02.10. CHAPTER 10: UNDERSTANDING GODS WORKMANSHIP IN US

CHAPTER 10: UNDERSTANDING GOD’S WORKMANSHIP IN US As we learn to do all things in thought, word and deed in the Spirit of CHRIST, our soul – comprising our mind, will and emotions - is increasingly perfected and completed in conformance to CHRIST. As we have said that this comes about as HIS Nature and Character is perfected and completed into us!

It is important to understand that our increasingly true responses to GOD – in word and deed - arise as we are renewed in the spirit of our mind (see Ephesians 4:23-24 and Romans 12:2; Romans 12:1-3) with the nature and character of JESUS CHRIST. Our mind, and every function of our soul that arises from our mind set, is perfected in and by and through the contents of the Spirit Of CHRIST – quickened by the HOLY SPIRIT from our spirit man!

[Tongues are a powerful tool in quickening the Word resident in or, alive to our spirit by the HOLY SPIRIT – into our mind, will and emotions. This quickening of the Word arises in and through the Witness of JESUS CHRIST, alive in our spirit in Spirit, Water and Blood (see 1 John 5:8; 1 John 5:10 a; John 19:30; John 19:34). This reality in the functional Witness of Spirit, Water and Blood is prophetically addressed as the true and faithful Witness (see Revelation 3:14 b) that gives expression to the AMEN of GOD’s Word, Testimony and, Witness - in us and amongst us, and through us. In this Witness actualized (and developed in our inward parts through the perfecting of our soul functions) we too can become true and faithful in GOD – as we increasingly function by the SPIRIT, in CHRIST JESUS (see Romans 8:2) through the true and faithful Witness, described functionally in Spirit, Water and Blood.]

We are renewed in our mind as we “put on the new self, which in GOD has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth” - see Ephesians 4:24.

[This new self unveils in the image of JESUS CHRIST as we receive and actualize – in our spirit and through our soul - HIS Fullness from the revealed Word (see Mark 4:22). HIS Fullness, communicated in HIS Spirit and HIS Life, is configured functionally – in growing measures of completion - through extracts of HIS Nature and Character being manifested into our soul.

And, our configuring in CHRIST JESUS, by the HOLY SPIRIT, becomes the form and substance of our new self – in HIS image (see Romans 8:28-30). We become actually CHRIST-like because of the substance of HIS Fullness formed in us.

Such a reality of a new self in HIS Fullness opens to our soul only as our mind is renewed. This renewal establishes our mind in a framework of thought that is prophetically described as the Mind of CHRIST (see 1 Corinthians 2:16)! Such a mind set facilitates our willingness to make true (right) choices in GOD. Without the capacity to make true choices through the Mind of CHRIST, we can only make choices in our flesh (see Romans 8:5-9).]

We are renewed in our mind by choosing not to be conformed to this world, by proving what the will of GOD is – “that which is good and acceptable and perfect” as noted in Romans 12:2! Please understand that the capacity to choose arises as we are strengthened in CHRIST in our mind set.

“That which is good and acceptable and perfect” arises exclusively in the reality of CHRIST being formed in us (see Galatians 4:19)! And, in CHRIST being formed in us we are being functionally enabled to actually do - all things - through CHRIST WHO strengthens us (see Php 4:13, KJV)!

CHRIST is formed in us as the contents of HIS life-giving Spirit is perfected and completed into our inward parts of soul and spirit - in functional terms – in word and deed (see Colossians 3:17). In this manner we put on CHRIST through the formation of HIS Spirit into our mind, will and emotions, through actual extracts of HIS Nature and Character being worked into us by the HOLY SPIRIT.

What is perfected into us through the Spirit of CHRIST is HIS Nature and Character! And, this is the essential and exclusive reality that will enable our destiny in eternity to unfold..

Every choice – expressed in some measure of the Spirit Of CHRIST - that results in some measure of right (true) action is an expression of the righteousness of GOD actualized. The Righteousness of GOD comes through the Nature and Character of JESUS CHRIST being functionally perfected and completed into us by the HOLY SPIRIT.

[Opposing this is a reality of trying to be righteous in our own flesh - attempting to be ‘good’ in and by ourselves. This reality the Scriptures judge, declaring that our righteousness is quite simply “filthy rags” (see Isaiah 64:6). And, the reason is because GOD’s thoughts and ways are entirely unlike our thoughts and ways (see Isaiah 55:8-9).] The exercise of our mind, our will and, our emotions in CHRIST, by the HOLY SPIRIT perfects us in the constituent ingredients of the Spirit and Life of CHRIST JESUS.

What is perfected and completed into us – into our mind, our will and, our emotions - from the Spirit and Life of JESUS CHRIST, is what flows out of HIS Nature and Character – the constituent ingredients of HIS Nature and HIS Character.

What flows out of the constituent ingredients of HIS Nature and HIS Character is a fruitfulness that bears testimony to HIM being alive in us in some measure of HIS Fullness. This fruitfulness flows out of a capacity to be fruitful in a reality that has abiding continuity! It is YESHUA’s Nature and Character contents or ingredients that will enable our mind, our will and, our emotions to function in righteousness and holiness of the truth! Absolutely nothing else will!

[Human will power exercised in the strength of our flesh is a spiritual deception (see Romans 8:5-8) prophetically addressed as legalism (see Galatians 3:1-5). Any attempt to establish and fulfill the Law in man’s strength and in man denominated terms is a deception of the flesh. The Law can only be established and fulfilled in the Spirit and Life of YESHUA (see 2 Corinthians 3:3, KJV/NKJV) – being established in HIS faith and, being fulfilled in HIS love, actualized in our inward parts through the exclusive ministry of the HOLY SPIRIT, as CHRIST is formed in us (see Galatians 4:19; Php 4:13; Php 4:19).]

And, this whole process of being enabled to function fruitfully in the Nature and Character of YESHUA is described as the Fruit of the HOLY SPIRIT!

It is the actual fruit of the HOLY SPIRIT’s labor with each one of us. It is the result of the HOLY SPIRIT’s workmanship of the ingredients of the Nature and Character of JESUS CHRIST into our inward parts.

Php 2:13 (KJV) declares: For it is GOD which worketh in you both to will and to do of HIS good pleasure. In Ezekiel 36:27 GOD declares: I will put MY SPIRIT within you and cause you to walk in MY statutes, and you will be careful to observe MY ordinances. It is the Nature and Character of JESUS CHRIST that causes us to actually change. In John 16:14, JESUS CHRIST says: HE (the HOLY SPIRIT) will take of MINE and disclose it to you .

We put on CHRIST in this process. That is, as we respond to what the SPIRIT is saying through the Word of GOD, we are being clothed with CHRIST (see Galatians 3:27, NASB) and, CHRIST is also being formed in us (see Galatians 4:19). And, the result is functional and fruitful – and, therefore fully verifiable! And, this is the essential proof of true Biblical Spirituality.

And, this comes about because the true Word of GOD – that stands according to the Name of GOD (see Psalms 138:2 c, NASB) - is a living expression of the Spirit and Life of JESUS CHRIST. And, this living expression of the Spirit and Life of JESUS CHRIST has been glorified in HIS death and resurrection and is available in a fulfillment potential in (and through) the Body of CHRIST (see Ephesians 1:22-23; Ephesians 3:8 c-11).

Through the Spirit and Life of JESUS CHRIST, we have actual access to living expressions of HIS Faith and HIS Love, HIS Heart and HIS Mind, HIS Character and HIS Nature and, HIS Witness and HIS Testimony! MASHIAH YESHUA’s Fullness is made manifest in us – functionally and fruitfully! And, we can measure all things by the fruit of the Tree of Life that is the growing “I AM” Testimony and Witness of JESUS CHRIST in us and amongst us! AMEN!

Ephesians 4:23-24 describes this process of being perfected from the perspective of the mind as: be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and put on the new self, which in GOD has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth.

What “has been created” stands in the Mystery of the FATHER’s will (see Ephesians 1:9; Ephesians 1:3-14). And, we actualize what has been created in GOD, as we are renewed in the spirit of our minds with the ingredients of the Spirit of CHRIST – by the HOLY SPIRIT. The life-giving and life-expressing ingredients of the Spirit of CHRIST facilitate our creation in CHRIST JESUS (see Ephesians 2:10)! We become living expressions of the workmanship of GOD (see Ephesians 2:10) unveiled in the image (see Romans 8:29) and fullness (see John 1:16-17, KJV+NKJV+NASB) of MASHIAH YESHUA!

Romans 12:2 elaborates: And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what the will of GOD is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect. The mind is renewed as the Spirit of CHRIST is perfected into the mind functions of our soul man, as we choose to exercise our mental faculties – both logical and imaginative - through the ingredient capacities defined in the Spirit Of CHRIST that we have actualized by the HOLY SPIRIT’s ministry.

All of the ingredient capacities of the Spirit of CHRIST are described in and out of HIS Character and Nature. Ultimately our capacity to do anything – in spirit and soul, by GOD - is governed by our soul carrying the Nature and Character of YESHUA as illustrated in HIS Words of Testimony in John 5:19-21; John 5:30. Our soul and spirit need to function in a co-mingled functional balance in CHRIST JESUS. This co-mingled functional balance of soul and spirit comes into being in our heart. Our heart is the functional interface between soul and spirit. Our functions flow out of our heart in commingled realities arising from our increasingly renewed soul and, our increasingly growing (new) spirit man. The schematic on this commingled balance is shown in Figure 10.

FIGURE 10: Schematic Of The Functions Of The Inward Man

In effect we are in this process learning to do all things through CHRIST WHO strengthens us. As our abilities to function in the Spirit Of CHRIST through the HOLY SPIRIT increase, we are actualizing the reality of being perfected and completed in MASHIAH YESHUA. We are actually being made perfect in the actual measures of MASHIAH (CHRIST) being formed in us (see Matthew 5:48)! For example: 1 John 4:10-12; 1 John 4:16-17 describes us being perfected in the love of GOD until we are perfected with the love of GOD resident in our inward parts: In this is love … that HE (GOD) loved us and sent HIS SON to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if GOD so loved us, we also ought to love one another. … If we love one another, GOD abides in us, and HIS love is perfected in us. …. And we have come to know and have believed the love which GOD has for us. GOD is love, and the one who abides in love abides in GOD, and GOD abides in him. By this, love is perfected with us ….

Choosing to receive and express the love of GOD that is being communicated into us - in the realized functional expressions of the Spirit of CHRIST - towards others, is to actualize the reality by which HIS love is perfected in us. As we choose to abide in love (in HIS Love actualized), HIS love is perfected with us – into our state of being - in all that we become with HIS love, as we express HIS love that is resident with us in all that we do in thought, word and deed.

Abiding in GOD’s love is a free will choice that also results in wholesome emotions being developed, as HIS love is perfected with us. We become a new person. So we are told, for example that: perfect love casts out all fear (see 1 John 4:18 b).

Indeed as 2 Timothy 1:7 (NKJV) declares: For GOD has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind. The capacities of power and love inherent to the Spirit of CHRIST results in a sound mind that in turn governs the functioning of our soul man in a reality free from fear and intimidation. This sound mind is the renewed mind that the HOLY SPIRIT has brought into being within us – from JESUS CHRIST. The sound mind is the Mind of CHRIST.

We see that our soul – our mind, our will and our emotions – is perfected through the Spirit and Life of YESHUA that the HOLY SPIRIT reveals and brings into being and position in our spirit man. We are perfected as we choose to objectively respond to what the SPIRIT is saying. The Witness of what the SPIRIT is saying is actualized in our spirit – in a Witness prophetically described as Spirit, Water and Blood (see 1 John 5:8); which, is the (functional) Witness of JESUS CHRIST resident within us (see 1 John 5:10 a) so that we may do all things through CHRIST WHO strengthens us.

Revelation 3:14 b calls this Witness the true and faithful Witness. This is an online Witness in GOD that functions by the HOLY SPIRIT, in CHRIST JESUS, before the FATHER. It is the Witness of the fullness and life of MASHIAH YESHUA perfected and completed into us. This Witness grows as we mature in CHRIST JESUS, by the HOLY SPIRIT. Being perfected is a spirit to soul to spirit cycle. This cycle is a continuum of being perfected and completed in CHRIST through the ministry of the HOLY SPIRIT. As our soul is perfected and completed, our capacity to choose to enter into the deeper realities of CHRIST JESUS, also increase, and our spirit man is able to realize greater actualities of the Spirit of CHRIST, by the HOLY SPIRIT.

Ultimately, responding to the HOLY SPIRIT, by choices enabled through the Spirit Of CHRIST, will be as unobtrusive as the act of breathing is to our natural man and to the functions of our natural body! In the foregoing passages and prior chapters of this book, we have now described the two basic ingredients to our spiritual being – our soul and our spirit. As Hebrews 4:12 declares, our soul and spirit are distinctive and mutually exclusive expressions of our status as a spiritual being. Each is a center of consciousness that is built through the Word Of GOD – through the ministry of the HOLY SPIRIT.

Each portion is uniquely built but, the growth of each portion is crucial for the growth of the other. For example, for our spirit man to actualize the deeper actualities of the Spirit of CHRIST, our soul has to choose to respond to the HOLY SPIRIT’s instructions and leadings.

So, while everything in our soul is enabled by what our spirit is actualizing; everything in our spirit is also impacted by what our soul responds to. Each part has a crucial and symbiotic part to play in our spiritual growth, function and maturity!

[Our soul and spirit are designed to be unique expressions of the Spirit and Life of CHRIST JESUS. Our spirit is to carry the functional potentials of the Spirit and Life of YESHUA. Our soul is to function in mind, will and emotions perfected and completed in the Character and Nature of JESUS CHRIST. In our soul we are in the image of JESUS CHRIST and in our spirit we are enabled to function like JESUS CHRIST. In our heart we have the fullness of JESUS CHRIST actualized from commingled expressions of our soul and spirit.] Hebrews 4:12 also makes mention of the heart.

Through what is manifested into our soul and spirit, through the unveiling of the Word Of GOD - in the Spirit and Life of YESHUA MASHIAH (see John 6:63) - we are told that the thoughts and intentions of our heart are judged (NASB) or discerned (NKJV).

What is our heart? And, how does our heart relate to our soul and spirit? And, how is it our heart is judged (discerned) by what is in our soul and spirit?