The Last Adam

A Testimony of God

We are the sons of God. We are spiritual and must keep it before us that the New Testament is written to us, the Sons.

I Corinthians 2:1

1 And I, brethren, when I came to you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God.

Paul told the Corinthian church that what he planned to tell them was not anything that he came up with but that he came to declare the testimony of God. What he was to tell them was God testifying to His people. God is the Father of spirits (Hebrews 12:9) so the testimony of God must be spoken to spirits, otherwise, it will not be understood. God must speak to the spiritual part of us if we are to comprehend what it is that He is saying.

I Corinthians 2:2-4

2 For I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified.

3 And I was with you in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling.

4 And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man’s wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power:

Paul, realized that his natural man knew nothing. He did not plan to give them any of the knowledge or wisdom that he had gained over the years, but only the testimony of God. Therefore, everything that he was going to tell them was God talking. Everything that the Corinthians would hear or gain from him would come from the Father. He wanted them to look past the flesh and realize that this was God talking to them. God was about to declare His own testimony. This is why Paul was granted a demonstration of power.

Paul’s words were the wisdom of God. God was speaking through him, just as He spoke though Jesus. It was God declaring Himself to the people. This is what God is trying to do now.

Paul said he determined to know nothing. The church’s problem is we know too much. We mix the testimony of the flesh with the testimony of God. This is where we lose our power. We channel the manifestation of what has happened on the inside of us though our own knowledge; (the knowledge of ourselves as individuals and also of our circumstances and situations). By the time the world hears from us we have diluted who we are through and by flesh and do not allow the purity of what is in us to come forth.

The Fleshy Mind... Chastened Into Obedience

Remember, Paul declared that he was determined to know nothing. In other words, he chastened his own mind. He did not allow his mind to be in competition with his spirit. In his testimony to the Philippian church, he said that if anyone could boast in the flesh, he could especially because of everything he had accomplished in the flesh (Philippians 3:4-10). He was, however, more than willing to count it as dung and trade all he knew, everything that he had attained, and all of the wisdom of this life for the knowledge of God. He wanted to know as God knows so that his mind (the mind of flesh) could be one with God’s mind.

Paul told the Roman church that it is with the mind that we serve Him (Romans 7:25). We must put on the mind of Christ that is within us. We must make our fleshy mind (brain) one with God’s mind. The fleshy mind must become one with the mind of the Spirit that is within us. There must be no division.

We do this through discipline. This is the inner man taking charge of the vessel that He is in. He is saying to the vessel that we know nothing and everything that we have learned and accomplished is no good in this walk. The fleshy mind can never accomplish the purpose of God with the knowledge is has already attained. It is affected and moved by its environment and changes with circumstances, situations and relationships. Whenever something goes wrong, the fleshy mind comes up with a solution as to how it can fix it.

This is why Paul is telling us to “stop thinking outside the boundaries of the faith.” When we think wrong, we stress. We think how to work things out or make things happen. We try to figure out how to correct and fix things. We do not realize that we cannot do this anyway because many situations we are in were orchestrated by God for our making and cannot be remedied by any natural reasoning. We are the sons of God and must be led by the Spirit.

God will always make sure this flesh is placed in situations where our reasoning can do it no good; otherwise, He could not strip away the influences of the flesh. He does this by designing trials which flesh can do nothing about. This flesh must remember that it is dead (Colossians 3:3). There are times when it wants to act as if it is alive unto self. However, we must remind it that it can do nothing to maintain holiness without submission to the mind of Christ.

Chapter Reference and Resource

Testimony – 1. A declaration or affirmation of truth or fact as that given before a court. 2. Evidence in support of a fact or assertion: PROOF. 3. The collective written and spoken testimony offered in a legal case. 4. Public declaration regarding a religious experience. 5.a. The law of Moses, inscribed on the tablets of stone. b. The ark containing these tablets.

Webster’s Dictionary Fleshy Mind - The Brain

Chasten – 1. To chastise: punish. 2. To restrain: moderate. 3. To refine: purify. Webster’s Dictionary

Discipline–1.Training expected to produce a specific type or pattern of behavior, esp. training that produces moral or mental improvement. 2. Controlled behavior resulting from disciplinary training. 3. A systematic method to obtain obedience. 4. A state of order based on submission to rules and authority. 5. Punishment intended to train or correct.

Webster’s Dictionary

Romans 12:1-2

1 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.

2 And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.