Earlier this morning I shared [on Facebook] the words below, but not the meaning behind them. I want to make sure that people are able to receive this important word, so I am sharing these words once again and including the explanation below.

“Those who merely glance at this word will not discern its significance and so I encourage you to ponder and pray over the revelation therein.

The dead man peers only into the reflection of what was for what is old has passed away. So he has only an historical record of what has occurred up unto his death.

Prophecy and all the future holds is exclusively given unto the living. The living face forward but the dead look back.”

EXPLANATION

The reality is this, 2 Corinthians 5:17 says that those who are in Christ are a new creation and the old has passed away. In other words, the old is dead.

In death there is no forward. There is only back. Dead people have no experiences, no new insight, no expectations and no reason for hope. All they have is behind them.

Yet how many of us live out of an identity that is based on the things we have done and the things that have been done to us? I tell you the truth when I say that these things are of no consequence and nowhere in all of scripture do we find anything that tells us this is true.

In fact, it is an outright lie. As a result, if we accept this as the basis of our identities then we are living out the life of a dead man.

In Luke 9:62 Jesus advises that anyone who puts their hand to the plow and looks back is unfit for the Kingdom.

I used to see this as a statement of condemnation, but as of this morning I received a new understanding. In Matthew 6:22 Jesus says, “Let your eye be single.” In other words, focus on one thing.

So who can focus on what’s behind them and before them? If my eye is single, then I am either looking back or I am looking forward. If I try doing both it doesn’t work, because no one can look in two directions at the same time.

In the same way, the person who puts their hand to the plow and looks back is no longer focused on what lies ahead. They cannot see where the plow is going and therefore are ineffective for the Kingdom.

So the question is about identity and focus. If we look back we live out of the old, dead man. If we look forward we take on Christ for we ourselves are dead. As Galatians 2:20 points out it is no longer I who live. For that matter I have been crucified with Christ and that which is nailed to the cross must die.

Furthermore, according to Revelation 19:10 the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. We MUST let go of the old if we are to embrace the new. As much as we thought we could keep a foot in both places (the old and the new) it is not possible.

We either live out of the old, dead man or we step into our new identity, which simply put is summed up in Christ Jesus.

Even this just scratches the surface…

Before we can effectively get to the doing we must understand the being.

 

~ Mitch Salmon

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Mitch Salmon is the founder of Fisher of Men Productions and a follower of Jesus Christ and proclaimer of the Good News – The Gospel of Christ Jesus!

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