old man and his deeds and so much more! Blessed be God for such a great salvation. 

Much love in Christ, Not me

[Gideon]

14 minutes ago, angels4u said:

Could it have been that you never died to your sins the first 38 years of your life because you did not surrender to God and did not made Him Lord over your life?

Could it be that the moment you realized you couldn't do it on your own you put your faith in God and became a born again believer?  When we become born again believers, God will seal us with His Holy Spirit and He will change us from the inside out , gives us different desires to follow Him,I remember how He changed me a little at the time and looking back now,He has changed me completely as I feel not home in this world anymore, my citizenship  is heaven where I desire to be but in the meantime,I have a job to do and that is to bring the good news to a lost world. God will change us a little bit every day and we sometimes don't even notice the change in yourself. My husband tells me sometimes that I walk with my head in the clouds LOL .  So ,it depends ,we might hear the word but not really hear it ,it has to penetrate our heart.

I understand that you beleive this, that our sanctification is progressive, bit by bit, and it is, but not as you imagine. The vast majority of believers still think they possess old natures of some percentage, some perhaps 50%, some less, some more, and that over time, we are changed from old natures to new natures saints. But we also do not believe we will ever, this side of the grave, be 100% new natures children of God. 

But that is not what the Word tells us. It tells us clearly that the old us died, the day we were born again. We are 100% new. But God also asks that we believe this, embrace it as our possession, and use it as the shield of faith that keeps Satan off our backs. Can we slip here into sin? Yes. But why? Because there is still a part of us that is not made new? Absolutely not! Early on, we can fall as we begin our good fight of faith because our faith is weak. That is the only reason. 

If what you said were true, would our congregations be filled with seventy and eighty year old saints who are laden down with fruits, dripping with holiness? We NEVER grow from old men to new man. Nothing profits but a new creature. Nothing. 

I do not doubt in my heart for one minute you love the Lord. But as long as we are in our old natures, or..... in truth, believe that we are..... we will continue to fall, again and again. We are healed, but only slightly. Sin still reigns over us at times. Self still does self type stuff continually. And most importantly, our old natures cannot.... will not..... love God with all of our hearts. And certainly, they will not love others as they love themselves. That is a no brainer. 

No matter how much we want to, self is still there, standing in the way. When are we ready to have our eyes opened? When  it bothers us to no end that we are not hating our life, and that we are not walking in the victory He has bought for us with His blood  When our hunger for Him outweighs our love for us, and we finally tell God we want Him to take over the reigns of our lives, to change us into vessels fit for His use,  and we are willing to reckon our old nature as dead, simply because nothing else will work, we will discover a walk that is beyond wonderful 

I was born again in 1972, but remained wrapped in my gravecloths fro 38 years, until the miraculous visitation eleven years ago when He opened my eyes to what I and others here are sharing. My prayer is that the truth will finally dawn on the true sheep and they will joyfully light their own lamps by believing the truth of what Christ bought for us with His resurrection. Brand new natures that DO take the way of escape when e are tempted..... every single time. 

Blessings, Angel

Gideon

[angels4u]

30 minutes ago, Gideon said:

I understand that you beleive this, that our sanctification is progressive, bit by bit, and it is, but not as you imagine. The vast majority of believers still think they possess old natures of some percentage, some perhaps 50%, some less, some more, and that over time, we are changed from old natures to new natures saints. But we also do not believe we will ever, this side of the grave, be 100% new natures children of God. 

But that is not what the Word tells us. It tells us clearly that the old us died, the day we were born again. We are 100% new. But God also asks that we believe this, embrace it as our possession, and use it as the shield of faith that keeps Satan off our backs. Can we slip here into sin? Yes. But why? Because there is still a part of us that is not made new? Absolutely not! Early on, we can fall as we begin our good fight of faith because our faith is weak. That is the only reason. 

If what you said were true, would our congregations be filled with seventy and eighty year old saints who are laden down with fruits, dripping with holiness? We NEVER grow from old men to new man. Nothing profits but a new creature. Nothing. 

I do not doubt in my heart for one minute you love the Lord. But as long as we are in our old natures, or..... in truth, believe that we are..... we will continue to fall, again and again. We are healed, but only slightly. Sin still reigns over us at times. Self still does self type stuff continually. And most importantly, our old natures cannot.... will not..... love God with all of our hearts. And certainly, they will not love others as they love themselves. That is a no brainer. 

No matter how much we want to, self is still there, standing in the way. When are we ready to have our eyes opened? When  it bothers us to no end that we are not hating our life, and that we are not walking in the victory He has bought for us with His blood  When our hunger for Him outweighs our love for us, and we finally tell God we want Him to take over the reigns of our lives, to change us into vessels fit for His use,  and we are willing to reckon our old nature as dead, simply because nothing else will work, we will discover a walk that is beyond wonderful 

I was born again in 1972, but remained wrapped in my gravecloths fro 38 years, until the miraculous visitation eleven years ago when He opened my eyes to what I and others here are sharing. My prayer is that the truth will finally dawn on the true sheep and they will joyfully light their own lamps by believing the truth of what Christ bought for us with His resurrection. Brand new natures that DO take the way of escape when e are tempted..... every single time. 

Blessings, Angel

Gideon

10

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be 100% new natures children of God. 

The last part of us will be perfected when we meet Jesus ,He looks at us now as complete because we are complete in Him. But as long as we're living in this wicked world we will always fall short of the glory of God.

…22And this righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no distinction, 23for all have sinned fall short of the glory of God, 24and are justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.…Romans 3:23

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Early on, we can fall as we begin our good fight of faith because our faith is weak. That is the only reason. 

With this statement I cannot agree because we will never be like God and not sin, only God is sinless. We will sin until the day we die,all it takes is an unfriendly word or act. It doesn't take much to sin..

Can you say from yourself that there are days that you don't sin? 

Quote

If what you said were true, would our congregations be filled with seventy and eighty year old saints who are laden down with fruits, dripping with holiness?

I do see people filled with the Holy Spirit ! And they don't have to be old

By their fruits  and their love we shall know them

Quote

I do not doubt in my heart for one minute you love the Lord. But as long as we are in our old natures, or..... in truth, believe that we are..... we will continue to fall, again and again. We are healed, but only slightly. Sin still reigns over us at times. Self still does self type stuff continually. And most importantly, our old natures cannot.... will not..... love God with all of our hearts. And certainly, they will not love others as they love themselves. That is a no brainer. 

2

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We are healed, but only slightly.

With this I have to disagree :

But He was pierced for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by His wounds, we are healed. Isaiah 53:5

Where does it say we're not completely healed? We're healed but we will be perfected when we meet The Lord

Quote

No matter how much we want to, self is still there, standing in the way. When are we ready to have our eyes opened? When  it bothers us to no end that we are not hating our life, and that we are not walking in the victory He has bought for us with His blood  When our hunger for Him outweighs our love for us, and we finally tell God we want Him to take over the reigns of our lives, to change us into vessels fit for His use,  and we are willing to reckon our old nature as dead, simply because nothing else will work, we will discover a walk that is beyond wonderful 

Our eyes will be opened when Jesus removes the veil of unbelieve and this happens at our  new birth,when we become born again,it is then that we understand what it means to become a believer and follower of Jesus Christ. And then the Holy Spirit leads us in all truth and takes over and we start  to run the race which is set before us

 

Quote

I was born again in 1972, but remained wrapped in my gravecloths fro 38 years, until the miraculous visitation eleven years ago when He opened my eyes to what I and others here are sharing. My prayer is that the truth will finally dawn on the true sheep and they will joyfully light their own lamps by believing the truth of what Christ bought for us with His resurrection. Brand new natures that DO take the way of escape when e are tempted..... every single time. 

I was born again in 1981 and it was then when my life changed drastically ,the conviction of the Holy Spirit was very strong and He started to change me day by day, one of the first convictions was to get rid  of many books and music which I loved  and also an embroidery of horoscopes which I was working on..it went right in the garbage!

 

 

 

[Sower]

6 hours ago, Gideon said:

Very true. Our job is to abide. And how do we abide? By faith? His job is to produce the fruit. 

Our job is to “make our tree good”. We do that by casting off our old nature that can never become good, and putting on our new man that already IS good. And when we do, t our amazement and delight, our dormant buds that were there all along begin to swell and bring forth fruits. 

Our  job is not to whack off the bad fruit as fast as it appears. The very nature of our old man is to produce bad fruit. So how do we finally cease from producing bad fruit.... I.e. sin? The ax must be laid to the very root of the tree. It must die. But we cannot kill it, for self will never crucify self .

So where is our hope of ever becoming “good Christians”?  It is when we finally come into agreement with our God that the day we got saved, our old nature died with Christ. We have been new natured people all along, but it has, up til now, not profited us, because this glorious truth has  not being mixed with faith. 

So how can we escape the grip of this old nature and walk in the new? It is easy. The hard part is arriving at the point we can admit our old nature is untamable and thoroughly wicked. But when we do, as Paul did in Romans 7, and see ourselves, the old us, as wretched men, and cry out for the faith to believe the old us really did die and we are truly new creatures in Christ, our God will blow on our faith, even if it is but mustard seed size, and we will see how real our victory really is. 

Blessings brother, 

Gideon

Abide: To stay in a given place or state, continue, dwell, endure, remain. Tabernacle (pitch a tent)

Hi Gideon. Agreed. Our life is to abide, as branches, in Christ, the True Vine. For sure. But we are not the tree, but a simple branch, that can do nothing, and produce/bear nothing, unless it is attached to the vine (abiding). We cannot 'make our tree good'. That is the job of the vine tender. Our job is to abide. A branch not attached withers up and dies. The life is in the vine, and the nourishment flows to the branch that abides (in Christ), and it bears fruit. The Father is the one doing the cutting, and not us (the branch). The Father is the husbandman, the vine tender, the most important one in a vineyard, and He prunes the branch (me). I do not do the cutting, as my job is to abide and be pruned by the Father, His role.   I have wild mustang grape vines all over my land, and they are very long, going up into trees and chokes them out, and they bear little fruit. All the nourishment is wasted upon the unnecessarily long vine, with little fruit.  As a believer, abiding in the vine, the vine tender prunes, cuts off, that part of me that is not fruitful (a job, a friend, a home, loss of an ability, etc). Then, there is much less me, and much more fruit. Cool. Much fruit glorifies the Father. Joh 15:8  Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples.
When I was saved, I really did receive  a new nature.  But the old nature was not removed. It still causes many problems. But the difference now is, I have a choice. Before I was dead. Now I am alive. A new creature, not I but Christ living in me. All things become new. If I feed the old nature, it gets stronger. If I feed the new nature, it will get stronger. CHOICE. Load up on ammunition (the word) Hide it in your heart! When I abide in my Savior, I simply create an awareness of God's presence, simple dialog throughout my day. And constant confessing of any missed mark/sin, especially the tiny ones. The really big ones occur in the mind, where nobody sees. But God.  This part, to me, is the most important, agreeing with God when I miss His mark, His standard, no mater how tiny.
You say: 'So how can we escape the grip of this old nature and walk in the new? It is easy'.   ?
I suppose it may be easy for you, but I still live on earth, with clay feet. Here's a  sample of various daily inputs I think on (receive data) and consider/discern to make Godly decisions:  1 the old nature. 2 the new nature. 3 the word. 4 the Holy Spirit. 5 the world. 6 the flesh. 7 the devil. 8 preexisting stored false data (memories-coping mechanisms- etc).
I make choices all day. Average person has 2500 thoughts an hour, 50,000 thoughts a day. It ain't easy! For me. But, it does get better in battle, when my new creation is equipped with weapons of warfare, and fed for strength, with the nourishment received, when abiding in Christ.     Let go and let God!

 

 

 

[brakelite]

4 hours ago, angels4u said:

I was born again in 1981 and it was then when my life changed drastically ,the conviction of the Holy Spirit was very strong and He started to change me day by day, one of the first convictions was to get rid  of many books and music which I loved  and also an embroidery of horoscopes which I was working on..it went right in the garbage!

 

Praise God for His goodness and mercy is forever. I remember distinctly the first day after being reborn the night before. I looked outside through my kitchen window up at the nearby mountain, and was astonished at the colours...the clarity...the vividness of everything. I had to go the front door and view the opposite direction to check I wasn't seeing things. Nuh, the same that way also. Everything was brighter, clearer, more sensual. I knew this was not just a new day, but a new life. Everything I had of the old life went into the fire that day. Magazines, music, books. Then a little later, my dope. The next day I owned my first Bible. From the moment I got out of bed that first morning, I knew I was a new person. I was 24 years old. 

Then I entered into the warfare; that war between good and evil over territory which we cede to the victor. The war over our minds. It is in our thinking that defines who we are, and what we do, and how our characters are revealed to the world. Once the mind is won, the body belongs to the victor. Today, the battle still rages. The greatest battle any person will fight is with self. Though the old man is dead in Christ, 'self' must die daily. Is that a contradiction? No, for it is through our declaration by faith...our confessing of truth as revealed in the Bible, our testimony to those things which we in our hearts and minds truly believe, that spiritual truths are experientially manifested in our lives. The just shall live by his faith. Daily we must reset our minds to function according to God's will and purpose. The rest we leave with Him.

[Sal Robinson]

The law reveals that we deserve death because our sin

so in effect the law highlights how amazing the work of Jesus is....blessing us with the indescribable gift of eternal life through his sacrifice....

The law highlights how greatly we don't deserve the gift that Jesus gave us

[Gideon]

11 hours ago, angels4u said:

The last part of us will be perfected when we meet Jesus ,He looks at us now as complete because we are complete in Him. But as long as we're living in this wicked world we will always fall short of the glory of God.

…22And this righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no distinction, 23for all have sinned fall short of the glory of God, 24and are justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.…Romans 3:23

With this statement I cannot agree because we will never be like God and not sin, only God is sinless. We will sin until the day we die,all it takes is an unfriendly word or act. It doesn't take much to sin..

Can you say from yourself that there are days that you don't sin? 

I do see people filled with the Holy Spirit ! And they don't have to be old

By their fruits  and their love we shall know them

With this I have to disagree :

But He was pierced for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by His wounds, we are healed. Isaiah 53:5

Where does it say we're not completely healed? We're healed but we will be perfected when we meet The Lord

Our eyes will be opened when Jesus removes the veil of unbelieve and this happens at our  new birth,when we become born again,it is then that we understand what it means to become a believer and follower of Jesus Christ. And then the Holy Spirit leads us in all truth and takes over and we start  to run the race which is set before us

 

I was born again in 1981 and it was then when my life changed drastically ,the conviction of the Holy Spirit was very strong and He started to change me day by day, one of the first convictions was to get rid  of many books and music which I loved  and also an embroidery of horoscopes which I was working on..it went right in the garbage!

 

 

 

Were the Laodecians Christians? If they kept on as they were, after seeing themselves through God’s eyes, was everything fine? Like them, we think we have need of nothing. Did He see them as complete in Him, or did He warm them that something had to change, and it was not Him?

Look closely at the book of Acts and you will see that this is what an alive church looks like, a church with ‘complete’ healing. Men would exclaim “ whole how they love one another!” They turned the whole world upside down because of their walking in their new natures.

Conversely, look at us as a whole. Split into 500+ different bickering denominations, with the world having nothing but disdain for us for our hypocrisy, as they see us saying one thing, doing another, well, that is being healed only slightly. We each look at our own walks and think everything is ok, and it might be ....but... the church as a whole is a mess. Listen to what God says about this:

”"You expected much, but see, it turned out to be little. What you brought home, I blew away. Why?" declares the LORD Almighty. "Because of my house, which remains a ruin, while each of you is busy with your own house.”

              Haggai 1:9

But God will not let His Name be left in disrepute. He will open our eyes... yes, awaken us..... to see what He sees, a people content without true Godly hearts, without eternal eyes, without real victory over the world, the flesh or the devil. And He will also let us see the real cure for our malaise, new natures that we can put on simply by admitting our old ones are a mess. 

You say we will never have real victory till Christ returns. But is that scriptural? Here is what God’s Word says:

“And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

                     1 Thessalonians 5:23

Are we not told that we are all called to possess our bodies in sanctification and honor? Are we not urged to bring every thought, let alone our actions, unto the obedience of Christ? And when is this to occur? In this life, right now.

And when we as the church awake to this, and put ofd our old natures as if they are filthy rags, which they are, and put on our new ones, created in righteousness and true holiness, and learn how to abide in Him, where He keeps us from falling, all day, every day, just as He promised, the world will look on in amazement. 

God is coming back for a bride prepared for the wedding. We are not ready. Is it possible that there are individuals who are indeed ready? Yes. But if they are truly walking in the Lord, they will carry an overwhelming burden to see the bride as a whole to be found  resplendent in glory, filled with love for both God and for one another.

This may seem as impossible right now.. Thank God that is His specialty.

Blessings, 

Gideon