Promoting The Kingdom Of Heaven With A Renewed Perception
Society and the sinful nature everyone is born with, has naturally taught us to look at everyone around us in the natural, physical way. We are told that our perception (or lens) is due to upbringing and what has happened to us in life. And even as our perceptions see things, those perceptions seen wrongly can cause a further downward spiral. It’s so important to have a perception of life and people that is not based on our own hurts and the things done to us, but one that has been renewed and made whole. Being a healthy person or a whole person, is a transformational process.
Paul, an apostle of Christ, was given direct revelation of God and from God Himself. He wrote to the Corinthian believers, “For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.” NIV
In the Complete Jewish Bible edition:
“for I had decided that while I was with you I would forget everything except Yeshua the Messiah, and even him only as someone who had been executed on a stake as a criminal.” 1 Corinthians 2:2
Here is a whole or healthy perception of others that is based on the Kingdom of heaven. I love the kingdom principles found in the Bible. They lift your gaze higher than your own perceptions and outlook - those tend to see horizontally. The Bible helps us to see vertically from the heavenly down. If we were to simply memorize the verses in the Bible without the Holy Spirit breathing the Life in it to/in us, we would only be gathering information that typically comes out in using it against others. But what I love about the Holy Spirit is that He first convicts our own hearts. I’ve heard it called “pricking our heart”. It’s much like a sword when it pierces flesh. If you could fillet the flesh from the spirit in us, if that was a possibility in the natural realm, we would be weirded out. But this is exactly what God’s Spirit does inside us as we get to know Jesus through His Words.
Like what is said here:
“For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.”
Hebrews 4:12
Just as God knows us in His Son and see’s us in His Son, we are to see one another in this way.
“Therefore, 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.”
2 Corinthians 5:16
Funny how we not only see others by our perceptions, we often see Christ this way. But in Christ, as we behold Him through His Spirit and are breathed Life - pierced by the sword of Gods Word that divides our unhealthy perception from His own, are, at the same time, being cleansed and healed by that same Word.
“that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word, that He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish.”
Ephesians 5:26-27
In light of all God is miraculously doing in us, we are to view one another this way now:
“Therefore, if anyone is united with the Messiah, he is a new creation — the old has passed; look, what has come is fresh and new! And it is all from God, who through the Messiah has reconciled us to himself and has given us the work of that reconciliation, which is that God in the Messiah was reconciling mankind to himself, not counting their sins against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.”
2 Corinthians 5:17-19
If God Himself, in Christ, is at work reconciling us to Himself and not counting our sins against us, should not we ourselves have the same ministry of reconciliation in that we see as He see’s for those around us.....and in that, we also make a way open in our relationships so that others can move forward in life without being made to feel condemned and shamed by each other? God doesn’t do it and we are told to have the same ministry of reconciliation.
Thankfully, we are not only given the truth of God, but the precious grace of His that is His meekness to allow us to grow as people ourselves, and in turn, see others as His grace has empowered us. What a beautiful new perception He is giving us. May we all continue to grow in grace and in the knowledge of the Son of God.
Keep yourselves in the love of God beloved. Look to God and be transformed.
Paul, an apostle of Christ, was given direct revelation of God and from God Himself. He wrote to the Corinthian believers, “For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.” NIV
In the Complete Jewish Bible edition:
“for I had decided that while I was with you I would forget everything except Yeshua the Messiah, and even him only as someone who had been executed on a stake as a criminal.” 1 Corinthians 2:2
Here is a whole or healthy perception of others that is based on the Kingdom of heaven. I love the kingdom principles found in the Bible. They lift your gaze higher than your own perceptions and outlook - those tend to see horizontally. The Bible helps us to see vertically from the heavenly down. If we were to simply memorize the verses in the Bible without the Holy Spirit breathing the Life in it to/in us, we would only be gathering information that typically comes out in using it against others. But what I love about the Holy Spirit is that He first convicts our own hearts. I’ve heard it called “pricking our heart”. It’s much like a sword when it pierces flesh. If you could fillet the flesh from the spirit in us, if that was a possibility in the natural realm, we would be weirded out. But this is exactly what God’s Spirit does inside us as we get to know Jesus through His Words.
Like what is said here:
“For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.”
Hebrews 4:12
Just as God knows us in His Son and see’s us in His Son, we are to see one another in this way.
“Therefore, 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.”
2 Corinthians 5:16
Funny how we not only see others by our perceptions, we often see Christ this way. But in Christ, as we behold Him through His Spirit and are breathed Life - pierced by the sword of Gods Word that divides our unhealthy perception from His own, are, at the same time, being cleansed and healed by that same Word.
“that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word, that He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish.”
Ephesians 5:26-27
In light of all God is miraculously doing in us, we are to view one another this way now:
“Therefore, if anyone is united with the Messiah, he is a new creation — the old has passed; look, what has come is fresh and new! And it is all from God, who through the Messiah has reconciled us to himself and has given us the work of that reconciliation, which is that God in the Messiah was reconciling mankind to himself, not counting their sins against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.”
2 Corinthians 5:17-19
If God Himself, in Christ, is at work reconciling us to Himself and not counting our sins against us, should not we ourselves have the same ministry of reconciliation in that we see as He see’s for those around us.....and in that, we also make a way open in our relationships so that others can move forward in life without being made to feel condemned and shamed by each other? God doesn’t do it and we are told to have the same ministry of reconciliation.
Thankfully, we are not only given the truth of God, but the precious grace of His that is His meekness to allow us to grow as people ourselves, and in turn, see others as His grace has empowered us. What a beautiful new perception He is giving us. May we all continue to grow in grace and in the knowledge of the Son of God.
Keep yourselves in the love of God beloved. Look to God and be transformed.
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