THE LORD IS MY SHEPHERD - PART 406

We are the body of Christ! Within the body of Christ, each believing member exercises a particular function according to the operational gifts imparted to believers by His Holy Spirit. To each one of us, He divides the gifts as He wills. In this context, the Holy Spirit bestows gifts to each member so that they - through the exercise of these given gifts - the whole body of the Christ (which is the temple of the Spirit of God) may remain vibrant.

At the same time, the body of the Christ can be recognized by unbelievers (or those outsiders among us who are not yet saved) as being the offspring of JESUS. So that they too can declare the body of the Christ to be JESUS people, reporting that the God of truth is in the midst of them.

Indeed, we are the offspring of JESUS who has SEEDED us and fathered us in His death. As previously discussed, JESUS is likened to a corn of wheat that has fallen into the ground and died and by reason of the kernel flesh dying, the SEED within the kernel (flesh) exposes the SEED of LIFE. From that SEED brings forth a harvest of new wheat - or in this analogy, JESUS PEOPLE. The same life that was in the original SEED now indwells the offspring who also now within themselves carry the SEED of Christ!

So it is not really the "old" you that is the driving force working within you. Rather, it is the power of the Holy Spirit that was in the man JESUS the Christ who now indwells you. We believed in the sacrificial offering of the body of Christ, who we repeatedly declare is the very SEED of the Holy Spirit. We having sincerely believed, having called upon His name JESUS, being baptized in water after the likeness of His burial, and having willingly obeyed, we arose from the water a new spiritual creation. Now we are alive to the awareness that it was God in the man Christ JESUS who loved us and laid down His life for each believer’s personal redemption.

Therefore, we are the offspring of the SEED of the Holy Spirit, the kernel covering the SEED of the Holy Spirit that died in order to permit the SEED of life within the kernel to multiply.

Thus, we are now many offspring of that one SEED body whose body is the Christ. And as such, the work of the Holy Spirit that brought forth redemption is finished. Moreover, the keys to the Kingdom of God we have received and JESUS has commissioned believers to go into all the world and preach this redemption - salvation - good news gospel message to one and all. God bless you all as you go forth.