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WHAT DO YOU BELIEVE ? ©

by

Mary Jane Sears

Fourth Edition

D E D I C A T I O N

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TO: The Lord, Who Does All Things Well

THE UNFOLDING REVELATION OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST TO THE BODY OF CHRIST IN THIS HOUR.

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I've had people ask me, exactly what do you believe? That's a very hard question for me to answer. I tell them that what I believe today, I will probably not believe tomorrow in the very exact same way as I do now.

The Lord is constantly revealing Himself in a deeper manner, as we continue to go on with Him and mature to the point where He can trust us with more knowledge, understanding and wisdom. He has to take us to the point where we trust Him before our own understanding of anything. It is a point in our life where we are free of any entanglement, or soul tie, to anyone or anything. At any given moment we must be ready to let anything go that the Lord may require us to. At this stage of our development in Christ we will realize that the Lord God is not here to serve us, but that we are here to serve Him and fulfill His plan alone. It is a slow, freeing process, in that it takes many false burdens from us as well as offering us a peace in our very being that He is in control, and that He is working out His plan and time table exactly as He chooses. The knowledge that He has the power and ability to do this takes away the fear of the unknown.

We usually have to go through many experiences in life before we come to the end of ourselves and call out to God for help. Many come to this place and receive the blessings of God for their individual life styles, and come to believe that they have received all the promises of God that are available. Most think that if there is anything else, they will receive it in heaven, after their death -- however they perceive heaven to be. Then there are others who go on to seek power with God, perhaps with the idea of making the lives of their loved ones and themselves protected, and their overall existence upon this earth to be the abundant life. Isn't that what the scriptures tell you, they say.

For some, a time comes when they have received the Holy Spirit, speak in tongues, received deliverance from several family line curses, had demons cast out and in turn have cast demons out of others, received healings, and have knowingly been used of God to do several special deeds. Yet, there is a cry in the depths of their souls that cries out, where is my change? Sure my behavior has been altered, and my life style turned around, but where is this nature or character of Christ in me; where is this walk of holiness; where is this communication with God on a regular basis; where is this understanding of His ways and purposes? Why do I have this longing that there is so much more, and this overwhelming desire for God to continue moving in my life, even though I haven't got a clue as to how. The cry goes out, Lord, I truly want to know you, to understand your ways and purposes. I have questions Lord. I need to know. I read your word and I understand to some degree, but what does it really mean?

If the Lord has put this cry in your heart, He will begin the process of separating you unto Himself. You will begin to hear Him tell you to come apart and to walk in holiness without even knowing what that means. There won't be any clear word as to what you are supposed to do, or where you are supposed to go. You just have to be willing to let Him take you a step at a time, wherever He leads. Your friends will tell you that you are being seduced away from the things of God, but you know that it is time to move on. You must let go of the old manna in order for the Lord to give you the fresh manna. It is hard breaking free, but even harder not to at this point. The fear of being seduced by false doctrine and all forms of heresy plagues you. You continue to pray for guidance and trust the Lord to go before you. Moving very slowly, so as not to go before the Lord, you begin to see the door that the Lord is opening for you. It's not a comfortable place, because He is taking you a way that is not familiar to you and He is shaking up your ground that you felt a measure of security in. The understanding still hasn't come. His word to you is to hold fast, and you do. Suspicion and apprehension take hold on you. You stand fast because the Lord has told you to, not because you want to.

Can this new doctrine be of God? You hear the story of creation in a new light. What is this cell division I'm hearing about? Then you receive a magazine at that precise timing of the Lord, and scientists are explaining about cell division. A television program on the Discovery Channel is showing how single cell plants reproduce, and a specie of fish that will change gender as the need arises. Is this confirmation coming from you Lord? Paul says that the things of this world mirror the things of the spirit world.

Slowly, various scripture verses that didn't make sense are being explained, and there is immediate agreement in my spirit that this is truth. Other things I bring before the Lord and ask understanding. It is very difficult for me. Much goes over my head for a long season. I meditate on these things that I'm hearing, and the Lord brings back memories to me. The time when I was in a church book store and I asked permission of the woman in charge to destroy an obviously Satanic book that had no place being there. A woman who was browsing in the store became very upset when she saw me destroying the book and blurted out I can't believe in a God who would send anyone to a fiery hell. My first reaction was that this woman didn't have her doctrine correct, but the Spirit of God spoke to me within and said, that woman is speaking truth. I didn't understand it intellectually at all, but I knew that God had spoken to me, and I never forgot it. It was several years later that the Lord would reveal to me that there was no fiery hell after death, and that God calls this realm of existence that we live in right here on the earth, hell.

As I continued to hear this new doctrine, the Lord was faithful in giving me understanding along the way.

The Lord had given me a vision of Himself several years earlier, and I was mediating on that. I remember walking down the street and speaking to the Lord in my heart, telling Him that I couldn't wait to see Him again. Then the Lord told me, Mary, you are never going to see me in the flesh. I am returning in the sons of God. Instantly I understood that He was pure Spirit and that the manner of His return would be within the minds of the sons of God, and that would be how He would walk in them and talk in them. Up until that point I had an understanding that Jesus would return in the sons of God, but I fully expected to see Him walking around with them upon the earth, as well.

Then as I continued along with the teachings of Living Epistle Ministries, the Lord brought more confirmations to me that I, indeed, was where He wanted me to be. The scriptures that we were studying in the Greek and Hebrew were telling us that we are in the image of the serpent, and not in the image of God as we were always taught.

An experience that brought that home to me was around the Christmas season last year, when I told the Lord that I was grieved in my spirit about Christmas, and that I didn't know why I felt the same way about the celebration of birthdays as well. Instantly He said to me, being born in the image of the serpent is nothing to celebrate about. It just became so clear to me. Even Jesus was born in the image of the serpent, the earthly body that He inherited from His mother, Mary. But what set Him apart from the rest of us was that He had the seed of the mind of God already within Him. These bodies containing our fleshly carnal minds are a necessary vehicle, so to speak, the raw material that God will use to bring us to the place where His mind can be imparted within us. Once that is accomplished, this earthly carnal mind can be destroyed and cut away, in much the same way as the umbilical cord and afterbirth is cast away after our natural birth. It served its purpose and is of no value in the sight of God. Flesh and blood will never inherit the Kingdom of God.

When I was having difficulty understanding the meaning of the scripture verse that the spirit of Elijah was in John the Baptist, my grand-daughter said to me, I know what God is doing, He is recycling us. I suddenly understood that only the things done in Christ will always remain to go on to maturity in the following generations. Our personalities do not go on, but simply turn off as a light bulb would be turned off. I'm reminded of the scripture that a child shall lead you, and understand now that it means that someone that is just a babe in the developing mind of Christ. The least in the Kingdom of God is greater than John the Baptist, who was of the old order and was beheaded.

It was symbolic of the cutting off of the old head containing the carnal mind, for the new head, containing the mind of Christ to come forth. First it was accomplished in Christ Jesus, the first born of many brethren, and soon it is to be accomplished in the many membered body of Christ, the sons of God.

To get back to what I believe at this point in time, I guess I would simply say that God, who is invisible Spirit, and has a mind, desired to reproduce Himself in a spiritual but visible world. This process is called the Big Bang Theory by scientists. An explosion took place which might be likened to seminal fluid with sperm being expelled. The sperm came forth in a weakened and incomplete state, and Jehovah came and strengthened it. They were to be the first two threads of the formation of the mind of God, the covering which scripture calls a garment.

The living soul was instructed to wait to receive the seed of the Father to form a three thread cord mind, or garment, that would be in the completed image of God in a permanent state of righteousness. Before this took place, however, the living soul was tricked into yielding his strength to the evil that he was told to keep under his control and he separated from Jehovah and died. So, instead of coming forth in the completed image of God, the planting of the Lord, the now dead creature came forth in the completed image of the serpent, a dying weed instead of a living seed. The serpent's whole purpose was to steal and kill off the creation of God and produce her own corrupted creation. The term her is used because, scripturally speaking, there is neither male nor female in the spirit, as we understand it to be in the physical realm. Male denotes the realm of spiritual authority and maturity in the scriptures, and female denotes the realm of submission and spiritual immaturity.

The fall from spirit to flesh came about in gradual descending stages. The Lord is constantly revealing bits and pieces of information concerning this time as we study along in the Greek and Hebrew meaning of various words used in scripture. We are finding that the Spirit of God offers different words in the scriptures whenever a change of any kind takes place. I find it quite difficult to comprehend most of the teachings. We are told to search the scriptures, and that it is the privilege of kings to search them out. But no matter how diligent we are in searching, if the Lord doesn't give us revelation by opening the closed door of our understanding, we will never be able to perceive the things of God. The god of this world, Satan, has blinded our understanding, and it is a battle between the mind of the flesh and the mind of God, to receive truth. We have been completely deceived with doctrines of demons that are in complete opposition to the Word of God. God must penetrate our minds and literally cause an earthquake in our mind that will turn our world upside down. He has to tear down all our walls of defense to take us out of our captivity. God has to convince us that we are in hell, and in the image of the serpent, and that the mind that we function with in this world is being controlled by Satan, our unconscious mind.

Our human spirit, which is the dead Christ within us, has to be quickened and resurrected in stages. The engrafted Word of God must be conceived in us, which is the formation of the mind of Christ, before we can begin to co-operate with God for our deliverance out of hell. We must continually confess any sin that is brought to our understanding. Christ in us is our only hope of glorification.

Let this mind which is in Christ Jesus be in you, Paul said. Having the mind of Christ formed in us is the only way to be in the image of God, and in heaven. Heaven is the realm of the mind of Christ, just as hell is the realm of the carnal mind and all it projects in this earth. Mind is spirit and we are told to test the spirits to see if they be of God or of Satan. What mind or spirit are we in obedience to?

Our change will come when we are transformed from the carnal mind we are born with over into the mind of Christ, by continually confessing our sins and commanding Leviathan, the name of our carnal mind, to be unwoven. Leviathan is the king of pride and will do everything to prevent us from humbling ourselves before God in submission to His Holy will for us.

Jehovah, the proper name of our Heavenly Father who dwells in eternity, desires us to come forth in His image, and Jesus is the pattern Son who did this perfectly. Jesus overcame His own carnal mind, daily, as He matured into the full mind of Christ. We need the mind of Christ to do battle for us in the wounding unto death of our carnal mind. Jesus was born with the seed of the mind of Christ. We must wait to receive this seed of the mind of Christ, which is the Holy Spirit, the anointing operation of God in human flesh. But first we must come to the place where we understand the plan of God for us, and then the procedure for it to take place. One of the believers in the ministry, June, has an anointing for putting this understanding into songs that practically preach a message all by themselves. I did a spin-off on one of them for myself with this poem.

I am confident because He made me see

That He will cause me to

conceive

This I firmly believe

Because He has allowed me to perceive

God does not tantalize us with promises that He does not intend to keep, or is unable to perform in us. The Spirit of God is given to those who obey and are faithful servants in the little things

I call this the marinating process, where we just soak up the love and mercy of God. Then the separating process of God begins as He sifts us through one experience after another. We learn to trust Him and depend upon Him for the results. Most of all we learn to wait upon Him in eager expectancy, without even knowing what it is we are expecting. Our ground is being prepared for His seed. We go through the spiritual stages of being wooed by the Lord, cleansed and prepared as a bride, accepted as a wife and eventually we will conceive His Son. A Holy God desires to have sons in His image. His will is coming to pass.

Jesus humbled Himself to the point of coming and dwelling in a filthy prison house body like ours to make a way of escape out of it. He showed us how to submit our will to the Father in all things and walk in total obedience, to overcome the fleshly desires that are set to keep us trapped here in hell. Jesus went on to submit His flesh body and mind to be nailed to the cross. He showed us in a physical way how we must die to our flesh in a spiritual way. At the cross, Jesus was actually crucifying or piercing His carnal mind unto death with His Christ mind. Minds are weapons. The mind of Christ is the weapon that is needed to kill our carnal minds and restore us to right standing, or righteousness with God.

When the Father looked upon the dead body of Christ Jesus in the tomb He only saw His Son, the matured mind of Christ, a reflection of Himself, and raised Christ Jesus from the dead.

If that seed of God had not matured into the mind of Christ, Jehovah never would have raised Jesus from the dead. Jesus' body was dead, but the mind in Him was very much alive, because He had swallowed up death with the Spirit of Life within Him. Death couldn't hold Him. He had power over it. Jesus said, I live and because I live, you, too, shall live.

Our existence here is not life. It is death and hell. It has to be overcome, destroyed and swallowed up by the mind of Christ being matured in us, just as it was in the man, Jesus of Nazareth. He is the first born of many brethren. He is the Head, and the body of Christ is now in the process of coming forth as the manchild company.

Jesus said, the things that I do, you shall do, and even more.

Those who are in the process of having the mind of Christ matured in them in this hour will be used mightily by God to restore the creation back to righteousness. They are continually confessing their sins, which is any thought, emotion or attitude that is not in accordance with the perfect will of God, and they are waging warfare with their carnal mind in every area of opposition to God. These will be servants of the Most High God who will be empowered by Him to restore the earth. They will restore God's way, and truth, and impart life as they instruct and judge the people of the earth unto correction. Several years ago the Lord showed me a vision of a group of believers that opened up into books with words written upon their pages. People came up to them and looked upon their pages and were judged out of them. These sons of God coming forth will be the living epistles upon which the word of God is written, and the people will be taught, judged and corrected out of them. That's just the beginning of God's great plan. Eye hasn't seen, ear hasn't heard, and it hasn't even entered into the heart of a man, the things that God has prepared for those that love him.

I desire to be prepared of God to function in His plan of salvation for mankind, and to hear the Father say, well done, good and faithful servant. Enter into the kingdom of God.

QUESTION & ANSWER

Q Mary, could you expound more on the coming of the Lord.

A For many years, we heard people say, where is the Lord? He said He was coming. When is He coming? We're waiting and waiting.

It was several years before I realized, that when the Lord said He was going to return, He did so, but in a manner in which I didn't understand. He returned to pure Spirit after His resurrection and then He began pouring out of Himself as seed upon the people to prepare them for the engrafted word, which is the seed of the mind of Christ (in the form of the Holy Spirit).

I had no concept of His coming for a long time. But along those lines, concerning the coming of Jesus, I'm sure He has come to every one of us many times over. He has come as healer; He has come as teacher; He has come to comfort us. There is a Greek word that doesn't come to my mind right now because I'm not very good at it, which says that He is the coming One. In other words, He is continuously here. He comes to meet our every need as we call upon Him, although perhaps not in the way we expect Him to. Right now He is coming as Revelator. He is teaching us of His ways and His purpose for this time, for this age, for His move, at this very moment in time. A big stumbling block for the body of Christ, is recognizing who the Lord is using to bring forth His revelations. We have a tendency to believe that if the vessel that God is using isn't perfected, then it can't be God bringing revelation through them.

In this hour we are seeing the men who have been used greatly by God falling by the wayside. They have no concept of where the enemy is. Satan, to them is an outside entity. They have no concept that they, themselves, are the devil, and that their own unconscious mind is Satan.

Not knowing who or where the enemy is, prevents us from opposing and attacking him and seeing his devices. In this end time it is the war of the minds, the battle of Armageddon. Strategically speaking, if you don't know where the enemy lies in wait, they have a great advantage over you. But if you know where he lies, you know his devices and techniques and how he sets these traps and snares, you are prepared to avoid them.

In Ephesians it says that the strongholds are in our minds, vain imaginations, the imaginations of Satan, and the plans that he wants to develop, using us. These things must be torn down. We must come to the place where we will not allow Satan to use us. We belong to God and we must submit to His will. Our weapons for doing spiritual warfare are not guns or knives. We do not war with flesh and blood. We have to battle the witchcraft in our own minds and in the minds of others.

One form of witchcraft is the exercising of our own will over the will of another. We have a tendency to think that witchcraft is something done on the other side of the world by a witch doctor in Africa or someone practicing voodoo spells or enchantments or witchcraft covens that are scattered all over America. And that of course, is a more developed or higher form of witchcraft, but we too, practice witchcraft in our very own mind. A very simple example that the Lord just brought to mind would perhaps be a mother or father who desire their child to be a doctor or a great pianist, and the child does not have any desire in these areas. If the parents force their will upon the child, rather than let the child live up to his own potential and what the Lord may desire of that child, it is a form of witchcraft. That's one understanding of it.

This subtle manipulative form of witchcraft, where we press for our own will, can even rear its ugly head in our prayer life. An example of this might be psychic prayer where we pray for someone to do something that will benefit us, or fit into our idea of what they should be doing, or not doing, or believing.

The Lord recently spoke to me about idolatry and showed it to me in a different light. I was meditating upon the scripture verse that is the first commandment; I Am the Lord, thy God; thou shalt have no other gods before Me. The Lord quickly impressed upon me that each of our own carnal minds are gods, and that when we pit our own reasoning against His revelation to us, we are serving other gods, and that is idolatry.

Along these lines of reasoning, I'm reminded of how many Christians will hold fast to their own interpretation of scripture simply because it is in the King James Version of the bible and refuse what God is revealing in this hour by His Spirit. The scriptures plainly tell us that in the last days there would be many mysteries opened up to us, and scripture fulfilled. Many are seeing that searching the Greek and Hebrew meaning of various words is giving them deeper insight into the understanding of scripture. When you consider what the King James translators were up against in choosing their words to make sense of things they didn't understand, our present day bible is a miracle. One Hebrew word can have as many as twenty-five meanings. Picking and choosing is no easy task, and without the revelation of the meaning behind the letter of the word the translation is a blessing to anyone reading it, but certainly doesn't convey the Spirit of the Word. We are told that the dead letter of the word killeth, but the Living Word of the Spirit maketh alive.

There is so much that the Lord desires to reveal to us, but He knows we can't bear to hear all the truth He has for us just yet. We would do well to pray and ask Him to open our understanding and then give us the grace and boldness to walk in what He gives us, a step at a time. Humbling ourselves before the Lord and acknowledging our sin nature, and each and every specific sin He points out to us, and asking for the gift of repentance, a change of mind, will prepare us for the next great move of God. His thoughts are not our thoughts. His ways are not our ways. His way is the way of Holiness.

GOD'S PERSPECTIVE

In this message we are going to focus on seeing things in this world as God sees them, and not as we see them. While Jesus hung on the cross, He said, Father forgive them for they know not what they do. In effect Jesus was saying that we are completely deceived by the god of this world, not knowing what we are, who we are, who our god is, what he makes us do, or how he makes us do it.

I hear people speak about their fears of becoming sick, of dying, of going to hell, and of this deplorable mess that society in general is in. They don't understand why things are the way they are and of course they blame God for it all.

Let's just listen to some of the things Jesus has to say in the scriptures about all of this.

Jesus said, I am from above. You are from beneath.

In effect, He is saying, I Am Spirit, you are flesh. My mind is from God. Your mind is from the devil.

Jesus said, my kingdom is not of this world.

In effect He is saying, I did not create this world as you know it. It is not my plan, nor is it made in the image, or out of the imagination of, the Living God. But the original, incomplete, spiritual, but visible, creation, WAS MADE OUT OF THE VERY SUBSTANCE OF THE LIVING GOD.

Jesus said, flesh and blood will never inherit the kingdom of God.

Children inherit from their father. The devil is our father, so we inherited his nature in this kingdom of sin and darkness. The Living God is not our Father, therefore we cannot inherit His nature, nor obtain the Kingdom of God, while we are in this carnal mind set that we find ourselves in.

These physical bodies of ours don't seem to be what Jesus is making reference to here. Since our bodies are only vehicles to be used by the mind controlling it, I believe Jesus was saying that anyone operating out of their own carnal mind will never inherit the Kingdom of God.

Jesus said to the pharisees when they challenged His authority, I know who my Father is. Then He went on to say to them, your father is the devil.

Your father was a murderer from the beginning, and you continue to do the very same things he does because you are made in his image and not in the image of my Father who is the Living God. Of course, I am paraphrasing. Reverse inference would ask, if there is a living God, then who is the dead god? Who do you think is the god of the dead, or the god of this dying world? God says that He is the God of the Living, not the dead. Who do you think the dead are? The scriptures say that the physically dead know not anything, and that when they die their thoughts perish and they are no more. It's just as if a light switch were turned off. On the other hand we are called the living dead, until the life of God is imparted or added to us via the mind of Christ.

How dead or alive are you according to God's view? God does quicken the dead and makes alive those who seek Him and submit to Him with all of their heart.

Jesus said, you must be born again.

In effect Jesus is saying you are born once in the flesh, but that is not God's way. You must be born again in the Spirit of God. That is why we need the Spirit of Adoption that will enable us to be freed from the authority of our father, the devil and Satan, who controls us all via our unconscious mind. The carnal mind that we are born with is in the image of our father, the devil, and we are trapped in these fleshly prison houses called bodies. Jesus told the pharisees that they were whited tombstones and that within they were full of dead men's bones. The pharisees could not receive this truth from Jesus because they were lifted up in pride and were unwilling to humble themselves before Him to receive truth. We know only of this way, this earth realm, which is in complete opposition to the way of the Living God.

Jesus is really telling us that we were born into death and now live in our father's image in our father's kingdom right here on earth, and it is called hell. In the psalms it is called the valley of the shadow of death.

What do you think is meant by the fall? Of course, it definitely was a fall from grace and separation from God. We fell down from the visible, but spiritual, kingdom of God, in which His mind was in the process of being formed. That is another way to say that God was in the process of making us in His image or imagination.

You see, the Living God, Jehovah, is Spirit and He is mind. Jehovah is the proper name for God the Father, Who lives in eternity, in Whom there is no change or diminishing of power in any way. We fell from light to gross darkness, from spirit to flesh in a gradual fall. Another way to say this, is that our mind was completed by the evil serpent that Adam, the living soul, the beginning spiritual creation, was commanded to keep under its authority. But, instead of being completed in the mind of Jehovah, or in His image, we were completed in the mind or image of the Serpent, whose unconscious mind is Satan, the god of this worldly system.

Yes, I am saying that we are devils. Yes, I am saying that anywhere you see a human being, you are looking at a devil. Yes, I am saying that anywhere you see a human being, Satan is there in their unconscious mind. Think about it. When you leave your car unlocked, are you concerned about some spiritual entity coming along and stealing it? No! But some human being who is not resisting the evil within him is the one you have to watch out for. True? When you hear about a mass murderer, is it a disembodied spirit that is held accountable for the murders? No! It is a man whose unconscious mind has taken control of him. That unconscious mind in each of us is Satan, the god of this world, and of us. It is the truth whether we like it or not, whether we believe it, or not. Let God be true and every man a liar.

Jesus said, I Am the way, the truth and the life.

Jesus was saying, in effect, that we are not in the right way that leads to the living God, and only through Him can we even hope to enter in. I Am the only door, I Am the only mediator that can bridge that great gulf that is between you and God. That gulf is from death to eternal life, which can only be obtained when we receive the mind of Christ.

Jesus was saying that He personified truth, but that we do not have the truth because our whole existence is an illusion of the god of this world, and it is built on lies, deception, fear, hate and murder. None of this is true of His nature or character. Jesus told the pharisees that their father was a liar and a murderer from the beginning and that's why they behaved like their father.

Jesus said, I Am the life and that apart from Me, you can do nothing. If His life is not imparted to us, added to us, we abide in death. He said He was the true vine and if we are separated from Him, we continue to die. Consider also, if Jesus is the true vine, who is the false vine? In other words Who is bringing forth a living seed or who has produced a dying weed? We only exist in this realm of appearance and appear to be active and alive, but God says we are dead. He calls it all vanity. Can you hear that?

Jesus said let the dead bury the dead when a man told Jesus that he would follow Him after the death of his natural father. Jesus was plainly saying that we are born dead into this realm of death and hell, and that when physical death occurs, it is just a natural conclusion to the dying process we all find ourselves in down here in hell. He was also telling the man to put the things of God first in his life, if he had any hope of obtaining everlasting life from God. Time spent in this existence without searching for the things of God is time spent in vain.

Jesus said, there are so many things I want to tell you, but you can't bear to hear it. You won't be able to believe what I have to tell you because the god of this world has you in chains of darkness and has you blinded to truth. You have ears but you can't hear. You have eyes, but you can't see.

Jesus says I want to feed you with strong meat, which is real truth, but you can't even handle the milk of the words that I speak. You can't possibly digest it in your present state. Jesus said you can't put new wine into old wineskins because it will burst. New wine must be put into new wineskins, which is to say that the life of God can only be contained in a renewed mind, the mind of Christ.

We can't contain the things of the Spirit of God. God must be added to us, and a new mind formed in us, before we can begin to receive the revelation of God that He desires to give us.

Before that can even begin, the process of reconciliation has to take place. We must be reconciled back to God and begin the long journey of restoration that Christ Jesus has begun for us, so that He can take us, and make us into that new creation man. That new creation man has Christ Jesus as its mind, or head, and we are to be made into His body, the body of Christ. Only then will we be in the image or reflection of God. Only then will we inherit the Kingdom of God, which, in effect, is receiving the mind of God, and all it contains.

Jesus said, when you look at me, you are seeing the Father. He wasn't talking about His physical body that He inherited from His mother, Mary. He was talking about the mind that was operating in Him, and the way in which that mind caused Him to prevail over this ungodly world system.

The meaning of Christ is the operation of the anointed mind of God functioning in human flesh. That's why Jesus of Nazareth came to be called Christ Jesus as He went about doing what our Heavenly Father wanted done by Him in His earthly clay body. This human body of Jesus would eventually be swallowed up by the mind of Christ that would pierce the flesh mind of Jesus at the cross. The battle between His two minds culminated in the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ Jesus from the grave. He proved His authority over the god of this world, and in the process, death and hell were swallowed up. It was a glorious victory!

This same process is going to be accomplished in the many membered sons of God, because Jesus paved the way for it to be achieved. This is just the beginning of the way back. Jesus descended into hell in order to bring us out of it, and up into heaven with Him.

Jesus said the kingdom of God is within you. That's true, if your mind is the mind of Christ. Depending on which mind is in you, you are either in heaven or hell. If your mind is carnal, you are in hell. If your mind is the mind of Christ, you are in heaven.

Jesus said, I haven't come to do my own will, which, in effect, is obeying the god of this world Satan, but I have come to do the will of my Heavenly Father. Jesus had to overcome His own will, His own carnal mind, if you will, in order to grow into the mature mind of God that He received in seed form when He was conceived by the power of Jehovah.

Jesus is the only begotten Son of God from seed. We are engrafted into His tree of Life, so to speak, if, and when, we begin to have the mind of Christ formed in us. It is a sovereign move on the part of God to whomsoever He will.

The kingdom of Satan is the dark world that we live in, and Satan's mind is gross darkness hidden inside of us. The kingdom of Satan is night, and the Kingdom of God is day. They are completely in opposition to one another. A mighty war is about to erupt. There are those who are maturing in the ways of Satan and there are the sons of God who are maturing in the ways of God. Another way to say that, is that there are some who are coming forth with a completely matured mind of evil, in which there is nothing of goodness left in them to be redeemed. They will have much power from Satan for the specific purpose of coming against the sons of God who have been empowered by God to destroy the kingdom of Satan. This battle will be fought in the minds of men. This will be a battle or war between the mind of God and the mind of Satan. Scripture calls it the war of Armageddon. Our minds are going to be shaken and turned upside down as if an earthquake were taking place. Indeed it will be the destruction of earth, our carnal mind and all it represents, to be replaced by the mind of Christ and all it represents.

None of us are completely good or completely evil. We are a mixture. Any goodness in us, or this earth, comes from the mercy of God. God does sovereignly intervene at times, and will move in our lives as we humble ourselves and call upon Him in prayer. However, if our evil side doesn't grow into goodness, a loaned right standing with God, we will not be in a condition where the mind of Christ can be imparted to us.

We need to be saved and redeemed out of this world system where we are held captive. The Lord Jesus Christ is our Savior and our Redeemer. We once belonged to God as His incomplete creation, but we were stolen by the serpent. In the gradual fall downward from spirit to flesh, he became the dragon, who in turn became the devil, having Satan as his unconscious mind. The Lord Jesus Christ is the Redeemer of all mankind and He came into the world to redeem us out of it, and it is happening, one man at a time, one mind at a time. Alleluia!

In closing I just want to leave you with some basic thoughts to meditate upon. We are sinners because of what we are in our nature, even if our behavior doesn't express it. For those of you who find it impossible to believe that this world and our minds are identified as hell, I ask you to consider some reverse inferences.

Jesus told us the kingdom of God is within us, potentially, because each of us came from the spiritual substance of the original creation -- The Living God, who created us out of Himself. The serpent had to steal that creation in order to form his own world.

If it is possible for the kingdom of God or the Kingdom of Heaven to be within our minds, why is it so difficult to believe that hell can be in our minds as well? People in concentration camps, or on the battle fields call their experiences hell. Those in continual pain, drug addicts, alcoholics, mental patients, have no difficulty in believing that they are in hell. Disembodied spirits do not feel pain, get thirsty, hungry or have any physical needs. Only those in hell right here go through that torment. Talk to God.

MANCHILD I

The fruit of the Spirit is the mind of Christ. Life is the fruit of the spiritual womb of God. The manchild must come forth in us. Christ in us is the only hope of glory. The Godly characteristics or nature of God will come as His mind is formed and matured in us.

This is to expound on what the manchild means to me. Lord Jesus, help me to say this right. I understand at this point in time that the "Holy thing" that the scripture refers to is the engrafted seed of the Father that was within the child Jesus from birth. Jesus was the first born of many brethren. He is the Head that is awaiting His body (us) if you will. Jesus said that He had no place to lay His head if you recall in scripture. That was because His body was not yet prepared. He had to prepare a dwelling place, a mind, if you will, in us. We are a necessary part of this "Holy thing" that will culminate in a company of men coming forth in the image of the Father as He desired from the beginning.

This manchild company are those who have received the seed (the Holy Spirit) and are in the painful process of having their sinful nature exposed to them and are repenting, for the purpose of overcoming and killing their carnal mind that they were born with. JESUS WENT THROUGH THIS PROCESS HIMSELF. There is a sovereign move of God whereby the seed that is given us is spiritually fertilized and the mind of Christ is conceived. Many get to this point, but Christ is aborted in them very frequently because of disobedience or an unwillingness to pay the price required. Others go on to have the mind of Christ begin the long journey to full stature as the scripture terms it. To be faithful to the point of death is referring to the death of our carnal mind when the Mind of Christ has matured in us. The experiences are ongoing as the mind of Christ matures into what the scriptures refer to as the manchild being born.

This is the real meaning of what being born again is, a far cry from the beautiful experience of just being reconciled to God and receiving the Holy Spirit, no matter how sweet that experience was and no matter what blessings OR GIFTS we may have received at the merciful hand of our loving Father. Paul admonishes us to go on and not look back at what was yesterday. It is grow up time in the body of Christ. There is a war to be fought and it is between truth (Mind of Christ) and deception (our own carnal mind and the mind of others). We all need a meeting of the mind with the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the real catching up that the bible is referring to. Our crowning glory is not some diamond studded crown or tiara, but the Mind of Christ permanently imparted to us. Christ in us is our only hope of glory. We are saved in childbirth, the birth of the Mind of Christ in us.

CHRISTIAN RIDICULE

We Christians are open to ridicule when we dismiss scientific truth. While I am not in any way saying that science can teach us about spiritual truth in Christ, I am saying that certain facts must be addressed in the natural so that we can better understand what the Spirit of Christ desires us to know. For instance, we are finding out by the Spirit of Christ that the Israelites made a spiritual journey, not a physical journey out of Egypt. It is not as Hollywood had depicted the story.

There is no evidence of any bones, artifacts or Egyptian writings that would support the physical exodus out of Egypt, (the world mind set). When Jesus confronted the pharisees about their need to be set free, they said they were never in bondage to any man. In Psalms 106 (verse 16, I think) it says that the Israelites were mingled into the Egyptian society and learned their customs, dress, etc. They picked up on the occult practices and had to be delivered just like the rest of us have to be delivered from the pagan practices and belief systems we are trapped in. The Son has to set us free from our carnal mind and into the Mind of Christ.

There's nothing new under the sun. We're still wandering around in the wilderness getting nowhere fast because our pride prevents us from hearing the truth according to the Doctrine of Christ.

LETTING GO IN GOD

The very philosophy that most of the whole world subscribes to is, if I can't take it with me, I just won't go. What is it that we want to take with us? Where do we think we're going? What is it that we want to leave behind or feel we can't leave behind? Most people want to leave sickness, poverty and lack of emotional and mental stability behind. Of course Christians believe that when they get to "heaven" they get to have it all; a mansion, a healthy new body, no labor required for any desire, a carefree existence and of course, the all important reunion with loved ones who have died. I've heard some nominal Christians speak of this anticipated reunion before they even consider the thought of being in the presence of God.

The Hindus and Buddhists believe the world renews itself in a continuing cycle that never ends. They believe it will ultimately come into a state of harmony bringing about perfection in the earth and physical bodies that never die, thereby ending the cycle of life and death. Jehovah Witnesses believe that they will have a never ending life in this physical earth alongside of the physical Jesus without any of the natural conflicts that we now deal with. Other religious groups are looking forward to seeing angels, saints and finding the answers concerning the mysteries of this life when they die. Even people who don't believe in God seem to have like expectations. Still others believe there will be an ongoing spiritual growth on "the other side" that they failed to achieve while on the earth in their physical bodies.

Where do we want to go? Of course, everyone wants to go to heaven. No one wants to go to hell.

Even those who don't believe in hell still have the expectation of going to heaven, whatever their perception of heaven is. Most people believe, at least unconsciously, that they're going to take their own identity of who they are in this life with them. They believe they will recognize others from their earthly life and be recognized by them, as well. Wonder where that leaves people afflicted with Alzheimer's disease?

Years ago, the Lord spoke to me and told me, "to let go." I had no idea of what I was suppose to be letting go of. In a desire to be obedient to the Lord, I willingly "let go" of anything that stood between my being able to communicate with Him. I received the Holy Spirit within that same hour. The Spirit of God is given to those who obey Him. That was just the beginning of a long journey of "letting go" that I was to become involved in. I'm still very much in the ongoing process of it. Letting go is done a baby step at a time and then sometimes there's a giant step that's made as the Lord allows.

For starters, we usually do not know what the Lord wants us to let go of, except in the case of obvious behavioral sin. We must be led by the Lord in this journey of "letting go" because Jesus has a plan, a blueprint for us to follow after. When we do manage to let go or give up something that we have an ungodly soul tie to or with, the Lord always gives us something far better in its place. Letting go could involve breaking off some relationship that we would like to keep, changing a bad attitude, letting go of our denial when hidden sin is pointed out to us, or acknowledging pride and letting go of an unwillingness to receive His instruction and truth because we prefer our own way of thinking and believing. The scripture clearly says that we must change and that every man is a liar whose thoughts don't line up with the mind of God. His ways and thoughts are far above ours in every way.

The fact of the matter is that we haven't got the power to truly let go of anything we have a soul tie to, unless the Lord Jesus Christ gives us the knowledge, understanding and wisdom to first see it His way. Then we have to rely upon Him to give us the strength and ability to follow through with it. He has to make the way for us so that we can follow after Him. It is a continuous struggle to ascend in Christ. There is battle after battle to overcome, even as the Lord prepares and equips us to go forward.

The battles take place in our minds for the most part, of course. We can't seem to let go. We still want things our way and not God's way. Some of us are convinced that our way is God's way. Did you ever consider why it's so hard for us to think of leaving something or someone behind? We can't seem to give anything up easily. What has such a strong hold upon us that even when we determine to let go of something, there's only a fifty-fifty chance of us making it? Consider for a moment the success rate of those going on with the Lord. It's very small. Jesus told us that few would enter in. Probably because they're unwilling to pay the price of "letting go."

We're suppose to enter into the Kingdom of God. Entering into the Kingdom of God extends far beyond basic reconciliation, getting our behavioral sins controlled, church attendance and bible study and even receiving the Holy Spirit along with gifts. This is all good and necessary, but we're told to go on and come up higher. This coming up higher or ascension means the "letting go" of many of our preconceived ideas of who and what we believe to be true. Every human born of a woman has a carnal mind that wars continually against the mind of Christ. It is impossible for it to do anything else. That's the way it's programmed and that's what makes us sinners in the sight of God, no matter how well we keep ourselves under control. The truth is we can't control thoughts that invade our thinking processes even if we are successful a good part of the time in keeping them in check. What could I possibly have to let go of , you might ask yourself. If I were to suggest to you that you're not made in the image of God or that this physical world is not the creation of our Heavenly Father, how would you handle it? What are you feeling right now? Do I hear you saying, that's ridiculous? Guess what? That's only two of the little things you'll have to let go of to go on with God. Have you got questions? I do, too. We have to go before our Heavenly Father and petition Him for His Truth. The god of this world has us completely blinded to what the Lord Jesus Christ desires us to know and apprehend. Jesus told us He had so many things to tell us, but that we couldn't bear to hear them. You see our carnal minds are not programmed for the truth that is only in the mind of Christ.

We have ungodly soul ties to this world that came about through the primordial serpent that incarnated us. So what can we do about it? We have to learn to let go and let God have His way in our life. Jesus told us that flesh and blood will never inherit the Kingdom of God and that we were not to love the world nor the things in it. It seems that it would be worth our while to come before the Lord and ask Him to bring us into His truths so that the mind of Christ can be birth in us. The scripture tells us it's our only hope of glory. The Lord desires us to know His mysteries more than we could possibly know. But He told us that we have eyes that see not and ears that hear not. He's willing to open them for us if we're willing to "let go" and let God be God in us.

Lord God, little did I know

That when I prayed

Lord, I read what your Word says

But what does it really mean

That you would come down

And reason with me

To reveal your Word

And fulfill your Word in me

by Mary Jane Sears