Imputation, Chapter Eight

I want to talk to you in this chapter about the Fear that comes from living by the Law!

There are some Christians today who are just beginning to discover where they came from. Once you discover, by revelation, where you came from, and you really have that unveiled within you, your days of being in any kind of religious box or bondage are over. One of the first things you realize, as the Spirit of the ascended Christ begins to arise within you, you no longer have any fear. You don't have to be afraid of hearing wrong doctrine and you are no longer afraid of making a mistake that will keep you out of heaven.

Revelation talks about the opening of seven seals. Most of us have had a lot of Bible teaching about the horrible judgments that God is going to pour out on His creation while the rest of us are suspended in the air in a so called rapture.

We have all heard 1 Peter 4:17 quoted to us,

"For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God"

While there is judgment coming, guess what? Those seals in the book of Revelation are seals over you. These seven seals are seven judgments that will come to you. You have a seal over your mind and as that seal begins to brake and open in your mind, you go through all kind of warfare. As this seal over your mind begins to open you learn that you are putting on the mind of Christ. When this happens you will probably think that you are backsliding. You will discover that you cannot pray in the same way anymore. Many things begin to change in your understanding. You begin to love your enemies. You begin to do good to those who are nasty to you. As you begin to walk in the mind of Christ you will find that you have love and compassion for all of God's people and mercy for all that haven't yet had the revelation of our Father's love.

Each one of these seals are not being opened in us in order for God to pour out his nasty judgments on the world but so that He can manifest His love for the world through us. As these seals open in us we will understand the truth of our real being which is spirit and is in the likeness of our Father who is love.

Perhaps you feel you are justified because you came to an altar and said, "Jesus, I receive you."Or perhaps you feel justified because you read the Bible everyday, or you pray everyday, or you do good deeds to your neighbor's everyday. Well, this is what Paul is talking about in the book of Galatians when he said, "You who would be justified by your works have fallen from grace." You don't understand grace, because grace has nothing to do with how you think, it has nothing to do with how you study the Bible or to go to Bible school.

For years I walked as a Christian, born again, tongues speaking, going to church meetings sometime five times a week, yet still living out of a carnal mind, trying to do the best I could do to be a better Christian. Paul was trying to get people to realize that they are not a better Christian because of what they do. The only way we advance in God is having a further unveiling and revelation of the reality of His life within in us. So again I say, the very first thing that happens to us when Christ begins to arise within us is we lose all fear because as long as you have any fear, whether it is fear of being deceived, or fear of hearing wrong teaching, or fear of reading a wrong book, it should be an automatic signal to you that you don't really trust God.

You really don't know who your Father intimately or you would not fear. John said in 1 John 4:18, (NIV)

"There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love."

You can check your own temperature here. Are you afraid of going to hell? Are you afraid of listening to someone who understands God a little different than you? Are you afraid of loosing your Christian friends if you really share with them your understanding of God? If you answered any of these questions yes, then you have not yet had the love of our Father revealed to you. You may have attended church all of your life but you still don't really know the love of our Father.

I struggled for many years trying to be a good "Christian" and trying to perform according to what I thought a "Christian" should be. I was a miserable failure in trying to be a good "Christian" because I was not, in my natural human condition, a really holy person. I wonder if any of us really are.

Yet we try so hard, because we have that hunger and that cry within our hearts, to be godlike. It is such a confusing thing because it seemed, at least in my experience, that the more I tried to be like God and the more I tried to do what I thought that I should do, I found it impossible within my natural makeup to be what I knew a good "Christian" should be. I knew I loved God with all my heart, yet could not measure up to what I thought was the Christian standard.

I began to pray when I was about 23 years old that God would teach me how to love like He loves and to be able to express that love to others. Little did I know what I was really asking God to do was to reveal Himself to me so I could personally experience knowing Him. You see, God is love and to know love is to know Him. John said in 1 John 4:7,

"Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love."

From that time on God began to unveil within me His love and when I was 34 years old I really experienced God in a new and real way. I had developed a lot of habit patterns in my life that were just not godly. I struggled for years trying to overcome them. The reason I appreciate so much today the unlimited, unsurpassing, love of God is that when I experienced it I was absolutely set free from trying to take this flesh, this carnal nature, and making it something it could never be.

As we begin to understand our Father's love and learn to put our faith in what He has said about us, fear just doesn't stand a chance with us. His perfect love drives fear out of our lives. We become totally secure in His love and learn that all things work together for good because we have been born of Him and are His children and because He is on our side so who can stand against us?

I'm reminded of what Paul said. He said in Galatians 4:19, "My little children, of whom I travail in birth until Christ be formed in you." The amplified said it this way, "My little children, for whom I am again suffering birth pangs until Christ is completely and permanently formed and molded within you." We certainly know that what was accomplished on the cross is a finished work. In our spirit, the very anointing of the Christ of God abides within us. However His nature and His life must be formed in us before we will ever really be satisfied and become a finished work and this is a process that each of us must go through.

As the Holy Spirit reveals the love of our Father to us we will discover that Christ is at the core of everyone in existence. Their true nature is lying hidden deep within them andis the seed of God. Instead of telling them how bad they are, we need only to allow the Christ in us to reveal to them that the seed of God is within them.