Freedom to Fly!

I love this passage from Paul's teachings!  Several years ago the Lord gave me insight into it's meaning and a new life began to rise up within me.  It is this insight that I want to share today.  There is so much that God has spoken through scripture that refers to a then present and NOW present reality but our understanding has been weakened by our flesh because we have sought to understand spiritual things through our natural minds.  I hope this will provide a morsel of new revelation to those who read and a confirmation of what your Spirit already knows to be true. 

For many this is a chapter that is all about future events that are to take place in the sweet by and by when our Lord returns.  I have often wondered why so many await the Saviour to bring mankind into perfection when He has already come even as scripture says in Hebrews 9:26 "once at the end of the ages, He has appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself."  If sin is already put away why are we waiting for Him to come and "put away sin"? 

There is a plague of unbelief that has permeated Christianity and has adulterated the precious words of scripture.  Doctrines of fear, doctrines of condemnation, doctrines of unbelief, fill the annals of church history.  Now is the time of His appearing in a new way upon the earth as we are brought out of the darkness of religion and into the glorious light of His truth.  It is a day of rest, rest from the labour of religion and self-salvation.  It is the day to acknowledge our utter helplessness and uselessness apart from Him who is our life.  It is the day to be rid of the natural mind and and all the religious practices it invents and enter into the supernatural with reckless abandon so that the Lord can at long last have HIS way in us. The creation has been, and is, groaning for the appearing of the sons of God, the birth pangs are everywhere. (Rom. 8:19) 

2 Cor. 5 presents us with a wonderful explanation of what it means to come into fullness.  Paul is not speaking of death being the entrance into eternal life in this passage, otherwise he would never have said 'death is the last enemy to be defeated' and 'the wages of sin is death' and so on.  There is not one place in scripture where physical death is anything other than a consequence of sin.  The first explanation came in Genesis 3 at the fall.  Praise God,  our Saviour bore our sin in His body on the cross so that sin would be done away with and the last enemy death would be defeated.  Our natural mind cannot comprehend this truth because it finds its explanations in natural things.  Just as our mortal bodies will be swallowed up by Life, so our mortal minds also need to be swallowed up by Life.

Let's read on to hear the word of the Lord and no longer put our trust in what our natural mind comprehends but give up our thinking in order that the mind of Christ may bring revelation.

My comments are inserted in blue.

1 For we know that if our earthly house, this tent, is destroyed (literally means disolved), we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.

This is a reference to the Spirit Man who dwells within us all.  Having been sick for years I once cried out to the Lord in despair of my bodily condition pleading, "Lord I want a new body."  He replied "You already have a new body."  His meaning was clear and He confirmed it for me with scripture.

Col. 2: 9For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, 10and you have been given fullness in Christ, who is the head over every power and authority. 

2For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed with our habitation which is from heaven, 3if indeed, having been clothed, we shall not be found naked. 4For we who are in this tent groan, being burdened, not because we want to be unclothed, but further clothed, that mortality may be swallowed up by life.

Our yearning is not for the grave.  No one is running to the grave in order to find eternal life.  Our spirit cries out from within us, when we allow it room to operate freely, for Life and for our mortality to be swallowed up by it.  It is our sin-sickness, our short-comings, our missing the mark, that makes us yearn for a life that is higher than our natural life.  I know your Spirit knows that you have never yearned for the grave so that you could be made one with God. Our yearning is not that we be unclothed but that we be further clothed, that mortality may be swallowed up by life!

5 Now He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who also has given us the Spirit as a guarantee.

Some teach that we have been given a little deposit of God and that we do not yet have the fullness. In my past religious tradition it was explained that this little deposit of the Spirit was given to convict us of sin, I guess that so we would be motivated to change through guilt. It is also taught that because we only have a little guarantee of Him in us, a little morsel, we are only able to experience Him a little bit, and live in only a portion of obedience until He returns.  There is in no way confirmation in scripture for  that thinking, in fact there is much that points to the opposite.  This guarantee of the Spirit, which according to John is the Father and the Son dwelling in us, is simply and completely the seed of the fullness of the Godhead, planted lovingly in us by our heavenly Father so that we may grow up into the "full measure of the stature of Christ!" (Eph. 4) All the gifts and ministries of the Spirit have but one purpose: that creation would come into the glorious liberty of sonship!

6 So we are always confident, knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord.

The words "at home" in the body have nothing to do with being alive in the flesh.  Anyone who knows the Lord knows full well that while we live upon this earth in flesh bodies we are without a doubt NOT absent from the Him, even as He himself has said...'we have this treasure in earthen vessels', 'Christ in us the hope of glory', and Paul declaration when questioned about the authority by which he spoke, he replied, "Examine yourselves to see if you are in the faith,... don't you know Jesus Christ lives in you!"  This verse does not mean that while you are living in a flesh body you are absent from the Lord!!!  What it does mean is that while you are finding your comfort, being 'at home' in your flesh life you are absent or separate from the Lord.  Whenever we are confident and comfortable in our flesh as opposed to being confident and finding comfort in the Lord we are absent from Him and the evidence of His life is absent from us.  It is simply an exhortation from Paul to find your life in HIM not in your fleshly existance.

7 For we walk by faith, not by sight.

In other words we do not live according to the things we can see, or natural things, we live by faith in an unseen, but very PRESENT God who is the King. (Luke 17:21) 

8 We are confident, yes, well pleased rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord. 9 Therefore we make it our aim, whether present (with the Lord) or (in other words) absent (from the body), to be well pleasing to Him.

In brackets I have added what Paul left out but what is clearly inferred.  Our difficulty in "getting" it is only due to a misinterpretation, having been told that it is talking about when you are dead you are with the Lord and when you are alive you are not,  not because it is unclear or difficult to understand.  He is just reiterating what he previously said.  In other words being 'present with the Lord' OR 'absent from the body' is just two ways of saying the same thing.  To be present with the Lord is to be absent and not finding comfort or being 'at home' in the body or flesh. To be absent or not finding comfort and not being at home in the flesh IS to be present with the Lord. 

If you have had the experience of being filled with the Spirit and have known His workings in your life, you will also know that when He moves in you, your flesh is out of the way and when you grieve the moving of His Spirit, it is because your flesh is in the way.  If you have not been filled in a tangable way, seek Him for the filling of His Spirit and allow Him to begin to teach you how to abide in Him.

If this passage is indeed about dying in order to be with the Lord then this verse makes no sense at all. 

9Therefore we make it our aim, whether present or absent, to be well pleasing to Him. 

I have never known a person to make it their aim that when they are DEAD to be pleasing to the Lord!  Can you imagine saying "Yep when I die I am going to make it a priority to be pleasing to the Lord!" Also Paul makes it clear in Romans 8 that the flesh cannot please God.  So this verse cannot mean "Therefore we make it our aim whether we are dead OR living in the flesh, to be well pleasing to Him.  That would be ridiculous!!! 

He also says in 2 Cor. 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." We know without a shadow of a doubt that the Lord is in and with us if we have been awakened by the Spirit. There is no doubt about His presence if you have truly been found of the Lord.

10For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad. 11Knowing, therefore, the terror of the Lord, we persuade men; but we are well known to God, and I also trust are well known in your consciences.   

There is so much more to talk about in this passage.  What is the judgement seat of Christ?  When do we appear before it?  Is it all about a record keeping God who will one day unfold our LIST of sins while we stand before Him?  NO!  We stand in His presence daily if we are seeking to follow Him and if we are running from Him it is inevitable that we will come to a place of standing before him that He might do a work of separation in our lives: dividing between spirit and soul!  The words for judgement in Greek indicate a tribunal and also a separation.  We need to learn to daily come before Him and ask Him to judge our hearts, to expose us to ourselves so that we can work out our salvation.  There is no waiting for a 'day' to come, for He says "Today, if you hear my voice do not harden your hearts!"  God is not in the business of public humiliation.  He is all about healing and restoring and redeeming His creation.  He is not waiting for a day to set things straight, He is at work daily in our lives if we are surrendered to Him.  We are also seeing with more evidence than ever, that he is shaking the foundations of the earth in order to bring the lost to Himself.

12For we do not commend ourselves again to you, but give you opportunity to boast on our behalf, that you may have an answer for those who boast in appearance and not in heart. 13For if we are beside ourselves, it is for God; or if we are of sound mind, it is for you. 14For the love of Christ compels us, because we judge thus: that if One died for all, then all died; 15and He died for all, that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again.

Here Paul is declaring the victory that Christ has won for us over sin and DEATH, "that those who live should live no longer for themselves", finding their comfort and feeling 'at home' in their flesh, "but for Him who died for them and rose again."  It is so clear, is it not?

16Therefore, from now on, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him thus no longer.

It is time to stop navel gazing and putting all of our focus on the flesh, having our experience rooted in flesh, and seeing each other in the flesh.  Paul declares that because of what Christ has done we no longer regard each other according to the flesh.  Even Christ who once walked in a flesh body among men is now no longer known according to his flesh...for we now have a much deeper experience of knowing Him by His Spirit which resides within us and among us.  This is the walk of faith and not of sight.  This is the supernatural experience of walking beyond the natural, seeing in each other the life of Christ that resides there, even as Paul exhorted his hearers to "Examine yourselves to see if you are in the faith...don't you know that Jesus Christ is in you?"

17Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. 18Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation, 19that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation.

Once we begin by faith to see ourselves and each other as a new creation, the old having passed away, all things having become new, we will transcend this dimension, we will walk on "streets of gold"...which is just an allegorical way of saying 'our walk will be divine!'  How is this verse to be understood if we interpret the first part of this passage as meaning that we need to die to be with the Lord and when we are alive we are not? 

20 Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God. 21 For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

Finally, we are not waiting for something new to happen.  We are being called to stand up in what already has come to pass, to agree with what God has already accomplished, and enter into the righteousness of God in Him.  God has reconciled us to Himself.  He has prepared, through the death and resurrection of Christ, a dwelling place for Himself where He will live in unity and oneness with His creation.  This dwelling place is His temple, His Holy of Holies, the inner sanctuary, the heavenly bedroom, in which He waits to make sweet love to His bride eternally. 

"Don't you know you are the temple, the Holy of Holies, of the Holy Spirit who is in you?"  "Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Do you not know yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?"  Won't you come into Him, even as He has come into you?  Jesus said of the coming day of the Spirit at Pentecost in John 14:20: "On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you." If you realize His presence within You, endeavor to release yourself daily from the dead natural life that is the inclination of your flesh by offering yourself to Him so that the 'two shall become as one' together manifesting the glory of the Lord.  For "when the Christ -- our life -- may be manifested, then also we with him shall be manifested in glory." (Col 3:4 YLT)