Dear Partner,

In my recent times of fellowship with the Holy Spirit, He has been emphasizing strongly that the reason for much of the failure in the body of Christ is because we, as Christians, do not understand WHO WE ARE, WHERE WE ARE FROM, WHY WE ARE HERE! Last month I shared with you the scenario he gave me that I call "Sent From Heaven" (If you did not receive October's Partner letter, call or write to request it and I will be happy to send you a copy).

This month I would like to focus on WHO WE ARE! The bible paints a vastly different picture of Christians than that which is commonly passed off as religion. First of all … Christianity is NOT a religion! Christianity is a FAMILY! We are not members of a religion. We are sons and daughters of the living God! Notice these two verses from Galatians:

Gal 3:26 For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus.

Gal 4:6 And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father.

The enemy of God boasts through false religion, "God can forgive man, but God cannot change man." That's why one of the most commonly heard phrases in religious services is, "I'm just an old sinner saved by grace." For a born-again Christian, no greater lie was ever told. God did not just legally adopt us and leave us unchanged sinners. No, he adopted us AND sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying Abba, Father!

Rom 8:15 For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father.
Rom 8:16 The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God.

Deep within us, the Holy Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are the children of God. Not just legally His children, as though we were only adopted and not changed. No, at the moment we were born again, the old man (the spirit we received from the first man Adam) was crucified with Christ, and God put a new spirit within us that is spawned from the Second Man, the Last Man Adam, Jesus Christ (1 Cor 15:45).

Rom 6:6 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.

We have all heard many sermons on the verses quoted above, but it seems that the truth contained in them has never dawned on many of us to the point it changes our perception of WHO WE ARE. Let's say it like this; born-again Christians are no longer of the "species" of Adam. We don't belong to Adam's family anymore. Our bodies are descended from Adam, but our spirit is no longer a member of that species. What family do we belong to now? We are members of the "species" of Christ. We are spirit-born children of God!

That means, at the core of our being (our spirit), we no longer have the "nature" of Adam (which is sin), but we have the "nature" of Christ (which is righteousness). No parent has to teach their toddlers to lie. It comes "naturally" to them because they are first born with the sin-nature.

Once we are born again, our conscience immediately convicts us if we tell a lie. Why? It is no longer our "nature" to do so. We all know Jesus doesn't lie. We have received His nature now. The same could be said for all sin … stealing, covetousness, adultery, etc. None of these things come "naturally" to a born-again Christian. To do such things, we have to over-ride the conscience we received at the new birth.

All of us must remember that since the enemy of God could not keep us from receiving Christ and being born again, his second highest priority is to keep us from ever becoming aware of WHO WE TRULY ARE! That's why he has been so diligent at promoting false religion that tells us we are only forgiven, not changed. To believe that lie is to be forever sentenced to a powerless walk while living on planet earth. That's why religion always puts the blessings of God off until some kind of "pie in the sky" future tense. The enemy of God does not much care what we believe about the future. His major concern is that we never walk in power during our sojourn on this planet. If we remain powerless, we will be no threat to his agenda of stealing, killing, and the destroying of mankind.

He MUST endeavor to keep Christians in the mind-set that there is no hope they could ever walk a victorious, anointed, power-packed life while still living on planet earth. Religion is the number one tool of the devil to keep the "family" of God in permanent deception in order that we never rise up and walk as the sons and daughters of God that we truly are.

It is past time for us to cast off the shackles of religion and rise up from our slumber. It is time for us to believe what the bible says about WHO WE ARE. We are the sons and daughters of the living God, born of God's own spirit and anointed by the Holy Ghost. We are "on assignment" from the King of Kings and the Lord of Lord's to rescue as many sons of Adam as possible from certain destruction. We are the FAMILY of God!

Your friend and co-laborer,

Gary Carpenter

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