July 18, 2011

• Beyond the Expiration Date by Joy Pollard

  April 29, 2011

  Joy began the Bible study by asking us what was in our refrigerators? Was there stuff beyond the expiration date?  What things in our lives are beyond the expiration date?

  Romans 12:1-2 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.

  Notice that this passage says REASONABLE SERVICE  not unreasonable sacrifice.

  Romans 12:1-2 AMPLIFIED   I APPEAL to you therefore, brethren, and beg of you in view of [all] the mercies of God, to make a decisive dedication of your bodies [presenting all your members and faculties] as a living sacrifice, holy (devoted, consecrated) and well pleasing to God, which is your reasonable (rational, intelligent) service and spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world (this age), [fashioned after and adapted to its external, superficial customs], but be transformed (changed) by the [entire] renewal of your mind [by its new ideals and its new attitude], so that you may prove [for yourselves] what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God, even the thing which is good and acceptable and perfect [in His sight for you].

  The only way to be transformed is by cleaning out everything that is beyond its expiration date by the renewing of the mind.  

   The Greek word for renew is anakainosis.  (Heather’s note – this word is only used twice in the New Testament – in Romans and in Titus)

  It means to make new, to renovate.  When you renovate a building you need to gut it first, then you can renovate.  You can’t build without taking out the old.

  When we come to Christ we are new creations. We can’t just put a sheet over our old selves.  

  In construction terms, we need to tear out, down to the studs, then we can put up new sheet-rock.  To tear down is work and it makes a mess.  If we let God tear our lives down to the studs, and then rebuild it is a complete transformation, a metamorphosis (like a caterpillar to a butterfly)  When the butterfly emerges, the caterpillar no longer exists.  In the cocoon, the old caterpillar’s body turns into gore that is transformed into the new body of a butterfly.  The cells reorganize.

  We have a person who reads the Greek Bible at our studies and translates directly from the text.  She said that the text implies that we do not take the shape of and grow on it, but that we have the different shape because of the renewal of the Word which you put on, and it is according to the perfect will of God.

  What appears is of God, not our might.  For example, we can’t help a butterfly transform.  If we cut into a cocoon and try to help a butterfly out, the butterfly will die, for the struggle to emerge from the cocoon pushes fluid into the wings of the butterfly.  

  You can be born again in the Spirit, but parts of you are still of the flesh – parts of you have not been torn down to the studs.

  2 Corinthians 5:17 AMP Therefore if any person is [ingrafted] in Christ (the Messiah) he is a new creation (a new creature altogether); the old [previous moral and spiritual condition] has passed away. Behold, the fresh and new has come!

  You can only have the New if you clean out the fridge.  A lot of thoughts are not renewed, it is our choice to remove them or not – to get there quicker or slower.  Becoming new is a process.  If we hold on to unforgiveness, we cannot be renewed.  

  One of the last things to go is OUR STORY.  We have excuses about why we can’t do better – it is because this happened to me, or that person didn’t do something for me, or whatever.  We carry our story around.  I would do better if I could, but I can’t.  Our story clogs up our fridge, and keeps us stuck.

  Ephesians 4:23-24 AMP  And be constantly renewed in the spirit of your mind [having a fresh mental and spiritual attitude], and put on the new nature (the regenerate self) created in God’s image, [Godlike] in true righteousness and holiness.

  We have to take off anything of the old in order to put on the new.  God has already perfected his own.  But to have restoration does not mean to throw patches on the old, we need to go back to God’s original blueprint for our lives, to what God saw in us before we were created in our mother’s womb, before the foundation of the World.  

  So, if you missed it, go back to the blueprint and do a whole new plan.  God’s going to create the new, not do a makeshift patch job.

  We want to be strong, to stand and say I want what You (God) wants, not get by on my version of what I think is right.

  Colossians 3:10 AMP And have clothed yourselves with the new [spiritual self], which is [ever in the process of being] renewed and remolded into [fuller and more perfect knowledge upon] knowledge after the image (the likeness) of Him Who created it.

  We get renewed in the vision that God has for us.  See ourselves as He sees us before the foundation of the World – that’s the new man.  We are not off the clearance rack, God custom tailors us, so we are instantly comfortable.  Joy spoke about how she received a custom tailored suit and how it fit her perfectly.  When she purchased clothes off the rack she had to learn how to be in them, where they pulled and bound.  But a custom tailored suit flowed with her.

  Athena  translated her Greek Bible for this passage and said, that that it translates that we have been dressed with the new man, continually renewed, and molded into what the Creator envisioned for us, and it reveals the perfect knowledge of God when all is done.

  We believe we are “special”  and pride and a sense of unworthiness can keep us from being submitted to God.

  We sometimes take on a spirit of infirmity, a spirit of specialness, which is how we get attention.  People treat us special because we are weak or sick and we want that specialness.  The spirit of infirmity seems sweet but leaves a bitter aftertaste.  Some magnify their disability, sickness, and helplessness, and their story.

  The devil wants us to remain crippled. God’s blueprint is for us to walk tall and straight.  

  Every trial and opposition gives us the opportunity to choose to identify with the spirit of infirmity or the God’s blueprint.

  There is a spiritual root of disease.  We can look at our family history, beliefs, and sayings to see where the root stems from.  It is a Job factor, that which I greatly feared has come upon me.

  What is in your fridge?  If it is the old, it hasn’t passed away.  We need to clear out the fridge.

  What I say about it or what he says doesn’t matter – what matters is God’s view.

  How do we renew our mind?  We use the Word of God.  If what we are believing or saying doesn’t line up with the Word, discard it.  Only what God and the Holy Ghost says.  

  We are made of a Soul (mind will and emotions) our body and our spirit.

  If we are operating under the Soul our mind will say I’m taking that on, our will will insist or refuse and our emotions will take us on a roller coaster ride.

  Our words matter -we want to bypass the soul and give strength to the Spirit by saying what God says about our situation.  We need a new operating system

  HG7.0  (Holy Ghost 7.0)

  We want to let our Spirit be our operating system and not let our mind, will and emotions rule our lives. We want to take our minds captive, say not MY will but THY will be done, and for the emotions, we want the fruit of the Spirit.  Galatians 5:22-23 But the fruit of the [Holy] Spirit [the work which His presence within accomplishes] is love, joy (gladness), peace, patience (an even temper, forbearance), kindness, goodness (benevolence), faithfulness, gentleness (meekness, humility), self-control (self-restraint, continence). Against such things there is no law [that can bring a charge].

  We want our emotions rooted in the Holy Ghost instead of the flesh.  Galatians 5:19-21 Now the doings (practices) of the flesh are clear (obvious): they are immorality, impurity, indecency, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, anger (ill temper), selfishness, divisions (dissensions), party spirit (factions, sects with peculiar opinions, heresies), envy, drunkenness, carousing, and the like. I warn you beforehand, just as I did previously, that those who do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.

  The choice is ours.  Flesh or Holy Ghost?

  Have a blessed day.

  Heather

  • 6:06 pm
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