Thought War II

Below are the written lessons on the Thought War II Certificate Course.  This information has been made available in written form if you are unable to watch the live videos.  When you finish studying the lesson, click the link at the end to take the quiz.

Thought War II

Lesson One

CIRCUMCISION OF THE FLESH

► OBJECTIVES

After completing this lesson, the student will be able to:

1. Use scriptural support to discuss the relevance of the spiritual circumcision to a sinless walk. 2. Use scriptural support to outline why the mind of Christ does not have a thought war. 3. Explain how a perverted gospel works to create strongholds in the fleshy mind. ► LESSON

Traditionally, we have been told we will never be one hundred percent holy as long as we live in these bodies of flesh. The general consensus is that the flesh is sinful and sooner or later it will cause us to sin against God. We believed this. However, the Father did not neglect the flesh in the salvation process. He knew that the Law of Sin and Death working in our members would once again bring us into captivity. As we allow the Word to express itself without any private interpretation, open your heart to the likely assassination of your belief system.

Colossians 2:10

And ye are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power:

Being complete in Christ means we lack nothing. It means God’s work in us is finished; and there is nothing else that has to be done. We do not need anything else to accomplish what God has called us to do and to be. He has given us all things that pertain to life and godliness. When we say we are deficient, we can only be deficient in those things He told us to add to our faith. God’s work is complete.

Colossians 2:11-12

11 In whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ: 12 Buried with him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with him through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised him from the dead.

As it relates to salvation, we erred when we saw the regeneration of the new man being only from within. Circumcision in the natural is a cutting away of the foreskin from the male genitals. Spiritual circumcision is also a cutting away: a sanctifying and cleansing of the flesh. It is an operation of God performed to cut away or remove the dominion of sin from us. It is God who enabled us to put off the body of sin.

When the old man was slain (crucified with Christ) at salvation, God placed the soul and the spirit in the Holy Ghost. The same Holy Ghost also quickened our mortal bodies and brought us alive unto God (Romans 8:11). We were resurrected complete in Christ. The Father has taken away all our excuses. Our flesh is no longer the body of sin; it has truly become the body of Christ.

Let us allow the scriptures to take us further into this magnificent operation of God.

1 Thessalonians 5:23

And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

From the time we are born-again until the return of Jesus, our body, soul and spirit should be free from sin. Many of my brothers contend that this is an impossibility. We have to decide what we are going to believe; the scriptures or the vain philosophy of men. For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh (Romans 8:3).

The sin issue was dealt with at salvation. God removed the dominion of sin when we were baptized into Christ; we rose in the body of Christ. The truth is, if sin is an issue, it is because we, as Sons of God, make a conscious decision to sin against the Father. We do this in spite of the great love and mercy He has shown us. We now have the mind of Christ and are able to receive the following instructions and commandments: …every one of you should know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honour; Not in the lust of concupiscence, even as the Gentiles which know not God (1 Thessalonians 4:4-5). We were not able to do this before. The nature of the flesh was that of evil concupiscence and we could not help ourselves. But now we are instructed to possess our vessels in the sanctification the Father has provided. We have overcome the lust of concupiscence that worked in our members.

The law could not eliminate sin in the flesh, because it was the nature of the flesh to sin. You cannot teach a cat to bark and act like a dog; that is not its nature. Likewise, it is impossible for a person to live free from sin without the indwelling of the Spirit of God; which provides a new life and a new nature for the whole man (body, soul and spirit). Christ is not merely a shield to protect us from the wrath of God. He is our life. He is the life we live right now. It is by Him that we live and move and have our being (Acts 17:28). It is by His faith that we are able to please the Father. Our life is hid in Him and He is that hidden treasure in us; …as he is, so are we in this world (1 John 4:17).

To live a life vacillating in and out of sin is to live a lie. It is not the nature of the Sons of God to live in any sin. To do so, is to dishonor God and undermine the work of the Holy Ghost in us. The Sons of God are not sinners. Despite how songwriters have portrayed the Sons of God, we are not sinners who fall down and get up. We are the righteousness of God created in the image of Christ Jesus. We are divine in nature and have overcome the corruption of the world that is through the lust of the flesh.

To say we have a dual nature because of our ability to sin against The Father is to say that Jesus Christ was completely incapable of disobeying The Father. If that is true, then His temptation in the wilderness and all the trying and testing He withstood was merely a show; unless He too had the ability to sin. If He didn’t have the ability to sin, that would make Him a fraud; because how could He be tempted in all points like us, if it was impossible for Him to sin in the first place? The truth beloved is yes, He could have disobeyed; He simply chose not to. We have the same choice.

Consider Paul’s instructions to Timothy: All scripture is given by the inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works (2 Timothy 3:16-17). The Word of God was given to keep us in the boundaries of the faith. We can be perfect; whether some believe it or not.
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