New Creation Thinking: Living Life from the Inside Out

Copyright © 2023 Wayne Kniffen.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

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Scripture quotations marked NKJV are taken from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked NLT are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2007 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked TPT are from The Passion Translation®. Copyright © 2017, 2018 by Passion & Fire Ministries, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-1-6642-8924-6 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-6642-8923-9 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-6642-8925-3 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2023900642

WestBow Press rev. date: 1/20/2023

CONTENTS

Introduction

Chapter 1Living Life from the Inside Out

Chapter 2Seeing Ourselves as Jesus Is—Not as He Was

Chapter 3Being So Earthly Minded That We Are of No Heavenly Good

Chapter 4As New Creations, We Have the Mind of Christ

Chapter 5We Were Foreordained to Reign in This Life

Chapter 6GIGO Thinking

Chapter 7Discovering Our New Selves

Chapter 8The Enemy’s IED of Choice

Chapter 9Arrayed for Battle

Chapter 10The Sword of the Spirit

Chapter 11Battle Ready

Chapter 12Let This Mind Be in You

Epilogue

About the Author

To all the incredible mentors who have contributed to my spiritual growth by their willingness to spend time with me. Your insight, encouragement, sacrifice of time, and, most of all, your patience have helped me become who I am today—madly in love with my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. A special thank you to two men who are now in the Lord’s presence: Dr. (Brother Johnny) John H. Beard and Lewis Bell. These two men will always have a special place in my memory and in my heart.

INTRODUCTION

It takes spunk and a lot of moxie to walk away from being an average Christian. Most Christians have settled for a life that is far beneath their identities as new creations in Christ. They have forfeited today for a tomorrow that will never get here. Today is yesterday’s tomorrow. If tomorrow does get here, it will be our today.

The majority of those who have had a born-from-above experience with Christ have settled for a life that does not measure up to the new creation identities they have been gifted with. They live with a someday mentality. Someday, I’ll have victory over my temper. I’ll be happy someday. Someday, I’ll be at peace. I’ll have victory over that besetting sin someday; if not today, I will—someday.

As my friend John O’Brian says, Most Christians live with a distance-and-delay mentality. Those who have this perspective believe that everything God has provided for us in Christ has been deposited in our personal heavenly bank accounts. These birthright privileges may belong to us now, but we can’t access or appropriate them until we get to heaven—someday. We lack a now perspective, and this is our spiritual Achilles’ heel. This is why the casualty rate is so high within the community of faith. The anthem hymn for the church has been I’ll Fly Away, which was written by Albert E. Brumley in 1929. The third stanza is the church’s favorite. They will sing it with gusto: Just a few more weary days, and then I’ll fly away. A few more weary days, and then—someday.

What we have is a thinking problem. Even though we have become new creations in Christ, we still think like we did before we knew Him. We may have our tickets to heaven punched, but between now and then, we’re in survival mode. If we can just make it through a few more weary days, life will be better. There is a huge difference between being alive and living life.

Existing is not what God had in mind when He exchanged our old lives for new ones. He made us to be more than conquerors through Him (Romans 8:37 NKJV). God always leads us in triumph in Christ (2 Corinthians 2:14 NKJV). If we were created to be overcomers while we live in this world, then why are so many Christians being overcome by the world? I contend it’s because we don’t think like the new creations we have become in Christ. Most have settled for lives that are mediocre at best.

Far too many within the community of faith are satisfied with being average. What is wrong with being average? Doesn’t it mean the same thing as normal? I believe most of us want people to think we are normal. Mull over this definition of average: Average is to be the best of the worst and worst of the best. Do you still want to be normal? Christians who have settled for being normal are really subnormal. This is why so many in the community of faith perceive Christians who are expressing their faith in a normal fashion as abnormal. We have become comfortable with being average. Could the following statement from Leonard Ravenhill adequately define Christianity today? Christianity today is so subnormal that if any Christian began to act like a normal New Testament Christian, they would be considered abnormal. This statement is as true today as it was when it was spoken. Being subnormal has become the new normal.

We are creatures of comfort. We like familiarity. Most of us are resistant to anything that threatens our status quo. This includes having our theological grids challenged. We have become comfortable with what we believe, and we are very reluctant to open ourselves up to something that might require a shift in our belief system, especially if it threatens what we have embraced for any period of time. New creation thinking does just that. It forces us to expand the parameters of our spiritual thinking. This makes us very reluctant to kick over the traces. We fear we might lose control (like we have ever been in control) and appear weird or even foolish to other believers, as well as unbelievers.

When we tell you these things, we do not use words that come from human wisdom. Instead, we speak words given to us by the Spirit, using the Spirit’s words to explain spiritual truths. But people who aren’t spiritual can’t receive these truths from God’s Spirit. It all sounds foolish to them and they can’t understand it, for only those who are spiritual can understand what the Spirit means. Those who are spiritual can evaluate all things, but they themselves cannot be evaluated by others. For, Who can know the Lord’s thoughts? Who knows enough to teach Him? But we understand these things, for we have the mind of Christ. (1 Corinthians 2:13–16 NLT, emphasis added)

Do we have the mind of Christ? We do if we are new creations. New creation thinking is not something that happens automatically, and it is not easy to do. It requires purposeful practice on our part. But it will be well worth the effort.

Here’s what my good pastor friend, Dorman Duggan, says about truth: Our first response to truth is usually resistance. Why is that? Because truth is like a finger that constantly pokes our comfort zones. And we don’t like for our comfort zones to be disturbed, especially if they are in our belief systems.

Prayerfully, the Holy Spirit will use this book, New Creation Thinking, to do just that. It’s a new day when how we think begins to line up with who we are as new creations in Christ. We will be alive, and we will begin to live for the first time. It will take faith and a whole lot of courage to walk away from being an average Christian:

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. (2 Corinthians 5:17 NKJV, emphasis added)

It’s time to start thinking like the new creations we have become in Christ. This will only happen when we start living our lives from the inside out.

CHAPTER 1

LIVING LIFE FROM

THE INSIDE OUT

T here are only two ways life can be lived. Life is lived from the outside in or from the inside out. Most of us have chosen option number one: from the outside in. Before we accepted Christ as our Lord and Savior, this was our only option. We had no choice because we were wholly self-conscious in our natural selves. This self-focused condition was passed on to us through the corrupted seed of Adam.

The first Adam was created with a God focus. This is why he was not ashamed of his nakedness. His sin of disobedience moved him from being Spirit conscious (living life from the inside out) to being self-conscious (living life from the outside in). From that point forward, every person has been born with an outside-inside perspective on life. Adam’s fall affected all of humanity. The purpose for Jesus coming to the earth and sacrificing His life for all of humankind was to give us the opportunity to be born again (born from above) and to move us from being self-conscious to being Spirit conscious. We now have the ability to live life from the inside out.

The Only Way a Dead Person Can Live

The instructions God gave to Adam about eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil were not ambiguous in any shape, form, or fashion:

But the Lord warned him, "You may freely eat the fruit of every tree in the garden–except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. If you eat its fruit, you are sure to die." (Genesis 2:16–17 NLT, emphasis added)

God made sure Adam knew that if he disobeyed by eating from the forbidden tree, he would die. It did not say maybe die or could die; he would surely die. Adam did not listen to God’s warning. Giving in to Satan’s lie, he ate from the verboten tree.

There is something very conspicuous in this Genesis passage that is easily overlooked if we read it too fast. To my own chagrin, I read this passage for years but failed to notice what it says:

At that moment (when they took a bite of the forbidden fruit) their eyes were opened, and they suddenly felt shame at their nakedness. So they sowed fig leaves together to cover themselves. (Genesis 3:7 NLT, emphasis added)

Their eyes opened? Did God create Adam and Eve without sight? Of course, He didn’t. If God had created them blind, the warning He gave not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil would be irrelevant because they would not have been able to see what they were told to leave alone. That would not be good.

It is obvious that God was pleased with everything He created. After He brought the world into ordered existence by His spoken word, He said, It is good (Genesis 1:10 NKJV). He repeated this five times: It is good. After Adam had been formed from the dust of the ground and given life, God said, It is very good (Genesis 1:31 NKJV). What is good or very good about not being able to see?

Before Adam sinned, he lived with a spirit consciousness. He lived his life from the inside out. His spirit received instructions from God, and he lived his life accordingly. This is how humanity was designed to live—from the inside out. Adam and Eve were naked, but they felt no shame because they were clothed in the glory of God (Genesis 2:25 NLT). Since they were created with the ability to see themselves the way God saw them, their focus was not on the external. There was no shame. Their identities were given to them by their Creator. It was not something they earned by their good works. Humanity was created to live life from the inside out—to live with God consciousness and not self-consciousness.

Adam and Eve’s disobedience had eternal consequences for them and for the entire human race. Sin corrupted Adam’s seed, and his iniquitous nature has been passed on to all of humanity. His sin also tainted all of creation. Adam’s sin took him from being spirit focused to being self-focused. His spiritual eyes immediately closed the moment he disobeyed God’s Word. The first thing Adam and Eve saw in their self-conscious state was their nakedness. They felt shame and covered themselves with fig leaves in an attempt to hide their guilt. Then they tried to conceal themselves from the presence of God. Before they succumbed to temptation, they saw themselves clothed in the glory of God because they were living as they were created to live—from the inside out.

God did not kill Adam for disobeying Him; death did. His sin gave life to death, and death took life from him. Adam is now living from the outside in; this is the only way a dead man can live. His spirit is dead, which negates his ability to comprehend the things of the Spirit. He receives his instructions from the world and lives accordingly. Don’t forget Adam’s sin corrupted the entire world. When we get our cues for how to live our lives from the world, we are getting our information from a perverted source. Death begets death. In Adam, all die (1 Corinthians 15:22 NLT).

Adam went from conversing with God face-to-face to hiding from God in disgrace. His spiritual condition had changed. God warned him about what would happen if he disobeyed and ate from the forbidden tree. Adam and Eve knew what God knew would happen if they ate from this tree. Their lives would be forever changed. No longer would it be possible for humanity to live life from the inside out: spirit consciousness. The human race is relegated to living life based on the principles the world considers moral and upright, which has become a contaminated source because of sin. Living life from the outside in is the only way a spiritually dead person can live.

God removed