What Manner Of Man

by Pamela Bodine

Eve bought the lie and so have we, doubting everything the Word of God says that we are and have and continually questioning has God said? Yet if we were like Abram and just believed what God says we are, we would walk in it. Abram before he was Abraham, believed God. God got so excited He cut a covenant with him, and His covenant with Abram BLESSED THE ENTIRE FUTURE GENERATIONS simply because he believed God!

Are we going to believe everything God says about us, are we going to believe the good or are we going to believe the evil? It is our choice. Many of us have partaken of the knowledge of good and evil and have chosen to believe the evil instead of the good. We could easily accept what God says about us if we had not accepted incorrect teaching. But we have been taught condemnation, how bad we are and what we have not done. We have not been taught how good we are or trained in the way we should go. Now we have to get the condemnation out of our head before we can have faith to believe what God says about us. FAITH is what is going to cause us to overcome! We must begin to read and believe what God says we are and know that we are "the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus," 2 Cor. 5:21. We must ask ourselves, "Do I really believe it? Remember it is our choice! When we chose to believe it we will be set free! Our lives will be changed as we come into the understanding that He began that good work and He will complete it!

"Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God," Rom. 10:17, our problem is that we do not believe it. Smith Wigglesworth declared, "God said it, so it is". He said we quote, "greater is He that is in me than he that is in the world," 1 John 4:4, but we don't believe it, if we did, we would not be afraid of any circumstances and we would not wavier in any area. He said disease would not exist in our presence and a demon could never do anything in our presence if we really believed, "greater is He that is in me than he that is in the world" 1 John 4:4.

"Gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and rest your hope fully upon the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ;" 1 Pet. 1:13. The word revelation in the Bible is apocalypse, the unveiling, the revealing, the being laid open, the revelation of Jesus. When Christ is revealed to us, we rest our hope fully on that grace. "As obedient children, not conforming yourselves to the former lusts, as in your ignorance;" 1 Pet. 1:14. When we were in our former lust we were like a child in ignorance not knowing. We did not understand it was a finished work. It did not change the fact; we just did not understand it.

"But as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, because it is written, 'Be holy, for I am holy.'" 1 Pet. 1:15,16 He never tells us to do something we are not capable of doing. It is written "be holy for I am holy", because we are holy. He is not going to tell us to be holy and then we have got to work at it. He is letting us know, "I am holy" so we are holy, so just be holy. Act on it.
Just BE.

"And if you call on the Father, who without partiality judges according to each one's work, conduct yourselves throughout the time of your stay here in fear; knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, like silver and gold, from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot." 1 Pet. 1:17-19 The Father without partiality judges according to each one's work. When we hear judges we automatically think negative, God sees me being bad and He's going to get me. Realize He perceives where we are and without partiality means He's not comparing us to anyone else or to where anyone else is and neither should we. We should conduct ourselves throughout our time here in reverence knowing that we are not redeemed with corruptible things and our aimless conduct received by tradition from our fathers is not going to redeem us! Jesus said, the only thing that makes the Word of God of no effect is the traditions of men, (Mark 7:13). We are only redeemed with the precious blood of Jesus! If we think in our mind there is something we have got to do, what we are thinking without knowing it, is that the blood is not enough. So we did not receive that we are holy because He is holy.

"Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord, as His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue, by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust." 2 Pet. 1:2-4 "…partakers of the divine nature." A partaker is a companion to; participate in. We are a companion to; participate of, the divine nature of God. We have the divine nature of God; we have escaped the corruption in the world through lust. We have already escaped the corruption!

"For if these things are yours and abound, you will be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For he who lacks these things is shortsighted, even to blindness, and has forgotten that he was cleansed from his old sins." 2 Pet. 1:8-9 The Exegeses says: "For these being in you, and superabounding, they seat you that ye shall neither be idle nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. Indeed he to whom these are not present is blind, and cannot see afar off and hath taken forgetfulness of the purifying from his sins of long ago." 2 Pet. 1:8-9 He has forgotten that his sins committed long ago has been purified.

"Therefore, brethren, be even more diligent to make your call and election sure, for if you do these things you will never stumble; for so an entrance will be supplied to you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. For this reason I will not be negligent to remind you always of these things, though you know and are established in the present truth. I think it is right, as long as I am in this tent, to stir you up by reminding you." 2 Pet 1:10-13 He said we know all this because we are established in the present truth, the present truth is the proceeding Word of God. We are listening to the proceeding Word of God and know we are already cleansed from our old sins. He said I am not going to be negligent to remind you of these things. He was not condemning them, He was reminding them because they had forgotten they were cleansed from their old sins. They had a sin consciousness and He was stirring them, He was reminding them they had been cleansed and they were "the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus" 2 Cor. 5:21. Just as He is reminding us today, we have been cleansed and we too are "the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus".

"Therefore lay aside all filthiness and overflow of wickedness, and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls. But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror; for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was. But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does." James 1:21-25 When we have fallen short it is important not to buy the lie and allow ourselves to get under condemnation. If we are beating ourselves up we are not hearing the voice of the Good Shepherd. He said "I will never leave you nor forsake you," Heb. 13.5, so why are you condemning yourself, why do you get in fear and why do you think you are not pleasing to Me. You were cleansed from that and sin has no dominion over you. You have escaped the corruption that is in the world. You are "the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus" 2 Cor. 5:21. You have forgotten what manner of man you are. Now this is the way, walk in it and renew your mind to My Word.

"…That we may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding;" Col. 1:9 We are filled with the knowledge of His will, in all wisdom and spiritual understanding, we walk worthy of the Lord fully pleasing Him, we are fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God. We renew our mind to the Word and we are strengthened with all might according to His glorious power. Not anything we can work up, not any thing we can do but we are strengthened with all might in accordance to His power for all patience and longsuffering with joy. (Col. 1:9-11) We can suffer with joy and what we are doing is suffering, waiting for the manifestation sometimes. And there is joy in that because we know that it is already done and we are not going to be in torment until the manifestation comes. We can wait with joy because we are empowered by Him and we are strengthened with His might. And strengthened is one of the dunamis words that means to confirm and enable. So we are enabled with His power to wait on those things patiently with joy. We can wait on that family member with joy because we know He that began a good work will see it through till the end. And we are not going to condemn them for they have just forgotten what manner of man they are or they may not yet know what manner of man they are. So until the manifestation comes we are going to wait with joy and patience "giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light. He has delivered us from the power of darkness." Col. 1:12-13a Wait a minute, if we have been delivered from the power of darkness why are we so concerned about what the devil is doing? And it says we have escaped the corruption of this world and it says sin has no dominion over us. So why are we so worried about stuff? Why are we not walking in the power and the fullness? We have been "conveyed into the kingdom of the Son of His love in whom we have redemption through His blood and forgiveness of sin." Col. 1:13b We have been forgiven.

"And you, who once were alienated and enemies in you mind by wicked works, yet now He has reconciled" Col. 1:21 Wait a minute! We are no longer an enemies in our mind because we have been reconciled to Him. We are not alienated with enemies in our mind anymore. Our mind, our will, and our emotions are lining up to what the Spirit man already knows and we are going to walk in the finished work, we are going to know what manner of man we are! We are going to walk it out. We don't have to worry, we don't have to try and we don't have to believe a lie anymore. "In the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy, and blameless, and above reproach in His sight," Col. 1:22 If we are above reproach in His sight, what does it matter what man thinks? We are holy and blameless and above reproach. Yes, we are beginning to see what we really can be and we can walk it out, we see now we have believed a lie! We believed in the past we had to do something, when all we had to do was believe, submit and rest. We believed to get saved, we believed to receive salvation that was there for us. So why can we not believe this, because of traditions and doctrines? The Word says the Word of God "is profitable for all doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction," 2 Tim. 3:16. We have listened to things that really were not in the Bible, we have added stuff to it and we need to leave it off. He said we are ministers of the New Covenant yet we think that because of what we have done in our past, we are unworthy, we are unholy. What does God say? He says that we are holy and blameless and above reproach in His sight. He said we are holy because He is holy and the things we have done we were as ignorant children and now it is time to put away childish things and become a man. It is time to let the man rise up and mature.

"The mystery which has been hidden from ages and from generations, but now has been revealed to His saints. To them God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles: which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. Him we preach, warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus." Col. 1:26-28 We can be perfect in Him and in Him we are everything but without Him we are nothing. People question, "how can you say you are perfect, how can you say you are holy," we are saying it is all in Him, we are perfect and we are holy in Him, we are nothing in ourselves. The people who fight against this message do so because they have a feeling of unworthiness, they will not allow themselves to believe they are perfect or holy. And those who believe by Jesus stripes they are healed but never have a manifestation of it think they have done something wrong, they have opened the door somewhere. We try so hard of ourselves to receive the promises instead of just believing the Word of God and resting in it until it happens.

We forget what manner of man we are, we forget we have been cleansed, we forget that it has all been done and we begin to condemn ourselves rather than saying this is the way walk in it. When we start to realize that, we look at people differently and we treat our children differently. We need to look at how we treat our children. We need to show them the way rather than fussing at them and showing them everything they have ever done wrong. Children are quick to repent and when we keep saying, "well you did that last month, you are in trouble now." We need to remember they were cleansed from that last month and they forgot and we need to show them again, this is the way walk in it. How can we do any less when our Father does that for us?

We are in Christ, He is in us and we are to reveal HIM. We are to walk forth in this world and reveal Christ. How do we do that? Through love, compassion and mercy, not looking at everyone as an unfinished thing but know that they are finished and as they renew their mind they are going to grow up into the knowledge of Him. Instead of looking at people in a negative way begin to look at people in a positive way, as Christ is in them, then it will be easier to see them finished. Rather than condemning, judging, or comparing them to everyone remember God's grace is sufficient for everything. His grace is sufficient to grow them up and to complete what needs to be done in us. Sin has no dominion over us. We are to build our faith in the Word of God and be not conformed to the world, to the consciousness of sin, but we are to be transformed by the renewing of our mind through the Word of God (Rom. 12:2). As we renew our mind with the Word we will see how tradition has put bondage's on us. Jesus said, "Come unto me, all who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest, take My yoke upon you because My yoke is easy and My burden is light." (Matt. 11:28-30) We quote this Scripture, but do we really believe it? Every time you begin to buy a lie, picture the snake in the Garden of Eden saying ssss has sss God ssss said? And you will begin to stand up and say, "I'm not buying that lie. I'm going to say 'It is written'".

It is our carnal mind which is at enmity with the things of God, (Rom. 8:7), our flesh wars against our spirit and our spirit against our flesh. We are battling with ourselves, our mind, will and emotions, yet as we renew our mind with the Word, we find ourselves no longer alienated as enemies in our minds (Col. 1:21). We then come into union and communion with what the Spirit of God says and as we mature we will find ourselves forgetting less and less what manner of man we are. We will not think on the things of the world but we will come out of the world and be separate, we will be a light unto the world. We will remember sin has no dominion over us and we will give it no place in our minds. We need to get sin out of our vocabulary and out of our minds. We are not ignorant of the devil's devices, we are not ignorant of the things he has done, but "greater is He that is in us that He that is in the world". Do we believe it or not?

"And you know that He was manifested to take away our sins, and in Him there is no sin. Whoever abides in Him does not sin. Whoever sins has neither seen Him nor known Him. Little children, let no one deceive you. He who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous. He who sins is of the devil, for the devil has sinned from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil. Whoever has been born of God does not sin, for His seed remains in him; and he cannot sin, because he has been born of God." 1 John 3:5-9

We have thought this was too deep to understand but it is really simple. If we have been born of God we do not sin because all seed bears after it's own kind so if we have been born of incorruptible seed, how can we produce anything corruptible. If we sin we are of the devil, meaning we chose unbelief; sin is unbelief, not believing God. Scripture says, the Son of God was manifested and HE destroyed the works of the devil therefore if we have been born of Him we do not sin because His seed remains in us. What we call sin is simply the works of the flesh. Galatians 5:19-21, list what we think of as some pretty bad stuff and it says it is "the works of the flesh".

"And by this we know that we are of the truth, and shall assure our hearts, before Him. For if our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and knows all things. Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence toward God." 1 John 3:19-21 Our heart is our mind, will and emotions and condemnation comes from our mind sometimes. But God is greater than that. He knows all things and He loves us. Remember Christ was manifested to take away our sin. So if we have a feeling of unworthiness its the reason we do not walk in the things of God. We think well, the finished work sounds pretty good for that mature person over there, we have forgotten He began that good work in us and He is in us and we are His body. Think about it, if He is perfect and if we are His body are we not going be perfect? There is nothing that can remain in Him that is not perfect so we are perfected in Him. We have an anointing from the Holy One and we know all things, but we have to renew our minds through His Word.

When we exalt ourselves and condemn, look down on, or judge people we have just forgotten who we are and we are not to condemn ourselves. We need to renew our mind to the Word and let Him come forth in us knowing that it is all finished, it has all been taken care of and not buy that lie of condemnation. But know that we are holy, blameless and above reproach because He has set the captives free and we have been captives in our own minds.

We have been given all things that pertain to Godliness; we have escaped the corruption in the world through lust. Peter said, I am going to stir you up and I am going to remind you of these things, so we need to remind each other with positive words. We need to remind each other yes, you are worthy yes, you are finished. You know you are worthy, Christ has made you worthy that blood speaks and you have been sprinkled with that blood. Christ gave His life's blood to buy us back out of sin and death and when we offer the blood to God He accepts it, it also means when we cover our families with the blood that God accepts it and they are covered. We need to rest our hope fully on the grace that is brought to us when Christ is revealed.

"Of this salvation the prophets have inquired and searched carefully, who prophesied of the grace that would come to you, searching what, or what manner of time, the Spirit of Christ who was in them was indicating when He testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ and the glories that would follow. To them it was revealed that, not to themselves, but to us they were ministering the things which now have been reported to you through those who have preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven-things which angels desire to look into." 1 Peter 1:10-12 Those prophets were prophesying to us about the grace, they inquired and searched carefully, they could see that grace. They knew it was for us and they searched into it and they looked into that grace that was coming to us, even the angels desired to look into that grace. Oh, what is man that you are mindful of him and they saw that grace and they knew that grace was going to work everything out. They saw us finished and purchased. They saw the grace working it out and us becoming a mature man. Isn't that something, to know that we are finished! All we have to do is rest, not be so tossed about or tormented in our mind and allow the cares of this life to enter in and choke the Word. And not be so works conscious or trying to do everything right but realize this is the way, walk in it, believe and trust in it, renew and stir up your faith, fan that flame through the Word and fellowship. United one with another knowing that we are all precious and holy in His sight, He has purchased each of us, we are a finished thing.

We were in Him before the foundation of the world (Eph. 1:4), we were in Him when He was walking upon the earth doing the work of the Father. We were in Him when He was in the bosom of the Father, as the Father spoke and His creative power went forth. Our spirit knows what manner of man we are, but our mind must be renewed!

Pam Bodine - Healing Wings Ministries
transcribed from a message preached by Pam at one of Healing Wings Retreats