Isaiah 43:18-19 English Standard Version

18 “Remember not the former things, nor consider the things of old. 19 Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.

We have been speaking to the issue of living in the world versus a life in Christ. The Lord brought this verse to me and it speaks to me in the way it was mentioned yesterday.

Do we perceive this new life in Christ now that we are born again?

The old life we were living has all of our experiences and we are used to listening with our worldly senses. We have to discover how to perceive by faith in order to discover this life in Christ is different than living in the world. We have to discover life is not the same thing as living.

A spiritual life is not living in the flesh, it is living by faith. A spiritual life is only possible because of our quickened spirit. It is in effect being connected to God because He has bridged that gap between our two worlds.

In the past others have portrayed a cartoon image of the Cross of Christ on the edge of a canyon with God on the other side. Then the Cross drops down and spans the gap and the man walks over to the other side. It is one way to look at accepting the work of the Cross to be received by God the Father.

Perceiving this new life in Christ is not so simple as just walking over from one side to the other. Our life is in Christ but our living happens in the real world. This new life is more complicated than just saying to ourselves “don’t do that”. We remember our old lives but it takes time for the character of Christ to be develop in our new life in Christ.

We can believe that it will but do we understand what our part is in allowing that character to develop? Our life in Christ has to have influence over our thoughts and actions in living in the world. We can change and we will change, but not by any act of will of the flesh.

Genesis 49:6 English Standard Version (ESV) Let my soul come not into their council; O my glory, be not joined to their company. For in their anger they killed men, and in their willfulness they hamstrung oxen.

Colossians 3:2-4 English Standard Version

2 Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. 3 For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. 4 When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.

Picking up where we left off yesterday, since our life is hidden in Christ and we live in the flesh, the only way to bridge the gap between those two lives is faith that speaks the same language in both.

We know from reading John’s gospel that Jesus is the Word. We know that He is Truth. We also know the only way to know the truth is by reading the Word. If we have not read His Word we do not know Him as we ought to know Him.

Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 8 that “knowledge” puffs up, and if anyone imagines that he knows something, he does not yet know as he ought to know. Reading without faith does not communicate the Truth that abides in us. It will not speak to us.

Hearing by faith is required to bridge the gap between our life in the flesh and our life in Christ. The key word in 1 Corinthians 8 is imagines.

Acts 17:29 English Standard Version (ESV) Being then God’s offspring, we ought not to think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of man.

We must not allow our minds to imagine an image of God that is not real. If we create an image in our minds that is a god we can live with, that we can admire and worship then we have done nothing but lie to ourselves. That is the vanities of all vanities.

We must know Him in Truth and Spirit and that is only possible by faith in Christ.

Read the bible like it is a scholastic endeavor and that is all it will be.

Read the Word by faith and He will speak to us.

Faith bridges the gap.