Forget What Manner of Man He Is

"He goeth away and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he is" (James 1:24). The New Creation man, unless he has made a careful study of what he is in Christ, in times of stress or a crisis will forget what "manner of man he is." We have lived so long in the realm of the senses that it is difficult for us to realize what we are in Christ. We unconsciously lapse into the old life, seeing ourselves as we were, and not as we are. Eph. 1:7-9 is not a workable reality for many: "In whom we have our redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace, which he made to abound toward us in all wisdom and prudence, making known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he purposed in himself".

Note the first sentence: "In whom (that is in Christ) we have our redemption" from Satan's dominion, from Satan's authority, for "we have been translated into the kingdom of the son of his love. Jesus has become our Lord, our caretaker, and guarantor of our ability to reign over the forces that once dominated us. We are rich with His riches. We are strong with His strength in the inward man. We should make it a business to affirm constantly what we are and who we are in Christ.

Why We Can't Depend On Sense Knowledge

Every contact that man has ever had with the universe has come to him through his Five Senses. He has gained no knowledge independently of them. We may illustrate the limitation of sense knowledge by the following example: A blind man who has never possessed the sense of sight, could never know anything of color; a deaf man who had never heard, could never know anything of sound. So we also with our Five Senses know nothing except as it has come to our mind through these five channels. In otherwords the vast body of knowlege has come throught experimentation.

It is no wonder that these men who have only contacted the physical through their Sense perception should deny the existence of God, because they cannot find Him in the material world. They cannot find spirit nor soul through their experiments in Chemistry or Biology. You can see why they naturally would rule out the supernatural and why miracles would be impossible to them. You can understand now why a man who has never been Born Again cannot expound the Scriptures and give us their spiritual content. These senses belong to the physical body, and they can only contact matter.

Therefore, man knows only that which is physically discerned. He has learned a great deal about the universe in which he lives but nothing about the Creator. As Voltaire has said, he has been able to study the stars but himself he has not come to know.
Only a man whose mind has been illuminated by the New Birth can know God or understand His Revelation.

Do We Have a Choice Whether To Sin or Not?

Doing or saying the right things are not always an easy thing to do. A person is either going to be ruled by their flesh or by their born again spirit. "For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritully minded is life and peace (Rom. 8:6). That is why the Bible says "Submit to God, resist the devil and he will flee from you (James 4:7, New King James), and "Be self controlled and watchful because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom the may devour (verse8). "Resist him, steadfast in the faith; knowing that the same sufferings are experienced by your brotherhood in the world" (verse9). In other words no one is exempt from Satan attacks, but can counter them by saying what Jesus said “Away with you, Satan”(Math. 4:10). So we do have a choice.

Sin Conscience

Being sin conscience is saying that Satan work in humanity was more effectual than what Christ has done in us, because it is a reminder of who we were before we were born again. One of the things God sought to do in our redemption was to eliminate the consciousness of sin because it brings about a sense of guilt, condemnation and inferiority. These characteristics are products of spiritual death which keeps us from entering God's presence, but since we have been born again there is now no condemnation (Rom 8:1), that is why God tells us to come boldly unto the throne of grace and obtain mercy and find grace to help in our time of need (Heb. 4:16).

Under the Old Covenant "It was not possible that the blood of bulls and goats should take away sin, because in those sacrifices there was a remembrance again of sins every year (Heb. 10: 3-4). We are under the New Covenant where Christ has appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself (Heb. 9:26), and because of what Christ has done, Scripture says "This is the Covenant I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord, I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them, and there sins and iniquities will I remember no more (Heb. 10:16). So if God is not remembering your sin, why are you? "For by one offering he hath perfected forever them that are santified (Heb. 10:14).

People who are sincere about their faith in Christ do not make it a practice of sinning, but if they do it is not counted against them because we are holy and without blame in his sight (Eph. 1:2). This does not mean that because it is not counting against them one should continue to sin, what that does is give Satan place in their lives to bring about destruction because as you know he come to kill, steal and to destroy (John 10:10).

"But God Hath Revealed..."

1 Cor. 2:9, says "But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. Now, if you stop here, you will think that God hath not revealed to us the things that he have prepared for us; and most Pastors stop at this scripture. But if you read the next verse it says "But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searches all things, yea, the deep things of God. For what man knoweth the things of man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God. Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit of God that we might know the things that are freely given to us by God, and verse 16 says, we have the mind of Christ.

Whose Report Will You Believe?

You need to get to where you believe God's report more than the world's. You've crossed over into the spirit realm when God's Word dominates you more than what you can see, taste, hear, smell, and feel. Instead of letting the devil tell you what you can not do or what the doctor say or what your checkbook is telling you, you need to focus your attention on what God says about you, what He says you have, and what He says you can do. Once you do that you'll find it will break the dominion, the power, and the control of the flesh over you.

Jesus As Lord

The Word of God says "That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shall believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved (Roman: 10:9, King James). It is not enough to take Jesus as your Savior, you must acknowledge His lordship over your life. One of the difficulties that confronts many of us is we wish to have Jesus as Savior but not as our Lord. Many people want Him as their Savior from Hell, but they don't want Him as their Ruler on earth.

If Jesus becomes your Lord, He will want to have His say in regard to the types of books your read, the company you keep, the kind of amusements you enjoy, and the government of your body. He will want to have something to say about your finances, what you do with them, how you make them, and how you use them. He will want to have something to say in regard to marriage, children, and the home. He will want to have His say as to your vocation in life and where you live.

Yes, Jesus wants to enter into every department of your life. This is what make the Christian life blessed. It robs life of its weakness and human guidance and it lifts it into the realm of the supernatural.