20/05/13

Free from the bonds of the flesh

Luke 24:40,41 - And when he had thus spoken, he shewed them his hands and his feet. And while they yet believed not for joy, and wondered, he said unto them, Have ye here any meat?


We read in Luke 24 Jesus appears to people after His death. They think He is a spirit therefore asks them to touch Him. He also shows then the wounds on His hands. We see to reconfirm that He was not just a spirit but had resurrected in the flesh He tells them to serve Him some food and thus He consumes the food.

Let us be cynical of these scriptures and raise questions and then find their answers to really understand what Jesus did.

Firstly we need remember the way Jesus was wounded and bruised when he was hung on the crucifix it is written they could not recognise Him to be human. It is written pieces of His flesh were torn out at many places such that His bones were visible. His face too was bruised with the crown of thorns that pierced Him and the way people punched and slapped Him in His face.

These are just a few of the things that are recorded in the Bible leaving aside that which is not recorded. Thus if Jesus resurrected in His bruised body then there is no way the two people and His disciples could not recognised Him. How come only the wounds on His hands were visible and not the wounds all over His body and face?

To assure them He was not a spirit and had resurrected in the flesh He asked them for food and ate them. This act assures His disciples. Did not the disciples know that Angels who are spirit beings can come as humans and eat like it is recorded in Genesis 24?

These questions are not raised to doubt Jesus' resurrection or that He resurrected in the flesh, but to understand what flesh is so that we understand Jesus and His resurrection.

Let us go back to how God created man. It is written God made the body of man out of wet dust (mud) and put in it his spirit and man became a living soul. Here most people think God put in this body His Spirit, they are mistaken God put in man a human spirit and not His Spirit. If God had put His Spirit in Adam then Adam would have been called Christ and so also all of us. The word Christ means in whom God's Spirit dwells. But Bible says Jesus was The Christ and after we receive His Spirit we too become like Him. But since we start with a token of the Holy Spirit and grow in Him, we are called little Christs.

We need to note we were all created in the beginning in spirit and we are bought in this world according to the plan of God. We are not created by our parents. We existed even before we were formed in our mother's womb. We existed from the beginning (this natural creation) and that is why God knows us from the beginning.

Knowing human life and spirit life I was stuck for a long period on one point. If we have an x thousand years of spirit life then how is it we are alive today and there are many who are yet to come? This question the Lord answered me through my little daughter. She was told to grow small plants and bring to school as project work. In my young days I have plants many plants for I love plants but never gave a thought to the process. It was only when I was explaining the process to my daughter I realized the Lord was answering my question of human life.

A plant comes from a seed. When seed is watered it breaks open and a plant grows out of it. Plants have a life period some few days, some few weeks, some few months and some years. There are trees that live hundreds of years yet all grow from seeds. Their lives are similar according to the care given unto them and the type of seed they originate from. The life period is measured from the time the seed comes to life. The seed was not dead before but yet the plant comes to life when the seed transforms into a plant.

Bible says when God put a human spirit in the body of flesh God had created from wet mud, man became an active soul. That means his spirit and soul existed before and became alive when put in the flesh like a plant becomes alive when the seed transforms.

In our mother's womb when the egg gets fertilized we come alive and become living souls. We existed before but now we can mould our souls (inner man) as we grow. Our inner man / souls which were in Adam when he was created got corrupt when he sinned and was cursed by God. Therefore like corrupt plants come from corrupt seeds so also our body of flesh comes corrupt because of the corruption of Adam (I explained before why Jesus was born of a virgin and not with a human father just to avoid this corruption).

Now let us understand the corruption.

We read Adam and Eve were naked when they were created but they never noticed their nakedness until they sinned. Why did that happen?

Let us note in Genesis 2 there were 2 gardens. One garden was the Garden of Eden and then there was another to the east in which god put Adam and Eve. Adam and Eve had access to both these gardens. Where were these gardens?

You would be surprised to know one was in Heaven and the other on earth.

Note when God threw then out of Eden He put two Cherubim and a Flaming Sword to the east of Eden to guard it. What about the west, north and south?

East is not an earthly direction, neither the Flaming Sword nor the Cherubim are earthly swords or human watchmen. Right Hand of God means the Righteous Hand (side) of God and a the Higher Heavens are to the Righteous side of God while earth and hell are towards the left (east) away from the Righteous / Higher Heavens.

When sin can into man the Truth in man was corrupted and thus man lost Truth and Righteousness. The loss of righteousness caused man to realize he was naked.

To understand this further we need to understand Transfiguration of Jesus. Jesus was righteous for He did not sin and was not born with sin (since His earthly father was the Holy Spirit) therefore His flesh too was not corrupt. Transfiguration was the ability to overcome the flesh or the physical body.

Understand Jesus did not need to take Peter, John and James to see Him transfigure and speak to Moses and Elijah. Firstly Jesus had to transfigure to speak to them since in the flesh if He had it He would have broken God's Commandment of not communicating with the dead in the flesh (the words used is Adam as an adjective).

Jesus must have done this many times before but He wants Peter, John and James to see so that they are witnesses of His overcoming.

Adam and Eve before they sinned also were not restricted in their bodies. They could move been Eden and the earthly garden (which happened to be a place in east Europe before the continents separated). Sin caused man got man imprisoned in the body since the Truth got corrupted.

We read Paul talks of in the end days some would be lifted up in the clouds around the time Jesus comes again. This lifting up or rapture is nothing but man overcoming the flesh like Jesus and able to transfigure and meet the Lord in His coming in glory.

If we go through the depths of the Bible and the construction of the physical human one would be surprised of the image of the Word of God in us. Jesus had the Truth in Him and with no corruption therefore it is written He was the Word made flesh. Disease is nothing but the manifestation of the corruption of the Truth in us that is why when the Word is spoken it causes healing of the person. That means the Word needs to be spoken in spirit to the person's spirit so as the healing to manifest in the flesh.

When we understand this we would understand many scriptures and situations in the Bible.


[ Prayer Starter ]
Lord, sin has caused man to be trapped in the flesh. When we overcome our fleshy desires by doing your mission (the Cross of Jesus) and when the Truth comes back in us we would overcome corruption and be free. For this You came as man Jesus to give us The Cross (mission) and your Spirit of Truth. Lord, help us carry The Cross and by the working of the Holy Spirit in us come to the knowledge of the Truth from your Word...

This prayer we make in Jesus' Name, Amen.


[ Reference ]
Genesis 18:1-8

Luke 24:30-43

Genesis 2:6-7
6 But there went up a mist from the earth, and watered the whole face of the ground.
7 And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.

Isaiah 40:21 - Have ye not known? have ye not heard? hath it not been told you from the beginning? have ye not understood from the foundations of the earth?

Isaiah 41:4 - Who hath wrought and done it, calling the generations from the beginning? I the LORD, the first, and with the last; I am he.

John 15:20-27

Ephesians 3:9-12
9 And to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ:
10 To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God,
11 According to the eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord:
12 In whom we have boldness and access with confidence by the faith of him.

2 Thessalonians 2:13 - But we are bound to give thanks alway to God for you, brethren beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth:

Psalms 139:13 - For thou hast possessed my reins: thou hast covered me in my mother's womb

Galatians 1:15-16
15 But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother's womb, and called me by his grace,
16 To reveal his Son in me, that I might preach him among the heathen; immediately I conferred not with flesh and blood:

The Word of God was given free to us, therefore we should also share it freely with others. (All rights are with God)