Is there a higher walk for believers in Christ?

[Peterlag]

From my understanding, it is living out ones' life in accordance with what Christ commanded and for some of us, that means in accordance with the sermon on the mount.

Here's my take...
When I finally figured this out is when the lights turned on. Most of my life I believed I was in a battle between what I thought was my old man fighting against what I thought was my new man. Now I'm not fighting. I moved right in the darn thing. It seems to me one cannot walk in or by the spirit if our old nature (which is dead) thinks it's fighting against our new nature.

I wrote years ago...

Last night is when I took the red pill that released me from the Matrix. I was taught being in Christ meant I was in fellowship with God because I was walking upright in my flesh. I now understand being in Christ is being in the spirit and neither of them (in Christ or in the spirit) has anything to do with the darn flesh. It now seems perfectly clear to walk in or by the spirit is the same as putting on the Lord Jesus Christ. It's the same as having fellowship with Jesus Christ, which is also part of having the mind of Christ. Living in Christ is the same as being strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might. There's a verse where Jesus says without me you can do nothing. Well, I'm never without him.

 

[Eternally Grateful]

Aren't we supposed to examine ourselves and also judge ourselves so that we will not be judged with the world? Ultimately dwelling on our own safety/salvation is selfish....it' strikes me as being kind of like the self-centredness of childhood. We need to love God, Jesus, the truth and righteousness for their own sakes. The thought comes that maybe that's why it casts out fear, because saving our own hide wouldn't be so foremost on our minds.

What do we examine?

What is the standard for which we examine ourselves by?

 

[Ritajanice]

We began this Christ life at conversion, our transition to the new life, the new initial experience of the deeper or 'higher' life in Christ. Some as I, was immersed and on fire in the Spirit for days, weeks and months upon conversion. I believe you wrote you experienced days of this at your conversion.

Me too....becoming Born Again is mind blowing.

I was possessed by the Spirit. And during my life I've experienced these clearly spiritual episodes throughout it all. My bass note or lower gear stays in this deeper and higher life mode and rhythm in Christ today. I experience more and more of them over the years like 'good' migraines for the soul. They feed it. It is now my modus operandi and my way of living, of giving and loving although to not compromise the desires of Holy Spirit within me. It has taken been many years for God to mold me in such a way, and yet I'm still human, with human traits and imperfections, who sometimes gets ahead of the plan and 'falls,' and to be expected.

Completely understand what is being said here...Praise God!...Love your testimony...full of life in the Spirit.

 

[Hepzibah]

Here's my take...
When I finally figured this out is when the lights turned on. Most of my life I believed I was in a battle between what I thought was my old man fighting against what I thought was my new man. Now I'm not fighting. I moved right in the darn thing. It seems to me one cannot walk in or by the spirit if our old nature (which is dead) thinks it's fighting against our new nature.

I wrote years ago...

Last night is when I took the red pill that released me from the Matrix. I was taught being in Christ meant I was in fellowship with God because I was walking upright in my flesh. I now understand being in Christ is being in the spirit and neither of them (in Christ or in the spirit) has anything to do with the darn flesh. It now seems perfectly clear to walk in or by the spirit is the same as putting on the Lord Jesus Christ. It's the same as having fellowship with Jesus Christ, which is also part of having the mind of Christ. Living in Christ is the same as being strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might. There's a verse where Jesus says without me you can do nothing. Well, I'm never without him.

Peter I have been hearing something like what you have laid out, and just wonder which teaching has been of influence in it? Or which denomination. So are you saying basically that your revelation came when you saw that Christ 'covers' our sin so God no longer sees it? Thanks.

 

[Eternally Grateful]

But God is not a man that He should lie. We would have no understanding at all if not for His Spirit revealing and opening our eyes and drawing us to His word. We need His Spirit to help us, especially with the harder to understand things. Comparing spiritual with spiritual. And just think, we only know in part at best....that gives us pause to be humble. It's not like studying a textbook with the natural/carnal mind.

The problem is you have 3 people all who believe the Bible says something and they all claim they were told by the Spirit.

I mean look at eternal life. Look at how many views there are of what it means.. And all of them say God told them that.

can they all be right? Is eternal life really that difficult to understand?

 

[Lizbeth]

What do we examine?

What is the standard for which we examine ourselves by?

I would say we examine ourselves by the light of the Lord....what He reveals/shows us. Because without Him we can do nothing, not even see.

But others may understand that and other things in different words while we're all essentially talking about the same thing at heart. That's what I seem to notice with this conversation. :)

 

[Peterlag]

Amen, this is called walking with the spirit.. or seeking things of the spirit. it is living our new identity in Christ.

I'm still trying to figure out how to explain what you just said here better than I have been.

 

[Eternally Grateful]

I should have been more precise. I agree in the main but I might differ on what in the flesh' means in context, ie living out of ones natural instincts and thoughts not necessarily sinful, but leaning on the arm of the flesh which needs deliverance from God as in Romans 7. It cannot be a gradual thing as flesh and spirit are clearly defined. The crisis comes twice: once when we first come to Christ and wish to be delivered from the sinful side, then once again when we see that even our best works are not in accordance with His desires.

Living in the flesh is what it says

You are serving self. (The flesh)

A babe in christ still serves self. He or she has to learn to love as God loved them. Thats why they can only be fed milk..

but they are just as saved as the man of Christ who is mature in all ways..

 

[Peterlag]

The problem is you have 3 people all who believe the Bible says something and they all claim they were told by the Spirit.

I mean look at eternal life. Look at how many views there are of what it means.. And all of them say God told them that.

can they all be right? Is eternal life really that difficult to understand?

3 People!!!! You can ask 50 people on here about the same verse and get 50 different views and all of them saying God told them that.

 

[APAK]

Me too....becoming Born Again is mind blowing.

Completely understand what is being said here...Praise God!...Love your testimony...full of life in the Spirit.

Thank you Rita. It is a unique lifestyle and a glorious journey to a final destination that is uncharted and not on any map.

 

[Eternally Grateful]

I would say we examine ourselves by the light of the Lord....what He reveals/shows us. Because without Him we can do nothing, not even see.

But others may understand that and other things in different words while we're all essentially talking about the same thing at heart. That's what I seem to notice with this conversation. :)

I agree without him we can do nothing.


2 Corinthians 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

What does this mean? faith, disqualified, Christ in us?

 

[Hepzibah]

Living in the flesh is what it says

You are serving self. (The flesh)

A babe in christ still serves self. He or she has to learn to love as God loved them. Thats why they can only be fed milk..

but they are just as saved as the man of Christ who is mature in all ways..

Well once again I agree in the main that is, serving self but you have not included what else I said ie even if the flesh is 'good' in its intentions. This is the bit that shocks believers and brings them down to their knees when they thought they were serving correctly.

But I do not agree with the last bit - saved from sin is what scripture says Jesus came to do for us and they are not saved from sin yet or at all.

 

[Peterlag]

Living in the flesh is what it says

You are serving self. (The flesh)

A babe in christ still serves self. He or she has to learn to love as God loved them. Thats why they can only be fed milk..

but they are just as saved as the man of Christ who is mature in all ways..

Have you ever wondered what the verses are that Paul used to feed the Christian with milk? And what would the verses that referred to the meat of the Word be?

 

[Eternally Grateful]

3 People!!!! You can ask 50 people on here about the same verse and get 50 different views and all of them saying God told them that.

Yes

Thats why I say sometimes we just need to look at the word. And take it for what it says. It’s not all that hard for those in christ.

 

[Eternally Grateful]

Well once again I agree in the main that is, serving self but you have not included what else I said ie even if the flesh is 'good' in its intentions. This is the bit that shocks believers and brings them down to their knees when they thought they were serving correctly.

But I do not agree with the last bit - saved from sin is what scripture says Jesus came to do for us and they are not saved from sin yet or at all.

I can do a good deed.

I can do it in the spirit. And it is called bearing fruit

I can do it in the flesh. And even if i had good intentions, it is a work of the flesh. In simple terms, it is sin. Or a work of self righteousness.

 

[Peterlag]

Question I would like to ask is this: Is there a higher walk than walking in the Spirit? (which I take to mean the same thing as putting on Christ)

It's the putting on Christ that I would like to figure out a better way to explain how to get into this spirit.

 

[Hepzibah]

Living in the Spirit
…7because the mind of the flesh is hostile to God: It does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so. 8 Those controlled by the flesh cannot please God. 9You, however, are controlled not by the flesh, but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ.…
Berean Standard Bible

This verse is clear, that there is a division and if we do not walk in the Spirit aka babes in Christ, they do not belong to Christ.

 

[Eternally Grateful]

Have you ever wondered what the verses are that Paul used to feed the Christian with milk? And what would the verses that referred to the meat of the Word be?

Milk would be basic christian Doctrine. Like the Roman’s road. Or I am doing the book of John in a mens group. I have new believers there. So I am starting at the begining. Helping them to understand that before getting into advanced doctrines which they are not able to really grasp yet.

Ie.
Their identity in christ
the atonment,
What Christ did for them
etc etc

I think taking a new believer and sending them to the world. Or immediately trying to talk about the rapture or prophecy or how we should stop all sin is setting them up for failure.

They need to know their identity before they can understand how to grow..

 

[Peterlag]

John Wesley taught that there is a process and a crisis. Scripture tells us that both dirty and clean water cannot come from the same tap (faucet).

Interesting you mention water. I wrote this a few years ago...

If a canal by which water flows down to a place is considered pure. And then an influence comes into the water that has the idea of muddying the water. Then it's the defiling influence, the disturbance that has flowed upon the creation of God.

There is no mud in what God created in Christ Jesus that was placed inside of our new nature. None. Thus, it's impossible for me to bring this mud forward when I'm in Christ.

 

[Hepzibah]

Peter I have been hearing something like what you have laid out, and just wonder which teaching has been of influence in it? Or which denomination. So are you saying basically that your revelation came when you saw that Christ 'covers' our sin so God no longer sees it? Thanks.