Christ Is ALL - Chapter 4

Rebirth and Renewal

The true condition of all mankind is SPIRIT, "However, the spiritual is not first, but the natural, and afterward the spiritual." Spirit is the absolute truth of individual being but the earthy, natural man, is the one we see, hear, feel, smell, taste, and deal with on a day-to-day basis. Consciousness embodies all the universe but all that is in the universe does not embody Consciousness: All that God is I am but not all that I am is God.

The natural man does not receive the things of Spirit...nor can he know them; he is in the human condition, under human consciousness--sin consciousness--and this man of the earth is of the carnal mind and under its dominion. To say that the Adam man is God or a god of any sort is a lie. It is the self-centered lie that has been the fall of man from the beginning: thinking himself to be something that he is not; and trying to be that which only God is within him. Man of the earth is a natural human being, and can only expect to see the natural laws of good and evil in his experience. Man of the Spirit is a spiritual being and should expect to see the results of Spiritual Truth in his experience.

We can only be that which the creator has made us to be, and the first man was of the earth--earthy. The second man is from the heavens and is spiritual. The second man is the Real man, the Man in God's image and likeness, and this is who we are, but we can only enter into this Reality by Rebirth and Renewal.

Rebirth and Renewal as spoken of by Paul is the salvation that comes to us through the "washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit." "He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit." -Titus 3:5 NIV. We are saved or delivered from the human Adamic nature by being born from above--born of the Spirit--and then growing up into that truth by the enlightenment of the Holy Spirit. Our consciousness must ascend into the Truth of our being in Christ in God. This ascending in Truth is the renewing that is going on within us. As we are renewed in our mind to the Truth of our relationship with God in Christ, the understanding will permeate our Soul and we will give forth the expression or manifestation of the Christ.

"Our consciousness determines our outward expression." Intellectual knowledge is not enough. Whatever degree of Truth we have absorbed in consciousness, it is that Truth that will govern our life..."The government will be on His shoulders." To be under sin-consciousness will result in a belief of separation from God, and this will keep one under the bondage of corruption. To come to the realization of our union with God in Christ brings one into Christ-consciousness and this will lift one up into the heavens, the Mind that was in Christ Jesus, where we reign with Him.

The Christ resides within our being, our consciousness, and as we ascend into Christ-consciousness then that mind that was in Christ Jesus becomes our mind; and that mind is the Mind of God.

To be "born again" is to be birthed of Spirit. "Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God" -1 Jn. 5:1. In the human world the sperm enters the egg and life begins: in the spiritual world the Spirit enters the consciousness of man, bringing spiritual life where only spiritual death was heretofore. We were spiritually dead before this Seed of Spirit, of Life, entered into our consciousness, our spirit, and it was then that the New Creation Life began for us.

Jesus revealed to us that "unless one is born from above (born again), he cannot see the kingdom of God; and "unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God." He taught us that "That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is Spirit." -Jn. 4: 3-6. You were born into your human family a natural man: you were born into God's family a Spirit man.

In order for us to see the kingdom of God we must be born from above. The Spirit of Truth must impart Life within our consciousness and this enlightenment is being born from above. The impartation of Life, of Christ, enters the spirit, or consciousness of man, and he is born again. Man is born into a new realm of existence, spiritual existence, he has become a new creation. At this stage he can only see the kingdom of God.

For us to enter into the kingdom of God one must be born of water and the Spirit. The water speaks of baptism and baptism is in reference to the Death of Christ, and the Spirit is the Life side. Not only must we have the Spirit of Christ within our consciousness, but we must have an understanding of the Death and Resurrection of Christ as well. In this wise will we be able to enter into the kingdom that is within us.

To truly understand who we are in Christ we have to have a conscious awareness of the Death and Life of Christ and how this births in us the Reality of who we are. The Death of Christ destroyed the old Adamic nature, along with the sin and death that belong to that belief system. The Life of Christ brings forth the New Creation and the freedom of a new existence that we have in God.

Recognition of the Christ is the born again experience; and to whatever degree we recognize the Christ, to that degree we are born from above....that is, able to see the kingdom of God.

My desire, though, is to not only see the kingdom of God but to enter into its fullness with all of the glories it has for us right now. But we must be born of the water and the Spirit to enter the kingdom. Too many people believe that you have to die physically in order to enter the kingdom of God; that we must be born of a natural birth and then die and go to heaven to enter into the spiritual kingdom. The truth is: you must be born form above and then you must die to the belief of a personal self, and then be raised in the new Self that Christ may live His kingdom life through you.

To be born of water and Spirit is to be born of death and resurrection. We enter into the Kingdom of God through an understanding of the death of self, the personal "I" that I think I am...the ego, the natural man, and through the resurrection of the Self, the I that I am...the inner-man, the Spirit man--Christ in me.

The death of Christ was the death of self. It is no longer self who lives, Christ is the Self in me now. "Put on the new self who is being renewed to a true knowledge according to the image of the One who created him." -Col. 3:10 NAS. We are putting on this new Self by being renewed to the Truth of individual being: Truth according to the image of the One who created us, and we were created in Christ Jesus for good works. Whatever is true of Christ is true of you and true of me. Christ died, I died; Christ lives, I live. Christ is Spirit, I am Spirit, seated at the right hand. "As He is, so are we in this world." 1 Jn. 4:17.

We must be born again through the death and life of Christ, the water and Spirit, for us to enter the kingdom of God. It is then that we will take up our inheritance, put on our royal robe and the signet ring, and administer the Life of God as His manifested sons in His image. Forever will be removed the sin-consciousness, the consciousness of missing the mark; but instead, we will have put on our true identity through our Christ-consciousness, and will go forth working the works of God.

Being born of water is seeing the removing of the natural man with his lusts. Being born of the Spirit is to see the Life of Christ as the True condition, or the New Nature that we have in God. Consciousness is now imbued with the truth of being--the truth of who you really are--and you can enter into all the benefits of the kingdom of God. The water--the Death--removes the old man nature you believed yourself to be. The Spirit--the Life--establishes the New Creation Man that you really are. All of this must be established within your individual consciousness.

We are partakers of the divine nature through the washing of our new birth of Spirit, we have been regenerated...made new. We go down into the water with an old self-for-self nature. We then ascend into the new Self-for-others nature of Christ, and inherit our promise land--the kingdom of God--which is not a natural place in "this world", but a spiritual place in which we live and move and have our being. "My kingdom is not of this world."

You are COMPLETE in Christ.

We were born humanly into this world of the Adam family and this necessitates the need for our being born again. Adam was made a living soul, and that living soul creation entered into a state of death. Adam had a relationship with God in which he communed with God in the spirit of the day, but after the eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, man's relationship with God was severed. Adam became self-centered--this was his fall. The Second Adam is God-centered, and is high above all. Adam's life was perfectly cared for, he needed for nothing because of his relationship with God. God was self-fulfilling Himself through Adam and all was harmony till he fed on the belief in a selfhood apart from God; till he tried to be his own god. No longer was there a relationship of oneness. This was now a creation of duality. The living soul became double-souled; a consciousness of God within him that was now dead, and a consciousness of a selfhood apart from God. This is what is commonly referred to as the two natures of man.

The result of Adam's actions were that man was forever separated from God. Man built a belief system based on his separation from God, this system of belief is called the carnal mind. Out of the carnal mind, the mind of flesh, man has been living his own life, trying to fulfill himself and be his own god. But this will never work, he must be born again. Man must be born again in order to restore his relationship with God and enter into the dominion he was called forth to have.

The most wonderful truth is that when man is born again--born of the Spirit--he is not as he was in the beginning. Man is not brought back into the same relationship he had with God in Eden. Man is no longer a living soul that has been made right with God, he is a new creation... a creation of Spirit. "Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God." -1 John 5:1. Literally you have been BORN OF GOD, you have been born again into a new realm of spiritual existence.

Through the redemptive work of Christ Jesus man has become a life-giving Spirit. He is now birthed of God, not just a created being. The earth is a womb and out of this human experience God is birthing a family in which He will restore all of His creation, near and far, back into Himself.

Now are we the sons of God, and when He is unveiled in us we will be like Him, for we will see Him as who we really are. One day the full truth of Christ will dawn in consciousness and we will see who we really are. When this day dawns we will see that we are the CHRIST, sons of God in His image. Now don't freak out on me, I am not, nor you, personally the Christ, only Jesus was that; we are what constitutes the Christ in this earth. "The Christ" consists of head (Jesus) and body (us), a many membered Man. We are the body of Christ; the substance of Christ; the form of Christ. In this aspect we are the Christ, and this truth manifesting through us is the hope of glory. In reality, we are nothing but a transparency through which God shines through. That is what Jesus was. Of His own self He could do nothing...same with us; it is to be the Father that is doing the work. So will God reveal Himself to the universe through His family of sons.

"Therefore you are no longer a slave, but a son; and if a son, then an heir also through God's own act." -Galatians 4:7. We are no longer a slave to sin and death, and the fallen consciousness of man; but rather, we are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. As a son and an heir of God all that the Father has is ours.

We are told to "Cease ye from man, whose breath is in his nostrils: for wherein is he to be accounted of?" Isaiah 2:22, KJV. Man is a no-account in his own selfhood; we are now to live from the realm of Spirit, spiritual-consciousness. This man "whose breath is in his nostrils" is the natural man, the living-soul man, and we are not that man anymore. We are a spirit-man whose life is in Spirit, hidden with Christ in God. This is who we are. No longer are we the man of the earth, but now we are the Man of the heavens. He who is joined to the Lord is one Spirit. Not two; One.

"Call no man on earth your father," now the Elohim is your Father; no longer are you of the Adam family, now you are of the God family. As an heir of God all that the Father has is ours, and the earth is the Lord's and all its fullness. We now have a relationship of ONENESS with God in which there is no division, no separation, and no incompleteness. I, my true Self, and the Father are One. God is in me, I am in God, and we are ONE.

Our destiny is to be conformed into the Image of His Son. This has been the plan all along, and all of this is done through the redemptive work of Christ Jesus. Through Rebirth and Renewal God is birthing a family of Sons in His image and likeness, through which they will exercise all the dominion of God throughout all of God's vast creation.

"O Jehovah, our Lord, How excellent is thy name in all the earth, Who hast set thy glory upon the heavens!...When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, The moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained; What is man, that thou art mindful of him? And the son of man, that thou visitest him? For thou hast made him but little lower than God, And crownest him with glory and honor. Thou makest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands; Thou hast put all things under his feet:" Psalms 8:1, 3-6, ASV.

Sentient BEings
Christ Is ALL