The Key of Alignment: Self-Worth. The New Man, Part 3 Atonement - David Mitts

Last few weeks we have been looking at Divine Alignment with respect to the issue of how we perceive our self-worth.  The reason that this is so important is that human beings are created with a self-worth hunger, a vacuum in our souls that needs to be filled.

Beloved, I pray that in all respects you may prosper and be in good health, just as your soul prospers. (3 John 1:2 NASB)

We have been sharing about the connection between self-worth and walking in our destiny as recreated children of God.  We see from 3John 1:2 that we prosper and are in health as our soul prospers.  Our soul was created for Shalom or Peace.  It is no accident that the word for sickness, dis-ease is a picture of a loss of ease or Shalom. Sickness is the opposite of prosperity of soul. 

Listen to  Self Worth. The New Man, Part 3

Financially or in a more holistic sense, being productive and fulfilled, in that productivity of expressing the unique gifts and talents that God has deposited in us, is a condition of soul prosperity.

Last week we discovered that the word for prosperity means to be “well along our path” in life.  This is a picture of the joy that results when we know we are in God’s will for our lives and manifesting that will.  This is true prosperity.  It is beyond natural riches.

The Hebrew word is Tzalah. It is the word picture of a bowl of soup that is full and the soup goes up the side of the bowl. It is the propserity that is empowered by the Holy Spirit.  Look with me at Joshua 1:8

This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success. (Joshua 1:8 NKJV)

The Apostle Paul spoke it this way:

"I know how to get along with humble means, and I also know how to live in prosperity; in any and every circumstance I have learned the secret of being filled and going hungry, both of having abundance and suffering need. I can do all things through Him who strengthens me."  Php 4:12-13 (NASB)

The strengthening that Paul is speaking of is out a relationship with God that fills the worth vacuum that God designed into our hearts that can only be filled in Him and not in external conditions no matter how good or bad.  You see the key isn’t to learn from the conditions but to receive from God. What do I mean by that?

Religion teaches us to focus on the conditions and allow them to toughen us.  This is like trying to endure temptation by looking at it and then resisting it.  The problem with this is the root condition is pride.  If I succeed then I am proud, if I fail then I am a failure. Paul is telling that there is a higher way, the way of self-worth derived from Him who then through His grace empowers us to live beyond the realm of circumstances.  Then we are in the world BUT NOT OF THE WORLD!! Make sense?

OK so we looked at the baptism of Yeshua and the affirmation of the Father of His Worth.  We ALL need that affirmation. Then we looked at the fact that we are created to need each other, so the voices of others are key to our growth and development towards who we are called to be.  Third we looked at the baptism itself as a picture of death of the old man and the resurrection and anointing that comes through the new creation.  We are NOT better caterpillars but transformed into a new creation, like a butterfly.  We can stop identifying ourselves with our old lives, but allow the death of the old man on the cross be our own liberation into who the Word says we are.  We can “put on” the new man and “put off the old man”.  The old manor life based in works and trying to change through circumstances is called the “flesh”.

 "But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh in regard to its lusts."  Rom 13:14 (NASB)

Last week we began with the 7^th day reality of using the anointing of the 7^th day and the 7^th month to declare the new man, the reality of soul at rest.

Today I want to activate another of the Feasts, the Day of Atonement, Yom Kippur.  Now this is one of those things that religion has truly hidden from us very well, even though the reality is so clear once we grasp it. 

We know originally the Day of Atonement was the day that the high priest entered the Holy of Holies to make atonement for the nation.  It was a day of national atonement.

 ""This shall be a permanent statute for you: in the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month, you shall humble your souls and not do any work, whether the native, or the alien who sojourns among you; for it is on this day that atonement shall be made for you to cleanse you; you will be clean from all your sins before the LORD. "It is to be a Sabbath of solemn rest for you, that you may humble your souls; it is a permanent statute. "So the priest who is anointed and ordained to serve as priest in his father's place shall make atonement: he shall thus put on the linen garments, the holy garments, and make atonement for the holy sanctuary, and he shall make atonement for the tent of meeting and for the altar. He shall also make atonement for the priests and for all the people of the assembly. "Now you shall have this as a permanent statute, to make atonement for the sons of Israel for all their sins once every year." And just as the LORD had commanded Moses, so he did."  Lev 16:29-34 (NASB)

So the Feast is about national atonement. Then Hebrews tells us through Yeshua there is a permanent atonement, once and for all.

"For by one offering He has perfected for all time those who are sanctified."  Heb 10:14 (NASB)

So we know now that atonement is for the whole people of God and permanent for all time.

Now, most people have stopped there treating atonement as a legal concept, where our sin has been paid for by the blood of Messiah, which is true, But I believe there is another new creation reality that is transformational in nature.

To discover it we need to go back to Genesis where covering began. Because of time, I am going to get right to the point. Genesis 6 gives us the picture of the first baptism.  In it Noah is transformed from the old world through God’s grace into the beginning of a new race.  The “flood” is the picture of baptism.  It is the death of the old man.  In verse 6:14 it reads:

""Make for yourself an ark of gopher wood; you shall make the ark with rooms, and shall cover it inside and out with pitch."  Gen 6:14 (NASB)

Now understand this is not just a boat!!  This is salvation.  It has the wood of the cross but it also has pitch which is the Hebrew word for covering, Kopher, where we get the word atonement.  So the pitch represents atonement.  What does the pitch do??  It covers the cracks and makes the ark waterproof.  Water in this case is the agent of death, the result of sin.  The pitch, Kopher, protects against the water.  It is the covering that protects.

What does that remind you of??

Love!! Love is the covering that protects from sin.  It is anointing of Yeshua. It is the cross.  It is Yom Kippur.  Atonement is NOT just about satisfaction of wrath for sin!  No it is proactive, it is LOVE!  Love never fails!  Why?  Because it is the pitch that protects.

Love is reflected by the blood.  Love is expressed by passion. The sacrifice of Jesus is called the “passion of Christ”.  Why? Because His love was expressed by His sacrifice.  His passion is YOU.  Love is the pitch, the atonement, the covering.

Love covers sins. “Hatred stirs up strife, But love covers all sins.” (Proverbs 10:12 NKJV)

Remember that sin is NOT bad behavior.  Sin is missing the mark on God’s will and intent!  How do we do that?  By relying on our own perspective.  We need one another.  Self-reliance is attitude behind sin.  We become unmoored and pride controlled.

Pride reveals the cracks in our inner life that we want to cover up.  These are the cracks that are in the armor of our lives.  What we need to do with these cracks is allow others to see them, what we call confession or really just being vulnerable in an intimate way AND repentance. Repentance is putting on Messiah. It means to put off our perspective rooted in lack, dis-ease, etc. and put on His perspective.

For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. (Galatians 3:27 NKJV)

Activation: 

Pair up and allow the Lord to reveal your cracks. Confess them to one another. James says:

Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing psalms. Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith will save the sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. Confess your trespasses [23] to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much. Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed earnestly that it would not rain; and it did not rain on the land for three years and six months. And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth produced its fruit. Brethren, if anyone among you wanders from the truth, and someone turns him back, let him know that he who turns a sinner from the error of his way will save a soul [24] from death and cover a multitude of sins. (James 5:13-20 NKJV)

So we are going to pair up and present our cracks to each other and then we are going to pray and release love because faith, the prayer of faith works by love.

For we through the Spirit eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness by faith. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything, but faith working through love. (Galatians 5:5-6 NKJV)