Derek Prince - The Seed Of God's Word Makes Us A New Man
This is a clip from: God's Word Your Inexhaustible Resource
I will relate a little later on how I received healing out of the faith that came by hearing. Because when I describe how I received healing it's a perfect example of what hearing really is. But the next result of God's word that develops out of faith is what I call the new man. Last night I taught about these two persons the new man and the old man. The new man is what's produced in our lives when we receive the word of God with faith and it brings forth the life of Jesus Christ within us. The old man is what we are apart from God. So, the new man is a product of the word of God. It develops out of the seed of God's word.
Let's look at just a few Scriptures about this in James 1:18. James says this about believers in Jesus Christ. James 1:18, it's speaking about God: Of His own will He brought us forth or He gave us birth by the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of His creatures. You know the new birth doesn't start with you, it starts with God. Of His will He brought us forth. He gave us birth, by the word of truth which we receive in our hearts. In John 1:12-13 John says about people who are born again: They were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of a man, but of God. The new birth starts with the will of God, not with our will. We need to see that clearly. We are believers because God willed it. Then we have to respond to God's will but the initial motive is from God. Of His own will He brought us forth by the word of truth.
And then in 1 Peter 1:23 Peter develops this theme and says: We have been born again not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the word of God which lives and abides forever. So the seed that brought forth this new life this new person, this new man, is the seed of God's word. And it's an incorruptible seed. It doesn't decay, it never changes, it's not subject to the kind of changes and deterioration of the seeds that we know in the natural world. And as I said last night, again I say tonight: The nature of the seed determines the nature of what it produces. You sow an apple pit, you get an apple and not an orange. And so, the nature of the seed of God's word determines the life that comes out of it. It's an incorruptible seed so what kind of life does it produce? Incorruptible life. Life that doesn't decay. It's divine life because it's divine seed.
And then a little further on in the New Testament in 1 John 3:9 speaking also about the new birth from the seed of God's word 1 John 3:9. John says: Whoever has been born of God does not sin for his seed remains in him, God's seed remains in him and he cannot sin because he has been born of God. Now I pointed out last night, and I can't go into it in great detail that's not talking about a born again christian. Let's take me as an example, then I offend nobody else. I was born again in l941. It was very real, very powerful and it's continued to this day. But that doesn't mean I've never sinned since 1941. I wish it were true but it isn't. It doesn't mean that I can't sin. In fact, I'm very conscious that only if I watch and pray will I be kept from sinning. But in me there was born a nature, a person the new man who cannot sin. Because he's born of incorruptible seed, he's an incorruptible person.
There is another nature that I have to deal with which is called the old man what I was before Christ came in. The old man cannot help sinning, that's his very nature. He's a rebel by nature. So once we are born again Christians the kind of life we lead will be determined by which nature controls us. As long as the new man is in control we will lead a life that does not sin. But whenever the old man comes back and begins to move in and take control, the inevitable result will be sin. But, we need to know that there has been born in us from the seed of the word of God an incorruptible nature a nature that does not sin, a nature that is pure and holy. It's the very nature of God Himself imparted through the seed of God's word. It's that nature that makes us children of God. So that comes from the word of God.