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Series: New Creation Realities

Sun am 27 April 2014 – Kobus Swart 

Isa. 66:7-9; (Rom. 8:14); 1 Cor. 12:12; John 4: 31-34; Gen.2:1-4; Gen1:1; Gen. 4:26;
John 3:8, 12-13; Rom.8:14; Luke.4:28-30; Eph. 2:5-6; (Heb. 6:1)

Before she travailed, she brought forth; before her pain came, she gave birth to a boy (meaning a male). Who has heard such a thing? Who has seen such things? Can a land be born in one day? Can a nation be brought forth all at once? As soon as Zion travailed, she also brought forth her sons. “Shall I bring to the point of birth and not give delivery?” says the Lord. “Or shall I who gives delivery shut the womb?” says your God(Isa. 66:7-9). The answer is NO, He will give delivery. In fact this question hovers and vibrates over the earth. In fact, all of creation is in travail to see the manifestation of this truth of Isaiah 66, to see the manifestation of the sons of God (Rom. 8:14). When a baby is born the head comes out first; Jesus the Head came first, and then what follow are the sons (the body). We all know that Jesus was born 2000 years ago. As soon as Zion travailed, she also brought forth her sons (Isa. 66:8b). For even as the body is one and yet has many members, and all the members of the body, though they are many, are one body, so also is Christ (1 Cor. 12:12). Christ therefore is a many-membered body. Jesus Christ the Head of the body Christ. Paul urges that we must all stay connected; we must all grow into the Head. I believe we are part of this generation called Christ, which has always been destined to be a finishing generation. Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me and to accomplish (=complete, finish) His work” (John 4:30-34).

In the beginning:

Thus the heavens and the earth were completed, and all their hosts (Gen. 2.1 Cf Gen. 1:1). This is the account of the heavens and the earth when they were created, in the day that the Lord God made earth and heaven (Gen. 2:4). Heaven and earth are mentioned together. This means they were finished at the same time. There was no division between the heavens and the earth. In the Garden, God appeared and walked and talked with Adam and Eve in the cool of the day. It was not a big event; God appeared because heaven and earth were not separate. There was no separation between God and His creation.

After the Fall:

“To Seth, to him also a son was born; and he called his name Enosh. Then men began to call upon the name of the Lord.” (Gen. 4:26). This showed there was distance. Sin separated what initially belonged together. Man became earth bound.

Then Jesus, the Head, came:

No one has ascended into heaven, but He who descended from heaven: the Son of Man who is in heaven (John 3:13). Several Bible translations have added the last part “who is in heaven”. Jesus was in heaven on earth. With Jesus, the Head, there was no distance between Him and heaven.

What about the Body – those who are born from above?

If I told you earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things? (John 3:12). Jesus had a problem with the Jewish mindset that heaven “was up there” and we are “down here”. The wind blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of it, but do not know where it comes from and where it is going; so is everyone who is born of the Spirit (John 3:8). Does that describe you and me? In reality there is still a gap in our thinking between heaven and earth. He who is born from above, born from water and the Spirit is like the wind; you do not know where it comes from, you do not know where it is going. Jesus was flesh and blood. When the crowd was angry with Jesus and wanted to throw Him off a cliff, He just walked among them and disappeared (Luke 4:28-30). Why? Jesus was in heaven on earth.

I want to release in all of you who are listening a desire to get out of your present lifestyle with all its limitations, with all its frustrations and live this kind of life; the spirit breathes where He desires, you hear His voice but you do not know where He comes from or where He goes, so is every one born of the Spirit. We are born of the Spirit but does it reflect in our lives? For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God (Rom. 8:14). There is something of maturity that needs to come into the picture to bring us into this category.

We have shifted and postponed everything to the future while the future is in us. The future is unfolding in you and me. Even when we were dead in our transgressions, (He) made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places (realms) in Christ Jesus (Eph. 2:5-6). He made (past tense!) us alive, and we are seated with Him in heavenly realms. We all used to read this as one day in the future we will be seated with Him. That is not what it says. I trust that this reality will hit us so hard that we will refuse to live the old religious “postponement” kind of life style.

The reconciliation of the heaven and the earth is significant to the new creation. You and I who were born from above are a new creation in Jesus Christ. We are recreated in Christ. We have to move beyond the point of salvation (Heb. 6:1). Let us expose the lie that God is up there and we are down here. Where is heaven? In Christ there is no gap between God and man. In Christ matter is spirit because the resurrected Jesus could walk through walls yet He told doubting Thomas to touch Him because He was flesh and bone, not a spirit. Jesus came and brought heaven to us.