Seated in the Heavenlies: Resting with God - Purity 470

Seated in the Heavenlies: Resting with God

Purity 470 07/14/2021   Purity 470 Podcast

Good morning  

Today’s photo from atop Giant Mountain, the twelfth-highest peak in the High Peaks Region of the Adirondack Park in upstate NY, comes to us from a friend’s recent summit of the peak that is also known as "Giant of the Valley” due to its stature looking over Keene Valley and St. Hubert’s to the west.  Our adventurous friend truly made the most of their day as they also summited nearby Rocky Peak Ridge, and then spent the remainder of the day boating on Lake George!  But here up above the clouds on top of Giant Mountain, our friend took a moment to sit and take a rest with their companion to enjoy a bird’s eye view of God’s creation.      

I share today’s photo because of the epic view but also because it reminded me of a couple of phrases from scripture that speak of the peace we have when we come into relationship with God by placing our faith in Jesus Christ.  

Seeing our friend’s companion’s feet stretched out on Giant Mountain with a few wispy clouds below I thought of the phrase in the Bible that refers to Christians as being seated in the heavenlies with Christ. The exact passage is:  

Ephesians 2:4-6 (NKJV)
⁴ But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us,
⁵ even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved),
⁶ and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,

When we were dead in our sin and God made us alive through Christ, He made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus! Positionally speaking, we are already citizens of heaven. We have been adopted into God’s royal family.  We have been saved and never need to fear death again. We are assured of a good place with God in eternity because of Christ.  

That realization, and this photo, made me think of Christ’s promise to give us rest. The exact passage I was thinking of is: 

Matthew 11:28 (NKJV)
²⁸ Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

Our lives on earth are hard. We have to somehow figure out who we are, what we like, and how we can include those things in the process of deciding how we spend our time and how we provide for ourselves. We also must take all of that into consideration when we choose to leave our original family to establish a life of our own and choose whether or not to have a family of our own.  That’s a lot to figure out and we have to do it all in environment in which everything changes over time, including ourselves.  

A lot of people can look at those last few statements and say that they more or less define our entire lives but there is more to our lives than just the things of this earth. 

God sent Christ to earth to tell us that and to make a way for us to somehow rise above it all with His offer of rest and eternal life.  Figuring out the mysteries of life’s meaning and purpose by our own efforts and reasoning is exhausting and ultimately a fruitless pursuit. 

To find a meaning and purpose in life that is meaningful, we have to ask the One who made all existence what He says. God sent Jesus tell us what life is all about and Jesus said:

Matthew 11:29 (NKJV)
²⁹ Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.

While we can find some measure of rest from sitting a top a mountain glorying over our accomplishments, or by discovering optimal relaxation in a “sleep number bed”, the rest that comes from being at peace with God is beyond compare.  

So no matter where you find yourself on this “hump” day, remember that if you are in Christ, God has made you to sit in the heavenly places.  You have the assurance of life everlasting with the One who overcame the world.  Remember that and rest.     

This morning’s meditation verse is:

1 Thessalonians 4:7-8 (NKJV)
⁷ For God did not call us to uncleanness, but in holiness.
⁸ Therefore he who rejects this does not reject man, but God, who has also given us His Holy Spirit.

Today’s verse calls us to a life of holiness and makes it clear that if we reject this instruction we reject God.    

In today’s seeker friendly churches with their hearts set on not offending those who they wish to bring into the kingdom of God, the preachers of the modern gospel are kind and compassionate but often exclude the message of holiness when they are presenting the benefits of the grace that saves.     

Quite honestly, when I heard the gospel message that saved me I heard about God’s love and forgiveness and was amazed by the grace that saved a wretch like me but I in no way thought, or heard in the message that saved me, that I would be called to change.   

I figured the thing that was so amazing about the gospel was that God knew all about me and accepted me, warts, and all! There was no way that God would expect me to change.  I figured my job would be just to tell people how awesome God was for the rest of my life, and I would just sit quietly in the back of the church praying prayers of thanksgiving and staying out of everyone else’s way.  

But God does call all His Children to holiness.

In the “body of Christ” I would say that there is definitely a sliding scale on holiness that is dependent on each individual’s understanding and convictions.  

The way I look at it the deeper your relationship and knowledge of the Lord is the deeper your conviction and desire to be holy will be. 

Repentance is a dirty word in some circles. I know it was a word that I didn’t want to hear when I first got saved. When I heard it I thought I had been a victim of the old “bait and switch”. 

“You said I was saved! You said I was forgiven of all my sins, even my future sins! So what’s this noise about repentance?! What are you talking about? I don’t need to repent! I did that when I said the prayer! I’m good. Thanks but no thanks! I’ll just be over here chilling with Jesus.”  

The thing is I was actually “chilling with Jesus” and the Holy Spirit too.   And guess what, they encouraged me to read the word of God and I saw the truth that God had indeed saved me and made me His child but although He found me in darkness, He didn’t want me to stay there, and He gave me the power to leave it all behind.

So I began to repent and have been experiencing victory after victory and have enjoyed an increasing freedom in Christ with each stronghold that I overcome.  I leaned on the Lord and took things one thing at a time and walked with the Lord one day at a time and sure enough every step with God took me closer into His light and further from the darkness.        

We are all called to holiness when God calls us into His kingdom. If you accept Christ you are saved but accept the Lord’s call to holiness too. That’s His plan for your life.

The abundant life the Christ promised is significantly different from our lives that we knew before Christ. To experience it, that means we must change from the ways we have always been and start living by faith in the power of the Holy Spirit.  

When you reject the call to Holiness, you reject the fullness of the life that God has for you. By rejecting holiness, we are saying we know better than God.  I assure you that no matter how bright or special you may be, that is not the case.  

So humble yourself before the Lord, ask Him to help you and guide you out of your former or current darkness and into His light.  Your victory has been given to you already. You just have to trust the Lord and walk into it with Him as your guide.

As always, I invite all to go to mt4christ.org where I always share insights from prominent Christian counselors to assist my brothers and sisters in Christ with their walk. 

 

Today we continue with Dr. Neil Anderson’s Victory Over the Darkness, continuing Chapter 7.

 

As always, I share this information for educational purposes and encourage all to purchase Dr. Anderson’s books for your own private study and to support his work. If you need this title you can find it online at several sites for less than $15.00:

How Can I Turn Bad Goals into Good Goals?

Let me ask you a faith-stretching question: If God wants something done, can it be done? In other words, if God has a goal for your life, can it be blocked, or is its fulfillment uncertain or impossible?

I am personally convinced that no goal God has for my life is impossible or uncertain, nor can it be blocked. I can't imagine God saying, "I've called you into existence, I've made you My child and I have something for you to do. I know you won't be able to do it, but give it your best shot." That's ludicrous! It's like saying to your child, "I want you to mow the lawn. Unfortunately, the lawn is full of rocks, the mower doesn't work and there's no gas. But give it your best shot." When an authority figure issues a command that cannot be obeyed, the authority of the leader is undermined in the minds of those who are in submission.

God had a staggering goal for a young maid named Mary. An angel told her she would bear a Son while still a virgin, and her Son would be the Savior of the world. When she inquired about this seemingly impossible feat, the angel simply said, "'Nothing will be impossible with God'" (Luke 1:37).

You wouldn't give your children tasks they couldn't possibly complete, and God doesn't assign to you goals you can't achieve. His goals for you are possible, certain, and achievable. We need to understand His goals for our lives and then say with Mary: "Behold, the bondslave of the Lord; be it done to me according to your word" (Luke 1:38).

Goals Versus Desires

To live successful lives, we need to distinguish a godly goal from a godly desire. This liberating distinction can spell the difference between success and failure, inner peace, and inner pain for the Christian.

A godly goal is any specific orientation that reflects God's purpose for your life and is not dependent on people or circumstances beyond your ability or right to control. Who do you have the ability and right to control? Virtually no one but yourself. The only person who can block a godly goal or render it uncertain or impossible is you. If you adopt the attitude of cooperation with God's goals as Mary did, your goal can be reached.

A godly desire is any specific result that depends on the cooperation of other people, the success of events or favorable circumstances you have no right or ability to control. You cannot base your success or sense of worth on your desires, no matter how godly they may be, because you cannot control their fulfillment. Some of your desires will be blocked, remain uncertain and eventually prove to be impossible. Let's face it, life doesn't always go our way and many of our desires will not be met.

We will struggle with anger, anxiety, and depression when we elevate a desire to a goal in our own minds. By comparison, when a desire isn't met, you will only face disappointment. Life is full of disappointments and we all must learn to live with them. However, dealing with the disappointments of unmet desires is a lot easier than dealing with the anger, anxiety and depression of goals that are based on wrong beliefs.

Does God make a distinction between a goal and a desire? Yes, I think He does. "'For I have no pleasure in the death of anyone who dies,' declares the LORD God. 'Therefore, repent and live'" (Ezekiel 18:32). It is God's desire that we would all repent and live, but not all will.

John wrote, "My little children, I am writing these things to you that you may not sin" (1 John 2:1). Certainly, the integrity, sovereignty and success of God is not dependent upon whether or not we sin. God has no blocked goals. It is God's desire that everyone repent, although not everyone will.

Then does God have any genuine goals—specific results that cannot be blocked? Praise the Lord, yes! For example, Jesus Christ will return and take us home to heaven to be with Him forever—it will happen. Satan will be cast into the abyss for eternity—count on it. Rewards will be distributed to the saints for their faithfulness—look forward to it. These are not desires that can be thwarted by the fickle nature of a fallen humanity. What God has determined to do, He will do.

When you begin to align your goals with God's goals and your desires with God's desires, you will rid your life of a lot of anger, anxiety, and depression. The homemaker who wants a happy, harmonious family is expressing a godly desire, but she cannot guarantee that it will happen. Her goal is to become the wife and mother God wants her to be. The only one who can block that goal for her life is herself.

She may object, "But what if my husband has a midlife crisis or my kids rebel?" Those kinds of problems are not blocking her goal to be the wife and mother God called her to be. Such trials will surely test her faith. If anything, difficulties in the family should further encourage her commitment. If her husband should ever need a godly wife and her children a godly mother, it is in times of trouble. Family difficulties refine her goal of being the woman God wants her to be.

The pastor whose success and sense of worth are based on his goal to win his community for Christ, have the best youth ministry in town or increase giving to missions by 50 percent, is headed for a fall. These are worthwhile desires, but no pastor should deem himself a success or failure based on whether or not they are achieved. His goal is to be the pastor God called him to be. No member of his church or community can block that goal.

Victory Over the Darkness: Realizing the Power of Your Identity in Christ.

---------------------------more tomorrow------------------------

 

God bless you all!

 

Join our “Victory over the Darkness” or “The Bondage Breaker” series of Discipleship Classes via the mt4christ247 podcast!

at https://mt4christ247.podbean.com, You can also find it on Apple podcasts (https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-mt4christ247s-podcast/id1551615154). The mt4christ247 podcast is also available on Google Podcasts, Amazon Podcasts, Spotify, iHeartradio, and Audible.com. 

Email me at mt4christ247@gmail.com to receive the class materials, share your progress, and to be encouraged.

 

Encouragement for the Path of Christian Discipleship

Our Constant Companion: Purity 452

 Our Constant Companion

Purity 452 06/23/2021  Purity 452 Podcast

Good morning

Today’s photo of the summer solstice sunset over the peaks that surround Lake Granby in Colorado comes to us from the vantage point of a friend’s sailboat.  My friend loves to regularly celebrate the joys of sailing and life with others on their boat, but this sunset was just for them and man’s best friend, a golden retriever whose orange life vest testified to the fact that this solstice cruise wasn’t their first. You can go to the blog to see our four-footed friend for yourself.

One of the aspects that brings quality to our lives is companionship, having someone else to share our experiences with.  Our needs for companionship don’t necessarily have to be met by a romantic soul mate or life partner. Our needs for companionship can be met by close family members or by our friends, both old and new, and both human and animal, as our pets seem to have the ability to qualify as both our friends and family in ways that humans seem to lack.  

But what happens when our companions leave us? What happens when they move away, die, or the relationship suddenly sours? What if your life has been met with betrayals and heartache of losses that are so bad that you can’t even bear the idea of establishing a new relationship because of a lack of trust and the potential for future pain?  

While I would encourage people to try to process their grief and would tell them to be wise and discerning in pursuing new relationships, I could unreservedly advise them to foster or purse a relationship with the One who will never leave them or forsake them: God.

God is the healer and the provider.  He can take away our pain and give us all that we need. 

He is omnipresent so He is our constant companion but just because He is there for us doesn’t mean we are there for Him.  Our relationship with God is established by placing our faith in Jesus Christ for the remission of our sins, for the imputation of His righteousness, and for instant adoption into God’s royal family.   When we say yes to Jesu Christ, the Holy Spirit comes to quickens our spirit and comes to dwell within us.   And let me tell you, The Holy Spirit is an ever-present help and comfort to us and will lead you into all truth.   

Our life of faith is often called “walking in the Spirit” for a reason. That phrase means that we begin to listen to the Holy Spirit’s guidance for our lives and act on it.  He leads us into all truth and sometimes the truth is hard.  The Holy Spirit showed me that things I wasn’t aware of, and He convicted me of the things that I was doing that were detrimental to my peace.  In the past several years I have tried to follow His leadings and have been liberated from painful situations and have a transformed life.    

When you make Christ your Savior, God doesn’t sit up in heaven wishing you well. His redemptive plan, that is revealed in the New Testament, makes a way for your forgiveness through Christ and for your empowerment through the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit.     

We receive a new abundant life when we believe, but in order to experience it we must follow our Constant Companion by listening to His still quiet voice and by surrendering the ways of the world for the wisdom of God.  

So if you’re looking for someone to share your life with, why not choose the One who gave it to you in the first place. With God, you will never be alone again. He is our Heavenly Father who call us to better things and life everlasting. You’ve got a friend in Jesus who paid the cost that we never could. And with the Holy Spirit, we have a Constant Companion who will lead us to grow into a life of love, peace, and joy.  

This morning’s meditation verse is:

Ephesians 5:18 (NLT2)
¹⁸ Don’t be drunk with wine, because that will ruin your life. Instead, be filled with the Holy Spirit,

Today’s verse encourages us to make good choices and to enter into the new life God has given us.  

As much as I advocate for total abstinence of alcohol because of my history, I must admit that the Bible doesn’t prohibit drinking alcoholic beverages, but it does have a lot to say about drunkenness and none of it is good. 

Unfortunately for me, I couldn’t drink alcoholic beverages casually and would almost always drink myself into one of the various levels of drunkenness. The “drunken” verses of the Bible and the Holy Spirit’s conviction and guidance caused me to abandon what was a lifelong love hate relationship with alcohol.  

From the word of God, I got the deep conviction that my allegiance to alcohol and a lifestyle that included periodic, if not often, drunkenness could have deep spiritual and possibly eternal consequences.

Drunkenness causes disharmony to our relationship with God. 1 Cor 6:9-10 tells us that drunkards will not inherit the kingdom of God.  When I understood that my drunkenness  could cause damage to my fellowship with the Lord and could even be an indicator that I wasn’t really His and cause my eternal destruction, my blood ran cold at the realization that I could be one of the false believers that would be told that Christ never knew me, that while my lips confessed faith in God, my actions would testify to an idolatrous worship of the powers of darkness through my enslavement to alcohol.   

So I trusted the Lord to take away my addiction and while it seemed like it was going to be impossible at first, when I increasingly began to adopt and live by my identity in Christ the poison of addiction was taken out of me.  The Holy Spirit granted me repentance and now I can be around others drinking alcohol and have no temptation to drink and to put myself into a yoke of bondage again.   

But please understand me. Our freedom doesn’t come from just saying no to the sins that enslave us. We do have to say no and be proactive in our efforts to change our thoughts to hate what we proclaimed to love but what is truly important in our life of faith is saying “Yes” to the Holy Spirit.   

We are filled by the Holy Spirit by filling ourselves with the word of God, by reading the Bible and knowing its principles for living, but we are also filled by the Spirit by asking to be filled with His presence.   When we ask for strength to live the Christian life, we will receive it.  When we ask for the Lord’s wisdom and help, He will provide it.  But the key is that we must surrender our worldly ways and start living with the Holy Spirit by shaping our lives to live every day according to God’s wisdom and by talking to the Lord in prayer.  

So be filled with the Holy Spirit, or as I always say: keep walking and talking with God. Our faith is more than a set of beliefs. Our faith is an experiential reality of a relationship with the One who created all things and who is guiding the events of time and space and who wants us to join into His design for our lives.  So don’t choose the things that take away from your life, instead choose to live with the One who gives life everlasting.

As always, I invite all to go to mt4christ.org where I always share insights from prominent Christian counselors to assist my brothers and sisters in Christ with their walk. 

 

Today we continue with Dr. Neil Anderson’s Victory Over the Darkness, continuing in Chapter 4.

 

As always, I share this information for educational purposes and encourage all to purchase Dr. Anderson’s books for your own private study and to support His work. If you need this title you can find it online at several sites for less than $15.00:

A New Man

Parallel to the concept of being a new creation in Christ is the teaching that the believer has put on the "new self" (Col. 3:10), or more literally the new man. The new man at times refers both to the new individual (i.e., "self") in Christ as well as the new humankind, the new creation united in Christ, with Christ as its head. F. F. Bruce says, "the new man who is created is the new personality that each believer becomes when he is reborn as a member of the new creation whose source of life is Christ."

What does it mean to be a new man? Does it mean that every aspect of the believer is new in reality? We still look the same physically, and we still have many of the same thoughts, feelings and experiences.

Picture, for instance, the ornamental orange tree that has just had a tiny new stem grafted into it. Because so much appears to be the same, it is sometimes taught that our "newness" refers only to our position in Christ. The newness is only what we have seen in relation to our position of righteousness and holiness in justification and positional sanctification. There is no real change in us until we are finally transformed in glorification. That, however, would be like teaching justification without regeneration (we are forgiven, but there is no new life). If we are still ornamental orange trees, how can we be expected to bear navel oranges? We have to believe that our new identity is in the life of Christ and commit ourselves to grow accordingly.

If you are a new creation in Christ, have you ever wondered why you still think and feel at times the same way you did before? Because everything you learned before you knew Christ is still programmed into your memory. There is no mental delete button. That is why Paul says, "Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind" (Romans 12:2, NIV).

Let me illustrate. When I was in the Navy, we called the captain of our ship "the Old Man." My first Old Man was tough and crusty, and nobody liked him. He drank with the chiefs, belittled his junior officers and made life miserable for the rest of us. He was a lousy Old Man. If I planned to survive on board that ship, however, I had to do it under his authority relating to him as my Old Man. Then one day he got transferred to another ship. I no longer had any relationship with him and I was no longer under his authority.

Then we got a new skipper who was very much different from the Old Man who trained me. So how do you think I related to the new skipper? At first I responded to him just as I had been conditioned to respond to the first Old Man. As I got to know the new skipper, though, I realized he wasn't a crusty old tyrant like the Old Man who was once my authority. He wasn't out to harass his crew. He was a good guy, really concerned about us, but I had been programmed for two years to react a certain way when I saw a captain's braids. I didn't need to react that way any longer; but it took several months to recondition myself to the new skipper.

When you were dead in your trespasses and sins, you also served under a cruel self-serving skipper. The admiral of that fleet is Satan, the prince of darkness, the god and ruler of this world. By God's grace, you have been "delivered . . . from the domain of darkness, and transferred . . . to the kingdom of His beloved Son" (Col. 1:13). You now have a new skipper; your new self is infused with the divine nature of Jesus Christ, your new admiral. As a child of God, you are no longer under the authority of Satan and dominated by sin and death. The old man is dead.

New Things Have Come

Despite the fact that all believers at times still live according to the old self, like Paul, they are new persons—new in relationship to God and new in themselves. The change that takes place in us when we come to Christ involves two dimensions.

First, we have a new master. As mortals we have no choice but to live under a spiritual power—either our heavenly Father or the god of this world. At salvation, the believer in Christ experiences a change in the power that dominates life.

Second, there is an actual change in the nature of believers so that the propensities of their lives or the deepest desires of their hearts are now oriented toward God rather than toward self and sin.

This becomes evident when believers choose to sin. They are being convicted. What they are doing is no longer consistent with who they really are in Christ. I have counseled hundreds of Christians who are questioning their salvation because of their struggle with sin. The fact that it even bothers them is the best argument for their salvation. It is the nature of a natural person to sin. On the other hand, I have talked to people who profess to be Christians, but seem to have little or no remorse for sin. I would have to question their salvation. If we are children of God, we are not going to live comfortably with sin.

Why do you need the nature of Christ within you? So you can be like Christ, not just act like Him. God has not given us the power to imitate Him. He has made us partakers of His nature so that we can actually be like Him. You don't become a Christian by acting like one. You are not on a performance basis with God. He doesn't say, "Here are My standards, now you measure up." He knows you can't solve the problem of an old sinful self by simply improving your behavior. He must change your nature, give you an entirely new self—the life of Christ in you—which is the grace you need to measure up to His standards.

That was the point of Christ's message in the Sermon on the Mount: "Unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you shall not enter the kingdom of heaven" (Matthew 5:20). The scribes and Pharisees were the religious perfectionists of their day. They had external behavior down to a science, but their hearts were like the insides of a tomb: reeking of death. Jesus is interested only in creating new persons from the inside out by infusing in them a brand new nature and creating in them a new self. Only after He changes who you are and makes you a partaker of His divine nature will you be able to change your behavior.

Victory Over the Darkness: Realizing the Power of Your Identity in Christ.

---------------------------more tomorrow------------------------

 

God bless you all!

 

Join our “Victory over the Darkness” or “The Bondage Breaker” series of Discipleship Classes via the mt4christ247 podcast!

at https://mt4christ247.podbean.com, You can also find it on Apple podcasts (https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-mt4christ247s-podcast/id1551615154). The mt4christ247 podcast is also available on Google Podcasts, Amazon Podcasts, and Audible.com. 

Email me at mt4christ247@gmail.com to receive the class materials, share your progress, and to be encouraged.

 

Encouragement for the Path of Christian Discipleship

Purity 442: Encouragement for the Path of Christian Discipleship

Purity 442 06/11/2021  Purity 442 Podcast

Good morning.

Today’s photo comes to us from friends who decided to gather at a home in Conklin NY to enjoy one another’s company and were graced with spectacular evening views of the sun setting in the distance. 

When I looked at this photo I just thought of the Creedence Clearwater Revival song that starts:

“Just got home from Illinois, lock the front door, oh boy!
Got to sit down, take a rest on the porch
Imagination sets in, pretty soon I'm singin'
Doo, doo, doo, lookin' out my back door”

Yes it’s Friday, and although we still must work, every moment will bring us closer to the freedom of the end of the workday, and for most of us, the weekend beyond. 

I love the spirit of those opening lines of that song that tells us that we can have real joy in the comforts of home.  The difference of course is not just the view out our back door but the perspective we take when we look at our lives.  No matter what problems we face at work or in our personal lives we can find moments of peace by leaving those things aside and by being thankful for what we have and by being pleased and content with them. 

Anybody can do this, but how much more can we leave the things of the world on the sidelines and appreciate the bigger picture of our lives when we have a relationship with God.  His majesty stands over and above all of creation and He is guiding history for His purposes. And He has given us a part to play in His story and all the good things we enjoy in life were put in our path by Him.  

So whether you are going away this weekend to see new or familiar sights, gathering with friends or family, or will be spending time just looking out your back door, raise the levels of your joy and appreciation of the life you have by pondering the things above and thanking and drawing closer to the One who made it all.  

This morning’s meditation verse is:

Ephesians 5:21 (NKJV)
²¹ submitting to one another in the fear of God.

Today’s verse is part of some practical advice on Christian living that the Apostle Paul encouraged the church at Ephesus to follow.  This small fragment is part of a great deal of spiritual wisdom found in Paul’s letter to the Ephesians but can stand on its own to teach us about the stance we are to take in life and the motivation behind it.  

The Christian life is countercultural to the dog-eat-dog ways of the world that would tell you that life is all about meeting our personal needs and wants over and above everything else.    Christ’s example teaches us that we are to humble ourselves to God but also to others.   This verse advises us to submit to one another. That means we are to not only to consider the thoughts, feelings, needs, and wants of others but that we may also put those concerns above our own.

Jesus said that the “greatest” among us would not be those who looked out for number one but would be those who would be a servant to all.  

So as we walk through this life we should increasingly look to serve those we encounter in life.

Now if you are anything like the immature rebel that I used to be you might say something like: “Great! I’ll just be a slave to everybody! I already have to take care of my ____, ____, and ____!”    

Statements like these just reflect that we are missing what Jesus was talking about.  The suffering servant who occasionally blows up in fits of frustration is playing the martyr.  They are serving their friends, family, or bosses in the flesh but their hearts are still focused on themselves, and the devil is right there with them to agree with them about just how “good’ they are and how “bad” they have it.  

They are serving but have no peace or joy.  The idea of serving with peace and joy is a foreign concept to those who are focused on themselves and not looking at their service as their reasonable service before God.  

Remember we have been saved by the creator of the universe because of His grace, not because we are good, or because we work hard.    We were on the highway to hell even if we worked hard and took care of our families with out Christ.   

Remember you have been rescued from the wrath of God. 

When we hold on to the realization of our salvation, the world’s problems don’t seem so big. When we remember the bigger picture, our jobs and service to others seem like reasonable things that we do to support our families and to express the love and gratitude we have for them.       

When we live our faith out, we realize we have everything in our salvation so there is nothing else that we need to strive for. We can let go of our selfish desires as we look at the nature of them and see that we have been chasing after things continually that pass away and fail to satisfy.  

Instead of looking at the things we don’t have from this world, we can look at all the things we have already been given by God and realize there is nothing left to do but to spend our lives enjoying ourselves and the one’s He has placed in our path.   Our natural response to embracing our lives of faith is to express our love for God by serving the needs of others without expectation. 

So we don’t have to fear God’s wrath, but we should have a fearful respect of what He has done for us and show our appreciation of Him and what He has given by submitting to others in service to magnify and glorify Him.    

As always, I invite all to go to mt4christ.org where I always share insights from prominent Christian counselors to assist my brothers and sisters in Christ with their walk. 

 

Today we continue with Dr. Neil Anderson’s Victory Over the Darkness, continuing in Chapter 2, with the section “Who Am I”

 

As always, I share this information for educational purposes and encourage all to purchase Dr. Anderson’s books for your own private study and to support His work. If you need this title you can find it online at several sites for less than $15.00:

Who Am I?

I am the salt of the earth (Matthew 5:13).

I am the light of the world (Matthew 5:14).

I am a child of God (John 1:12).

I am part of the true vine, a channel of Christ's life (John 15:1, 5).

I am Christ's friend (John 15:15).

I am chosen and appointed by Christ to bear His fruit (John 15:16).

I am a slave of righteousness (Romans 6:18).

I am enslaved to God (Romans 6:22).

I am a son of God; God is spiritually my Father (Romans 8:14, 15; Galatians 3:26; Galatians 4:6).

I am a joint heir with Christ, sharing His inheritance with Him (Romans 8:17).

I am a temple—a dwelling place—of God. His Spirit and His life dwells in me (1 Cor. 3:16; 1 Cor. 6:19).

I am united to the Lord and am one spirit with Him (1 Cor. 6:17).

I am a member of Christ's Body (1 Cor. 12:27; Ephes. 5:30).

I am a new creation (2 Cor. 5:17).

I am reconciled to God and am a minister of reconciliation (2 Cor. 5:18, 19).

I am a son of God and one in Christ (Galatians 3:26, 28).

I am an heir of God since I am a son of God (Galatians 4:6, 7).

I am a saint (1 Cor. 1:2; Ephes. 1:1; Phil. 1:1; Col. 1:2).

I am God's workmanship—His handiwork—born anew in Christ to do His work (Ephes. 2:10).

I am a fellow citizen with the rest of God's family (Ephes. 2:19).

I am a prisoner of Christ (Ephes. 3:1; Ephes. 4:1).

I am righteous and holy (Ephes. 4:24).

I am a citizen of heaven, seated in heaven right now (Ephes. 2:6; Phil. 3:20).

I am hidden with Christ in God (Col. 3:3).

I am an expression of the life of Christ because He is my life (Col. 3:4).

I am chosen of God, holy and dearly loved (Col. 3:12; 1 Thes. 1:4).

I am a son of light and not of darkness (1 Thes. 5:5).

I am a holy partaker of a heavenly calling (Hebrews 3:1).

I am a partaker of Christ; I share in His life (Hebrews 3:14).

I am one of God's living stones, being built up in Christ as a spiritual house (1 Peter 2:5).

I am a member of a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God's own possession (1 Peter 2:9, 10).

I am an alien and stranger to this world in which I temporarily live (1 Peter 2:11).

I am an enemy of the devil (1 Peter 5:8).

I am a child of God and I will resemble Christ when He returns (1 John 3:1, 2).

I am born of God, and the evil one—the devil—cannot touch me (1 John 5:18).

I am not the great "I am" (Exodus 3:14; John 8:24, 28, 58), but by the grace of God, I am what I am (1 Cor. 15:10).

Because you are alive in Christ, every one of those characteristics is completely true of you, and you can do nothing to make them more true. You can, however, make these traits more meaningful and productive in your life by simply choosing to believe what God has said about you. You will not be prideful if you do, but you may be defeated if you don't.

One of the greatest ways to help yourself grow into maturity in Christ is to continually remind yourself who you are in Him. In my conferences we do this by reading the "Who Am I?" list aloud together. I suggest you go back and read it aloud to yourself right now. Read the list once or twice a day for a week or two. Read it when you think Satan is trying to deceive you into believing you are a worthless failure.

The more you reaffirm who you are in Christ, the more your behavior will begin to reflect your true identity. Commenting on Romans 6, John Stott states that the "necessity of remembering who we are" is the way "Paul brings his high theology down to the level of practical everyday experience," and he continues his summary:

So, in practice we should constantly be reminding ourselves who we are. We need to learn to talk to ourselves, and ask ourselves questions: "Don't you know? Don't you know the meaning of your conversion and baptism? Don't you know that you have been united to Christ in His death and resurrection? Don't you know that you have been enslaved to God and have committed yourself to His obedience? Don't you know these things? Don't you know who you are?" We must go on pressing ourselves with such questions, until we reply to ourselves: "Yes, I do know who I am, a new person in Christ, and by the grace of God I shall live accordingly."

One man drove several hundred miles to attend our Living Free in Christ conference. On his way home he decided to use the "Who Am I?" statements as a personal prayer list. As he drove, he prayed through the list of traits one by one, asking God to burn them into his consciousness. It took him nearly five hours to drive home, and he was praying about "Who Am I?" traits all the way. When asked about the effect this experience had on his life, he simply replied with a smile, "Life changing."

One of my students, who sat through this material in a seminary class, was struggling with his identity in Christ. After the class he sent the following note to me:

Dear Dr. Anderson:

In looking back over the material presented in class this semester, I realize that I have been freed and enlightened in many ways. I believe the most significant material for me had to do with the fact that in Christ I am significant, accepted and secure. As I meditated on this material I found that I was able to overcome many problems I have struggled with for years—fear of failure, feelings of worthlessness and a general sense of inadequacy.

I began prayerfully studying the "Who Am I?" statements given in class. I found myself going back to that list many times during the semester, especially when I felt attacked in the area of fear or inadequacy. I have also been able to share this material with a class at church, and many of my students have experienced new freedom in their lives as well. I can't speak enthusiastically enough about helping people understand who they really are in Christ. In my future ministry I intend to make this a dominant part of my teaching and counseling.

Victory Over the Darkness: Realizing the Power of Your Identity in Christ.

---------------------------more tomorrow------------------------

 

God bless you all!

 

Join our “Victory over the Darkness” or “The Bondage Breaker” series of Discipleship Classes via the mt4christ247 podcast!

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Encouragement for the Path of Christian Discipleship