The New Man In Christ Jesus: His Walk, Worship And Warfare Pt. 2 by Pastor Poju Oyemade: MP3 Download & Sermon Notes

What Happened at the New Birth

When you received Jesus as your Lord and Savior, the greatest miracle you will ever experience as a Christian happened at that moment. You became a brand new creature in Christ Jesus. Christianity is not teaching the old man who came to the altar the new ways of Christ. 2 Corinthians 5:17 says: "If any man be in Christ, he is a new creation. All the things have passed away. Behold, all things concerning him are new." And the next verse: all things concerning that man are of God.

The old man that was there before was crucified with Christ. There is a new man, born of an incorruptible seed, who can say without any lie: "The prince of this world comes unto me and has nothing in me." Ephesians 4:24 tells us the new man is created after God in righteousness and in true holiness. The identity of that new man is where all Christian expression comes from.

This should also tell you that you don't need to feel anything when major miracles are taking place — when you got born again, something radical happened on the inside even if nothing was felt outwardly.

The Outward and Inward Man

There is an outward man and an inward man. The outward man is the body. The inward man — the hidden man of the heart (1 Peter 3:4) — is not visible to human eyes.

The outward man did not get born again. But something radical happened on the inside.

Whatever the outward man can do, the inward man has corresponding faculties. If the outward man can be blind, the inward man can be blind. If the outward man can be deaf, so can the inward man. The outward man eats; the inward man feeds. The outward man speaks; the inward man speaks — confessions are the voice of the heart. The outward man perceives; the inward man perceives ahead of time, which is why Paul prayed that the eyes of your understanding may be opened.

The Spiritual Garments of the Inward Man

Just as the outward man can be dressed or naked, the inward man also dresses — and being dressed determines what happens in your life.

Isaiah 52:1 says, "Awake, awake, put on thy strength, O Zion. Put on thy beautiful garments." If you don't put on your strength and wear it, it will show. The passage goes on: when you put on strength, the uncircumcised and unclean will not come in. The garments worn on the inward man determine what can and cannot enter your life.

Demonic forces respond to you not by who you are technically in the spirit, but by what you are wearing. That is why the Bible says, "Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil." If you don't put on that armor, the fiery darts land — even though you are positionally seated with Christ. In the realm of the spirit, angels can see it. Demons can see it.

Someone who is born again, righteous of God in Christ, but who has not worn that righteousness — when provocations come, they lose their balance. The same provocation said to someone wearing armor bounces right off. It depends entirely on what you are wearing inside your heart.

• You can wear a garment of favor — and everyone who meets you inexplicably opens doors for you.
• You can wear the mantle of healing, the prophetic, the word of God. You stir these up before you minister, and when you come dressed in them, you see the corresponding results.
• You can wear the garments of your bloodline — and though there is no technical connection between the new man and your bloodline, you are wearing grave clothes that limit you.

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Pastor Poju Oyemade

The Covenant Nation

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In Revelation 19:12–14, Jesus, going into battle, was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood and his name is called the Word of God. He dressed up to fight. When the demons saw him, they said, "Son of God, do you come to destroy us before our time?" — they saw what he was wearing.

Spirit, Soul, and Body

Man is a tripartite being. 1 Thessalonians 5:23 says your whole spirit and soul and body are to be preserved blameless. Hebrews 4:12 says the word of God pierces to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit — meaning there is a real distinction.

When you got born again, your spirit was recreated. Your body did not change. Your soul — where thoughts happen, decisions are made, emotions react, where behavior is formed — is largely the middle ground. The soul is wrapped around the spirit, and at new birth the soul was still largely programmed to live according to the old man.

The soul is actually where the garments of the spirit are worn. When the Bible says "put on the armor of God," it is talking about wearing it on your soul. When it says "put on the new man," it is talking about wearing that on the soul.

The progression of Christian life is not an improvement in the condition of the spirit — you are born of an incorruptible seed, seated together with Christ. The progression is changes going on in the soul that allow the spirit man to express himself.

The spirit man has no limits. To him all things are possible. But he is wrapped around a soul that has experienced failure, practised unbelief, and learned limitation. The soul says, "What are you talking about?" while the spirit says, "All things are possible."

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The Grave Clothes of Lazarus

When Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead in John 11, he called him out of the grave. Lazarus came forth perfect and alive — but bound hand and foot with grave clothes, his face wrapped with a napkin. Jesus said to the disciples: "Loose him and let him go."

This is a picture of ministry. When people get born again, they come forth perfect in Christ — but the new creation emerges still wearing grave clothes. Clothes of death. Clothes of the old man.

The responsibility of ministry is not to criticize people for the grave clothes showing. It is to loose those clothes and let the inner man go free. If that new creation is unleashed on society — the Bible says the Godhead dwells bodily on the inside — greater is he that is in him than he that is in the world. Supernatural things will begin to happen.

That is also why Paul said in Romans 7:22: "I delight in the law of the Lord after my inward man." He was describing grave clothes — there is something warring against the law of his mind. His resolution came through the mind: "I thank God through Jesus Christ." It is a change of clothes. That is what we need to teach.

How to Put On the New Man

Ephesians 4:22–24 describes the exchange: put off the old man who is corrupt according to deceitful lust, be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and put on the new man who is created in righteousness and true holiness.

The key is standing fast in the liberty wherewith Christ has made you free — meaning: what is the truth about who I am in Christ? Where I am seated. The resources I have. I am not looking for freedom. I am standing in the freedom I already have in Christ Jesus.

• I am seated together with Christ — making declarations from that position
• Recognizing who I am in Christ, what I have in Christ, who lives on the inside of me
• Christ has been made my wisdom — there is no problem I cannot solve
• There is no connection between that new man and your bloodline — he is entirely new

The second step is to yield yourself to God. Romans 6:13 says: yield yourselves unto God as those who are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness. Not "God, I've been struggling for years" — but yield yourself as who you now are. And then it goes on: sin shall not have dominion over you, because you are not under law but grace. Law means trying to change it by effort. Grace means God is the one at work in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.

True Spiritual Warfare

The weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds, casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of Christ, bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.

The enemy knows that once the new man inside you is dressed in the right garments, you are unstoppable. So his strategy is to keep you wearing the grave clothes — the garments of the old man. He fires arrows into your soul: imaginations of limitation, thoughts of defeat, patterns from the bloodline. The warfare is in the soul. The inward man fights back not by running or punching, but by speaking — he speaks to mountains, he releases what is on the inside with a sound, preparing the way before the thing manifests in the natural.