Righteousness: Who am I - David Mitts

For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so the thoughts of God no one knows except the Spirit of God. (1Co 2:11)

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Giving opportunity - God went to a widow in a foriegn land to show himself strong during a famine. He desires to move through those willing to listen to His voice. Listen and give according to your willingness of heart. Feel free to use the "DONATE" button

One of deepest cries of the human heart is to know that we are significant, that we matter. A chief lie of the enemy of our soul is that there is no meaning to our lives except that which we make up. He wants us to believe that all truth is relative to whoever is thinking a particular truth. In other words, you control your own reality.

This is tempting to us because we crave the power of reality control. It stems in us back to Garden when we were promised that when we had our eyes opened by eating the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, or as I like to think about the fruit of getting to be right, then we would become like God Himself, knowing what is good and what is evil. The temptation was for God’s power to be ours, to be gods.

The irony of the deception, like all deceptions of the enemy in our lives, is that it contained just enough legitimate motivation to cause us to think the method was unimportant to the objective which was to be like God. Of course we wanted to be like God! We are created in God’s image. But being like someone isn’t a function of what we know that they know, but knowing them. It’s who you know not what you know that allows you to walk in another’s footsteps, be like them.

I was trained in Acupuncture by some of the best practitioners in the world. What allowed me to become the practitioner I am today is not just what they taught me but that they taught me. I learned not just knowledge but received an impartation of spirit. This is what discipleship is all about, spirit to spirit oneness.

Adam and Eve had access to God as Spirit. They didn’t need a textbook about Him. He was in their reality always. The lie was that He wasn’t enough for them and that He was withholding knowledge that they needed to fulfill their destiny. We are the same today. He is in our midst and we are still looking for the piece that will tell us what we need to know to fulfill our destiny.

We run to the prophet, read the books, watch Christian TV, or maybe secular TV, all the time trying to learn about life and who we are. Yet right there with us is the One in whose image we are created whispering to us His perfect will and design for our lives.

Amid the noise and confusion, the illusions, is the Voice of the Lover of our soul. It is by being with Him that we begin to learn about who we are. This is why Yeshua lived with His disciples.

It wasn’t just about what He said, but about who He was. Disciples are called that because they learn the disciplines of their master. Disciplines are the Spirit in which the actions occur. It wasn’t Yeshua’s goal to have disciples who did just what He did. No! His goal was them to become what they were called to be. His example was the doorway into their destiny not the goal of their destiny. In John 10: Yeshua describes the heart of the discipling relationship with a sheep metaphor, where He is the Shepherd.

"Truly, truly, I say to you, he who does not enter by the door into the fold of the sheep, but climbs up some other way, he is a thief and a robber. "But he who enters by the door is a shepherd of the sheep. "To him the doorkeeper opens, and the sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. "When he puts forth all his own, he goes ahead of them, and the sheep follow him because they know his voice. "A stranger they simply will not follow, but will flee from him, because they do not know the voice of strangers." This figure of speech Jesus spoke to them, but they did not understand what those things were which He had been saying to them.(John 10:1-6).

Yeshua is speaking of the influences in lives of His disciples. He speaks of a thief and a robber to indicate the input that comes to steal our destiny. Our destiny comes through our sheep-shepherd relationship. The voice of the Lord is the key for His sheep to come into our destiny. Notice that He leads us. He goes ahead and we follow Him. He is our example. He is our guide.

Yeshua continues:

So Jesus said to them again, "Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. "All who came before Me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not hear them. "I am the door; if anyone enters through Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture. "The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly. "I am the good shepherd; the good shepherd lays down His life for the sheep. "He who is a hired hand, and not a shepherd, who is not the owner of the sheep, sees the wolf coming, and leaves the sheep and flees, and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. "He flees because he is a hired hand and is not concerned about the sheep. "I am the good shepherd, and I know My own and My own know Me, even as the Father knows Me and I know the Father; and I lay down My life for the sheep. "I have other sheep, which are not of this fold; I must bring them also, and they will hear My voice; and they will become one flock with one shepherd. (John 10:7-16)

Entering through the door. A door is a way in. Yeshua is the door to our destiny. As the door, He is the voice that opens up salvation. We truly only get saved because we hear His voice. We may not always realize that but it is the only way to Him. And He is also the doorway to pasture. Pasture for a sheep is destiny. The going in and out is a reference to acting upon His voice.

Next He contrasts the other voices in our lives, which He labels as thieves that come to kill steal and destroy us. His voice comes to give us the abundant life, which is the life where we manifest our full destiny.

Then Yeshua gives us the picture of oneness, that we spoke of last week. I am the good shepherd and I know My own even as the Father knows Me and I know the Father...

This is the place of being known and knowing by relationship. The purpose for this is the development of righteousness.

Righteousness is really our “right-ness.” It is our unique piece within the puzzle of God. Think of it as coaching. In sports tremendous salaries are paid for coaches. Why is that? It is because coaches are paid to bring out of players their best. In team sports, like football, the coach doesn’t just bring out the best in each individual but also the best of them as a team. This is righteousness. The coach is the Shepherd. Even though Yeshua is using sheep as an example, the metaphor breaks down when you consider the unique potential of each child of God.

You are created with a destiny, not just for salvation or even pasture. The Apostle Paul gives us this picture when he says:

And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ; until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ. As a result, we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming; but speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, even Christ, from whom the whole body, being fitted and held together by what every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love.(Eph 4:11-16)

This is the picture of righteousness. We have master coaches, apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers. This is what we typically call the 5-fold ministry. These are all assistant coaches, to the head coach who is Yeshua. The assistant coaches have areas of responsibility to the team, the Body. Their assignments are the building up of the saints, the team, the Body. The goal is called the “unity of the faith”, which is then defined as the knowledge of the Son of God, which produces what? Unity, oneness. This is called maturity and fullness. This is the picture of full fruit.

All of this comes through intimacy, intimacy with God, intimacy with Yeshua, intimacy with the Holy Spirit, but also intimacy with coaches who can shape us and challenge us. You see our destiny is embedded in a destiny for the Body of Christ.

So, now the question remains, who am I? Why am I?

Well, YOU are part of a mission and a purpose. You are a key puzzle piece in God’s plan.

Turn to 1 Cor 2:6-10:

Yet we do speak wisdom among those who are mature; a wisdom, however, not of this age nor of the rulers of this age, who are passing away; but we speak God's wisdom in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God predestined before the ages to our glory; the wisdom which none of the rulers of this age has understood; for if they had understood it they would not have crucified the Lord of glory; but just as it is written, "THINGS WHICH EYE HAS NOT SEEN AND EAR HAS NOT HEARD, AND which HAVE NOT ENTERED THE HEART OF MAN, ALL THAT GOD HAS PREPARED FOR THOSE WHO LOVE HIM." For to us God revealed them through the Spirit; for the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God.(1Co 2:6-10)

We can trust Him that He will lead us into all truth. His Spirit is fully connected with our hearts. We can trust that His plans are prepared for us. We don’t have to stress. All we need to do is trust. Continuing:

For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so the thoughts of God no one knows except the Spirit of God. Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may know the things freely given to us by God, which things we also speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, combining spiritual thoughts with spiritual words. But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised. But he who is spiritual appraises all things, yet he himself is appraised by no one. For WHO HAS KNOWN THE MIND OF THE LORD, THAT HE WILL INSTRUCT HIM? But we have the mind of Christ.(1Co 2:11-16)

We have the mind of Messiah. That means that we have His thoughts, His intentions, His will. He is our master coach and brings us into full righteousness. He also uses Pastors, Teachers, APostles, Prophets, Evangelists in the coaching roles but He always is the head coach who has the Big Picture.

Activation: The Mind Of Christ

Pick a partner and let’s press in for an encouragement from the Coach for our partner. We will first activate the voice of the Lord by either praying in the spirit or just by being still and tuning our heart to the flow of spontaneity of His Spirit in us. What we want to do is minister the words of encouragement to each other.