Fall 1994

Seeking First our place in Him
Wade E Taylor

Adam, when created, was formed from dust. Dust, by itself, is incapable of holding its form. Thus, man was created to be dependent upon his Creator.

The original intention was that man, by necessity, would be continually sustained by God through fellowship with Him. Therefore, all life apart from God will, by the creative design of God, fall into a formless heap.

God breathed into Adam the breath of life. As a result, man became a living soul having personal identity and expression. This word "life" is plural. In God's original intention, man was formed to live on two different levels of expression, "earthly" and "spiritual." The "breath" that God breathed into Adam was the sustaining power to maintain him on each of these levels.

Through disobedience, man lost his higher form of life. Some say that man "fell." Satan fell from the heavens, but man died. Through education and refinement, social religion would attempt to pick man up and reconstruct him. But man died. Life is only restored through a new birth.

"But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil,
thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou
eatest thereof thou shalt surely die" Gen 2:17.

"One day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day" II Peter 3:8. The oldest man who ever lived died within this "one" day, just short of the thousand year day. Although Adam continued to physically live, an immediate death took place. Death is not "annihilation," rather it is a "separation." The initial death that Adam and Eve suffered was spiritual. They were separated from God. Thus, their "fall" was into a lower plane of life.

This lower state of life is a temporal (temporary) life pertaining to the earth realm. As an earthly being, we have faculties that enable us to function in our environment. Through the use of these, we either prosper or suffer in varying degrees.

Along with this, man is called to a higher state of life. Through a "new birth," we are enabled to live on this higher spiritual plane. As a part of our new birth, we also have been provided with faculties (abilities) to relate to our newly re created spiritual life.

By being "born again" through regeneration, we are birthed into the higher dimension of life and potential which God had intended for the original creation of mankind. Jesus came to introduce us to, and bring us into, this "realm" of spiritual life. Having paid the full price to make this realm of spiritual life available to us, He now stands at the doorway, and knocks upon the door of entrance, bidding us to enter.

"Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear
my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and
will sup with him, and he with me" Rev 3:20.

This "doorway" speaks of the point of "transition" from the temporal into the spiritual realm. Through a new birth, all that is beyond this doorway becomes accessible to us. We can be saved and abide near this door, satisfied with the gift of salvation, or we can choose to go further and enter into the realm of intimate communion and active cooperation with our Lord (if any man hear ... and open). This offer is not available to the natural man. He is locked into the temporal realm.

As we pass through this door into the spiritual realm, there is within us, as a part of our new birth, certain gifts and faculties that enable us to function. These spiritual faculties have been dormant (dead) within mankind since Adam transgressed, but in the "new creation" that we have become, they are recreated and activated, with the potential for their development.

"As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word,
that ye may grow thereby" I Peter 2:2.

We are born into this new creation as a spiritual baby. Just as those physical senses in a natural baby must develop until they function properly, our spiritual senses (which are comparable to our natural senses) also must be developed. If the totality of our focus upon life is in the temporal area, then only our natural senses will be developed. However, if the inner desire and intent of our heart is towards spiritual things, our spiritual senses will develop and function. This will result in our being able to distinguish, and understand spiritual things.

"But seek ye first the Kingdom of God, and His
righteousness; and all these things shall be
added unto you" Matt 6:33.

If we choose the "spiritual" and place our emphasis there, the "temporal" also will prosper and find a higher means of ability and function. Whenever we "first" respond to the spiritual, we will be infinitely better off than we would have been if we had expended our time and efforts in only the temporal realm of life.