![[The Good Seed]](../images/thegoodseed.gif)
One True Mind
By Lloyd Ellefson
God has always been. He was there before He created all things. He has life in Himself and is the eternal source of all life. He does not live in time and days, so He never ages and He never dies.
The day of the Lord is not a 24-hour day nor a 12-hour day; it is always! God is an eternal light. All things came into being by Him! They are all made for Him and to Him! Nowadays the emphasis is on time and days, and especially on the future - there is a lot of speculation regarding the expected occurrence of the time rapture, etc. But in God there is no time; He is the same yesterday, today, and forever!
There is only ONE God! Jesus is not another God. He said, "I can do nothing on My own initiative...I live because of the Father...My teaching is not Mine, but His who sent Me... the Father abiding in Me does His works...I am in the Father, and the Father is in Me." (Jn. 5:30; 8:28; 6:57; 7:16,29; 14:10)
Before God began His creative work there was only God and His sense of awareness and realization. All things came into being from this one source! God created nature, and nature does not have a mind of its own. Plant life is non-verbal. Animals, birds and fish can communicate, but not nearly to the extent that we can.
To know the Creator, we need a greater degree of recognition and understanding than is found in nature. Creation testifies of a Creator, but we need more than this testimony to receive an awareness and realization of the Godhead.
Creation was in the mind of God before He began to create. It came into being through various steps. God's creative process began by saying, "Let there be light." This was not in English nor in any other language; it was simply a command issuing out of the source and energy of His mind. Bringing light into the darkness brought a separation between the earth and the heavens, and between land and water. Creation progressed from the inanimate to the animate - from no sense of being to an ever greater sense being.
God said, "Let the earth sprout vegetation..." (Gen. 1:11) So out of the earth the trees and herbs grew. Since they do not have a sense of being, they cannot have a sense of self-preservation; they are rooted in the ground and can't move from place to place like animals, fish, birds, etc. They cannot move of their own volition, and are unresisting.
"Then God said, `Let the waters teem with swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth in the open expanse of the heavens...Let the earth bring forth living creatures after their kind...and it was so.'" (Gen. 1:20,24) Do you see the progression? These living creatures have movement! They have a sense of awareness, and are called living creatures that move. Actually, a correct translation reads, "living souls that move". Their sense of awareness gives them a sense of self-preservation; they want to preserve their lives. These living souls have movement, but were not made in the image of God.
Then God created an image of Himself which He called man. Please understand that there are two men - we call them corporate men because everyone is in either one or the other. In Genesis 1, God created an invisible man - the spiritual man, or the spiritual image of God, for He is the spiritual representation of God. He is sustained by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. He does not need to be sustained by the things of this creation, for He is a new creation man. In Genesis 2 we have a man formed out of the existing creation. This man is of the earth and needs to be sustained by the things of the visible creation.
There are also two creations - one creation is in the seen realm and one in the unseen or invisible realm. The New Testament gives us greater insight into this. It says, "...that what is seen was not made out of things which are visible...While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal." (Heb. 11:3; 2 Cor. 4:18) Everything that is seen was made out of that which is not seen!
Christ is the Son of the living God through whom all things came into being. "For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities - all things have been created through Him and for Him." (Col. 1:16)
We know that God is invisible, the Son of God is invisible, the Holy Spirit is invisible, and the Anointing is invisible! Yet when the invisible God spoke, a visible creation came forth! All things have their source in the invisible God! We see this in Genesis. The man created in Genesis 1 was not visible, for he is a spiritual man. But the man who was formed out of the ground, out of existing creation, was visible. God breathed into him and he became a living soul. (Gen. 2:7) He came from the ground and his destiny is to return to the ground of the visible creation.
Both of these men are representations or images of the invisible God. One is earthy and the other is heavenly. (1 Cor. 15:47) "Just as we have borne the image of the earthy, we will also bear the image of the heavenly." (v.49) In the beginning there was only God; there was no other mind but the mind of God. Everything came from one God. We have to understand that there is only one source of all consciousness or awareness of life. God made man to be an earthy image; he is destined to live in the natural creation which came out the unseen creation. Everything that can be seen is temporal. Everything immortal or eternal is in the unseen realm!
Since God is a living God, an image of Him has to have life, mobility, and a comprehension or awareness that goes beyond inanimate creation and the animal, bird and fish creation. These do not have an awareness that can represent God. Only man fits into this category! He was given a mind that came from God. This is a delegated awareness of God's own realization. No other created creature was given such a mind! Nor can any other living, moving souls develop this consciousness. No one can; it has to be given him by God! So the consciousness that is in man's mind has to be formed by God.
But the consciousness of the natural, physical man is not formed by God. He is born of flesh and is flesh, and his awareness comes through the flesh. His thoughts are affected by what happens in and to his body. He sees his whole existence through his physical body - through his eyes, ears, smell, taste, touch and emotions (feelings of comfort and happiness or of fear and self-preservation). Without the body there is no consciousness. We were made an earthy image according to God's plan and program.
Man cannot exist on this earth without a physical body. He lives according to how things affect his physical body. When a person dies, all bodily functions cease. Consequently he loses the consciousness that comes from his body; he can no longer relate to anything or anyone, because he no longer has the body - the faculty which enabled him to receive a conscious realization of life. Since the body is temporal, it will die, and the consciousness that comes through his body will cease.
A mistaken identity has been formulated by man's natural mind. Therefore man's idea of self - whether it is delusion or truth in the natural sense - is incorrect. His consciousness is formed by what he has been taught, experienced, read and heard. Because it is limited in its understanding, it cannot receive spiritual insights! It is unable to receive the things of the Spirit of God, so they are meaningless to it. (1 Cor. 2:14) That is why we need to receive a spiritual mind! Only then can we hear what the Spirit is saying through the scriptures!
God formed man from the ground and blew into him the breath of God. So he is a mixture of the earthy and the divine. Therefore his consciousness of being is greater than that of the rest of creation. Adam did not have a sin-consciousness before his disobedience. After he sinned, he lost his spiritual awareness, and His consciousness of God was downgraded to the earthy realm; it now produced an earthy image of a God who has human attributes and limitations. He was now estranged from God and His mind was darkened. He received a mind of flesh, and that mind is one of deception. All truth comes from God! If we are to have His mind, it has to be the result of God's work in us!
The scriptures speak of two humanities. The humanity that is in Adam is connected with this creation, and therefore depends on it. Since this humanity cannot think like God, creation became man's god; he lived in it, he breathed it, and he ate it. The spiritual man, the first man, the Son of God, the Christ, the new man, is not connected to this creation. The two humanities are explained in the scriptures, and we have studies on the two men under the Natural and Spiritual heading, entitled Two Men, Two Images. Christ is the new humanity! "Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature..." (2 Cor. 5:17)
The first chapter of Genesis lists the various things that came forth out of God. The second chapter speaks of the things that were generated out of the earth. A material generation emerged out of the unseen realm, for the things that are seen are made out of things that are not seen. It is as simple as that. Not only are they made out of the unseen, but their existence also depends on the unseen. In other words, even natural creation depends on God!
Man's creativity is limited to forming things out of the existing creation. Science uses its discoveries of the laws God has put into His creation to make new things in the natural. They affect us because they are in the realm of good and evil - many of them destructive. Most of them can be used for either good or evil, but the evil usually wins out!
Many of the events recorded in the scriptures are symbolic. For example, the trees in the garden symbolize knowledge. When Adam and Eve, in disobedience to God, ate the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, they were driven out of the garden and barred from the tree of life. Disobedience brings death. Since Adam and Eve were now living in the realm of good and evil, they were not allowed to eat from the tree of life. There is only one way to that tree, and that way is Christ!
Those who live in the realm of good and evil have a guilt-consciousness, and it keeps them from entering the presence of God. They constantly judge between good and evil because they do not realize that good and evil come from the same tree.
In the presence of God we live in life and obedience! Life and death cannot be equated with good and evil because they are not the same! Jesus Christ is the judge of the living and the dead - not of good and evil!
The spiritual man has always existed, but he only became known to man when God sent forth His Son in the likeness of sinful flesh. This eternal spiritual representation of God was revealed by Christ's words and actions. However the flesh hid His true being. The spiritual image is to have dominion over the natural image. Christ brought us a sense of immortality - in Him we learn the difference between the temporal and the eternal, between the seen realm and the unseen realm.
We are a new creation IN Christ Jesus. Most Christians are not aware of this because they have not given up their natural realization. They think they are still in the Adamic man. To enter into the spiritual awareness of who we are in Christ, we have to give up our old ideas and concepts, and receive the Holy Spirit's teaching. He gives us the consciousness or awareness that is in Christ Jesus - the spiritual image of God! We have to give up our natural realization in favor of that which is spiritual! This is not an easy task because it means that a separation from the old has to take place. We have to die to the natural.
Let's contrast the natural and the spiritual creation. The things we see in the natural creation are made of things that are not seen. The spiritual creation is not in bondage to man, nor is it dependent on man. "For the anxious longing of the creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God...that the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God." (Rom. 8:19,21) When the sons of God are revealed and have their liberty as sons of God, they will bring creation out of the bondage to the corruption. This refers to the creation which is in the seen realm.
Paul said, "For neither is circumcision anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation." (Gal. 6:15) We received something incredibly wonderful and different in the coming of Jesus Christ! He was not of this world nor did He belong to this world. Those who understand this, are not looking for a millennial rule of Jesus on this earth. People have many philosophies, forecasts and prophecies about a new millenium that is to appear in the seen realm. But these forecasts do not apply to the kingdom of God because it is not of this world - and we do not belong to the kingdom of this world. God's kingdom is day (light). It does not consist of days; it is one day for there is no night in His kingdom!
Jesus said, "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel." (Mk. 1:15) The kingdom of God is present now! We are to believe the gospel of the kingdom - the good news of God's rule in the Spirit. His rule in us is more than the forgiveness of sins. Forgiveness is wonderful, but it does not change us; however God's rule in us produces a change and enables us to do His will!
Because we have an awareness of ourselves, we like to be identified by name and express our feelings. Our emotions come to us through the body, and are affected by the things we love, see, hear, feel, read, experience and fear. They affect our will, so we do not have a free will. Since our bodies are dependent upon the visible creation (air, food, water, shelter, etc.) we have a tendency to take our eyes away from God - the Giver of all things!
However, our spiritual being is different! In Christ we are a new spiritual creation, housed in this body of clay! This new creation needs spiritual sustenance; it is renewed by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. We have been born of an imperishable seed - and this seed is the Word of God. (1 Pe. 1:23)
Our new birth does not have human parentage. Our parents brought us into this world as human beings, earthy creatures, and sinners. Our new birth has to do with the seed of God; His word reproduces His Son, the Christ, in us. We are the sons of the living God! The Word regenerates our spirit, and His Spirit gives us a new consciousness. We are new creations, invisible beings, having a new invisible nature! Our new nature is manifested through our physical body!
1 Cor. 15:38-44 explains that God has given to each of the seeds a body of its own, according to His desire. "All flesh is not the same flesh, but there is one flesh of men, and another flesh of beasts, and another flesh of birds, and another of fish." (v.39) Just as the earthy has its own body, so the spiritual has its own body. The new creation man has an invisible body, because every seed is given its own body. This invisible body is the body of Christ. "As is the earthy, so also are those who are earthy; and as is the heavenly, so also are those who are heavenly." (v.48)
It may be difficult at first to believe that we actually are new creatures and that we need spiritual food to sustain our spiritual life - that we can have a new realization of self even while we live in this mortal body of ours. Through our physical body we express either the good or the evil that is in the fleshly heart. Through it we also express the new nature God has given us!
We have been resurrected into life, for Christ has become our life. JESUS IS THE RESURRECTION. He said, "I AM the resurrection" while He was still in His earthly body, and He never changes! Since Christ resides in us, the resurrection resides in us. So resurrection has nothing to do with the raising of the physical body.
But redemption is related to the body. In Romans 8:23 it speaks of the redemption of the body. "...waiting eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our body." To what body does Paul refer? Our physical body has been corrupted, and corruption does not put on incorruption; the perishable does not inherit the imperishable. (1 Cor. 15:50) So this does not refer to the physical body putting on incorruption.
Since Christ is the truth, our new creation man can now function in truth. The body of truth, of spiritual realization or awareness could not function in the Adamic man, but it can now function in the new man! Its source is in God so the Adamic man cannot receive it. Since it comes from the spiritual realm it has to come to a spiritual man - to the new creature in Christ. As we function in the spiritual man, our body is redeemed; it brings forth a witness of the heavenly man instead of the earthy Adamic man.
We are to be witnesses of Christ. He has made us new creatures in Christ, and we are simply to bear testimony to the new nature God has given us, in our words, attitudes and actions. As we speak words of love and grace instead of hatred and condemnation, our life will be a witness of the Christ who is our life and who lives in us! Believers form the body of Christ. Living by the Spirit produces a witness that will draw attention to Christ - not to ourselves. Jesus only spoke the things that the Father taught Him. (Jn. 8:28)
Before we can be witnesses of Christ, we have to receive a revelation of who He is! Jesus said, "...no one knows the Son, except the Father; nor does anyone know the Father except the Son, and anyone to whom the Son wills to reveal Him." (Matt. 11:27) No one can know who Jesus Christ is unless God reveals this to him. The Father reveals the Son, and the Son reveals the Father. So we cannot reveal the Father by revealing ourselves. Only God can reveal the Son in us to other people! It's the pride of life that causes someone to say, "I am a son of God, I am the I AM." Paul did not say, "I am saved...I am sanctified...I am filled with the Holy Spirit." He said that Christ had become his life!
Since we are a new creation in Christ Jesus, our body is being redeemed from being a temple of ignorance, darkness, lies, lust, etc., and it has become a temple of the Holy Spirit. The persuasions that come through the flesh, can now be overcome because we have ears to hear what the Spirit is saying. Hearing the voice of the Son of God brings us life!
Before a seed can produce life and become fruitful, it has to pass through death. So everyone has to pass through death before he can receive life. To better understand this, let's look at what Jesus experienced. He is our example and pattern.
Before Jesus began His ministry, He lived in Galilee and didn't antagonize anyone. He lived under the law, was circumcised, and appeared at the temple on holy days. But after He had been baptized in the Jordan, the heavens were opened to Him, He received the Holy Spirit, and God said, "This is My beloved Son..." This gave Him a new consciousness - a new testimony of Himself and of God.
Jesus was the first one to receive the Holy Spirit. At that time the Holy Spirit had not yet been poured out, because there was no new humanity to receive it. The Jordan experience began His ministry! He now spoke as the Son of God - as one who had been anointed at the Jordan! He had heard God call Him His Son! He became conscious of the fact that God was His Father! This brought Him into trouble with the Jews. He still had the same physical body that He had when He was under the law, but He was now using it to testify to spiritual realities; out of His mouth came spiritual words!
He said, "My words are spirit and they are life." However the people did not have a receptor to understand what Jesus was talking about, even though He spoke in the vernacular of the day. His words came to the ears of unregenerate people who could not understand beyond the letter of the law. Neither could they hear the voice of the Spirit. Jesus knew that their ignorance would cause them to reject Him and kill Him! Let's keep in mind the fact that God did not kill Him. It was in the heart of man to kill Him long before He went to the cross. Christ was crucified by people; people put Him to death.
This is also our experience. Because we are redeemed, we can now live on this earth and be a tabernacle of witness; we can witness to those spiritual realities that have taken place in us. By living the spiritual life that is working in us, we witness to the fact that we are new creatures in Christ! Jesus said, "You shall be witnesses unto Me." We are to bear witness to that spiritual image of God in us.
Since we have a new realization of God, of creation, of what God has planned for us and how we fit into this plan, our attitudes change. This world is not our home; we are aliens and pilgrims here. Our words and actions are a testimony of what God has done and is doing in our lives!
The Jews did not understand what Jesus said because they had a totally different idea of God. They were worshiping their natural fleshly idea of God - just as many do today. God does not hold it against us if, when we hear truth, we repent. He wants us to accept Christ so that the Holy Spirit can bring us truth; He wants our life to be changed, so that our source is no longer self, but God!
Everything we receive spiritually is in Christ. "In whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins." (Col. 1:14) Christ is not separate and outside of us; He is inside of us! Our new life, our new consciousness or sense of being is IN Christ. He is doing good things for us by changing us. IN Christ we are changed into what God wants us to be! The Word of God, the Christ, gives us that spiritual understanding.
"He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities - all things have been created through Him and for Him." (vv.15-16) Both the visible and invisible were made by the Word of God. That includes us; we too were made by Him and FOR Him.
We are a new creation in Christ. We are not the old one being overhauled, purified, cleansed, or made incorruptible. We are new IN Jesus Christ; we now have the consciousness of the Son of God who has come to us. God has sent the Spirit of His Son into us! (Gal.4) When He comes into our heart, we say, "Abba! Father!" because it is the Spirit of His Son! The Son does not call out, "Jesus, Jesus."
In the Old Testament God often said that He would do this or that for His names' sake - not for Israel's sake, but for His names' sake! He did miracles to redeem His name from the bad image or reputation it would otherwise have had among the peoples of the world.
In Christ we are being redeemed from the testimony that was limited to the physical and natural; from our senses, emotions and self-will of the earthy body. We are redeemed into being a tabernacle of witness in this earth. We have been born again by an immortal, incorruptible word - the Seed that produces the Son in us. Now the nature of God can grow in us and be expressed through us! Christ Jesus, the Son of God has been born in every one of us by the word of God. "You are all children of God by faith in Christ Jesus." The anointing we have received will teach us all things.
"And my God will supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus." (Phil. 4:19) It's interesting to note that most Christians, in their desire to get rid of all their problems and illnesses, pound on heaven's door and cry, "Heal me, help me financially, I need a new car, I want a better house, my kids have gone astray," etc. Pounding on heaven's door for our needs is not necessary, because everything comes to us in Christ Jesus - and Christ Jesus is our new relationship with God.
Jesus said, "Seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you." Once we enter into the presence of God, His presence corrects everything. So instead of praying for things, we should seek to be in the presence of God. The presence of God supplies all our needs. Jesus said, "Consider the lilies..." He does not want us to be anxious for our natural needs.
The Holy Spirit brings a new spiritual communication and understanding. He is the presence of God in us and He brings us a new consciousness - the awareness of a new creation, a new sense of being. No man can ever produce this, for error and wrong ideas stem from man's wrong thinking. However, truth can never produce error!
There are many weird ideas about God in the world. The love of God has been lowered to the human level - to the love of the flesh, sex, sexual perversion, etc. But Jesus had the love of God even though He didn't have a wife and family. The love of God is greater than we can comprehend! It is pure and undefiled by selfishness, lust, etc.
Since the love of God has been poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, we begin to love the things that God loves, the things that are in the unseen realm - not the things that are sensual, earthy and seen. Our iniquities had separated us from God - and separation from God is death. Death is the conscious separation from the presence of God. Adam lived in that death before he died physically.
Spiritual truth is the greatest judge there is. Jesus said, "I am the truth...I came into this world to bear witness of the truth." Before He came there was only truth on a natural plane; there wasn't any spiritual truth. So when Christ came as the truth, the truth judged the lies and delusions humanity was living in. Truth is the great separator! The same truth that destroys everything that is corruptible and wrong and temporal, brings us immortality and life and peace and joy in the presence of God!
May God give your hearts understanding in Christ Jesus. God bless you! Amen.