I am the son of the living God (Romans 8:16; 1John 3:2). I am God’s offspring (Acts 17:28-29), born of His Word (1Peter 1:23). I am the original creation, in the image and likeness of God (Genesis 1:26). I am (in my true identity) not a person (personality); I am Spirit (Ephesians 4:4-6), one with my Father (John 10:30; John 17:21). I have the mind of Christ (1Corinthians 2:16). I have been given dominion over all creation (Genesis 1:26).
But I lost the ability to exercise that dominion when I became afraid and believed that I was separated from my Father, when I developed a conscience and came under the law in the attempt to bridge the gap that I believed existed between me and my Father. I took upon myself a persona (personality, carnal mind) and a physical body subject to countless limitations and fears. I descended into the hell of material, personal sense living. I was no longer the one in authority. I was rather a slave to this persona and body. I was without hope in this world of my own creation.
But my Father took upon Himself “the likeness of this sinful flesh” (Romans 8:2) and became a Hebrew persona who was tempted in all ways just as I have been, yet without sin (Hebrews 4:15). He knew that He was one with the Father even while undergoing the temptations to remain a Hebrew and become King of the Jews (who could feed, heal and, in general, bring satisfaction to their humanity).
He knew that He had come into this world to bear witness to the truth of our being (John 18:37), to take this mistaken identity (as one born of a woman who would someday die and be resurrected in the future) to the death to demonstrate the unreality of this identity and of the death it was so afraid of. He died to that persona, and when He died, we all died (2Corinthians 5:14; Romans 6:6-7). He demonstrated that resurrection was not this physical body becoming alive again in the future. On the Mount of Transfiguration He was able to show three of His disciples that He had already resurrected into the body not made with hands, eternal in the heavens, the body of light that Moses and Elijah also had.
After His so-called resurrection from the dead on what we call Easter morning, He appeared to various people in various forms and to Thomas in the Hebrew form with scars in His hands, again demonstrating the unreality of what we call the physical body. But long before that, He demonstrated His recovery of His dominion over all of creation, whether it be the weather, tax money or food and wine. He just went unto His Father within and did what He heard His Father say, even raising Lazarus from what we call death, but what He called sleep.
When tempted in the wilderness to become famous in His humanity by doing awesome miracles and even worshiping that humanity (see Temptations of Jesus), Jesus always responded to those temptations by speaking the Word that He heard His Father say.
I too must reclaim my dominion as Jesus did—and in the same way—by becoming aware of my true identity and speaking what I hear my Father say. I must cease to allow myself to be jerked around and dictated to by this carnal mind (“devil”), which is no mind at all, but just a belief in two powers.
When Jesus was tempted to not let Himself be lifted up on that pole as the last serpent man, He responded to His carnal mind (symbolized by Peter) with, “Get thee behind me, Satan” (Matthew 16:23).
This is the same “devil” (carnal mind) that Jesus destroyed on the cross:
Hebrews 2:14 Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil;
thus “bearing witness to the truth” and fulfilling the purpose for which He was born into this world—which is not the world that God created.
(John 18:37 . . . To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth. Every one that is of the truth heareth my voice.)
This “devil” which Jesus destroyed on the cross is the same “devil” He said was the “father” of the Jews who sought to kill Him.
John 8:41 Ye do the deeds of your father. Then said they to him, We be not born of fornication; we have one Father, even God. 42 Jesus said unto them, If God were your Father, ye would love me: for I proceeded forth and came from God; neither came I of myself, but he sent me. 43 Why do ye not understand my speech? even because ye CANNOT hear my word. 44 Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.
Just before saying this, Jesus had said to them:
v 32 And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.
and
v 36 If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.
What we need to see here is that Jesus came to “bear witness unto the truth” which would “make us free” while the “devil” (carnal mind, humanity) has “no truth” in it and speaks only lies. Jesus told those Jews that they “COULD NOT hear His Word” because they were not “of the truth” since they were of their father the “devil,” the father of lies. Only those who are of the truth can hear His voice (John 18:37).
Until I, like Jesus, know that “I proceeded forth and came from God,” I, like those Jews, CANNOT hear His voice and become free from the lies spoken to me by the carnal mind. I have not yet been resurrected from the death produced by believing that carnal mind to be reality.
Romans 8:6 For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.
Ephesians 5:14 Wherefore he saith, Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light.
But even when I have awakened to my true identity as the son of God who can never die, I still have to, as Jesus said and did (during His temptations in the wilderness), speak to the mountain of lies that the carnal mind still tempts me with:
Mark 11:23 For verily I say unto you, That whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith. 24 Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them.
Now those of us who have gone through the “word of faith” teaching have repeatedly spoken those “words of faith” without ever having what we said. We knew that when God said, “Let there be light,” light was, and that
Matthew 12:37 For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned.
but we found that speaking those words was not enough.
What was lacking? It was the realization that it was our humanity (carnal mind) which was speaking those words in order to bring about the desires of that humanity to be or do something to preserve or exalt that humanity (persona). We were not willing to
Romans 6:11 Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin [the belief in a separate self from God], but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.
or to accept
Colossians 3:3 For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God.
No, we wanted God to serve our humanity, and therefore could never reclaim our dominion.
It is only when we understand, as Jesus did, that
John 5:30 I can of mine own self do nothing: as I hear, I judge: and my judgment is just; because I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent me.
and
Mark 10:18 . . . Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is, God.
can we do the works that Jesus did,
(John 14:12 Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father.)
because we too will know that
John 14:10 Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? the words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself: but the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works.
and
John 5:19 . . . The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do: for what things soever he doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise.
Yes, we must become listeners (“Every one that is of the truth heareth my voice.”) before we become the speakers who have what we say. For then it will not be our humanity that is speaking; we will speak only what we hear our Father say. We will have let go of the personality so that we can again be the expression of God in this world as Jesus was.
Going to the death of His humanity was not an easy thing for Jesus to do
Luke 22:44 And being in an agony he prayed more earnestly: and his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground.
But He did it
Luke 22:42 Saying, Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done.
not only for Himself, but for all of us
2Corinthians 5:14 . . .if one died for all, then were all dead:
We just have to realize what “It is finished” (Jn 19:30) really means and stop looking to humanity (whether ours or anyone else’s) for satisfaction. We must keep
Hebrews 12:2 Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith;
When we continue to listen and hear His voice, we must obey—speaking only what we hear. Then, and only then, will we begin to do those “greater works” because it will not be our humanity that is doing them; but the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works.
A key word in the Mark 11:23-24 Scripture is “believe.” Even when we have heard the voice, we have spoken before believing. But that is the wrong order.
2Corinthians 4:13 We having the same spirit of faith, according as it is written, I BELIEVED, AND THEREFORE HAVE I SPOKEN; we also believe, and therefore speak;
Why? Although we read in the Scripture that “we have the mind of Christ” (1Corinthians 2:16) and that we should
Philippians 2:5 Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: 6 Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: 7 But made himself of no reputation,
we have found this to be very difficult because orthodox Christianity has instilled in us the belief that it is arrogance and even blasphemy to “think it not robbery to be equal with God.” Again, the problem is in thinking our humanity (which has already been destroyed on the cross) to be equal with God. It has nothing to do with God; it is of “no reputation.” As long as I am “alive [not dead] unto sin [my humanity, personality]” I am not “letting” that mind of Christ be in me and therefore CANNOT believe what I hear my Father say.
Like Paul, I must “die daily” (1Corinthians 15:3) to personal sense living. I must continually renew my mind to the truth that I know, the truth that will make me free, the truth that enables me to operate in my true identity which is of the same nature and substance as my Father who has begotten me out of Himself to be His expression, the expression that can be seen and “handled”
1John 1:1 That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life;
—the “Word of life” that once again takes dominion over all creation which is even now eagerly awaiting “the manifestation of the sons of God” (Romans 8:19).