That I died with or in Christ must be taken literally. However, I didn’t notice any death on the body and soul level. So, it must have been my spirit that died, and in the same now it died it was resurrected to newness of life (the time aspect is perhaps of less interest since in the fourth dimension there is no time). This clearly proves that it is our spirits that run the whole machinery, and that what takes place on that level is too deep for us except in rare glimpses.
No wonder we are called to live by faith since everything spring forth from the spiritual realm which is somehow hidden from us, but we penetrate it by faith and we operate it by faith and by the words we speak. In the midst of this symphony we find the Holy Spirit as the Great Conductor joined to our spirits causing us to walk in His ways.
Dying with Christ means that all the old were cut off by the root, but I am still me. Seemingly nothing has changed, but all is changed. It isn’t an improved me. It is something completely new – something never seen before. Life has become an eternal exploration journey in order to find the depths of this change only to find it is bottomless.
We learn from the Bible that faith is substance. Substance is something that exists. When I became saved something took place too deep for me to see or understand. It was true that I was saved – it was substance – it was a fact. However, in the beginning I was still wavering often doubting wondering whether I was saved or not. I held it fast in faith, though, and my confession was that I was saved. One day the substance I had taken in faith came back and took me and it became an inner knowing. That I am saved is never an issue anymore.
Then I learned I was free from the law. It was true – it was substance, but again I went through the same motions of doubt, wavering and confessing. It took a while but suddenly one day I knew that I was absolutely free from its demands and ordinances. And when I took that I am righteous in Christ exactly the same pattern repeated itself. It was true – it existed in the spiritual realm – I took it by faith and confessed that it was so until it was settled in me. That I am in a union with God operating as one person is no exception from this way of taking something in faith, and what I take in faith will ultimately come back and take me because it is substance.
It should be pretty evident from the above that this also is the way of faith for every need, or whatever desire that wells up in us or whatever promise we receive. We take that thing in faith because it exists (“Before you call I will answer”) and we call it into existence. But, there is a struggle involved – the struggle to enter His rest concerning whatever we stand in. And there is doubt – plenty of it. Furthermore, we experience minor or great setbacks in the natural, but in faith we see the thing as done and we confess it is so against all appearances, and when we are faithless God is faithful.
Judges 20 tells the peculiar story about Israel being promised victory of the Benjamins, but nevertheless had to endure two major setbacks and defeats before the great victory. Their confusion and sadness is almost tangible after each defeat, but God pushed them onwards because God is always upwards: Life swallows up death, faith swallows up doubt, the positive swallows up the negative and victory swallows up defeat. Always is He tempting us upwards to see that we are two operating as one. His promise to the Israelites is our promise: What He has begun He will finish.
No word of faith is spoken alone, no prayer prayed as apart from Him. He is the Alpha and Omega – the instigator and finisher. Praying isn’t our souls reaching up to Him, but He reaching down moving our souls into action by this or that word or prayer. His great delight is to operate by His sons and see them in action. We do so always with a wink, because we know it is Him by and as us.
Confession is important because words are important. Jesus is called the Word for this precise reason. Our spirit attitude will manifest in what we speak or say. That’s just how it is. God is a rewarder of faith exactly because faith takes hold of substance as witnessed by our words.
On the spirit level every word, every promise Jesus left us is true. For instance I can say that I have peace and joy because that is substance – it is true, without having any peace or joy on the soul level or appearance level.
I am a spirit…..I am.
It reminded me that the types of the spirit and the soul are the Holy of Holies and the Holies. Then it dawned on me that the Holy of Holies is the nucleus or substance of the Holies. Likewise in the antitype the nucleus or substance of the soul is the spirit. Deny or take away the spirit and what is left?