We now come into the presence of God because we know He will teach us how to live making the most of our salvation which he planned for us, before the foundation of the world. We agree, now to unite our spirit and our minds so that we can know Him and what He is doing in our lives. Walking in the power of His sacrifice, and His righteousness has enabled us to be touched by His cleansing love. Not only cleansed, but because His righteousness is so much higher than ours is, this power sets us free.

When we receive that righteousness, we do so by faith, and as we stand in the presence of God, we are indeed free.

Jesus had no consciousness of sin, so when He walked on this earth, he had absolute authority. He did not question if a demon was going to listen to him or not, He knew they had to obey. He didn’t question whether the sickness, perversion, and the death of this world should obey. He knew they had to because He was the righteousness of God. Jesus knew He already had power and authority over anything that was less than the perfection of God’s righteousness, anything that was not a perfect work. He could restore those things that were broken, making them right, because He was not sin conscious. Only by understanding the righteousness of God and His ability to empower us to walk in His righteousness, can we be free from the consciousness of sin. If we are free from the consciousness of sin, we have authority.

Sin was no problem to Jesus; neither did it restrict Him in any way. Therefore, as he dealt with the imperfections of this world, the righteousness of Christ had authority and power. He knew that he could do anything God created Him to do. All things are recreated in Christ Jesus. Everything old is gone now. We must reconcile our thoughts to God. He has reconciled us to Him, but we still must reconcile our thoughts to Him. If we don’t grasp the power of His salvation and His righteousness then all that is left for us is to live our lives overcome by sin consciousness.

If our mind is connected to our flesh, and its failure, then we are carnally minded; it is death. But, if our mind is connected to our spirit, it is life and peace. Even though we realize "that there is therefore now no condemnation," I cannot go through life saying I can do whatever I want because I am then not accountable. It has to do with the righteousness of God in Christ. It has to do with freedom from a consciousness of sin; so free that it has no power over you. Rather, the spirit of the living God has recreated you anew and caused you to walk in A New Righteousness. It is not a righteousness of this earth nor one that any man has ever performed before Christ. The apostle Paul said that "the gentiles do by nature, what the Jew could never do." Though they understood righteousness by the law they could never perform the law. Nevertheless, the gentiles by faith seized reconciliation to God and were made righteous. We do it by faith. We live righteously by faith. We allow righteous acts to follow by faith. Because all the old things are passed away, there is nothing left of the old to be used against me for now all things are made new. Thus, nothing old can restrict me in any way.

Our new life in Christ is now revealed. We have this right in Christ to know that we are new, and if new then no longer conditioned for sin, failure, sickness, or any thought that disagrees with what God says we are. The tense for what we are is: I am NOW RIGHTEOUS. My NOW faith does not go backwards to find out how to get where I need to be. My NOW faith assumes I am already there. Therefore, there is no consciousness of sin NOW in this moment, unless I have not conquered the moment. If I am free, I am free NOW. If anything I was puts me in bondage, it is NOW gone. I am NOW made new.

The only way temptation to fail can subdue me is in my thoughts, because the Bible says, "as a man thinks so is he." At this moment, I have the choice of settling my future. If I cannot decide now, I will have failed the next moment, and will neither decide then. I will be in the next moment, hour, day, year, what I am now. Right now is the only time we have the power to change, to believe that we are who God says we are. What we are is the righteousness of God in Christ. What we were was "fallen short of the glory of God." What we will be is probably what we were, if we do not agree with what God says we are.

We are in Christ. We have life and peace. If we rely on our memories to sustain us, we will repeat the same old patterns of death we have walked in all of our lives. Until we come to Christ and realize that this moment can create a different memory, we stay as we were. So at this moment, by faith, we enter into the presence of God, faithfully to believe in who we are now. My righteousness is an act of NOW faith, so I concentrate all my thoughts on who I am in Christ!

The Ministry of Reconciliation.

When did Jesus die on the cross? About 2,000 years ago. When did your old man die on the cross? About 2,000 years ago. Eternity has no time. When we are in Christ we have no time. Time is irrelevant to us NOW. Wherever we are, we are in Jesus. We are the righteousness of God in Christ.

I often tell folks that we live in a raptured state. They look at me in a funny, confused, and suspicious way, and ask, "How can that be?" Time does not mean anything to God. In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye we’re going to be changed. That will be in its time. However, it doesn’t matter what will be in time, because I already live by faith in that state. I am already

redeemed. I am already saved. I am already healed. I am already resurrected and yet my body will one day catch up to my heart. I don’t see myself as something less than that. I see myself in Christ. There is no limit to who I am because there are no limits in God. I don’t have to get ready and prepare myself for the rapture because in my mind I am already raptured. I am already what He says I am by faith.

Now I know that this body will change, but that is irrelevant, because this body is subject to time. It is temporal, but I am eternal. Whatever is eternal is not effected by what is subject to time, i.e. when the rapture is. As far as that is concerned, it is already done. Because, He already said it, and if He who is eternal already said it, it is past tense to us who are temporal. Therefore, I live in the faith that I am NOW, and I stand in Him. The day that the rapture happens is not going to be a surprise to me, on that day I will say, "I knew that! I knew that all along, because I am born of the Spirit of God, and the redemption I walk in is finished." Time doesn’t mean anything to me. Consciousness of sin is about time, and I have nothing to do with time. It takes time to sin. It does! A great deal of time… You have to work it up; it has to be controlled by the lust of your flesh. It’s a time thing. However, if I do not have a consciousness of sin because I live as an eternal being, then I live in a state of faith.

Well, I live in the same world as everyone else. I’m not a fool and I am not in denial. However, I am in agreement with God because He said I am the righteousness of God in Christ. This means that every promise that will be for me… is. Every promise that will be for you… is. Every word God has given you to speak has already been spoken. Every work God has ever given you to do has already been done.

Testimony

After we arrived from the airport to our home I checked my email in short order. In between then and now we had a storm and it fried our computer! We could get the monitor and printer to power-up but the hard drive would not turn on, so essentially we had no computer. This morning I called the computer dealer to see what to do about the situation and after talking to a representative there it was decided that we should bring the computer to the nearest store that was about 30 minutes from our house to get it fixed.

This process was going to take 7 to 10 days and in the meantime I would have a hard time emailing anybody, doing med school applications, and of course the rest of the family had tasks to do on the computer (like register for university). I knew that this situation simply would not do, and God reminded me that I could lay hands on sick things and in His name demand them to be well ("coincidentally" in yesterday’s sermon you talked about the very thing).

So, I laid both of my hands on the hard drive and said something very close to "in Jesus name you are healed" or "God thank you that our computer is healed". Then I pressed the power button (which I had done many times last night and this morning trying to get it to work) and the hard drive powered-up!

The first thought that God put in my head after that was "and this is just a computer; how much more do I care for people"? How much more is He willing to heal those who are humble enough to believe that He is their risen Savior? Through Jesus and the power in the Holy Spirit God uses our hands, our minds, and the rest of our bodies for His glory, to show His desires for us.

Eric