Loving the Christ-life!

Death Brings Life By Tammy Lacock “Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh.” (2 Corinthians 4:10)In this final part of The Cross, Warren takes us into the very heart of the Apostle Paul in the hopes that his gospel of grace will take hold in the hearts and minds of those who hear it. Without Paul's writings, we would never fully understand what exactly happened at the Cross. Paul was the only one raised up by Christ Himself to explain it. Paul's gospel explains the abundant life Christ promised to us by His death on the Cross. As believers in Christ, we are now complete in Him, by the uprooting of the sin-nature passed down through the curse of Adam by Satan, replacing it with Christ's nature, His Incorruptible Seed. By His very life within us now, we can now truly live free, free to rest in Him and experience and know His Peace “that passeth all understanding,” even amidst our inevitable sufferings. By Christ in us now, we stand perfect before God as His bona fide sons and daughters. There is nothing we can do to be perfect. Christ is our perfection. Paul's gospel of grace tells us that even when we fail, God only sees Christ. In 2 Corinthians 4:10, Paul expresses his intimate love for the Christ within him by acknowledging our need to bear the suffering in our bodies and death to ourselves as the only means by which Christ can be manifested through us as believers. Just as by Christ's death we have been given new life, so too, by our own suffering and death to our old lives, Christ's life can now come through us. Life comes through suffering and death. The suffering and death to ourselves manifests His life through us to others. The trials and tribulations in this life are meant to cultivate a deep and unique relationship with Christ, one that becomes a love affair as we continue to live and breathe in Him. Through Paul, God's ultimate plan for us is revealed: To know and live Christ as our new life, to live and rest in Him knowing everything is in His hands, and to reciprocate His perfect love for us by making Him our first love each and every day and through every single suffering. His death ushered in our new and everlasting life. Christ in you and me, the hope of glory!“Even the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to his saints: To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory: Whom we preach, warning every man, and teaching every man in all wisdom; that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus.” (Colossians 1:26-28)

It Is FinishedBy Tammy LacockThis week, Warren Litzman dives deep into Christ's death on the Cross so we might understand exactly who we are now in Christ. In His last words, “It is finished,” Christ testified that His death was the culmination of God's plan of salvation for humanity. If not for His death on the Cross, we would not have new life. We would remain dead in this world, never to experience eternal life with Him. By Christ's death, Satan's nature, which was passed down to us by the curse of Adam, can now be uprooted and exchanged with Christ's nature, joined to our spirits making us one spirit in Him (1 Corinthians 6:17). We are brand-new creations, crucified at the Cross with Christ, and raised to a new life in Him in His resurrection. We are no longer defined by anything outside of us. Our identity is Christ, alive and well in each of us. The Apostle Paul was the greatest psychologist of all time because not only did Christ reveal to him his new identity, but He revealed to him exactly how the believer in Christ can now live in freedom from sin. Warren explains, through Paul's epistles, that the reason we continue to make poor decisions as believers is because we don't know who we are. Paul's gospel of grace—that we are saved not by anything we do or don't do, but by Christ's perfect sacrifice on the Cross—reveals to us our new identity in Christ, and by Him we are made bona fide sons and daughters of God. “To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.” (Col. 1:27)“The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together. For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.” (Rom. 8:16-18)We can be confident of eternity with Christ in heaven when we know Christ is already in us now. Once we start to get a grip on Christ as our new life, the Holy Spirit continues to renew our minds, bringing us into a closer unique relationship with the Christ in us, through our everyday circumstances and situations and especially through our adversities. God's plan of salvation is finished. By only believing in Christ as our Savior, we are redeemed, co-heirs with Christ to God's kingdom. Yet the Apostle Paul tells us this is just the beginning of our new life in Christ. By cultivating a deep relationship with the Christ that lives in us now, through the renewal of our minds, we can begin to experience here and now the abundant, eternal life that Christ's death promises. “The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.” (John 10:10)

At The Cross: Satan Out, Christ In By Tammy Lacock This week, Warren Litzman makes it plain and clear exactly what God did at the Cross. We must look to the Cross to understand God's boundless and unconditional love for each and every one of us. By Christ's death and resurrection, the sin-nature (Satan nature) passed down through the generations from Adam's curse by Satan, is literally uprooted and replaced with the incorruptible seed, Christ. This is what it means to be saved, born again. By just believing in Him, we are made brand-new creations and bona fide sons and daughters of God, to live eternally—now and in His heavenly home. Jesus was more powerful in His death than when He was alive. By Christ's death, we are no longer bound by Satan and this world. When Christ died, we died too, to our old lives operated by Satan. We have a new Operator in Christ. In Him, there is no more sin and death for us. It's important to understand that God didn't change our minds when we got saved. Our spirits were saved, being joined to Christ making us one spirit in Him (1 Corinthians 6:17), yet our minds have a lot of catching up to do. The Apostle Paul makes this clear throughout his epistles, helping us understand our new life now in Christ. Now as new creations in Christ, and by the help of the Holy Spirit, we must now allow the Holy Spirit renew our minds, by letting go of the old knowledge of good and evil, sin and death, which we were cursed with by Adam's sin. We look to the Holy Spirit to replace it with a new knowledge, “the excellency of the knowledge of Christ,” as the Apostle puts it in Philippians 3:8, “Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ.”God wants us to come back to life. Our minds have been corrupted and now need a full housecleaning. Christ living in us now brings us back into the awareness of our status as God's bona fide sons and daughters and therefore, our inheritance of eternal life in Him. Satan's knowledge of good and evil no longer can take hold, once we decide to give our minds over to Christ and begin living our new life in Him.

God Is Love By Tammy LacockThis week, Warren Litzman takes us deep into the heart of God by the very sacrifice of His Son Jesus. God is Love. It's in His nature to act in pure love. He knew, even before the foundation of the world (Ephesians 1:4) that the only way to reconcile us to Him after our continued falling away by the curse of Adam is through a pure act of love.“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16)God paid the price as ransom so that our cursed and sinful natures would be exchanged by Christ's nature. Through the perfect sacrifice of His Son at the Cross, God now has the right, according to His nature, to place Christ—God's very seed and eternal life—in every believer. God paid His highest price for us, to bring us back into reconciliation with Him and to the life He originally intended for us, a life in Christ. God's perfect plan of love was finished at the Cross and is now manifesting through Christ in the believing sinner. In Christ, we are now free in a world that wants to keep our minds set in bondage. The Apostle Paul tells us that, by the help of the Holy Spirit, our minds must be renewed to our new life in Christ if we are ever to fully live who God created us to be. As His bona fide sons and daughters, we must now get to know the Christ that lives in us if we are ever to fully understand the boundless, unwavering, and unconditional love of our Heavenly Father.

No Failure In God's Plan By Tammy Lacock This week, Warren discusses the importance of understanding the Trinity as integral to the heart of God's perfect plan. The Trinity of God consists of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, each a distinct personality manifestation of God and each having a significant role in God's plan. At the Cross, we see God the Son fulfilling the Father's plan. We see God in His deepest role as Father. The completion of God's plan consisted of Christ being the perfect, sinless sacrifice, His death on the Cross as atonement, not only for the original sin passed down to us by the curse of Adam, but for every sin—past, present, and future. When Christ died, we died, too; our sins and our old selves were nailed to the cross and buried with Him. When He arose, conquering death, we arose, too, with Him as our new eternal life. By His death, we are reborn. God the Father's deepest desire has been fulfilled: to fill His heavenly home with sons and daughters, made righteous by His Son's sacrifice and His life now literally living in each and every believer. They are now a new creation, a new life, by their own choosing. At the Cross, we see this deep, reciprocal love between Father and Son, as well as their unwavering, boundless, and unconditional love for a fallen world. That's us!The only way we could ever know of God's plan and His unconditional love for us through His Son Jesus is by revelation. Jesus tells us in John chapters 13, 14, and 15 the main role of the Holy Spirit, which is to comfort us and teach us of Christ and how we are to live our brand-new lives in Him now. Only the Holy Spirit can reveal to us this radical new knowledge, what the Apostle Paul calls “the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus” (Philippians 3:8). God's plan is perfect. There is not one thing outside the boundary of this plan. He's got the whole world in His hands. Every person involved in Christ's death was necessary, all fitting into God's plan. It had to happen for His plan to be fulfilled. We may fail in God's plan, but He doesn't. He loves us so much, wanting us to live meaningful and purposeful lives in Christ here and ultimately with Him in Heaven, that He won't allow His plan to fail.

Let His Mind Be In YouBy Tammy Lacock “Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 2:5 KJV).This week, Warren Litzman shows that as brand-new creations in Christ, we now have the same spirit that was in Christ by His death on the cross. And by His Spirit, we have His mind readily available (1 Corinthians 2:16).Warren takes us into the mind of Christ on the cross as a means of understanding His mind, His deep relationship with the Father and the heart of God's plan—God's deepest desire to have sons and daughters in His house—can now be fulfilled. If we can understand Christ's mind throughout His ministry and, most importantly at the cross, then we might be able to let go of our old mindsets, along with our old selves nailed at the cross, and allow His mind to come through us. The Apostle Paul was the only man raised up by Christ Himself who understood our new life in Christ and what it takes to actually live it. He knew our minds are still attached to our old selves, the self that died at the cross with Christ. He tells us to be “transformed by the renewing of [our] minds.”By the help of the Holy Spirit, who comforts and teaches us of our new life in Christ, we can begin to cultivate a unique and personal relationship with the Christ that now lives in us. As our knowledge and relationship with Him deepens, we learn to let go and let His mind come through.

“Death, Where Is Your Sting!”By Tammy LacockThis week, Warren Litzman takes us to the Cross yet once again in the hopes that we can understand who Christ really was, as we live and move in Him now. As we go through Christ's suffering and death while on the cross, we see a man who still wasn't thinking about Himself. Christ was loving and affectionate to His mother and to John, the only disciple at His crucifixion. He made sure His mother would be taken care of by John. He was loving and forgiving to the thief on His one side, assuring him he would be with Him in paradise. And He personified love in His last words when He asked God to forgive those who participated in His suffering and death and said, “They know not what they do.” The only suffering He acknowledged was by saying “I thirst.” Even in His last words on the cross, He didn't complain. Jesus had no time to think of His pain and betrayal. His death was the epitome of forgiveness. He knew He had to die for our world to be saved, to receive the gift of His eternal life within us. He loved even unto His death. Through Paul's epistles, Warren reminds us of the gospel of grace, the only gospel for believers today. He reminds us that by Christ's death, God poured out His love and grace unto us. We are no longer corrupted by the curse of Satan by Adam. By Christ's death, our Satan-natures have been uprooted and replaced by His incorruptible seed. By His unconditional and boundless love within us now, death and sin no longer have a hold on us. The Apostle Paul knew this when he said in 1 Corinthians 15:55, “O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?” Christ's death accomplished all things: fulfilled the law, conquered sin and death, and ushered in grace and our new life. By God's grace, Christ is now literally living within us. We now have His eternal Life and His unfailing love to draw from. Now we are free to enjoy a unique and personal relationship with Christ as we live and move and love in Him.

Deepest Root Of The Cross By Tammy LacockThis week, Warren Litzman takes us to the Cross once again in the hopes that we can understand its deep root: God's love. Christ's journey to the Cross started before the foundation of the world, for God's deep love for us was in His plan before we were even born. God's Word tells us: “According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love.” (Ephesians 1:4)“But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot: Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you.” (1 Peter 1:19-20)God's deepest expression of His Love is through His Son's life and death. Warren takes us through this journey, culminating at the Cross. It's here where the very death of Christ ushers in God's grace and love poured out unto us. At the Cross, Christ conquered all sin — past, present, and future — and conquered death.What takes place within each and every believer at the Cross is the uprooting of Satan's natures, which was passed down by the curse of Adam's sin and was literally replaced with the Seed of Christ, the Incorruptible Seed of God's Son. We are no longer bound by Satan and this fallen world. Our new life is Christ. He is now alive and well in each and every one of us. By Him, we now have eternal life. We are joined to Christ's Spirit making us one spirit in Him (1 Corinthians 6:17). By God's grace, all we have to do is believe. God sent a part of Himself to be born into this world to show us who He is and to save us from a fallen world that is spiraling deeper and deeper into the lies of Satan, to die a lonely and horrific death on the Cross as the ultimate sacrifice to redeem us and bring us back to Him, not to mention that all we need to do is believe. If this isn't deep love, then I don't know what is!God is love. God is true love. What happens at the Cross is at the deepest root of who He is. “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." (John 3:16)

Two Deep Roots In Grace By Tammy Lacock There are two deep roots that were in God's plan before the foundation of the world. These are heavenly roots. They have nothing to do with the world and nothing to do with the Devil. They have everything to do with us and God's love for us through His Son. These two deep roots sustain the final gospel of Paul, who by revelation from Christ Himself understood the Cross and its ushering in of God's grace unlike any other writer. The following two verses form the foundation. “According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love.” (Ephesians 1:4)“But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot: Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you.” (1 Peter 1:19-20)This week, Warren Litzman takes us to the Cross again in the hopes that we can understand the great power of sin and God's grace and love poured out unto us through His Son as ultimate power. Warren takes us to the cross so that we can see Christ's pure sacrifice, His suffering and shed blood and by seeing, fall in love with Him.“But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world.” (Galatians 6:14)Here Paul tells us that there is no other glory than the glory of Christ. By His death at the cross, the world has been crucified, and we are no longer bound by it. The world is under subjection to God's plan. In grace, the world has lost its ultimate power, whether by sin or by law. For Paul, his new life in Christ is all that matters. Christ is his first love. Our new life in Christ could not have been made possible without the Cross. God's love and grace is so amazing that He rooted this deep into His plan, before the foundation of the world.

“I Am Crucified With Christ”By Tammy Lacock “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.” (Galatians 2:20)This week, Warren Litzman dives deep into the heart of the Apostle Paul's gospel, where there is no separation between new life and the shedding of Christ's blood. Warren once again details Christ's journey leading up to His death. In the Garden of Gethsemane, when Christ accepted His Father's will and drank of the cup of every single sin ever committed — past, present, and future — we too were in that cup. Our sin-nature, passed down to us from Adam by the curse of Satan, was in that cup. We were poured into His body. And the sin of the entire world was so severe for His body to bear that it began to push out His blood. Through His scourging, His walk to Calvary, His crowning of thorns, and His nailing to the cross, His blood was shed and pushed out so much that it only took six hours for Him to die. His work was then finished. Christ's death on the cross finished sin and death once and for all. And we, too, were crucified with Him. We were in Him when He died, and we are in Him now. When He went from death to life, we did too. By the Cross, He now lives in us, joined to our spirits making us one spirit in Him, brand-new creations (1 Corinthians 6:17; 2 Corinthians 5:17).The beginning of knowing Christ is knowing where He is. In Galatians 2:20, Paul tells us exactly where He is: “Christ liveth in me.”No separation. He tells us it is now time to get to know and fall in love with Christ who now lives in each of us as believers. We fall in love with Him by now giving ourselves, our lives back to Him. He's not coming and going. By the cross, He now lives in us. He is our new life. By the help of the Holy Spirit, may we develop and deepen our love for Christ by making Him our first love.

Life Is In His BloodBy Tammy Lacock“And almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no remission.” (Hebrews 9:22)In Hebrews 9:22, the Apostle Paul reminds us of Old Testament Jewish law. Without a death and blood sacrifice, one cannot be atoned or freed from their sins. Likewise, by Christ's innocent blood, we are freed from sin. The difference is by Christ's Blood, we are freed from all sin once and for all. No longer is a sacrificial animal needed because we are no longer bound by sin and death. By the shedding of Christ's blood, all of humanity has been redeemed. He literally washed away all sin — past, present, and future. He washed away death. We are no longer to live in sin and death because we are now freed from it. We, too, have resurrected with Christ, and we now live a brand-new life in Him. A life where our minds begin renewing as a result of our new life in Christ. One with Him, joined to His Spirit, making us one Spirit (1 Corinthians 6:17). This week, Warren Litzman takes us on a journey into the last hours before Christ's death on the cross. An intimate journey into the literal shedding of His blood and how by His blood, we have new life. He begins in the Garden of Gethsemane and takes us through Christ's death on the cross. Throughout the hours before His death, we can see how by receiving the cup and pouring all of our sins into His pure body, His blood is literally pushed out in His flesh. His life is pushed out. His blood is again pushed out by the scourging. And then again throughout His walk to Calvary. And yet again by the nails driven into his hands and feet. And by His death, His blood is finally poured out, pushing out His life once and for all for the remission of all sins.For Christ said in His last words before His death “It is finished.” Death and sin are finished. New Life comes only by His blood.

What's In The Cup?By Tammy LacockWarren Litzman discusses exactly what was in the cup Jesus drank in the Garden of Gethsemane of the night before His death. We are in the cup. Each one of us is in that cup. Everything that has to do with our lineage since Adam is in that cup. Everything that makes us a human being is in that cup. The cup consisted of every sin, every transgression — past, present and future — no matter by whom, was in that cup. The sin of Adam is in the cup. The sin of Abraham is in the cup. The sin of Sodom and Gomorrah is in the cup. The sin of Hitler is in the cup. The sin of Saddam Hussein is in the cup. Every sin is in that cup. No exceptions. When Jesus drank of the cup, every single one of our sins and transgressions were poured into His body.When all of our sin went into His body, it pushed out life. Death went into His body and pushed out life. Christ knew that His time had come to eradicate sin and death once and for all. The end of sin is death, Christ's death. Life of the flesh is in the blood of Christ. He paid the penalty for our sin, and now we are completely freed from all of it by faith in Christ. When He died, we died, and all of our sins died, too. Buried and dead. Yet by God's Grace, when Christ arose from death, as believers we arose, too, to a brand-new life in Him. We have been made anew. By Christ's death, burial, and resurrection at the Cross, we went from a God-breathed Adamic living soul to a quickened spirit, joined to Christ making us one Spirit in Him. He is our new identity. We are now complete in Him and free to live exactly who God created us to be.This is why Christ's death on the cross is the ultimate sacrifice, the gift of all gifts. He paid for every single penalty, and he paid in full.

One BaptismBy Tammy Lacock“Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?” (Roman's 6:3)This week, Warren Litzman focuses on Romans chapter 6 as the foundational chapter for the Apostle Paul's gospel of grace. In verse 3, when Paul says “know ye not,” he's asking believers if we know exactly what happened to us at the Cross, by Christ's death, burial, and resurrection? Here he's telling us something happened to us and asking, ‘don't you know about it?' As believers, when Christ died on the cross, we were baptized, fully immersed, into His death. By His death, we died too, to our old lives, cursed by the sin of Adam by Satan. By sacrificing His life, we as believers, have now been made free of the law and sin and blameless and holy before God (Ephesians 1:4). The Holy Spirit baptized each and every believer into Christ, and we are now one body in Him. There's nothing left of our old selves, our old lives. Christ in us is our new life. The outworking of this is in our different expressions. But the incoming is singular, we are all baptized into one Spirit, that is Christ. One faith, one final baptism. Not by water but by the Holy Spirit. “For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit.” (1 Corinthians 12:13)We see a glimpse of our baptism into Christ's death in the Garden of Gethsemane. After three years of coming to Jerusalem on that Passover night, Christ fulfills God's plan and drinks of the cup of all of our transgressions, pouring into Him our old lives. And as a result, we are fully immersed in Him unto His death. Yet Paul tells us, we share also in His resurrection, arising to a brand-new life in Him (Romans 6:5; 2 Corinthians 5:17). Warren then takes us into Matthew 26:31, “Then saith Jesus unto them, All ye shall be offended because of me this night: for it is written, I will smite the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock shall be scattered abroad.”Here Jesus explains that it is going to be hurtful and very hard for His disciples to understand His death. In fact, many will deny Him on the eve of His death because they will not understand. Making the transition from being with them in the flesh to being in spirit will take time and understanding, which only the Holy Spirit can provide.By the Holy Spirit, Paul's epistles help us understand our new life in Christ. By God's Grace through His Son's death on the cross, no longer are we held bondage to the law and our own sins. This is God's Grace now being poured out unto us. May we not be offended by His death but greatly rejoice knowing there is now only one baptism. We have all been baptized into Christ by His death, making us one body, one in Him. He is now our Peace, our Strength, our Joy, the very Life within us. Only the cross makes this possible. There is no greater gift.

“Follow Me As I Follow Christ”By Tammy Lacock This week, Warren Litzman seeks to help us truly understand who we are as born-again believers, now that we are living in God's grace. In John 12:26, we have a Scripture that must be rightly divided. Jesus is preaching the kingdom gospel, a gospel meant for the nation of Israel which was based on outer works and serving Him to please God. Christ could not yet reveal His gospel of grace because He had not yet died on the cross. It wasn't until after His death, burial, and resurrection that he raised up the Apostle Paul to deliver this new gospel, one that no longer requires works for salvation but tells us we are saved by grace, by Christ's work on the cross. By God's grace at the Cross, a radical change took place within us as believers. Because Israel rejected Christ as their Messiah, they had no inner change. They are still holding onto their own outer works for salvation and God's signs, wonders, and miracles for hope. To the believer, however, the Holy Spirit delivered the incorruptible seed of Christ into our spirits, making us one spirit in Him (1 Corinthians 6:7). We are brand-new creations in Him (2 Corinthians 5:17).Warren goes on to explain that the first time we get a glimpse into grace and our new life in Christ is in the garden of Gethsemane. When Christ drinks of the cup, we are poured into Him before His death. Our old lives and all of our sins — past, present and future — were poured into Him. At the cross, when He died, we died and were buried too. Yet when He arose, we arose too, to a brand-new life in Him, literally. It's important to understand, as Warren discusses, that the nation of Israel has been set aside since their rejection of Christ as their Messiah. When once God spoke to them directly, He now only speaks to us through His Son in the born-again believer. Through Christ, God now sees us as His bona fide sons and daughters, joint heirs with Christ. He no longer sees our old identities; He now sees Christ in us as our righteousness. Paul tells us that to understand the fullness of God's grace, we are meant to know Him now personally, the Christ that literally lives in us. By getting to know Him and falling in love with Him, we start to see clearly that all outer works and all outer things no longer matter. Paul considered everything else worthless and clearly said in Philippians 3:8, “Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ.”In 1 Corinthians 11:1, Paul says “Follow me as I follow Christ.” May we dive into his epistles and allow the Holy Spirit to comfort us and teach us of our new life in grace, our new life in Christ.

The Cross Ushers In Grace By Tammy Lacock “Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.” (John 12:24)This week, Warren Litzman opens by diving into gospel of John chapter 12 to help us understand that John's gospel is a bridge from the kingdom gospel preached by Christ and His disciples to Paul's gospel of grace, a new gospel given to Paul by Christ, Himself. In John 12:24, Christ foretells His coming death on the cross. His death and burial must happen for His resurrection and new life. In fact, only by His death on the cross, can he now be the very life of every believer and bear fruit through us. This is grace. No longer are we saved by anything we do or don't do (kingdom gospel). We are saved by God's grace through His Son. When Christ died, we died too. Our old lives were buried, and we arose to a brand-new life in Christ. By the cross, our old Satan sin-natures were literally uprooted and replaced with the Incorruptible seed, Christ. Here and now, we have His eternal life in us. This is grace.The Cross made it possible for God to pour out His grace upon us. Warren says, “Grace is God putting Christ in us knowing we may never give Christ our life.” Grace doesn't require us to understand our new life in Christ. However, the Apostle Paul tells us that God's grace doesn't stop at the Cross. If we are to ever truly be complete in Christ, we must break through the hull of our old mindsets and “let the mind of Christ be in [us]” (Philippians 2:5). By getting to know the Christ that now lives in us by God's grace, we can finally learn to rest in Him while He lives through us. This is why Christ is our Savior. Only by resting in Him can we truly live who God created us to be and experience the fullness of His grace.

“Whosoever Believeth”By Tammy Lacock“For the scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed. For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek: for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him. For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.” (Romans 10:11-13)This week, Warren Litzman digs deeper into exactly what happened at the Cross so that we as believers may really know who we are. In Ephesians 1:4, the Apostle Paul tells us every single human being was chosen to be in Christ before the world was even created. It was in God's plan, before the foundation of the world, for us to live a new life, a new life in Christ, holy and blameless by Him. “According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love.” (Ephesians 1:4)Warren goes on to explain that because of Christ's death on the cross, something happened to us. By His death, burial, and resurrection, we all now have a Savior. The only prerequisite to our personal salvation is to believe in Christ as our Savior (Romans 10:11), the one Who, by His death on the cross, made it possible for our old sin-natures, passed down by the curse of Adam by Satan, to be exchanged with Christ's nature. As believers, the incorruptible Seed of Christ has been literally joined to our spirits making us one spirit in Him, brand-new creations. (1 Corinthians 6:17; 2 Corinthians 5:17). His Spirit supersedes all. And He is now our new life. Everything that happens in life hinges on Christ's death on the cross. God brings every human being through the cross so that we all might die to our old lives. As believers, we went from living an Adamic soul-life to a quickened spirit-life in Christ, but only by the cross. What did Christ mean when He said, “The hour is come, that the Son of man should be glorified” (John 12:33)? What's so glorious about His horrific death on the cross? For the first time, human beings have the opportunity to have a new nature, Christ. Jesus can now be glorified by our new nature. By the help of the Holy Spirit teaching us and comforting us in of our new life in Christ and getting to know the Christ that now lives in us, we can finally understand God's plan from the beginning and who He created us to be … complete in Christ. All it takes is believing.

What Happened At The Cross?By Tammy Lacock Warren Litzman poses two questions in this week's podcast: Do you have one foot in law and one foot in grace? In order to answer this question, we must then ask ourselves: do we understand what happened at the cross? If we are still living as if we are in bondage to sin and death under the law, what Warren calls “doer religion,” then we are not living the brand-new life God promised us through Christ's death, burial, and resurrection; and, we don't have a complete understanding of what happened at the cross. The Apostle Paul was the only one raised up by Christ, Himself, to bring to the world a new gospel, one that explains exactly what happened at the cross. Before the cross, Jesus preached the kingdom gospel, salvation by works, meant only for Israel. The apostles also preached the kingdom message because it had not yet been revealed to them what took place at the cross. Paul tells us Christ revealed to him an entirely new gospel, that we are saved by God's grace. By Christ's death, burial, and resurrection; “whosoever believeth” in Him as their Savior is saved (John 3:15-17).Grace happened at the cross. Christ's death, burial, and resurrection abolished the law and ushered in grace, making every believer brand-new creations in Christ. Christ now literally lives in every believer, His Spirit joined to us making us one spirit in Him (1 Corinthians 6:17).“Having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace.” (Ephesians 2:15)We are no longer bound by sin and death under the law and its distortions. By the cross, we are now free to live and move in Christ by God's amazing grace and boundless love for us. In fact, Paul tells us it is now time to rest in Him. As we get to know the Christ that now lives in each of us, we begin to actually understand His peace that “passeth all understanding” (Phil. 4:7) and live life more abundantly. By the cross, we went from a soul life dictated by our outer works to a spirit life in Christ. We died with Christ and arose with Him to a new life. He is our new life, the very breath we breathe. He is our righteousness, and nothing we do will ever change that. God sees only Christ in us now, making us His bona fide sons and daughters. In Philippians 3:17, Paul tells fellow believers to follow him because Christ is now revealing through him an entirely new gospel, the gospel of God's amazing grace.So why are we trying to finish what Christ did on the cross!? Why are we living our lives as if we are justified by our works? Christ did the work on the cross and and we are justified only by His grace. By the cross, Christ is our new life, our new identity. Our only job now is to live and move freely in Him, guided by His Spirit to do His good works, knowing He is our strength, our peace, our joy, our everything.

In Between Is the Cross By Tammy Lacock “And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit." (1 Corinthians 15:45)Warren's mission this week is to help us understand the Cross as central to Paul's gospel of grace.In 1 Corinthians 15:45, Paul reveals to us a distinction between the soul and spirit. We must rightly divide them if we are ever to understand God's plan (Hebrews 4:12; 2 Timothy 2:15).In the Old Testament, God moved through the soul of man, through our minds, wills, and emotions in our obedience to the law. Paul tells us God no longer works salvation through man's soul. We are now saved only by His Grace. Through the sacrifice of His Son on the cross, we have been saved by Christ's blood. By just believing in Him, we are now saved in our spirits, joined to Christ's Spirit making us one Spirit in Him. (1 Corinthians 6:7). In Christ, our spirits have been set free of Satan's curse through Adam, and now we have been translated into the kingdom of Christ. We went from soul-living to spirit-living, our old lives passing away (2 Corinthians 5:16).“Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son.” (Colossians 1:13)“He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life.” (1 John 5:12)As brand-new creations in Christ, we are now bona fide sons and daughters of God, begotten of Him. God no longer looks at works-based salvation through our souls. He sees Christ in us. He looks at our new life in Christ in our spirits. We are no longer bound by our weaknesses because we now know that our weaknesses were built into God's plan. By ourselves, we'll never get it right. Only by the Cross are we saved and quickened in Christ. By God's grace we are finally complete by the Incorruptible Seed of Christ now alive in our spirits. In fact, Paul tells us in Ephesians 1:4 that we were in God's plan before the foundation of the world, already chosen in Him even before Adam made his appearance, “According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love.”As believers in Christ, we have moved from soul to spirit, from law to grace, from death to life. What happened in between was the Cross.

We Are Three Parts, Made In His ImageBy Tammy Lacock This week, Warren Litzman dives into the depths of the Apostle Paul's gospel of grace by helping us understand the revelation knowledge that Paul received directly from Christ. In 1 Thessalonians 5, Paul shares this new knowledge, which consists of an understanding of how God made us as human beings so we can understand our new life in Christ. In Genesis 1:27, we know God created us in His own image and likeness. And we know our God is a triune God made up of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.Paul tells us on several occasions as well as in 1 Thessalonians 5:23 that we, too, are made up of three parts: the body, soul, and spirit. We know we have bodies. Paul tells us in Hebrews 4:12 and 2 Timothy 2:15 that we also have two invisible parts: our souls and spirits. Because of the Cross, God can now change us innately by joining Christ's Spirit to us, making us one in Him (1 Corinthians 6:17), brand-new creations. Before the Cross, we operated by self, Satan's nature, passed down by the curse of Satan through Adam's disobedience, making us ignorant to Christ. Now, as believers, Paul reveals that Christ is our new operator. The Cross and Christ living in us as our new life go hand in hand. There is not one without the other. This is Paul's gospel of God's amazing grace, that we are saved by Christ's very life within us and not by anything we do. The only change God made within us when we believed in Christ was in our spirits. We were created by God to have Christ complete us; and in our spirits, we are complete, saved, and going to heaven. By His life within our spirits, we are clothed in His righteousness; therefore, we stand before God blameless. This was in God's plan before the foundation of the world (Ephesians 1:4):“According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love.”Yet Paul tells us that our souls are not complete, the part of us where our minds, free will, and emotions reside. We have yet to undergo in our mindsets the same death and new life that took place within our spirits. Our spirits underwent death to our sin-natures as Christ became our new life in us. This is what it means to be rebirthed or born again. The incorruptible Seed of Christ has been literally and permanently planted within our spirits and, Paul tells us, it's now time to water and nurture His seed within us by undergoing a continual mind-change in our souls. The only way God deals with us now is on the basis of Christ within us. By the help of the Holy Spirit in our minds, Paul's hope is that we come to know Christ in this way. Christianity isn't just a visit with Christ. It is a journey of getting to know Him and knowing Him as our new life, the very breath within us. By getting to know Him in us and reciprocating His love, we can now live out exactly who God created us to be in our entire being, all three parts of us: body, soul, and spirit!

Are You A Sunday Christian?By Tammy Lacock “My little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you.” (Galatians 4:19) This week, Warren Litzman helps us grasp the heart of the Apostle Paul's gospel of grace. In Galatians 4:19, Paul says as long as we, as believers, keep the Christ that lives in us from forming in us into all areas of our lives, he will feel great sorrow. As the only person that was raised up by Christ Himself to bring to humanity a new gospel, Paul knew the road ahead would be one full of arrows. Yet he wanted nothing more than to know the Christ that lived in him and to share Him with the world. He wanted us to fully understand that by Christ's death, burial, and resurrection, we as believers, are brand-new creations, no longer bound by law, sin, and death. By God's amazing grace, we are freed from the curse of Satan through Adam, and we are no longer bound by our own sins. As long as we confess in our hearts, God will forgive. He now sees Christ as our new life, the very life within us and by Him we are perfect in God's eyes. This is Paul's gospel of grace. However, church Christianity has been comingling law and grace causing confusion.Christians are living their new life in Christ on Sundays but have become okay not bringing Christ into other areas of our lives, making decisions without including Him. We are holding on to law so we feel good about ourselves and our actions. With the help of the Holy Spirit renewing our minds to this new life in Christ, we can start to let Him form in us in these other areas. We no longer need to live by laws as they've been abolished by Christ. We need to start living our new life in Christ and allowing His grace to come through us, knowing He is our peace. “Having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace.” (Ephesians 2:15)Paul tells us to follow him as he follows Christ (1 Corinthians 11:1) and bring Christ into every area of our lives, making Him our first love. Paul never claims anything as his own. Christ gave him everything he shares with us, and he repeats this so we might understand his gospel. Paul's gospel is directed toward believers and his mission is that Christ be formed in each of us, in every area of our lives so Christ, the seed in us, will bring forth much fruit through us. We don't form ourselves in Christ. He forms in us. Christ is joined to us in our spirits, making us one with His Spirit (1 Corinthians 6:17). This is our new birth. We are brand-new creations by the planting of the incorruptible Seed of Christ in our spirits. And now, with the help of the Holy Spirit renewing our minds to this new life within us, Christ can start to form in the other parts of us, our minds and hearts. Here is where we begin the love affair with the Christ that now lives in us. Here is where we start to reciprocate His love. Christ is God's gift to us, and now it's time to fully receive Him by getting to know Him and allowing Him to come through us in all areas of our lives.

Are You Incomplete?By Tammy LacockWarren lays down Paul's gospel of Christ in the hopes that believers will fully grasp exactly what happens to us in that moment we believe. Only by God's grace, our sin-natures were literally uprooted and another life, the Spirit of Christ, was planted in our very spirits, making us one spirit (1 Corinthians 6:7). This is what it means to be born again. In fact, Paul tells us in Ephesians 1:4 that it was already in God's mind before the foundation of the world for us to be in Christ:“According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love.” Christ's death (“the lamb slain,” 1 Peter 1:19-20) and our rebirth in Christ were both in God's plan before the foundation of the world. There is not one without the other. Christ's death, burial, and resurrection ushered in grace, a brand-new gospel revealed only to Paul. This grace is Christ as our new life. Paul's gospel of grace is one of completion (Colossians 2:10). Before we were born again in Christ, we were incomplete. Now that God's plan of Christ literally living in every believer has been finished by the Cross, we are finally free to be exactly who God created us to be. Paul's letters reveal the battle in his mind of burying his old self and mindset and knowing his new risen life now in Christ. He wanted nothing more than to know Him, the Christ that now breathes his very breath. Now that we are complete in Christ, the Holy Spirit will comfort and teach us of our new life in Him. We no longer live, Christ is our new life (Galatians 2:20), all of us one body in Him (1 Corinthians 12:12-14). Now is our chance to experience His Peace, resting only in Him as the one who now operates in us. No longer under the power of Satan, sin, and the law, we are completely free knowing who we are now in Christ. We live and move in Christ now. This is the abundant life Jesus spoke about when He said, “The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly” (John 10:10).Paul reveals this to us in the hopes that we, too, seek to intimately know the Christ living in each of us and experience His oneness in our unique expressions of Him.

He That Hath The Son Hath LifeBy Tammy Lacock “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.” (2 Corinthians 5:17)Warren Litzman's goal throughout this study is for listeners to get ahold of the Apostle Paul's gospel of Christ, the only gospel for us today. Paul's gospel is simply this: By Christ's death, burial, and resurrection, we as believers, are brand new creatures, a new race of people. By God's grace, and by nothing we do or don't do, we are now brand-new creatures by His uprooting of the sin nature, passed down by Adam through the curse of Satan, and His replacing it with Christ. Christ has been joined to our spirits making us one Spirit in Him (1 Corinthians 6:17). Christ is now literally living in us and because of Him our old lives are now dead and buried with Him. Yet when He rose from the dead, we arose with Him to a brand-new life. He, the person of Christ, is our new life. He is our salvation, our eternal life living within us right now. “He who hath the Son hath life; and he who hath the Son of God hath not life.” (John 5:12)However, Christianity today has ignored Paul's gospel of Christ living in every believer. As a result, Christians don't know who they are. Comingling works salvation and grace salvation, it's no wonder we are confused. Paul tells us we are saved only by God's grace. As Warren puts it, God poured out a whole bucket of grace on us, yet Christians have no idea what this grace is all about. By God's Grace, not only are we saved by just believing, but we now have the very life of Christ in us, the life of the one who conquered death. What does this mean? Paul tells us that by God's grace we now have the opportunity to know this very Christ who now lives in us. There is no separation between us and Christ. He will never leave us nor forsake us. As believers, we can get to know Christ now on a uniquely personal level because He lives within us. Paul wanted nothing more than to know this Christ, so much so that he made Christ his first love. So much so that he boasted in his weaknesses knowing these very weaknesses brought him closer to knowing Christ. In his weakness, Christ was his strength. Paul fell in love with Christ knowing he could do all things in Him. By the help of the Holy Spirit, Paul says, our minds must be renewed (Ephesians 4:23), burying not only our old selves but also our old mindsets of who we thought we were and having the revelation and understanding of our new life in Christ. In fact, he tells us that we are predestinated with this understanding (Roman 8:29; Ephesians 1:11). God put this knowledge within us, and now our new lives in Christ can reveal it, helping us in our spiritual growth. Paul realized his battle was not with the world or with Satan but with his own mind. His struggle was transitioning from a believing mind to a knowing mind, a knowing that his old self no longer lives, and his new life is Christ (Galatians 2:20). All he wanted was to know this Christ and for this Christ to now live through him. “Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 2:5)“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.” (Romans 12:2) “For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? but we have the mind of Christ.” (1 Corinthians 2:16)

Why Paul?By Tammy Lacock“Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ.” (Philippians 3:8)The question Warren Litzman begins with this week is, why did God choose Paul to deliver a message to humanity that no other person had ever heard before? In order to answer this question, it's important to look at Paul's life before his conversion on the way to Damascus. Paul was born into a wealthy Jewish family, privileged as a Roman citizen and highly educated. Today, his education would equate to two doctorates. In Philippians 3:5-7, Paul boasts of his life before Christ to show us that he had everything going for him in an earthly sense, considering himself to be an avid obeyer of the Jewish law and, in fact, blameless. He even persecuted Christians in his adherence to the law. He was a Pharisee. Yet, in Philippians 3:8, Paul makes it clear that he now counts his upbringing and scholarly background worthless, nothing but dung. Without any doubt, he gladly loses it, lest any or all of it get in the way of knowing Christ. Paul was utterly determined to share with the world what Christ, Himself, revealed only to him. Paul's gospel is by Christ's death, burial, and resurrection, we as believers, are rebirthed, given a new life. Christ's death ushered in God's amazing Grace being poured out unto us by the Holy Spirit. By His grace, God can now uproot the sin-natures and replace it with the incorruptible seed of Christ (Peter) in our very spirits, making us one spirit in Him (1 Corinthians 6:17). Christ now lives in us, literally, not figuratively. By Christ living in us, we are born again into God's family, now His bona fide sons and daughters. We see in Ephesians chapter 1 that Paul was given insight into God's plan. In verse 4, Paul reveals that Christ living in us was God's plan before the foundation of the world. It took over 4,000 years for God to reveal His plan, and Paul knew it. Furthermore, Paul knew it was only revealed to him. In chapter one, Paul continues to reiterate that God's plan has everything to do with Christ. He makes it clear in verse 10:“That in the dispensation of the fulness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in him.” Throughout Paul's writings, we can see that this is a man whose heart and mind has been captured by Christ. He was determined to know Christ. If this meant suffering, then he says bring on the suffering. He was determined to share this revelation of Christ in him to the world because he knew Christianity wouldn't work without it. “For I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified.” (1 Corinthians 2:2)God used Paul's zeal in his new life in Christ. God chose Paul to reveal His Son in him first because He knew Paul's zealous mind could now be used to reveal this message to us. By the help of the Holy Spirit, Paul was given this radical mind-change of an outer Christ to Christ living in him. He wanted nothing more than to know this Christ and for us to have this radical mind-change, too!

Why Are We Here? By Tammy Lacock“But when it pleases God, who separated me from my mother's womb, and called me by his grace, To reveal his Son in me that I might preach him among the heathen; immediately I conferred not with flesh and blood.” (Galatians 1:16) In this podcast series, it is Warren Litzman's ultimate goal to help us understand the Apostle Paul's gospel, the final gospel to the world, so that we might understand who we are and why we are here. Paul, the meanest man on earth at the time by his persecuting Christians, was raised up by Christ Himself to bring us this new gospel. Only two men in the Bible were raised up by God to bring us a gospel. Moses brought us the law (Old Testament); and Paul brought us grace (New Testament), the gospel of Christ. Paul's gospel of grace supersedes any other gospel, including the Kingdom gospel preached initially by Peter and the disciples.In Galatians 1:16, the Apostle Paul tells us something that has never been told before, that the Holy Spirit had revealed to him that Christ is now living in him, literally, not figuratively. Paul taught of Christ living in us and we in Him over and over throughout his letters. This is Paul's gospel, the final gospel of God's grace for humanity. That by Christ's death, burial, and resurrection, we as believers, have been rebirthed by the very seed of Christ in our spirits (1 Corinthians 6:17). By just believing, God can now uproot Satan's sin-nature passed down by the curse through Adam and replace it with the incorruptible seed of Christ (1 Peter 1:23). By this, we are made brand-new creations, no longer bound by law, sin, and death. God now sees Christ in us as our righteousness, making us His bona fide sons and daughters. By Christ, we are complete. Only by Christ. Our identity is Christ. In Him, we are now free to live who God created us to be. Warren Litzman points out the importance of understanding the role of the Holy Spirit, part of which is to teach God's born-again children about our new identity. Jesus tells us in John's gospel that the Holy Spirit will come upon us to be our teacher and our comforter, helping us to understand our new life in Christ, our new life in grace. The Holy Spirit's power is revealing Christ and who He is now living in us. “At that day (Pentecost) ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you.” (John 14:20)The Holy Spirit renews our minds, as Paul says, helping us to understand and cultivate a beautifully unique and reciprocal love affair with Christ, the Christ that now lives in each of us who believe. The Christ that is our strength, our hope, our peace, our very life. This is why we are here, to learn of Him, to know Him, to rest in Him, and to fall in love with Him more and more every day.

Do You Know The Real Jesus?By Tammy Lacock “Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.” (John 12:24)This week, Warren Litzman asks believers if they know the real Jesus. In fact, he emphasizes unless one has the revelation of the Apostle Paul's gospel, what Paul calls the revelation of the mystery, we will never truly know Him.In John 12:24, Christ gives us a glimpse into this mystery when He speaks of His coming death. Here He tells us that unless He (the corn of wheat) dies; there is no other way to bring forth His fruit. Because by dying, He can now literally live in every believer and bring forth His fruit through us. Christ is revealing here the mystery Paul shares with us throughout his epistles, that Christ's death on the cross included our death too—to our old lives, the old man. And when Christ arose, we arose as well, to a brand-new life—a completely different life and divine nature—now bringing forth His fruit. By His death, burial, and resurrection, our old Satan sin-nature is literally uprooted, and Christ is planted as our very spirit, making us one spirit in Him (1 Corinthians 6:17).“To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.” (Colossians 1:27)The fruit Jesus speaks of in John 12:24 is the reciprocal love of believers as they come to know the Christ that lives in them now, the only way to know the real Jesus. We don't get to know Jesus by what He does. We know Him by His life within us. Jesus' outer works and miracles will not give us the revelation of who He is in us.Only by the help of the Holy Spirit, through His work in our souls (where our minds reside), can we truly begin to know Christ and, therefore, freely love Him back. His love saves, not ours. Yet loving Him is how God created us to live, in a reciprocal loving relationship with Him. We now live, move, and have our being in Christ. It is only in this love affair with Christ in us where we can truly live out who God created us to be. “All things are delivered unto me of my Father: and no man knoweth the Son, but the Father; neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him.” (Matthew 11:27)“At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you.” (John 14:20)Christ as our life and identity fully equips us to live our new life and new creation, composing the Body of Christ eternally. “That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one: I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me.” (John 17:21-23)

Christianity Is A Love Affair By Tammy Lacock In this new study, Warren Litzman sets out to make known the true and only gospel for believers today, that is the Apostle Paul's gospel of grace. There are two pillars that form the foundation of this gospel, and it's these pillars that help us to discern it in a world where Christians are commingling gospels. These pillars are:“According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love.” (Ephesians 1:4)“But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot: Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you.” (1 Peter 1:19-20)Both pillars make Paul's gospel clear that this is a gospel God had in mind before the world was created and now God revealed it to Paul (and later Peter) to proclaim to the whole world in this current dispensation of grace.Paul's gospel is quite simple: By Christ's death (lamb slain) burial, and resurrection, we as believers, are saved by Christ now living in us (chosen in Him). This was a gospel like no other. And when Israel rejected it, Christ told Paul to take it to the Gentiles (Acts 28:28).“To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.” (Colossians 1:27)However, there are two kinds of Christians in our world today. Those who know they are saved by Christ in them and those who know they are saved yet are searching for Christ outside of themselves, commingling grace and works salvation. Paul tells us the problem with this is that believers who search for Christ outside of themselves will never truly live who God created them to be. They are saved and going to heaven, but they never had the mind-change, or mind-renewal, to the Christ that now lives in them. Moreover, they will never get to really know Him and fall in love with Him. Paul tells us we need to have a radical mind-change, moving from an outer mindset to knowing Christ who now lives in us, joined to our spirits making us one spirit in Him (1 Corinthians 6:17). Warren reminds us that, in order to understand Paul's gospel, we must rightly divide the word of truth (Hebrews 4:12; 2 Timothy 2:15). To understand what actually took place within us as believers, we must rightly divide our souls and spirits. We were born again in our spirits, made perfect here by the incorruptible seed of Christ. Yet in our souls, where our minds reside and where the Holy Spirit works, we are perfecting (maturing). This is where the love affair with Christ takes place, in our souls. The Holy Spirit teaches us and comforts us in our new life in Christ. It is here where we truly learn to let go of our old selves, the old man, and begin to truly learn Christ. It is here where we begin to learn reciprocal love. It is here where our minds undergo such a radical change that we choose Christ over everything else, making Him our everything, our first love (Revelation 2:4). We were chosen in Him before the foundation of the world (Ephesians 1:4). Now it's time to choose Him.

Rightly Divide Truth By Tammy LacockIn this final week study of Jesus and Paul, Warren Litzman takes us right to the heart of Paul's gospel of grace by helping us understand two very important scriptures. “Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.” (2 Timothy 2:15)“For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.” (Hebrews 4:12)Paul tells us in these two verses that we need to rightly divide scripture if we are to understand his gospel. Otherwise, then we don't have the truth. Warren explains that the Bible is divided between prophecy and mystery. Four-fifths of the Bible reveals law and prophecy and is directed toward Israel. The other one-fifth reveals the mystery of Paul's gospel of grace and is directed to the born-again believer. Paul tells us we must rightly divide this truth, taking it further by dividing soul and spirit. The Old Testament, directed toward Israel, was based on soul salvation by outer works. Yet Paul tells us we are saved in our spirits. As born-again believers, we are no longer saved by our outer works, but by the miracle of Christ joining us to Him in spirit, making us one with Him. A Christian is one in whom Christ lives. We no longer are to know Him outside of us. No longer is our righteousness gained through obedience (Israel). In the New Testament, under Paul's gospel of grace for us now, our righteousness is a person, and that person is Christ, His incorruptible seed birthed within us as believers. Now that our outer works are no longer required for salvation, we can finally rest in our new life in Christ. In fact, in Galatians 2:20, Paul makes it very clear that our old lives are dead, crucified with Christ. We have moved from a soul/law mindset to a spirit/grace mindset. From law to grace, from law to Christ. The more we can see that our old selves, including our old mindsets, are dead, the more we can rest in the fullness of our new life in Christ and finally live who God created us to be.“I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.” (Galatians 2:20)

Do You Know You're Dead?By Tammy Lacock“That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death.” (Philippians 3:10)This week, Warren Litzman's goal is to help us know and understand the Apostle Paul, before and after his conversion, as a means of understanding our own death and new life in Christ. Warren explains, through Paul's revelation knowledge given by the Holy Spirit, that this understanding comes only by first realizing that our old lives, including our old mindsets, have died with Christ on the cross. Our old lives are dead and buried. This becomes the baseline of our new life in Christ. In Philippians 3:5-6, Paul talks about how he could boast of his fleshly life before his conversion. He was circumcised on the eighth day, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of the Hebrews; as touching the law, a Pharisee, and being blameless in righteousness by the law. Yet he makes a very important point to tell us that his old life, before coming to Christ, is nothing, by likening it to mere dung (Philippians 3:8). In fact, he tells us in Philippians 3 that he wants nothing more than to know Christ. Paul contrasts our previous focus of who we thought we were all of our lives before coming to Christ, in our flesh, and our new focus on our brand-new life in Christ. As believers, we died with Christ on the cross, our old lives buried, and we arose to a new life in Him, making us one in Spirit in Him (1 Corinthians 6:17).Knowing his old self and old life are dead and buried, Paul can now know exactly what it means to rest in Christ. Paul's gospel reveals to us an inner Christ. No longer do we look for Christ outside of us, as did His disciples and those before His death. For the first time, Christ is manifested through a human being, through Paul. And it's only through revelation knowledge does he learns to let go of his old self, his old mindset, and he begins to truly rest in Christ, his new life. We see Paul becoming a deeply hungry man for Christ, seeking only to know Him and to fall in love with Him more and more every day. This is the gospel for us today! By God's amazing grace, we are no longer bound by sin, death, and law. As believers in Christ, our old lives are dead now, along with our old identity, everything that made us who we were. By His death, burial, and resurrection, we died and were buried, too. Yet when Christ arose, we arose with Him, making us brand-new creations in Him. By His very life within us now, we can truly rest in Him, knowing our old lives are dead and buried and Christ is all we need.

It's A Mind Thing!By Tammy Lacock“Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.” (Romans 6:6)Warren Litzman continues to explain the importance of understanding the Apostle Paul's revelation knowledge, which he shares with us throughout his epistles. In order to understand this revelation knowledge, Paul tells us we must undergo a radical mind-change and a continual mind-renewal. This takes place by the teaching and comfort of the Holy Spirit who reveals to us just what it means to now be in Christ, to live a new life in Him while letting go of our old lives. The Holy Spirit is integral in transitioning us from our sin-natured mindset to knowing Christ. In Romans chapter 6, Warren dives into the four “knowings” which the Holy Spirit reveals to Paul and he shares with us. These “knowings” are revelations of who we are now in Christ. As brand-new creations, we can know now that our old lives, along with our old mindsets, have been crucified and buried with Christ. By His death, burial, and resurrection, we are no longer bound by law, sin, and death. We can now choose to serve sin or to serve Christ. As believers, our spirits are made perfect by Him. We are now joined to Him, making us one Spirit in Him (1 Corinthians 6:17). He will never leave us nor forsake us, no matter what we do or don't do. Being one with Him in spirit, however, doesn't mean we are one with Him in our souls (we are a tripartite being: soul, body, spirit). Our minds reside within the soul part of us. This part of us can still be stuck in the sin-mindset, still making decisions without the knowledge of who we are now in Christ. Christ wants to use our minds now but He can only use a renewed mind.“Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 2:5 KJV)And by revelation knowledge given to us by the Holy Spirit, we can learn to let go of the “old man”, and more importantly, our old mindsets, and hand them over to Christ, who now lives in us and who can now come through us in our renewed minds. This is where our love affair with Him takes place. This is where we truly get to know Him personally and deeply. This is where we choose Him over everything else, even the identities we've been holding onto all of our lives. We are no longer the “old man.” Yet we hold on to the old mindset. Paul tells us that our ongoing mind-renewal of who we are now in Christ gives us an understanding that we always have a choice, a choice to serve Christ or a choice to serve sin. A choice to know Him or a choice to ignore Him. Love is a choice. As we get to know Christ as our new life, as the very life within us now, the one who is our strength, our peace, and our joy, we undergo a continual mind-renewal. We begin to realize more and more that the only thing that really matters is choosing Him and loving Him, making it easier and easier to let go of a mindset that keeps us tied to our old lives. “But ye have not so learned Christ; If so be that ye have heard him, and have been taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus: That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts; And be renewed in the spirit of your mind.” (Ephesians 4:20-23)“Lie not one to another, seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds; And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him.” (Colossians 3:9-10)

Know ChristBy Tammy Lacock This week, Warren dissects Romans Chapter 6 by breaking down the revelation knowledge given to Paul, and only Paul, by the Holy Spirit.As believers in Christ, in order for us to understand this revelation knowledge shared through Paul, we must first understand who we are now. By just believing in Christ, a radical change took place within our spirits. The Holy Spirit literally uprooted the Satan nature within us, passed down by the curse of Adam through Satan, and replaced it with Christ. By Him, we are brand new creations, joined to Him making us one spirit. This is what it means to be born again. God no longer sees us; He sees Christ, making us His bona fide sons and daughters. “But he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit.” (1 Corinthians 6:17). “For by one Spirit [Holy Spirit] are we all baptized into one body [Christ], whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit.” (1 Corinthians 12:13 KJV)Paul speaks to us as if we know who we are now in Christ and we understand the radical change that took place within us. And it's in knowing who we are now that helps bring us from a believing mindset to a knowing mindset that Paul speaks of. Paul reveals to us four areas of “knowing” in Romans Chapter 6 that can help us transition from a believing mindset to a knowing mindset. He helps us to understand that with Christ's death, burial, and resurrection, we as believers, share in His death, burial, and resurrection. We died on the cross too; our old lives are completely dead and buried. And now, we have arisen with Christ to a brand-new life in Him. We are dead and by Him; He is now our new life, the very life within us. We are freed from the bondage of law, sin, and death. The greatest superhero of all lives right inside of us now. It is by this revelation knowledge of being now complete in Christ, knowing Him in a unique and personal way, and falling in love with Him in us that we can finally and freely live out our lives true to who God created us to be.

Why Paul?By Tammy LacockThis week, Warren Litzman focuses on the very possible reasons why God raised up only Paul to reveal the “mystery” of Christ living in him and to deliver this new gospel to us. Paul was not a follower of Jesus of Nazareth like the apostles. He was not a member of the early church of the New Testament when God chose him for this mission. He knew about Jesus and believed to be doing God's will by persecuting His followers, making Paul the meanest man on earth at the time. He was rank-and-file Judaic, as Warren simply puts it. He was extremely learned in the Torah and Moses's Law. God needed a special, bold voice to deliver His gospel of grace to a world inundated by fear, sin, and law. Christ knew that, by the help of the Holy Spirit, Paul would be the perfect man to deliver a new gospel, one that had been hidden since the world began, yet now revealed to him. “Whereof I am made a minister, according to the dispensation of God which is given to me for you, to fulfil the word of God; Even the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to his saints: To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.” (Colossians 1:25-27)In John, chapter 14, Christ spoke of the “mystery,” this revelation knowledge, that would be revealed to believers by the Holy Spirit. He spoke of the Holy Spirit's role as Comforter and Spirit of Truth. He spoke of going from a believing mind to a knowing mind. He tells us, only the Holy Spirit will reveal truth, new knowledge of Him, and He will speak only of Christ, not Himself. “Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come.” (John 16:13)“But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me.” (John 15:26)By this revelation knowledge, he tells us, we will be comforted and will know the truth, that is, knowing He lives in us and is now our very life. No separation. Christ sums it up in John 14:20, speaking of the Day of Pentecost, “At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you.”We are one by Christ and we are one in Christ (John 17:21-23). He is joined to our spirits making us one spirit in Him (1 Corinthians 6:17). By Christ's death, burial, and resurrection, God's grace poured out into humanity, and we are now freed from this world, a world of law, sin, and death. Christ made a way for us to live with our Heavenly Father. He made a way for us to come out of an old mindset corrupted by the sin-nature, passed down through Adam by the curse of Satan, and ushered us into a brand-new mindset of grace and love. He made a way, the only way, we could now live who God created us to be. In Christ, we are now complete. We are now free in Him. As our new life, He now comes through us. By Him we can bear His fruit.“I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.” (John 15:5)Christ raised up only Paul to deliver this revelation knowledge to humanity. Throughout his epistles, Paul “suffered the loss of all things” for Christ. Nothing else mattered to him than to know Christ, the Person of Christ, living in him. He wanted nothing more than to reciprocate the love and grace that his Savior poured out on the cross for him, and now through him. “Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win...

Revelation Knowledge By Tammy Lacock“Now to him that is of power to stablish you according to my gospel, and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery, which was kept secret since the world began.” (Romans 16:25 )This week Warren zeros in on the last part of Romans 16:25, “Which was kept secret since the world began.” The Apostle Paul tells us here that his gospel is new knowledge; it has been kept hidden from us since before the world began. It wasn't until Christ revealed it to him, that this knowledge was made available to us as well. The mystery has been revealed. What's the mystery?The mystery is that, as believers, we have a brand-new life, one in which the person of Christ now literally lives in us as our new operator. The Holy Spirit uprooted our Satan nature (passed down by the curse of Adam) and planted the incorruptible Seed, Christ, within our spirits, joining us to Him making us one Spirit (1 Corinthians 6:17). Thus, we've been born again by His Seed. “But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away.” (1 Corinthians 13:10 KJV)“According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love.” (Ephesians 1:4 KJV)Warren explains that this revelation knowledge given to Paul is an exchange of knowledge, removing old knowledge for new knowledge. In effect, we have an opportunity to move from third-dimensional thinking to fourth-dimensional thinking by the help of the Holy Spirit. We can now move from knowledge of good and evil, law thinking, and erroneous living to Christ-knowledge, the new life God planned for us before the foundation of the world. This revelation knowledge allows us now to finally live who God created us to be. Without our completion in Christ and our revelation of this new life, we would never move into fourth dimensional living. Warren explains that on the Day of Pentecost, the ministry of the Holy Spirit radically changed from outer works to inner work in the minds (souls) of believers. This is what Paul calls a mind-renewal (Romans 12:2). Only the Holy Spirit can take us from focusing on the things outside of us, a law-mindset, to an inner relationship with the Christ Who now lives in us. Only by revelation can we understand our new life in Him.Jesus said in John 14:20, “At that day [Pentecost] ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you.” The first time Jesus talks about this revelation knowledge, fourth-dimensional thinking, was in his conversation with Nicodemus in John 3:3, “Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”Still, this knowledge was very confusing to Nicodemus and people of that day because their minds weren't ready for it. They had not yet been filled with the Holy Spirit. And more importantly, Christ had not yet fulfilled God's plan to suffer and die on the cross. Without His death, God's plan from “before the foundation of the world” could not be completed. Most churches today still teach the work of the Holy Spirit as an outer ministry (signs and miracles, tongues and healings), yet on the Day of Pentecost, He moved from an outer ministry to inner ministry within the souls of human beings. As believers, we can ask the Holy Spirit to open up our minds and hearts to the revelation knowledge of Christ, just as He did for Paul, so that we can move into our new life in Christ and finally fulfill God's plan for us, His plan since before the foundation of the world!

Revelation Of The MysteryBy Tammy Lacock“Now to him that is of power to stablish you according to my gospel, and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery, which was kept secret since the world began.” (Romans 16:25)Warren now focuses on the Apostle Paul's “preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery” in Romans 16:25, a mystery God had kept hidden since the beginning of the world. Christ revealed this mystery only to Paul, and he is passing it onto us. From the time of his conversion on the way to Damascus to his experience in the Arabian desert (roughly three years), Paul preached Christ and him crucified as our means of salvation. Yet here in Romans, by revelation of the Holy Spirit, he takes his gospel of Jesus Christ a step further and shares with us the mystery within it. The mystery is this: Christ is now alive and well living in every believer. By Him living in us, the Word of God is fulfilled, and we are complete. “Whereof I am made a minister, according to the dispensation of God which is given to me for you, to fulfil the word of God; Even the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to his saints: To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.” (Colossians 1:25-27)Paul knew that he must preach his gospel and his revelation of the mystery with great boldness because this was a gospel no one had ever heard before, not even the apostles and the early church. He came up against much resistance especially from the early church because they had been preaching the Kingdom message, preached by Jesus, commingled with Judaic law. And here Paul, who was previously persecuting Christians, is now raised up by Christ Himself to preach a new gospel of grace, that we are saved by Christ's sacrifice on the cross and nothing we do or don't do. Adherence to the law is no longer required for salvation. And on top of that, Christ now lives in us! This was an extremely difficult truth to grasp back then, and it is still a problem for us today because churches today are commingling law and grace.In 2 Corinthians 3:11-17, Paul tells us the law has been abolished by his gospel of grace, that Christ fulfills the law.All we need is Christ, the Christ Who now lives in us. It's no longer a mystery! May the Holy Spirit renew our minds to this revelation of Christ and our brand-new life in Him.

Paul's “My Gospel”By Tammy LacockThis week, Warren Litzman digs deeper into what the Apostle Paul means by “my gospel” in Romans 2:16, 16:25, and 2 Timothy 2:8.Paul's “my gospel” is meant to contrast his unique revelation of Jesus Christ (Galatians 1:11-16) from the other gospel centered in Christ, the Kingdom gospel, which was preached by Peter and the other apostles. The Kingdom gospel, preached to only the Jews, centered on Christ's Messiahship by his death and resurrection and an assurance of the kingdom to come. Peter and the apostles also commingled Judaic law within the kingdom gospel. In contrast, Paul's gospel of grace has no history of law. Whether Jew or Gentile, by simply believing in Christ's death, burial, and resurrection, we are saved, born-again new creations by the very life of Christ now living in us. This is the Body of Christ Paul talks about … a brand-new race of people. In fact, Paul's gospel of grace, although new to him and to the world, goes back to the beginning, before history was made. Paul calls his gospel a “mystery” many times because it was in God's mind before the foundation of the world, yet now revealed to him (Ephesians 1:4; Romans 16:25). Christ entrusted only Paul to deliver this gospel of completion to both Jews and Gentiles alike. “Whereof I am made a minister, according to the dispensation of God which is given to me for you, to fulfil the word of God; even the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to his saints.” (Colossians 1:25-26 KJV)It was extremely difficult for Jews to accept Paul's gospel of grace because of their history and background in law. Gentiles, however, had no godly history, nothing to hold onto, so they were eager to accept and embrace Paul's gospel of grace.Churches are still preaching a commingled gospel of law and grace. Paul tells us several times throughout his epistles, “Be ye followers of me, even as I also am of Christ” (1 Corinthians 11:1; 4:16; and Philippians 3:17). Similarly, he tells us many times that his gospel is from “me to you” (Ephesians 3:2; Colossians 1:26).The gospel for today is Paul's gospel of grace only. Simply put, we are saved by nothing we do or don't do. By just believing, we are saved by Christ's work — His death, burial, and resurrection. By Him, we are freed from the bondage of sin, death, and law. By Him, we are born again, making us brand-new creations, now bona fide sons and daughters of God. Our sin-natures have been uprooted, and God's very seed, Christ, has been planted within us.“To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.” (Colossians 1:27 KJV)

Learn Christ By Tammy Lacock“Now to him that is of power to stablish you according to my gospel, and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery, which was kept secret since the world began.” (Romans 16:25)This week, Warren Litzman further explains the Apostle Paul's message to believers in Romans 16:25.Paul uses the word “according” in Romans 16:25 to brings us back to the beginning, God's original plan.In Ephesians 1:4, Paul, once again, reveals God's eternal plan to us when he uses the word “according”: “According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love.”By Christ's death and resurrection, God uprooted our sin-nature and planted the incorruptible seed of His Son within our spirits (chosen in Him). By this we are born again and made brand-new creations. This is God's original plan, the mystery kept hidden since the world began yet revealed to Paul. Paul calls this “my gospel” because it was given only to him. Moreover, the seed of Christ now in him, and in each one of us, comes forth through him and us uniquely and according to our knowledge of Him.By each of our unique circumstances and situations of life, and moreover through our sufferings, God is establishing us in Christ, pushing us to Him, prompting our love affair with Him and preparing us, as His children, to live in His house. Now that we are established in Christ by His seed, God's eternal plan, His plan from the beginning, can now be fulfilled. The circumstances and situations of our lives help us break the hull of Christ's seed in us so that we no longer live by our old natures but allow Christ's nature to come forth. By the help of the Holy Spirit, we can now learn of Christ and our new life in Him.As we learn Christ as our new life, our old mindsets break down and our renewed minds now become subject to Him. Thus it is in our souls (where our minds reside) where our love affair with Him can begin. And this is God's eternal plan for us: to be established in Christ, to know Him, and to fall in love with Him more and more every day.

All Things Are Of GodBy Tammy Lacock“Now to him that is of power to stablish you according to my gospel, and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery, which was kept secret since the world began.” (Romans 16:25 KJV)This week, Warren Litzman dissects Romans 16:25, a mostly overlooked but loaded verse from the Apostle Paul that is for believers today. Paul tells us in Romans 16:25 only God has the power to establish us according to his gospel. Only God has the power to reveal to us, help us understand, and to live Paul's gospel, a gospel God kept secret since the beginning of the world, and now has been revealed only to Paul. Warren explains that only through our circumstances and situations of life will God's plan for us—to understand and live Paul's gospel—become manifest. Paul's gospel, the mystery kept hidden, is that by Christ's death, burial, and resurrection, we are saved from the bondage of sin and law. When Christ died, our old lives died, too. And when He arose, we arose to a new life in Him. By Christ's death, God poured out His grace upon us by uprooting our sin-nature, the corruptible seed of Satan, and exchanging it with Christ's nature, the incorruptible seed. To anyone who believes, this is literally what happened within us by the cross. We're born again and now bona fide children of God by this unconditional act of love. God's seed, Christ, in us is total and complete. The very situations and circumstances in our lives provide the environment and nourishment we need to now bring forth His fruit. And now, only God, not religion or churchianity, establishes us in our new life in Christ by these circumstances and situations. He is not separate from these events but very much alive and well, working through these to bring us into closer relationship with Him through His Son now living in us. In Christ, God is now intimately intertwined in our choices so that we can finally live who He created us to be.

The Final Gospel From The Beginning By Tammy Lacock “Now to him that is of power to stablish you according to my gospel, and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery, which was kept secret since the world began.” (Romans 16:25 KJV)This week, Warren Litzman focuses on Romans 16:25 to demonstrate the intimate relationship between Jesus and Paul. Where Christ left off, He commissioned Paul to pick up and give us a new gospel, the true and final gospel for believers today. Paul tells us his gospel, although new to us, was actually God's original gospel kept hidden since the world began. Christ finally revealed this “mystery” gospel to Paul, and Paul shares it with us throughout his epistles. “According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love.” (Ephesians 1:4 KJV)Paul's gospel is this: Every single human being was chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world. As believers, by Christ's death, burial, and resurrection, we too have died to our old lives—our sin natures passed down through Adam by the curse of Satan. We have also been buried, and we arose with Christ to a brand-new life in Him. Our new life is Christ now living in every believer, literally. We are joined to Him in our spirits (2 Corinthians 5:17). We are in Him and He in us, never to leave us nor forsake us.Christ chose Paul to deliver this final gospel because He knew Paul was the only man who had what it takes to step into the religious, law-bound world and preach grace. The problem Paul dealt with during his time, and is still a problem today in the church, is that there was a commingling of gospels. He tells us in 2 Timothy 2:15 (and to Israel in Hebrews 4:12) that we must rightly divide the word of truth. “Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.” (2 Timothy 2:15 KJV)Here, Paul is saying we must rightly divide God's Word by separating the gospels. The Kingdom gospel—salvation by law and works, preached by Christ while on earth and continued through the preaching of His disciples—is no longer the gospel. The first Pentecostal church received the Holy Spirit but retained Judaic law as its method of worship. They had no understanding of what really happened at the cross. Christ, Himself, led Paul to go and preach a new gospel, that of salvation by God's grace through His Son Jesus Christ. There was to be no commingling of grace and law. He makes it very clear that we are no longer saved by our works. We are saved by grace alone. Israel rejected this gospel, and so Christ told Paul to take it to the Gentiles—that is everyone else—where it was widely accepted. By just believing in Christ as our Savior we are saved. The early church led by Peter and the disciples wrestled with Paul's gospel because they knew Christ in the flesh, and they knew what He had told them to do, to go forward and preach that anyone who believes in Christ as their Savior is saved. Yet they commingled grace and law by preaching that one must obey the law to remain saved. The relationship between Jesus and Paul is a glorious love affair, for which Paul gladly suffered unto death. Nothing and no one could stand in the way of his desire to spread the gospel of grace given to him by Christ Himself. He wanted nothing more than for everyone to know Christ and to fall in love with Him too.

To Reveal His Son In MeBy Tammy Lacock “To reveal his Son in me, that I might preach him among the heathen; immediately I conferred not with flesh and blood.” (Galatians 1:16 KJV)This week, Warren Litzman focuses on the very intimate relationship between Jesus and Paul so we can understand this same intimacy in our own relationship with Christ. In Galatians 1:16, Paul tells us Christ revealed to him something that hasn't been revealed to anyone before. Christ raised up only Paul to deliver to us a new gospel, the only gospel for us today. Warren singles out Paul's words “in me” to explain this new gospel. These words “in me,” which Paul uses over and over in his epistles, tell us literally and not figuratively that Christ now lives in us. We are no longer to see Christ outside of us, as Jesus of Nazareth, but we are to see Him now as the resurrected Christ living in us. This is what a Christian is: one in whom Christ lives. The Son that was in the body of Jesus of Nazareth is the same Son that now lives in us as believers. His new body is the body of believers. We are the Body of Christ. “For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also is Christ.” (1 Corinthians 12:12 KJV)“So we, being many, are one body in Christ, and every one members one of another.” (Romans 12:5)Paul was given this revelation and tells us that only by revelation of the Holy Spirit can we also begin to understand our new life in Christ. The Holy Spirit—given to us by God on the Day of Pentecost—is our Comforter and Teacher of our new life. As human beings, it's extremely difficult for us to accept a new life. The Holy Spirit helps us understand who we are now in Christ, that we don't have a changed life, but have exchanged the old for a brand-new life. He helps us understand that we weren't created to live this life on our own. Now that we are complete in Christ, we can begin to live who God created us to be, and that is to bring Him glory. In Galatians 2:20, Paul tells us we were crucified with Christ on the cross. In order to understand our new life in Him, we must also understand our death with Him. Just as we are no longer to know Christ in the flesh, we are no longer to know our old lives. As we relationship with Christ in our daily lives and fall in love with Him more and more—knowing He is no longer outside of us but the very life we now live—we can die to our old lives and let Him come out of us just the way God intended from the beginning (Ephesians 1:4). This is Paul's gospel: by Christ's death, burial, and resurrection, we are now married to Him, one flesh with Him—He in us and we in Him (Ephesians 5:31-32; John 4:13).

Moving From Outer To Inner By Tammy Lacock “But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God.” (1 Corinthians 2: 9-10)In this week's podcast, Warren Litzman dives deeper into the writings of the Apostle Paul to help us understand the true gospel for us today and to show us the intimate relationship between Christ and Paul. Christ called Paul to bring humanity a new gospel, one that moves us from a law-based mindset, basing our salvation on outer works, to relying on the work of Christ in the inner man as our salvation. The Jews and the early church had a very difficult time accepting Paul's gospel of grace, his gospel of completion by the very life of Christ within us, because all they knew and understood up until that time were their own outer workings and the outer workings and miracles of God. By Christ's death, burial, and resurrection, a new covenant was made, which Christ revealed to Paul, saying believers are to no longer know the outer Christ, Jesus of Nazareth (2 Corinthians 5:16). We are to know Him now in Spirit, now that we are joined to Him in spirit, making us one (1 Corinthians 6:17). The only way to now know God is through relationship with His Son, God's incorruptible Seed, Christ, literally placed in each of us who believes. By God's amazing grace, we are to know Him now as the resurrected Christ who is alive and well in us. Christ said, “At that day [the Day of Pentecost] ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you” (John 14:20). The Jews and early church had no idea what this meant because they had always focused on the outer works of man. Jesus was saying an inner work took place: on that Day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit delivered the Seed, Christ, into the believers, and we have been made brand-new creations by His life in us. For God, what we do or don't do will no longer cut it. Only by Christ joined to our spirits are we made new (2 Corinthians 5:17); only by Christ in us are we reconciled to God, making us His bona fide children. We were literally born again. Out with the old man and sin nature and in with Christ as our very life. In 1 Corinthians 2:9-10, Paul tells us our relationship now with Christ cannot be heard, seen, or felt. Here he rules out anything outer in our new life in Christ. It is not an outer relationship, based on sense knowledge, but one that can only be revealed by the Holy Spirit in our soul-mind (where our emotions, intellect, and will reside). On that Day of Pentecost, not only did the Holy Spirit deliver into us the very seed of Christ, making us brand-new creations, but He also came into us as our comforter and teacher of our new life in Christ. We can ask the Holy Spirit for what Paul calls a constant mind-renewal so we can continually understand and grasp our new life in Christ. We are perfect in spirit, now joined to Christ; but our souls are continually perfecting (maturing) as we live in relationship with Christ by the Holy Spirit revealing this new life. To help us understand the role of the Holy Spirit in our new life in Christ, Jesus tells us in John chapters 14, 15, and 16 exactly what that role is. The Holy Spirit will never speak of Himself but only of Christ. Only by revelation of the Holy Spirit will we ever move from focusing on outer things to an inner relationship with Christ who now lives in us, indeed the deeper things of God (John 14:26).

Before The Foundation of WorldBy Tammy Lacock“According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love.” (Ephesians 1:4 KJV)In this week's podcast, Warren Litzman's goal is to make clear that there is only one true gospel to us and for us today, although two gospels are currently circulating in the world.Only Apostle Paul was raised up by the resurrected Christ to bring us the true gospel for today. Therefore, it's important to dive into the Apostle Paul's epistles to understand this gospel. There's no better place to start than in Ephesians 1:4 where Paul says the gospel for us today was planned by God before the world was created, which also means before He began Israel and before Christ's earthly ministry. Paul's gospel is one of grace. In fact, he coins the phrase “dispensation of grace” as the period of time we are living in now (Ephesians 3:2). Paul's gospel of grace is simple. Before the foundation of the world, God's plan was to have children—new creatures in Christ, by His Son's death, burial, and resurrection. God chose every human to be in Christ. There is nothing we can do to be saved because Christ did the work on the cross. We need only to believe (Acts 16:31). There's no gospel to Gentiles in the Old Testament or before Paul's epistles. When Israel rejected Jesus Christ as their Messiah, Christ told Paul to take this new gospel of grace to the Gentiles. However, man has commingled the gospel of law, given to Israel—referenced in four-fifths of the Bible—and Paul's grace gospel. After Christ's death and resurrection, Peter and the apostles were still preaching Christ's kingdom message of salvation by faith and works, which Paul calls the gospel of circumcision. The same Christ Paul speaks of in God's plan “before the foundation of the world” raised up Paul—and only Paul—to bring humanity a new gospel, that of uncircumcision. This gospel overrides the law gospel in this dispensation of grace. By God's grace, we were chosen to be in Christ. Warren Litzman's purpose and calling has been to explain to believers exactly what the Apostle Paul means by this. The moment we believe in Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, by His death and resurrection, the sin-nature (passed down to us through the curse of Adam by Satan) has been literally uprooted within our spirits and replaced by God's incorruptible Seed, Christ, making us one spirit in Him. This is what it means to be born again. “But he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit.” (1 Corinthians 6:17). Paul calls this the “revelation of the mystery” because until Christ revealed this new gospel to him, it was a mystery (Ephesians 3: 3-7). Yet, he tells us, it was in God's plan before the foundation of the world. Let us not be confused. Christ literally living in every believer is the only gospel for today. This was the only way God would finally complete His plan to have His bona fide children, with His divine nature, living in His house and loving him back. Not by our works, but by the perfect love of His Son in us. By His grace, His very life within us, we are saved and reconciled to Him. “For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life. And not only so, but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement.” (Romans 5:10-11).

God's Plan From The BeginningBy Tammy Lacock“According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love.” (Ephesians 1:4 KJV)Warren Litzman speak of the intricate relationship between Jesus and the Apostle Paul. Their relationship is more intimate than any other relationship in the Bible as we begin to see, through Paul's epistles, God's plan for humanity as we transition from law to grace. From the beginning of His earthly life, Jesus was royally mistreated. His life was threatened first by King Herod, being told the Messiah and King of Kings would be born, when he ordered the death of all boys under 2 years old. His own family rejected Him. And as an adult, He was not only rejected by His own people, but He was also nailed to and hung on a cross, left to die by them. He faced the peril of His humanity more than anyone. Jesus never had it easy as He came to preach to the Jews the Kingdom gospel, which is heaven on earth. As we have learned, this gospel was postponed by their rejection of Him. In His obedience to God, Christ knew He must fulfill His Father's ultimate plan for humanity by His death on the cross. We must understand that Christ was and is a person. He felt all the emotions and feelings that humans did—and He still does—not as Jesus of Nazareth now but through us. When He arose from the dead, He brought the message of peace to His people. And on the Day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit delivered the incorruptible seed of Christ into every believer. Christ's life on earth was never beautiful and never peaceful. But His perfect peace now resides in every believer and this is exactly where He wants to be. He went from being in the body of Jesus of Nazareth to being in the body of His church, in every believer. He is alive and well in us! God's plan from the beginning was finally complete.In Ephesians 1:4, Apostle Paul tells us about God's plan from the beginning. The word according in this verse tells us that God's original plan, before anything, was to place Christ in every believer. In fact, it tells us that this is God's plan for every single one of us, every single human being. Every one of us has been chosen to live in Christ. We must understand though that not everyone has Christ in them at this point in time. Nonetheless, all made in His image and likeness were chosen by God to have this new life. The only prerequisite is believing in Christ as our Lord and Savior (Acts 16:31).The Apostle Paul was the only one raised up by Christ Himself to reveal to us that we no longer live by the law. Christ's death, burial, and resurrection ushered us into a dispensation of grace; and Christ living in every believer is God's grace being poured out onto humanity. Paul was the first person through whom Christ would manifest His grace and the only person He revealed it to. This is why Paul tells us, “Be ye followers of me, even as I also am of Christ” (1 Corinthians 11:1). His gospel of grace is not a corporate gospel but individual to each believer. Christ comes through each of us differently and uniquely, just how God created us to be. Since most of us have been raised under law-religion, we've been programmed to live this way. Therefore, humanity is still struggling to understand Paul's gospel of grace. Focusing on our works blinds us to Christ living in us as our new life. The Holy Spirit helps with our constant mind renewal so we may live fully in grace now. Paul's gospel tells us, by grace, being joined to Christ in one spirit (1 Corinthians 6:17), God sees Christ in us as our righteousness. Paul's gospel reveals the completion of God's plan for us. God knew, from the beginning, that He would never have a people that would be able to put ourselves aside and love Him reciprocally on our own. Only by placing His incorruptible seed (Christ) and uprooting...

We Are Complete In ChristBy Tammy LacockIn this week's podcast of Jesus and Paul, Part 2, Warren Litzman helps us rightly divide the Scriptures to distinguish and understand the one true gospel for believers today. First, we must take a look at the gospel of Jesus of Nazareth and define His gospel before we can understand Paul's gospel. Before His death, burial, and resurrection, Christ preached the Kingdom message, that God's Kingdom is at hand. For the Jews, this meant heaven on earth. Being under the Judaic law, He preached works as a condition of being pleasing to God. He was obligated by God not to destroy the law but to fulfill the law and prophecy. Jesus wasn't obligated to bring the message of grace, yet He was grace personified by His unrelenting forgiveness of sins and keeping the company of sinners. He could not yet preach grace because He had not yet died as a sacrifice, as an atonement for our sins and the sin of Adam passed down to us. When the Jews rejected Christ as their Messiah, the kingdom message was postponed. In obedience to His Father in heaven, Christ's knew His death was imminent and needed to fulfill God's plan for humanity. Paul's gospel is that of pure grace, of new life, and completion in Christ. Christ's death and resurrection ushered in grace and now there was nothing we could do or not do (no more works) to be saved. Christ did the work on the cross and by His blood, by His grace, we are saved. Christ raised up only Paul to bring this message of grace and new life to humanity. By just believing, we are saved. Yet Paul doesn't stop there. He reveals to us a message of completion. He calls it the “revelation of the mystery” which is the literal planting of Christ's seed, the incorruptible seed, in every believer. This is what it means to be born again, to have new life. We are brand new creations by the completion of Christ in us, literally and not figuratively. On the Day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit planted the seed of Christ in the spirit of every believer, making us one Spirit in Christ (1 Corinthians 6:17).“At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you.” (John 14:20)However, it wasn't until Christ raised up Paul, and only Paul, that we would know exactly what happened on that Day of Pentecost. Paul calls it the mystery hidden from us through the ages yet planned by God before the foundation of the world (1 Corinthians 2:7).“According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love: having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will.” (Ephesians 1:4)Paul's gospel of grace and new life fulfills what Jesus said in John 12:24: “Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.”Only by Christ's death and resurrection can we be born again, having a new life and even more so, an abundant life. The abundant life is Christ living in each of us, completing us, and bearing His fruit through us. We no longer live for our own glory but for Christ to be glorified through us. God no longer sees our works as pleasing to Him; He sees Christ. By Christ we are now His bona fide children, born into His family. We are complete by Christ, through Christ, and in Christ. Paul's gospel of grace, Christ in us, is a message of the fulfillment of Christ's death and resurrection, which is our completion in Him.“Even the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to his saints: to whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.” (Colossians 1:26-27)“And ye are complete

One Body In Christ By Tammy Lacock This week begins a new study which Warren Litzman calls Jesus and Paul. Warren focuses on the Apostle Paul as having an intricate role in God's plan as the only man raised up by Christ Himself to bring to humanity a new and final gospel, the gospel of grace, which tells us where Christ is now and who we are now in God's plan.In Christianity today, we have a church that brings us a confused Christ, putting Him into two different categories but meshing them together. In one category, we try to live like Christ, which only makes us frustrated and ultimately defeated because this isn't and has never been God's plan for us. In the other category, Paul tells us that by God's grace, Christ is our very life. We are not to live like Him but rather our old selves have “been crucified with Christ,” and our new life is Him living within us. We are no longer to know Him as Jesus of Nazareth but now as the one who lives in us and through us, our Lord of glory (Colossians 1:27). Christ is no longer an outer person; He lives within us being joined to our spirits making us one spirit (1 Corinthians 6:17).The problem is that we commingle these two gospels not realizing that Paul's gospel is the one true and final gospel for today. That is, Paul's message of Christ living in every believer through God's grace. Paul's gospel of Christ moves us out of salvation by law and into salvation by grace, that is by Christ's death and resurrection. We are now brand-new creations in Him. God no longer sees us; He sees Christ. This was God's plan before the foundation of the world.“According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love." (Ephesians 1:4 KJV)In His last words on the cross, Christ said, “Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit” (Luke 23:46) and “It is finished” (John 19:30). At the cross, Christ's ministry in the body of Jesus of Nazareth was finished, allowing God's plan of Christ's spirit living in every believer to be fulfilled. Finally, Jesus is vibrantly alive the way He wants to be…not in the body manufactured by Mary but as a gift of life to every believer. Jesus became the utter fulfillment of who He was to be in God's plan. He went from living in one body, Jesus of Nazareth, to living out His eternal life in another body, the Church, the one Body of Christ. God put the incorruptible seed of Christ in every believer, His spirit joined to ours. However, we didn't know what had happened when this radical change took place. The only way we would know is through the Apostle Paul. Paul's conversion on the way to Damascus was the beginning of Christ raising up only one man to deliver this new gospel. When it was revealed to him that Christ was His very life, living in him (Gal. 1:15-17), Paul shared it with the world. He underwent a radical mind change, and his mind continually renewed in his new life in Christ. Yet it was hard for the world to take hold of this new gospel because Christianity was and still is holding onto the outer Christ in Jesus of Nazareth. This commingling of gospels has gotten us to a place where we don't know who we are. Yet Paul tells us who we are. We must follow Paul as he follows Christ (1 Corinthians 11:1) to understand our new life and who we are now in Christ. We are bona fide children of God by the very life of Christ now living within us. We are one body in Christ. This was God's plan from the beginning. We (humans) were chosen to be in Him, and giving thanks to Paul, this final gospel has been revealed to us! “For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also is Christ.” (1 Corinthians 12:12 KJV)

One New ManBy Tammy Lacock “Having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace.” (Ephesians 2:15 KJV)In this week's podcast, Warren Litzman continues to explain, through Paul's epistles, how extremely important having a radical mind-change is to our new life in Christ. First, we must understand what it means to be in Christ. In Ephesians 2:15, Paul says by Christ's death on the cross, He abolished salvation by law and ushered in salvation by grace, bringing peace between God and man and Jew and Gentile. By His death and resurrection (His conquering of death), Christ atoned for our sins and the curse passed down to us through Adam by Satan. We are freed from that old life. Even more, we are born again by Christ's very life within us now. For the first time, through Christ, God did away with the old man and made Jews and Gentiles the same, one new man. By Christ's work on the cross, and not by our own works, we are all reconciled to God and to each other. By His life within us now, God no longer sees our old identities and what we do or don't do to be saved. He sees Christ. He is our new life. By God's grace, we are complete in Christ and now a new race of people. It's important to understand that since we are brand-new creations in Christ, we no longer have a past. We are “babes in Christ” now, as Warren puts it. If we are to grow up in Him and live now who God created us to be, our minds must be cleared of our old understanding of who we were. Our minds must understand the radical change that took place within our spirits in that moment we believed in Christ as our Lord and Savior. We underwent a rebirth by Christ's Spirit now being joined to ours (1 Corinthians 6:17). Yet our minds must undergo this radical change as well. This takes time. The Holy Spirit comforts us and teaches us about our new life in Christ and uses the circumstances and situations of life to help us in this mental transition. Warren notes that there have been at least four gospels in scripture, all true but each having a significance in its time, place, and purpose. Christ, Himself, raised up only Paul to bring us a new gospel, that of Christ living in every believer. This gospel is for us today. God put the Spirit of His one Son in every believer, speaking to us now through Him (Hebrews 1:2; 1 John 1:5).Throughout his epistles, Paul tells us how to live our new life in Christ. This is the gospel of Jesus Christ, from law to grace, from outer works to His work within us. We now know Him living in us, no longer knowing Him as Jesus of Nazareth but as our Lord of Glory (Colossians 1:27)!“And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.” (Ephesians 4:24 KJV)

Old Things Must Pass AwayBy Tammy Lacock “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.” (2 Corinthians 5:17 KJV)Throughout Apostle Paul's epistles, he consistently tells about the importance of renewing our minds as we live our new life in Christ. Paul proclaimed a new gospel to believers, that by Christ's death, burial, and resurrection, our sin-nature—which passed down by the curse of Satan through Adam—has been literally uprooted and replaced with the incorruptible Seed, Christ, making us now brand-new creations. When Christ died, our old lives died, too. We were freed from the bondage of sin and Satan. When Christ arose, we arose as well, to a brand-new life in Him!Paul tells us an integral component to renewing our minds to our new life in Christ is to understand that, although our pasts can never go away, by the help of the Holy Spirit, we can learn to let go of our old identities, no matter what they were.In this week's podcast, Warren Litzman boils it down to letting go of anything and everything that made us who we thought we were before coming to Christ, even down to our first birthing. As new creations in Christ, we must understand that we have been rebirthed and are babes in Christ now. We now have no past in our brand-new life. Yet Paul tells us that our minds have been so deeply rooted in our old identities that we need a constant mind renewal to who we are now in Christ, if we are ever to fully live who God created us to be. Our pasts keep our minds from learning and growing in Him. We must learn to let go of our pasts and old mindsets so that we can allow the new knowledge of Christ living in us to take hold. Paul wanted nothing more than to let go of his old identities (his upbringing, his status, his education etc.); yet he suffered these losses every day as the Holy Spirit renewed his mind to the knowledge of his new life in Christ. He says it plainly yet ever so passionately in Philippians 3:8:“Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ.”Paul's gospel of Christ living in us ushered in what Christ is now doing in our inner being, as opposed to the outer works, he performed while he was here on earth.As brand-new creations in Him, God no longer sees the “old man” and no longer sees what we do or don't do (our outer works) to be saved. He sees Christ in us. He is our righteousness, our only hope of glory!May we undergo this radical mind-change by letting go of our pasts and living our new identity in Christ, allowing Him to come through us now.“For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature.” (Galatians 6:15 KJV)

We Are Predestinated By Tammy Lacock “For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.” (Romans 8:29 KJV)Warren Litzman's study of “Renewing The Mind” continues by dissecting Paul's epistles. Here in Romans 8:29, Paul tells us we were predestined in God's plan to be conformed to Christ. As believers, this is important to understand (for mind-renewal) as we live our new life in Him. We were chosen in Him before the foundation of the world (Ephesians 1:4) and therefore chosen to be God's children. Warren explains that our process of adoption into God's family has two parts. The first part is being adopted into God's family by the literal uprooting of Satan's seed, the corruptible seed, in us and replacing it with the Seed of Christ, the incorruptible Seed. Now, God sees Christ in us (His righteousness, not ours) making us His bona fide children. The second part of our adoption is the process of fitting into our new family. This is where the circumstances and situations of life push us to Christ, who now lives in us, helping us understand who we are now and who God created us to be. Everything in the outer world is meant to push us into an inner life with Him so we can understand our new life and our new family. When we understand that everything is created for Christ and in Christ, then we can understand that nothing is contrary to Him and “all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose” (Roman's 8:28). No matter what we go through here in this life, it is all meant to bring us into a deeper relationship with Christ. As we begin an inner relationship with Christ, we are no longer dependent on ourselves or anything outside of us to overcome our life's challenges and trials. Christ is the overcomer. He that is in us is greater than he (Satan) that is in the world. Paul was renewed from the inside out and not the other way around. His relationship with Christ in him was all he really wanted, knowing that Christ will take care of everything outside of him. We can see this through Paul's own trials of being shipwrecked three times, stoned almost to death and being imprisoned for most of his last days of life. He knew his sufferings brought him into a deeper relationship with Christ. And if this was the case, he welcomed them. Warren further explains through Paul's second letter to the Corinthians 11-18, that we must go through a constant death of our old selves, no longer conforming to this world but focusing our minds (mind-renewal) on Christ within us, so He may come through us. It is within our trials and tribulations that we go through this process of death so we can truly fit into our new family, and bring forth life, that is Christ.The great mystery, predestinated by God and yet has been hidden for ages and for generations, has now been revealed through Paul. That is Christ living in us, our only hope of glory (Col. 1:27)!“Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself , according to the good pleasure of his will.” (Ephesians 1:5 KJV)

All Things in ChristBy Tammy LacockIn this week's Part 8 of Renewing the Mind, Warren Litzman makes it very clear, through Paul's epistles, that in order to live who God created us to be here in this world, we as believers, must have a radical mind-change. He notes however, as Paul does, that since our minds have been usurped by Satan for so long before coming to Christ, this radical mind-change takes time. Only by the help of the Holy Spirit working in our minds will we have a constant mind-renewal. To know and fall in love with the Christ that now lives in us is the very reason we are here. We can ask the Holy Spirit to teach us and comfort us as we grow in our new life, in our unique and personal relationship with Christ.Paul was the only man raised up by Christ Himself to bring us an entirely new gospel, one that requires a radical mind-change in order to understand it. This new gospel, simply put, is that by Christ's death and resurrection, we as believers, are now brand-new creations (2 Corinthians 5:17), no longer under the bondage of Satan. Christ, the one for whom all things were created, is now the one who literally lives in us. May our minds be renewed to this truth. The sin nature passed down by the curse of Satan has been uprooted and replaced by Christ's nature, the very Seed of God. He now lives in us, joined to our spirits (1 Corinthians 6:17), yet our minds need to catch up to this new knowledge. Paul understood back in his day that this was extremely difficult for believers to grasp. And the same is true today. Our minds are quite literally the battlefield between what Paul calls our “old man” understanding and our new life in Christ. He says “let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus” to help us understand that our new life in Christ is also a daily and continual surrendering to Him (mind-renewal).In Colossians chapter one, Paul tells us all things were created for Christ. Paul also tells us in Ephesians 1:4, that we were chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world. These truths are very important to understand (mind-renewal) as we live our new life in Christ.We were created for Christ and indeed, as believers, we are complete in Him. We are now ready to live who God created us to be.We went from our old sin-natured operator, Satan, who was contrary to Christ, to the one who holds all things together and who was created for all things, the operator who God intended for us. In Christ, we can do all things, for nothing, not one thing, is impossible with Him. May we undergo this radical mind-change!“Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world.” (1 John 4:4 KJV)

We Are Complete In ChristBy Tammy Lacock “For in him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. And ye are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power.” (Colossians 2:9-10 KJV)In part seven of “Renewing the Mind,” Warren Litzman emphasizes that, as believers, it's important to understand what it means to be complete in Christ if we are to ever fully live who God created us to be. By God's grace, when we believed in Christ as our Savior, a radical change took place within us. Literally, the old sin nature, passed down to us by the curse of Satan, was uprooted and the Seed of Christ was planted in its place. God made us in His image and likeness so there was nothing wrong with us at our creation. Because of our own free will and the deception of Satan, his nature became our operator, unbeknownst to us. With Satan as our operator, we are inclined to do his will. Over time, we begin to know this doesn't fit our creation, realizing we can't live this false life on our own anymore, trying to be someone we're not created to be. Our need for a Savior becomes a real choice. By Christ's death, burial, and resurrection, God's amazing grace was poured out onto us, and we now have the opportunity for a brand-new life, free from the bondage of Satan. By Christ's death, we died as well to our sin natures, our old lives, and our old identities. We are no longer identified by anything in this world. By His resurrection, we arose with Christ into a new life in Him. He is our new life. The Apostle Paul tells us our minds must be renewed to this knowledge of Christ living in us as our new life. In 2 Corinthians 5:17, he says we are brand-new creatures in Christ, living a brand-new life. We must understand that our old lives are no longer who we are. Our new identity is Christ, who is our new operator. There is no separation. We are now complete in Him. In Ephesians 1:4, Paul tells us we were “chosen in Him before the foundation of the world.” We were chosen to be completed by Christ before God created the world. We are not complete until we make the choice to believe and accept Christ as the one who redeemed us, and now He lives in us.Warren explains, through Paul's epistles, that we must have a constant mind-renewal now that we are living a brand-new life. Our minds must have a radical mind-change in order to catch up to the radical change that took place within our spirits. Christ is now joined to us making us one Spirit (1 Corinthians 6:17).As our minds begin to renew and understand our new life, our new identity in Christ, our completion in Him, and our non-separation from Him, and thus our Father in heaven, we also begin to develop and nurture our unique, personal relationship with Him. Complete in Christ, we progress into the person who God created us to be. Only then can we truly live out His purpose for us. “I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me.” (John 17:23 KJV)

Who Are We?By Tammy Lacock“That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts; and be renewed in the spirit of your mind; and that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.” (Ephesians 4:22-24 KJV)In this week's podcast, Warren Litzman stresses the importance of having, what the Apostle Paul calls, a constant mind-renewal as we live our new lives in Christ. This constant mind-renewal will help us see who we really are. Certain areas in our thinking must be updated to our new life in Christ. First, we must acknowledge that being born again means we now have Christ literally living in us. It's not so much about having a new life moving forward, although this is true. It's about God's birthing of another life, Christ's life, in every believer. His life makes us brand-new creations (2 Corinthians 5:17). His Life, His Seed, birthed within us and joined to our spirits (1 Corinthians 6:17) literally replaces our old sin-nature passed down by the curse of Adam by Satan. A radical change took place within us and most of us don't know it. So we don't live that change; instead, we live by our old understanding. “Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God.” (1 John 3:9 KJV)Second, we must understand the three types of sin so that we can break free from sin consciousness and move into being solely conscious of Christ in us now. In the garden of Gethsemane, all three of these sins were poured in the cup of which Jesus drank and all of these sins were crucified with Him. The first is innate sin, the sin we were born into by the curse of Adam from Satan. “Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned.” (Romans 5:12 KJV)Christ's death on the cross outright freed us from the bondage of Adam's sin. We cannot commit this sin again. “But not as the offence, so also is the free gift. For if through the offence of one many be dead, much more the grace of God, and the gift by grace, which is by one man, Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto many.” (Romans 5:15 KJV)The second is sin of ignorance, sin of the flesh. This sin is committed without any knowledge of it. First John 1:7-9 tells believers we are cleansed from this type of sin, “But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.”The third is sin of knowledge, knowingly committing sin, which is another fleshly sin. These sins require repentance (a mind change) with one another. Ultimately, Jesus forgives these and all sin. “If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (John 1:8-9 KJV). Now knowing Christ is in us, we must step away from our former sin-focused, legalistic thinking and focus our thinking on the one who has fulfilled the law, the one who has no sin, who is our righteousness and no longer sees our sin. We must focus on Christ, the one who literally lives in us now. We must understand that our “old man” which Paul describes three times in his epistles is really our old mindset of who we think we are. We must put off the “old man” and allow these old mindset to be crucified with Christ.And lastly, we must set our minds on the “new man,” Christ, who now lives in us, standing on His promise that He will never leave us nor forsake us. He is with us always. There is no separation between Him and us. The greatest Superhero of all lives right inside us. He is our new life. He is our identity. He is who we are...

The Greatest Power Is In Knowing By Tammy LacockIn this week's podcast, Warren Litzman reinforces our need for a constant mind-renewal as we live our new life in Christ. The Apostle Paul was the only man raised up by Christ, Himself, to bring us the gospel of Christ literally living in us as believers and details throughout his epistles how we are to go about this constant mind-change in our new life in Him.Paul emphasizes that our understanding of the godhead, the Trinity, is vital to living our new life in Christ. We must rightly divide the godhead and we must rightly divide the three parts of man: body, soul, and spirit (1 Thessalonians 5:23; Hebrews 4:12). This requires a radical mind-change. First, our minds must be renewed to the understanding that God is now our Father. Christ's death, burial, and resurrection allowed God to replace the seed of Satan with His Seed, His Son, in each and every one of us who believes. We are now joined to Him in our spirits, making us one Spirit. (1 Corinthians 6:17) Christ is our new life, our eternal life. By Christ in us, we are brand-new creations, a brand-new race, bona fide sons and daughters of God. By God's grace, we can now call Him “Father”! Second, we must understand the role of the Holy Spirit. In John 13, 14, and 15, Christ introduces the Holy Spirit who will come to us as our teacher, comforter, advocate, and revealer. The Holy Spirit's sole purpose now is to teach us of the Christ who now lives in us in spirit so that we may know Him. No longer are we to know Christ in the flesh.The Holy Spirit works in our soul part of us, where our minds reside. It is here where our mind-renewal takes place. It is here where the Holy Spirit reveals and teaches us through our circumstances and situations of life so we may grow in our personal relationship with Christ. We must rightly divide between our “old man,” sin-natured knowledge and the knowledge of Christ that now comes from the Holy Spirit. Warren explains that the greatest power we will ever have as believers is the lessons learned by the Holy Spirit. These are extremely helpful in our mind-renewal because through these we learn Christ. We begin to know Him as Paul knew Him, as the Christ alive and well in us. These lessons help us understand that there is no separation now between us and Christ. He lives within us and is the one who now lives through us. In fact, in Galatians 2:20, Paul tells us we no longer live, and our new life is Christ. In Christ, we are now complete. We can finally live who God created us to be. This was His plan before the foundation of the world (Ephesians 1:4).In Philippians 3:10, Paul pours out his heart, knowing that through his sufferings he will know Christ more deeply. This is all he wanted. Yet he also understood that through his sufferings he would also know the power of Christ's resurrection. This is the power of His resurrected life in us and the power in knowing that everything we think, say, and do now belongs to Christ. He is our one and only life now flowing through us, but we must give Him our minds to use. Our minds, and our whole being, become a living sacrifice in return for His. Through our constant mind-renewal, knowing Him and falling in love with Him becomes our daily and ultimate goal. “That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death.” (Phil. 3:10)

Have You Learned Christ?By Tammy Lacock “But ye have not so learned Christ; if so be that ye have heard him, and have been taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus: that ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts; and be renewed in the spirit of your mind; and that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.” (Ephesians 4:20-24 KJV)In this week's podcast, Warren Litzman helps believers uncover the gospel of the Apostle Paul, a gospel that hasn't been preached through the generations and yet is the only true gospel for us today.Paul was the only one raised up by Christ, Himself, to present to us the gospel of grace. No longer are we subject to any other gospel, such as the law. In this dispensation of grace, any and all laws are removed. Paul tells us in Ephesians 4:20-24 that Christ's death, burial, and resurrection conquered death along with our old nature and old way of living, which was under the law by the usurper, Satan. Christ's death and resurrection ushered in grace, our new way of living. Our new life is Christ. Our sin-natures have been uprooted and replaced by the Seed of Christ. Christ now lives literally in every believer. No longer are we saved by anything we do or don't do. We are saved by Him. In fact, Paul tells us of our new life in Christ over 186 times in his epistles. We have been born again. We are now joined to Christ in spirit making us one Spirit in Him (1 Corinthians 6:17). We are brand new creations (2 Corinthians 5:17)!What Paul noticed in his day of preaching this new gospel to believers is that they had no idea this change actually took place. He was given the enormous task of spreading this new gospel. They couldn't grasp what he calls, the “mystery of the revelation of Jesus Christ” — that Christ now lives in us, and our new life now begins by being complete in Him. Just like today with us, their minds had a lot of catching up to do in their new life. We must have a constant mind renewal, Paul says, to understand and ultimately live our new life in Christ. And the only way is now through a personal relationship with Him. We must now have the mind change of no longer focusing on the outer things for our righteousness and focusing now on Christ within us, who IS our righteousness. God no longer sees anything we do or don't do as pleasing to Him. He sees Christ in us as our righteousness. This is pure grace. Once we can start to understand our new life in Christ as the ultimate gift from God, we can begin to understand His amazing grace and His unconditional love. Through this revelation, we can begin to grow in our personal relationship with Christ, focusing on Him more and more in everything we do and through any and all circumstances and situations. Through trials and tribulations, God really begins working in us so that we “may learn Christ.” In fact, on the day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit was sent to us to help us through these trials and tribulations as we begin our new life in Christ. The Holy Spirit, Paul says, works in our minds now, teaching us of the Christ within and directing us into relationship with Him, rather than focusing on the trials and tribulations. He says, knowing Christ is the only way we will get through them unscathed. We can see through Paul's own trials of being shipwrecked three times, stoned to almost death and imprisoned until the end of his life, that he had to have a radical mind change if he were to come through these unmoved and bring him into deeper relationship with Christ. He knew that through his sufferings, he would learn Christ. And that's all he wanted. Ultimately, God desires for us to reciprocate His love, the love He showed us through the sacrifice of His own Son. The sacrifice which led to our new life, our eternal life in Him. However, He is a God of choice. He gave us...