New Creation Reality, Part 2 by Pastor Poju Oyemade: MP3 Download & Sermon Notes

New Creation Realities Are Not on the Outside

We have been focusing in the last few weeks on new creation realities, the realities now of a person who is a new creature in Christ Jesus. They may not be apparent yet on the outside, but these things are the realities in the spirit realm.

Philemon 1:6 says the communication of your faith becomes effectual by the acknowledging of every good thing that is now in you in Christ Jesus. That is what new creation realities are, the good things that are already yours.

The Battle Is in the Soul

Romans 7:18 shows Paul struggling with obedience, acknowledging that in his flesh dwells no good thing. In the outward man there is nothing morally in alignment with God, so Christianity is not about telling the flesh how to behave, because that only asks a person to pretend. What Jesus said was that you must be born again.

• The inward man is born not of corruptible but of incorruptible seed, the word of God that abides forever.
• John 1:13 makes clear this new birth is not by blood, the will of the flesh, or the will of man, but by God.
• In the flesh, the DNA of your family lineage is present, but the true man in the spirit carries the DNA of God.

Satan operates on the outside, in the flesh, while the Holy Spirit operates from within. Ephesians 2:2 describes how, in time past, the spirit that worked in us was the prince of the power of the air. Now the battle has shifted to the soul, the mind. When a person is carnally minded, their soul is subservient to the flesh, where there is no good thing. When a person is spiritually minded, their soul is subservient to the spirit, where there is every good thing.

Spiritual growth, then, is not a person behaving differently on the outside. It is the soul receiving more of the realities in the realm of the spirit until it begins to reflect in character, and eventually in events and occurrences on the outside.

Acknowledging What Is Already Yours

1 Corinthians 2:12-13 teaches that we have received the spirit of God so that we might know the things freely given to us, and that we speak them in words the Holy Spirit teaches. There is knowledge, and then there is utterance.

In the spirit realm there is no improvement. What is, is. A person who acknowledges the realities is calling into existence things that be not as though they were, because that is how it already stands in the spirit. As a person keeps acknowledging those realities, it begins to enter their soul, enter their consciousness, and change them.

A Practical Example: Forgiving Daniel

• Suppose someone struggles to forgive an individual. In the flesh, there is no forgiveness there. They try and try, yet the pain resurfaces whenever they meet the person.
• But if they come to know that the very nature of God, the same love Jesus has for humanity, is an integral part of their new nature, and that love has been shed abroad in their hearts by the Holy Spirit, they can begin to declare it as already true.
• Over time, the feelings of animosity fade, not because of personal effort to forgive, but because of acknowledging every good thing already in them in Christ.

The problem with Christians is that they keep acknowledging who they are in the flesh instead of who they are in the spirit. They know nothing of being blessed with every spiritual blessing in heavenly places in Christ. The continuous acknowledging of what is true on the inside, over and against what is apparent in your life, will change the shape of your life to fit who you really are in God.

The Holy Spirit as Your Comforter

John 14:16 is the first place Jesus speaks of bringing the Holy Ghost, promising another Comforter who abides with you forever. The word Comforter comes from a Greek word that carries seven meanings: He is your advocate, your helper, your strengthener, your teacher, and your standby, a generator who produces power the moment power fails.

2 Timothy 1:6-7 records Paul telling Timothy to stir up the gift that is in him, because God has not given him a spirit of fear. The gift was already there. Timothy simply was not stirring it up or acknowledging its presence, the same love, power, and sound mind that already resided within him.

John 14:17 explains why the world cannot receive the Spirit of truth: the world only acknowledges what it can see and feel, calling that "my reality" and "my truth." Yet unseen realities are not thereby less real, the same way radio and television waves pass through a room unseen. In the realm of the spirit, a believer is like a receiver: what is transmitted in heaven, though invisible, becomes visible in a life through acknowledging it.

We do not determine God's presence by the external. We determine it by the internal.

If a born-again Christian is fired from a job alongside an unbeliever, the Christian does not ask, "Where is God? How could they have fired me?" The Christian says, "God is with me. The Holy Ghost resides inside me." When you fired me, you fired the Holy Ghost in me. To question the presence of God because of something that happened on the outside is defeat.

He Gives Instructions in the Difficult Place

Exodus 17:1-7 tells of Israel journeying to Rephidim where there was no water. The people who operate according to the flesh ask, "Where is God?" the moment there is no visible provision. But when Moses acknowledged God's presence in the crisis, God began to give him instructions: take the elders, take the rod, strike the rock. Moses carried out the instruction and the people saw the result.

The same pattern held for Joseph. When his brothers betrayed him and sold him into slavery, the Bible says God was with him and caused him to prosper. Joseph did not say, "Where is God?" Men's opinion is not God's definition. Jesus himself said that though all would forsake him, he was not alone, because the Father was with him. You lose the moment you define God's presence by people on the outside.

He Shows You Things to Come

John 16:13-14 promises that when the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all truth and show you things to come. As a Christian, there should be no surprises about the things that affect your life, not who will win a competition, but whether an investment will fail or a journey carries danger, in time to act on it.

• One person in the congregation was warned by God, before a currency devaluation, to sell everything and change it to dollars. When the crash came, that person's resources went up in value.
• A minister once felt such a strong burden not to travel for an engagement that he prayed in tongues for twenty-three hours and refused to board the flight, even though people were angry about the money already spent. The plane later crashed, and all aboard died.

Luke 21:34-35 warns that if you do not know things ahead of time, the day can come upon you unawares, like a snare. Acts 27:10-15 records Paul perceiving that a voyage would end in hurt and damage, but the centurion believed the ship's owner instead, and the majority went along with what suited their own convenience. The wind that seemed to confirm their decision blew only softly, and Paul was mocked as "Mr. Perceiver."

This is the path a true Christian walks. It can be a lonely path, carrying what God has shown you when no one else has seen it. If God is going to use you at an early age, he will let you suffer rejection, so that you are not so attached to what people think that you cannot make hard decisions. When Satan wants to steer you toward the wrong decision, he often uses the person you love most to apply the pressure.

Partakers of the Holy Ghost

Hebrews 6:4-5 describes those who have tasted the heavenly gift and been made partakers of the Holy Ghost, tasting the good word of God and the powers of the world to come. A partaker is no longer only a natural human being, and this comes by continually acknowledging these realities while walking through difficulty.

He Quickens Your Mortal Body

Romans 8:11 says the same Spirit that raised Christ from the dead will quicken, that is, give life to, your mortal body. The human body is designed to heal itself; medicine assists the process, and surgery removes what is hindering it. Proverbs 18:14 says the spirit of a man sustains his infirmity, but when the Holy Spirit is acknowledged, he injects life directly into the body independent of its natural healing power. This is why Paul was unaffected after a viper bit him, there was no time to pray, but the life within him met the poison before it could take hold.

The Spirit of Counsel and Might

Galatians 3:14 teaches that the blessing of Abraham was, specifically, the promise of the Spirit. When Abraham laid hands on Isaac, it was an impartation of the Spirit. That same spirit taught Isaac how to plant in a season of famine and reap a hundredfold, and taught Jacob, by experience, how to increase even in Laban's house.

Guarding the Gift from Misuse

Daniel 5:6-16 tells of King Belshazzar, terrified after seeing the handwriting on the wall, calling for Daniel because it was known that an excellent spirit, knowledge, and understanding were found in him, so much that even a pagan king recognized the spirit of God at work in Daniel long before others acknowledged it as the Holy Ghost.

This is what should be said of believers in the marketplace, that the spirit of God is found in them. But this gift is easily abused. When it is taught that the Holy Ghost in you can show things to come, carnal people try to appropriate it, going about announcing what will happen to others rather than proving it quietly first. The wise counsel is to start small: prove the presence of the Holy Ghost by finding your own lost keys before you presume to tell a church where it should go.

Father, we thank you for the Holy Ghost who abides in us forever. Teach us to acknowledge every good thing that is already ours in Christ Jesus, that our souls would be brought into full alignment with the realities of the spirit, and that our lives would bear the fruit of what is already true of us in you.